Ideological Differences between Old Labour and New Labour - Essay Example

Ideological Differences between Old Labour and New Labour The Old Labour formally transformed into the new Labour when the Clause IV was changed and with that the long disputes between different groups within the party produced a change and the ideological basis of the party was also modified for good. The original version of the Clause IV is stated as: To secure for the workers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry and the most equitable distribution thereof that may be possible upon the basis of the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange, and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service. Following the internal transformations in the party’s ideology from which had already started to take place since 1979, Tony Blair in 1993 pointed out the confusing ends of the clause IV and put forward the alternative statement for the clause IV. During his first speech as the leader of the Labour Party he explained that in order to find out the solutions to the various problems being faced by the British nation, the country needs a transformation and that transformation has to first take place in the Party’s aims and objectives. Concluding his first address as the party leader he said: Let us be blunt. Our system of Government has become outdated. Our economy has been weakened. Our people have been under-educated. Our welfare state and public services have been run down and our society has been made more divided than at any time for 100 years, but our politics need not be like this. Our country need not be like this. Ours is a project of national renewal, renewing our commitment as a nation, as a community of people in order to prepare and provide for ourselves in the new world we face. We must build a nation with pride in itself. A thriving community, rich in economic prosperity, secure in social justice, confident in political change. That is our hope. Not just a promise to change – but to achieve it. Our party; New Labour – Our mission; New Britain. New Labour New Britain. Old Labour proclaimed its faithfulness with socialism but could not establish it in the true sense. The New Labour claims that it stands for a democratic socialism which can be termed as a benign capitalism, and unlike the Old Labour, New Labour stands with what it says. The problem with the Old Labour party was the fact that it believed in gradual change; it always claimed its loyalties to be with socialism, however it never succeeded to implement it, the policy of gradual change only complicated things and could not produce the desired results (Faucher-King, Le Gales and Elliot, 2010). On the other hand, the founders of the New Labour had a clear strategy in their mind and believed that a radical change in policy is imperative for a change to take place. Therefore Blair, after assuming the role of the Leader of the party, put forward the new strategy in very clear terms and thus the Clause IV of the party constitution was changed for good after a special conference in 1995. The new version of the Clause IV is as follows: The Labour Party is a democratic socialist party. It believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone, so as to create for each of us the means to realize our true potential and for all of us a community in which power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many, not the few, where the rights we enjoy reflect the duties we owe, and where we live together, freely, in a spirit of solidarity, tolerance and respect. The word democratic socialist party was used for the first time, however the addition of democratic to the word socialist was not a mere verbal addition, it depicted a change in the overall ideology of the party. The nationalising principle was abandoned and the belief of national ownership was ultimately given up by the New Labour, paving way for a capitalist ideology to penetrate into the party policy (Jones, 1996). The ideological differences between various groups in the party started to appear in 1979 which resulted in tremendous structural and organisational changes in the party over the next four decades. These changes owe their emergence mainly to the failure to win a general election between 1979 and 1997. The establishment of the Labour Party was a remarkable event in the history of the country because it was the first party which was established purely by the working class for their representation in the Parliament. Various trade unions and labour organisations of the country were the driving agents behind the establishment of the party and therefore the elected representative always kept the protection of the interests of the trade unions as their first and foremost responsibility. The Labour Party became the flag bearer of socialism very few years after its inception and the original statement of the clause four was included in the manifesto and constitution of the party in 1918. Nationalisation of various departments which included electricity industry, railways, coal mining and shipping was the motive of the first leaders of the party and the land reforms introduced by the party leadership in 1920’s were also based on the principle of public ownership (Rosen, 2005). The social security benefits were introduced for the first time by the Labour party in the form of education and healthcare services and for that the party planned to rely heavily on the taxes levied on the people. The party believed that tax money is a great asset for the government and the people and it must be the major contributor towards public welfare. Socialism was a very novel phenomenon for the British people and the picture of socialism presented by the leaders of the Labour Party also looked very convincing to most of the people in the country at a time when industrial revolution had surpassed its climax and economic crisis was about to set in; this greatly contributed towards the popularity of the Labour Party and it helped the party to emerge as a new opposition to the conservatives. Following this ideology, the Labour party managed to win three elections between 1926 and 1945. The greatest growth in the party’s policy towards socialism was seen in the days of Clement Atlee after the Second World War. The economy of the country was greatly affected by the war and a new strategic planning was necessary for economic recovery. The most challenging tasks for the government were the reduction of unemployment and increasing the economic production. Under these circumstances, socialism and principle of public ownership were deemed as the only way forward by the Labour Party. The steps taken by the Labour government to take the responsibility of unemployment, housing, education and healthcare were deemed as symbolic measures to implement socialism in the country. The 1979 elections can be termed as the turning point in the history of the party because none of the party leaders were expecting such results in the general election. In an attempt to find out the real cause of the failure of the party’s policies, the party was divided into various factions; this ultimately led to the restructuring of the party as a whole Heath, Jowell and Curtis, 2001). During the 80’s, many notable leaders in the party started to point out the imbalance of power within the party and proposed various reforms; Tony Benn was one of them. Benn was in direct contact with the leaders of various trade unions and tried to convince them towards his ideas of shared power between all the stake holders in the party. The reforms introduced in a special party conference in 1981 greatly enhanced the value of the opinion of trade unions and local activists in the nomination of party leaders and candidates for the parliament. It left an impression that the party now has a policy of promoting the interests of the working class only. Aggrieved by the latest developments in the party, many notable leaders and parliamentarians of the party resigned from the basic membership of the Labour party to establish a party of their own known as the Social Democratic Party. Under the new party policy, the Labour party revised its manifesto proposing a large scale nationalisation in the country. The party also sought to put an end to the policy of cooperation with the European Economic Community. The newly stated manifesto was not only rejected by the party leaders, it also failed to convince the masses and the party faced a humiliating defeat in the general elections. Niel Kinnock tried to reestablish the credibility of the party and led a movement which is also known as modernization process in the Labour party. The socialist mindset was totally removed from the party because of results of the general elections which the party faced due to increased socialization of the party policy. Despite introducing various reforms, Labour party failed to grab the majority in the polls of 1987 and 1992. The orgaisational reforms were introduced and the links with the Marxist social ideology were weakened. Clause four of the constitution of the Labour party always served as the most significant factor in the history of Labour party and the transformation from Old Labour to New Labour. According to the original statement of the clause which was adopted in 1918, capitalism was in fact the cause of the problems faced by the mankind therefore the need of the hour is to replace the capitalist system with a system of social ownership, justice and planning. However the leaders of the party very soon realized that the slogan of socialism is not going well in the country and they need to accommodate the rapidly expanding capitalist system as well. Dearlove and Saunders for the first time proposed that the extent of socialising and nationalization should be minimized and the party should adopt a social democratic strategy rather than a socialist strategy. Tony Blair after being elected as the leader of the party expedited the process of modernization of the party and introduced a new policy under the slogan New Labour, New Britain. Blair created a policy for the party which enabled it to adopt a mixed system based on the concept of democratic socialism. The abolishment of the socialist policy and adoption of capitalist friendly policies helped the Labour Party to win the general elections of 1997 after so many years (Driver and Martell, 2006). With the creation of the New Labour, the ideological basis of the party were changed, however this change could not be defined well in the history because of several reasons. The ideological map of the New Labour is an amalgamation of the three leading ideologies in Europe; liberalism, conservatism and socialism. New Labour has also been attributed to Liberal Conservatism by some political analysts. According to some, New Labour is an extension of Thatcherism. They argue that Blair and the founding fathers of the New Labour were impressed by the success of Thatcherism and thus tried to incorporate the Thatcherism concepts of market economy and independent trade in the party’s policy in order to earn back the lost vote bank. According to Dearlove and Saunders, the ideological basis of the New Labour can be traced to find their basics from the Christian beliefs of Tony Blair and thus the new ideology can be termed as Liberal Socialism. The New Labour never mentioned anywhere in its constitution or policy statement that it has drifted away from its core stance of socialism, however continued to advocate capitalist friendly policies (Dearlove and Saunders, 2000). The New Labour believes in the concept of freedom for all, however it also gives importance to supplying the individuals in the society according to their needs. Free market and need based supply of services cannot run side by side and thus the New Labour expects its followers to practice an ethical form of socialism in which the socialist principles are regarded as the guidelines however their implementation is not carried out strictly and the party expects people to share what they have with others while ensuring a particular degree of freedom for all. Blair has actually tried to incorporate the concepts of neo-liberal economy in an ethical socialist system to for the ideological basis of the New Labour. The policy of the Old Labour was to implement socialism in its true spirit by naionalisation and by practicing collectivism to form a system of economy and governance in which state takes the responsibility of all the basic services provided to the people whereas the people are only responsible for paying taxes. The New Labour, on the other hand, believes in increasing the importance of the role of individuals in the whole nation building process and economic development and wants to create a sense of responsibility among the individuals to help themselves and those immediately around them in their community for development. According to the leaders of the New Labour, this is a better way of practicing democracy in a country because when people get involved in the affairs of the state, they become more responsible and aware of their duties as an individual in the nation building process. By introducing the concepts of mutual sharing and establishment of community activities, New Labour wants to eradicate the biggest problem with the capitalist ideology which is the fragmentation of society into various classes and the deposition of wealth in a few hands. The Old Labour believed in a large welfare state with all the responsibilities taken up by the state whereas the New Labour wants to promote a society with a smaller welfare state in which the community and the individuals have certain roles to play in order to achieve collective benefit. Both the New and the Old Labour give due importance to individuals of the society as being the stake holders in society’s development, however Old Labour did this through universal provision of healthcare and education by the welfare state whereas New Labour does it through belief in stakeholder capitalism (Griffiths and Hickens, 2009). With the new levels of prosperity achieved by the British people, the labour class is no longer as important as it used to be in the past because it has transformed itself into a new class, known as middle England, which is the working class today. According to Anthony Giddens, the new working class is more concerned about its lifestyle rather than the interests of trade unions and thus a shift of policy is needed in order to convince the voters. Free market economy is now becoming a demand because it gives assurances for lifestyle improvement for those who work harder than others (Giddens, 1998). Thus a democratic socialist setup can work much better than a purely socialist setup in the current national scenario. The New Labour gives due importance to the improvement of lifestyle and therefore does not believe in the nationalization of various industries because only free market in all spheres of life can assure competition and thus better services. After a detailed analysis, it can be said that all the ideological differences between the Old Labour and the New Labour are based on the change in clause four of the constitution of the party and the whole evolutionary process of the party revolves round the old and the new statements of this clause. The Old Labour was a flag bearer of nationalisation and public ownership, whereas the New Labour believes in free markets and privatisaiton. The prime responsibility of the Old Labour was to safeguard the interests of the socialist working class whereas the New Labour is a party of middle England. References Dearlove, J. and Saunders, P. (2000) Introduction to British Politics, Wiley-Blackwell. Driver, S. and Martell, L. (2006) New Labour, Polity. Faucher-King, F., Le Gales, P. and Elliot G. (2010) The New Labour Experiment: change and reform under blair and brown, Stanford University Press. Giddens, A. (1998) The Third Way: Renewal of Social Democracy, Wiley-Blackwell. Griffiths, S and Hickson, K. (2009) British Party Politics and Ideology after New Labour, Palgrave Macmillan. Heath, A., Jowell, R. and Curtis, K. (2001) The Rise of New Labour: Party Policies and Voter Choices, Oxford University Press. Jones, T. (1996) Remaking the Labour Party: from Gaitskell to Blair, Routledge. Rosen, G. (2005) Old Labour to New: the dreams that inspired, the battles that divided, Politico’s. Read More