LABOUR IN BRITAIN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 14 November 1934, Page 2

LABOUR IN BRITAIN

A SOCIALIST FIVE-YEAR PLAN right defeats the left LONDON 4Ui October. The possibility of a general election within a year, ‘and the certainty of one before the summer of 1930, have directed the thoughts of all political parties in Britain to policy. Labour followed up the Trades Union Con-o-ress in September with a conference of the Labour party at Southport. All the leaders were present. Mr Arthur Henderson, Mr J. R. Clynes, and Mr Ernest Bevin were in charge of the forces of the Right. Sir Stafford Cripps, Lord Marley and Mr Aneurin Reran represented the Left. The case for the flight was embodied in a pamphlet entitled “For Socialism and Peace,” which replaces the famous “Labour and the Nation” pamphlet issued as a prelude to the term of ollice which Labour enjoyed between 1929 and 1931. “For Socialism and Peace” runs to 2d pages, but the amendments emanating from Sir Stafford Cripps and his friends of the .Socialist League quickly amounted to 39 pages. The Southport conference thus became a battle-ground upon which the forces of Right and Left decided how much of “For Socialism and Peace” should pass into accepted policy. The Right won easily, though the Left, scored some debating success, and Sir Stafford Cripps was elected to the party executive by 1,187,000 votes. Generally speaking, the Left was working for a Labour dictatorship, which would operate immediately the Socialists proved themselves victors at a general election. Its demand was that pressure should be brought upon the Crown at once and the abolition of the House of Lords ensured. Above all economic power was to be seized. As Sir Stafford Cripps and his friends envisage politics, between 1929 and 1931 Labour tried to get as much as it could out of capitalism and failed dismally. Sir Stafford Cripps expects capital once more to be called in to defeat Labour. “Therefore,” says he, “we should open our minds to the consideration of what are the essential and necessary steps to take when a Government which has a mandate to change the economic system is returned to power.” Amplifying this statement, Mr W. Mellor, another representative of the Socialist League, summed up the aims of the Labour Left in. these five declarations: — Power to make Parliament a machine for work; to gain control of key centres of finance and land; to proceed with the rapid socialisation of the basic means of production; to bring, into force a realistic foreign policy; and to proceed to meet the clamant needs of the mnsses of the unemployed. THE RIGHT WINS The Southport conference, on a card vote, defeated these proposals by 2.140,000 votes to 200,000, so the Right triumphed. The decision against an immediate conflict with the House of Lords was no less decisive. As the executive pointed out, it would be foolish to fight the Lords on the moribund issue of abolition instead of upon “the new and living issue of rejected or mangled legislation.” Finally the Right was successful in an amusing “heresy hunt” directed against those members of the Left who occasionally appear on platforms with Communists or work with them on committees. This issue aroused a stormy debate, in which Mr Bevan and Mr Bevin tilted lustily. Mr Ernest Bevin is the big-voiced secretary of the Transport Workers Union; Mr Aneurin Bevan, M.P., is a leader of the Welsh miners. Mr Bevan was very caustic in his criticisms of the Right. He accused the Labour Caucus—his own phrase—of drilling the delegates to a goosestep and wasting time on a heresy hunt. This was too much for Mr Bevin. He has been described as having the voice of a motor-liorn and the weight of a two-decker omnibus. He brought all his forces to bear upon his unfortunate opponent. “In this conference you are not going to get the flattery of the gossip columns which you get in London,” he said. Mr Bevan, from the floor of the conference hall, shouted vehement interruptions at Mr Bevin on the rostrum, but the transport leader proved the victor. By 1,347,000 votes to 195,000 the conference decided that the Labour executive was right, and that the heretics must cease their revels with Communism or go. Nevertheless the Labour extremists may well have more success when it comes to crowded election meetings. The dreams of the Socialist League have been embodied in an amusing book entitled “The Frst Workers’ Government,” by G. R. Mitcliison, which is being widely reviewed, and which includes an introduction by Sir Stafford Cripps. Mr Mitchison’s book professes to be a history of Labour, written in 1980. It opens with an account of the Socialist victory in the summer of 1930, thanks to concentrating entirely on Sir Stafford Cripps’s programme. At once the National Government resigns, and a certain McCosh is invited by the King to form a Socialist Cabinet. According to M Mitcliison McCosh gives his answer in one word, “Aye,” bows summarily, and walks out! The next step is to rush through the “Emergency Powers (Financial) Act, 1936.” Mr Mitcliison prints the act verbatim in an appendix. It gives the Government control over the entire credit system of Britain. The House of Lords having failed to respond to a two-days’ ultimatum, McCosh goes to Buckingham Palace. His second audience with the King lasts three hours. Then “the King on medical advice, cancelled his i public engagements for the next ten days.” McCOSH’S COMMONWEALTH Tlie obstacles due to Buckingham Palace being removed, McCosh rushes through the House of Commons bills giving a minimum wage to all workers and a 40-hour week. The obedient Commons also empower the Government “to control or requisition all industries, trades, undertakings, or services.” A complete overhaul of Parliament and Government, national and local, occupies two more months. By the beginning of 1937 Socialism is ready to establish itself. Away go the Big Five to the banking world; only the co-operative banks remain. Then all land is transferred to the Secretary for Land, and a National Investment Board requisitions all private invest- : ments, owners of stocks and sltTires receiving annuities terminable in 25 years. Trade unions, however are : permitted to hold investments. As for 1 taxation, the surtax begins at £I,OOO and reaches 100 per cent, on £IO,OOO : and more. Perhaps the biggest joke

in Mr Mitcliison’s dip into tlie future is his estimate that in the first year of the McCosh Government tlie yield from direct taxation is £700,000,000! Tlie other outstanding jest in connection with tlie “First Workers’ Government” is that some of its readers take the effusion seriously.