Empire Socialism Part 13

2020 vision — the broader picture

The Blair/Clinton and friends project represented the final flowering of the old post war consensus, but of course Thatcher and Regan had already torn up the old social contract it was built on. It was doomed as a vehicle for carrying it forward, but that was not its purpose. The creepy cabal of war mongers and delusional free market ideologues who wanted to pretend history was over and capitalism victorious needed a quiet period to consolidate the changes they had made and keep the rump of the working class union movement quiet while they did so. This wasn’t conscious, but I remember that in the UK there was definitely a feeling of exhaustion towards the end of the Thatcher era, and the credit boom was making it look like we needed a more optimistic, forward-looking government.

The defeat of the unions had been spun into a great victory for the country as a whole, and indeed the ultimate justification for New Labour. If I talk to others who were around in the 70’s and 80’s they mumble about the strikes in the coal and rail industries, and the three day week that meant we had to get by on candles occasionally before Thatcher came in and sorted the unions out. Nobody starved, nobody died, and the strikers were extremely careful not to compromise hospitals and other emergency services. These workers were defending their jobs and the services they provided, they stretched their industrial muscles, they were defending the needs of their members and the working class in general. The delusion…