... in the NEW WORKER
MAGISTRATES in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, have jailed a 39-year-old widow who was unable to pay a poll tax bill of £95.
There was no question of non-payment for political reasons – she offered to pay at £2-a-week from her weekly income of £57.
Demonstrations have taken place outside Holloway and Pentonville prisons in London, where non-payers have recently been jailed.
Croydon Against the Poll Tax has launched a new petition to save local democracy and restore the rights of communities and councillors.
“We found the collection of signatures much slower than when we started four years ago” campaigner Queenie Knight told the New Worker.
“Although councillors and town hall officials know the inroads on local democracy it has made no impact on the general public.”
“This is not surprising as the Government consultation does not cover the role of local government so the media concentrates on the council tax. “
*****************
TANKS have returned to the centre of Algiers in a new government crack down on the opposition Islamic Salvation Front.
In confrontations with demonstrators at least two youths were killed by police gunfire.
Tension had arisen after the Islamic leader, Abbasi Madani, had threatened a holy war against the FLN government, which has postponed general elections and imposed a state of emergency for four months.
Abbasi Madani and his deputy, Ali Belhadj, have now been arrested and charged with inciting rebellion and the police have seized their Party’s headquarters.
The emergency was imposed at the beginning of June after bloody clashes with Islamic protestors, demonstrating against what they claimed was FLN manipulation of electoral rules.
The appointment of a caretaker government to supervise the deferred elections, under Sid Ahmed Ghozali, had led to a brief respite in the violence and a withdrawal of the army from Islamic Front strongholds in the capital.
