During the winter of 1978-1979, the suspension of the right to collective bargaining by British labor unions lead to what was called the Winter of Discontent. Gas deliveries ground to a halt leading to shortages, blackouts became common, and in London trash sat uncollected for months. The labor activism of that period ended with the election of Margaret Thatcher, and the hollowing out of trade union power. God forbid that labor, the working class, have even a half of the power granted to capital, the men and women who live by the labor of others. Adam Smith was right: