That Option No Longer Exists

There are many myths that the beneficiaries of neo-liberal capitalism like to peddle about the Thatcher years. The most frequent is that economic growth was much better under Thatcher and she enabled the UK to ‘catch up’ with other capitalist economies. However, it is time to look afresh at the 1970s. Lee Humphries writes.

It was not a grey decade of decline, defeat and power blackouts. Bursting with cultural experimentation, sexual liberation and industrial militancy, the 1970s saw the ruling elites of Britain challenged at every level, most especially by a Labour left, led by Tony Benn, which aimed to effect a ‘fundamental and irreversible shift in the balance of wealth and power in favour of working people’.

That Option No Longer Exists reveals a hidden history: how Benn and the left tried to reform British industry, to introduce democracy in the workplace and overturn the power of finance; and how Whitehall, the security services and the City fought back, paving the way for Thatcher to re-establish the rule of money and the markets.

Britain almost took a different path in 1974-76 to that of massive wealth inequality, the dominance of the City, and the slow death of the welfare state. This is the story of a struggle within government almost forgotten – and of a tragic turning point in British history.

Book reading of ‘That Option No Longer Exists’ with John Medhurst. 6pm Wednesday 14 March. Printed Matter Bookshop, 185 Queens Road, Hastings, TN34 1RG. Tickets £2.

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