******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. *****************************************************************
As always thanks for posting this, Lou. What immediately strikes me about it, now, is that none of this apples to the Democratic Party in the States. By that I mean that if I lived in the UK I would be in Momentum. That would be a decision taken without illusions. But I would never, not ever, join the Democratic Party. Will post more on this. comradely Gary On Sat, Nov 25, 2017 at 7:13 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > ***************************************************************** > > It is the internal dynamic of this socialism which constitutes the second > basic problem of the Labourist movement. We have already seen the elements > found within it, and their relationship. In the Labour Party, Fabianism > became the dominant, right-wing leadership tradition, the source of the > ideas governing most of the action of the party. Its leaders were all to be > either avowed Fabians (Attlee, Gaitskell) or implicit Fabians, whatever > their apparent background and orientation (Macdonald, Henderson, Lansbury). > The Independent Labour Party became the Labour left wing, in chronic > instinctive protest against the leadership but intellectually subordinated > to it and incapable of effectively replacing it. Labourism, therefore, > acquired from the beginning a peculiarly weak left. This is, in a sense, > the intimate tragedy of Labourism—for the left has always expressed the > most vital working-class elements, the most active and genuine socialist > forces potentially able to develop their own hegemony over party and State. > But expressing them in the fashion and under the conditions indicated, the > Labour left has really completely frustrated these forces, putting them at > the disposition of the right-wing reformists. It has been unable even to > seriously influence the leadership, except under rare circumstances and > momentarily. Hence, the Fabian-inspired leadership tradition, permanently > supported by the trade unions, could acquire a great stability and > continuity—a kind of dynasty, in fact, with its own characteristic internal > procedures of recruitment and co-ordination, almost independent of the > party in general. And this permanent, organic power in its turn of course > obstructed any farther real evolution of the left wing—it is as if the > Independent Labour Party tradition, which was apparently the beginning of a > real British mass socialist party, was paralysed by entry into the matrix > of Labourism and the conditions it found therein. Hardie and the other ILP > leaders anticipated that they would be able to rapidly convert the Labour > Party to socialism, their socialism. Instead, the conditions of Labourism, > and their own weakness, transformed them into a mere permanent opposition, > always urging the Labour Party to move left and always unable to make it > move, only half conscious of their own position and its true meaning, > unable to act within Labourism but unable to see any alternative to > Labourism, oppressed by Fabian triviality and timidity but with no workable > alternative to offer—such was the result of the ‘short cut’ to socialism > which Labourism had seemed to represent. Such was the paradox of > Labourism—the distinctive form of socialism which arose out of British > conditions, and in effect prevented any farther socialist evolution from > taking place. > > Tom Nairn, "The Nature of the British Labour Party part 1", NLR Sept.-Oct. > 1964 > _________________________________________________________ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/opt > ions/marxism/gary.maclennan1%40gmail.com _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
