My MA research into the Anti-Poll Tax Campaign of the early 1990s explores the social movement against the poll tax rather than the high politics of Thatcherism that lay behind the tax. It examines the extent to which it was a movement of people who, as the slogan of the time put it, 'can't pay' and those who 'won't pay'. In doing so it attempts to situate the campaign in a wider history of political activism whilst also acknowledging that as a single-issue campaign some participants may have had no political motives for non-payment, only economic ones. I intend to focus on membership and tactics used, and hope to discover more by interviewing participants.
My PhD will locate this action within a wider history of political activism in 1980s and 1990s Britain, a time when it is assumed that citizens became more apathetic. This research will also explore the civil disturbances around race in the in the 1980s, the protests against Clause 28, environmental movements of the 1990s, Reclaim the Streets, Jubilee 2000, and the 2003 anti-Iraq War protests. Using these movements as case studies I will investigate changes in activism, specifically use of media, direct action, local social networking and institutional national networking, and will develop an analytical framework for activism in a time of supposed apathy.
My PhD will locate this action within a wider history of political activism in 1980s and 1990s Britain, a time when it is assumed that citizens became more apathetic. This research will also explore the civil disturbances around race in the in the 1980s, the protests against Clause 28, environmental movements of the 1990s, Reclaim the Streets, Jubilee 2000, and the 2003 anti-Iraq War protests. Using these movements as case studies I will investigate changes in activism, specifically use of media, direct action, local social networking and institutional national networking, and will develop an analytical framework for activism in a time of supposed apathy.
