How the Iron Lady was reduced to iron filings

Thatcher resignation 25 years on

How the Iron Lady was reduced to iron filings

Steve Score, anti-poll tax campaigner and East Midlands Socialist Party secretary

Margaret Thatcher, the so called ‘Iron Lady’, resigned as Tory prime minister 25 years ago. She had been in power for eleven years, winning three general elections, and yet was forced out before her term was over.

She had been credited as having defeated the less hardline Tory ‘wets’, the Argentinian dictatorship in the Falklands war, and the trade unions – particular their most militant wing, the miners. She massively accelerated the advance of right-wing ‘neo-liberal’ economics – privatising and cutting public services – which has been followed by every stripe of government since.

She was noted for determined and ruthless pursuit of her right-wing capitalist goals famously declaring: “U-turn if you want to. This lady is not for turning!”

So how did such a seemingly strong leader get defeated? Official histories have often put it down to splits inside the Tory Party over Europe.

But the key reason was actually the campaign against her ‘flagship policy’ the poll tax. Mass resistance to this iniquitous tax was led by the Socialist Party’s forerunner, Militant.

Her resignation on 22 November 1990 and replacement by John Major as the new Tory leader was followed four months later by the announcement that the poll tax was to be scrapped. There is no doubt that policy on Europe was a cause of significant division within the Tory Party, as it still is today.

Europe

On 13 November Deputy Prime Minister Geoffrey Howe resigned in a row over European policy, publicly criticising Thatcher. This gave Michael Heseltine, who had been forced out of her cabinet some time before, the confidence to stand against her for the Tory Party leadership.

Although Heseltine’s split was over a Europe related issue, he made scrapping the poll tax part of his campaign.

This wasn’t out of concern for the millions of working class people unable to pay it and threatened with court, bailiffs and ultimately jailing.

He knew it had become symbolic of everything people hated about Thatcher and could threaten the Tories’ chances of winning future elections.

Although she won the support of the majority of Tory MPs, it wasn’t enough to prevent a second round of voting. Their fears of losing their seats at the next general election came to the surface and Thatcher was not confident of winning.

She promptly resigned. Major won the subsequent ballot for Tory leader and appointed Heseltine to work out the replacement for the poll tax.

The background to this was not simply a split at the top over Europe. Thatcher had become profoundly unpopular. An opinion poll in April 1990, the month the poll tax was introduced in England and Wales, showed the Tories 24% behind Labour.

From the beginning, her naked class war policies generated anger. De-industrialisation resulting from her policies and the slashing of public spending resulted in a rise in unemployment.

The City of London was deregulated and some people made themselves very rich. Inequality between rich and poor spiralled.

Thatcher came to power in 1979 with the intention of smashing the organisations of the working class. She singled out the National Union of Miners as the strongest part of the movement, aiming to wipe out the memory of the defeat of Tory Prime Minister Edward Heath at the hands of the miners in 1974.

The destruction of coalfield communities, despite the heroic year-long strike of 1984-85, created a legacy of bitterness.

Liverpool

It was not the willingness of workers to fight against Thatcher’s policies that was lacking: it was the incapacity of the leaders of the TUC and the Labour Party to fight with the same determination as Thatcher.

The same was true in the struggle of Liverpool Labour Council, which, led by the ideas put forward by Militant, took on Thatcher in a massive battle over council cuts. Although concessions were won, the role played by trade union and Labour leaders ultimately allowed the disqualification of the councillors.

Thatcher was given confidence to take on local government once more with the poll tax – replacing the previous system of local rates, based on property values and at least roughly related to the ability to pay, with a flat rate tax, the same for rich and poor alike.

But, as the Militant had predicted, the poll tax became the means by which millions saw they could fight back and win. The fact that everyone was attacked at the same time, and the strategy of mass non-payment led by Militant through the anti-poll tax unions, led to 18 million refusing to pay.

Mass demonstrations including 250,000 on the eve of its introduction in England and Wales reflected the mood.

It was Thatcher’s refusal to back down over the poll tax that ultimately brought her demise. In her own memoirs she cited the abandonment of the poll tax as “one of the greatest victories for these people [the working class – especially anti-poll tax campaigners] ever conceded by a Conservative government.”

David Cameron’s government today is attacking workers’ living standards, public services and the trade unions. But a determined fight, uniting all those affected by these attacks in coordinated action could do the same to him as we did to Thatcher in 1990.