For some time past it has been clear that all is not well within the ranks of the British Labour Party. There was first the expulsion of Sir Stafford Cripps because of his advocacy the formation of a People's Front Govern= ment, which he claimed. would be able, to govern effectively, which aroused the dis-Pleasure of the Trade Union Congress and the Labour Party leaders, and now there is suggestion that a. breach may occur beween the Trade Union Congress and the Labour Party which it controls by means of finance. Incidentally it is also reported that Mf. James Maxion may shortly find himself the leader of a one man. party;—himself,—as the only remaining member of the Independent Labourites as his three sup= porters are threatening to return to. the official Socialist Party. That step has not Yet been taken but is regarded as a prob-Ability. The difference between the Trade Union Congress and the Labour Party appears to have arisen oUt of the report of a TU.C, economic committee appointed to consider means of solving the unemployment, problem. That report does not appear to have followed Labour's classic lines, and in fact represents a departure from the usual Socialist view of such a degree of unorthodoxy that the question of a cleavage between the two bodies has aroused some anxicly. The blow to the Labour Party is be found in the committee's finding that the present application of socialism was not possible, was consequently of no assistance solving the important question under consideration, that there was no one cure. for unemployment and that Labour should settle down to work out practical proposals of a less academic character than heretofore. It is stated that the whole report suggests that the unemployment problem has too lon, been the sport of party polities and that old fashioned idea of attributing all, the blame to the capitalistic system is unscientific and out of date, The committee of the TUE. fare not unanimously agreed upon the report, which has not yet been adopted by the whole body, but it is clear that, if it is, a wide gap will have opened between the doctvinalre Dutlook of many of the Labour Party devoted {o socialism, and those of the Trade Union Congress who take the more realistic view indicated in the report, The irony of the situation lies in the fact that this report to a very large extent supports the views of Sir Stafford Cripps, and tay lead (0 the Labour leaders approaching the. problem of unemployment. along. the very lines which he has suggested, so that the man who has been expelled as a political heretic, may in the comparatively neat future be proved to have been prophetic of events close at hand, One of the chief troubles Which the Labour Party has had for. some years past is the fact that it has been unable io draft a policy calculated to have a substantial appeal to the electorate. The con= Uinual desire to make capital the scapegoat for all the ills which beset Great Britain carries conviction inthe minds of a very Small proportion of the inhabitants of the United Kingdom. Opposition to the present Government is not imposing Deeause there Is nothing. which Labour can consistently oppose, being reduced rather to criticism of methods of approach than concerned with Ideological opposition to what is being done, 'The leaders have consequently been seareh= ing on all directions for. something' which would appeal to the minds of.the electorate and regain for them that support. without Which the chances of a return to power are slim in the extreme. Obviously a phu for the solution of the unemployment problem seems to be the most attractive prospect, for it was apparent to all that with a. pro= posal reasonably sure of producing a bette ment of conditions thus leading to the redue= tion of the long list' of unemployed, the Labour Party would have been able. to go to the country With something Into which It could set its teeth. That was as apparent {o the Trade Union Congress as it was 10 the Parliamentary party, and when the former appointed a committee to go into the matter, it was probably not anticipated that that body Would astonish the world by recommending what is nothing more nor" less. than' the temporary shelving of the doctrines socialism, The declaration that in those doctrines was not to be found the specific for present evils Indicates that the.U.C. committee approach= ed their task in a spirit of realism. which lone could have ted to" this remarkable reversal of formerly-accepted ideas. The lunorthodoxy of its report has undoubtedly Stricken the "dyed-in-the-wool socialist t0 the heart, for even though the abandonment {of socialistic doctrines may only be. tem= porary the magnitude of the blow lies in the fact that their eMleacy is. thus being so emphatically challenged. The Labour Party is Ifaced with the uncomfortable fact that the HEU. controls it through' the provision of finances, and when this is realized the possibility of rebellion' has to be completely dis-'Counted. That is more surely the case when itis remembered that the withdrawal "of rode union support from Labour candidates {who refuse to pipe the new tune for which the T.UC. may be calling would lead to their defeat at the polls, so that the political future of those men who are likely to rebel (Continued on page 271)
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.