English essays -- 20th century; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1901-1910
It is hardly necessary to point out that here Mr. MacDonald gives the
whole I.L.P. case hopelessly away. None reading the above passage
could suppose for a moment that it was written by a Socialist.
Observe that the writer does not ask for a single item of socialist
or semi-socialist legislation. He is silent about Old Age Pensions,
about an Eight Hours Day or a Minimum Wage, about a Graduated Income
Tax, about Housing or Factory legislation--in a word about everything
that could by any possibility be called Socialistic. For what does he
ask? Firstly for anti-Imperialism? Now is anti-Imperialism the same as
Socialism? Is there any reason for supposing that the anti-Imperialist
wing of the Liberal party will do more for labour than the Imperialist
wing? Is Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman a Socialist or a Labourite? Is
Mr. John Morley, who for years has absolutely blocked the way in
regard to social reform, a Socialist or a Labourite? Why should the
Labour Party support the hopelessly outmoded rump of Little-England
Radicalism without at any rate making a very stringent bargain with
them? As to trade union legislation, every Socialist would doubtless
support it, but it is not in itself a Socialist measure; it is merely
what everyone supposed that the Unions had obtained thirty years ago
with the assent of Liberals and Tories alike. It therefore comes to
this--that Mr. MacDonald has declared himself as regards practical
issues not a Socialist at all, but an anti-Imperialist Radical who is
in favour of improving the legal position of trades unions. Then why,
in the name of heaven form an independent party at all? He and those
who follow him are clearly in their right place as an insignificant
section of the Radical “tail.” And that is how both Tories and Radicals
will in future regard them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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