unpopular decisions must be made if Britain is to get the rate of economic expansion it needs,” said Harold Wilson at the meeting of the Southern Region of the Labour Party.
No-one on the left will deny for a second that the crisis of Britain’s economy is serious in the extreme. None of us would suggest that socialist responses to this crisis can be easily or painlessly transformed into hard policies. Neither would any of us suggest that the workers should ignore appeals for sacrifices, if these are needed to ease the way to a socialist transformation of society. But we all should, indeed must, insist, that such sacrifices are only justified if they do result in changes in the balance of power in favour of the working people.
Indeed, the danger at the moment is that the most productive force of all, that of the creative initiative of the workpeople, will be left out of the calculations of the economic planners who are advising the government. The a marriage of technocratic skills with neo-capitalism and dangers which were so widely feared a few months ago, of its standards, seem to be markedly increased with every new problem the government faces. There are no satisfactory solutions to the present crisis on the purely administrative plane. Our problem is to transform the structure of society, to develop socialist reforms, and to overcome the priorities and motivations of capitalism along with its manifest inefficiencies.
For this reason, all eyes must be focussed on the new steel bill. A bureaucratic transformation of the industry will scarcely touch the problems it faces, leave alone inspire the Labour movement and its supporters to new efforts. Only the introduction of real democratic controls, harnessing and developing every initiative of the steel workers themselves, can open the possibility for a renewed movement to public ownership of industry, which alone can tackle the difficult planning problems which are facing Mr. Wilson and his team.
The steel workers have begun the struggle for such solutions. We must see to it that they win.
Feb. 25, 1965 — THE WEEE Sponsors
Frank Allaun, M.P. Perry Anderson Chris Arthur Julian Atkinson Michael Barratt Brown Norman Buchan, M.P. Neil Carmichael, M.P. Raymond Challinor Henry Collins John Daniels Peggy Duff Richard Fletcher Ray Gosling Trevor Griffiths Eric Heffer, M.P. Ellis Hillman, L.C.C., G.L.C. Ralph Miliband Stan Mills Jim Mortimer Tom Nairn Dick Nettleton Stan Newens, M.P. John Rex Ernie Roberts Alan Rooney David Steele E. P. Thompson Tony Topham William Warbey Raymond Williams Bert Wynn Konni Zilliacus, M.P.