THE
MEANING OF THE BRITISH LABOUR PARTY VICTORY
By John Walters
London
The British general election was a great victory for the Labour party. Labour gained 49 seats, the Liberals 2, the Tories losing 51. The overall national swing to Labour was 43.1%, there being regional variations. Labour also gained 48.0% of all votes cast as against 44.2% in the 1964 election. Comparable figures for the Tories were 41.9% and 43.4%. In actual numbers of votes cast, Labour had 13,027,800. This is the first time that Labour's total vote has increased since the 1951 general election, also being nearly a million more than in 1964.
This is an important and interesting result in a number of ways. Firstly, there is the significance of a Social Democratic party being elected with such a big parliamentary majority (overall it is 97) at a time when there is no obvious economic crisis. This indicates a crisis of confidence for the British bourgeoisie. There has never before been an occasion when a working-class party has been elected to office in a period of apparent stability.
Secondly, the increased vote for Labour was gained from all sections of the population, but more particularly from the middleclass voters. This is shown in a decline in the Liberal vote -despite their gain of 4 seats. This is one of the contradictions of the election result. Contradiction because the mass of the traditional working-class Labour vote not only held firm but increased, while at the same time the middle-class voters swung over to Labour in 1966 -- after hesitating in 1964 -- because they are convinced that the Labour government will take a tough line with the unions in seeking to maintain its "incomes" policy.
Thirdly, with such a big majority in Parliament the possibility opens up for some of the parliamentary “Lefts" to rediscover their principles and backbones. If they do, and in most cases it's a big if, and they start raising opposition to Wilson's policies on Vietnam, incomes policy, etc., they will receive support from among the rank and file, both in the Labour party and in the unions.
This brings me to the fourth aspect of the election victory. This is that it has demonstrated that the bulk of the British working class are committed to social change, despite nearly twenty years of economic euphoria. This victory will help generate even more selfconfidence and militancy.
As I tried to indicate in previous articles [see World Outlook March 25 and April 1] the present period is one of contradictions, and this can be seen by a reading of the press. Most of the serious bourgeois publications are very open in their statements giving their views of the election result. It will be worth while to quote some of these to show this. The leader in the Financial Times for April 2 said:
. !Two.great dangers now face the Labour party and the country
.The ‘tendency was to talk tough and, if action had to be taken, to “choose, ,the path of least resistance....But there comes a point when caution ceases to be a virtue. It. is only now that we willbe able to.Judge whether [ir. Wilson is in fact* capable of decisive — action. Second, there is the. ‘possibility that either Mr. Wilson hinself or a substantial proportion of the Labour. party will interpret victory as an endorsement of Socialism....He will now have the opportunity to prove that he is not an old-fashioned’ Socialist, that in’ — his handling of both. internal and external questions he ‘can overcome © the views and prejudices largely formed by the Labour party in the thirties. "'
“Teonara Beaton writing in The Sunday Telegraph on April 3 heads his, article "Wilson Needs An Economic Miracle ,. and says:
"Mr. Wilson returns to Downing Street with his greatest chal~ lenge before him. Gan he bring Britain back into the first rank of industrial economies? Can he escape from debt, avoid unemployment and preside over something like an economic miracle? This is the great unknown of the. next five years. His first problem is debt. The means that Mr. Wilson has chosen to achieve this objective. range over a wide field. Among them we can expect a tough budget: within a few.weeks,. But the most important...is his determination to discour-_ age investment abroad....Mr. Wilson has a great capacity to adapt. In 17 short months, he has forgotten a commendable amount of what he once knew about the virtues of socialism. He may forget a lot more.... Labour has not been elected to give the country socialism. It is there to put the economy right and will be. judged on this and -nothing else."
- That is pretty. clear. and straightforward, ‘but there is more to come. Harold Lever, who is a Labour M.P. wrote in The Observer on April '3 about the relations between the Labour government and business, and he had this. to say:
"Labour's decisive victory has aroused anxiety.in the City and..large areas of the:business world. In my view these fears are unjustified and need to be promptly dispelled lest. they create the _. kind of melancholia'in which sterling could weaken and the economy .-_ .. falter.i::The Labour leadership. knows as well as any ‘businessman . that aniengine which: runs on.profit cannot be made to move faster. without extra fuel....Share values will continue to reflect assets and earning power -- “even after a 40 per cent Corporation Tax and a Capital Gains Tax: which,.at 30 per cent, can hardly be described as confiscatory:...For .18: months when he was vulnerable to pressure | from his Left,,.Mr...Wilson-showed no sign of departing from his moder- . ate course.or.of softening: his forthright exposition of them. The deterrént’ to:rebellion: with a: big majority as with a small one, is. the danger of defeating the Government. Mr. Wilson is no more vulnerable now than he was: after.October.1964. He has no more reason to. swerve from his: chosen path of. moderation than: he had then."
Finally I come to the. leader in The Sunday Times of April By
"The Election result is not, however, a vindication for the old Labour Party or a repudiation of. the new Conservative Party.. It is
not a.demand for steel nationalisation....It is not a mandate for the solemn. complacencies of old-style trade unionism... ..The final question,- which will decide the. fate of the. Government is the economy..- Here there is an immediate and critical situation to be dealt with © and: a’ long-term problem as. well. - The: immediate need is to bring the’ present- inflation under control....The point to be taken is’ that you © cannot make an. incomes: policy work against the main stream of the ~~ economy. If economic forces. are pushing wages up no incomes policy’ will. hold them down,. In this matter it is Mr. Callaghan who will need to be supported. and the pressure of events will ‘probably see to it. that he prevails.”
It: is clear. from all the above that two clear strands - emerge , one that there.is still. no solution’ to Britain's economic problems, and that the economy will have to bé deflated to the point of pro-~> ducing Significant unemployment. Also that having done this, an incomes policy must be imposed, one that will be effective in holding down. wages... Secondly, that. big business has nothing to fear from the Labour :government...It is worth noting here that contrary to the previous two elections the steel industry did not indulge in its’ usual. massive antinationalization campaign. This seems to “‘anaicate that the bourgeoisie has come to accept some measure of state control-.of the.steel industry as ‘being necessary if it-is to be rationalized and British steel products made competitive in the world market -However, steel apart, they do not see Wilson’ as any threat, rather they look to hin for their. salvation.
‘But like ‘all. Social Democratic’ ‘governments , ‘and parties, this one in Britain is subject to many contradictory pressures. This means that in the first stages of any struggle over the imposition of an incomes policy this will probably manifest itself as pressure on: the Wilson’ “government, and not as a struggle against it..Precisely how this struggle will develop is difficult to predict at this point. What British revolutionary Marxists will have to combat is any ten- ~ dency to substitute. break-away rank-and-file committees for struggle within the. ‘trade-union. and labor movement. This is not to say of course that such committees should not be supported; just the reverse -- it is such committees that must be the basis for any determined’ fight against the incomes, policy. However, such a fight needs astrategy that. will’ ‘combine both unofficial rank-and-file ‘committees and.those elements within the trade-union bureaticracy | who . are at this stage. Prepared to. oppose the Wilson government. : aa
“The ‘most important’ aspect of this election victory is ‘that’ it. marks a. qualitative change in the British polical scene. Contrary to what. some. commentators have said, this election’ was not merely an endorsement, ‘of Wilson. That. endorsement flows from the crumbling of the. grip of bourgeois ideas on Sections of the middle class andthe previously backward, sections of the working class. This is not:-to > say that this is a realization of socialist consciousness, but it is a first step towards it, because it entails a rejection of the mystique of the Tory party & as being | the only one that can govern.
Miso ‘the eléttion result can be seen. as an act. of class con.” sciousness on the part of the working class, in that there was a.
determination not to allow the’ ‘Tories back into power. This expressed . itself in two ways, firstly in the massive increase in Labour's vote,’secondly in the decline in the votes’ of most of the individual: Com= =: munist party and other radical candidates who stood in opposition to Labour. In other words there’ seemed to- “be a determination ‘not ‘to split the vote and allow any Tory in. RS :
. ‘Another “point er to: “phe growing . sophistication on ‘the. part of the- ‘workers was that in seats where Labour has‘ béen used ‘to: having; overwhelming ~ majorities; i.e., 20,000 or so, theré was a tendency: for the turnout to decline, yet in’all the marginal 'sedats there was: . usually. a higher than average turnout of the voters. This would indi. cate not apathy, in “the safe seats, but rather confidence; and. determination in the marginal ones. se ae Pet:
Therefore the coming year or so in British polities will be of some importance ‘for: the. development of the left both in the Labour party and trade unions. The election result emphasizes once. again the: basic proposition of revolutionary Marxists that it is within these that we have to look for. emergence ‘of a mass revolutionary party. The: present situation does not méan that this will bé automatic, rather: > it presents possibilities.
_APTER_ THE AUSTRIAN ELECTIONS
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