The contradictions of Thatcherism? Violence, money and labour in the reassertion of capital in 1980s Britain

The political programme of Thatcherism has been the subject of widespread analysis and debate. Key differences within the literature have focused on Thatcherism understood as a set of policies and ideas, a process of hegemony-building, an accumulation strategy or a class-based project on the part of capital. This article draws on de Brunhoff’s approach towards the capitalist state to develop a form-analysis account of Thatcherism. In doing so, it presents the capitalist state as the political form of capitalist social relations, according to which ongoing efforts must be made to maintain the distinction between the political sphere and economic sphere and to ensure both the disciplining of workers as labour and the maintenance of money as money-capital. Such an approach, the article argues, allows us to understand the totality of capitalist relations and the role of the capitalist state within those relations. Understanding how these relations are maintained requires empirical investigation, which the current paper conducts through a consideration of primary archival material relating to a series of key episodes during Thatcher’s government. In doing so, the article highlights the interconnection between the seemingly contradictory authoritarianism of Thatcherism and the liberalising financial reforms that were introduced. Rather than viewing these as separate or contradictory policies or ideas, and instead of exploring these developments as a particular accumulation strategy or class project, the article shows how these were in fact part and parcel of a consistent effort by the capitalist state under Thatcher to deal with the simultaneous challenges arising from the management of waged labour and money-capital as they presented themselves in Britain at that time. This is governance by the capitalist state: the permanent crisis management of capital through the ongoing restructuring of labour and financial relations, imposing strict labour discipline and generous financial liberalisation.