The Spearheads of British Socialism
The Spearheads of British Socialism Nationalization of Coal and Social Insurance — Two Steps Ahead By Frederick Scheu New Deader Correspondent in London -*r ON DON.—The session ef the Britiah |...
...I': Msny of them will cooperate with ths new regime in the hope of retaining ' managerial positiona of influence under the new National Coal Board...
...The first is the Bill far Nationalisation of the Coat Industry The other is the National Insurance BiU which puts into effect the Beveridge Plan, With a firm majority in the House of Commons and an unequivocal mandate from the country, the Labor Government is confident of transforming both bills into law with the minimum of delay...
...but it was then a subordinate office and little could be achieved...
...He became an active member of the labor movement in his native village (tbey speak Welsh there, and Griffiths haa recently written a book on Coal in that language...
...The new National Insurance Bill restores all the main features of the Beveridge Plan and goes beyond it in a number of points...
...James Griffiths, the Minister of National Insurance, has th* strength and moral authority to overcome any resistance...
...The Spearheads of British Socialism Nationalization of Coal and Social Insurance — Two Steps Ahead By Frederick Scheu New Deader Correspondent in London -*r ON DON.—The session ef the Britiah | Psrliament ia expected to be one of *-'the moat important in the history of the tosiaUy...
...His opponents jeered at him and called him "Sindbad the Tailor" but he made his mark...
...He studied there while hi* young wife worked ** » waitress in * tea-chop to earn the money for th* upkeep of the family...
...Todsy machinery aad production methods are out of date, productivity is low snd unsatisfactory Working conditions have caused a flight from the mines and a serious shortage of manpower...
...They agree with ten member* of th* Greek Cabinet who resigned in proteit, declaring that conditions in Greece prevent a free election now...
...The Labor Government has introduced tarn great bills—the apaar-heads of British Socialism...
...During the first World War his leadership in a strike earned him a prison sentence from the Covernment and the present of a gold watch from his grateful union members...
...T 1 HK National Insurance Bill, which will come into force in 1948, is the fulfillment of the great promise of Social Security given by the Beveridge Plan...
...I don't think the USA or Britain is ready to offer us a treaty of alliance...
...This means thst Shinwell will not only be the msn to nationalize coal...
...In this they show the traditional reasonableness of the British ruling class which does not usually hang...
...He headed the Mines Department in the Ramsay Macdonald Labor Government...
...When the Coal Bill and the National Insurance Bill have become law, Labor's progress in its two aspects—control and welfare—will be well establish...
...In th* interval Shinwell has somewhat mellowed—particularly in th* field of foreign policy where he strongly opposed the "Little England" views of many of his fellow-Socialists...
...French Communists support this stupid policy because it aid* their beloved fatherland, the USSR...
...In Parliament Shinwell was usually to be found on the left wing of the Labor , Party and acquired fame for his vitriolic tongue...
...The man who ia in charge of the nationalization of coal is the Labor Government's Minister of Fuel snd Power, Emmanuel Shinwell...
...Britain's social insurance system dates back to the Liberal reforms of the first years of this century, and has been almost continually developed...
...The idea of the Beveridge Plan is so absolutely accepted by the vast majority of the British people that the new Bill has found almost no opposition in the press...
...The old miners go on working, but their sons find other jobs, if they ean...
...Eierlinger leads the pro-Soviet wing of the Social Democratic Party, favoring a merger with the (Communists...
...There will b* come haggling over detail*, particularly on the part of the great imuranc* com pan i**, which will lose certain sections of their domain (though they will profit by ths desire of * people, once it is insurance-minded, to purchase "additional" security...
...The coal owners will concentrate on details of the compensation question...
...Labor's lack of qualified managers will make it unavoidable to use the services of some ef them though the Socialist Administration- will be able to draw on the services of many excellent leaders from the ranks of the miners who for generations have been the politically most wide-awake sec-tion of the British working class...
...He worked in the coal mine* for 17 years and learned all about the heartbreaking consequences of illness and accidents in the life of a mining community...
...Apart from this, the Conservative Opposition in Parliament may put up a certain amount of fight on the principle ef nationalisation, but not with th* hop* of wrecking the bill...
...This will not Inereaae British popularity in Greece, already at a very low ebb...
...it derives directly from the tion-conformist traditions of Welsh preacherdom...
...Years of crisis and neglect will have to be mad* good by ths new Socialist regime...
...When that is over, he will have to tackle the nationalisation of electric power...
...News from Abroad C ZKCHOSLOVAKIA ia looking for her safety to Ruasia," Prime Minister Zdenek Eierlinger told John MacCormack of the Timet...
...But Russia has done so and it will remain the basis of our foreign policy . . . whatever the wutcoine of our elections in May...
...His Job ia to persuade young men to become coal miners...
...Tb* Coalition Government in 1948 accepted msny feature* of the Beveridge Plan but whittled it down, limiting th* period of time for which benefit* war* granted...
...Beveridge commented that the Government's scheme was good in many waya—but it was not really security...
...He concluded that Shinwell'* brilliance was mora essential in the job of Minister of Fuel snd Power...
...He was born in Glasgow, of Jewish origin, and started out in life as a tailor...
...Sir William Beveridge—a stern critic of changes in his original Plan— has publicly given*the new bill his full and authoritative blessing...
...There seems no doubt that the National Insurance Plan will become law and that H will, in time, be accepted by the British people as a matter of course...
...The fundamental Idea of the Plan which Sir William Beveridge worked out in 1942 by order of the British Government is that it unifies the various branches of social insurance and gives everybody, in exchange for a single weekly payment, the right to * basic rate of benefit in emergency—regardless of the cause of the emergency, whether it is sickness, unemployment, old age or invalidity...
...He was one of the chief Labor protagonists in the parliamentary debate in the Coalition Government's version of the Beveridge Plan...
...He soon became a trade union organizer and an enthusiastic Socialist, and was sent to organize a mercantile marine union...
...better than they were and that under the new regime the coal miner's job will be a job with a future...
...His Socialism is of the emu tionsl type...
...A scholarship to the Labor College in London gave him his chance...
...France continues to insist on the severanre of the Ruhr and Rhineland from Germany, thus blocking, ss .does Kussia, the setting up of a central administration of the four watertight zone* into which the Reich has been divided, with disastrous reaults to everyone except the Russians...
...But improvement takes time, and in the interval Newaome will need the eloquence of a Demosthenes to make coal mining popular...
...It will not, as its opponents.say, sap the enterprise and sturdy spirit of the British workman...
...Even in its present state it is in many ways a model...
...The rise in the cost of living during the interval is accounted for by increasing the basic rate to 25 shillings...
...A few year* later he became chairman of the South Wales Miners' Federation...
...All left-wing parties plan to boycott the balloting, thus encuring • triumph of Ihe monarchists, who ore organized snd armed...
...on to lost positions...
...Over 70 Labor Members or Parliament in Britain signed a statement against holding the Greek election* on March 31 aa scheduled...
...After the Labor election victory Attlee may have hesitated whether to make him Dominion* Secretary...
...Even the conservative Daily Trlegrain admits that if general economic conditions in Britain are good the financial burdens of th* new Plan are not really prohibitive...
...Socialists snd Catholic Republicans because mingled fear and vengeance predominate over reasonableness...
...On the contrary, the knowledge that he need have no fear of starving with his family if he happens to fall ill or loses his job, will give him a new spirit of purposeful action lacking in a cowed and undernourished working class...
...Even Premier Sophoulla advised H'v in that he thought elections now Inadvisable, but Kevin insisted they be held...
...They will try to secure methods of valuation which give them the maximum of financial •"benefit in exchange for the control they sc.- losing...
...In a Government in which a large number of key posts are occupied by former coal miners, it is surprising that Shinwell is not a miner...
...Their purpose will rather be to discredit the principle of nationalization and to praise the principle of private enterprise in the hop* of ¦stuenciag public opinion in preparation for the fight about the nationalisation of ether industries later on...
...The Ministry has appointed as director of recruiting a dynamic young man named Noel Newsome who did a first-class job during the war directing broad-Cast propaganda to the Europeans...
...He has started off by telling the public most persuasively that the battle of eosi is the Second Battle of Britain, that conditions in Ihe mines are...
...In course of time, they will also mak« the moat of Labor'* difficulties in rebuilding the industry...
...Together with the system of Chil-drens' Allowances (which became law last year) and the State Medical Service (which Health Minister Aneurin Bevan Is to bring before Parliament in a few weeks) the National Insurance Plan may lay the foundations of a happier and therefore more enterprising Socislist Britain...
...He took the view that British Socialism, with Empire responsibilities, must develop interest in Empire affairs...
...CriflUhs is a Welsh miner, the youngest of ten children of a village blacksmith...
...1 The cool owners have given up the fight ss far aa the question of nationalisation itself ia concerned...
...Klected to Parliament, he soon reached front rank not only a* on* of the most eloquent but also aa one of the most universally beloved of Labor leaders...
...This basic rate, designed to cover a person's essentisl needs snd therefor* to give him security against want, waa calculated at 14 shillings s week by Beveridge...
Vol. 29 • March 1946 • No. 13
