Britain's Winter of Discontent (1978-79)

[BillyJack]

I was only vaguely aware of this happening. Very fascinating reading thus far, seems like there were some unintended consequences as well, but I'm still reading...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7598647.stm

[BillyJack]

1. This is very important, imo

Those who ignore history are bound to repeat it!

...and so we go round-and-round inside the toilet bowl it seems.

In my "very brief" review of this time, I'm coming 'away' with:

Britain's "Winter of Discontent" brought in Margaret Thather and RONALD REAGAN (and hence everything that we despise NOW ~ about union-busting, etc.). It seems like to me that if we are not VERY VERY CAREFUL right now, we might just be "playing into the corporate hands". Admittedly, I don't understand enough about what happened during the 'Winter of Discontent' and the ramifications of it all.....but it sure makes me say, "whoa".....I DON'T want to end up with another Reagan/Thatcher who will "fix" our problems, and long-term regret that.

People smarter than I, which would be most DU'ers, please chime in here.

[drm604]

2. We already have our current day Reagans and Thatchers.

Scott Walker, for example.

I'm not sure I see your point. Are you saying that unions are going too far?

Should we just roll over and give in to the union busters?

[LeftishBrit]

3. I'm British and just old enough to remember the Winter of Discontent...

and I think that it's not very similar to anything going on in the USA or Britain now. At that time, strikes were still mainly JUST for higher pay (important enough in itself, of course!), rather than also for the very survival of jobs and services. The government was Labour. And, though the problem has been greatly exaggerated by the demonizers of the unions, there is a kernel of truth in the view that at the time, people who were in less powerful unions were disadvantaged with respect to those in more powerful unions. Some reform was needed. But reform, not destruction which is what happened.

What's going on now is more akin to 1983-1984 in this country than the Winter of Discontent. That was when Thatcher and her cohort Sir Ian Macgregor destroyed the mining industry, who fought back but were ultimately defeated - as was British industry in general, very tragically for the people concerned and for our country.

Why did Thatcher win the war on the miners? Several reasons, and nothing to do with unions or strikes being in themselves counterproductive. (1) Much of the press, especially the Murdoch press, were *extremely* pro-Thatcher and anti-union, and people here then were even less clued in to the propaganda than they are nowadays. (2) The miners' leader of the time, Arthur Scargill, was not ultimately as effective as he could have been, and made a number of wrong moves. (3) There was less co-ordination and unity between different groups than there should have been; and the issue could be portrayed as concerning *only* the mining industry (quite bad enough) rather than British industry and public services as a whole. I think that now there is more recognition, at least in Britain, that 'we are all in this together', and not quite in the sense that David Cameron meant!

[Hannah Bell]

4. yeah, that would be my take too. uk winter more closely parallels

the reagan epoch, where a lot of the population was apathetic or anti-union & since even private sector unions still seemed pretty powerful, were willing to buy into the "greedy unions are the problem" line.

i think now with less than 7% private unionization, two years of 9% unemployment after a near-meltdown due to corruption in the financial sector, the loss of housing wealth, rising debt, rising prices, and no end in sight - with austerity programs and blatant attacks on social problems & public sector workers -- people are less likely to believe it's all about some greedy unions.

also, this crisis is clearly world-wide. unions don't create global financial crises. every country is experiencing some kind of financial crisis.

i think the mood is more similar to the 30s than the 70s.