although triggered by the apparently modest local issue of protecting a park in the very center of istanbul from commercial destruction, the ongoing protests in turkey obviously refer to a much deeper malaise. the fact that protests exploded in a country widely perceived as a model of “moderate islamism” with a booming economy are a key indicator of what causes this malaise: the prospect of combining the ravaging neoliberal economy with religious-nationalist authoritarianism. the victim of these two processes is the same: independent civil society with its spirit of solidarity and cultural tolerance, the spirit which forms the very backbone of the ethical health of a nation. as such, the protests are a living proof that the free market does not imply social freedom but can well co-exist with authoritarian politics.

this is why the protests are part of the same global agitation that is shaking the established order around the globe. all people who care about freedom and emancipation should thus say to the turkish people: welcome! we are now part of the same global struggle! spain, sweden, greece, turkey… only if we fight together we have a chance!

Thatcher is remembered as The Iron Lady only because she possessed completely negative traits such as persistent stubbornness and a determined refusal to listen to others.

Every move she made was charged by negativity; she destroyed the British manufacturing industry, she hated the miners, she hated the arts, she hated the Irish Freedom Fighters and allowed them to die, she hated the English poor and did nothing at all to help them, she hated Greenpeace and environmental protectionists, she was the only European political leader who opposed a ban on the ivory trade, she had no wit and no warmth and even her own cabinet booted her out. She gave the order to blow up The Belgrano even though it was outside of the Malvinas Exclusion Zone—and was sailing AWAY from the islands! When the young Argentinean boys aboard The Belgrano had suffered a most appalling and unjust death, Thatcher gave the thumbs-up sign for the British press.

Iron? No. Barbaric? Yes. She hated feminists even though it was largely due to the progression of the women’s movement that the British people allowed themselves to accept that a prime minister could actually be female. But because of Thatcher, there will never again be another woman in power in British politics, and rather than opening that particular door for other women, she closed it.

Thatcher will only be fondly remembered by sentimentalists who did not suffer under her leadership, but the majority of British working people have forgotten her already, and the people of Argentina will be celebrating her death. As a matter of recorded fact, Thatcher was a terror without an atom of humanity.