SocialismToday           Socialist Party magazine
 

Issue 222 October 2018

Labour’s Clause Four

I enjoyed Hannah Sell’s article in the April edition of Socialism Today No.217, For a Fighting, Democratic Labour Party.

However she refers to current Labour Party membership cards having printed on them a pro-market clause referring to "enterprise of the market", "the rigour of competition" and "a thriving private sector". 

This prompted me to check my Labour Party card and none of these phrases is included. Instead, the clause on the back starts, "The Labour Party is a democratic socialist party..." and continues in a more or less similar vein.

Regards,

Michael Barnes

Hannah Sell responds:

Michael rightly draws attention to my mistake in the article ‘For a fighting, democratic Labour Party'.

As he points out, Labour Party membership cards issued today only have the first point from the current version of Clause IV, introduced in 1995 under Tony Blair’s leadership. This does indeed start, "The Labour Party is a democratic socialist party…" and, as Michael says, "continues in a more or less similar vein".

The quotes I gave in my article, nonetheless, are a key part of the current Clause IV. They come from point 2A, the full text of which is: "A. A DYNAMIC ECONOMY, serving the public interest, in which the enterprise of the market and the rigour of competition are joined with the forces of partnership and co-operation to produce the wealth the nation needs and the opportunity for all to work and prosper with a thriving private sector and high-quality public services where those undertakings essential to the common good are either owned by the public or accountable to them".

The Clause IV it replaced, by contrast, called for "the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange" in order to secure for the workers the "full fruits of their labour". Adopted in 1918, the Clause was actually written by the Fabian Sidney Webb, on the reformist wing of the party, and deliberately avoided advocating the commanding heights of the economy put under workers’ control in favour of the catch-all phrase, the "best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service".

Nonetheless, its adoption reflected the pressure of big sections of the working class radicalised by the Russian revolution. Over generations, workers associated Clause IV with Labour being a socialist party. When the right-wing Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell unsuccessfully attempted to abolish it in 1959, the net result was that it was added to the annual membership card!

Tony Blair’s successful rewriting of Clause IV, therefore, was a symbolic, but important, part of Labour becoming a capitalist party. Today, along with all the measures necessary to democratise Labour, one element of transforming it into a party of the working class, will be the adoption of a new, socialist Clause IV.


Class and gender

Just wanted to say how much I appreciated Heather Rawling’s review of The Caseroom in Socialism Today No.218, May 2018. Pleased that it was positive, yes, but especially pleased to read a review that understood that my novel is fundamentally an exploration of class and gender, explaining the consequences of the lack of a revolutionary option.

Phew. It’s a relief when people get it – ie, what seems obvious to me. Thanks and best wishes,

Kate Hunter

PS. A very good strike victory in the sequel (what was originally the final part of The Caseroom).


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