Today in Labor History May 30, 1381: Tax collector John Bampton sparked the Peasants’ Revolt in Brentwood, Essex. The mass uprising, also known as Wat Tyler’s Rebellion, or the Great Rising, began because of attempts to collect a poll tax. However, tensions were already high because of the economic misery and hunger caused by the Black Death pandemic of the 1340s, and the Hundred Years’ War. During the uprising, rebels burned public records and freed prisoners. King Richard II, 14 years old, hid in the Tower of London. Rebels entered the Tower and killed the Lord Chancellor and the Lord High Treasurer, but not the king. It took nearly six months for the authorities to suppress the Peasants’ Revolt. They slaughtered over 1,400 rebels. Roughly 600 years later, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher tried again to impose a poll tax on Britain’s working class. It also sparked a revolt which brought an end both to the tax and Thatcher’s regime.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #peasant #revolt #rebellion #PollTax #thatcher #WatTyler #pandemic #plague #massacre #execution

Today in Labor History March 31, 1990: 200,000 people protested against the new Poll Tax in London. The new tax shifted the burden from the somewhat progressive tax based on property values, to an entirely regressive

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #PollTax #london

Moved house 3 times to avoid #PollTax . Never paid it. Ma wee bit in the fight for right.

Anarchists on anti-Poll Tax rally.
Edinburgh, 1980s.

#PollTax #ToryRule #Edinburgh #FotoMontag

Ian Bone and the people’s republic of Hackney
Rob Ray talks to Ian Bone of Class War and Anarchy in the UK fame about his experiences of Hackney during the anti-Poll Tax campaign.
https://freedomnews.org.uk/2023/01/29/ian-bone-and-the-peoples-republic-of-hackney/
#1990s #AnarchistHistory #Hackney #IanBone #London #PollTax

Fuel to the fire?
Will the energy crisis spark a wider revolt?

The craft of being in power is delicate one. To paraphrase P.T Barnum, you can piss off some of the people all of the time, you can piss off all of the people some of the time, but you can't piss off all of the people all of the time. Choose your victims carefully and most will shrug, make your injustice affect
https://freedomnews.org.uk/2022/02/05/fuel-to-the-fire/
#energy #Energycrisis #Energypricehike #PollTax #ToryParty

Fuel to the fire?
Will the energy crisis spark a wider revolt?

The craft of being in power is delicate one. To paraphrase P.T Barnum, you can piss off some of the people all of the time, you can piss off all of the people some of the time, but you can't piss off all of the people all of the time. Choose your victims carefully and most will shrug, make your injustice affect too many and t
https://freedomnews.org.uk/2022/02/05/fuel-to-the-fire/
#energy #Energypricehike #PollTax #ToryParty

@pastelpunkbandit A generation of us in the uk grew up to know Maggie and Thatcherism for destroying the working class, financialising the state, bringing in some horrible laws and calling us, the truck and bus dwelling alternatives of the day ‘medieval brigands’ we partied in Trafalgar Square the weekend after she died as we always said we would. Never has a politician been so hated. #PollTax #BattleofTheBeanfield #FuckTheTories