Revolution Destroyed?

Have I ensured that a world socialist revolution will never happen?

A book by Steve Wallis (www.socialiststeve.me.uk)

Chapter 10

Poll tax – the riot

One of the most significant events in British political history occurred on the 31st of March 1990. It was of course the massive anti-poll tax demonstration in London. The police often underestimate the size of demonstrations (unless they are organised by reactionary organisations like the Countryside Alliance) and much of the mass media quotes the police figures uncritically. Thus, some claim that there were only about 100,000 people on that demo. The organisers, the All-Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation, estimated 200,000 but that was probably an underestimate – some people waited about four hours at the park where the demo commenced before they were able to get moving. Some political commentators wrongly attribute the rioting that occurred on the demo as the primary reason for the poll tax’s demise. This even happened within Militant’s ranks – a leading member called Mike Waddington made the same erroneous point in an article on the centre pages of the Militant newspaper, but fortunately the letter that I wrote in response, pointing out that mass non-payment ended the poll tax, was published. Most socialists correctly oppose rioting as a strategy because it alienates many working class people who would otherwise support our cause. Obviously we understand that people generally resort to rioting due to desperation, naivety, self-defence, provocations or because there are agent provocateurs in the ranks of the demonstrators who are deliberately acting against the interests of the genuine marchers. These were probably all factors in the rioting that occurred on the 31st of March demo, but the main reason for the riot was the police starting it, as revealed in a TV documentary shown a few months later.

This huge demonstration was not the first occasion on which a poll tax riot occurred. Many demonstrations were organised outside town halls across England and Wales, and a few of them ended in violence. The primary role of the police is to protect the status quo (i.e. capitalist society) and they often provoke rioting because they realise that that it is in the interests of the ruling class (i.e. big business). The demos outside the town halls were timed to coincide with council meetings at which the level of poll tax was set. The anti-poll tax unions (APTUs) argued that the councils should refuse to set a level of poll tax, just as Liverpool City Council had refused to set a level of the rates in XXX. However, by the time the poll tax was being implemented, there were few genuine left-wingers on Labour councils and none of the councils followed the APTUs’ advice.

The mass media like to report violence and they often refuse to publish details of peaceful demonstrations, or merely mention them in small items on the inside pages of newspapers or in minor bulletins on the TV or radio news. This encourages some organisations, primarily anarchist ones, to advocate violence as a way of achieving change. One such anarchist organisation is Class War, which publishes a newspaper of the same name. They were not serious anarchists capable of leading a riot but ones who had previously established a niche for themselves in coming up with humorous headlines.

Since London is one of the most important financial centres of the world, the forces of big business had invested a considerable amount of effort in infiltrating anarchist as well as socialist organisations there. I believe that some of the most forward thinking strategists on the side of big business deliberately encouraged violent anarchist organisations to grow, so that they could be used as counterweights to activists promoting more positive forms of protest. Of course the state sometimes took action against violent anarchists, by jailing some of them for example, but this was not such a bad thing from the anarchists’ point of view since it increased their credibility.

One of the first things I noticed on the massive anti-poll tax demonstration in London was a small group of sellers of Class War, with their headline encouraging violence. I thought that that was ominous. However, the mood on the demonstration was excellent – there was a carnival atmosphere with hundreds of thousands of people of all ages and backgrounds (except the very rich probably!) celebrating the strength of the non-payment movement. There were many banners and placards urging people not to pay the poll tax. The demo was organised by the All-Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation (ABAPTF), which united anti-poll tax unions (APTUs) across Britain. There was another demo of around 50,000 in Glasgow on the same day, so at least a quarter of a million people marched against the poll tax on that day. We were celebrating the fact that an estimated one million people weren’t paying the poll tax in Scotland – a quarter of the adult population. However, the mood all changed as I approached Trafalgar Square where the demo was due to end.

I didn’t see how the violence started but I witnessed protestors throwing missiles such as bottles at the police and the police charging at demonstrators and arresting some of them. I went into a side street to bypass the violent protestors, and witnessed more violence and wanton destruction of property there. I finally got into Trafalgar Square and saw some charges by police in riot gear on horseback and counter-charges by demonstrators, with many missiles being thrown by protestors, some of which landed short and hit other protestors. I saw the South African Embassy being set alight – an obvious target since the apartheid regime was still in place. At the time, I blamed the anarchist demonstrators for wrecking what could have been a very positive demonstration. Indeed, Class War, seizing on the chance to hit the big time, claimed responsibility for starting the violence despite strong evidence that it was the police who started it.

The biggest “mistake” ever made by a member of Militant, was made by the secretary of the ABAPTF, Steve Nally, on national television when he was asked to comment on the violence that occurred during the demonstration. He quite reasonably said that the ABAPTF would hold an investigation into the violence on the demo. However, when asked whether the ABAPTF would “name names”, he said yes! In my view, he did this because he was an infiltrator into Militant from a conspiratorial organisation on the side of big business.

Militant should have expelled Nally for this, and a new election should have taken place for secretary of the ABAPTF. Instead, Militant instead conducted a fairly unsuccessful damage limitation exercise, claiming that Nally meant that the ABAPTF would name names within the movement rather than informing the police and that he had been insufficiently prepared for the interview. However, spies within the campaign would have informed the police of names, and it is hard to believe that leading members of Militant hadn’t discussed what the response should be to violence occurring at the London demo, considering that violence had already occurred on a few occasions at town halls. Indeed, the mass media had predicted violence on this demo in advance, to try to discourage peaceful protestors from coming and to encourage violent ones to come instead. Therefore, at a time when Militant should have been recruiting thousands of potential non-payers, it was acting in a very defensive manner.

I went to the Rusholme Anti-Poll Tax Union (RAPTU) meeting shortly after the demo, and went along with Militant’s damage limitation exercise. I still blamed anarchists for the violence, and realised that the violence was a distraction from the need to build mass non-payment. However, Militant members encountered a fair amount of opposition at that meeting from non-aligned members of RAPTU (as well as SWP members relishing the opportunity to attack Militant) who realised that it was out of order for a leader of the ABAPTF to say that the federation would hand names over to the police.

That incident did not put me off joining Militant – I did join about two months later – but it undoubtedly put many others off taking such a step.

Class War and violent anarchism generally virtually disappeared in Britain after that riot and a smaller one at the end of the People’s March (which I’ll describe in chapter 12), until joined by foreign anarchists for events around the 2005 G8 summit (see chapter YYY). There was a big witch-hunt against people accused of violence on those demos, carried out by the state at the behest of the tabloid press. The main reasons for Class War’s demise were probably forces of big business thinking that the organisation was getting too notorious for their liking and no longer necessary after the damage the riots had inflicted on the anti-poll tax campaign, and it being unprepared for the clampdown due to it not consisting of serious anarchists.

Anarchism is not inherently violent and I have collaborated effectively with non-violent anarchists in various campaigns. I will discuss this in chapters YYY and YYY.

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