Thatcher Greets Reagan

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Give us time and our policies will produce a great boom! Published by Folrose Ltd for the Workers Socialist League, BM Box 5277 London WC1V 6XX. Printed by Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of the I It is no coincidence that Thatcher's was one of the first governments to congratulate Ronald Reagan on his victory in the U.S. Presidential elections.

Thatcher and Reagan (and the advisers who surround them) have a great deal in common. Both advocate the same economic policies: unbridled free enterprise; cuts in public spending and control of the money supply (i.e. high interest rates that squeeze and bankrupt weaker firms).

But, perhaps even more ominously for workers throughout the world, they share the same socalled "foreign policy" . Like Thatcher, Reagan tavours a vast bulld-up of arms and the most sophisticated nuclear technology.

Reagan has declared that he will "make America great again" . He won't let the great American nation be pushed around by the Iranians, the Russians or anyone else. He won't allow popular uprisings against the dictatorships on America's doorstep to threaten her interests.

In other words, with Reagan's presidency the threat of nuclear war and the total destruction that means, have come several steps closer. It also threatens direct military intervention against mass movements in the semi-colonial world.

On Vietnam Reagan has declared:

"It is time we recognised that ours was, in truth, a noble cause."

And he has put his words into practice already-by appointing Kissinger and Morning Litho Printers Ltd., London orkers Socialist League General Haig to key posts in his Cabinet.

It was these two who ordered the bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam war.

As for his other advisers, they include people like Richard V. Allen who believes that nuclear war is inevitable, so America should start building up military hardware as fast as possible, and should not even consider negotiating with the Soviet Union.

On domestic policy, Reagan is even more openly reactionary than Thatcher.

He is enthusiasticlly supported not only by reactionary Christian organisations, but also by the Ku Klux Klan, for his bolstering of "traditional values"-i.e. intensified oppression of women, blacks and gays.

He wants abortion made completely illegal, and he opposes the Equal Rights Amendment- a fairly tame constitutional amendment, whose effect would be similar to that of the Sex Discrimination Act in Britain.

So Reagan's election spells a grim time ahead for the American working class and the everpresent threat of nuclear holocaust.

The fact that fewer people voted than in any previous Presidential election shows that Reagan's support is minimal.

This latent opposition in the American working class must be turned into a mass movement to stop Reagan's offensive, and build an American Labour Party around policies to defend the interests of American workers, women, blacks and youth.