|
The Future Of Socialism
''The Future of Socialism'' is a 1956 book by Anthony Crosland. It was one of the most influential books in post-war British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party thinking. It was the seminal work of the 'revisionist' school of Labour politics. The book defined Labour's perspective on the post-war consensus, by which the major parties largely agreed on issues of the welfare state and economic policy from 1945 to the late 1970s. Crosland, an Oxford University academic before entering Parliament, had lost his seat in the 1955 United Kingdom general election, 1955 general election, and so was able to finish the book he had been working on for several years, seeking to offer a new argument for social democracy in the context of the new political and economic consensus introduced by the 1945–1951 Clement Attlee governments. However, ''The Future of Socialism'' has continued to be a reference point for intellectual debates within the Labour Party and the centre-left in succeeding generatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Crosland
Charles Anthony Raven Crosland (29 August 191819 February 1977) was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician and author. A social democrat on the right wing of the Labour Party, he was a prominent socialist intellectual. His influential book ''The Future of Socialism'' (1956) argued against many Marxist notions and the traditional Labour Party doctrine that expanding public ownership was essential to make socialism work, arguing instead for prioritising the end of poverty and improving public services. He offered positive alternatives to both the right wing and left wing of the Labour Party. Having served as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for South Gloucestershire (UK Parliament constituency), South Gloucestershire from 1950 to 1955, Crosland returned to Parliament for Great Grimsby (UK Parliament constituency), Great Grimsby (1959–1977). During Harold Wilson's Labour government, 1964–1970, governments of 1964–1970 he served a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Profit Motive
In economics, the profit motive is the motivation of firms that operate so as to maximize their profits. Mainstream microeconomic theory posits that the ultimate goal of a business is "to make money" - not in the sense of increasing the firm's stock of means of payment (which is usually kept to a necessary minimum because means of payment incur costs, i.e. interest or foregone yields), but in the sense of "increasing net worth". Stated differently, the reason for a business's existence is to turn a profit. The profit motive is a key tenet of rational choice theory, or the theory that economic agents tend to pursue what is in their own best interests. In accordance with this doctrine, businesses seek to benefit themselves and/or their shareholders by maximizing profits. As it extends beyond economics into ideology, the profit motive has been a major matter of contention. Economics Theoretically, when an economy is fully competitive (i.e. has no market imperfections like ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clause Four
Clause IV is part of the Labour Party Rule Book which sets out the aims and values of the British Labour Party. The original clause, adopted in 1918, called for common ownership of industry, and proved controversial in later years; Hugh Gaitskell attempted to remove the clause following Labour's loss in the 1959 general election. In 1995, under the leadership of Tony Blair, a new Clause IV was adopted. This was seen as a significant moment in Blair's redefinition of the party as New Labour, but has in the years since survived beyond the New Labour branding. Text The original version of Clause IV was drafted by Sidney and Beatrice Webb in November 1917, and adopted by the party in 1918. It read, in part 4: This section was widely seen as the Labour Party's commitment to socialism, even though the word "socialism" is not explicitly mentioned. ''The Manchester Guardian'' heralded it as showing "the Birth of a Socialist Party", stating that: In 1918, nationalisation was seen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom), Leader of the Opposition from 1994 to 1997 and held various shadow cabinet posts from 1987 to 1994. Blair was Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Sedgefield (UK Parliament constituency), Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007, and was special envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East from 2007 to 2015. He is the second-List of prime ministers of the United Kingdom by length of tenure, longest-serving prime minister in post-war British history after Margaret Thatcher, the longest-serving Labour Party (UK), Labour politician to have held the office, and the first and only person to date to lead the party to three consecutive general election victories. Blair attended the independent s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Labour
New Labour is the political philosophy that dominated the history of the British Labour Party from the mid-late 1990s to 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The term originated in a conference slogan first used by the party in 1994, later seen in a draft manifesto which was published in 1996 and titled '' New Labour, New Life for Britain''. It was presented as the brand of a newly reformed party that had altered the old Clause IV (which stressed nationalisation) and instead endorsed market economics. The branding was extensively used while the party was in government between 1997 and 2010. New Labour was influenced by the political thinking of Anthony Crosland and the leadership of Blair and Brown as well as Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell's media campaigning. The political philosophy of New Labour was influenced by the party's development of Anthony Giddens' Third Way which attempted to provide a synthesis between capitalism and socialism. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tribune (magazine)
''Tribune'' is a democratic socialist political magazine founded in 1937 and published in London, initially as a newspaper, then converting to a magazine in 2001. While it is independent, it has usually supported the Labour Party from the left. Previous editors at the magazine have included Aneurin Bevan, the minister of health who spearheaded the establishment of the National Health Service, former Labour leader Michael Foot, and writer George Orwell, who served as literary editor. From 2008 it faced serious financial difficulties until it was purchased by ''Jacobin'' in late 2018, shifting to a quarterly publication model. Since its relaunch the number of paying subscribers has passed 15,000, with columns from high-profile socialist politicians such as former leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn, former Second Deputy Prime Minister of Spain Pablo Iglesias and former Bolivian President Evo Morales. In January 2020, it was used as the platform on which Rebecca Long-B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bevanism
Bevanism was a movement on the left wing of the Labour Party in the late 1950s led by Aneurin Bevan which also included Richard Crossman, Michael Foot and Barbara Castle. Bevanism was opposed by the Gaitskellites, moderate social democrats within the party. The Gaitskellites typically won most of the battles inside Parliament, but Bevanism was stronger among local Labour activists. The Bevanites split over the issue of nuclear weapons, and the movement faded away after Bevan died in 1960. History Bevanism was influenced by Marxism; Bevan's biographer and later Leader of the Labour Party Michael Foot said that Bevan's "belief in the class conflict stayed unshaken", while acknowledging that Bevan was not a traditional Marxist. Despite declaring inspiration from Karl Marx, Bevan did not visibly support insurrectionist concepts of proletarian revolution, arguing that revolution depended on the circumstances, or the typical organisational model of many Communist parties. Accordi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaitskellism
Gaitskellism was the ideology of a faction in the British Labour Party in the 1950s and early 1960s which opposed many of the economic policies of the trade unions, especially nationalisation and control of the economy. Theoretically, it repudiated the long-standing orthodox position that identified socialism with public ownership of the means of production, and that such ownership was essential to achieve socialist objectives, and emphasized the goals of personal liberty, social welfare, and above all social equality. It downplayed loyalty to the labour movement as a central ethical goal, and argued that the new goals could be achieved if the government used appropriate fiscal and social policy measures within the context of a market-oriented mixed economy. Public ownership was not specifically rejected, but was seen as merely one of numerous useful devices. The movement was led by Hugh Gaitskell and included Anthony Crosland, Roy Jenkins, Douglas Jay, Patrick Gordon Walker ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roy Jenkins
Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead (11 November 1920 – 5 January 2003) was a British politician and writer who served as the sixth President of the European Commission from 1977 to 1981. At various times a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Labour Party and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), and a peer for the Liberal Democrats, he was Chancellor of the Exchequer and Home Secretary under the Wilson and Callaghan Governments. The son of Arthur Jenkins, a coal-miner and Labour MP, Jenkins was educated at the University of Oxford and served as an intelligence officer during the Second World War. Initially elected as MP for Southwark Central in 1948, he moved to become MP for Birmingham Stechford in 1950. On the election of Harold Wilson after the 1964 election, Jenkins was appointed Minister of Aviation. A year later, he was promoted to the Cabinet to become Home Secretary. In this role, Jenkins embarked on a major reform programme; he sought to build ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Douglas Jay
Douglas Patrick Thomas Jay, Baron Jay, PC (23 March 1907 – 6 March 1996) was a British Labour Party politician. Early life and education Educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, Jay won the Chancellor's English Essay in 1927 and gained a First in Literae Humaniores ('Greats') in 1929. He was a Fellow of All Souls from 1930 to 1937. His early career was as an economics journalist, working for ''The Times'' (1929–33), ''The Economist'' (1933–37) and the '' Daily Herald'' (1937–41), then as a civil servant in the Ministry of Supply and the Board of Trade. From 1943 he was a personal assistant to Hugh Dalton. Political career Jay was a convinced democratic socialist from a young age, but only joined the Labour Party in the winter of 1933–34, whereupon he became a member of Paddington constituency party. In his capacity as a journalist he was a senior figure in the XYZ Club, a clandestine organisation in the City of London dedicated to supplying Labo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hugh Gaitskell
Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell (9 April 1906 – 18 January 1963) was a British politician who was Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom), Leader of the Opposition from 1955 until his death in 1963. An economics lecturer and wartime Civil Service (United Kingdom), civil servant, he was elected to Parliament in 1945 United Kingdom general election, 1945 and held office in Clement Attlee's governments, notably as Minister of Fuel and Power following the Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom, bitter winter of 1946–47, and eventually joining the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Facing the need to increase military spending in 1951, he imposed National Health Service charges on dentures and spectacles, prompting the leading left-wing politics, left-winger Aneurin Bevan to resign from the Cabinet. The perceived similarity in his outlook to that of his Conservative Party (UK), Co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beatrice Webb
Martha Beatrice Webb, Baroness Passfield, (née Potter; 22 January 1858 – 30 April 1943) was an English sociology, sociologist, economist, feminism, feminist and reformism (historical), social reformer. She was among the founders of the London School of Economics and played a crucial role in forming the Fabian Society. Additionally, she authored several popular books, with her most notable being ''The Co-operative Movement in Great Britain'' and ''Industrial Democracy'', co-authored by her husband Sidney Webb, 1st Baron Passfield, where she coined the term "collective bargaining" as a way to discuss the negotiation process between an employer and a labor union. As a feminist and social reformer, she criticised the exclusion of women from various occupations as well as campaigning for the unionisation of female workers, pushing for legislation that allowed for better hours and conditions. Early life Beatrice Webb (née Potter) was born in Standish House in the village of Sta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
