LABOR BACKS BEVIN & BEVAN
White, Donald
Labor Backs Bevin & Bevan Party Hails Foreign Secretary, Health Minister By Donald White LONDON. CRITICS OF BRITAIN'S FOREIGN POLICY fwere demolished at the recent Labor party conference. Mr....
...There was no great demand for further sweeping measures of nationalization, most of the delegates seeming to prefer to deal first with the many problems confronting the industries and services already publicly owned...
...The Labor party has reason to recall that old political maxim: "Gratitude is the expectation of future favors...
...In part, this is genuine...
...The party's support of the policy of friendliness towards the United Slates and firmness towards the Soviet Union was underlined by the expulsion of Mr...
...Indeed, on the question of taking over industrial insurance (the kind of insurance on which premiums are collected house-to-house, at weekly or monthly intervals), there was considerable resistance from spokesmen of the consumers' cooperative movement...
...they tend rather to note that it ~is not now improving, or is improving very slowly...
...It may strike American readers ns . odd that Laborites now expect trade union leaders to stop, .strikes rather than start them...
...People easily ' forget how their standard of living has improved...
...Ernest Bevin's 40-minute speech was frequently interrupted by tumultuous applause and was followed by a standing ovation...
...If they can maintain this rhood of fighting confidence, and Inspire a similar mood in their millions of supporters throughout the country, the nex^ national election—expected next spring—should put Labor in power for another five years...
...But they are enough to cause anger and disappointment to trade union and labor party leaders...
...Until recently, the official leaders of the unions moved firmly against strikes and discouraged'them in every way possible...
...The authoritative British weekly...
...In larger part, it is psychological rather than real...
...During the first years after the war, many families welcomed returning soldiers...
...The speech Figgins himself made w.is coldly received, and was promptly attacked by Sir Will Lawther, Chairman of the Trades Union Congress and President of the Miners' Union...
...It is only fair to add that strike losses arc still a mere fraction of what they were after the first World War...
...Rankand-file delegates grumbled: "Why don't we toss Figgins out instead of Zilliacus...
...Konni Zilliacus and Mr...
...wae no accident that speaker after speaker stressed the Christian and moral traditions of the British labor movement...
...In the past twelve months, the average weekly wage has advanced slightly more th^n the cost-of-living index...
...L. J. Solley, Labor Members of Parliament...
...AS RECESSION SPREADS over the world, and particularly in the vital North American market, the British export drive is already faltering...
...LEADERS OF ALL WINGS of the Labor party—Aneurin Bevan, Sir Stafford Cripps and Herbert Morrison— have joined in attacking, both directly and indirectly, behavior of this sort...
...Meet of those who voted against expulsion disagreed with these policies, but felt that expulsion would merely give them wider publicity...
...But there has appeared in the bulky person of Mr...
...In such an economy, strikes are almost certain of short-term success, but they"subject the economy to unbearable inflationary pressure...
...Also, whc.i luxury goods did not appear in the shops, people did not miss them...
...In the debate which followed, not one voice was raised in criticism, and the speeches in support of Government policy included a vigorous and impressive one by Philip Noel-Baker, Minister for Commonwealth Relations...
...The policies themselves could probably not muster more than 200.000 voles in the conference...
...Here also the conference gave the Government an overwhelming endorsement...
...now that they arc there, people feel aggrieved because they cannot afford them...
...J. B. Figgins, head of the National Union of Railwaymcn, a leader Who gives the impression of exploiting the situation for all it is worth...
...On paper, indeed, the Government's position is unassailable...
...In Parliament, only a tew out of almost four hundred Labor M. P.'s have voted against the European Recovery Program and the North Atlantic Pact...
...This substantial apathy or even discontent expresses itself in grumbling and fli "wildcat" strikes, like the recent Sunday stoppages on the railroads...
...No votes were taken, but the Labor party Executive announced that it would consider all the suggestions made...
...In addition, workers and their families have enjoyed during the same year two great benefits not recorded on the cost-of-living index—the National Health Service and a greatly expanded social security program...
...The danger is that Britain may be priced out of most of her export markets unless prices come down or at least rerrtain stable...
...When the conference began, tho delegates were In a doubtful and discontented mood—bruised by Tory victories in the nationwide local elections, unhappy about wage* and living costs, and alarmed by the ra(h of "wildcat" strike...
...Now, even before "the wages deadline, the discontent he has cultivated has erupted in Sunday strikes...
...With each day of the conference, their spirits rose, and with it their- confidence in their leadership...
...The final vote was 4.700.000 to 700,000, but it was aot Indicative of the real unpopularity ef the Wallace-type policies advocated by Zilliacus and his friends...
...This matter will have to be hammered out between leaders of the party and of the cooperatives...
...Every party leader at the conference therefore preached the gospel of higher and more efficient production, and told the unions to think less about wage boosts and more about increases in output...
...He is by universal consent the coming man in the British, labor movement...
...For the discipline enforced by fear of unemployment, it wants to substitute the self-discipline of millions of workers striving together to build a better Britain...
...They have a large insurance company of their own which would pass into public ownership, and they are reluctant to see it go...
...They brought their end-of-service bonuses with them, and the abundance of ready cash gave people a feeling of prosperity which has not since been recaptured...
...He's caused us more trouble in four months than Zilliacus has caused us in four years...
...It is, however, an inevitable feature of the policy of planned full employment to which Labor is committed...
...Aneurin Bevan was the popular success of the conference, lopping the poll in the election lo the Labor party Executive and drawing the biggest demonstration of the week for an oration whose eloquence reminded the older people in the audience of Lloyd George...
...His references to the European Recovery Program and the North Atlantic Pact received a particularly hearty welcome...
...THE OTHER LEADING ISSUE at the conference was that of wages, prices and profits, and the attempt of Sir Stafford Cripps to deal with them by voluntary stabilization of wages an...
...The Economist, has recently urged that a pool of a million unemployed would be invaluable in cutting wage costs and producing efficiency...
...These two M.P.'s have taken a line very similar to that of Mr...
...His firm opposition lo Communism, and the manner in which he teamed up with MaxiUyen to urge moderation and responsibility among workers in public and private enterprise, further endeared him to the delegate...
...Henry Wallace in America...
...The fact is that many people feel they are worse rather than better off...
...dividends...
...Two days of the conference were devoted to the discussion of the proposed election platform, described in an earlier, jVeto Leader article...
...The conference ended with the party united as never before...
...They are, therefore, much better off than they were a year ago...
...Catering to the substantial communist and fellow-traveler sentiment in the union, he has been careering about the countryside, attacking the Government's economic policies and whipping up wage demands...
...It is expected that they will soon be joined in the discard by—Lester Hutchinson, the Labor M.P...
...The Labor parly is notably tolerant of unpopular opinions, however extreme, and the expulsions have come only after a long series ef warnings...
...In spite of facts and statistics, the conference delegates will have some difficulty communicating their confidence to the rank-and-file workers...
...whom the Wallaceitcs, witri their usual impudence, have recently been parading coast-to-coast in America as representative of British popular sentiment...
...This is the last thing that the British labor movement, with its memory of millions on the dole between the wars, can afford to contemplate...
Vol. 32 • July 1949 • No. 27
