LABOUR'S CON-FERENCE

Despite vacuous statements in the DAILY EXPRESS (24.09.08) about “hard-left Socialism” and “plenty of socialist fantasy” in relation to Gordon brown’s conference speech, the Labour Party has always been a capitalist party, never a Socialist one.

The fact that Brown and his Party have been in power for eleven years and the gap between the rich and poor is widening, shows not only that the rich and poor division that characterises capitalism remains but also that the means of production remain the property of a minority class which lives through the exploitation of wage-labour. The Labour Party has never been anything but an alternative to the Conservative Party for running capitalism.

Eight years after they were formed in 1906, they were supporting World War One. They were in coalition with the Tories helping to slaughter millions of workers in World War II. The post-war Labour government froze wages and opposed strikes. They also launched post-war rearmament and started the process of building Britain as a nuclear power. Every post-war Labour government has discouraged wage-increases.

Gordon Brown talks of a “fairer society”, even on his terms as a leader of a capitalist party, this is an admission that after eleven years nothing has changed. How can a society based upon exploitation be fair to those it exploits? These are the working class majority, wage earners, employees.

Only a few years ago, if a Labour leader made a conference speech and never mentioned “Socialism” however superficially, there would have been comments made. The pretence has long been abandoned. Nationalization, as a means of running capitalism, failed to solve any working class problem and when it became a vote loser, was dropped. The damage alone in falsely passing it off as Socialism has made the task of genuine Socialists more difficult. This is Labour’s real contribution to workers’ emancipation from capitalism.

At the Manchester hall where Brown spoke, those leader-loving dimwits would have applauded if he had been reading from the Yellow Pages; at times it sounded as though he was. One women very briefly interviewed by the BBC said it was “All waffle and no substance what so ever”, how right she was. There was no mention in the news of the anti-war protests outside and not a single word on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq inside. It was the same in America, there were huge anti-war protests outside while McCain was speaking and 200 people were arrested in the land of the “free”.

The only fruitful way to be anti-war is to be anti-capitalism that means to be in favour of Socialism. The Socialist Party of Great Britain has always condemned the pro-war capitalist labour party. The real challenge facing the world’s workers is to understand Socialism and use their political enlightenment to bring it about. This will mean a world without classes, trade, money, or markets and certainly no leaders. With the means of production held in common by all mankind, people will co-operate to produce useful things (goods and services) solely to meet human needs.

Back to top