tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post6014339253584641681..comments2024-03-27T09:14:27.496+00:00Comments on All That Is Solid ...: Review - The Thatcherite OffensivePhilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-58720147063691539842019-03-11T08:22:50.803+00:002019-03-11T08:22:50.803+00:00Inflation created an atmosphere of crisis and prov...Inflation created an atmosphere of crisis and provoked sectional wages militancy, which got results and gave the impression of a tottering capitalist system and an insurgent labour movement. It also made it very easy for those who claimed that the wages militancy <i>caused</i> the inflation. The Left had no answer to inflation but further wages militancy. Inflation and strikes imposed inconvenience and even hardship on many who weren't in strong unions. This combination resulted in a Left (from Broad Left to Far Left) over-confident to the point of complacency and a Right boiling with fury, which they duly tipped over our heads after 1979. Kenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03493440163559858462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-25500840286324088972019-02-10T22:36:11.976+00:002019-02-10T22:36:11.976+00:00The Ridley Group was known about - its recommendat...The Ridley Group was known about - its recommendations were leaked to and published by the Economist in 1978. Why weren't they taken seriously, and why weren't the arguments of the likes of Stuart Hall taken on board by the movement when he had Thatcherism all figured out from the beginning? Part leadership failure, part anti-intellectual culture of the labour movement, part sectionalism, part constitutionalism would be my four guesses.Philhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-76518348339897648952019-02-10T16:33:56.131+00:002019-02-10T16:33:56.131+00:00I wonder, if the unions had known about these secr...I wonder, if the unions had known about these secret working groups, or even thought about the possibility of their existance, would the outcome have been different? Where would Thatcher and co. have got the idea? Perhaps they picked it up at one of the international shindigs for power bloc folk.<br /><br />Britain could never adopt Weat Germany's structured capitalism since it would require a well trained engineering work force with secure employment, something the English class system could never stomach whatever the economic cost.Johny Conspiranoid.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-77754360423881289262019-02-08T20:48:58.888+00:002019-02-08T20:48:58.888+00:00While true, there were opportunities here in Brita...While true, there were opportunities here in Britain - both of which were during the miners' strike. One, the possibility of secondary action by other workers and how Thatcher moved quickly to buy off the dockers (there's also been a lively more-heat-than-light debate on and off over the years about Liverpool and other councils linking up with the miners - I don't have an opinion on that one). And the NACODs dispute which would have shut all the mines down but were, again, bought off.<br /><br />Two opportunities that were there, but couldn't be capitalised on not because of naff leadership but thanks to to that old disease of trade unionism: sectionalism.Philhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-22198111977362501562019-02-08T10:55:49.869+00:002019-02-08T10:55:49.869+00:00I don’t think that relying on Galtieri not to cock...I don’t think that relying on Galtieri not to cock up the war amounts to a strategy.Kennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-17736073860452437242019-02-07T22:52:55.131+00:002019-02-07T22:52:55.131+00:00@Ken: It was astonishingly fragile at the point of...@Ken: It was astonishingly fragile at the point of the Falklands War, with high inflation, high unemployment, and cratering political support. It wasn’t inevitable that the Task Force would win, even with tacit American support. If the weather had been worse in the South Atlantic, and the toops had failed to retake the islands, or a few of the Argentinian exocets had been a bit luckier, her position would have been untenable, I think. Andrewnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-59511777502054221852019-02-06T17:12:44.857+00:002019-02-06T17:12:44.857+00:00“Thatcherism was planned, but it didn't always...“Thatcherism was planned, but it didn't always go according to plan and, indeed, was vulnerable and could have been defeated.”<br />At what point or points could this have occurred? A bit of a throwaway remark, or, are you leaving this for the book?<br />Kennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-41579162864372200592019-02-06T10:09:34.618+00:002019-02-06T10:09:34.618+00:00Poulantza is best known for contesting a mechanica...Poulantza is best known for contesting a mechanical (Marxist?) theory of the state: that its existence was functional in sustaining and replicating ruling class interests. Instead, he argued, the state was far more autonomous and remote from the day-to-day functioning of private enterprise and profit making. However, he also argued that the outcome of state power was always in the interests of capital. <br /><br />What is interesting about the post-war period of 'welfare capitalism' was how the state began to function less instrumentally in favour of short term profit and took on a corporatist role. (The deal was, that long term stability could be maintained but at the expense of smaller profits but this was contingent on restricting the urge of trade unions to take industrial action). The wheels were already coming off this deal by the late 1960s but Thatcher completely smashed it up in the 1980s. It was now legitimate to roll-back the corporitist instincts of state and once again gave licence to making the 'fast buck'. This was, as you say above, an ideological shift and part of a planned assault on trade union power. It was also a shift forwards the 'financialisation' of capitalism. <br /><br />However, what she hadn't anticipated was how paper-thin trade union power really was. Her first contest was with the steel workers of Consett. Their muted attempts to resist the closure of the plant revealed not only an undercurrent of passivity by workers and their community but also how divided the unions were and how unprepared they were for battle. That first victory was very important. It gave them the confidence to speed up their ideological crusade. We know the rest......Dialectician1noreply@blogger.com