The Future Of Socialism
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The Future Of Socialism
''The Future of Socialism'' is a 1956 book by Anthony Crosland. It was one of the most influential books in post-war British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party thinking. It was the seminal work of the 'revisionist' school of Labour politics. The book defined Labour's perspective on the post-war consensus, by which the major parties largely agreed on issues of the welfare state and economic policy from 1945 to the late 1970s. Crosland, an Oxford University academic before entering Parliament, had lost his seat in the 1955 United Kingdom general election, 1955 general election, and so was able to finish the book he had been working on for several years, seeking to offer a new argument for social democracy in the context of the new political and economic consensus introduced by the 1945–1951 Clement Attlee governments. However, ''The Future of Socialism'' has continued to be a reference point for intellectual debates within the Labour Party and the centre-left in succeeding generatio ...
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Anthony Crosland
Charles Anthony Raven Crosland (29 August 191819 February 1977) was a British Labour Party politician and author. A social democrat on the right wing of the Labour Party, he was a prominent socialist intellectual. His influential book ''The Future of Socialism'' (1956) argued against many Marxist notions and the traditional Labour Party doctrine that expanding public ownership was essential to make socialism work, arguing instead for prioritising the end of poverty and improving public services. He offered positive alternatives to both the right wing and left wing of the Labour Party. Having served as Member of Parliament (MP) for South Gloucestershire from 1950 to 1955, Crosland returned to Parliament for Great Grimsby (1959–1977). During Harold Wilson's governments of 1964–1970 he served as Economic Secretary to the Treasury (1964), then Minister of State for Economic Affairs (1964–1965). Entering the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Education and Science (1965–19 ...
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Beatrice Webb
Martha Beatrice Webb, Baroness Passfield, (née Potter; 22 January 1858 – 30 April 1943) was an English sociologist, economist, socialist, labour historian and social reformer. It was Webb who coined the term ''collective bargaining''. She was among the founders of the London School of Economics and played a crucial role in forming the Fabian Society. Early life Beatrice Potter was born in Standish House in the village of Standish, Gloucestershire, the last but one of the nine daughters of businessman Richard Potter and Laurencina Heyworth, a Liverpool merchant's daughter; Laurencina, was friends for a time with the prolific Victorian novelist, Margaret Oliphant during the 1840s. Both women were campaigned in Liverpool at the time (See Margaret Oliphant Autobiography Edited by Elizabeth Jay, page 25-26). Her paternal grandfather was Liberal Party MP Richard Potter, co-founder of the ''Little Circle'' which was key in creating the Reform Act 1832. From an early age Webb ...
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Susan Crosland
Susan Barnes Crosland ( Watson; 23 January 1927 – 26 February 2011) was a British-American journalist who lived and worked primarily in London. She was the widow of the Labour Party politician Anthony Crosland. Biography Born Susan Barnes Watson in Baltimore, the descendant of passengers on the ''Mayflower'', she was the daughter of Mark Skinner Watson, a defence correspondent for ''The Baltimore Sun'', later the publication's editor, and Susan Owens who was also a journalist. She graduated from Vassar College and taught at the Baltimore Museum of Art. In 1952, she married Patrick Skene Catling, then working with her father, and relocated to London in 1956 when Catling was posted to the London office of ''The Baltimore Sun''. At a party during the year she met Anthony Crosland shortly after ''The Future of Socialism'', his most significant book, had been published. Her first marriage collapsed in 1960, and she and Crosland married in 1964; they initially kept separate residen ...
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Alan Johnson
Alan Arthur Johnson (born 17 May 1950) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Education and Skills from 2006 to 2007, Secretary of State for Health from 2007 to 2009, Home Secretary from 2009 to 2010, and Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2011. A member of the Labour Party, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle from 1997 to 2017. Johnson served in the Cabinet during both the Tony Blair government and that of Gordon Brown. He served under Blair as Minister of State for Universities from 2003 to 2004, as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2004 to 2005, and as President of the Board of Trade from 2005 to 2006. Early life Born in London on 17 May 1950, the son of Stephen and Lillian Johnson, he was orphaned at the age of 13 when his mother died, his father having previously abandoned the family. Following this, in 1964 Johnson and his elder sister Linda moved to a council flat in Pitt Ho ...
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Ruth Kelly
Ruth Maria Kelly (born 9 May 1968) is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bolton West from 1997 until she stood down in 2010. Previously, she served as the Secretary of State for Transport, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Minister for Women and Equality and Secretary of State for Education and Skills, serving under both Gordon Brown and Tony Blair. Background Kelly was born in Limavady, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. She also lived briefly in the Republic of Ireland before moving to England where she attended Edgarley Hall, the preparatory school for Millfield School. She was educated at the independent Sutton High School, run by the Girls' Day School Trust (GDST). After being moved up a year and sitting O-levels at Sutton High School at the age of 15, she decided to move back to Ireland to look after her ill grandmother. Her grandmother died after six weeks, but Kelly stayed for a year, liv ...
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Dick Leonard
Richard Lawrence Leonard (12 December 1930 – 24 June 2021) was a British writer, journalist and Labour Party (UK), Labour politician who served as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Romford (UK Parliament constituency), Romford from 1970 to 1974. He was a pro-European social democrat and had been a supporter of the late Labour foreign secretary Anthony Crosland, who championed Gaitskellism. Early life and career Leonard was born in Pinner, Middlesex in December 1930, the son of the late Cyril Leonard, and Kate Leonard (''née'' Whyte). He attended Ealing Grammar School, followed by the Institute of Education at London University, and the University of Essex, where he graduated with an Master of Arts, MA degree. Leonard worked as a school teacher from 1953 to 1955, and from 1960 to 1968, as a journalist and broadcaster. Leonard was a senior research fellow (for the Social Science Research Council) at Essex University from 1968 to 1970. P ...
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Clause Four
Clause IV is part of the Labour Party Rule Book, which sets out the aims and values of the (UK) Labour Party. The original clause, adopted in 1918, called for common ownership of industry, and proved controversial in later years; Hugh Gaitskell attempted to remove the clause following Labour's loss in the 1959 general election. In 1995, under the leadership of Tony Blair, a new Clause IV was adopted. This was seen as a significant moment in Blair's redefinition of the party as New Labour, but has survived beyond the New Labour branding. Text The original version of Clause IV was drafted by Sidney and Beatrice Webb in November 1917, and adopted by the party in 1918. It read, in part 4: This section was widely seen as the Labour Party's commitment to socialism, even though the word "socialism" is not explicitly mentioned. ''The Manchester Guardian'' heralded it as showing "the Birth of a Socialist Party", stating that: In 1918, nationalisation was seen by many voters as aki ...
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Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of the Opposition from 1994 to 1997, and had served in various shadow cabinet posts from 1987 to 1994. Blair was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007. He is the second longest serving prime minister in modern history after Margaret Thatcher, and is the longest serving Labour politician to have held the office. Blair attended the independent school Fettes College, and studied law at St John's College, Oxford, where he became a barrister. He became involved in Labour politics and was elected to the House of Commons in 1983 for the Sedgefield constituency in County Durham. As a backbencher, Blair supported moving the party to the political centre of British politics. He was appointed to Neil Kinnock's shadow cabinet ...
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New Labour
New Labour was a period in the history of the British Labour Party from the mid to late 1990s until 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The name dates from a conference slogan first used by the party in 1994, later seen in a draft manifesto which was published in 1996 and titled ''New Labour, New Life for Britain''. It was presented as the brand of a newly reformed party that had altered Clause IV and endorsed market economics. The branding was extensively used while the party was in government between 1997 and 2010. New Labour was influenced by the political thinking of Anthony Crosland and the leadership of Blair and Brown as well as Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell's media campaigning. The political philosophy of New Labour was influenced by the party's development of Anthony Giddens' Third Way which attempted to provide a synthesis between capitalism and socialism. Mark Bevir argues that another motivation for the creation of New Labour was as a ...
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Tribune (magazine)
''Tribune'' is a democratic socialist Democratic socialism is a left-wing political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-management within ... political magazine founded in 1937 and published in London, initially as a newspaper, then converting to a magazine in 2001. While it is independent, it has usually supported the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party from the Left-wing politics, left. From 2008 it faced serious financial difficulties until it was purchased by ''Jacobin (magazine), Jacobin'' in late 2018, shifting to a quarterly publication model. Since its relaunch the number of paying subscribers has passed 15,000, with columns from high-profile socialist politicians such as former leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn, former Second Deputy Prime Minister of Spain Pablo Iglesias Turrión, Pablo Iglesias and former Bolivian Presid ...
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Bevanism
Bevanism was a movement on the left wing of the Labour Party in the late 1950s led by Aneurin Bevan which also included Richard Crossman, Michael Foot and Barbara Castle. Bevanism was opposed by the Gaitskellites, moderate social democrats within the party. The Gaitskellites typically won most of the battles inside Parliament, but Bevanism was stronger among local Labour activists. The Bevanites split over the issue of nuclear weapons, and the movement faded away after Bevan died in 1960. History Bevanism was influenced by Marxism: Bevan's biographer and later Leader of the Labour Party Michael Foot said that Bevan's "belief in the class conflict stayed unshaken", while acknowledging that Bevan was not a traditional Marxist. Despite declaring inspiration from Karl Marx, Bevan did not visibly support insurrectionist concepts of proletarian revolution, arguing that revolution depended on the circumstances, or the typical organisational model of many Communist parties. According ...
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Gaitskellism
Gaitskellism was the ideology of a faction in the British Labour Party in the 1950s and early 1960s which opposed many of the economic policies of the trade unions, especially nationalisation and control of the economy. Theoretically, it repudiated the long-standing orthodox position that identified socialism with public ownership of the means of production, and that such ownership was essential to achieve socialist objectives, and emphasized the goals of personal liberty, social welfare, and above all social equality. It downplayed loyalty to the labour movement as a central ethical goal, and argued that the new goals could be achieved if the government used appropriate fiscal and social policy measures within the context of a market-oriented mixed economy. Public ownership was not specifically rejected, but was seen as merely one of numerous useful devices. The movement was led by Hugh Gaitskell and included Anthony Crosland, Roy Jenkins, Douglas Jay, Patrick Gordon Walker and ...
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