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Placing the Thatcher Reforms in the Context of the Capital/Labour Relationship

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Abstract

This chapter considers how the crisis of the 1970s was resolved. The Thatcherite reforms of the 1980s built upon the rhetoric of the 1970s, which—as the previous chapter demonstrates—blamed the trade unions for the wider economic problems. Kirkland outlines the changing relationship between labour and capital in the 1980s, focusing upon the “Right to Buy” housing scheme, the privatisation programme and the Big Bang deregulation of 1986. Finally, this chapter demonstrates how such legislation had the effect of shifting the economic balance of power away from organised labour (and by extension trade unions) towards capital and the owners of capital.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Politics, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, Merseyside, UK

    Christopher Kirkland

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  1. Christopher Kirkland
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Correspondence to Christopher Kirkland .

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Kirkland, C. (2017). Placing the Thatcher Reforms in the Context of the Capital/Labour Relationship. In: The Political Economy of Britain in Crisis. Building a Sustainable Political Economy: SPERI Research & Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59238-1_3

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