April 27- Time to fight Thatcher's Spawn in New Zealand

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 Why I'm marching with Aotearoa is Not for Sale on the 27th of April.

Margaret Thatcher was a brutal class warrior, who wielded power ruthlessly as I grew up under her rule as a teenager in the 1980s. She tried to smash the unions, she drove the living conditions of workers backwards, and she looted Britain's state assets, selling off its electricity, steel, railways and telecommunications. She led a revolution that enriched her class, and her ideas spread across the world.

Last week, Thatcher died, but we are still fighting a battle against her legacy. The sabotage begun by her acolyte, Roger Douglas, is today being continued by John Key and his National Party government. The privatisation of Mighty River Power is the beginning of an assault on what remains of state owned assets in Aotearoa, and it is vital that this attack is resisted on the streets. Because, as the once mighty Thatcher found out, when she lost the street to the Anti Poll Tax movement, she lost her Iron Crown.

Its time we took the fight to the Tories, all across the world. Its time that we used our power with the same determination as Thatcher did. We should tell the rich and the speculators that if they risk their money gambling on the privatisation of state assets build up by working people, then they risk losing it all when these assets are renationalised. Renationalised, just as assets were in Bolivia and Venezuela in recent years.

I attended the funeral of Folole Muliaga. We organised the protests outside Mercury Energy in solidarity with her family. She died because her electricity was disconnected, under a Labour government. When our assets are renationalised, it should not be under the failed Profit before People SOE model. Truly public assets controlled by the community, not the corporates, should provide cheap or free power, services and resources to the people, to ensure that the tragedy that befel Folole never happens again.

Aotearoa is Not for Sale. The fight to take her back from Thatcher's worshippers has begun.

Joe Carolan, union organiser and Socialist.

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