CUTS, PRIVATIZATION AND RESISTANCE

Online Catalogue > RECENTLY PUBLISHED > CUTS, PRIVATIZATION AND RESISTANCE

CUTS, PRIVATIZATION AND RESISTANCE
Neoliberalism and the Local State, 1974-1987
by David E. Lowes

This book looks back to earlier opposition to cuts and to difficulties in mobilising the labour movement

Taken at face value, the events recounted here represent little more than fluctuations in the numbers of people employed by the local state and of the services it provided. Economic circumstances appear to have determined the reorganization of local government.
But delve below the surface, to the real social world of happenstance and struggle, and one can see parts of a broader battle to replace Keynesian social democratic orthodoxy with neoliberal ideology. This process was played out in society as a whole and within the labour movement.

Why ask about the success or failure of these early attempts to resist neoliberalism? Just another academic exercise?
Our current situation emerged from the neoliberal restructuring of the local state. Privatisation and other measures effectively removed decisions about service standards from the democratic arena. This was part of a deliberate strategy to depoliticize related issues in the eyes of the local electorate and ensure that the local state is no longer a means through which socio-economic interests can be advanced.

The importance of the period lies not in the immediate outcomes, both the issues and the manner in which they were contested point to what has happened since, what the present government is doing and what hope there may be for an alternative programme that goes beyond piecemeal resistance.

Contents: Preface, Introduction, Part I: Historical Context 1960-1979, The Role of the Local State, The Neo-Liberal Project, Labour Movement Activism; Part II: Retrenchment and Retreat 1979-1984, The Conservative Agenda, The Defence of Local Government, Liverpool as Enigma; Part III: The Primacy Parliament 1983-1987, The Vagaries of Rate-Capping, The Campaign of Non-Compliance, Conclusion, Postscript. Appendix, Bibliography, Index.

ISBN. 9780850366334

Paperback, 234 x 156 mm., 256 pages approx.

Price:£15.95

Online Catalogue > RECENTLY PUBLISHED > CUTS, PRIVATIZATION AND RESISTANCE