Tories continue the retreat from Thatcherism

[Dinner]

Originally posted by VetLegion
Why did Thatcher support South Africans?

In case of America it made some sort of sense, because SA was useful against Castro's Moscow backed expeditions to Africa and marxist movements in surrounding countries.

But why did Thatcher care?

The US was the ones who ended the White minority government. The US financial and trade sanctions meant that the South African government couldn't finance its debts. That money crunch put huge pressure on the South African economy and eventually forced change.

[VetLegion]

I doubt that it was economic sanctions that brought the apartheird down. It is my impression that SA under sanctions was still doing OK.

[Dauphin]

From the South Africans I have spoken to, they say that the trade sanctions were easy enough to get around.

[SlowwHand]

It's called Black Market. Ironic in their case.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by VetLegion
But I never thought of Thatcher as being a white supremacist.

Not Thatcher specifically, but elements within the old Tory party generally. They jerked off over the whole empire and Britannia-rules-the-waves thing and generally looked down on their former colonial subjects. During her reign I knew 'respectable' Conservative types with some very backward views about non-white people, and for me Thatcher represented people with those views.

Racism in the Thatcher era was rife, and to me at the time, seemed to come from the top. Police were allowed to do whatever they liked to black people and got cheered on by the govt when they did.