News and analysis

In January Roy Jenkins, a Liberal Democrat Lord passed away. In the
1960s and 1970s he was right at the top of the British Labour Party. After his
recent death the
bourgeois press were full of praise for his achievements, the reason being that
as of 1979 he had worked strenuously to destroy the Labour Party! No longer able
to control the ranks, who were moving radically to the left,
especially after the defeat in the 1979 elections, he attempted together with
others to build the Social Democratic Party.

In this article in our series on the history of the British Labour party, Barbara Humphries looks at
the early years of Labour in parliament and how the development of the class struggle forced the leaders of
the party to make the final break with Liberalism.
(Originally published in Socialist Appeal, issue 48, February 1997).

As the world enters a new
turbulent period of wars and revolutions Rob Sewell looks at the situation in Europe in
the period of the 1930s and 1940s

On November 17 we published an article on the crisis in the British Conservative
Party, Tories in Crisis – The Plots Thicken.
The purpose of the article was to show how the Tories' crisis, and especially the crisis of their
leadership, is an expression of the crisis of the capitalist system, which
affects all classes in society. We explained how the 'Old Guard' of the
Tories would prefer the leader of the party to be elected by the MPs and not the
rank and file, because the present rank and file are so right wing and out of
touch with the real needs of the ruling class. The latest statements of some of
the old guard Tory leaders now confirm our analysis.

On the one hand, Blair prepares to send troops into Iraq behind the coattails
of the Americans to overthrow Saddam. On the other hand, he and ‘two Jags’
Prescott prepare to send in troops to break the picket lines of the
firefighters. If you adopt the policies of capitalism abroad, inevitably you
will adopt them in domestic policy.

The dearth of leadership in the Tory Party is not the cause of their crisis,
but it is not an accident either. The failings of these leaders faithfully
reflect the impasse of their system. Nye Bevan once said of the Tory leaders
(including Churchill) they have nothing to say about tomorrow, and harp on about
the past because they have no part to play in the future. They are a doomed
party representing a doomed class and a doomed system. The crisis in the Tory
Party is symptomatic of the impasse facing the profit system. The sickness of
that system spreads like a cancer affecting every aspect of society.

It’s amazing how people change. And it’s even more terrible when you forget
your roots. This is surely the case with poor old John Prescott, once National
Union of Seamen firebrand, and now "responsible" statesman and
minister in charge of the Labour Government’s stand against the just demands of
Britain’s firefighters.