1980s UK

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

For a university module I have to, within a group, answer the following question, essay + presentation style:

Consider whether and why there was a productivity ‘miracle’ in the 1980s.

I'm fairly sure that all the sources we have been given to refer to for the question will be, to some extent, pro-Capitalist and thus quite Pro-Thatcher and 1980s.

I've already said to my group that i'll not put my name onto anything that is pro-Thatcher's economic performance in the 1980s.

So, does anybody have any good, economically driven sources that I might be able to use to aid my answer? Many thanks.:)

[Q]

I'm currently reading Liverpool, a city that dared to fight (http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/liverpool/), a very pro-Militant account of the Liverpool Labour council between 1983-87. However, the book does give an atmosphere of what occured in the UK at that time, although the writers are not very clear about the whole matter as there is little actual analysis of the bigger picture of what was happening.

What happened was that Thatcher was bend on disciplining labour, this is the whole point of monetarism (later transmorphed into neo-liberalism): You cut the money to the cities to force them to cut back on welfare state services, put people on the dole, etc. This was a concerted effort with the rest of the capitalist class. Liverpool, which saw a "rebel" council between 1983 and '87, was struck hard with many closures of big companies. Of course, they could come back later on, be it on a much lower pay. This was the basis of the "economic miracle".

The Netherlands saw something similar, be it less draconic. In 1982 the union leadership, the bosses and the government signed the "Wassenaar Treaty" which laid the basis of the "Polder model", which is a form of institutionalised class collaboration. The "deal" was simple: the unions agreed to lower pay, the bosses would provide many new jobs (which subsequently never materialised).

I'm sure other countries in the West all have their own peculiar variant.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

It's an economic history class, so really it needs to be a piece of economic, rather than political or social, history that I read and refer to.

It's a massively interesting period and I look forward to a more in-depth study of Militant, the Liverpool council stuff and so on.

I'm looking for something a bit 'drier', though, in terms of reading. I don't really think I can walk into an academic discussion citing a paper titled 'Liverpool - a city that dared fight' and get away with it.