AGENT OF CHANGE

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AGENT OF CHANGE

Notes, thoughts and random comments from music producer, activist and blogger Carlos Martinez (Agent of Change).

http://www.beatknowledge.org/
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  • Not shedding any tears, but why is Margaret Thatcher the most hated of all British Prime Ministers?

    Thatcher died? OK. I mean, heck, she was evil and I’m not shedding any tears, but to be honest I think the near-universal obsession with her is slightly misplaced. Yes, she led the attack on the working class in Britain and fiercely represented British imperialist interests abroad. That was her job. That is the job of any Prime Minister of this country. Where are the great and wonderful British PMs that we should hold up as alternatives? Churchill? He was a vicious racist and murderous colonialist. Blair? The wars he led in Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia were among the most significant attacks on the world’s oppressed masses in modern history. How about Earl Clement Attlee, that great hero of the left who partnered with the US to bring about the deaths of three million Koreans?

    On a numbers basis, you could argue that by comparison, Thatcher was relatively peaceful! Yes, she brought in privatisation and liberalisation; she attacked the trade unions; she introduced racist anti-immigration policies; she supported torture and murder in Ireland; she went to war to protect Britain’s obscure ownership of Las Malvinas (‘The Falklands’); she supported the apartheid regime in South Africa; she was a close friend of the murderer Pinochet; she attacked the welfare state; and she took our milk away. In short, she was an enemy of the people. But I honestly believe that the reasons she’s hated so much more than any other British PM are:

    1) She happened to be a Tory Prime Minister at a time when Labour were at least making an effort to pretend that they were on the side of the workers, and therefore the unions and the mainstream left made a big noise about everything she ever did;

    2) People care more about the welfare state in Britain than they do about the murder of millions of innocent civilians abroad. Which, I would argue, is largely a result of having internalised the prevailing racist empire ideology.

    Tagged: margaret thatcher britain british empire welfare state colonialism imperialism labour

    Posted on April 8, 2013 with 10 notes

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