“LABOURISM” AND SOCIALISM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27196, 27 September 1949, Page 6

“LABOURISM” AND SOCIALISM

Sir, —" No one, however ignorant, could fail to * perceive that the majority of people have * had it * so far as Socialism is concerned.” So writes your correspondent, ’• Matilda.” It reminds me of a similar cry, “ Christianity has failed. Socialism, like Christianity, has never been tried. Your correspondent, like all other members of the National Party, both in and out of Parliament, persistently calls the Labour Party the Socialist Party, probably with a view to creating confusion of thought. They are well enough aware that many trade union officials and prominent members of the Labour Party are not Socialists. Your correspondent, like all others who have not studied the question, is confused between Socialism and Labourism, between which there is a fundamental distinction which, I feel sure, “ Matilda would be interested in. She would find that the confusion of Socialism with Labourism is retarding the acceptance of Socialism by the middle classes, of , which your correspondent is one. She will also find that although the Labour Party is committed to a general support of Socialism as an ideal of Labour policy, when they are in power Socialism recedes into the background as the pious hope of theoreticians, and Labourism, with a big dash of Liberalism, .governs the country. -I am, etc., Wilfred.