Can't Pay, Won't Pay
On the Poll Tax Riots, Energy Price Gouging, Unionizing and Collective Middle Fingers
Morning Comrades!
This place has, over the weekend, gotten a big influx of new subscribers and I wanted to welcome you all to this project. To you old loyal readers, feel free to skip these next few paragraphs as you know all this already.
This newsletter is written by me, Steven and is the main home for the Black Lodges universe. I am a 43 year old father, English by luck and birth and have been living in Hamburg, Germany for the last 16 years. I am in the last rounds of finishing my PhD in Analytical Philosophy that deals with post-Marxism, Gramsci, Hegemony and their practical applications. I have had a merch brand called Black Lodges for the past 15 years that is now taking a much needed break for some time. I’ve written a few books, worked as a designer, writer, marketeer and professional trouble maker since the mid 90s. This newsletter focuses on practical ways and means to work towards a post-Capitalist Neo-Communist future, historical analysis of current events to not only expose the hypocrisy of the capitalist world from within the core of the European / North American empire but also to offer means to exploit said hypocrisy to build alternative realities based on the principles of Marxism. You get three emails a week, on Monday, Wednesday and on Friday. My aim is to be as anti-reactionary as possible with this work and through these essay offer genuine, practical insights and means to make this world better, for everyone. There is also a fair amount of music involved here as well as whatever new artwork I happen to produce during this week.
I am increasingly of the belief that what matters is what we do and not what we say we are, so please don’t expect much focus on identity politics here but rather materialistic analysis and actions. I am biased, I am not a news service nor do I have any interest in discussing, debating or respecting anything or anyone that is holding onto “capitalism” in its broadest sense as something worthwhile existing under. I firmly believe in the ideas set forth by Marx & Engels and those that have furthered this idea since then and have dedicated my life to working towards them. Additionally, this place is home to a broad community from around the world, is staunchly anti-fascist, anti-racist, anti-sexist and 100% inclusive of all ideas in regards to gender, identity and sexuality. Whilst not often a topic of discussion in here, there is zero tolerance or room for anyone not ok with the totality of self-determination based on a zero-harm policy. If you can vibe with the idea that the patriarchal, heteronormative world view is a direct by-product of capitalism and deserves to be, at the very least, abolished, you’ll be happy here. Again, topics that aren’t discussed here often, but noteworthy nonetheless. Also, TERF’s or anti-trans people can unsubscribe immediately. Intersectionality means just that. Essentially, I am here to offer insights, teach and pass on what I have learned in over 20 years of organizing alternatives to the present power structure of capitalism and am continuing to learn as I have libraries yet to read and learn from.
This work here is entirely financed by you, the readers. You have the option of becoming a paying subscriber to this newsletter at 10USD a month. I get about 8USD from that, the other 2USD go to substack, which I find is more than fair. With that subscription you get an extra email a week, my eternal gratitude and discount codes for whatever product I put out with the merch department. Yes, it is taking a break but that I am still going to put out random pieces as and when they will be relevant.
Also, substack recently released an app for iOS users that I can only recommend.
With the app, you’ll have a dedicated Inbox for my Substack and any others you subscribe to. New posts will never get lost in your email filters, or stuck in spam. Longer posts will never cut-off by your email app. Comments and rich media will all work seamlessly. Overall, it’s a big upgrade to the reading experience.
The Substack app is currently available for iOS. If you don’t have an Apple device, you can join the Android waitlist here.
Once a week I put out a playlist and you will be getting these sent to you through this newsletter and in our telegram group, that I highly recommend you join, as it is sits outside of the restrictions imposed by the Zuckerberg’s of this world and social media.
To briefly explain these playlists, they aren’t curated in the slightest and exist only because it brings me a great amount of joy to share music. These Weekly Jams are a collection of all the tracks that caught my attention in the week prior and whilst I manage to keep my love for metal out of these for the last 2 years, it occasionally creeps in. Other than that, everything goes. Well, mostly everything. This week’s playlist is insanely good for whatever plethora of reasons I cannot discern. It goes from mellow roots /blues into blistering punk and post-punk, brilliant rap from both England and the US, to some tech-house, ambient, dub, classic rock and tonne of new tracks from bands and artists that just know what they’re doing. Throw on shuffle for another 3hrs of some serious jams.
Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay!
Today, we are going to talk about the Poll Tax Riots in March 1990, the culmination of an organized rebellion against the British State that ended Thatcher. This is not another history lecture ( I can hear your sighs of relief from here ) but rather to point towards what needs to happen in face of brutal state organized class warfare from above as it is happening yet again. Specifically, I am talking about the fleecing organized by the capitalist class in regards to the price gouging in relation to energy.
To briefly offer you historical context: Thatcher, much like Reagan and their muppets here in Europe at the time, went on an all-out class war that, effectively and successfully, destroyed all means, infrastructure and ideas of communal support from the late 70s onwards. Their war was coined “neoliberalism” and it hid their greed and disdain for mutual aid in all forms under the guise of “individualism”. No longer was everyone responsible for everyone but the new goal was privatize all aspects of community for the sole purpose of re-introducing feudalism with a new name (capitalism via globalization by means of individualism). It was and still remains one of the worst, yet most successful, campaigns against communal modernity to date. The Poll Tax was ironically the last straw in Thatchers reign of terror and brought her rule to an end, sort of anyway. In short this was what it was all about:
The advent of the poll tax was due to an effort to alter the way the tax system was used to fund local government in the UK. The system in place until this time was called "rates" and had been in place in some form from the beginning of the 17th century. The rates system has been described as "a levy on property, which in modern times saw each taxpayer paying a rate based on the estimated rental value of their home"
The proposed replacement was a flat-rate per capita Community Charge—"a head tax that saw every adult pay a fixed rate amount set by their local authority". The new Charge was widely called a "poll tax" and was introduced in Scotland in 1989 and in England and Wales a year later. The Charge proved extremely unpopular; while students and the registered unemployed had to pay 20%, some large families occupying relatively small houses saw their charges go up considerably, and the tax was thus accused of saving the rich money and moving the expenses onto the poor.
I am sure this sounds all too familiar and if you want to replace this event with say, for example, an energy company raising prices of their product significantly without any genuine reason other than greed you see where I am getting at. This isn’t so much about the Poll Tax itself, but rather what it represents and what was done about it. The poll tax, like the current insane increases of energy prices ( especially in the UK and the US ) is a tool of class warfare by the rich against everyone else. Servitude, immobility and shock are the expected results, that will leave the door open for further draconian, repressive realities laid out by the capitalist class - a concept best explained by Naomi Klein in her seminal work “The Shock Doctrine”.
Energy prices are being raised across the board by levels unheard of before. The reasons given by the providers are entirely bullshit. The war in Ukraine specifically. The fact remains that, at their respective bases, energy prices for the providers have essentially remained the same, if not dropped and yet, a moment of “shock” is used to brutally increase prices. By all means look at the increased profits posted by any and all energy suppliers over the last year alone. There is no energy crisis, not even in the slightest but yet again, the working classes around the world are faced with another crisis in greed. These “crisis” are repeating themselves faster and faster over the last 2 decades and are clear signs that the capitalist classes know their jig is up and are doing all they can the draw out the last drop of our dwindling resources as fast and as brutally as they can, and they can, for as along as there is no concerted effort to mobilize a broad opposition.
That brings us back to the Poll Tax and the subsequent Poll Tax Riots. When the Poll Tax was introduced in Scotland, the Scots were the first to rebel against it. The ‘Can’t pay, won’t pay’ campaign was an anti-Poll Tax campaign by the Scottish National Party (SNP), which focused on non-registration and non-payment. That’s how the opposition was started. Then, in November 1989 the All Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation was set up largely by the Militant Tendency as a national body which included many Anti-Poll Tax Unions ( read this hyperlinks for more context ).
The Fed argued for a mass campaign of non-payment of the poll tax. Eventually, up to 18 million people refused to pay the tax. This being the absolute key point here. The government wanted to introduce a classist tax to further erode any sense of communal reality, couple a nationwide ID registration service to it and everyone got together and said “up yours" This all boils down to unionization. Not necessarily in the sense that we know from our grandparents but getting together, finding a common voice and saying: no. For too long has the capitalist class through their respective governments not known genuine opposition. When everyone shows up, and more about showing up shortly, and says no, they government has no other option but do what we gave them power to do. Say no to their bosses and yes to their actual bosses, us. The coalition, again, key point here, was so vast in the UK in their opposition that there simply was no way to arrest or punish everyone and thus the government fell, Thatcher had to resign and the Poll Tax was defeated. In regards to showing up, the committee called a demonstration in London for 31 March 1990. Three days before the event, organisers realised the march would be larger than 60,000 (the capacity of Trafalgar Square) and asked permission from the MPS and the Department of the Environment to divert the march to Hyde Park. The request was denied. The first demonstrations organised by the Fed were the 200,000 strong demonstration in London, parts of which turned into the Poll Tax Riots, and a simultaneous 50,000 strong demonstration in Glasgow on 31 March 1990.
They were scenes to behold. I remember them vividly, despite only being a teenager at the time but they burned themselves into my consciousness and added with the strong union voice of my grandfather further cemented the reality that “we have the numbers, even if they have the guns”.
This is a lesson as to HOW we can face the continuing class war from above, the destruction of the world we exist on and in and the continuous disregard for peace by the capitalists. You have to get together. One of the greatest tools in face of the division caused and engineered by the ruling classes among us is the inability to build coalitions. Call it what you will, Identity Politics, posturing, ego - it really doesn’t matter. Do not for one second think that our enemy cares a rats ass if you consider yourself a Marxist, Communist, Socialist, Anarchist or whatever, a perceived and projected identity without action is entirely meaningless and the endless hypothetical divisions created by these only serve those who we oppose. Yes, discuss all the differences, find and create what you are comfortable with but in the face of the absolute horrors that we are facing, from the immediate energy price gouging to total global ecological destruction as a consequence of global warming the only solution is getting together. We know who they are, we know the damn problems, lets focus on ending those, winning, taking a deep breath and then doing it differently. How are you going to do this today? Find organisations in your neighbourhoods already offering infrastructure. If there are aren’t any, talk to your neighbours “hey, are you getting hit by this too? We should do something about it, let’s meet in my kitchen tomorrow. Bring Tony from next door, too”- and so on. You’d be surprised how easy and fast you can organize everyone behind a common idea and the idea being, “yeah, no more, fuck this.”, this is all the theory you need for action at this point.
To summarize, the essential lesson from the Poll Tax Riots is that we have the numbers and when we get together, they have nothing. In the immortal words of Marx, who died on this day in 1883:
“Workers of the world, unite!
You have nothing to lose but your chains.”
I wish you all a very good start to you week. Stay aware, stay angry, get together and collectively build the world you wish for everyone. Until then, I remain yours, without compromise,
V.