Archiv für den Tag: 3. November 2019
labour | post war
The internal divisions in the British Labour party are amplified by the fact that the party was founded upon an alliance of autonomous organisations. This factor led → Shaw to conclude that Labour was “neither socialist nor… a party”.
He described the party as a confederation of societies that had amalgamated only because they represented, to differing extents, working class interests.
This has led political analysts to define Labour’s ideology not as socialism but ‘labourism’; a coalition of group interests some of which can be described as ideological but, in general, are nothing more than political objectives derived from the interests of a single class.
We can therefore view Labour party policy as having emerged out of a loose collection of ideological traditions, restricted by a traditional non-radical tendency within the electorate and the party’s structure and also by the existence of a largely right-wing parliamentary opposition.