To what extent is Labour still a Socialist Party?

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To what extent is Labour still a Socialist Party?

The Labour Party started as the Labour Representation Committee in 1900 and became officially known as the Labour party in 1906; ‘the Labour Representation Committee was made to coordinate attempts to support MPs sponsored by trade unions, and represent the working-class population’. The basis of the party was Socialism - the belief that all people are equal and should own the mean of production; thus all industries and the economy would be in the hands of society.

The Labour party has never been revolutionary, but believes that its idea of Socialism can be achieved by peaceful, parliamentary means; it is a party that tends to be supported by the working class. There are many fundamental values of British Socialism or ‘Old’ Labour. These include class; the awareness of ‘class consciousness’ and that different classes have different interests, which all must be taken into account- wider interest of the constituencies had to be reflected, equality; the belief was that we are all born equal, that every individual can succeed in their ambitions and that everyone is entitled to the same life chances (it has never asked that the state should support complete economic equality, but it does say that the financial inequalities should be reduced, by means of taxation and redistribution of income by means of benefits), social justice; a belief that full scale equality is nether practical nor desirable, but it does believe that there are excessive inequalities in society ( it comprehends that there are people who are deprived through no fault of their own and that some have inherited their wealth, rather than worked for it: in such cases, they believe that wealth should be redistributed, but those who achieve wealth through their own hard work, deserve to keep their fortune. It also believes that those who make o effort to improve their situation, should receive minimum state benefit to encourage them to work – state intervention should be available to remove ‘artificial’ privileges and to create greater opportunities).

Other fundamental principles include equality of opportunity; they have accepted that in a capitalist based society, there is likely to be unequal rewards, which is desirable as it helps to create incentive for hard work, but they have also understood that inequality is not just (thus they believe that if living standards can be raised for everyone, then there will be more opportunities for everyone and that institutions must make themselves available to the whole social spectrum, rather than discriminating against certain groups, and finally, that in order for poorer parts of society to be prosperous, they should be allowed to take part on capitalist enterprises), collectivism; the belief stemmed from the Socialist view that human nature makes man prefer to live in social groups, than alone (examples of collectivism that the Labour party have practiced: nationalization of big industries [railways, gas], trade-union power [ workers have a strong collective representation through unions, thus are not likely to be exploited] and having a welfare state [ providing provisions such as healthcare and education, by funding such services through taxation]), common ownership; is a key form of collectivism in which there is hoped to be common ownership of production and distribution (thus there is an objection to private property for reasons including: the fact that Earth is mankind’s and no individual has the right to claim any part to himself, private property gives rise to inequality and deprives others of its use).

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The party held power for 16 years; from 1945-1979, but the Tories were in power and the party split between the left-wing of the party, represented by Michael Foot and Tony Benn, and the right-wing of the party, represented by Denis Healey, who had said that the party was moving too far towards the left, making it potentially unelectable. Foot and Benn felt that making the party more Socialist was a way to tackle to New Right and Thatcherism, but the electorate did not feel the same way. After Michael Foot’s resignation, Neil Kinnock replaced him; he moved the party ...

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