Labor Creates Machinery for Next British Government
Labor Creates Machinery jor Next British Government IN 1924, following the British parliamentary elections, it was possible for the Labor party to take over the government under certain...
...Your references to Roosevelt's program of "managed capitalism" which, you say, has taken away from us the initiative in economic change, your remarks on "power politics" and your comments on European conditions seem to indicate a strong belief in the baldest political opportunism...
...And might we inquire why you arbitrarily pick New York as the natural Socialist stronghold and pass up cities like Milwaukee and Reading...
...That only a minute fraction of the Labor party swallowed the bait annoyed the "National" leaders, for it made it embarrassing for them to maintain that they represented all parties, the Liberals having been rapidly approaching the vanishing point for ten years...
...Briefly, the report calls for the following procedure: A Labor Premier to be subject to Cabinet majority decisions and only to recommend a Dissolution after a Cabinet decision confirmed by a Party meeting...
...It is, moreover, essential that during the te,rm of office of a Labor Government, the Government and the Parliamentary Labor party should keep in close contact with the Labor movement as a whole, and the National Joint Council provides effective machinery for this purpose...
...y action of the aaghly disil•alist system, ¦ form a confer reaching Tnta, in To• twenty-three 1 » combined k branch of the ** Social Region simi¦ the United *? includes a ' ^embers of *»nd it has '¦ach of the 'Wnt into the been de• outstanding ¦ hiitory...
...How do you determine the "natural Socialist stronghold" if not by results...
...worker to lira on land It occupancy, jpation were «atry, unsettoils- It was « few years uwrfcan capiintillize, and Is comes the flsa...
...will provide that in Canada the planning shall be done, not by a small group of capitalist magnates in their own interests, but by public servants acting in the public interest and responsible to the people as a whole...
...He said he was "National Labor," and ran for election as a "National I^ibor" candidate, as did his son * and Jimmie Thomas and a few others...
...As a result of its bitter experiences the 1931 Labor Party Conference at Leicester voted to instruct a committee to work out Labor party procedure when it is called upon, as a result of an election victory, to take office again...
...This is so ingenuous as hardly to require reply...
...date of your resigntlon to last month and announcing that you were accepting a position with the LaGuardia campaign committee, where, no doubt, you expect to practice Socialistic ideals in a noneconomic manner...
...for pita, »»ow so | the Socialist r, that they ,ttey do, from through meny f 0f familiar^i Socialist i Socialism in?conomte eon(tttfeal action...
...Only a handful were elected, but they were essential to the behind-thescenes managers of the "National", government to maintain the fiction of an all-party "National" front...
...Acting on his own inner lights he went ever to the Tories, precipitated an election and subjected the party that had made him to a disastrous defeat...
...For the Tories are Tories and always will be, despite Ramsay's fiction...
...That being so, we can do nothing but agitate for Socialism...
...MacDoQaW-and Thomas are the "Labor" windowpieces of what has been for two years a strictly Tory government...
...In *» into very • Under its »«pj out a •exible to al¦ *° changing **> thorooghJj« no jhsti*»«n on the Very briefly, the Manifesto can be described as a platform for the establishment of a socialized economic order in which all financial machinery and services essential to social planning shall be socialized...
...Again MacDonald acted without consultation...
...Branch Reads ion in Socialism * wbere there SKiaHft funli be further by your ^pry of the jfcj, country, awatly postuJrf political gantry with Mi, ignoring 0r differences ¦fetel...
...That we have not surrendered to this variety of baseness in order to avail ourselves of a temporary power by unsocialistic shifts at the expense of our principles, is one of the glories of our Party—a pledge to the workers of this country of its steadfast loyalty to what we conceive to be right In European countries, where the accession of the party to a voice in the government rendered necessary changes in political technique, the party sometimes made the error of employing these same "power politics" with the results that might have been expected of work built on opportunism rather than on principles...
...Surely you (preserving, as you do, your Socialistic ideals) do not test the Tightness of a cause by its appeal to an hysterical and abnormal mass opinion...
...They wanted the creation of democratic machinery that would make it impossible for any more incidents like the MacDonald betrayal ever to happen again...
...But that isn't what I want to talk about today...
...But even yet MacDonald and his fiction are needed...
...With nearly two million unemployed and hungry workers in New York City, with the city government bankrupt and with services of the greatest importance to the, workers being either decreased or discontinued, your candidate has announced that "there are no economic issues in this campaign From the Socialist viewpoint, every campaign must be fought on economic issues...
...Chancellor of the Exchequer's excessive authority to be limited and expenditure and finance to be matters of Cabinet determination...
...In 1929 there was another election, and again without consulting his colleagues MacDonald accepted office and formed another government, again depending upon the support of enough Liberals to secure a majority, and again he consulted no one on the make-up of his minority...
...But he was ill and he had to retire from activity...
...The C.C.F...
...The workers wanted assurances that future election victories would not result in further sterility...
...And surely you do not believe, as your statement indicates, that the all important question is how popular a cause is rather than what advantages it contains for the workers...
...If the fact that we are unwilling to sacrifice our principles, that we are unwilling to emasculate Socialism of every ideal that makes it any thing more than a namby pamby, day-byday shift against individual grafters, surprises you, then all we can say is that this statement, coming from one who has declared himself a Socialist for many years and who has had every opportunity to grasp at least the fundmentals of our beliefs, simply amazes us...
...Fascism and War' That the party is now discredited in Europe by a majority which favors fascism also appears to you a ground for criticism...
...This we cannot understand...
...When we received your resignation— two weeks ago, and not last month—we observed your request that it be kept secret Four days later we received your statement explaining your reasons for resigning, which, you said, you wished to do "as quietly as possible...
...For if the Tories, who won an overwhelming majority of seats in the rigged-up election, had put in their own man the farce would have collapsed at once and a new election might have been cajled for, with results different from those when "National" unity was the watchword...
...And these choice remarks are dedicated to Upton Sinclair, Paul Blanshsrd and to anyone else who might be interested in their" course...
...successful or unsuccessful— action as an end in itself, i You say nothing about what is to happen after the failure of that economic monster NRA, but you . do say that we do not think enough in terms of "power politics...
...That committee has reported, and the Conference to be held next month at Hastings will adopt it...
...Each day the farce of "National Labor" is more plain...
...Clifford Allen, who had honorably served time in jail as an objector to slaughter during the war, had been leader of the Independent I^bor party...
...A panel of three Cabinet Ministers to be appointed to keep in close contact with the Labor Party and to attend meetings of the National Joint Council of the Political and Industrial Labor movements in a consultative capacity...
...He is carefully kept out of all affairs...
...The King's Speech will, from year to year, announce the instalments of the Party's policy with which the Government proposes to deal...
...The C.C.F...
...The idea was to keep* MacDonald as Premier as a sort of window dressing...
...The publication of these recommendations has aroused the greatest enthusiasm in the ranks of the Labor movement...
...Each day it is clearer that MacDonald is a prisoner of the Tories, stripped of his virtue, kept in his gilded chains only because it is convenient for his Tory captors not yet to toss him into the garbage can or into the House of Lords...
...The Committee took up the whole matter of party discipline...
...we are fighting a system...
...Order am of C.C.F...
...Dutch Socialists Clear Amsterdam Slums The municipal authorities of Amsterdam, rcting under the pressure of Socialist agitation in the city council and among the public, have decided on building cheap and wholesome dwellings for 500 more families, and' as fast as they are ready for occupation to wipe out an equal number of slum tenements...
...Otherwise there would be no sense to it...
...The Socialist attitude, as you should know, is that such corruption is the direct result of the capitalist system and can be eradicated only with the abolition of capitalism...
...This is a strange logic which demands methods while condemning the results attained by those methods...
...But there was an embarrassing feature I read in a recent issue of the News Letter, a protest against Tory campaigning: "By-election propaganda which concentrates on attacking the Labor Government [of 1924 and of 1929-1031] which many electors supported and tha Socialism which is their and their leader's political faith naturally alienates them completely...
...And they needed help...
...We gather from your remarks on NRA that it is action we need—whether it be a-ood or bad...
...It is suggested that the Prime Minister should be subject to majoritj^djeisions of the Cabinet, and that he should only recommend the dissolution of Parliament on the decision of the Cabinet confirmed by a Parliamentary Party meeting...
...The Tory didn't want to be known by his right name, for in England there is a fiction about a "National" governmeut and a "National" party...
...He said his old party could take the label of Socialism and labor from his back "but they can never erase it from my heart...
...And so he feverishly insists that he is still a Socialist and a Labor man...
...In its foreign policy it is intended to promote world peace and international economic cooperation...
...That fiction was invented for the purpose of stampeding the people and destroying the Labpr government two years ago, and for a while it worked...
...we are fighting a class...
...Labor Creates Machinery jor Next British Government IN 1924, following the British parliamentary elections, it was possible for the Labor party to take over the government under certain conditions...
...Rather I was amused at an incident that escaped general notice but that serves to point a moral and adorn a tale...
...The policy to be pursued by the Labor Government will be that laid down in Resolutions of the Annual Conference and embodied in the General Election Manifesto...
...Such things will never happen again...
...Two years later came the carefully manufactured "crisis," designed to destroy the Labor party by depriving it of its leadership by means of the "National" government...
...Is it, then, your opinion that we were wrong there, too, because we were opposed by an overwhelming majority...
...The Republican Party, whom you will probably concede to be a party of some slight power in the country, has only one on a board of sixty odd...
...Ramsay's Bright Idea •^HEREUPON MacDonald got a bright idea...
...The Socialist De Miranda is J commissioner of municipal bousing.' Ramsay Is Peeved Something Annoys the Great Statesman and So He Files a Protest 'J'HERE was an election in England a few days ago, and "Uncle Arthur" Henderson was elected to Parliament with a huge majority...
...U that we nut If the ¦ntion old lined power, let that the nblican Party ntnent went ¦ before the ill a candinomk setting ¦mtary consi, the people turned to it...
...he flies from hither to hence, he makes dramatic appearances in Rome and Paris and Washington, he presides with stuffy dignity at Conferences—but he is always conveniently ill when resl policy is being formed...
...In the event of a General Election affording the Party an opportunity of taking office as a minority government as in 1924 and 1929, the National Executive Committee will summon a special conference of affiliated organizations...
...Many of the members had been discouraged by the way past election victories were followed by super-constitutionalism, followed by sterility...
...The Tory who insisted upon being booked as a "National" candidate ran with Ramsay's blessing...
...It guarantees security of tenure for farmers and progressive removal of farmers' debts...
...They are going to get it...
...There were three candidates, Henderson, a Communist and a Tory...
...A portion of the necessary funds is to be provided by a loan from the national treasury...
...To make a go of the farce it was necessary to have it appear that the "National" party was a company of all parties except those "unpatriotic" sections of Labor that insisted upon holding aloft the banner of international Socialism...
...This can mean only opportunism...
...There should be closer contact between Ministers...
...We are kw where the America is r migratory ins West has ¦try has beat conditions kr Socialism, tkwght, were...
...It proposes the regulation of external trade through Import and Export Boards, a national labor code, and publicly organized health, hospital, and medical services...
...It looked like the Tory party, with a new necktie on...
...Natural Strongholds" You state that in the "natural stronghold of American Socialism" we have not elected a single alderman...
...program promises a New Deal for Canada, but it is a New Deal which does not include the joker...
...It outlines a new taxation policy to raise public revenues, lessen inequalities of income, and provide funds for the socialization of industry...
...That section of the Manifesto which is concerned with planning contains a particularly significant paragraph...
...From his retirement he began to write in defense of the MacDonald course...
...Assistance came.from a curious and unexpected source...
...And now comes this election...
...The chief concern of the Socialist Party is not the temporary alleviation of sore spots in municipal bodies...
...We were consequently amazed to find three- days later that you had released a similar statement, setting back the...
...aodox Marxatally viewed ate with mis•questional...
...So shall it be with us...
...And what do they care if they embarrass him ? That is all...
...The reward came—a peerage, and the erstwhile revolutionary jailbird is now Lord Allen of Hurstwood...
...Without consulting his colleagues, J. Ramsay MacDonald, elected Labor party leader, went to Buckingham Palace, kissed the King's hands, accepted the seals of office and formed a government that depended upon Liberal support...
...It is now certain," the Manifesto here points out, "that in every industrial country some form of planning will replace the disintegrating capitalist system...
...We take it, however, that you mean we should have allied ourselves with fusionists—not because of the countless principles on which we disagree with them, but simply because in common with them we disapprove of the corrupt Tammany administration...
...The proposal was stubbornly opposed on grounds of bourgeois economy...
...The conclusions of the National Joint Council will be available for joint consideration by the three full bodies, and their joint recommendations will be communicated to the Parliamentary Party...
...decade bei it was posit...
...And so he publishes a News Letter to expound his curious point of view...
...We are not fighting personalities...
...It is of no value to put out Tammany unless we know pretty clearly What we are substituting—and we do not consider a group of real-estate owners, interested only in tax-reduction, a substitute...
...Thus the Manifesto points out the fundamental difference between capitalist planning and planning under a socialistic government...
...Tory MacDonald AS the days and weeks and months pass it is increasingly hard to distinguish the "Socialist" MacDonald from the less reactionary of his Tory colleagues...
...It is therefore proposed that the National Joint Council (representing the National Executive Committee, the Parliamentary Party Executive and the General Council of the Trades Union Congress) should meet and record its opinion* as to the advisability or otherwise of the Labor Party taking office...
...eighteen...
...And now you condemn the position of the party in Germany, arrived at by the very tactics you would have as employ here...
...Following the report of the committee the party's executive makes a number of proposals, including: After a General Election resulting in the possibility of a Labor Government, the final decision as to the steps to be taken will rest with the meeting of the Parliamentary Party, but it is suggested that the Party should have before it the considered views of the most representative body in the Labor movement...
...We therefore feel released from your request for privacy and shall communicate this statement to the public through the usual channels...
...We are not fighting taxes...
...Political Reforms That the revelation of "innumerable scandals in local politics" has not brought a flood of new members to the Party seems to surprise you...
...A similar situation was to be found ia this country during the war, when we suffered much persecution for our opposition to a cruel, capitalistic struggle...
...For instance, Within ten days after your resignation from the party, while still affirming your faith in the Socialist ideal, you have allied yourself with the campaign of a group whose aims must be absolutely the opposite of Socialism...
Vol. 16 • September 1933 • No. 14
