Cross Currents in the British Labor Party
Henderson, Fred
Cross Currents in the British Labor Party tt n^ePe ndent Labor Party Decides to Continue Affiliation— Tide Begins to Turn Against the National Government SINCE my b u t tetter was written, the...
...I t was not the creation of a n ew organization, but rather the awaJffnlng Into a sense of political power of the already existing working class movement...
...Let your slogans be: Against War and munitions and armaments capitalism...
...MacDonald sees the waning of his power clearly enough...
...That was fully recognized...
...On this Labor's day of festivity let us again give expression to our inflexible determination to find work for those of our brothers wjo have been cast out of the processes of labor...
...For Peace, the reconciliation ol the peoples and disarmament...
...The Problem of Leadership As Fenner Brockway very truly pointed out In his chairman's address to the annual conference, no such facile and superficial explana...
...and it is from their sustained faith In a great cause that the recovery is now already beginning to manifest itself...
...and makes It cleat t h a t the Prime Minister has decided to give up even the pretence a t resistance to the reactionary capitalist claims made against him by the Conservative majority in the House of Commons...
...And they remain as the sole possible source of power for Socialist achievenfbnt...
...but to see to it that the elections are won and the political power used for clear Socialist purposes...
...and that the real wisdom under such conditions Is for everyone to Join together to keep the existing order going by bearing its inflictions cheerfully...
...The capitalist system Is still with us, but It can hardly be said to be still dominating us, for i t has lost control of i t s own means of production, its technical equipment and i t s exchange of goods...
...The appeal to the workers to endure hardships and cuts and to make sacrifices as a matter of national and p a t r i o t i c d u t y - I t Is very doubtful whether, had the capitalist parties been returned to Parliament with a majority of their v . r y own, they would have dared to press this policy of worsening the conditions of life for t h e masses to anything like the extent that the MacDonald "national" government Is pressing it for them...
...tlon a s i s frequently put forward for our electoral defeat last year will hold good against a moment's examination...
...ing...
...Cross Currents in the British Labor Party tt n^ePe ndent Labor Party Decides to Continue Affiliation— Tide Begins to Turn Against the National Government SINCE my b u t tetter was written, the Independent Labor party has held i t s annual nations, conference and made its decision as to continued affiliation with t he Labor party...
...and the constitution of the Labor parry on t h a t footing is the result of its effort to t h a t end...
...The leading industrialists and politicians stand helpless: all that they can think of is to cut down, to restrict, to set up barriers: and thus to destroy what capitalism itself has created...
...the explanation that the electorate were misled by the panics and scares of the three weeks of the general election...
...Let us all feel t h a t there is still a power which can preserve society from the chaos which threatens it, renew the world, and redeem it from its long agonies...
...There have been two by-elections during the past month...
...It was the failure of the Labor government during thirty months of office—its failure to give any sense of positive achievement or of faithfulness to a purpose—its failure to challenge Parliament with any presentment of our own constructive policy—that did the mischief...
...Let every people recognize and attack their common enemy—the anna ments industry...
...and the decision of the I. L. P. against it is i t vital index fact to the grip which the movement has got upon the vital realities of the position...
...Prediction Is always a risky thing to Indulge in...
...For a planned economic system, providing work and bread for all...
...I place that in the forefront of the survey of the month's happenings, because it not only has a vital bearing upon the development of the British political situation, but it also gives you the essential clues to any real understanding of that situation and of the difficulties which confront us here in our task of rebuilding As for the decision Itself, you will have been prepared for the refusal of the I . L. P. to sever itself from the general Labor movement...
...but it was a risk I took with complete confidence some months ago when I assured you t h a t the decision would be against disaffiliation...
...but the faith of the I . L. P. pioneers was that if once the general working class movement could be awakened to political consciousness and organized for common political ac tlon, its policy was bound to be come increasingly Socialist: that nothing could ultimately hinder it from becoming' t h e expression of the working class claim to fuD power over its own opportunities to live...
...In lbs name of its 14 million members, and for the sake of the 25 millions of unemployed in the world, the International Federation of Trade Unions demands that there shall be a clear recognition of what capitalism has done for us...
...Is the world to be sacrificed to pay high dividends to the armaments Industry...
...Let the call resound far and wide, regardless of barriers and frontiers, inspiring with new life all the forces of Labor in the s t r u g gle against capitalism and its oppression...
...the millions of men and women who have kept faith and stood firm through all these discouragements...
...Hence, the I. L. P. in this country has always been, and still is, the definite Socialist focus of the general Labor movement...
...MacDonald's Career Ended Apparently the new MacDonald gospel is that the worse the conditions under capitalism become, the more Imperative It Is that plans for substituting Socialism for capitalism should be held in abeyance...
...Workers of all lands, let International Labor be more united and more determined than ever...
...Against capitalist anarchy, unemployment and hunger...
...And there may a t least be this quality or political sagacity about it...
...For if the Labor government let us down, the vital fact to remember Is t h a t the Labor government and t h e Parliamentary group that condoned i ts failure over two wasted years are, after all, only a group of politicians...
...and In each of them the inflated majority against Labor at the general election has been enormously reduced...
...I t is very much more complex than that...
...To Trade Unionists of the World ON May Day, the solemn festival of Labor, the International Federation of Trade Unions raises its voice once more to celebrate the exalted principle of international solidarity...
...that such an utterance, in view of the prevalence amongst the Conservative majority of talk about having no further use for MacDonald now that he has served their purpose of reducing Labor to impotence in Parliament, may help to insure them that they need have no fear of obstruction from that quarter to any reactionary work they may have in contemplation...
...and t h a t the real business of the distinctively Socialist organ lzatlons was incessant educational work within the Labor party...
...these things, instead of being the occasion and the opportunity—the proved need—for Socialist reconstruction, are to be made the excuse for worsening the condition of the workers in the name of economy and "keeping society go...
...To understand them it is necessary to go a little v ay back into that...
...On the...
...You can look to none but yourselves to make the first move towards lecovery and the improvement of your lot...
...The reality of the Labor p a r t y is the working class movement...
...We all know exactly what that means...
...All obstacles in the way of this change must be broken down...
...day when we do honor to the creative and productive power of Labor, we also raise the demand for the demolition of unproductive military armaments, which are in themselves a permanent danger of war and its horrors...
...cern is not merely to win elections •or secure political poWer for the Labor party simply as a matter of party success...
...Never till this present time of crisis, pregnant with the menace of war and fascism, has It been so clear how closely the nations arc linked up together and how necessary is international, solidarity...
...The first of these pronouncements has Just been Issued...
...It Is a pitiable plea for the necessity ol wage cuts and economy on social services and all the rest of what capitalism, In its hour of electoral triumph, is insisting upon from his government, whose "guiding thought," he says, "must be econ oray...
...INTK.lt NATIONAL FEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS...
...In deciding to remain within the Labor party, the I. L. P. therefore, ia naturally bound to insist that <ts affiliation is conditional upon Us freedom to express its Socialist purposes within the party, and to criticize the leadership and conduct of the p a r t y from that distlncUt* Socialist point of view...
...And ftat brings us to the very core of our present difficulties...
...Capitalism, which once gloried in its business efficiency, h a s n ow become the g r e a t waster: in i t s hands technical efficiency has become a curse...
...I n these circumstances, the temptation to disaffiliation and to the setting up of a new p a r ty cleat of all association with the late Labor government has been very strong...
...Let us confront the profit-seeking of the armaments manufacturer, living and thriving on death and destruction, with the determlna tlon of the worker and the pro duccr to maintain peace...
...I t Is a gospel which admirably suits the capitalist hosts In the House of Commons...
...Instead,of a rationalization that completely misses its mark, there must be planned management: instead of shrinkage, the concentration of forces: instead of derelict labor on the scrapheap, an economic syst em which lays plans for the best use of labor...
...But obviously, while such a confederation of trade unions meant a massive political strength, it did not necessarily mean that the organization so created would have the same clear-cut Socia'st purpose as a small, compact, distinctive Socialist p a r t y would possess...
...and its con...
...but it helps us to some extent to measure the completeness of MacDonald's abandonment of Labor outlooks...
...All that can promote this end must be done: hence the International Federation of Tr do Unions raises its demand for a general reduction of working hours and the introduction of the 40-hour week...
...And while the main authors of that failure, MacDonald and the little group he has carried with him, a r e no longer with us to handicap our recovery, we were none the less led into the general election battle Y the a r r a y of ex-Ministers who had been identified with the MacDonald failure for two years previously and who only revolted against him at the fifty-ninth second of the fifty-ninth minute of the eleventh hour...
...The breakdown of capitalism, its increasing inability to serve the needs of human life, the industrial and financial trouWes Into which it plunges us...
...and Its complexities arise from the history and the growth of t h e Labor party...
...The I. L. P. Idea The Labor party owes its existence as a political organization to the I. L. P. When it took the field for Socialist missionary work, the view of the I. L. P. from the very beginning was that the political force of the movement had to be built up by bringing trades unionism— the massive Industrial classconsciousness of the working class already engaged in the class struggle on the Industrial side—into political class-consciousness...
...Industrial and financial machinery has broken down," he de clares, "but society has to be kept going...
...In the name of the millions of war victims we call upon men's consciences to awake...
...For our troubles have come upon us for no other reason whatever than the absence of any such clear purpose In the Parliamentary leadership of the party from the movement that MacDonald and his government took office...
...Let us add to the cry "No More War yet another cry "Down With the Means of War...
...and announces that he has decided "to publish a fortnightly letter dealing with political events as seen by the section of Labor supporting the government...
...and the I. L. P. set itself to the task of bringing about that awakening in the belief t h a t the general working class movement must be the basis of all Socialist work, the movement in and through which Socialism must seek its effective achievement...
...But the present situation Involves a great deal more than a simple "yes" or "no" on that issue...
...The Turning Tide Disillusionment with the national government has very definitely set in...
Vol. 13 • April 1932 • No. 18
