Faced with explosive social consequences of capitalist crisis and their own monetarist policies, the Tories have only one answer - to strengthen the forces of the state. Behind the democratic facade, the generals, the police chiefs, top civil servants, and other representatives of the ruling class are preparing to use totalitarian methods to defend their crisis-ridden system in the future.
The re-election of the Thatcher government makes the publication of these important Militant articles on the army, the police and the state in general, with a new introduction on recent developments, all the more timely.
Contributing to this pamphlet are Peter Taaffe, Editor of Militant, Ted Grant, Political Editor, and Lynn Walsh, Assistant Editor, who are among the five members of the paper's Editorial Board expelled from the Labour Party by the right-dominated National Executive in February 1983 for campaigning for Marxist ideas.