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.

It may be thought that as the various points of view are being debated so fully by the Tory, Liberal and Labour parties that there is no need for a statement representing the attitude of the Socialist Party of Great Britain. This pamphlet is designed to show that there is a specifically Socialist attitude to these problems and that it is not being put by any political party in this country except the S.P.G.B.

In the chapters that follow we show that schemes of nationalisation, municipal ownership, public utility boards and State regulation of monopolies will not solve the problems that confront us, and that the solution is only to be found in the establishment of Socialism. Those who believe that nationalising the mines, railways and other industries will lay the foundations for a new social order, and those who mistakenly believe that these schemes are the same thing as Socialism are asked to consider carefully the principles and policies of the Socialist Party of Great Britain as outlined in the following pages. Many workers who have reached the conclusion that the existing order of things needs drastic changes if the world is to be made fit to live in have failed to realise that the change is needed at the very foundations of society. Clear thinking about this problem will prevent precious years being wasted on experiments that are bound to prove ineffective, merely postponing the application of the real solution

THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE

SOCIALIST PARTY OF GREAT BRITAIN