Thatcher's death leaves Cameron looking second-rate

In their desperation to elevate Margaret Thatcher into a figure who will live on in the hearts of the British people for all time, the Tories are playing with fire. A latent hatred of her policies has re-emerged and the state she regularly deployed is back in action against opponents.

Activists planning demonstrations over the weekend and next Wednesday, the day of Thatcher’s military-style funeral, fear pre-emptive arrests by Scotland Yard. Police have stepped up surveillance and are monitoring social network sites for information.

According to reports, the National Public Order Intelligence Unit, part of Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism structure is working overtime. The NPOIU’s network of police spies and informants in a campaign near you is doing its stuff too.

Val Swain, director of police monitoring group Netpol, said: "This form of deterrent policing is insidious and divisive. It undermines the fundamental human rights of freedom of expression and assembly. If fear of the police is stopping people from even discussing political protest and dissent in a free and open manner, that is a matter of serious concern."

Pre-emptive arrests are, of course, not new. In London, activists were picked up in advance of the 2011 royal wedding. During Thatcher’s regime, miners on their way to picket lines during the 1984-5 strike for jobs were routinely arrested on the most spurious grounds to prevent them reaching their destination. Road blocks were also deployed to block their movement.

The Tory press is also in a flap about the surge in popularity of the 1930s’ song Ding Dong the Witch is Dead, which became an anti-Thatcher anthem. So many people have bought it since Thatcher’s death that it has risen close to the top of the charts. For the Daily Telegaph, the most shocking consequence is that the BBC will play it when the Official Chart Show airs on Sunday. The Torygraph quotes “friends of Thatcher” as saying this would amount to a “serious dereliction of duty” by the BBC.

And that’s what it is all about. Duty. Duty to the state. Duty to the government. Duty to the establishment. Kow-tow. Obey the rules as laid down by others. The country is in a crisis. So do your bit for the nation. Join the army and fight without ever knowing exactly what you are fighting for.

That’s what the Thatcher period was like. She prosecuted class war through the state and while she displayed terrier-like leadership, no such quality was displayed in the ranks of most trade union leaders and certainly none at the top of the Labour Party. And that salient fact remains true to this day, except that now it also applies to the Tory Party too.

Cameron praises Thatcher largely to try and save his own skin as his shambolic “leadership” is questioned by diehard right-wingers. The recall of Parliament so MPs could praise Thatcher was his plan. But Speaker Bercow was against the unnecessary expense, especially as Parliament was due to return next week anyway. Cameron had to rely on Labour leader Ed Miliband’s support before Bercow acceded. Most Labour MPs stayed away, however, leaving Miliband looking a bit stupid.

It is fitting that Thatcher’s funeral procession will be dominated by the military. She was enthusiastic about state violence, counting Chile dictator Augusto Pinochet among her friends. She famously took the salute after British troops returned from her Malvinas/Falklands adventure, assuming the role of the Queen. Buckingham Palace was not amused then and, apparently, is not wild about the funeral plans either.

The political elites are thrashing around in the wake of Thatcher’s death against a background of deep loathing for traditional politics, a deteriorating economy and the build-up of a range of financial bubbles. They don’t have a Thatcher figure to hand who can create a dictatorial regime around a personality.

With right-wing commentators questioning the usefulness of representative democracy at the present time, one can only surmise what scenario plans are being discussed in top echelons of the state in the event of social upheaval combining with weak government.

Paul Feldman

Communications editor 

Chile joins year of 'global indignation'

The political temperature continues to rise in Chile since last week’s killing of 16-year-old high school student Manuel Gutiérrez in the capital Santiago.

The country, which is the world’s major producer of copper, has been viewed as a rock for global capitalism in an unstable South America. But now it is seeing – horror of horrors for its right-wing rulers – a united workers and student movement which has the support of the majority of Chilean citizens.

Interior minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter has been forced to announce that the bullets that killed Gutiérrez matched those in a 9mm UZ submachine gun belonging to police officer Miguel Millacura. Hinzpeter has been compelled to ask for the resignation of deputy chief of the Metropolitan Zone Sergio Gajardo.

The discrediting of the police – and the continuing 37-day hunger strike by a high school student - will intensify the political and social crisis facing President Sebastian Pinera.

Over the last three months, massive student protests for an egalitarian education system followed close on the heels of the longest-ever strike at Collahuasi, the world’s third largest copper mine. In July, miners struck at the state-owned Codelco mine, followed by workers at the world’s biggest copper mine, Escondida.

An estimated 70-80% of Chileans support the student movement with parents and grandparents joining their children in massive street protests. Last week, up to half a million people took part in strikes and demonstrations around the country as the Workers United Center of Chile joined in with a 48-hour strike. Over a thousand arrests were made as the state struck back.

Although the country’s booming economy is growing at 6.8%, it also has a 15% poverty rate and the widest gap between rich and pour in the region. Chile ranks as the world’s 16th most-unequal country, along with El Salvador and Panama.

Its workers know that the wealth they generate is being creamed off by a tiny elite. And, with an average debt of $45,000 which is around 174% of a student’s annual salary upon graduation, no wonder there is anger amongst young people.

Chilean students are part of a global “indignation” movement that is seeing protests from Honduras, where a 17-year-old Nahum Guerra was shot on August 22 during protests for public education, to Venezuela and the Dominican Republic and other mass movements in Europe, North Africa, Middle East and India.

Most important of all, just as in Spain and Greece, an entire generation of students and workers feel disenfranchised as they do not see themselves represented by established political parties. The “leftist” Concertación bloc, which took over after the military dictatorship, is scoring only 17% in the polls, even lower than Pinera’s 26%.

The CUT union leadership is discredited by its close relationship with the official parties as is the Chilean Communist Party (CCP). And whilst students are fighting against government strategies for private profit-driven education, the CCP is running a profit-oriented university in the country’s capital!

The rise of local and territorial people’s assemblies amongst students and around the country is opening up new avenues for a mass movement to devise strategies to go beyond capitalism. Helped by social networking, Chilean students are linking up directly with the real democracy movement (DRY and 15M) in Spain and elsewhere.

The rise of Chile’s mass worker-student movement is proof, if proof is needed, that 2011 is indeed the year of “global indignation”. Understanding the experience of how democratically-elected socialist president Salvador Allende was overthrown by Pinochet’s military junta in 1973 is vital. This is the spectre that haunts not only Chile every mass people’s movement.

The development of people’s assemblies in Chile and elsewhere shows the urgent need to go beyond resistance - and the mistaken belief that the existing state can be reformed - to a strategy for wresting economic and political power away from those who hold it.

Corinna Lotz

A World to Win secretary