ABSTRACT
During the 1970s, according to the British social historian Donald Sassoon, the Western world saw the outbreak of a 'new positional warfare' over 'the role of the state in the reorganization of capitalist relations'. In November 1972, Richard Nixon had been re-elected president of the United States, with an overwhelming majority, against the progressive Democratic candidate George McGovern. In the meantime, America's northern neighbor, Canada, was – albeit under different circumstances – also reaching a phase of deadlock. In the winter of 1978–1979, the so-called Winter of Discontent, renewed worker militancy led to a dramatic confrontation between the Callaghan government and the unions which, under duress from local leaders and activists, demanded substantial wage increases, in some cases of some 10 percent. In Western Europe, governments – in several countries still 'progressive' – were facing growing economic problems, social conflict, and not least, terrorism.
