Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Nottingham remembers anti-Poll Tax struggle

Notts IMC + People’s Histreh | 08.03.2010 18:29 | History | Social Struggles

On March 5th 1990, Nottingham City Council, then as now Labour-led, met to set the Poll Tax rate for the city. Protesters burst into the council chamber dressed as Robin Hood. Several councillors were custard pied and the campaigners were arrested by the police. Despite expert evidence that custard pies were not dangerous, the Magistrate failed to see the funny side and two of the campaigners were sent down. This action was part of a wave of protests, disruptions and riots at council meetings across the country which set the scene for the famous riot in Trafalgar Square at the end of March, the day before the tax was to come into force in England and Wales.

To mark the 20th anniversary of this event, Nottingham Radical History Group organised an event to look back on the struggle. This is part of a wider project to make available documents from the time and to record interviews with some of participants in the struggle so that the lessons of the campaign are not lost.

Upcoming event: Wednesday March 31st 3pm Trafalgar Square to commemorate 20th anniversary of Poll Tax Riot. "Open loud hailer, top speakers, Class War, misty-eyed memories, pub afterwards!"

On the newswire: The Poll Tax: twenty years on

Links: The Sparrow's Nest | Nottingham anti- Poll Tax 1989-91: press cuttings, newsletters & leaflets | Notts Indymedia History newswire



Nottingham had been at the forefront of the campaign against the Poll Tax. Apparently it was fourth in the national league for non-payment. Nottingham was also a leading city in the dispute between the “official” Anti-Poll Tax Federation led by the Militant Tendency (latterly the Socialist Party) and the more autonomous wing of the campaign. Many of the leading anti-Poll Tax campaigners in Nottingham made it to the meeting, but only one of the people in attendance had been in Militant, but long since left.

The meeting opened with an opportunity for people to introduce themselves and talk about what they remembered of the campaign. One anecdote was the day at Bingham Court when the city council had moved its hearings there in the hope of minimising disruption. A large number of people were called with the expectation that few would actually turn up. Militant took it upon themselves to bus people to the court and then as it filled up, called the fire brigade who promptly shut it down on health and safety grounds, leaving the assembled non-payers free to march around the village.

This informal introduction was followed by a showing of the beginning of a video from the time called "Poll Tax revolt" (available on YouTube should you be interested). This began with footage of the disruptions at (and outside) council meetings around the country, including Nottingham, before leading onto some amazing riot porn from the demonstration in London. At the end of the march, protesters clashed with police, before venting their anger against symbols of wealth in the centre of the city, destroying cars, looting shops and torching buildings, while continuing to attack any coppers who tried to get in their way. The video then cut to the responses from Home Secretary David Warrington, Militant’s Tommy Sheridan and Labourite Roy Hattersley, who both condemned the rioting in no uncertain terms. By contrast a Class War spokesman was happy to describe the rioters as “heroes” during an interview on TV, much to the obvious horror of the reporter who warned that viewers might find the organisation's views "repugnant".

Another video, this time an amateur recording of a demonstration in Nottingham in February 1991. Apart from the fun to be had spotting familiar faces in the crowd, this was an intriguing insight into the divisions in the movement. The key speaker was Steve Nally, known as “Nally the Nark” for his decision the day after the Trafalgar Square riot to appear alongside Tommy Sheridan saying they intended to “name names” and “root out the trouble-makers.” As a result when it was his turn to speak he was subjected to a volley of abuse from many in the crowd, which local members of Militant attempted to silence with limited success.

The night also included an opportunity for one of the campaigners from the time read several of the poems he had written at the time, going some way to rediscovering the venom which had informed their creation. Throughout the event, there was also an array of material from the time on display including newspaper clippings, leaflets, badges, photos, t-shirts and even banners. Some of the written material has already been scanned by the Sparrow’s Nest and is available in their website: www.thesparrowsnest.org.uk/scans/polltax. The event was recorded and the hope is to make this available at some point in the future, along with recordings of interviews with those involved so that there experiences are not lost.

The event was both interesting and inspiring. It is worth nothing that the past week has seen not just the 20th anniversary of the Council House invasion, but also the 25th anniversary of the Miners’ Strike. Five years after Thatcher had defeated the most militant of the country’s unions she may well have thought herself invincible, hence her decision to force through the Poll Tax in the face of advice from her advisers. In doing so she unleashed a wave of working class anger and resistance which fuelled a hugely successful non-payment campaign, massive protests and a wave of riots across the country, culminating at Trafalgar Square. The Poll Tax was rendered unenforcable and Thatcher was compelled to leave Downing Street. This underlines our very real collective power even at a time when it might look like the odds are stacked against us.

Notts IMC + People’s Histreh

Comments

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech