But the contradictions of capitalism soon returned with a vengeance. The halcyon days (for some) of full employment, shop floor offensives and economic boom gave way to stagflation, wage controls, then recession and a world of chronic unemployment and ever growing social inequality. Around the time that White ascended in 1978 to the directorship of the Canadian section of the UAW things were spiraling downward and the ruling class in the advanced capitalist countries was moving to repudiate policies of social reform and class compromise for good. This shift would soon be personified in the rule of Reagan in the US and Thatcher in Britain.