George Walford: NOOMP

Resistance to the Poll Tax has encouraged the less thoughtful reformers and revolutionaries to believe that at last the people are starting to move in their direction. As one journal, Counter Information, puts it:

The Poll Tax need not be a single issue campaign. We do not live in a vacuum. Anti-Poll Tax groups whether in the workplace or in a community are in a position to begin to deal with other issues which effect our lives, for example poor housing, racism, violence against women, low wages, and attacks on claimants. People are beginning to challenge the whole notion of debt enforcement. If we can organize against the Poll Tax then we can also organize against other forms of debt including rent and mortgages. (No. 27, June / July / August).

But most of the Poll Tax protesters are declaring an objection to having an expense imposed on them, a determination to hold what they have. This does not indicate any movement against any of the things listed by Counter Information, and even less does it suggest a movement towards socialism or anarchism. Each of them is saying, in effect: Not Out Of My Pocket. That is a perfectly orthodox capitalistic response.

from Ideological Commentary 46, July 1990.