he British Labour Party has always been an unstable coalition of wild-eyed Marxists, sober trade-unionists, respectably reformist Socialists, and what George Orwell memorably described as “every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, ‘Nature Cure' quack, pacifist, and feminist in England.” The big tent made Labour stronger than most socialist parties, because moderate voters were willing to trust Labour's openness to compromise and commitment to Parliamentary democracy. But it also condemned the party to chronic internal feuding, since the wild-eyed bunch never were happy with the compromises that brought moderates into their fold. Party leaders walked a tightrope that kept them just free of the barmies.
Forty years ago, the tightrope almost failed, and the moderates just barely saved Labour from the loony left. John Golding's Hammer of the Left: The Battle for the Soul of the Labour Party tells the story of how they pulled it off.
The infinitely malleable Harold Wilson was Labour leader for more than a decade after 1963, as Britain slipped toward stagflation and faced the grim necessity that they would need to go hat in hand to the International Monetary Fund. He was replaced by James Callaghan in 1976, who soldiered on toward Britain's Winter of Discontent, when Union obstinance buried Labor's chances to govern for a generation. Michael Foot, the epitome of a fruit-juice drinker, was chosen to face the Iron Lady. And all the while the loonies were on the march.
Read Full Article »