Bollocks to the Poll Tax

Bollocks to the Poll Tax

This poster was everywhere during the Poll Tax Rebellion - in windows, walls and boldly emblazened on t-shirts. It contributed to a spirit of collective resolve to fight Thatcher's Poll Tax by any means necessary - including simple non-payment, demonstrations, public meetings, physically blocking bailiffs and sheriff officers, disrupting court procedings, and the wave of disorder that spread through towns and villages, culminating in the massive Poll Tax Riot in London on 31 March 1990.

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The 1980s and 90s in the UK were the time of Thatcher, mass unemployment, the Printers and Miners Strikes, and Poll Tax Rebellion.

Culturally, supported by a benefits system that allowed creative talent to bloom (and cheap transport), there was an explosion of music, alternative comedy, cooperatives and community theatre.

Campaigns around the Miners Strike and the opposition to the Poll Tax in particular drove a spirit of solidarity and class consciousness throughout communities across the country.

Concurrently, new technologies, for example the launch of the first AppleMac, with its 6 inch screen and Pagemaker software, enabled a new method of design in posters and campaigning posters burgeoned.

We have reproduced some of those posters - posters we saw on many peoples' walls at the time.