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Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Will Thatchers Legacy Become the US's ALEC Led Reality???



A little ALEC / Thatcher background to start.


ALEC Policy Forum 2002
Privatization as we know it began in the late 1960s, mainly practiced by local governments. In the 1980s Ronald Reagan brought the idea to the federal government at the same time Margaret Thatcher was revolutionizing Britain through the same process.

ALEC Atlantic Connection  2006
Chris Heaton Harris (International ALEC Legislator)
It reminded me a lot of growing up in the late 1980´s in a confident Great Britain that had been economically transformed by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Inside ALEC 2007
ALEC’s 2006 National Chair Sen. Susan Wagle, Kansas State Senate, and ALEC Board Member and Georgia State Rep. Earl Ehrhart presented ALEC’s Pioneer Award to Lady Margaret Thatcher last November in honor of her remarkable political career and defense of the Jeffersonian principles of liberty and free markets. “Lady Thatcher’s resolute dedication to the principles of free markets and individual liberty have been an inspiration to conservatives in the United States as well as to all those who value freedom across the globe,” said ALEC Executive Director Lori Roman.

Inside ALEC 2007
ALEC is working in conjunction with the Atlantic Bridge Group, a nonprofit organization chaired by the British Conservative Shadow Minister for Defense, Liam Fox MP. The organization is supported by Lady Thatcher and ALEC Alumni Congressman John Campbell, who serves on the Atlantic Bridge Advisory Board.

Inside ALEC 2008
Lady Margaret Thatcher also sent ALEC members a letter in which she wrote, “you have achieved an enormous amount already but our task never ends. So steel yourselves for the struggles ahead and draw strength once more from that undaunted spirit of freedom which underpins your great nation.”


By Larry Kudlow - April 8, 2013

Margaret Thatcher fought socialism in England and unyieldingly promoted the free-market views of Nobelists Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek. She stopped the destructive British labor unions dead in their tracks. With every bone in her body she attempted to limit government by lowering spending and taxation. She opted for big-bang financial deregulation. And she put London back on the map as a world banking center.

She also adored Ronald Reagan. And the two of them formed an extraordinary partnership for freedom and free markets. Working together they helped bring down the Soviet communist system. And it was a peaceful bring-down at that.

Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY2:13 p.m. EDT April 8, 2013
She privatized big, state-owned industries that were losing money when she came into power.

SNIP

Not all agree. Some say her policies have led to a global economic crisis.

"Thatcher was responsible for removing restraints on the financial markets – leading the way internationally – which led to the mess we're in now," said Adam Parker-Rhodes, 72, in London.




Monday, 15 April 2013 10:00 By Laura Flanders, The Nation | Op-Ed

Margaret Thatcher’s fancy funeral will be held this coming Wednesday. Along with the deceased prime minister, can we bury TINA, too?

For thirty years we’ve lived with TINA: “There is No Alternative.” Thatcher deployed her most famous slogan to mean that certain debates were over, especially debates over capitalism. Globalized capitalism, so called free-markets and free trade were the best ways to build wealth, distribute services and grow a society’s economy. Deregulation’s good, if not God.

SNIP
No alternative? Even Thatcher’s quip “the lady’s not for turning” should remind us there were other routes we could have traveled. Thatcher wasn’t just stubborn, she was specific. She dragged the nation down a defiantly neo-liberal path. 

Union towns and poor and immigrant neighborhoods saw unprecedented levels of police. Financiers saw less. In the city of London, the “Big Bang” delivered “deregulation.” Clamping down on critics, Thatcher freed up finance. Again, it was a choice. A sort of Glass Steagall years ahead of Clinton's,  the Thatcher administration’s decision to put growth first, regardless of the cost to people or the planet, meant doing away with boring, cautious banking, removing regulation, permitting integration, encouraging financialization and demonizing scrutiny by “red tape” bureaucrats.

Thatcher is praised for
“She broke that stranglehold that the unions had and it needed to be done.”
Yet - the unions didn't have a strangelhold - it was only a perception that Thatcher perpetuated.
Facts:


Union membership by Britons in the Thatcher years shrank from one in four to one in eight.
God forbid that - 25% of the people would have good paying jobs with decent benefits - God forbid.
It's better for only 12.5% of the people to be earning a living wage.
Thank god she is dead - unfortunately her policies live on.

And Thatcher's policies had a devastating affect on the 99% - while elevating the 1% .
And because of that - some - including me - do not mourn her passing.

Hundreds of people gathered in city centres to hold street parties "celebrating" the death of Baroness Thatcher on Monday night.

In Glasgow revellers popped champagne while chanting "so long the witch is dead" while in Brixton one critic reorganised the letters on Ritzy Cinema's hoarding to say "Margaret Thatcher's dead lol."

Corporation will not play the song Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead in full on Radio 1 after furious reaction from Thatcher supporters
  
April 16, 2013  | 

More than 800 people have pledged to attend an event called “Maggie’s good riddance party.”

London police are bracing for protests at Margaret Thatcher’s funeral on Wednesday, with opponents vowing to pelt her coffin with eggs, coal or milk if they can get close enough — or simply turn their backs on the passing procession.

This may be the future of the ALEC state legislators who continue to push ALEC legislation to artificially manipulate the free-market privatization schemes pushed by Corporate members of the American Legislative Exchange Council.

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