AnarWiki/markdown/Labour_Party_(UK).md

The **Labour Party** is a [political party](Political_Party "wikilink")
that comprises an alliance of [social
democrats](Social_Democracy "wikilink"), moderate socialists and [trade
unionists](Trade_Union "wikilink") across the
[UK](United_Kingdom "wikilink"). As of 2017, Labour had the largest
membership of any party (512,000) in Western Europe.\[1\]

## History

The party was formed by trade unions who wished to capture control of
the state in order to improve the position of the UK [working
class](Working_Class "wikilink") in a period of high poverty, poor
working conditions and the [Long Depression](Long_Depression "wikilink")
which brutally hit the working class. First came the Indepedent Labour
Party, ten the Labour Representation Committee (who refused to adopt the
politics of [class struggle](Class_Struggle "wikilink")), and finally
the Labour Party in the 1906 election. After the election of 1906 and
the winning of 29 seats by the LRC, it changed its name to the Labour
Party. It wasn't socialist theory which had created the party, it was
the action of a group of hard headed union leaders who realised that
only by winning seats in parliament could they hope to alter the legal
balance against themselves. This set the tone for the party and ensured
that points of principle always had to give way to expediency and
horse-trading.

Even to get elected these MPs had had to do deals. In those days many
constituencies had two MPs. Ten of the MPs were elected in these, where
the Liberal party only put up one candidate. Sixteen of the others
didn't have to put up with Liberal opposition. Only three of them had to
fight for their seats against more than just a Tory. Most claimed to be
devoutly religious, usually Methodist or Congregationalist, only a
couple claimed to be Marxists. So the first group of Labour MPs were
elected on the coat-tails of the Liberal party as a result of electoral
deals and pacts. Small wonder that there was little difference between
the two groups.

This group of MPs achieved little other than state payment of MPs (in
1911). Then in 1914, war broke out between Britain and Germany. The
Labour Party had been part of the Second International and as such was
supposed to be against war. In fact it took them just three days to
decide to support the war\!

For revolutionaries and socialists it is a simple principle that we
oppose capitalist wars. They are always fought in capitalist interests,
whether to capture new markets, to defend trade routes or to grab
sources of raw materials. They are always said to be for ‘freedom’,
‘democracy’ or to defend the ‘rights’ of small nations. These
justifications are equally always lies. These lies are used to con
workers into joining up and dying while the boss class rakes in the
profits. At times it can be difficult to see this. But in 1914 the
issues were quite clear. Socialists in 1914 recognised this in Britain
and in other countries. Almost without exception, the social democratic
and labour parties rushed to support their ruling class against workers
in other countries. This act clearly marked these parties as being on
the side of the bosses and against workers all over the world.

The grateful capitalist class were quick to reward the Labour leaders.
In May 1915, the Liberal Prime Minister, Asquith, decided that to run
the war properly he needed a coalition government. Arthur Henderson ,
the leader of the Labour Party, joined the cabinet and two other Labour
MPs got junior jobs. In return, they collaborated with the introduction
of conscription and the deskilling of industry. As the war went on
Labour's membership of the government increased.

This involvement in government was at a time of rising class struggle.
As prices soared, food became scarce and wages failed to rise. There was
an upsurge in class struggle, particularly on Clydeside. Many socialists
were imprisoned for refusing to join up, speakers were beaten up and
public meetings had to be cancelled. Labour's response was to fight to
‘Win the War’, to break strikes and try to exclude from the party the
influence of groups like the ILP which tended to take a more pacifist
line. In 1917 their influence was broken forever by the power of the
trade union bureaucrats with the introduction of the union bloc vote.

It was in 1918 that the party adopted what it claims to be a ‘socialist’
constitution. This was adopted under the influence of the Russian
Revolution and the upsurge of struggle that followed it all over Europe.
In theory it proposed very radical sounding policies, in reality it
enshrined the unions bureaucrats control of the party. The constitution
for the first time allowed individual membership of the party, thus it
let in all sorts of guilt ridden, privileged, public school types who
hoped to run a reformed capitalism. In fact it was written by one of
them, Sidney Webb.

It was this constitution that contained the famous Clause Four. This
said it was the party's aim: To secure for the producers by hand and
brain the full fruits of their industry, and the most equitable
distribution thereof that may be possible, upon the basis of the common
ownership of the means of production and the best obtainable system of
popular administration and control of each industry or service

This doesn't sound too bad on paper. Now we have something to judge them
against, instead of just a desire to save union funds from the courts.

## The First Two Labour Governments

They soon had a chance to put their ideas into practice. In December
1923 there was a General Election. Although the Conservatives won most
seats they were in a minority. Labour and the Liberals massively
outnumbered them. As the second largest party, Labour got the chance to
govern. This first Labour government, led by Ramsay MacDonald, only
lasted from January to November, before being replaced by the Tories
again. They claimed that they were ‘in office but not in power’ and so
couldn't really be blamed for not having done much.

A good sign of just how much they intended to do, and how clear their
attachment to socialist principles was can be seen from the following. J
H Thomas, Union leader and MP, was appointed to the Colonial Office. He
introduced himself to his departmental heads with the statement: ‘I’m
here to see there is no mucking about with the British Empire.’

In February 1924 the dockers called a strike. This was opposed by the
Labour government. In March the tramway workers in London came out. The
railway unions proposed to come out in sympathy. MacDonald's response
was to use the full force of the law on the side of the bosses. He
invoked the 1920 Emergency Powers Act, this would have meant the
declaration of a state of emergency if the strike had not been called
off. In August the Attorney General tried to prosecute J R Campbell, the
editor of the 'Communist' Workers Weekly , on a charge of incitement to
mutiny. These actions all helped set the tone for the future.

Other notable Labour victories of this government were to go ahead with
rearmament, including the building of five new cruisers, the bombing of
indigenous people in Iraq and shooting strikers in India - presumably
for ‘mucking about with the British Empire’.

Just six years after adopting its so-called socialist constitution,
Labour had had a chance at government. It had acted like any other
capitalist party - for the bosses and against the workers.

Labour got elected again in 1929. Again it was a minority government. It
promised to reduce unemployment, which stood at 1,164,000. Within a year
it had gone up by 750,000 to 1,911,000. In two years it had more than
doubled - reaching the then record level of 2,707,000.

Faced with drain of gold from London in 1931 the government discussed
ways to ‘Save the Pound’. What this meant was cuts in civil service pay
and unemployment benefits. The Cabinet split over this and MacDonald,
the ILP member, formed a coalition with Liberals and Tories to force the
measures through. The majority of the party went into opposition.

In the two years Labour had been in power, 4 million workers had had
their wages reduced, including the Government's own employees.

What followed was a period in the wilderness with continued Tory
government. The party came under the leadership and control of two men -
Clement Attlee and Sir Stafford Cripps. Both were members of the ruling
class. Attlee was the son of a solicitor who had gone to public school.
During the First World War, this famous socialist and ILP member had
been a Major in the army. He had tried to enlist just two days after the
war started, but had been refused because he was too old. Undaunted he
kept on trying and had on a number of occasions considered shooting men
for cowardice.

When war broke out in 1939, Labour were quick to support the British
ruling class. In fact Attlee’s biggest concern in the early days of
September was that Chamberlain, the Tory PM, wouldn't declare war on
Germany.

In 1940 Attlee got his reward. Labour entered into coalition with the
Tories and Attlee and Greenwood got into the War Cabinet.

Attlee’s first job was to introduce an Emergency Powers Bill which gave
the government the power to control every aspect of life. He went on the
BBC to announce that ‘Parliament has given to the Government full power
to control all persons and property .... The direction of persons to
perform services will be under the Minister of Labour, Mr Ernest Bevin.’

Like the First World War, the Second brought increased prices and
lowered standards of living to workers. Like in the First, workers
didn't just accept this. There were strikes in many industries, most
notably in the mines. As Labour and the TUC were partners in the
capitalists’ war effort, their response was simple. Strikers were
saboteurs and enemies. They must return to work. Everything was to be
subordinate to the war effort. Workers must wait till the war was over.

## The Attlee Government

With the end of the war in Europe, July 1945 saw another General
Election. This time Labour won with a huge majority. They had 393 MPs
out of 640. They could do anything that they liked. They finally had the
chance to really do something and put Clause Four into effect. What they
did was nationalise great swathes of industry, notably coal, rail, gas,
electricity, iron and steel and the Bank of England. They also
introduced the National Health Service and other features of the Welfare
State. It is upon this that most Labour members rest their claims of
socialism.

Looking back we can clearly see that nationalisation has nothing to do
with socialism. All it does is replace one set of bosses with another
set, who work for the state. For workers the old problems remain. We
still have to work for a wage or salary. We still have to pay the rent
or mortgage. We still have to feed and clothe our kids. We do this while
the new bosses live lives of luxury on enormous salaries. We have no
control over our own lives and constantly face the prospect of the sack.
All over the world, workers have rejected state capitalism.

Why did Labour nationalise all these industries? They did so mostly
because they were not making profits for their bosses. After the war and
the pre-war experiences of the Great Depression, British capitalism was
in a bad way. Industry was crumbling and needed replacing. Industry that
had been destroyed in the war needed rebuilding. If private capital
remained tied up in the loss making mines and railways it could not be
used to reconstruct British capitalism. The obvious answer was to
nationalise. In return for their ownership of particular firms, the
ruling class were given lavish compensation which could then be invested
in other, more profitable industries.

A good example of this was with the nationalisation of the Bank of
England. Stockholders were guaranteed the right to continue to receive a
12% dividend on their investment, even after the Bank was taken into
state ownership.

Workers on the other hand, according to Herbert Morrison , could only
get the benefits of social insurance, ‘by increasing the total national
income ... it could only be done by work, thought, drive and
initiative.’ (Times, September 6th 1945) . What this meant of course
was increased productivity, greater exploitation to screw more surplus
value out of the working class - in return for which a few crumbs would
be thrown off the bosses table.

The ‘Communist’, Arthur Horner, a senior NUM bureaucrat explained that
he wanted, ‘The workers in the pits to adopt a new attitude ... Hitherto
the policy of the Union had been to get what they could out of the
owners. Now they had taken on the responsibility of assisting in running
the industry they must accept new methods. They must take a more active
part in assisting greater technical efficiency and increasing output.’
(Daily Telegraph, Sept. 7th, 1945)

The Labour Party and the Unions were hand in hand with the bosses,
aiming to screw more out of the working class by conning them that the
promised land had arrived.

They showed just whose side they were on in the docks. Just like in
1924, Labour had to deal with a dockers strike. This was in October
1945. The strike was unofficial. Both union leaders and Labour MPs told
them to go back to work. But the men, who had suffered big wage cuts
after the war ended, carried on with their strike. What was Labour’s
response? They sent troops into the London docks to break the strike.
They repeated this tactic many times in the course of their government.
Indeed it is a regular feature of Labour in power that it uses troops to
break strikes. It did it in the 1970s against the fire fighters, the bin
men and others.

What about the NHS? Surely this was a great socialist venture? Actually
it was all based on the wartime Beveridge Report. This was partly aimed
at keeping workers quiet in the hope of avoiding upheaval after the war.
It was also partly aimed at ensuring a healthier and more compliant
workforce that would produce more profits for the bosses. In any case
Beveridge, the great architect of the NHS, was a member of the Liberal
party and his report had the broad agreement of all the main political
parties. Any argument was over points of policy, not the policy itself.

What was Labour's record on the NHS in this government? They passed a
law in 1949 allowing for prescription charges and in 1951 introduced
charges on glasses and false teeth.

Other notable features of this Labour government were the building of
the British atomic bomb and Hydrogen bomb, the rising of the cost of
living by 30% and the demand that workers exercise ‘restraint’ and not
ask for pay rises. Wartime rationing was kept in place, which ensured
that money was spent not on consumption but on investment. This meant
not only less for workers, but a drabber, more monotonous existence. In
fact between 1947 and 1951 working class people suffered a drop in their
real wages.

All in all, the great Attlee government gave little to the working
class. In this it revealed once again just whose side it was on. This
time its membership began more closely to reveal this fact too. In 1945
more than 40 of the Labour MPs were lawyers...... ‘ between 20 and 30
were business men, and a good sprinkling of farmers, accountants,
consulting engineers and other professions’ were among the rest. Arthur
Greenwood, the Labour Lord Privy Seal, said at the time, ‘I look around
among my colleagues, and I see landlords, capitalists and lawyers. We
are a cross-section of the national life, and this is something that has
never happened before.’ A party originally set up to protect the unions
had acquired a constitution written by middle class intellectuals and
was now being run by a coalition of union bureaucrats and traditional
members of the ruling class.

Nationalisation is not, and never has been, Socialism. Socialism means
the common ownership of the means of production and distribution. It
means getting rid of the bosses, getting rid of working for a wage or
salary, getting rid of the whole rotten buying and selling system. It
means that people will freely come together to produce what is needed
and will freely take from the abundant products of their labour. It will
involve the abolition not only of the ruling class, but also their
state. It will not mean that state being replaced by a new state.
Nationalisation is just one form of state capitalism.

It is hardly surprising that the Labour Party and the unions ended up as
the firmest supporters of state capitalism. Trade unions do not exist to
change society. They were set up to fight over the division of the
capitalist cake, not to take over the bakery. Indeed, without the buying
and selling economy, based on wage labour, there is no role for a trade
union. With no role for a trade union, there is no job for a union
official. However, the power, privileges and status of the union
bureaucrats are very much determined by how much their status is
recognised by the capitalist class. To protect their position, it is
natural for unions to look for a more regulated capitalism, a capitalism
based on partnership between employers and labour organisations. It was
to achieve this that the Labour Party was set up in the first place.

Their position was recognised and they were welcomed as junior partners
in the state machine during the First World War. It was a logical step
for them to go beyond mere regulation and favour full blown state
ownership, with the state as the major employer working in partnership
with the unions. Thus Clause Four was adopted as a means of selling this
to the working class at the same time as the Unions’ control over the
party was established. Their function as part of the state machine was
re-emphasised during the Second World War, and continued afterwards with
the various tripartite commissions, quangos like the National Economic
Development Corporation, and the routine appointment of Trade Union
General Secretaries to the House of Lords.

As part of the state wanting more state control the party attracted to
itself those sections of the ruling class who would benefit from it.
This helps explain the number of lawyers and other professionals in the
Attlee governing party. By the 1940s even the leaders of the party came
from this social group.

In 1951 there was another General Election. This time Labour lost. It
was followed by 13 years of Tory government. The most startling fact
about this period is just how similar it was to the previous Labour
administration. There was no privatisation. Municipal housing programmes
increased in speed. The welfare state thrived.

## The Wilson Years

1964 saw the return of yet another Labour government. Again they came to
power on the back of promises to the working class. It would be
pointless to give a detailed account of their practice. Some high
points, however, deserve mention. This period of government saw an
almost continual balance of payments crisis, accompanied by pressure on
sterling and the exchange rate. To combat this, Labour put a freeze on
wages, but allowed prices to keep on going up. At the same time as
freezing wages, they devalued the pound - which of course meant a
further falling of wages.

The working class’s response to this was to increase the number of
strikes and other methods of industrial struggle. Most of the most
effective strikes were unofficial. The government’s response was to
introduce a White Paper, In Place of Strife, which attempted to force
the unions to police their members better. The unions felt unable to do
this and resisted the White Paper. It was later picked up and introduced
into law by the Heath Conservative Government.

As part of their attempt to force austerity on the working class, the
government introduced NHS prescription charges and the charge for dental
treatment increased by half. They got rid of free school milk in
secondary schools, a policy followed up by Margaret Thatcher under the
Heath government. New taxes were introduced on imported goods, which
made them more expensive for working class people. Even holidays were
made less pleasant. Exchange controls were brought in that only allowed
people to take £50 with them if they went abroad. Of course the rich
soon found ways round this.

On immigration Labour took the racist path. In 1968, a racist regime in
Kenya threatened to kick thousands of Asians out of Kenya. Nearly all of
these held British passports. Labour’s response was to pass the
Commonwealth Immigrants Act which stopped most of them coming to
Britain.

Throughout the sixties, the Labour government supported the USA in its
war in Vietnam. This was at a time when the Americans were regularly
terror bombing cities, napalming villages and massacring civilians.

Labour’s foreign policy was crowned by the decision to build the Polaris
submarine force. This came from the party which had adopted
unilateralism as its policy at the beginning of the sixties.

## Callaghan and the Social Contract

The Heath government was beaten when they tried to take on the miners.
The ruling class were clearly unhappy with the idea of a three day week
and showed little enthusiasm for a continuation of his rule. In 1974
there was another election and again Labour was elected. This was the
start of the last period of Labour government up to today.

Once again there was a balance of payments crisis and to this was added
the twin problems of unemployment and inflation. True to their past,
Labour chose to tackle inflation. They did this with the Social
Contract. Pay freezes backed by law had proved very unpopular, and
extremely difficult to enforce faced with unofficial and wildcat
strikes. Labour’s alternative was a voluntary scheme which relied on the
Unions to police their members. In fact the whole Social Contract idea
was the scheme of left-wing union leaders, notable Jack Jones of the
TGWU. So in the winter of 1975-76, inflation ran into double figures,
unemployment rose to unheard of levels and workers were prevented from
getting more than £6 a week extra in their pay packets. The success of
this policy led to even lower pay rises the following year.

In 1976 the state of British capitalism was so severe that the
government called in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to arrange a
loan. They imposed severe austerity measures, which Callaghan, the new
PM, was only too happy to impose. These called for cuts in public
expenditure, particularly hitting education and health. Some of the
first anti-cuts demonstrations were held not against Tories, but against
Labour.

When workers resisted or fought back they were subject to the full range
of state sanctions. Striking fire fighters had army scabs used against
them, as did refuse collectors in Scotland. Political trials were
started against the British Withdrawal from Northern Ireland Campaign
and their supporters who tried to get British troops to desert. In
Northern Ireland they continued the policy of repression with the
Prevention Of Terrorism Act and increasing the number of soldiers there.

Meanwhile, the cabinet secretly agreed to upgrade Britain's nuclear
submarine force with the Chevaline missile system. This significantly
increased the number of warheads carried on Polaris submarines and
improved their accuracy.

In the end the working class had enough. The winter of 1978-79 saw a
massive upsurge in class struggle as workers struck for wage rises to
keep up with inflation. This was the so-called Winter of Discontent. The
Labour Party became so unpopular that the election of that year saw the
election of Thatcher’s first Tory government.

## In Opposition

Since 1979, Labour has been in opposition. This has not prevented it
acting in the interests of the ruling class. When the Falklands War
started, it was the pacifist leader of the Labour Party, Michael Foot,
who gave his whole hearted support for British military action. His
speech in Parliament did more to ensure that the task force was sent
than anyone else. After Thatcher had finished speaking he stood up to
give her his blessing. He said that the Falklands had been,’betrayed and
that the responsibility for that betrayal rests with the Government. The
Government must prove by deeds that they are not responsible...’ With
those words he helped condemn nearly 2000 young men to their deaths.

When the miners came out on strike the Labour Party and TUC acted to
isolate the strike. They insisted that other groups not come out in
sympathy. They condemned mass picketing and any forms of imaginative
action that broke the law.

This was repeated when the seafarers came out on strike against Townsend
Thorensen. That time they told workers not to strike, but instead to
travel with Sealink\! Every time the working class has come up against
the law, Labour have told them to give in.

Nowhere is this last statement more truly shown than over the Poll Tax.
Millions refused to pay. Throughout Scotland, England and Wales, Labour
was the governing party in local government. Those Labour councils have
summoned millions and imprisoned hundreds for refusal or inability to
pay. Bryan Gould even proudly stated in February 1992 that Labour had
prosecuted more people for non-payment than the Tories. The council with
the highest imprisonment record, Bolton, is a Labour council. Salford
even sacked an office worker for refusing to pay. Even now as the Poll
Tax is coming to its end Labour councils are looking for new and better
ways to collect the millions owed in arrears.

In education, Labour have implemented the governments cuts. One
particular case is the special provision for ethnic minority children
and adults. Here they have happily sacked teachers and closed adult
classes. Once again they have shown how happy they are to play the
racist card.

## Can Labour be Changed?

In office and out, Labour is a party for capitalism. It is a party that
has regularly and routinely acted against the working class. Yet we are
constantly told not to give up hope. Every time an election comes round
the different left wing groups tell us to vote Labour. Can Labour be
changed? We think that its history proves the impossibility of changing
Labour.

We are often told by the left that Labour must be supported because it
is a working class party. Our reply is that although it may have working
class members, that does not make it a working class organisation. We
think that the history we have outlined in this pamphlet shows quite
clearly that Labour has never acted for the working class. Labour was
set up by the Trade Unions to act in their interests, which is not the
same thing as being set up by the working class. The Unions may once
have been working class organisations. Now they are junior partners in
the state machine whose job is to manage the buying and selling of
labour power. They may no longer be as influential as they were in the
1970s but their influence remains. All over the country (and indeed the
world) unions and their representatives are engaged in the day to day
process of ensuring that production carries on smoothly. Employers value
the contribution that union representatives make and go so far as to
give them time off work for union activities, provide them with offices,
seek their advice and assist their attending union training courses. The
influence of the unions on the Labour Party is not as great as it was.
But they continue to provide most of Labour’s funds. The old adage holds
true, ‘whoever pays the piper calls the tune.’

The trouble with Labour is that many thousands of working class people
belong to it and millions still support it. Faced with the awful reality
that is capitalism they want to do something about it. Clearly the
solution needs to be at least partly a political one, so they look for a
party which seems to offer change. Labour are most able to offer this
because they are usually a party of opposition nationally. Being out of
office so frequently they can always claim that next time things will be
different. However, things never can be different.

Labour long ago gave up any pretence at wanting to get rid of
capitalism. Equally they have got rid of any notion of nationalising
large parts of it. Now they claim that they will make it operate more
fairly. This is impossible. Capitalism is based on the making of
commodities (things to buy and sell) and on the exploitation of labour.
When we say this we mean that people who work receive less than they
produce, the surplus going to the bosses, whether private or state.
Capitalism needs competition to work properly and this means that the
bosses must try to keep prices as low as possible. This in turn means
they have to get workers to make as much as possible for as little as
possible. That is why we are constantly being told to work harder and
make more. With increasing regularity capitalism is thrown into crisis
by this very competitive drive, millions of workers are thrown out of
work and others have their wages or benefits cut. This is the reality of
the society we live in. Politicians who try to ignore this are soon
brought to account by Stock Market crashes, galloping inflation, flights
of currency and capital, currency crises and more. Then they have to
return to capitalist normality. This has been the fate for left wing
governments the world over, and as we have seen has forced various
Labour governments to viciously attack working class living standards.

It is this reality which has turned every so-called ‘left’ leader into a
‘traitor’. Ramsay MacDonald and Clement Attlee were members of the ILP.
Harold Wilson was a left winger who left Attlee’s government over
charges for NHS glasses and dentures Kinnock was a well known left
winger in the 1970s and indeed rose to power on the back of his
reputation. Left wing Labour councils have been forced to introduce
enormous rate bills and Poll Tax bills and when Militant controlled
Liverpool they were forced to sack thousands of workers.

Groups like the SWP say that they know that Labour is rotten. Yet come
every election they demand that we all troop out and dutifully ‘Vote
Labour’. They qualify this by saying we should do it ‘without
illusions.’ They do this for a number of reasons. One is that despite
all their talk, many SWP members and readers of Socialist Worker still
do have illusions in Labour. To be open and tell workers not to be
conned would risk alienating a lot of support. As the SWP leadership
prefer masses of followers to conscious revolutionaries, they have no
problem making the choice of saying Vote Labour. Another reason is more
sinister. The SWP leadership know what Labour is. However, for all their
fine talk, they do not believe that the working class is capable of
making a revolution itself. They believe it has to be led to what they
call ‘socialism’ by an elite of professional revolutionaries. Part of
this process, as they see it, is that the working class has to go
through a whole host of ‘experiences’ before it will turn to the SWP for
leadership. One of these steps is ‘going through the experience of a
Labour government’. They think that this will teach workers that Labour
is rotten. They say this time and time again, even though we have
experienced Labour in power nationally before and continue to experience
it locally today\! This attitude reveals the contempt that the SWP and
the rest of the left has for working class people and their ability to
change society. It also means that they end up as little more than a far
left electoral fig leaf for Labour, fostering all the illusions they
claim they want to get rid of.\[2\]

## References

<references />

1.  <https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/sep/27/jeremy-corbyns-team-targets-labour-membership-one-million>
2.  <https://libcom.org/library/labouring-vain>