After the General Election

[p008] AFTER THE GENERAL ELECTION now is an understanding of what the Tory victory means for the Labour movement during the next five years. INCE the end of the war political life in Britain has been dominated by the electoral contest be- tween the Tories and Labour. The trade union leaders have continually urged upon their members a policy of restraint in return for a Labour government which would, they said, act in the interests of the rank and file. This policy has been of considerable assist- ance to the Tories because it held back conflict after ‘conflict in industry. During the vital years of the 1945-1950 Labour government it restrained trade unionists from pushing forward substantial wage demands at a time when profits were reaching an all-time peak. During the period when Labour was out of office but still a force in Parliament, this policy was used to ‘stave off strikes and to postpone any real struggle until the 1959 election was over. The results of the election, therefore, resemble a gigantic damburst which will release new forces from all the forms of struggle suppressed since the end of the war. Mr Bevan with his characteristic instinct has declared, somewhat modestly, that the fight will shift from Parliament to the wage packet. It will do much more. The experiences of the working class under a Right-wing leadership will give the struggles that lie ahead a far greater political content than at any period in the history of the British Labour movement. This is an entirely new situation. The game of ‘ins and outs’ between the two political parties has been wound up. The struggle has shifted to the arena of class action. In this arena the old parties of the Left and the Right will eventually meet their doom. of factors surrounding these parties which has been largely responsible for holding back this struggle since the end of the war. In the days that lie ahead the role of Parliament will steadily diminish in the minds of the working class and new forms of action will emerge. What form will this action take, and what relation will it have to the developments inside the Labour Party? This is the central point around which a post mortem of the election must take place. The working class have a long and bitter experience of strikes. They emerged exhausted from the defeat of the 1926 General Strike and only recovered after a long period. Their record of loyalty to the 1945 Labour government was a demonstration of their belief that a Wi say this because it has been a combination political solution of their problems was necessary. They felt, and still feel, that the old type of strike could bring much hardship and misery and at the end the danger of defeat owing to a lack of leadership. Once again they are left with no alternative but to resort to industrial action. Only this time such action will.be tempered with a greater political interest. We say this because we do not believe that any large indus- trial struggle can be divorced from politics. Govern- ment intervention is inevitable. Therefore those trade unionists who proceed with a political understanding of the struggle against Toryism will find no difficulty in explaining the need for a political outlook in relation to strikes. The character of strikes will change in yet another way. A strike by miners will raise the question of the future of capitalist nationalization, which leads directly to the problem of workers’ control. This in fact applies to all the nationalized industries. , The struggle for the forty-hour week and a reduction of working hours will be seen as a measure against un- employment, which in turn will pose the nationalization of those industries which are affected. More and more the struggles of the future will thrust important policy demands into the Labour movement. a road out of the present crisis they must go to the industrial workers, who will now be in the vanguard of the fight against Toryism, and understand what type of programme they require. No longer will the Labour Party lead the Labour movement, rather will it be those who lead the working class in the major industries. Nobody in his right senses expects the present trade union leadership to provide any type of leadership whatsoever. So the responsibility passes to the members. Because of this, rank-and-file organizations will become a powerful stimulus to a revival inside the Labour Party. The new Left-wing which will emerge in the Labour Party must be allied to the Left-wing in the factories and workshops. The programme of Labour’s left-wing must have the backing of the industrial workers. In other words, the class struggle must be seen as the only real force which can reverse the trend to Toryism. This is the great advantage which the Socialist Labour League enjoys. The policy for its National Assembly of Labour is a policy which already has the support of a large number of people. It is a policy which combines industrial and political demands. The discussion at the conference around this policy will be the only serious inquest into Labour's defeat at the general election. For the first time in 30 years Marxism is emerging as a serious force in Britain. I F the policy makers of the Labour Party are to find 69

[p009] LABOUR REVIEW October-November 195%