Scapegoats for the Labour leaders (1950)

From the October 1950 issue of the Socialist Standard

For five years the Labour voters were very loyal to the government of their choice. Through a series of “crises” they patiently worked and waited for the better times they were told would soon be here. Then just as they were preparing to reap the reward they expected when they had delivered the stipulated production and “closed the dollar gap” they received an icy shock that changed their political outlook more than anything that had gone before. This was the Prime Minister’s curt announcement that a new round of austerity is on the way to provide for re-armament, the Korean war and the other wars that it is feared may follow. The new blow has brought to a head the cumulative effect of past disappointments, showing itself in a wave of wage demands and “unofficial ” strikes in disregard of the appeals of Ministers and Trade Union officials.

Workers are asking themselves whether the Labour Party is any better at keeping its pledges than were the Conservatives. Those who looked on the Labour Party as the enemy of conscription and armaments find themselves heading for a third world war. Those who wanted higher wages and lower prices are asked to be content with wage-restraint, a rising cost of living and demands for more sacrifices. Those workers who thought that nationalisation would solve their problems find that it makes no difference to them. Labourism has been tried and has failed but politicians do not easily reconcile themselves to losing office and power. The leaders are bewildered at the failure of their plans, and frightened as they find themselves caught up in capitalism’s swift descent towards war; but they do not yet despair. Like many a government before them they hope to be able to turn a critical situation to their own advantage. If the workers at home dislike the increase of fares, the rising cost of food, the extension of conscription to two years, the entry into the Korean War, the refusal to grant wage increases, perhaps their resentment can be turned away from its natural targets of capitalism and the Government that administers capitalism, and turned in another direction by a campaign against Russia and Communist agents.

It is all so easy—just as it was when the Tory Government worked it to the full during and after the first world war, and used it again to unseat the Labour Government in 1924.

Of course Russian State capitalism and Russian imperialism are evil things but so is capitalism and capitalist imperialism in Western Europe, Britain and America. And the Western Governments’ real objection to the Russian Government’s actions is only that of rival concerns in the same line of business. As Mr. Sefton Delmer, Daily Express correspondent, said in an interview with the Indian Prime Minister, Nehru;—

“We objected to Communism because the countries where it had established—itself mostly by force of arms or terrorism—had been closed to Western trade. This deprived both them and us of commodities essential to our prosperity and progress." (Daily Express, 19-9-50).

The other side of the picture is given by an article in the journal of the Czeckoslovak Ministry of Foreign Trade. (Quoted by the Manchester Guardian, 16-9-50). The Czeckoslovak Ministry’s article discloses that while they encourage the Russian move to promote strikes of dockers in the countries allied to America, on the ground of alleged sympathy with the dockers, at the same time the Ministry is urging foreign business men to send their cargoes through the strike-free ports of Poland and thus avoid hold-ups and consequent loss of profits. Under the East European capitalist dictatorship the dockers strike at their peril.

The British Labour leaders profess to be very much opposed to governmental regimentation of the workers as practised in these countries. Yet at the same time we have Mr. Deakin, General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union demanding the suppression of the Communist Party and the Daily Worker (Manchester Guardian 18-9-50), Mr. Isaacs, Minister of Labour threatening legal action and if necessary legislation against the “promoters of illegal strikes” (Daily Herald 16-9-50). Meanwhile Scotland Yard are studying the activities of “Communist agitators”—“Blue print for the arrest of dangerous communists within a few hours, if empowered by legislation, is ready.” (Evening Standard, 18-9-50).

So, in the blessed name of freedom and democracy, the Labour Government prepare to bring British legislation and suppressive measures more closely into line with those of the dictatorship countries.

The position is so fantastic that we have Mr. Deakin, the servant of union members who pay their contributions to support an organisation for the purpose of making wage claims, denouncing Communists on the ground that “they were out to create and encourage wage claims and to use every possible opportunity to cause dislocation.” (At a Press Conference. Daily Telegraph, 19/9/50).

It is true that those who direct Communist policy are not interested in the welfare of the working class being concerned to exploit discontent in order to help Russia, but the discontent exists and will go on expressing itself no matter what the Communists do and even if they are suppressed.

Past experience should warn the Labour leaders of the likely outcome of the policy they contemplate. From 1917 onwards the charge of being pro-German or “Red Agents” was made against all who were critical of the war and all who took part in strikes, and among the results was that more and more workers gave their support to Ramsay MacDonald and Snowden and to trade unionists like Smillie, Williams and Arthur Cook who were thus enabled to gain popularity at the expense of the old leaders. Eventually the workers discontent exploded in the General Strike of 1926. Since the rise of the new men did not mean progress towards the only solution—the replacement of capitalism by Socialism—it only led to further disillusionment and in that respect also a repetition of the process now will be merely another phase of misdirected work and purposeless suffering by the working class.

The Socialist Party of Great Britain will continue to urge the workers of the need to rid themselves of the delusion that Labour Party or Communist Party administered capitalism can solve their problems; also of the need to retain their trade union weapon, the strike, and above all of the need to recognise that only through a world wide movement to establish Socialism can their emancipation be brought about.