Class War Classix
18 Walker Drive, Bishop Auckland, Co. Durham, DL14 6QW.
07931 301901

1.2.10

CLASS WAR POLL TAX SPECIAL
20th Anniversary

This is the 20-year anniversary reissue (British Library mark - ISSN 2042-048X) of the classic CLASS WAR Poll Tax special edition that was produced for the day that became later known as THE POLL TAX RIOT. Reprinted now because a generation has grown up that has little or no knowledge of recent and glorious examples of working class resistance, and this shows how it was done before.

This reissue is launched at the start of a mass wave of protest that started in Stroud in early February 1990, poll tax resistance ignited around the length and breadth of the UK in the weeks that followed. After the Hackney poll tax riot in early March the £ fell dramatically on the international exchanges the next day, even they could sense struggle and change was in the air. A vast number of confrontations between the people, and the police and government took place all around the UK, building momentum towards the large demonstration planned.

Class War came to prominence because of the riot in Trafalgar Square. The 1990 uprisings against the Poll Tax seared like wildfire outside every council chamber and Shire Hall culminating in that glorious carnival of insurrection at Trafalgar Square when 10000 riotous working class heroes were cheered on by another 300000 as they torched buildings, fought cops with scaffolding poles and brought the reality of class war to the cosseted rich of the City and West End.

This was no drunken mob, this was MASS CLASS WAR. As the filth forced Trafalgar Square clear, the mobs went in different directions. East to the plush arcades of Covent Garden, North to the expensive shopping areas of Regent Street, West to Leicester Square. All with the same motive, to show the rich scum exactly what we think of them and what they can expect more of in the future.

The battles on the streets with the riot cops weren’t the action of a few scared kids. They were the actions of a working class tired of being trampled on by both the money grabbers of the Left and Right. They were the actions of people proud to say they’ve done their bit for the class war, proud to battle with the forces of the state as they try to attack us with yet another law that attacks the working class.

Downing Street escaped storming by a hairs breadth – well there’s always next time - as the fresh memory of Ceausescu’s downfall (Romanian dictator) inspired thousands to think that Thatcher could meet the same fate, and she did. The Poll tax was so unpopular that she was forced from office, stabbed in the back like Caesar of old.

What a day, fucking brilliant. If you were there you’ll never forget the day that we took central London, gave the cops a battering and took the class war into the belly of the beast, in the heart of the city.

A Class War representative was interviewed on TV with the interviewer adding ‘some viewers may find these opinions offensive’. Bollocks! Not the millions who stared with joy and disbelief at their TV screens because someone had the bottle to stick it to the powers that be.

Rather than the official spokesmen of the Anti Poll Tax movement, led by Militant (remember them? No), who said they would grass up the rioters, Class War instead praised the rioters on live TV. Nothing could have illustrated more starkly the difference between our approach and politics, and those of the ‘official left’.

The media was caught unaware, questions were asked in Parliament and parts of this copy of the CLASS WAR POLL TAX SPECIAL were read out in the House of Commons and the Lords.

This is why THIS EDITION of CLASS WAR, THE MOST REVOLUTIONARY PUBLICATION OF AT LEAST THE LAST 30 YEARS IS IMPORTANT.

Politically, and historically.

Enjoy.

Cl@ss War Classix is a new initiative to reproduce seminal publications of the class war.

The first in the series was the Introduction to the 1970s political group “Big Flame”, Big Flame were a libertarian Marxist political party in the United Kingdom. They were founded in Liverpool in 1970 and at first grew rapidly in the prevailing climate on the left.

The second was the 1924 Presidential Address to the Independent Labour Party conference, “Putting Socialism in to Practice”.

Number 3, “An History of Economic Relationships with Crime” was published in 2009.

1,2, and 3 can be purchased for £1 each including P & P.

Class War Classix number 5 will be “The Great Grimsby Lockout of 1901”

Further copies of Class War Classix number 4 ‘Poll Tax Special’ can be ordered from this address for £1 each inc. P & P, 4 for £2, cheques payable to “T.Bark”; 18 Walker Drive, Bishop Auckland, Co. Durham, DL14 6QW. Or you can pay via Paypal at dr_trevorbark @ fastmail.net
Contact Cl@ss War Classix at: 07931 301901 to order, for review copies, or to suggest publications to reproduce.
Cl@ss War Classix can usually be found at events promoted on this website;
 http://workingclassbookfair.vpweb.com/ or Anarchist bookfairs, and some independent bookshops and social centres.

Class Anger has Erupted

CLASS ANGER HAS ERUPTED. We’re not gonna stay hidden away on our estates, pubs and clubs, schools, factories, community work schemes and JSA training prisons out of sight and out of mind anymore. WE are on the WARPATH.

Born out of the class war that the capitalists led by Maggie Thatcher started on the working class in the 1980s, Class War was part of the fightback.

While the millionaire and political elite live a life of luxury at our expense, workers have to work ever harder and longer, while the rich bask on the yachts, growing fat from the cash they’ve screwed out of the workers, laughing till they choke on champers and canapés at the poor.

Where the states soft cops – social workers, probation workers, teachers, judges, Sure start, ‘Welfare to work’, charity staff, and others dwell in isolation from the people whose interests they either claim to ‘hold at heart’ or have the power to lock in prison or put into care. The Tories made their class grow fat by selling off state industries on the cheap, making us pay more for water, gas, electricity, etc. and New Labour continued to run capitalism FOR the rich and powerful.

Well SHITBAGS, your days are numbered. We’ve lived our lives up to our necks in your shit, and now it’s your turn to suffer, to feel the brunt of class anger and hatred. For too long we’ve let the Royals and politicians be protected by the army and the police. We won’t be fooled by your crap anymore. The only politics with meaning for us are on the streets and we will not rest till we’ve got our own back on the bastards.

GET BARRICADING THOSE DOORS SCUMBAGS!