SOCIALISM IN OUR TIME

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 3, 3 July 1926, Page 7

SOCIALISM IN OUR TIME

INDEPENDENT LABOUR s PARTY

RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE WAR

GUILD OF YOUTH.

(From Our Own Correipondtnt.)

LONDON, 10th' April,

In his presidential address at the annual conference of the Independent Labour Party, Mr. ¥. W. Jowett, act-ing-chairman of the party, took, as his text "Socialism in Our Time" and "Internationalism in Our Time." The 1.L.P., ho said, was asking the Labour Party to put Socialism and the abolition of poverty in the; forefront of its programme. The right to live involved, in the first place, a living wage. The workers should, under 110 circumstances, be content with less. It was sometimes thought that tho I.L.P. was only interested in polities in its narrow sense. That was not so. The object of the I.L.P. was to establish Socialism. They proposed that the industrial policy committee during the coming year should consider the relation of the co-operative movaiaent to Socialism with a view to their members taking their full, part in this important side of the working class advance towards the co-operative commonwealth. The struggle in which the miners were engaged illustrated how important the industrial movement was in the'fight for the right to live and Socialism. It was as important for Socialism as any struggle that had ever taken plaae on the political field. The I.L.P. wal wholeheartedly behind the miners in their great stand. And so with the engineers, who had been the victims of broken Government pledges and hard-faced employers who did well out of the war. INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS. Dealing with international affairs, Mr. Jowett said that recent developments amply vindicated the view that until the nation put entirely one side the frame of mind of innocent victors and guilty vanquished and approached the grave issues which confronted them from the point of view of common responsibility for .the war, and a common desire to serve the well-being of Europe as a whole, there could be no satisfactory settlement leading to peace. He believed, as E. D. Morel believed, that until it was definitely admitted, in the words of Signor Nitti, that "all the warring countries have their share of responsibility" for the war "in differing degree," the ground could not be cleared for the reconstruction of Europe and the establishment of real peace. Once admit common responsibility and the Versailles Treaty must be revised, reparations must end, the occupation of German territory must ceaso, and the intrigue to prevent Germany entering the League of Nations with her due authority must disappear. He agreed with Mr. Houghton, the American Ambasador in London, who said, "European statesmen have learnt nothing by the war." We were back at 1914 and the rivalries of the preceding years. The present Capitalist policies would inevitably drown Europe in a sea of blood unless the international Labour movement would awaken to the situation and organise to Tesist them. The I.L.P. must stand for "Internationalism in our time," no less than for "Socialism in our time." ASSOCIATION WITH COMMUNISTS. Difference of opinion as to the necessity of revolution by armed force, and as to government by dictatorship, had, up to the present, prevented the Independent Labour Party from associating itself for any purpose with the Communist Party in this country, and in his opinion must continue to do so, as long as the Communist Party maintained those doctrines. But Communists frequently denied that they supported either of these things, as ordinarily understood. What could be more desirable, in these circumstances, than to ascertain from the authoritative international body, which alone .could determine the point, whether there had been a modification of. policy which would make joint action possible and enable them to press for It internationally! If the answer was "Yes," then joint action was not only possible but desirable. OPPOSITION TO WAR. "In t)fe event of a war taking place our movement must give a lead to the youth of the country by refusing to participate in it, realising fully the consequences to tho individual of such a .refusal, but maintaining our steadfast opposition regardless of the consequences." Cheers greeted this declaration by Mr. J. MacGowan, of Glasgow, in his presidential address at Whitley Bay at the annual meeting of the Guild of Youth, which was started two years ago as the recruiting movement for the parent society, the Independent Labour Party. The delegates represented 182 divisional guilds, with a member- | ship of 9000. The Guild of Youth, added Mr. MacGowan, had rightly taken a definite stand in opposition to war, and they must pledge themselves not to take part in any movement which trained young people for warfare.