Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/828/19463
From The Socialist newspaper, 8 October 2014
Thatcher's enemies within
The revelations about Thatcher's speech written for Tory Conference 1984 but abandoned after the IRA Brighton bombing confirm her demented view of the world. She characterised anybody who stood up to her manic policies of privatisation and attacks on workers' living standards as "the enemy within". Significantly she named the striking miners' leaders and Liverpool's socialist council, elected in 1983.
Her crazed 'free market' policies ultimately resulted in the capitalist economic meltdown of 2008 for which millions of workers are currently picking up the tab.
Appallingly, the bunch of mendacious Bullingdon bullies currently putting social provision to the sword are even more extreme than her in their unrelenting attacks on workers, while enriching their already obscenely wealthy friends.
I'm sure she would have been delighted with the current Liverpool Labour-run council in carrying through the highest level of cuts in the city's history, as well as employing people on the loathed zero-hour contracts.
The important lesson is: the ruling class don't reward you for grovelling compliance; they always return for more cuts. That lesson is completely lost on Liverpool's Mayor Anderson and his council.
Tony Mulhearn
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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
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In The Socialist 8 October 2014:
Socialist Party news and analysis
We need ideas to change the world
UK - A tax haven for the super-rich
International socialist news and analysis
South Africa: "A workers' party must emerge"
Middle East: Repel IS and Western imperialism
Coordinated attacks on Hong Kong movement
Ebola crisis: Consequence of profit before health
Stop corporate plunder of Bangladesh energy
Socialist Party workplace news
Public sector: why we have to strike
RMT tube workers join October action
Teachers: Pay rise? What pay rise?
Sheffield: Green workers red with anger
M25 maintenance workers protest
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Training tomorrow's trade union militants
Finance to fight for the future
School students organise disabled rights meeting
Ice cream, you scream, we all scream for £10 now!
Readers' comments
Exhaustion from buzzer to buzzer
Bedroom Tax: Still making tenants' lives hell
Scotland: Workers need a new mass party
Correction: Labour's private health links are worse!
Obituary
Andrew Price: Fighter, teacher, party campaigner
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