Red Rag Reunion
POLITICAL CONTEXT
Intro – 1979 – thatcher, red Rag, mayday
What happened in the 70’s? Crisis in capitalism. 20% inflation in prices, wages lagged behind. Strikes. 
3 day week. Winter of discontent.
Labour/capital battle. Capital got in. Thatcher won.
Constant Crisis in Capitalism
Government regulation to try to prevent and buffer against crisis
1929 stock market crash, 1930’s depression, Keynesianism – pump prime the economy by job 
creation, regulation of world economy by world bank etc
Second World War ends depression, post war settlement in UK, nationalise the commanding heights 
of the economy (idea from Reading trades unionists), NHS, welfare state
1970 oil shock, price inflation well above wage inflation: strikes, winter of discontent, end of post 
was settlement
1979 Thatcher got in in the wake of 1970 strikes. Capital won. Theory – revolutions happen when 
the working and middle class combine to create a force big enough to overturn the ruling class. 
Maybe the working class did not bring enough of the middle class along with them in the winter of 
discontent? Reading Trades council revived May Day as a workers festival and show of strength. Red 
Rag was launched. Red Rag lasted for the first two Thatcher terms. It shows a towns reaction to the 
rise of neoliberalism. Neoliberalism – privatise everything and turn things over to the market.
Part of the crisis in capitalism in the 1970’s was due to having no new products to sell and having 
saturated markets. Capitals solution was to sell off things owned by the state so there would be 
more opportunities for large scale investment and more profit could be made. Whatever reasons we 
are given are lies. Private electric is not cheaper. Private housing is not better. Private probation will 
not keep us safer or reform criminals and integrate them into society better. Other solutions are to 
build – empty offices, roads for private cars and not public transport.
Ridley Report – 1977 (Nick Ridley) Thatcher governments plans to break the unions. Miners Strike, 
print unions (other examples).
Fall of the Soviet Empire (1979 – fall of the Berlin Wall) – why? Several theories, one being the cost 
of the arms race with the West, mainly the USA (Greenham).
Other solution to crisis in capitalism is build, build, build. No more offices. Marx – Das Kapital - 
exchange value, use value. Empty office, homeless person. EV – UV – nationalise offices convert to 
flats. End housing crisis! Or not. Make squatting illegal? Exchange value, use value.
Neoliberalism, turn over to the market, privatise, de –regulate. Transfer of wealth from working 
class and middle class to the rich.  From 1979 onwards house prices rose faster than wages. Less 
money in pocket to spend but capital needs to expand. Deregulation of banking sector meant a 
growth of debt, especially personal debt.  A lot of that debt was backed by complex schemes that 
were tied up in mortgages. 2008 Banking crash, credit crunch. The whole thing collapsed. 
Government intervened by bailing out banks – essentially they borrowed from one financial 
institution to bail out another. Bought large parts of banks but did not nationalise. Quantitive Easing 
– Keynsianism for the Rich? I’m only a gardener, I maybe wrong. Privatise the profit socialise the 
debt. Austerity politics, blame the poor, cut services and benefits to pay off debt caused by poorly 
regulated banking sector while bankers get multimillion pound bonuses.
Con-Dem gov – growing number of billionaires in the UK. London service sector for capitalism. We 
live off the crumbs. We live in interesting times. (read more articles and see if they illustrate themes 
in this talk)
Three more things:
1 I’m a gardener so don’t ask me too many difficult questions in the q and a session
2 smash the state, break the law, stay in bed till three or four, break the law,smash the state, stay in 
bed till really late
3 Red Rag published --- except poetry. Well we are going to break the rules because we are 
anarchists. Kathy Titler