Alex Miller
In a rally called by the Scottish Socialist Party, 2000 people marched against the council tax in Glasgow on April 24. The SSP is campaigning to have the current system of local taxation replaced by a Scottish Service Tax (SST), based on income, and weighted heavily against the rich.
Ever since the British Conservative Party introduced it in the early 1990s, the council tax has been highly unpopular: BBC News Online reported on February 15 that a recent opinion poll found that almost 80% of Scots polled were in favour of axing the tax.
The April 25 Sunday Mail quoted pensioner Elsie Black, 71, as saying at the march: "It is appalling that a large chunk of what little income I have has to be spent on such an unfair tax."
Under the SSP's alternative SST, pensioners like Black and all those with annual incomes of less than £10,000 would automatically be exempt from the tax. The Sunday Mail also reported protester John Moffat, as adding: "Why should I be paying the same amount as Brian Souter, who has millions in the bank?". Souter is chief executive of Stagecoach, and one of Scotland's most wealthy men. The April 15 Scottish Socialist Voice reported that with an annual income of £3.24 million, Souter's annual council tax bill is a mere £2370. Under the SST, his annual bill would be £641,000.
BBC News Online also reported on April 24 that the Scottish Greens are strongly supporting the campaign against the council tax. SSP parliamentarian Tommy Sheridan, who led the march, commented on the SSP website on April 25: "The Axe The Council Tax demonstration has been a marvellous success. Two-thousand people from across the political spectrum have shown that the Council Tax is hated the length and breadth of Scotland. Today in Glasgow, members of the SSP, the Scottish Nationalist Party and the Greens joined forces with trade unions, pensioners groups and the general public to demand an end to the unfair Council Tax."
Scotland on Sunday quoted from Sheridan's address to the rally: "It is a tax which hammers the pensioners, the ordinary worker and pampers the rich and the wealthy. Well, it is now time for the redistribution of wealth. That means we tax the wealthy more and the ordinary worker and pensioner less."
From Green Left Weekly, May 5, 2004.
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