With respect, Mark, you're harbouring illusions about the old British Labour Party. Class and political consciousness everyhere was higher in the 1920’s then than it is now, and more so in Britain than in the US, but the ostensible commitment to “socialism” in the Sunday-speechifying of the LP leadership and in the party program was simply lip-service and a sop to the radical temper of the times. In fact, there was little to distinguish the 1920's union-backed Labour Party from the current union-backed Democratic Party, as Lenin’s withering characterization of its pro-capitalist leadership and direction clearly indicates:
"It is true that the Hendersons, the Clyneses, the MacDonalds and the Snowdens are hopelessly reactionary. It is equally true that they want to assume power (though they would prefer a coalition with the bourgeoisie), that they want to “rule” along the old bourgeois lines, and that when they are in power they will certainly behave like the Scheidemanns and Noskes. But it does not at all follow that to support them means treachery to the revolution... the British Communists should participate in parliamentary action, that they should, from within parliament, help the masses of the workers see the results of a Henderson and Snowden government in practice, and that they should help the Hendersons and Snowdens defeat the united forces of Lloyd George and Churchill... we must help the majority of the working class to be convinced by their own experience that we are right, i.e., that the Hendersons and Snowdens are absolutely good for nothing, that they are petty-bourgeois and treacherous by nature, and that their bankruptcy is inevitable." -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#31995): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/31995 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/108216415/21656 -=-=- 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. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
