>What weapons do the poor have with which to fight back?<

A sad state of affairs if they, citizens of a former Empire, see themselves without recourse to anything less pathetic than sticks and stones, or molotovs and grenades. They will have given up the better part of their humanity if they feel so impoverished. Each of them has a natural, if not God-given right to resistance and revolution against an unjust government. Successful resistance wouldn't require mass violence - it needs only the inspired actions of persuasive people. Wasn't that the Great Message the world learned in the waxing and waning of the British Empire?