The Left in Britain in the Twentieth Century (original) (raw)
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British Labour History: Movement Historians or Academic Historians
Labour History, no. 99, 2010
This is a review for 'Labour History' of John McIlroy, Alan Campbell, John Halstead and David Martin (eds), 'Making History. Organizations of Labour Historians in Britain since 1960, Fiftieth Anniversary Supplement, 'Labour History Review', volume 75, April 2010'.
The State of Twentieth-Century British Political History
Journal of Policy History, 2009
If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections.
The Left and the Debate over Labour Party Policy 1943-50.pdf
2018 Note then original Summary Martin Kemp ‘The Left and the Debate over Labour Party Policy, 1943-50’ PhD Thesis, submitted 1985 Explanatory Note, 2018 By the time I had completed this thesis I had a ticket booked for newly independent Zimbabwe, where I immersed myself in the study of African history – the subject I was to teach for the following two years in a ‘high density suburb’ of the capital, Harare. I had no headspace to respond to an enquiry from an Oxford publisher about preparing the thesis for publication. When, years later, I googled the title, I was pleasantly surprised to find Stephen Brooke, in the bibliographical essay that appended his 1995 book Reform and Reconstruction: Britain After the War 1945-51, describing the work as ‘important but regrettably unpublished.’ Many years have passed since, and it may well be of little interest today. Still, when I recently re-read the thesis, it seemed to me to have some interest given recent developments in Labour Party politics in the UK. The prevailing assumptions of British history in the 1980s were those with which the post-war generation had been raised. The ‘social problem’ had been solved. It was no longer meaningful to worry about the destructive, wasteful or socially divisive nature of capitalism, as developments in economic theory had transformed the prospects for a managed, socially inclusive, mixed economy. Those who were regarded as having been sceptical or reluctant to accept the new truths were dismissed as dinosaurs. History being on the side of the ‘revisionists’, the ‘Left’ were regarded askance in works such as Ben Pimlott’s Labour and the Left in the 1930s and Paul Addison’s The Road to 1945. Yet, even while I was studying Labour and the Left in the 1940s, these assumptions were themselves already becoming history. This was the time of the defeat of the miners’ strike, a most dispiriting moment, and of Thatcherism and the wholesale rejection of Keynesian notions of economic management. The Left of the Labour Party attempted to construct a socialist alternative, but their ideas were denounced as extremist by the media, and defeated by a ‘centrist’ leadership which ultimately, in the absence of any more creative vision, embraced neo-liberalism and privatisation itself as the basis on which to reduce poverty and sustain public services. As we now emerge from the Blair years, amazed and heartened by the upsurge of radical energy that found its expression in the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party, we witness another exciting attempt to challenge the thinking behind austerity. And to transform the party from an efficient electoral machine into a real movement of people and ideas. The era when progressives had to channel their energies into a range of single issue campaigns may be over. Ultimately, the Baloghs, Coles and Kaleckis may have more to say about the future than the Durbins and the Croslands. The Left in the 1940s was stricken by the split between Labour and Communist Parties. The group I was interested in could be characterised, I felt, as opportunists in the best sense of the word, seeking to maximise the potential at any one time, given the international situation, the state of the economy and above all the public’s openness to radical ideas. It allowed them a flexibility and creativity that seemed denied the leaderships of the two main parties on the Left, neither of whom trusted or respected them. I have reproduced the text exactly as it was submitted in 1985, except in one or two sentences which were really too ugly to allow through. For the most part this has been done by scanning each page onto a computer. It seems that the computer could read English and reproduce it in editable form, but that it had no idea of page set-up. I am not happy at the result – and apologise to readers who will quickly realise what I’m referring to – but not having the time to re-type the entire thesis, this will have to do. Summary. This dissertation traces the intellectual and political development of Labour's Left-wing during the 1940s, concentrating on the groups which produced the Tribune and the New Statesman. The first section considers the 1930s. to 'establish the essential background to later debates, and to clarify the character of long-standing divisions in the Labour Party. The period 1939 to 1942 is considered briefly in the Prologue, on the basis that it constitutes an exceptional period for left-wing politics in Britain. The end of 1942 is the point at which an analysis of the Left's politics is resumed in more details. The Left's part in the discussion of post¬war reconstruction plans and future economic' policy is examined. Another chapter looks at the political atmosphere in the decade's middle years, and the state of relations between the Left and the rest of the Party and, briefly, in contrast', the outlook of Labour's Right wing. The Left's view of foreign affairs forms another part, and the last chapter dealing with this period examines the left's analysis of Government economic policy, both domestically and in relation to the outside world. The last section of the thesis, covering 1948-50, is divided into two chapters. The first relates the political situation, foreign affairs and economic developments to the shifting aspirations of the Labour Left. The final chapter considers the role of the debate on Labour's future direction in the divisions that beset the Party from 1951.
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