Term Paper on "Labour Party"

Term Paper 5 pages (1797 words) Sources: 5 Style: Harvard

[EXCERPT] . . . .

British Labour Party that came into existence at the start of the 20th century as the representative of the working class with a socialist agenda has undergone a radical change in its ideology, particularly in the last few decades. This paper explores the origins of the Party, its socialist ethos, and the extent to which the modern Labour Party can be described as socialist.

Origins of the Labour Party

The origins of the British Labour Party can be traced back to 1900 when the Labour Representation Committee (LRC) was formed at a Conference on Labour Representation in London's Memorial Hall in February 1900. The new body was more of a pressure group than a party and represented the interests of the working people and trade unionists. The main organizations affiliated with the LRC included a number of trade unions, and socialist societies such as the Independent Labor Party (I.L.P.), the Social-Democratic Federation or S.D.F. (a Marxist group), and the Fabians (Pelling, 1961, p. 9).

Initially, the LRC made little headway in electoral politics but worked closely with the Liberal Party and its government during 1906-14 to pass several radical measures, e.g., a state sponsored noncontributory old age pension scheme in 1908; raising of income tax; and creation of labor exchanges for un- employed workers (King et al., 1998, p. 211). In the meantime, the influence of Labour was growing steadily in the country; LRC changed its name to the Labour Party in 1906 and by 1914, the number of constituent parties affiliated with it had risen to 179 and it had adopted a constitution. Furthermore, when the Liberal Party split in 1916, many of its members joined the Labour Party and it became the second major party in Britain after the Conservative Party ("History of the Labour Party," 2008).

The Socialist Ideology of the Labour Party

The birth of the Labour Party was a reflection of the class structured society and gave a political voice to the newly emerging industrial working class who did not feel adequately represented by the Liberal Party. It was, therefore, only natural for the Party to adopt a socialist ethos although it was never a hard-core Marxist Party. The Party was generally supportive of democratic institutions and called for incremental reform rather than outright revolution. Nevertheless, when the Party Constitution was written in 1918, equality, common ownership, and industrial democracy were clearly defined as the party objectives. The Socialist ideology of the Party was most explicitly reflected in the Clause 4 of the party constitution, which committed the party to:

Secure for the workers...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, distribution and exchange, and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service.

The Labour Party's commitment to Clause 4 remained steadfast for most of its history and was considered to be one of its foundation stones. Until the 1950s there was a broad consensus in the party that public ownership was an essential part of its program. As a result, most of the major utilities were nationalized by the post World War II Labour government. In the late 1950s, however, there was some debate in the Party whether further public ownership of industries was necessary. In 1959, the then Party leader, Hugh Gaitskell, even made a bid to drop Clause 4 from the party's constitution but failed (King et al., 1998, p. 55). Clause 4, therefore, was in many ways a symbol of the Labour Party's socialist philosophy and would remain so for sometime yet until the leadership of the 'New Labour' led by Tony Blair decided to completely transform the face of the Party in the mid 1990s.

The Legacy of Thatcherism

How and why the Labour Party changed directions away from its Socialist origins is still a matter of debate but one thing is certain: the Thatcher era that lasted an unprecedented 11 years, starting in 1979, was one of the main reasons. It had a profound effect, not only on the economy and politics of Britain but also left a lasting impact on the Labour Party. Margaret Thatcher's aggressive pursuit of privatization cuts in public spending, and support of laissez faire economy was in many ways a reversal of the Labour's post World War II welfare policies. Her crushing victories in the elections of 1979, 1983, and 1987 proved that her policies of privatization, low tax, firm handling of trade unions, and strong leadership were popular with the electorate and forced the Labour Party to rethink their electoral strategy (Hills, 1998).

Unfavorable Times for the Left

By the time a youthful Tony Blair was elected as the Labour Party leader in 1994, the Labour Party seemed to be in disarray. It had suffered a split in 1981 when a moderate group from within the Party had formed the Social Democratic Party (SDP); it had experimented with the far left leadership of Michael Foot and a strongly socialist Party manifesto in 1983 that called for unilateral nuclear disarmament, higher personal taxation, a return to a more interventionist industrial policy, a pledge to abolish the House of Lords and to leave the EEC ("The Labour Party Manifesto: 1983"); and most of all, the Labour Party had lost four general elections in succession -- a record unprecedented since well before the advent of universal suffrage. Moreover, the decade of the 1980s had seen the decline of the leftist ideology worldwide. The Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites had abandoned Communism; China had embraced free market reforms after the death of Mao and the United States had elected a right wing Conservative Republican -- the ex-actor Ronald Reagan -- as its President. Socialism was simply not 'fashionable' any more.

At the same time, the demographics of the British electorate had changed. The blue collared industrial workers were no more a dominant force and their place was being taken by the more prosperous white collar worker in a post-industrialization service economy.

Abandoning the 'Socialist' Totem

In such an environment, a pragmatic Tony Blair decided that in order to present itself as an 'elect-able' Party, the Labour would have to undergo a major shift from the left to the center of the political spectrum. His first 'target' in the change of direction was the long-standing socialist 'totem' of the Party -- the as yet sacrosanct clause four of the Party constitution. Soon after he was elected as the Party leader, Blair went into overdrive in his campaign to repeal clause 4. Just seven months later, he managed to get the approval of the party to do so at a special conference held in London on April 29, 1995 (King et al., 1998, p. 57). At the same conference, Blair persuaded over two-thirds of all party delegates, to vote for "a thriving private sector" and for placing the trade unions "on a par with other organizations in society" rather than being accorded any special status. This was a major departure from almost eighty years of party history and its socialist doctrine and signaled the birth of the 'New Labour' that bears little resemblance to 'Old Labour.' The change was also largely responsible for an overwhelming victory of the Party in the 1997 elections, which signaled the start of another extended period of Labour rule in Britain that continues to date.

Is the "New Labour Party" Much Different from the Conservative Right?

It is not out of place to question, however, whether the so-called "New Labour" bears any resemblance to Labour Party of the old and indeed, whether its policies are much different from those of the Conservatives? The answer, of course, is that the modern Labour's policies are perhaps closer to that of the Conservatives and neo-liberals rather than to the socialist policies of the old Labour. Even before Blair became a long-serving Prime Minister of Britain in 1997 he had expressed an unusual admiration for the "the Thatcher-Reagan leadership" of the 1980s by stating that they "got certain things right. A greater emphasis on enterprise. Rewarding, not penalizing, success. Breaking up vested interests" (Quoted by Wheatcroft, 1996). Indeed, even some of the Tory columnists, like William Rees-Mogg of the Times, wrote admiringly of the way the Blair leadership could now "accept right-wing policies which Margaret Thatcher did not even contemplate in the 1979 manifesto" even before the New Labour had come to power. Blair's performance in government did not disappoint his right-wing supporters either. He was one of the most enthusiastic supporters of globalization, "free market" economy and a willing handmaiden to multinational corporations. His unstinting support to the policies of one of the most radical right wing Presidents in U.S. history including his disastrous invasion of Iraq, despite widespread disapproval from the British public, was not only uncharacteristic of a Labour leader; it earned him the unflattering title of "Bush's poodle." As far as the current New… READ MORE

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