What Labour Could Do Six Essays Based On Lectures Prepared For The Fabian Society By Lord Latham Joan S Clarke And Others Etc

Author : Lord Latham
Publisher : Dutt Press
ISBN 13 : 1406775770
Total Pages : 112 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (67 download)

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Download or read book What Labour Could Do written by Lord Latham and published by Dutt Press. This book was released on 2007-03 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WHAT LABOUR COULD DO CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTORY NOTE . . . . . . vii by John Parker, M. P. 1 WHAT WE WOULD Do WITH THE LAND i by Lord Latham 2 LABOUR COULD ABOLISH POVERTY . . 17 by Joan Simeon Clarke 3 INDUSTRY THE SERVANT OF THE PUBLIC 33 by Jim Griffiths, M. P. 4 THE FUTURE OF SOCIALISM IN EUROPE . . . 49 by Kingsley Martin 5 A POLICY FOR COLONIAL PEOPLES . 64 by Leonard Barnes 6 WE MEAN FREEDOM ..... .82 by R. H. Tawney INTRODUCTORY NOTE THESE essays, prepared by people whose names are well known in the Labour Movement, are based on a series of lectures delivered in the autumn of 1944 under the auspices of the Fabian Society. They represent not the collective view of the Society, but the views of the individual contri butors. The Societys responsibility is limited to approving the contents as embodying facts and opinions worthy of consideration with the Labour Movement. The purpose of the present series is to initiate discussion on six important political questions which are issues of the day, and to suggest ways in which Labour can approach them and improve upon official reconstruction policy, in so far as it is yet formulated. For the benefit of those readers who are not already acquainted with the work of the Fabian Society, perhaps it should be said that its aims are the furtherance of socialism and the education of the public on socialist lines. Member ship is open to all who are prepared to accept the Constitu tion of the Labour Party, and people of all progressive points of view are invited to become associates. JOHN PARKER, M. P. General Secretary, Fabian Society. ii DARTMOUTH STREET, LONDON, S. W. i. Vll WHAT LABOUR COULD DO WHAT WE WOULD DO WITH THE LAND by LORD LATHAM I PROPOSE to invite your attention to an objective con sideration of what Labour in office would do in regard to the land. It is a vital problem. Land is the basis of all social life, and upon it all activities more or less rest. The tenacity with which the reactionaries of this country will cling to the private ownership of the land has recently been illustrated in the House of Commons debates on the Town and Country Planning Bill. 1 Dur ing the passage of the Bill, there have been several crises, in one of which it was clear that the Tory 1922 Com mittee, representing the landed interests, were willing to risk the defeat of the Government, to endanger national unity, and thus to impair the chances of speedy victory. In their fight for a higher level of compensation to be paid for land, it may be fairly said that the landed interests have largely succeeded, despite the very able and effective fight put up by Labour members in the House. As the present Prime Minister said in other days, namely, 1908, The land monopoly is by far the greatest of monopolies it is a perpetual monopoly and it is the mother of all forms of monopoly. The safeguard against many other monopolies, namely, the provision of alternatives, does not apply to the land. You cannot increase its extent all you can do is to 1 Now the Town and Country Planning Act, 1944. I 2 Lord Latham over-build on it and so produce the results only too apparent in many of our built-up areas, towns and cities. The Labour Party has, as a final and ultimate pur pose, that the land should be owned by the nation, and the nationalisation of the land is one of the planks of our programme. But the nationalisation of the land, desirable as it may be from every point of view of natural justice and social right, is essential only if the nation, without it, cannot control the use of the land in the interests of the nation, as distinct from the interests of its private owners. I want, therefore, to look at the main purposes for which we need to be able to control land use and the extent to which State ownership is necessary to achieve those purposes...