LABOURISM. – Labourism can be considered as the beginning and subsequent development of that phase of the English labour movement which corresponds to the entry of workers into political life. It presents itself as a characteristic form of democratic and reformist socialism based on the guarantee of popular freedoms and respect for every religious faith, and thus not strictly bound to the ideological schemes of Marxist materialism and opposed to every form of dictatorship, including that of the proletariat. Hence the adherence of Catholic forces to Labourism.
Between 1840 and 1876, English trade unions – the Trade Unions – had achieved their most important aspirations, including legal recognition and the right to organise strikes (though this latter concession was limited by the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1871, which prohibited picketing, i.e., the action taken by striking workers to persuade their fellow workers to abstain from work). All this had been obtained by English workers on a strictly trade union level, since, after the failed experience of the Chartist movement, it had proved to be the most fruitful. But above all, in the last two decades of the century, various developments led the Trade Unions to consider with some interest the opportunity of taking an active part in politics. First among these was the multiplication of organisations for unskilled workers, organisations with a clear social tendency. Indeed, it must be remembered that the protection and organisation of the working classes, undertaken by the Trade Unions, did not extend to all categories of workers, but only to skilled workers. Unskilled workers, who were in the worst economic conditions, were prevented from organising by the Trade Unions themselves, which regarded their own position as a right and a privilege.
It was precisely in these environments of the dispossessed that socialism – which until then had not succeeded in deeply penetrating the English working class, so much so that it had given little support even to the Marxist International – found easy ground. In 1881 the Democratic Federation was founded, which shortly afterwards transformed itself into the Social-Democratic Federation with a programme inspired by that of German Social Democracy. The work of the new body – which was of a political nature – and the very situation of the workers led to a growing widening of public opinion on the advisability of extending workers’ organisation to all categories, and not only that, but also of coordinating all the trade union forces of the nation. These facts soon became a reality.
At the same time, even among classes traditionally opposed to workers’ participation in the direction of public affairs, there was a change of attitude. Many prejudices fell away, and a greater sense of tolerance penetrated the aristocracy. The work of the Fabian Society also contributed to creating this new climate; by proposing to defend socialist ideas without revolution, it carried out intense activity in spreading the principles of social justice. On the other hand, following the electoral reform of 1867, as early as 1874 two workers had entered the House of Commons, and ten years later the workers’ representation in the same House rose to twelve members.
Despite all this, lacking a true workers’ party, the working class had to rely either on the Conservatives or on the Liberals, thus suffering a dispersion of votes and remaining, at least in part, tied to these parties. Starting in 1887, a Scottish miner named Keir Hardie began a movement to demonstrate the incongruity in which the working class found itself and the need, on the part of the proletariat, to achieve that full independence – which it had already conquered in the socio-economic field – also in politics, participating in it with the strength of numbers and of its own capabilities. In 1893 Hardie founded in Bradford the Independent Labour Party, which, however, at the outset was not viewed with much sympathy either by the leaders of English trade unionism or by the workers themselves.
This attitude of opposition to political action by the forces of labour was soon changed, however, by the economic reality constituted by various failures on the trade union level, and especially by the sentence pronounced by the House of Lords sitting as the High Court of Justice against the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, following which this trade union was condemned to pay damages caused by the railway workers’ strike.
The unfavourable sentence of the High Court indeed served to restrict – almost to annul – the right to strike, thus depriving workers of their only effective instrument of struggle capable of supporting those demands which the action of the unions had succeeded in winning. The Trade Unions then realised the vital necessity of transcending the purely trade union position and of organising themselves, through their own party, both to guarantee the effectiveness of labour laws and to promote new ones, and to defend the trade union organisations themselves. From this conviction to practical action the step was short. In 1899 a congress of all trade union forces was held and Hardie achieved notable success. The following year the Labour Representation Committee was founded, an organ of the Trade Unions, intended to coordinate the political action of the forces of labour. In the 1906 elections, 29 deputies belonging to this committee entered the House of Commons.
Meanwhile, the working class continued its efforts to achieve unity of action in the political field. Also in 1906 the Independent Labour Party merged with the Labour Representation Committee, and the Labour Party, or Labour Party, was born. From 1906 to the First World War, the new Party saw considerable development. The only noteworthy fact in this period, however, is the ban imposed in 1911 on Trade Unions spending their funds for the financing of the Labour Party, a right which until then had been uncontested. This ban lasted until 1913, when a Trade Union Act defined the political purposes for which unions could spend their funds, always following a regular vote. In 1924 the first experiment in a Labour government was possible, but it lasted only eight months; after which serious events disturbed the world of English labour. The miners’ strike and the consequent national strike led, in 1927, the Conservative government then in power to pass a new law on labour conflicts and trade unions, which restricted the legal scope of the unions not only within the strictly trade union sphere, but also in their political activities, making solidarity strikes and lock-outs illegal if they were intended to coerce the government, either directly or indirectly, by inflicting damage on the community. Although in 1929 the Labour Party returned to government, its majority in Parliament was not sufficient to overcome that of the other parties combined, so that the 1927 law remained in force. The government then passed entirely into the hands of the Conservatives, until, in May 1940, after the resignation of Chamberlain, the Labourites entered the coalition government, presided over by Winston Churchill, with the leader of the Party, Attlee, as Deputy Prime Minister, while two other Labourites (Greenwood and Bevin) entered the War Cabinet. In this capacity of notable responsibility and collaboration with the Conservatives, English Labourism contributed to the victory of the British Empire.
With the return to normalcy, the Labour Party resumed its full independence, which culminated in the July 1945 elections in an outright victory, solidified by a majority that enabled the party to assume full responsibility for power and thus begin implementing a broad social programme. This majority was confirmed, albeit in smaller proportions, in the 1950 elections as well.
The Labour social programme is essentially centred, not only on the execution of large-scale works to prevent unemployment and on resolving the housing problem or on the full implementation of the Beveridge Plan, but also on the nationalisation of the most important sectors of the economy. Indeed, up to mid-1950, nationalisations had taken place in: the Bank of England, telegraphic and radio communications, civil aviation, coal mines, transport, electricity-generating industries, and the steel industry.
The narrowing of the gap between the Labour Party and the Conservative Party, highlighted by the 1950 elections, has posed greater difficulties for the former. It does not, however, appear that the Labour Party intends to halt the development and implementation of its programme.