Portsmouth In the late 1980s the Thatcher Tory Government decided to make the introduction of the Unions opposed Poll Tax, but took little collective action police driving their vans into demonstrators in circumstances where they no room to move.
In a sense this 'riot' was no more than symbolic of the deep hatred in which the Poll Tax was held and was certainly not the direct cause of its demise.
However, it provided a major source of inspiration to the anti-Poll Tax movement and therefore impetus to a sustained period of civil disobedience based on the main slogan of the demonstration -"Pay No Poll Tax'. ID cards are all about
state surveillance -Big Brother-style -and nothing to do with
preventing identity
theft, let alone a
supposed threat of
terrorist bombs. was Chelmsford (Essex) at the time - a place
that was not and probably
never will be associated with
militant struggle.
Nevertheless, our local
campaign attracted massive
support on each and every
occasion that the local
Magistrates Court was hearing the cases of those unable
or often just unwilling to pay
the Tax
Elsewhere the HOn-Day
ment campaign was almost
certainly much more intense,
and in Scotland, given the
jailing of Tommy Sheridan,
started a process that was to
culminate in the formation of
the SSP
The campaign against ID
cards will be significantly different to the anti-Poll Tax
campaign. Firstly, and this is
the starting point for today,
we need to convince people
that ID cards are all about
state surveillance Big
Brother-style - and nothing
to do with preventing identity theft, let alone a supposed
CALING threat of terrorist bombs. Secondly, and most problematically, many people will effectively have no choice but to end up with ID cards as they will be forced on those renewing their passports during the next few years.
Thirdly, the time frame is much longer than was the case with the introduction of the Poll Tax - with ID cards not becoming compulsory (for those who do not want or need passports) until 2013.
Nevertheless, the strategy of mass civil disobedience, deployed so successfully by the anti-Poll Tax Campaign, must surely be at the heart of resistance of the introduction of Pass Laws into this coun try.
We need to build a mass movement of people who will refuse all cooperation with the processes the State sets up to foist ID cards on us - cards that will not only be biometric but will contain all sorts of information about the holder of which she and he will be
There is one further lesson to be learnt from the anti-Poll
Tax Campaign.
The only negative but nevertheless important experlence from the non-payment
strategy was the failure systematically to involve the
organised trade union movement.
WiSE TOOLS generally
passed motions opposing the
Poll Tax this was not translated into support for union
members, employed by coun
cils, to send out and administer the enforcement of Poll
Tax bills.
In opposing ID cards a key
part of the strategy must be to
secure industrial action
involving a boycott of any
process to do with their introduction.
Indeed if civil disobedience is to occur within the
next few years it is hard to see
how it can take any form
other than trade union
action.