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Labour Party

Nationalisation or Socialism? (1945)

Preface

One of the issues raised at the General Election in July, 1945, and one that will be fought out in Parliament and at future elections, is the issue of State control over industry. Although it is not a new issue, various factors, including the growth of monopolies in many industries and the experience of extensive Governmental control during the war, have combined to give it increasing prominence. Above all is the advent to power of the Labour Party. The Labour Government is nationalising the Bank of England, the mines and railways (as well as other industries later on), and is actively pursuing a policy of intervening in industries, such as textiles, that are said to be in need of reorganisation if they are to be able to compete effectively with more modern and better equipped competitors abroad.

Date: 
1945

Cooking the Books 2: Ed’s dad

“My Dad,” Labour Leader Ed Miliband told BBC Radio 5, “would have considered himself a socialist too, but he would have said we need to have public ownership of everything.” (Times, 27 November).

It’s true, his dad, Ralph Miliband, was a leftwinger who identified “socialism” with full-scale nationalisation, or state capitalism  – as we pointed out in a review of his book The State in Capitalist Society in the August 1969  Socialist Standard:

50 Years Ago: Austerity for how long, Sir Stafford?

The opening words of "Let Us Face the Future," the Labour Party's declaration on which the 1945 General Election was fought, were "Victory in War must be followed by a Prosperous Peace." There was no must about it and the cessation of American lease-lend soon brought the Government face to face with the fact that capitalism has its own way of disposing of election hopes and promises. Since 1945 we have had to make the best of a series of "crises" all of which have been announced by the Government with an air of surprise as if they could not have been foreseen. The workers have been asked to put up with austerity and "work harder" campaigns on the plea that after all they would not last for ever. Now Sir Stafford Cripps has let the cat out of the bag. Speaking at a Press Conference in London on 11th November, he said:

The struggle for democracy

The capitalist system may have nominally democratic institutions, but it relies upon working class compliance, passivity and lack of involvement in the process to carry out its worst and most illiberal functionings. Real democracy can only be achieved on the basis of the common ownership of society's means of living.

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