THE GAITSKELLITES STEPHEN HASELER REVISIONISM IN THE BRITISH LABOUR PARTY. Palgrave Macmillan

Transcription

1 THE GAITSKELLITES

2 THE GAITSKELLITES REVISIONISM IN THE BRITISH LABOUR PARTY STEPHEN HASELER Palgrave Macmillan

3 Stephen Haseler 1969 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1969 First published 1969 by MACMILLAN AND CO LTD Little Essex Street London wc2 and also at Bombay Calcutta and Madras Macmillan South Africa (Publishers) Pty Ltd Johannesburg The Macmillan Company of Australia Pty Ltd Melbourne The Macmillan Company of Canada Ltd Toronto Gill and Macmillan Ltd Dublin ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI /

4 Contents List of Illustrations List of Tables Preface Chronology of Dates List of Abbreviations vii Vlll 1X xi XIV I Left, Right and Centre I PART ONE: 'Bevanism' and the Rise of Gaitskell I 9 3 Labour and the 'Shopping-List' 43 4 The Emergence of the 'New Thinkers' 6I 5 The Success of the 'New Thinkers' 99 6 The Spectre of Ernest Bevin I 12 PART TWO: ReVisionist Leadership I4I 8 The Clause IV Debate I 58 9 The Alliance and the Bomb I 78 IO The Campaign for Democratic Socialism 209 II The Modern, Revisionist Labour Party 237 Appendix I The Constitution of the Labour Party 254 Appendix II An Amplification of Labour's Aims 266 Bibliography 269 Index 279

5 List of Illustrations PLATES Between pages I 28 and I 29 Trade Union bosses George Brown talks to Sam Watson - Central Press Tom Williamson and Frank Cousins- Keystone Ernest Bevin - U.P.I. The rise of Hugh Gaitskell With Bessie Braddock- Keystone With Herbert Morrison - U.P.I. Elected Leader Keystone John Strachey- Stuart Heydinger Roy Jenkins - Camera Press Anthony Crosland - Camera Press The Labour Party of the early fifties- Keystone The Labour Party of the late fifties - U.P.I. The I959 General Election Gaitskell and his wife leave Transport House for an election tour of Essex- Keystone Gaitskell concedes defeat at the press conference - Keystone Gaitskell in trouble Listening to Richard Crossman- Keystone Hitting back at hecklers- Keystone Gaitskell mends his fences with the Left, Keystone Clement Attlee and Harold Wilson on the eve of the 1964 election campaign- Keystone CARTOONS 'Brother Hugh, Brother Hugh, you've written that sinful word again...!' by Vicky page 160 '... and may I say to Hon. Members opposite me...' by Vicky page 180 *

6 List of Tables I Chart of Unions' Voting Record Shadow Cabinet Election Results Probable Breakdown of Treasurership Votes NEC Proposals Common Market Division 229

7 Preface Labour has now been in office for four and a half years. Its very existence as a Government belies the dire predictions of the fifties that it had lost its impetus to govern. The political success of the Conservatives under Churchill, Eden and Macmillan and Labour's own internal wrangling seemed, at one time, to point to political oblivion; but the Party successfully resisted the suicidal tendencies that have plagued it since its inception. Labour's will to live was strengthened by roots which reached deep into the fabric of British political life. Its tradition of social-democratic reform based upon working-class aspirations was temporarily threatened by extremist ideology more at home with continental political philosophy than with the moderate traditions of the British voter. Labour was rescued from the threat of extremism by the very forces that brought it into existence - the trade unions. But the trade union Right needed an intellectual justification for its stand against the Left. The Gaitskellite revisionists provided it and in so doing reasserted majority, moderate opinion. This is the story of the thirteen years in which Labour fought for its survival. As a doctoral student of politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science I decided to use the opportunity provided by my thesis to explore the characteristics of the Labour Right, the core of the Movement. So much public attention has been riveted upon the dilemmas of the Labour Left by journalists and scholars that the layman may be forgiven for believing that the Left-wing represents more than a minor faction of the Party as a whole. At certain periods the Left has played a crucial role in Labour's development, but normally the Party is governed and controlled by the Right. To understand the contemporary Labour Party one must first

8 X PREFACE understand its Right-wing and particularly its intellectuals, the Gaitskellites. As well as those who granted me formal interviews I wish to thank all those in the Labour Movement, too numerous to mention, whose time and consideration have enabled me to understand more clearly certain aspects of this subject. I also wish to thank the officers of the British Library of Political and Economic Science for permission to examine and reproduce extracts from the private diaries of Hugh Dalton. Above all, I wish to express my gratitude to my two PhD Supervisors, Professor Richard Pear, who saw much of the early work in draft form, and Dr Bernard Donoughue, whose own interest and involvement in the subject has been of invaluable assistance to me. My thanks, too, to Miss Norma Percy, Research Assistant to John Mackintosh, MP, for her help with details on the Common Market dispute. London, 1968 STEPHEN HASELER

9 Chronology of Dates 1951 March Bevin leaves Foreign Office. Morrison becomes Foreign Secretary. April Bevan, Wilson and Freeman resign from the Government over rearmament programme. October General Election. Conservatives elected with a majority of 26 seats over Labour March 57 Labour MPs defy Shadow Cabinet by voting against Conservative Government's defence statement. October Morrison and Dalton lose their seats on NEC to Wilson and Crossman. Annual Conference decides upon a 'shopping-list' for future public ownership. 'Bevanites' wound up as a formal group following PLP resolution. PUBLICATIONS: New Fabian Essays; Socialism: a new statement of principles; Facing the Facts (NEC) February Tribune 'Brains Trust' to continue as 'Bevanites' resist attempt to close it down. October Annual Conference passes fundamentalist document Challenge to Britain. Bevan elected to Shadow Cabinet in ninth place. I954 April October Bevan resigns from Shadow Cabinet over Labour's attitude to SEATO. Gaitskell defeats Bevan for Party Treasurer at Annual Conference. German rearmament accepted at Annual Conference by small margin May General Election: Conservatives elected with a majority of 67 over Labour. December Attlee retires from Leadership. Gaitskell elected Leader over Bevan and Morrison. PUBLICATION: Forward with Labour (manifesto for the General Election).

10 xii CHRONOLOGY OF DATES I956 February Griffiths elected Deputy Leader over Bevan. October Bevan defeats Brown for Party Treasurership at Annual Conference. PUBLICATIONs: Crosland's Future of Socialism; Strachey's Contemporary Capitalism; and Socialist Union's Twentieth Century Socialism. I957 October Revisionist document Industry and Society passed at Annual Conference. At same Conference, rejection of unilateral nuclear disarmament by 5,oss,ooo votes. Bevan supports Gaitskell on the bomb. PUBLICATIONs: Industry and Society (NEC); Public Enterprise (NEC). I958 October Rejection of unilateral nuclear disarmament at Annual Conference by 4, 72 I,ooo votes. PUBLICATION: The Arms Race: a programme for World Disarmament (NEC/TUC). I959 July October 'Non-nuclear club' proposal adopted by NEC. General Election. Conservatives elected with a majority of I07 over Labour. Jay calls for a new name for the Party and for a break with the trade unions. November Gaitskell asks for an amplification of Clause IV at the 'post-mortem' Conference. PUBLICATIONs: The Next Step (TUCfNEC); Britain Belongs to You! (manifesto for the General Election). I96o March May June July October Gaitskell's 'amplification of aims' passed by NEC. AEU oppose proposed change in Party aims. TGWU oppose proposed change in Party aims. NUM and NUR oppose proposed change in Party aims. NEC decide not to proceed with a change in Party aims. Death of Aneurin Bevan. Defeat of official defence policy at Party Conference. November Gaitskell defeats Wilson for Leader in PLP ballot. CDS officially launched. PUBLICATION: Labour in the Sixties (NEC). I96I February New defence policy, Policy for Peace, published by NEC/TUCfPLP.

11 CHRONOLOGY OF DATES xiii Ig6I October Policy for Peace passed and unilateralism rejected at Annual Conference. Also, resolution demanding removal of American Polaris bases passed. November Gaitskell re-elected as Leader unopposed. PUBLICATIONs: Policy for Peace (NEC); Signposts for the Sixties (NEC). I962 October Gaitskell makes anti-common-market speech to Annual Conference. PUBLICATION: Labour and the Common Market (NEC). I963 January Death of Hugh Gaitskell. February Harold Wilson elected Leader. October Wilson makes his 'science speech' to Party Conference. PuBLIc AT ION: Labour and the Scientific Revolution (NEC). I 964 October General Election. Labour win with overall majority of 4 PUBLICATION: Let's Go with Labour for the New Britain (NEC) (manifesto for the General Election).

12 List of Abbreviations ADM ASW BDC BISKTA ILP LPACR NEC NUAW NUGMW NUM NUR PLP TGWU TSSA USDAW UTFWA Annual Delegate Meeting of the USDA W Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers Biennial Delegate Conference of the TGWU British Iron, Steel and Kindred Trades' Association Independent Labour Party Labour Party Annual Coriference Report National Executive Committee of the Labour Party National Union of Agricultural Workers National Union of General and Municipal Workers National Union of Mineworkers National Union of Railwaymen Parliamentary Labour Party Transport and General Workers' Union Transport Salaried Staffs Association Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers United Textile Factory Workers' Association