Don’t celebrate – organise!

A friend sent me the following recent tweet from Billy Bragg which I’d like to share with your readers.

“This is not a time for celebration. The death of Margaret Thatcher is nothing more than a salient reminder of how Britain got into the mess that we are in today.

“Of why ordinary working people are no longer able to earn enough from one job to support a family; of why there is a shortage of decent affordable housing; of why domestic growth is driven by credit, not by real incomes; of why tax-payers are forced to top up wages; of why a spiteful government seeks to penalise the poor for having an extra bedroom; of why Rupert Murdoch became so powerful; of why cynicism and greed became the hallmarks of our society.

“Raising a glass to the death of an infirm old lady changes none of this. The only real antidote to cynicism is activism. Don’t celebrate – organise!”

Whilst I agree with Billy Bragg, for as long as Thatcherism thrives, as it plainly does yet in the LibConDem pact, there is surely nothing wrong, at any time and even at a distance, in toasting those who (unlike Thatcher) believe in society and who work and have worked in solidarity to resist the logic of greed and to improve the lives of others.

Let us also remember her support for General Pinochet.

Peter Hamilton
Berlin