LABOUR'S VICTORY IN THE BRITISH ELECTIONS
By T. Jd. Peters
LONDON, Oct. 19 -- In what sport slang calls a photo finish the Labour. party squeezed in to victory in the general elections held last week. Up to the declaration of the last results it was touch and go, Labour finally obtaining a parliamentary majority of 4 seats over all other parties, with a total of 317 against 303 for the Conservatives and 9 for the Liberals,
In spite of its narrow margin, the ‘Labour leadership has stated that it intends to carry out its program, which includes the renationalization of the bulk of the key steel industry -- denation--: alized in the main by the Tories after the fall of the Attlee governs ment in 1951 -- and several lesser industries; drastic reform in the: ownership of land; repeal of the rent act favoring the landlordprofiteers and radical reforms in social services such as pensions, unemployment benefits, etc.
Since all. the indications are that the precarious economic . situation, revealed by the increasingly unfavorable balance of trade. figures, is leading to an almost immediate financial crisis, it remains.to be.seen whether actions will follow words. Certainly all pressures in capitalist society will be exerted with tremendous drive against ‘this program, But this is a left: social-democratic government, different in degree from the last Labour government, and the internal working-class long-term trend which brought Harold Wilson toleadership after reaffirming Clause 4 of the party constitution. =- the principle of public. ‘ownership of the means of production- -~ ts bound to make itself felt as a powerful countervailing force. -
‘The outstanding result of the elections is, therefore, the coming to power, for the first time since the inception of the poste war boom in the Western world, of a government backed by the working class and committed to the socialist principle of nationalization, in one of the bastions of capitalism. This fact is all the more significant and symptomatic because it has come before'the collapse of the boom, while full employment still prevails and” without a mass radicalization as yet of the working class.
What ‘the election figures show beyond all dispute is the mass desertion of the party of the ruling class by the petty bourgeoisie, by the.lower middle class, and above all by layers of the working class temporarily. dazzled by the surface appearance of the “affluent society." The main gain was achieved by the Liberals, doubling their popular vote at 3,000,000. If the analysis made by The Guardian (Manehester) of the election returns is correct, the Liberal party gained even more votes from Labour than from the Conservatives (in a proportion of 68% to 32% in seats they contested at the previous election. in 1959, and of 53% to 43% in seats they contested against both. for: the first time), Since the Labour vote at 12,197,456 (against
12,208,834 in 1959) remained practically the same, a qualitative shift must have taken place.
This is perhaps illuminated by an examination of voting trends in different areas, In fact the highest swing to.Labour came in the industrial-areas, particularly those hardest hit in the winter. of». 1963,’ when the brief economic crisis boosted the unemployment figure to: the million mark and in a flash revealed all the cracks and leaks in’ the economy and, aided ‘by the scandals in the Macmillan adminis~ tration, showed up the rottenness at the root of society and tarnished its appearance of affluence,
‘In all likelihood, Labour lost a lot of its petty-bourgeois foliowing to the Liberals along with the Conservatives, and made ‘up “for this loss by an accretion of strength from parts of the working: class which had previously strayed mostly to the Conservatives, particularly among younger workers educated by the mass media in the boom period, and especially from those voting for the first time.
The narrow Labour victory can thus be ascribed as due to two factors: negatively, to the collapse of confidence in the ruling ¢@lass and its Tory political instrument among the lower middle class which the toom previously had inoreasingly tied to it; positively,” to the awakening of new layers of the:iworking: class to political : class consciousness, The Tory party vote’ has shown, however, that: the ruling class. is not-as yet in:complete disarray, and has been able to retain the bulk of its following. The hard core of the working-class following which sustained the Labour party in opposition right through the years. of the. boom still remains, with increased strength from its own’ranks, the decisive element even in Labourts victory. The petty bourgeoisie, deserting the Tories, and. itself disoriented, has flocked massively to the Liberals, decimated and of no’ Amportance in the*country for ‘more than a> generation, and made ” of: them anew a’ factor ain’ the political arena. : From the election results light is also thrown: on: ‘the strate« gies 6f the two main parties and the class interests behind them. © The “evolution” of Lord Home into Tory leader and Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas~Home was at the time somewhat puzzling. The election showed that the capitalist class leadership, by entrusting this post to a member of the aristocracy after dropping the discredited Macmillan, thereby calculated correctly -- this play on the backward traditionalist loyalties of the predominantly rural middle class paid off in preventing a stampede of the hitherto demoralized following. It avoided a rout, and gained time for further maneuver, wie Wilson's strategy -- as distinct from Gaitskell's == was prom- “dnent only in its negative aspect: the refusal to ditch the "socialist" image, Clause 4, It proved to be useful in agitation for planning and modernization as an answer to the increasing chaos in the economy, for a scientific approach =~ and above all, to hold the allegiance of a‘working class fearful that chaos would soon overwhelm
ny
it in the form of a crisis.
- But both parties "played it cool" in the campaign itself, This was largely to the advantage of the Tories.: An aggressive campaign to expose the plundering role of the capitalist class . which the’ scandals under Tory rule highlighted constantly would. undoubtedly have benefited the Labour party and served to educate wide layers of the population and to bring them in tow. But this was too much to expect of social-democrats preoccupied, under Wilson no less than under Gaitskell, with the electoral game of not antagonizing the floating voter. In the event, the Liberals profited,
The City, as the financial center of the nation is called, is facing the result with mixed feelings. Steel shares, while not exactly nose-diving, are showing. a steady downward trend after many ups and downs, reflecting fear that Wilson and his new administration mean what they say. The entire stock market is wobbly, not only due to the outcome of the elections, but also to the deteriora-~ting trade figures .and the uncertainties of the international situation brought about by the changes in the USSR and the explosion of an atomic ‘bomb in China.
- The financiers, both here and abroad, are beginning to exert their manifold pressures on the new government. | “A television interview with three specimens, ‘one sugary, one distraught and'one hard ~ and hatchet-faced, gave a picture of their thinking. The:first madean effort to be cheerful: he thought they ought to welcome’ the. new. = government's economic policy of increased production and exports, but “reminded it that the way they saw things this could: not:be done without keeping wages down, and hoped they would see the light... The © second expressed bewilderment at the idea that with so narrow a majority Labour could even think of renationalizing steel -- and gave all the stock arguments against the move, including the new one that they have no mandate, the Conservative plus the Liberal vote constituting a majority against nationalization! - The third spoke of the grave financial situation and warned that it could not be overcome without. lay-offs and cuts in public spending.
A Swiss banker turned up on the screen, to reenforce the line of the trio, expressing grave concern over the British loans contracted by the Tories with a broad hand in recent months and stress-~ ing in a tough way the hope that the new Labour government would meet the commitments: otherwise the stability of all of Europe was in danger.
It is clear that the Wilson administration is from the first. going to be given the squeeze play by international capital. A: similar situation in 1931, when a. Labour minority government, supported by the Liberals, was in power, resulted in the treachery of: Ramsay MacDonald and the discreditment of the Labour party. How will Wilson shape up in 1964?
“Be
There is no doubt that in the very nature of a social-democratic government lie the seeds of class betrayal. The leopard doesn't change his spots. But 1964 is not 1931. The British working class has not undergone any recent defeats as was the case then, shortly after the General Strike. The international situation has also changed greatly, the new interrelationship of class forces has reduced the power of capitalism on a world scale. The continuing © leftward trend-of the British workers which has brought the left social democrat Wilson to power will “not diminish, but gather momen-" tum and exert its own force upon the government, reenforced by events on the world scene.
As against the press, the mass media, the entrenched wealth of the ruling class, the Wilson government has no points of support except the power of the organized workers behind it. The left wing of the Labour movement has as its main task to stiffen the resistance of the government to the expected assault: of the ruling class, the mobilization of the workers behind every progressive stand taken by tlie government, the participation of the workers in mass action against any attempt at a solution at their expense.
An inquest into the thirteen years of Tory plunder of the wealth of the nation is the demand of the hour: to open the books and let the country know how it came to this pass, how the nationalized industries were ‘mulcted for the profitable working of "free enterprise," how lavish business “expenses" flourished amid the wage squeezes, how dividends doubled and quadrupled while the pensions of the aged fell below subsistence levels.
Vigilance against the flight of capital needs to be organized: bureaucratic decrees and controls will not suffice -- the workers in the key communications industries and financial centers will have to give their organized support.
Above all the starts in planning, in nationalization -- to forestall the sabotage of the business community which is certain -have to be undertaken under workers! control and participation, The left wing of the Labour party faces a great test and great opportunities.