No to bombing Syria

Currently the warmongerers are gathering, planning to bomb Syria, after a recent chemical attack,  Theresa May has put RAF bombers on standby to start airs strikes in Syria. Donald Trump has vowed to take action .The stakes are obviously extremely high, but opinion polls suggest public opinion is firmly against military action. Only 22% of respondents in a YouGov Poll said they would support airstrikes on Syria. More bombing would prolong the agony of the Syrian people and risk causing a catastrophic war with Russia.
I can understand the ongoing tragedy of the situation in Syria, and people who argue that non-intervention has a price as well as intervention, and that letting people get away with the use of chemial weapons will only encourage them to do it again. But the argument which takes us from those statements  to 'we must bomb Syrian military forces or fatalities' is seriously lacking in logic and reason, and simply attacking anyone who questions this and being a supporter of Russia is just nonsense. The gassing of civilians, if confirmed, must not go unpunished. But while retaliation may briefly relieve western guilt over the Syrian tragedy and boost Mr Trump’s self-image, it cannot be a substitute for a peaceful solution.
The conflict in Syria has a deep and complex history. An estimated 100,000 Syrian people have lost their lives, and nearly 2 million have been forced to leave their country, torn apart by civil war and competing global and regional powers. We know that innocent people, often women and children pay for war and aggression and there is  no end in sight. A US military strike will not end the violence. We must not forget that the UK and the USA has been bombing other countries for over a decade, the cost being massive regional instability, terrible loss of millions of innocent lives. Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results meets Albert Einsteins definition of madness. More likely, it will trigger a massive regional conflict, and  will destroy the infrastructure the Syrian people desperately need to stabilize and rebuild their country.
Dropping more bombs on this devastated country will only add to the nightmare already in existence. Military action action against Assad will  not make the situation better for the people of Syria, it will most probably make a perilous situation much worse.  We should do whatever is possible to urge our Government from leading us into another dangerous war. Air strikes in Syria could risk devastating consequences. War is an act of terrorism too, only on a bigger budget. Do we stoke and inflame an ongoing tragedy? There is a very real danger that the Middle East could face the catastrophe of a regional war, and that Trump, backed by May, could fan the flames. Where is their concern for the welfare of civilians when we see Israeli snipers targetting unarmed Palestinian civilians in Gaza?  Do we really need more blood on our hands? Not in my name.
Stop the illegal war demo has been called by the Stop the War coalition today at 5 PM Downing Street, there will also be protests across the country over the weekend and another demonstration called for Parliament Square Monday 5.30 pm.

Oppose Trump and May's Plans for Escalation in Syria

http://stopwar.eaction.org.uk/lobby/SyriaEscalation

"So we are going to "war" are we? And how do we get out of this war once we have started it? Any plans anyone? What if there's a giganti srew up, whih wars do tend to usually produce? What happens then?" - Robert Fisk

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/theresa-may-syria-war-uk-chemical-weapons-attack-iran-iraq-thatcher-russia-a8300881.html

Fighting Times

People in society currently pecked into pieces
Politicians creating wastelands for generations,
Taking from the poor and giving it all to the rich
Division not progress their ultimate pitch,
Poisoning minds, creating wars of attrition
Continuing to blind us with fear and confusion,
With twisted morality, sullied emotion
Forces of capitalism, driving us in one direction,
Planned poverty,leaving victims in its wake
Homelessness growing that the government make,
Food banks growing in this age of austerity
People daily waking up to distorted reality,
In Grenfell tower people died, government indignation negligible
No deaths in a Salisbury cafe, government reaction incredible,
Their systematically treating us with derision
With conscious games that simply imprison,
Daily now the balancing acts of life hard to handle
People broken, beaten, continue to be strangled,
Held captive by forces of misery and mockery
Time, to take a stand, make demands that set us free;
Break the bonds that bind us, the walls that hide us
Plant seeds of rebellion, rise back in disgust,
Growing stronger, lifting voices high
So loud they will be unable to drown our cry.
Together we are capable of inducing chain reactions
Generating effects that take away maddening distractions,
Leaving the present behind, that is ever so profound
Keep fighting for our lives, until the next round.

Poem can also be found here:-

https://iamnotasilentpoet.wordpress.com/2018/04/12/fighting-times-by-dave-rendle/

Emiliano Zapata - Mexican Social Revolutionary (8/8/1879 - 10/4/1919)

Emiliano Zapata born on August 8, 1879, in Anencuila, Mexico, was a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution  of 1910 against the dictatorship  of Porfirio Diaz. He is considered to be one of the national heroes of Mexico. The son of a peasant of indigenous blood who trained and sold horses. At age seventeen  he was orphaned and was forced to raise his brothers and sisters.
He grew furious at the injustices suffered by his neighbors whose lives depended  upon the small pieces of  land they farmed. All the villagers lands were threatened, however by the corrupt government of Porfirio Diaz.
When a nearby hacienda owner stole land from the peasants. Zapata began battles to get the peasants land back to them.In 1897 he was arrested for taking part in a protest by the peasants, against the hacienda/plantations that had appropriated their lands and soon after was drafted into the army. He served six months, at which point he was discharged to a landowner to train horses in Mexico City.
Zapata became known as a man with a balanced judgement and humble values. He was partly influenced by an anarchist from Northern Mexico  named Ricardo Flores Magon. The influence on Magon on Zapata can be seen in the Zapatismo Plan de Ayala, but even more noticeably in the Zapatisto slogan 'Tierra y liberted' or 'land and liberty.' the title and maxim of Magon's most famous work. Zapata's introduction to anarchism came via a local schoolteacher by the name of Otilio Montana, who exposed Zapata to the works of Peter Kropotkin among others , while Zapata was at same time observing and beginning to participate in the struggles of the peasants in the land.
Zapata disliked the tyranny of a brutal central government that favoured the wealthy over the peasantry, an anarchist possibly, but Zapata was no Marxist, One famous attributed quote of his reads "One of the happiest days of my life was made when I made five or six hundred pesos from a crop of watermelons I raised all on my own,"
Zapata was, at his heart, a socialist who believed in fair access  to the means of production, which he believed would lead to prosperity for the community.Widely respected by his community, the village elected him to be their leader in 1909. By 1910, many of the common people were forced of their land . These injustices to his fellow Mexicans , forced Zapata to form a peasant army to fight for the rights and freedoms of the indigenous people. He joined fores with Francisco I. Madeiro however Zapata became disenchanted with Madero's lack of action toward land reform, as well as his lack of support for Zapata's 1911 Plan of Avala, which called for the return of lands to the indigenous peoples.
Zapata had a picturesque appearance,  big sombrero, with long  handlebar mustache, a pistol tucked into his belt, the quintessential Mexican Revolutionary, a  passionate man with strong ideals that he tried to put into practice.Personally incorruptible, he remained loyal through a decade of revolution to the cause of campesinos. In return the poor of Southern Mexico idolised him. When an old woman in an isolated village was asked what she thought of him, she answered, "us poor mountain Indians, go along hanging on tight to the tail of chief Zapata's horse."

After Victoriano Heurta overthrew Madero , Zapata joined forces with the legendary Pancho Villa, who was leading an army of Madero supporters in the North of the country.During the first weeks of 1910, Zapata continued to build his organization, training and equipping his men and consolidating his authority as their leader. The revolution took it bloody course with Villa fighting in the northern part of Mexico, while Zapata remained mainly south of Mexico City.

On 11 May  his peasant army began the Battle of Cuautla  and on  May 19, after a week of extremely fierce fighting with government troops, the Zapatistas took the town of Cuautla. Only forty-eight hours later, Francisco Madero and the Mexican government signed the Treaty of Crudad Juarez which ended the presidency of Porfirio Diaz and named Franisco Leon de la Barra, former ambassador to Washington , as interim president.

Madero was elected president in November 1911, and Zapata met with him again with no success.With help of a teacher  Otilio Montano, Zapata prepared the Plan of Avala, which  declared Madero incapable of fulfilling the plans of the revolution.They vowed to return stolen land to the people, by expropriating, with payment, a third of the area of the haciendas,those haciendas that refused to accept the plan would have their lands expropriated without compensation. The peasants rallied to Zapata's support.
With Zapata's Revolution an ongoing event, in 1913, General Vitoriano Heurta assassinated Madero who then took control of the country under a dictatorship. It there was anyone that Zapata   hated more than Diaz and Madero, it was Heurta, who had been responsible for many atrocities in southern Mexico while trying to end the rebellion. Zapata was not alone. In the north the legendary Pancho Villa, who has supported Madero, immediately took to the field against Heurta. He was joined by two newcomers to the Revolution, Venustiano Carranzo and Alvaro Obregon.
Together they made short work of Heurta, who resigned and fled in June of 1914 after repeated military losses to the "Big Four." Zapata did not recognise the authority that Carranza asserted as leader of the revolutionary movement, and continued his adherance to the Plan de Ayala. Zapata and Villa broke with Carranza, and Mexico descended into civil war. Zapata focussed his energies on rebuilding society in Morelos which he now controlled, instituting the land reforms of the Plan de Ayala. As Carranza consolidated his power and defeated Villa in 1915, Zapata initiated guerilla warfare against the Carrancistas, who in turn invaded Morelos, employing scorched earth tactics to oust the Zapatista rebels. Zapata once again retook Morelos in 1917, and held most of the state against Carranza's troops.
In this year Carranza's army defeated Villa though which left Zapata isolated. Carranza was elected president and threatened by Zapata's enormous popularity,  maliciously set about plants to get rid of Zapata once and for all. On April 10th, 1919 Zapata was led into a trap where 400 of his enemies lie in wait. Hidden snipers on surrounding rooftops opened fire, riddling him with bullets. His body was photographed and put on display so that there would be no doubt that he was dead to those that continued to support him, before being buried in Cuadutla. Zapata's assassination backfired on Carranza , who was forced to flee the capital the following year, with Zapata becoming the apostle of the revolution and a symbol of dispossessed peasants. Support among the people of Morelos grew and they continued to support the Zapatista forces, providing them with weapons, supplies and protection. To many Zapata still rides in the hills intent on finishing the job he began on November 28, 1911- the date of the Plan of Ayala..He also remains a symbol of freedom to the oppressed of the world. Zapata's influence  has endured , and continues to be one of the most inspirational figures of any social  justice movement, and his agrarian reform movement, remains important to many Mexicans today. where he is considered a folk hero and is revered as a revolutionary figure.celebrated for continuing his fight for land and liberty for the poor and oppressed
Zapata's motto; "It's better to die on your feet, than live on your knees," was a plea to dignity to ordinary citizens.Zapata’s influence has endured long after his death,  many of his generals and followers rose to power in 1920 and managed to institute many of the land reforms that Zapata had spent his life fighting for. Zapata remains a national hero and an icon of Mexican culture.

In 1994, a guerrilla group calling itself the Zapatista Army of National Liberation launched a peasant uprising in the southern state of Chiapas  fighting for the political rights for Mexico's native Indian population,the the Zapatistas take their name from Emiliano Zapata  Their most famous voice is Subcommander Marcos. The struggle continues.

Peoples history of the Mexican  Revolution ' La Revolucion  Mexicano 

70th anniversary of Dier Yassin massacre

Today  the Palestnian people mark the 70th year of Dier Yassin .An Arab village cleared out in 1948 by Jewish forces in a heatbreaking massacre just weeks before Israel was formed.The village  lay outside of the area assigned by the United Nations to the 'Jewish State'. It had a peaceful reputation, the Deir Yassin villagers had signed a non aggression pact with the leaders of the adjacent Jewish Quarter, Giv'at Shaul and had even refused military personnel from the Arab Liberation Army from using the village as a base.
But it was located on high ground in the corridor between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Deir Yassin was slated for ocupation under Plan Dalet and the mainstream Jewish defense force, the Haganah, authorized the irregular terrorist frces of the Irgun and the Stern Gang to perfrm the takeover.
Early in the morning Commanders of the Irgun (headed by Menachim Begin) and the Stern Gang attacked Deir Yassin a village with about 750 Palestinian residents. By the time  the villagers realized the intensity of the terrorist attack, hundreds were already dead, the Zionist militia  murdered over 250 Palestinian villagers, men, women, children and the elderly, in cold blood wounding  many others. 53 orphaned children were literally dumped along the wall of the Old City, where they were found by Miss Hind Husseini and brought behind the American Colony Hotel to her home, which was to become the Dar El-Tifi El- Arabi orphanage.
 The Deir Yassin massacre outraged many Jews at the time. The day after the massacre, Albert Einstein wrote a letter of protest to Ben Gurion. Six months later, Einstein and Hannah Arendt and many others were signatories to a letter to the New York Times, denouncing Menachem Begin, and warning Americans not to support him.  “It is inconceivable that those who oppose fascism through out the world, if correctly informed as to Mr. Begin’s political record and perspectives, could add their names and support to the movement he represents”, they said in the letter.
A year later the settlement  Kafar Shaul was founded on this site. In the 1980's the remains of Dier Yassin were bulldozed to make room for new settlements. The streets of these new neighbourhoods were  shamefully named after members of the Irgun family.Also today, a psychiatric hospital occupies the center of what was Deir Yassin village, restricting access to its fortified stone homes standing defiantly against the grid of generic Israeli settlement buildings constructed on stolen land.
For Palestinians and their supporters, the massacre is a symbol. It is remembered as the pivotal onset of the 1948 Nabka; Deir Yassin is the "other shoe that fell," sparking over 750,000 to flee from their homes out of a fear that they too would be massacred. What happened in Deir Yassin prepared the ground for the ethnic cleansing of 70% of the Palestinian people. The same ethnic cleansing that occurred then is still going on today. In 1948 they used direct massacres, but today they use airstrikes  and shoot innocent young Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.This stain in history marks more thany anywhere else the Palestinian sense of dispossession.
Seventy years later the Deir Yassin massacre still remains an important reminder of Israel’s systematic measures of displacement, destruction, dispossession, and dehumanization.In keeping with Simon Wiesenthal's observation that "Hope lives when people remember," the suffering of the Jews has been rightly acknowledged and memorialised. But there are few memorials for Palestinians who died in 1948 and since. Their history, in which the massacre at Deir Yassin is a very significant event, but has been largely buried and forgotten. And yet, like the descendants of the victims in Armenia (1915-17), in the Soviet Union (1929-53), in Nazi Germany (1933-45), in China (1949-52, 1957-60, and 1966-76), and in Cambodia (1975-79), the descendants of Palestinians want the world to remember what they suffered, what they lost and why they died. The calculated efforts by Israel to completely erase the history, narrative and physical presence of the Palestinian people will not be simply ignored or forgotten. It also serves to ask ourselves the question what  turns a victim into an abuser,a bully that keeps blaming its victims? And over the years we've been taught many things, that invasion was not invasion, occupation was not occupation, apartheid was not apartheid,ethnic cleansing was not ethnic cleansing,and that land theft was not land theft and Palestine was not Palestine.
And Seven decades later , Palestinians continue to be killed with apparent impunity, as ongoing events in the Gaza Strip demonstrate, and modern day Palestinians in occupied  East Jerusalem and the West Bank continue to face widespread illegal settlement expansion and home demolitions, but  the Palestinian peoples collective voice can still be heard from the refugee camps of Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, to the towns of the West Bank and Gaza, to the ghettos inside the Israeli green line. This determination and resilience has earned them respect and support of an increasing number of people around the world. Despite the humiliation and pain of their  occupation, you can't kill their  indomitable spirit and struggle.

Phil Monsour , featuring Rafeef Ziadh - The Ghosts of  Dier Yassin

Swirling Dream

( Following poem dedicated to Kurt Cobain, (20/2/67 - 5/4/94) among others lost, who on April 8, 1994, was found dead in his home in Seattle, his death was ruled a suicide by a self- inflicted shotgun wound to is head)

Swirling Dream

Sometimes the air around gets lost
Rain hits cheeks, drenching with sadness,
Fill lungs with nicotine, cans of poison
Go searching for Oblivion,
Waiting in the dark for sustenance
Some hi ho silver lining,
In transcendent state of mind
Gardens become blankets,
The only dragon that flies here
Is powered by love and light,
The deeper I wander, get closer to Nirvana
Subconscious particles of mind get clearer,
As the evening hangs still, among the silence
The whisper of leaves, scents that hypnotize,
I touch the moon and stars with my fingertips
In the distance hear the sound of angels calling,
Life's flickering candle rekindles, reawakens
On the threshold of dream, night turns to dawn.

Friends continue legacy of Gaza sand sculptor killed during Land Day protest

Israeli troops have shot dead seven Palestinian protesters and wounded at least 200 along the Israeli/Gaza  border Gaza medical offficials have said , since last Friday's Land Day demonstrations  raising the death toll to 27 in the week long disturbances.
Last Fridays demonstration was the second in as many weeks planned, a week long sit-in dubbed the Great March of Return.
Its main message is to call for the right to return for Palestinian refugees who were driven from their homes in the territories taken over by Israel during the 1948 war, known to Arabs as the Nabka.
Israel has since drawn sharp criticism internationally for its open-fire orders along the border, including its warnings that those approaching or trying to damage its fences would be targeted. While the world watched they used excessive force, against peaceful protesters firing live ammunition , tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets.
Palestinian Gaza based artist, Mohammed Abu Amir, 19, pictured above, was one of those killed. He was  killed a day after sculpting the words " I will return" on Gaza Beach.
Mohammed was the second member of his family to be killed by Israel. His brother Ehab, 21, was killed in 2008, during a clash east of Gaza City.
Mohammed once said, " Be optimistic, set a goal and plan for your life and make your personality open to others, then you can live happily," will now be able to continue to address the young generation through his work, but they will live on as posts on his facebook account for those who want to recall his sculptures, and though his friends who continue his legacy.

http://mondoweiss.net/2018/04/friends-continue-sculptor/

Theresa May and the Conservative Party's Toxic Politics of division that are aided by the media

Theresa May is against so much, just look at her voting record, and what she has done since she became Prime Minister. She is Anti-NHS, Anti-working class, Anti-free school meals,Anti-pensioners,,Anti-students,Anti-homeless people,Anti welfare.Anti- Trade Unions,Anti- Laws to promote equality and Human Rights, Anti - those that seek asylum, Anti- tackling tax evasion
Anti-wildlife, Anti- environment Anti- world peace,Anti- legal aid, Anti- a fairer society, Anti- helping people in financial need, Anti-social housing.Anti- secure tenancies for life, Anti - an unbiased media. The list is endless.
Despite this the media give her an easy ride, while she continues to deliver her toxic policies of division. Capitalism's dedicated servant,  driven by vanity and her thirst for power, who joined up with Northern Ireland's, Democratic Unionist Party in a desperate attempt to cling on to her party's majority in Parliament. As unemployment, homelessness, despair continues to rise, this vicar's daughter shamelessly carries on , leaving the marginalised  adrift ,paying her game of divide and rule, with her plans for Universal Credit, people on welfare payments who are already facing the most gruelling of times, face an even harder one. Her plans will also effect millions of people actually in work too. It's a mess of her own making, one of conscious cruelty.
Tory cuts too mean that spending on local government services in England  has fallen by 33 billion in the past 5 years, and it is the most deprived areas that have been the hardest hit, some facing an overall drop of 20 percent or more in spending. Crippling councils and public services. As a result many local authorities are struggling to provide support for vulnerable children and families, Also as a result of  Tory policies, some 3 million children in Britain risk going hungry in the school holidays when they don't have school dinners, and  austerity has led to around 120,000 deaths.Tory policies really do cost lives, as they callously  keep ignoring the needs of the poor, the disabled and mentally ill. Lest us forget her chaotic approach to Brexit..
This is the world that Theresa May and her party have built. Do do we simply allow them to stagger on, with their wreckage, savaging the NHS, ignoring the homeless, holding down public sector pay, scapegoating Muslims , migrants and attacking disabled people,and recently putting the finger of blame on the Russians for a poison incident, despite having no  proof whatsoever, except in her closed mind, who should have seeked more evidence before placing the Kremlin in the frame. And then there is the case of her party pocketing millions from regimes that back extremism, Saudi Arabia for example, and at same time a small  group of millionaires continue to  bankroll her, for their own interests..
Yet the  mainstream media  generally casually ignores all this,and simply carries on with their rolling attacks of anything that  alternative voices say, for instance that of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn  who gets daily criticized  for anything he says or does, because of their owners own agendas. One of the worst perpetrators in all of this is the rag that goes by the tile 'Daily Mail', a so called newspaper that stood with Hitler and Oswald Mosely's fascists, a paper that only threes years ago ran a cartoon comparing refugees to vermin, that under the editorship of Paul Dacre declares that Corbyn is worse than the BNP. Surely even the most unaware among us, should  begin to question this ongoing narrative.
With news that right wing papers have been secretly recording Jews at religious events to 'prove' their antisemitism, it seems that anything resembling informal,impartial debate has been abandoned.Hence me letting of steam here,. Remember large sections of the billionaire  owned media have spent decades orchestrating  hatred and lies against all sorts of people, muslims, feminists,  the Irish,, LGBT  people, the unemployed, single mums, trade unionists,  immigrants of all stripes (including Jews)  and many more besides.And now we are supposed to believe that they have suddenly a solemn reverence to Jewish people. Antisemtism still needs to be stamped on, wherever it lies, inside the Labor Party and outside, but now seems to be being stirred up simply to attack Jeremy Corbyn, a man who has spent his whole life fighting racism in all its forms.
Billionaire newspaper owners like Lord Rothermore, Rupert Murdoch and the Barclay brothers,living in tax exile, have their own vested interests, and are desperate to keep Theresa May and the Conservatives in power, to allow themselves to keep protecting the status quo and the establishment,which they are part of, now openly displaying their right wing political bias, using their press to frame peoples perceptions and outlooks.
Despite this it has at least led to an explosion of independent media recently. Outlets like the Canary, Another Angry Voice, Evolve politics etc have at least sprung up  to provide a counter narrative to the established media. Independent voices that truly fight for our corner, instead of relaying propaganda on behalf of May and her mates. Sadly though it is is the right wing press, particularly the tabloids, that have the widest reach and so have the biggest impact on our political landscape, imaginations and conversations
Hopefully people nowadays with the onset of social media can see through  all this, and recognise for themselves, the need to continue to question this ongoing narrative, realise that their own futures do not look bright with May still in power, and to read beyond the spin in the daily press.May's government is in paralysis and beyond incompetence. This  is a toxic party, toxic government, but increasingly looking fragile, but still protected by their media. For the  many not the few, enough is enough,  its time, for them  to go. Hopefully they will be severely punished in the upcoming spring local elections. There you are rant over.

Martin Luther King (15/1/29 -4/4/68) His Prophetic Last speech : I been to the mountaintop

This is the last speech given  by Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr, delivered on April 3, 1968 to a crowded church, in Memphis Tennessee. King spoke of the injustice he felt for the city's sanatoriam workers who were on strike protesting low pay and poor working conditions.
Amid the call for African-Americans to boycott businesses that mistreated workers , he delivered a sermon, without notes, that focused on his life and disavowed any concern that he might be killed for his role in the fight for civil rights.
'Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about tat now,' the Rev. Mr King said that evening. 'I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, But I want you to know tonight, that we as people , will get to the promised land,!'
Now known as ' I've been to the Mountaintop,' the sermon was called King's ' ,most apocalyptic' y King scholar James Washington.
He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennesee the next day, today April 4, 1968. If you listen to the words, it's almost as if he was predicting his own death,  powerfully prophetic.His strong voice still speaking out and touching us.in this age of Trump and rising Bigotry we need voices like King's more than ever. A man who refused to dilute his ideas, with integrity and passion for the causes of equality, justice and freedom, long may we celebrate his brave voice and his powerful legacy.

A Different Drum

I march to the beat of a different drum
Through life keep dreaming on.
Carrying poetry deep in my soul
Following music that I must share,
Standing alone though I try to blend in
Keep on dancing while I listen,
Speaking about the abandoned
To those that are willing to listen,
Beyond political grief, apolitical despair
Finding enough reasons to continue to care,
Beyond man made borders
Discovering gifts of imagination,
Finding principles to guide
Pondering about ways we could all be free,
Falling in holes along the way
Sipping from bottles of mindfulness,
Journeying on with decimating attitude
Unpredictable thought, keeps on beating,
Glittering and glimmering under sunbeams
As rhythms of the heart.keep on beating.

Anniversary of Poll Tax Riots that led to Margaret Thatcher's downfall

On  31st March 1990 people took to the streets of London and fought  back against Margaret Thatchers'  hated  and controversial  ideological driven 'Community Charge', which was first  introduced in Scotland in 1989, and the following year  the flat rate tax was then introduced in England and Wales in 1990, which forced people to pay a flat tax to fund local services irrespective of their wealth or income, leading to a massive backlash, and widely condemned at the time by social campaigners as it meant the rich now paid the same rate of tax as the poor. The main objections were the fact that the same amount was paid by everyone, regardless of their ability to pay, and that liability was determined by being on the electoral roll. Thus it was dubbed the 'Poll Tax'. Thatcher was famously stubborn,  and refused to reconsider.
She should have, because ,the introduction of the poll tax was widely unpopular from the outset, and increased when tax rates set by many local councils turned out to be much higher than initially predicted resulting in Thatcher's increased unpopularity. Local groups opposed to the tax , known  as Anti-Poll Tax Unions sprung up across Britain, encouraging non payment, organising protests, and resisting bailiffs. But I remember the Labour Party at the time  shamefully announcing at their 1988 conference that they would not support those who refused to pay.
However despite of this failure a number of groups were created by activists on the left to support the non-payment of the tax and assist those who experienced legal troubles as a result of non-payment. The most important of these groups was the All Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation (ABAPTF), organised by Militant, which used the local trade unions to help build a campaign of non-payment. The Socialist Workers Party, the other major far left organisation in Britain at the time, had a much more ambivalent attitude towards non-payment and the ABAPTF, which allowed Militant to become the dominant group campaigning against the Poll Tax. Outside of the Trotskyist far left, several anarchist groups also supported non-payment, especially the Anarchist Communist Federation who produced a pamphlet called Beating the Poll Tax (ACF 1990). People were encouraged not to stump up the money under the slogan "Can Pay, Won't Pay."
On this day, over 250,000 people sweeped into London, for many people it was not a case of wanting to demonstrate, it was a case of having too. There was no choice, this cruel tax would have seriously impacted on peoples lives.Most people on the day of this demonstration, arrived unaligned - ordinary people, families, pensioners, the unemployed, students, black  and white, all united as one to fight against this immoral tax.
The overriding opinion of the time,is that what started as a peaceful protest, with an almost carnival feel to it against an illegal tax was quickly turned into a bloody battle  by uniformed thugs acting under Thatcher's orders, with aided and abetted by agent provocateurs.Police shut an over-full Trafalgar Square at 2.30pm and blocked off either end of Whitehall, leading to a mass sit-in near the entrance to Downing Street.  After requests to move along were ignored, they began to arrest demonstrators.
 At 4pm, the use of  charged mounted police aggravated the situation, leading to many peaceful bystanders  with heads streaming with blood. A very frightening experience. as mounted police began to push marchers out to the corners of the square, skirmishes began. Police vans were struck and officers were pelted with building materials, while a fire broke out at the adjacent South African embassy.

Later, police pushed demonstrators out of Trafalgar Square, sending some towards Soho and away from their transport near the river.  Some marchers, angered by police tactics, overturned and set cars alight, and smashed a number of shop windows.some looting began, and small groups began skirmishing with police, such was the anger and rage unleashed. I for one will never condemn the anger unleashed on this day in 1990, it is the inevitable  result of what happens when you push people to far..
By the end of the day, 339 people were arrested (mainly for public order offences) and 86 people were injured. Out of 2,198 police officers on duty, 374 of them had been injured, with 58 requiring hospital treatment. Materially, there were around 250 reports of property damage as well,  the cost of which was later estimated at £400,000.
To this day many people  lay the responsibility of the violence that happened on this day, firmly on the shoulders of Thatcher and her government. Despite the demonisation of the protesters in the mass media,  people still refused to pay, the campaign  flourished, culminating in millions of people's non payment, bailiffs  were resisted, courts unable to cope because of opposition and active resistance as more and more people said "can't pay, won't pay"
It would see the Poll Tax  becoming uncollectable  and unviable and eventually being destroyed, the tax was abolished in 1993 some £2bn in arrears.Thatcher’s popularity was at an all time low, the poll ratings of the Tories were dire and sections of the Tory Party – representing the interests of the ruling class – decided she had to go along with her “flagship” policy. It was Thatcher’s refusal to back down over the poll tax that ultimately brought her downfall..
Thatcher resigned in November 1990 and on 21 March the poll tax was abolished , and Thatcher's  successor John Major announcing its replacement by the  more progressive council tax, which at least took some account into peoples ability to pay, which  is  still in operation to this day. In her own memoirs she cited the abandonment of the poll tax as “one of the greatest victories for these people [the working class – especially anti-poll tax campaigners] ever conceded by a Conservative government.”
Many years  later, the same simmering resentment towards the Conservative Government still exists. It seems that the tories have still not learnt from  their past mistakes,with  the introduction of  , universal credit and other horrors. The resistance to the  Poll Tax is  a reminder to all people who say it is impossible to fight back and that with clear. purpose and united mobilisation, it is possible to  defeat the forces of reaction
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Poll Tax Riot 1990

Thatcher Poll Tax Riots 1990