Brighton anti-fascists smash the fash

Check through the link for photo report from the day

Margaret Thatcher death party - Trafalgar Square, London, 13 April 2013

Repost - information only

An Analysis...
The Guardian live stream confirms 3,000 attended last night's "official" Thatcher death party in London's Trafalgar Square - which, for those critics who claim this event was "insensitive", to put the moral issues in perspective, is only slightly more people than were murdered by Thatcher's great friend, the monetarist pioneer General Pinochet, and alot less than died of superbug infections after the Tories privatised the cleaning of NHS hospitals! All in all a good turn-out for an event that was conceived 20 years ago by an activist group that doesn't exist any more, and all the more impressive for people making the effort at short notice and in the pouring rain.

At present the BBC and Daily Mail etc are wildly under-estimating attendances and seem to be down-playing the level of confrontation, of anger and of disruption, mindful, no doubt, especially in The Daily Blackshirt's case, of how their hysterical opposition to anti-Thatcher protests helped draw attention to articulate and well-informed criticism of Thatcher's poisonous legacy, thereby seriously damaging the carefully-manufactured spectacle of adulation, which the far-right media hoped they'd be able to manufacture and to retrofit on history (not to mention, again in The Daily Mail's case, helping draw attention to their own track-record of outright Fascism). As the Met Police themselves confirmed on TV, (quoting almost verbatim) the police won't be able to search everyone at Thatcher's funeral, and the "reputational damage" caused by even one protestor with a tin of paint or box of eggs will be massive, but in some senses the metaphorical can of paint has already been thrown.

Despite the fact that most critics of Thatcherism endured and lived through the bullshit from day one, a few (notably BBC) reporters grasp at straws, trying to imply it's somehow odd that younger critics of Thatcherism didn't live through Thatcher's personal reign. The implication that younger people aren't entitled to an opinion about events they're still living with, amounts to an attempt to discourage young people from learning about history (which is, of course, exactly what the right-wing would prefer young people do). However it's now very clear that, as a result of the monetarist politics pursued in both Thatcher's UK and Reagan's USA, de-regulation of the financial sectors and attacks on unionised industry placed employees, taxpayers and ultimately entire economies at the mercy of financial crooks, but Thatcher's legacy also lives on in employment practices that allow for instance the exploitation of interns. Once radicals fought to secure workers a decent living wage, now, as a direct medium-term outcome of Thatcher's attacks on organised labour, many young workers struggle for the right to earn ANY wage! In many cases the same corporations that cheat on taxes are actively subsidised by the ordinary parents who support those interns, and that same legacy also damages the lives of salaried employees, as, day-in-day-out, cowed and hen-pecked staff acquiesce to ever-increasing pressure to neglect their families and work late into yet another evening...

Meanwhile the right-wing media are trying to airbrush history, dishonestly re-packaging a Prime Minister who bitterly opposed the Anti-Apartheid movement, as someone who somehow deserves credit for helping bring down Apartheid.

We care about history because we care about posterity... Keep up the pressure... Fight Back!

William Godwin
link

On the death of Thatcher

A repost Original posted by Red Youth on April 8, 2013 Thatcher 1925-2013 – no friend of the youth Red Youth sheds no tears at the death of Margaret Thatcher today. Thatcher caused immense harm to British youth throughout the 1980′s, enacting a number of reactionary Employment Acts which helped destroy job security for young people and laid the basis for the reactionary policies pursued by John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown in subsequent years. In 2013 the number of young people out of work, with no opportunity to study or build a future is a direct result of the anti-working class agenda she forced upon the British people with the aid of a servile trade union movement which was firmly tied to social democracy and which betrayed the working class by its refusal to stand with Arthur Scargill and the National Union of Mineworkers during their heroic stand 1984/5. The job today, as it was then, is to break the link between social democracy and the workers movement, to forge a strong and disciplined Communist Party capable of leading the working class out of the abyss and towards a bright socialist future. We publish below one of the finest and most dignified statements made today, that of comrade Gerry Adams: “Margaret Thatcher did great hurt to the Irish and British people during her time as British Prime Minister. Working class communities were devastated in Britain because of her policies. Her role in international affairs was equally belligerent whether in support of the Chilean dictator Pinochet, her opposition to sanctions against apartheid South Africa; and her support for the Khmer Rouge. Here in Ireland her espousal of old draconian militaristic policies prolonged the war and caused great suffering. She embraced censorship, collusion and the killing of citizens by covert operations, including the targeting of solicitors like Pat Finucane, alongside more open military operations and refused to recognise the rights of citizens to vote for parties of their choice. Her failed efforts to criminalise the republican struggle and the political prisoners is part of her legacy. It should be noted that in complete contradiction of her public posturing, she authorised a back channel of communications with the Sinn Féin leadership but failed to act on the logic of this. Unfortunately she was faced with weak Irish governments who failed to oppose her securocrat agenda or to enlist international support in defence of citizens in the north. Margaret Thatcher will be especially remembered for her shameful role during the epic hunger strikes of 1980 and ’81. Her Irish policy failed miserably.” Link to original post

Margaret Thatcher - The woman who tore Britain apart

a repost Monday 08 April 2013 by Peter Lazenby and Roger Bagley Margaret Thatcher, the most hated British prime minister of the 20th century, died today. Victims of her vicious 1980s onslaught against the working class refused to show any sorrow over the final demise of the frail 87-year-old after a stroke. Spontaneous exultation broke out across Britain as news of her death spread like wildfire. The strongest waves of satisfaction were in former mining and industrial communities ravaged by Thatcher, and among labour movement activists throughout the land. Following vocal protests, No 10 shelved plans for a state funeral, announcing that she will receive a ceremonial funeral at St Paul's Cathedral. Thatcher blighted Britain during her ruthless rule from 1979 to 1990. She once regarded herself as the indestructible goddess of rapacious capitalism, often deploying the royal "We" during her arrogant diatribes. Overseas she was a friend to tyranny who attacked Nelson Mandela and the ANC as terrorists but praised mass-murdering Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet for "bringing democracy to Chile." Communist Party general secretary Robert Griffiths said: "The Thatcher governments inflicted enormous damage on the fabric of British society. "Many working-class communities were torn apart by mass unemployment, poverty, drugs and alcohol abuse as the result of Tory policies. "She and her regime waged war against organised labour at home, privatised valuable utilities, locked Britain into the European Union and revived the readiness to engage in imperialist wars abroad." Thatcher once branded coalminers striking for their livelihood the real "enemy within" - but Mr Griffiths said she was the "enemy within who faithfully represented the interests of financial big business. "She leaves a challenge to the labour movement to rebuild productive industry, restore social justice and regain trade union and other democratic rights." Spontaneous celebrations took place in Yorkshire, where 50 mining communities were destroyed by Thatcher and her allies after the strike. Mick Appleyard was a miner and elected National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) official at Sharlston, near Wakefield, a typical Yorkshire mining village whose economy was totally dependent on the pit - and which was wrecked by its closure after the historic 1984-5 strike. "She killed my village," he said. "Sharlston is now a low-wage, menial wage economy, for those who are lucky enough to find jobs. "Our young people are on the streets. There's nothing for them. They turn to drugs and drink because there's nothing else." And NUM general secretary Chris Kitchen, who was a young miner during the strike, said: "She deserves no respect from the NUM, or any of the working people she put on the dole. "It's a shame her policies have not died with her - the ones Cameron is continuing. "She will never be forgiven for the disaster she inflicted on the mining industry, on our communities, and on the miners." Email networks were swamped with the announcement of celebrations, including events in central Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester. Morning Star online