DAY in the weight of the organised workTHATCHER Margaret Thatcher has emerged as the leader of the series of squabbling factions that was once known as the Tory party, Although one of her main backers was Sir Keith Stop the Workers having Babies Joseph, the gutter press hailed her victory as a triumph for Women's Liberation! Mail she buys her tights at Marks Margaret Thatcher got International Women's Year off with a bang whimpered the Sun. "To her it may have seemed a short step, but to women's libbers throughout the country it was a great leap... she has become a hero of women's lib." Exactly which supporlers of wom en's liberation regarded it as a great leap forward was left unclear.
Perhaps the Su meant Mary Kenny, billed by the London Evening Standard of 5 February as a radIcal and leftist, Grovelling in tront of her pay masters, she wrote: lE would be an absolately marvelous victory for women all over Europe to see a woman, and such an able woman, leading one of tie two principal political parties in this Mary Kenny said she would consider voting for Thatcher, but didn't think her friends who sympathised with the Italian Communist Party would approve, Perhaps she shiculd encourage the PCI to speed up its "historie compromise with capitThere is a reason for all this press garbage. Before Thatcher beat Heath in the first round of the Tory leadership stakes not a single paper said it wanted Thatcher to wini. Now they are all trying to present the tin-hoar der and milk-satcher, with her coll ections of Kipling and porcelain, her tinkling vowels and antique morals, as a "woman of the people After all, according to the Datl and Spencers -the place where that well-known 'man of the people. Ted Heath, buys his sweaters, This window dressing is partly an attempt to make working people forget her last ditch defence of direct grant and grammar schools, abol ition of free school milk and slashing of educating spending when she was Secretary for Education and Science Is the Heath Government. But it is also designed to draw together the dismembered body of the Tory Party as quickly as pessible to make it a credinle electoral alternative, This is why the capitalist press has been united in anging her lo curb her Keith Joseph' tendencies in matters of ecunomic and social policy as quickly as possible. Palicies of massive deflation and unem ployment would not only mean electoral doom, but run counterto the immediate interests of the dee isive sections of big business. Such policies might well suit grocers and their daughters the small shopkeepers being crucitied by inflation but are hardly appropriate to capitalist industry.
So the trivia will continue. There will be more pretures of Margaret putting on make-up, Margaret putt Ing out milk bottles cunconscious irony?), Margaret going to the laun desette, and so on. Perhaps Licy wil even turn it into a Saturday Mutiner for kids -**MT Conquers the Univ ese, nog showing in East Cheam and Chelastond DANGER For the working class, indiffer ence will not be enough. They may he amused hy the spectacle of Lab our MPs falling over themselves to denounce the milk snatcher when the Lahour Government has not restored tree school milk or other Tory education cuts. But Margarer Thatcher may yet be a dal ger.
For many working women who have been ignored by the trade un ions and the Labour Party lor décades any woman in a position of power might seem a step forward That of course would be deeply wrong Margaret Thatcher's policies will be as much against their interests as that of any male Tory leader But unless the organisations of the workine class champion the interests of all oppressed groups, then other leaders, however false, could emerge Mary Smith THE MIDDLE EAST Research and AcTion Group is halding a messing at Con may Hail, Red Lion Squere, Surduy 23 February, starting 3pm. Fitm To Live in Freedom' wil be shown, followed by dis Middle Eost.
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