This Dishonest Election.
You are being asked to decide by your votes whether a Tory or a Labour Government is your best guarantee of "better times" to come. In fact you are being cajoled and bamboozled into taking part in a monstrous act of political pretence. Whichever of these parties gains a majority there will be no "better times" for you. When the fight is over and you return to the unrelieved cares and hardships of your life as workers you will look back on this election as one of the most dishonest of modern times. The Party leaders know that crises are ahead in which the Party that wins will again mock you with the call to tighten your belts. All that you are going to decide by your votes is whether you are to have hard times and the menace of war under Tory Government or hard times and the menace of war under Labour Government.
The Trick Exposed.
The real purpose of the election has been admitted by two journals with opposing political leanings, the Liberal "Manchester Guardian" and the financial journal the "Economist."
They both say that it matters little which of the two parties wins, provided one or the other has a substantial majority. The "Manchester Guardian" writes:—"But whether the next Government is a Labour or a Conservative one it is earnestly to be hoped that it will be one with a coherent working majority. That, even more than the complexion of the Government, is what is important. ("Manchester Guardian," 21st September, 1951).
The "Economist" echoes these sentiments:—
"Whether the Conservative or the Labour Party can provide the better political leadership for these times is by comparison a minor issue." (" Economist," 22nd September. 1951).
Why is it so important to these two spokesmen of capitalist interests that the next Government should be a strong one? They give their reason. In the crises that are looming up at home and internationally British capitalism needs a Government that can act decisively and impose measures that will be unpopular.
The ''Manchester Guardian '' says :—
"... the Government has not been wholly ineffective. Now, however, it is entering a much more difficult period when some bold decisions and some unpopular economic measures are called for, decisions and measures which a weak Government could not carry through except with Opposition support, and that under the circumstances would not be forthcoming."
The "Economist'' likewise :—
"The difficulties facing the British people are now growing harsher. The firm and effective Government is required to meet them can come only from a party firmly established in power and able to look beyond immediate popularity when the need is for measures that will show their good results in two years' time rather than next month."
A third journal, the "Daily Mirror," though it gives preference to the Labour Party, makes a protest against the manifestoes of both the Tory and the Labour Party. It does so on the ground that both manifestoes imply "that economic troubles will be solved by choosing the right one of the two parties." In fact, says the "Mirror" (2nd October, 1951) "The troubles will remain when the election is over, and whatever Government emerges will have to be tough."
Pretending There is Something to Fight About.
There are no big differences between the Tory and Labour leaders except that they both want power. "It will be an election fought between only two parties and without any issues." (" Economist," 29th September, 1951).
Of course they have to pretend that they stand for fundamentally different things, but look at the facts.
They agree on rearmament, and on foreign policy the Party leaders were already consulting together on the Persian crisis before the election was announced. Lord Halifax, former British ambassador to the United States, was stating the truth when he said at Wisconsin, U.S.A., on 28th September:— "No matter who wins the General Election, British foreign policy will remain the same." ("Evening Standard," 29th September, 1951). Both parties stand for the continuation of conscription though for years the Labour Party when in opposition denounced it.
At one time the Labour Party aimed at extensive nationalisation. Now it is soliciting votes by letting it be known that there is to be no new nationalisation scheme in the near future. Nationalisation is only state capitalism and has proved so unpopular with the workers that the Conservatives are hoping to get working class votes by promising to denationalise iron and steel and road transport.
On housing the Labour Party boasts of its achievement of 200,000 a year and sneers at the impracticability of the Tories' vague undertaking to aim at a" target" of 300,000. But neither figure will meet the real need for millions of houses and both Parties agree in placing housing second in importance to re-armament.
On wages and prices both Parties hold out promises of keeping the one up and the other down. Every Government in the past 100 years has promised the same, and every worker knows that all Governments and all employers resist wage increases when prices rise and try to force down wages when prices fall.
Both Parties claim to be responsible for the so-called "Welfare State" and "full employment." The "Welfare State" is nothing but a glorified system of State relief necessary because the social system leaves the workers too poor to satisfy from their own resources the minimum requirements of life. "Full employment " has been possible during recent years only because of the world demand for materials and products to make good the destruction caused by the last war and preparation for the next. If they were honest the leaders of both Parties would admit that when world capitalism lapses into its next crisis there is no Government policy that can keep up the demand from abroad for the products of the export trades in this country.
Both Parties claim to be in favour of curtailing "excessive" profit but neither Party has any intention of doing what is really needed, abolishing the profit system. While Mr. Morgan Phillips, General Secretary of the Labour Party, accuses the Tory Party of pleading for "good profits," his colleague, Mr. Jay, Financial Secretary to the Treasury in the Labour Government admits that his own Party has the same aim:—
"British Labour believes in a mixed economy, which means good profits for efficient firms in the sphere of private enterprise." ("Manchester Guardian," 22nd September, 1951).
Under Labour Government profits have mounted to record levels and both Parties call on you for still more of the "increased production" which has created these record profits.
Have no illusions about the sham fight between Tory and Labour. Both stand for the retention of capitalism.
Labour Party's Aim not Socialism.
The one vital issue that should concern the workers of Britain is the abolition of capitalism and the establishment of Socialism. This is not the aim of the Labour Party. State capitalism or nationalisation is not Socialism. The attempts to run capitalism under price controls and profit controls are not Socialism. In the Labour Party election manifesto of 1945 the false claim was made that the "Labour Party is a Socialist Party and proud of it." Even this lip service to Socialism has now been dropped and replaced by meaningless references to the "welfare State" and the building of a "just society."
It suits the Tories at election time to pretend that the Labour Government's policies of price control and profit control are Socialism, but at least one opponent of the Labour Party has seen through this pretence:—
' The Labour Party has exhausted its inspiration and has not even the semblance of a body of Socialist doctrine to guide it." ("Manchester Guardian," 21st September, 1951).
The test is a simple one. The basis of capitalism is the ownership of accumulated wealth by a minority of the population, the capitalist class. After six years of Labour Government the Labour Party's own election programme admits that "half of Britain's wealth is still owned by one per cent, of the population." ("Daily Herald," 1st October, 1951).
In 1918 the Labour Party election manifesto "Labour and the New Social Order," placed it on record that "one-tenth of the population . . . owns nine-tenths of the riches of the United Kingdom." Thirty-one years later Mr. Glenvil Hall, Financial Secretary of the Labour Government, admitted that this was still true:—
" Of the 555,000 people who die each year only 10% own more than £2,000, but these 10%
between them own 90% of the total property.(House of Commons, 18th May, 1949).
Nothing could more clearly show the futility of tinkering with the reform of capitalism. Labourism has failed. Toryism is no better. Socialism is the only way out.
Socialism the Only Remedy.
Capitalism whether run by a Labour Government, a Tory Government, a Liberal Government or (as in Russia) by a Communist Government cannot solve your problems. Capitalism means endless poverty and insecurity for the working class. In addition its inescapable international rivalries are the cause of war which no League of Nations or United Nations can prevent. The only way out is to establish Socialism. This requires the conversion of the means of production and distribution from their present function of producing profit, to common ownership by the whole of society. Goods and services would then be produced solely to satisfy human needs, and by ridding society of the waste of armaments and of all the financial and other operations inseparable from capitalism human society would for the first time be easily able to provide all the needs and comforts of life.
The achievement of this great purpose waits only on the recognition of its necessity by you, the working-class and on your understanding of the democratic political action necessary to carry it through.
Do not be deterred by the magnitude of the problem or by the timid argument that world-wide agreement to achieve it is impracticable. The workers of all other countries are harassed by the same capitalist evils that make your lives a burden. They are no less anxious than you to find the way out. They are as able as you are to grasp the great truth that humanity can be saved only by the co-operation of the workers of all countries. Like you they abhor capitalism's wars and long for real peace that only Socialism can provide.
This Election and Those That Will Follow.
At present the number of Socialists in this and other countries is too small to determine the results of elections. In recent Parliamentary elections the Socialist Party of Great Britain has put up one or two candidates and, as we knew would be the result, they received the votes of only the very small number of Socialists in the constituencies chosen. On this occasion no Socialist Party candidates are in the field, but in all constituencies, if you have finally turned your back on the parties that put forward different methods of trying to run capitalism you will be able to register your vote for Socialism by writing "Socialism" across the ballot paper; This will serve to advertise the number of those who have realised that the use of the vote to support any other candidate no matter how he describes himself, is a vote for capitalism.
Study Socialism. Become Socialists. Resolve that you will help to make the Socialist Party strong enough to be the decisive factor at future elections.
The Executive Committee,
Socialist Party of Great Britain.
52 Clapham High Street, London, S.W.4.
October, 1951.
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