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The poll tax struggle in Britain: a reply to Hoggett and Burns, CSP 33

The editorial committee of CSP should be congratulated for recognising the importance of the poll tax, and the immense struggle it has produced, for both social theory and socialist politics. This was emphasised once again by the space given to Paul Hoggett and Danny Bums (CSP 33, 1991) to respond to our article on the struggle against the poll tax in Scotland, England and Wales (Lavalette and Mooney, 1990). However, while we welcome Hoggett and Burns’s contribution to the debate, we feel that their arguments do little to advance the campaign and fail to offer a realistic political strategy for ongoing and future struggles in Britain. In this discussion we start by responding to some of their claims. We then proceed to elaborate on our previous argument that it is the continuing hold of ’new realism’ on the Labour and Trade Union movement that constitutes the major obstacle to actively defeating the poll tax and future Tory attacks on employment, welfare and general living conditions.