British Labour Builds Stronger and Wiser

...When next the Labor Party appeals to the country, it will be with an announcement of definitely formulated legislative proposals...

...and the preparation of these, with the necessary close research and scrutiny they involve, is already in hand...

...Snowden has not been quite so easily obliterated...

...the general election and all that happened at it is now being studied in its true aspect as only the cul- « minatlon of a wrong line of policy pursued during the two years preceding it...

...MacDonald's view always was that it was unwise to prepare legislative plans beforehand and commit ourselves to the country with definite pledges of action on the line of such plans...

...It cannot be too emphatically noted that the policies which led up to the final disaster were not policies for ^ hich the party was responsible, but policies dictated by an auto-< racy of leadership...

...Meanwhile the position of the deserters who were responsible for the new National GovernsjJk being set up becomes daily Jfflf and more a matter of pubttillH rlsion...

...Relegated to the obscurity of the House of Lords, he has at least used his position there to fulminate agsjut the policy now being pursued by the government and to predict ta-tlonal disaster as a result of the legislation now being rushed through...

...At the moment of the debacle Itself, the tendency naturally was to seek for the explanation of it In the immediate details of how the genera] election was misconducted...

...But we now know that had it secured an actual majority in Parliament it would not have been equipped for the exercise of power...

...The immediate detail fills the vision and obscures) the general outlook: you don't see the forest because of the trees...

...The fl raders will meet and form ttfl lines at 51st street and Madlsfl avenue, southeast corner) at ¦ ¦•WJnV/w...

...The fault of the party was that, under pressure of appeals for public unity, it condoned these policies, over and-over again against its own known better judgment, rather than raise a row about it...

...Fortunately for the Negie, ss for the Jew and all other prose) sd and persecuted groups in our d Hzation," Broun said, "their f *lem has now reached the ft re, where with increasing clarity, I Is accepted as a part of the ¦ or problem of modern man—the f blem of building a new civllisf an based upon economic Justice id the brotherhood of all men...

...The first and lesser of these happenings was the holding of a general conference of the Parliamentary candidates of the party at headquarters a week or two ago for general consultation as to the outlook throughout the whole country...

...Every report from the constituencies shows that we have got to dissociate the future of the party as completely as possible from the two years' farce of the MacDonald Government...

...nrT IS always difficult to see big Jl things in all their bearings and their true proportions when you arc close up against them...

...His views may be treated with eon-tempt, his policy—if anyone conk) really discover what it is—earn-pletely disregarded...

...and this was carried to such an extent that MacDonald and half a dozen of his particular intimates had come to regard themselves as the party, and to treat any criticism of their actions or decisions as an act of rebellion and mere impudence...

...There is nothing showy or spectacular about them...

...and It Is only now, when we are half a year away from the general election whicii smashed the British Labor Government and reduced the party <n Parliament to a mere fragment of Its former representation, that we are beginning to get a sufficient perspective on that electoral debacle and the events which led up to it, to enable us to see the situation In Its all-round bearings and to get a grip on what It means for us by way of action towardi recovery...

...Members of the B cialist Party and Young Peop«| Socialist League will carry p)B ards up and down Fifth AvetV from 45th street to 57th strfl from 10 a. m. to 1 p. m. on 8SK day, March 27...

...1" N. Y. Easter Parade To Denounce Poverty Arrangements have been mete to use the regular Easter Fashiji Parade on Fifth Avenue for tit occasion of a demonstration agejtt the inequalities of wealth exists at present...

...Swamped by the vast JL actionary majority in the gamm ment of which he is nomlnalr/jj(s head, MacDonald now seems |(p have no scrap of real influence bjft to him...

...That sort of shallow explanation has faded out of the picture...

...But 1 rather fancy that public opinion, in expecting this development, rather underrates M^cDomM's sheer vanity of office-holding...

...Under the MacDonald leadership regime, the whole tendency of things was to ignore constituency opinion and to concentrate policy decisions in the hands of the little governing group...

...But as lor the others who did rebel at last, their record of compliance during the years while the mischief was being done is today our greatest handicap...

...The economic bases for I »¦ national and religious prejud *. more and more are being re f* nized...

...tsajM Broun Rallies NegroS To Join Socialist Party Heywood Broun stirred a a acity audience Sunday afters in, -March 20, at the Peoples' Ed *> tional Forum, when he advoo ed "complete world disarmament ad the equality of all races...

...and-this pronounced indication their dropping into the background so far as the future is concerned is a fact of the utmost importance...

...A series of special party committees for this work is being constituted...

...hardly anything even of publicity...

...We shall be in a position to put before the country a clean and definite legislative program, and to fight on it...

...and that before the year is out the "National" pretense will be dropped, and we shall see the government reconstiuted on definite conservative lines, in accord with its actual policy...

...For a Definite Program That, however, is the lesser matter, and has mainly to do with the personality of leadership...

...but they reveal the lines on which, In the Inner councils of the party, things are being handled towards a reorganization of policy and outlook...

...with the clear understanding that power to supplement that program will be an essential condition of taking office...

...Our main purpose, in his view, was to get into office, and then to live from hand to mouth by opportunism according to the circumstances that turned up...

...It so happened that when the Labor Government took office, it was in a minority in Parliament and had no real power...

...That absence of definite projects in readiness for our access to power was part of the game of seeking office regardless of purpose...

...No work of rebuilding the electoral fortunes of our party could be sound and durable without a real comprehension of the lessons of the bitter experience through which wc have passed...

...Frank R. Crosswaith, dire or of the forum, presided and nnounced that Norman Thomal ill be the speaker at the forum I tt Sunday, March 27, at 3:30 p^ffl K» will speak on "What Socll pf Offers to the Negro...

...Two of them one dealing with trade and finance, and another with agriculture, are already making a beginning of their work...

...The solution to most of ur problems will be found with at *ing precision as the working ml «s of all races recognize the la table triumph of Socialism oven P-itallsm...

...Posters will' be displayed U nounclng the present condltiontM misery and Inequality and a*^M trast will be made with the weaBJ of fashionable society...

...but whet It comes to a question of putting up with that or leaving office, he Is a limpet the Conservatives will lad it rather a hard job to dislodge...

...That is the fundamental lesson of our experiences...

...British Labour Builds Stronger and Wiser Democracy Restored Within M.P.'s Ranks —Work Begun on Socialist Next Steps By Fred Henderson LONDON...

...This in Itself is indicative of a changed policy...

...It may now be said with assurance that this sort of autocracy, which enabled MacoDnald over and over again to commit the party to policies without consulting it, will never again be permitted...

...That stupidity is now being rectified...

...Under the MacDonald regime, the party never was equipped for the responsibilities of power...

...In the vastly more Important matter of a re-orlentation of policy, the party is now taking steps which will be effective both from the point of view of public appeal and also for safeguarding the future from any recurrence of the basic error of the past...

...With such clear purposes definitely put to the country, it would have been practically impossible for the party to have committed the fatal error of taking office without a mandate for the announced measures...

...Two Important Events Two things in the internal working of the party have happened within the past month of great significance for the future...

...and we have now reached a point at which it is possible to say, with real confidence, that* the lesson seems to have been learned, and that the steps which are now being taken are a real beginning of recovery on sound lines...

...legislation which he, more even than MacDonald was responsible for making possible...

...The Conservative znaj}*-ity which he Invoked agalnstTlli old associates, having used mm for the purpose of winning 1|U election, seems now to ha^BLafa more use for him than f*H sucked orange...

...So it was with the outlook of the British Labor Party last autumn...

...There will be no more hanging on to impotent office...

...and in that way shared the responsibility for the two years drift towards what in the end became an inevitable break-up of things, and all the worse because of the long suppression of party opinion for the sake of a mistaken loyalty to leadership...

...and the effort of the party Is being concentrated on making any such fatal policy Impossible for the future...

...To that end, it la an enormous help to be rid of MacDonald and the two or three others who left the party with him after dragging it to disaster...

...and because MacDonald had set his mind on office rather than on purposes in office, such measures of preparation for power were always banned under his leadership...

...It Is notable that at this headquarters conference, reprcsenta tive of the whole country, not a single member of the late Labor Government put in an appearance, And you may take that as an indication of one of the basic factors In our party reconstruction...

...Hence our election pledges were always kept to vague and rhetorical statements of general purposes: we never had any definite plans carefully thought out before hand for translating the rhetoric Into legislation...

...There is a prevalent public opinion that the government in these circumstances will not hold together much longer In its present form...