1 INTRODUCTION the United Kingdom Is a Constitutional

INTRODUCTION The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy. The country is governed by the government which is responsible to Parliament. In liberal democracies a representative government can only be facilitated by political parties. The Labour Party is one of the two major parties strong enough to win a general election and form a government. Throughout its history, the Labour Party has undergone numerous policy changes. It came to Parliament in 1900 with only two MPs elected. It represented the working people and stood firmly on the left of the British political spectrum. Now the Labour Party has a majority in Parliament with a total of 356 seats. It has become a “catch-all” party which has decisively cast aside all class-related appeals. The present leader, Tony Blair, has stated clearly that “Labour is the political arm of none other than the British people as a whole” (Dunleavy, 4). The party claims to be a centre-left party, while the critics place it in the centre or even on the right. My thesis takes a close look at how the Labour Party has developed ideologically over time. While following the development of thoughts in the Labour Party I present and comment on the ideas expressed by all those who ideologically influenced the evolution of the Labour Party. The ideas have come from different levels of the party that can be divided into Labour in Parliament and Labour outside Parliament. The former comprises the leadership, ministers and MPs who are members of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP). The latter is made up of party members organized in Constituency Labour Parties, affiliated trade unions and socialist societies. Labour in Parliament have mostly constituted the party’s right, whereas Labour outside Parliament the party’s left. My thesis focuses on the ideological struggle between the party’s right and left from its beginnings up to the present. 1 THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND THE WORKING CLASS The movement of the British labourers had always been a movement of social protest. It had a long and distinguished tradition. In 1381 John Ball died on the gallows at the end of the Peasants’ Revolt that was directed against the injustice inflicted by the arbitrary poll tax. The agrarian socialists of medieval times found their successors in the movements of the Diggers and the Levellers. The former preached primitive communism, while the latter focused on both the actual standards of living of the lower classes and their political position. th In the 19 century a movement of social and political reform was represented by the Chartists whose political views now seem so reasonable, but were refused at that time. All these movements put forward ideas that challenged, though not changed, the established system in which economic and social privilege was enjoyed by the few. The system was also challenged from the top by some enlightened thinkers. Robert Owen’s mills at New Lanark were an example of a possible combination of the profit for the owner and the social welfare for employees. Nevertheless, New Lanark was one of the few places where the working people were treated fairly. Mostly, the Industrial Revolution brought benefits to the chosen few, whilst ignoring the ruled. The Industrial Revolution, th th which occurred in Britain in the 18 and 19 centuries, fundamentally altered the shape of Britain. So great was the impact of the Industrial Revolution that it cannot possibly be ignored when following the development of the socialist movement in Britain that culminated in forming a party of the British labourers. th The Industrial Revolution had its origins in the middle of the 18 century when a great transformation took place in the economic life of Britain due to the invention of new machines and processes. The changes disrupted settled patterns of society which, although remaining by far agricultural, underwent a great change “in the relative importance of industry and agriculture, of town life and country life” (Rodgers, 15). The Industrial 2 Revolution brought with itself great prosperity and confirmed the country’s dominance in the world. th In the course of the 19 century Britain had evolved to the stage of industrial and imperial superpower with society that became highly stratified and in which prosperity was far from being distributed equally. The Industrial Revolution gave birth to the class of workers. The working class found itself oppressed by the ruling classes. The working class enjoyed the living and working conditions that were in sharp contrast to what one would have expected of the “civilized” world. Typical features of the life in some parts of London, the richest city in the world, were “casual and seasonal unemployment, starvation wages, overcrowding at exploitative rents [and] an inhumane system of poor relief …” (Walkowitz, 193). The undesirable environment and a highly hierarchized society, in which moving up the social ladder was hardly feasible, made it impossible for the working class to enjoy the fruits of economic prosperity or even to lead a decent life. One of the most influential social thinkers, Sidney Webb, set out to rouse the conscience of Londoners in the following way: Twenty thousand of its [London’s] citizens fight in the fearful daily struggle for bread at the dock gates…thirty thousand of its children are at school entirely breakfastless. One of every five of the five millions who began again today the weary round of life will eventually quit that life in the workhouse or the hospital…And all this in the richest and most productive city in the world. (Rodgers, 41) On the other hand the British working class was – when compared for example with their French counterparts – relatively well off, especially in the period after the Great Exhibition. The affluence of the country “rubbed off on all classes” (Rodgers, 9), with the working class getting the least share. In addition to the improvement in everyone’s standard of living, the country had developed democracy to the extent other countries could only dream of. Moreover, protestant religions were keen on helping the working ethic and obedience high and there also was the royal family represented by a virtuous couple which was looked up to. 3 Victoria and Albert epitomized strength, pride and unity of the nation and the Victorian society is said to have been of high moral attributes, virtuous and relatively stable (Bell). The improved living conditions, the presence of democratic means, the protestant work ethic and the royal couple as an example of virtuous life played their roles in the country’s avoiding a revolution as experienced in France. In the British context the question was not to overthrow the system, but to find a better place for the working class in it. Supporters of the socialist movement were aware of Britain’s democracy and traditions and did not want to get beyond them. Thus the important aspects of the socialist movement were its peaceful and democratic nature, though some militant actions in the North could not be averted. A belief in democracy as the means of socialism and a refusal of too revolutionary Marxist measures were aptly grasped in Fabian Essays. It says that important changes in society could only be: (1) democratic and thus acceptable to a majority of the people…; (2) gradual, and thus causing no dislocation, however rapid may be the rate of progress; (3) not regarded as immoral by the mass of the people…;and (4) in this country, at any rate, constitutional and peaceful. (Webb, I.1.8) Before the socialist movement could have an impact on society, favourable conditions for perception of socialist ideas had to be created. In this respect the Industrial Revolution was of great and lasting importance. The negative effects of the Industrial Revolution that manifested themselves in the poor conditions of the working class opened up a platform upon which socialism and the representation of the working class could be discussed. According to Rodgers the Industrial Revolution “was decisive in creating the conditions for socialism” (15). So it is in the uneven distribution of prosperity and in the changes in society caused by the Industrial Revolution where one can find inspirations and origins of the demand for a government by and in the interests of the working people. But how to advance reforms? Through the established political parties or through a new party? 4 THE WORKING CLASS AND OTHER POLITICAL PARTIES th There was a stable political environment in Britain of the 19 century, with the established two party system. Neither the Liberal Party nor the Conservative Party (the latter to a lesser extent) was historically too hostile to the working class. The three passed Reform Bills and several factory acts brought some political and working benefits to the working class. However, neither of the mentioned parties was willing to directly appeal to the working class and form their policy exclusively on the needs of the working class. It is arguable whether a possible representation of the working class could have been effected by the Liberals, the idea of which came to be considered more seriously after the Liberals adopted a new programme of reforms at Newcastle in 1891 trying to win some votes from the working class (Rodgers, 39). The Liberals, however, did not prove to predict events very well. They underestimated the influence of the emerging Labour Party. Both on the local and national level, the Liberals were not willing to share power with Labour: “…no great effort was made to bring Labour men into the inner circle of power” (Beer, 148-149). By not assimilating the Labour representatives into their ranks, the Liberals helped create a room for a new party.

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