FELLOW TRAVELLERS OF THE RIGHT: The Origins of New Labour

At his second appearance at the Chilcot enquiry into the Iraq war on January 21^st, Tony Blair once again defended his decision to stand ‘shoulder to shoulder’ with George W. Bush. Not to have done so, he said, would have damaged Britain’s ‘special’ relationship with the United States. He as good as admitted that for him this commitment took precedence over any question of legality raised by the failure to secure a second U.N. resolution to legitimize the invasion. Although Blair pursued the Atlanticist policy more enthusiastically than any of his predecessors, New Labour’s subservience to the government of the U.S. was no new departure. It goes back at least to the early 1950s.

Conspiracy theories are often no more than the concoctions of cranks. But that is not to say that there are no conspiracies. Things are not always as they appear to be. For example, in Britain we are encouraged to believe that the police forces are to be trusted and that they operate transparently within the law. In recent weeks ample evidence has emerged to show that such beliefs are naïve: peaceful protest and environmental movements have been infiltrated by police spies who act as agents provocateur. The Metropolitan Police has almost certainly colluded with powerful corporate interests to withhold information from victims of illegal mobile phone hacking by tabloid journalists. The ramifications of the latter case go to the very top of government.

The rightward trajectory of the Labour Party over several decades, culminating the abandonment by New Labour of the last vestiges of the party’s social democratic heritage, has been dealt with in earlier Letters from the UK. Explaining this rightward passage does not require resort to conspiracies or conspirators. The shift to the right was accomplished by leaders who, for the most part, believed that what they were doing was in the best interests of the party and the country. But an important element in the story was missed, although the facts at the heart of it have been known for more than forty years. The triumph of a right-wing leadership in the Labour Party in the early 1960s was made possible by a well-organized and financed CIA conspiracy. 

From the late 1940s, with the onset of the cold war, the U.S. vigorously pursued the crusade against what was described as the ‘international communist conspiracy’ to subvert and destroy the ‘free world’. In some respects this resembled the Third Reich’s crusade against ‘bolshevism’ in defence of ‘western civilization’, and it is not particularly surprising that in pursuit of the anti-communist campaign the US sometimes engaged the services of former Nazis who had valuable experience in these activities. But the defence of the free world required a far-reaching global vision. During the second world war Allen W Dulles, head of the Office for Strategic Services had run a network of effective agents many of whom were to become engaged with the OSS’s successor organization, the Central Intelligence Agency. Dulles set about organizing a range of spying activities to combat the Soviet influence over the international communist movement – a movement regarded by Dulles as a conspiracy. Important targets of CIA operations were the left-wing parties in Western Europe, including particularly the British Labour Party.

In 1945 the newly elected Labour government embarked upon a programme of wide-ranging social reform which involved the establishment of a national health service and the nationalization of many of Britain’s biggest industries. Despite divisions between left and right in the Labour Party and government there was a general commitment to the establishment of a ‘mixed economy’ in which the ‘commanding heights’ of the economy would remain under state control and a progressive taxation system would ensure a fairer distribution of wealth. In the years 1945 – 1951, the left wing of the party, although not in control of policy making, remained a strong influence. After its defeat in 1951, Labour was out of office for the next thirteen years.

It was during these years that the CIA devoted its attention to destroying the influence of the left in the Labour Party and ensuring that its leadership became firmly committed to an Atlanticist policy. Interesting to note is that from the late 1940s through the 1950s there was a ceaseless flow of anti-communist propaganda circulating in Western Europe. Whatever the intention of their authors and however valid their critique of the Stalinist system in the Soviet Union, books such as Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984, and compendiums such as The God that Failed, played an essential part in the campaign to present all forms of socialism and state control of the economy as the harbingers of totalitarian tyranny – the slippery slope of what Hayek called ‘The Road to Serfdom’. The CIA, with limitless funds and a well-trained army of skilled agents began the task of breaking the influence of the left and the power of the trade union movement in Britain. It was taken for granted that the Communist Party – never very influential in Britain despite its base in some trade unions – was little more than an agent of Soviet Russia. The real target of CIA operations was the non-communist left in the Labour Party and the wider labour movement. It was against such people that the term ‘fellow traveler’ was leveled. Those labeled fellow travelers were said to be either secret communists or ‘useful idiots’ – unwitting tools of communism.

It is of interest that some of the most influential ideologues in harness to this CIA conspiracy were themselves former leftists. Probably the main inspiration for the1950s anti-communist crusade was James Burnham, (author of The Managerial Revolution and The Coming Defeat of Communism), former right-hand man to Leon Trotsky, transformed into a passionate ‘free market’ conservative and enemy of all forms of socialism. Likewise, Jay Lovestone a former member of the US Communist Party, who became a secret spy for the US government, and former Trotskyist Irving Kristol. But most influential of all was another ex-Trotskyist from New York City College – Melvin Lasky.

The CIA conspiracy in Britain followed on the founding in 1950 of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, founded with unlimited funds that year in West Berlin. In 1953 the English language monthly magazine Encounter was launched under the editorship of Irving Kristol. It was aimed at the right-wing of social-democracy and immediately recruited to the ranks of its regular contributors some prominent Labourites, most notably Anthony Crosland. He was one of the party’s leading intellectuals and the author of the influential ‘The Future of Socialism’, which argued that in a reformed capitalism which had achieved full employment, there was no need for traditional policies such as public ownership. The leader of the party, Hugh Gaitskell was an early enthusiastic supporter of Encounter. Another publishing enterprise secretly funded by the CIA was Socialist Commentary, which became the mouthpiece of the right wing of the party. Former communist party member Denis Healy, by now firmly on the right of the Labour Party, wrote about 80 articles for Socialist Commentary and its US counterpart, New Leader (also funded by the CIA) before he became Defence Minister in Harold Wilson’s government in 1964. Crosland, as a member of the International Council of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, worked for many years to re-model the Labour Party on the lines of the U.S. Democratic Party. Others associated with the CIA inspired and funded enterprises were Douglas Jay, Patrick Gordon Walker and Roy Jenklins – all to play important roles in eliminating the influence of the left in the party and making it more like the Democratic Party. In 1960, at the time of the defence debate in the party which resulted in the decision to abandon nuclear weapons, a policy championed by the left, the right launched the campaign group ‘Victory for Sanity’ to oppose the ‘Victory for Socialism’ group on the left. Its CIA –funded campaign, which far outspent the meagre resources available to the rank-and-file of the party, backed Gaitskell’s call to ‘fight, fight and fight again’ to reverse the policy. It succeeded the following year in doing so. With the left seriously weakened, the Labour Party’s commitment to NATO was restored.

It is interesting to note that Melvin Lasky and his fellow CIA conspirators did not object to their protégés continuing to call themselves socialists. Crosland and his colleagues called their enterprise the Campaign for Democratic Socialism. The word could mean whatever they chose it to mean – but it would have nothing in common with the socialism which inspired – and continues to inspire – the left.

The CIA enterprise was blown apart in 1967 when the U.S. magazine Ramparts revealed that 90% of the funding for the Council for Cultural Freedom had come from the CIA. The editors and contributors to the magazine Encounter, were in the pay of the CIA. There followed further exposure in the New York Times. Ex-CIA officer, Richard Bessell, who organized the Bay of Pigs invasion, revealed that ‘The technique is essentially that of penetration. In some countries the CIA representative has served as a close counselor of the chief of state.’

It is true that many of those involved apparently had no idea about the company they had been keeping for so long. Decent, but somewhat naïve liberals such as Encounter editor Stephen Spender, were shocked. Perhaps their fat pay cheques may explain their gullibility. They had been only too keen to dismiss many on the left as ‘fellow travelers.’ Michael Foot, himself so smeared, was led to ask, ‘who were they traveling with?’

They were, of course, fellow travelers of the right. The CIA’s endeavours paid off. The word ‘socialism’ and almost everything it stands for, was expunged from the lexicon of New Labour politics. It remains to be seen whether, faced with the tasks ahead, the Labour Party will be able to shake off this malign encumbrance.     

2011: PAST YEARS’ UNHONOURED LIST

2011 promises to be a turbulent, troubled year. A palpable mood of apprehension and anxiety looms like a threatening cloud above the obligatory joviality and faux optimism accompanying the end of the decade. Even the ConLib government’s defenders and apologists cannot easily pretend that the coming months and years will not be painful. They know that they are heading into mined and uncharted waters. They are hoping that the painful medicine soon to be administered will be swallowed without protest. Their hopes will almost certainly be vain.

It would be pleasant to report that the government faces a determined army of popular resistance led by an opposition party in parliament willing and ready to lead a mass movement against the most draconian cuts in public services ever attempted in peacetime. But it is not so. There will be resistance. It will come from the trade union movement, from students and young people and from the still disparate but increasingly determined and experienced grass-roots campaigners such as UK-Uncut, who have recently appeared on the streets with dramatic effect. But, unless it is dragged unwillingly into the fray, the opposition parliamentary Labour Party will be ineffectual at best, and – at worst – obstructive. Against the inevitable popular anger that will become more potent as the cuts begin to bite, the forces of reaction are already mobilizing. Police handling of demonstrations will become more brutal; the government will attempt to impose harsher restrictions on the already seriously curtailed right to strike; ‘anti-terror’ laws will be used to demonize those deemed to be ‘trouble-makers.’ Already all ‘respectable’ and ‘moderate’ opinion holds that the demonstrations that have so far taken place have been irresponsible. This will be the charge leveled against all striking workers and all who take part in public demonstrations.

Those, including members of the opposition shadow cabinet, who regard themselves as paragons of moderation, apparently believe that those millions whose livelihoods and prospects are soon to suffer savage assault should meekly accept their fate, or, at best confine themselves to grumbling and hoping for a silver lining. Nothing would suit the ConLib government better than this. No matter how unbearable the pain, you must, in the interests of wiping out the deficit, accept it. If you are amongst the millions of young people who were encouraged to believe they had ‘the right to buy’ their own homes but now don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of doing so, you will be expected to wait for better days. If you find yourself amongst the 500.000 soon to be made redundant without prospect of finding work, you will be expected to endure your plight patiently. Whatever you do, don’t protest too much. Trust us. We’re all in this together. We have the national interest at heart. That is the sentiment and the advice of a cabinet of whose 23 full-time members, 18 are millionaires.

Turning to the parliamentary opposition this New Year of 2011, one is struck by the almost complete absence of anyone of serious political substance. This applies not only to the shadow cabinet, but to the parliamentary party as a whole. It is commonplace now, from the standpoint of supposedly sensible, ‘non-ideological’ political moderation, to attach the label ‘old Labour’ to those remaining on the left of the party who still describe themselves as socialists. The term ‘socialist’ itself is now regarded as a badge of sclerotic antiquity, derided as the delusion of incurable nostalgists. This attempt by the political mainstream and its compliant media to elide socialism from serious political discourse, is itself a highly ideological enterprise. It is part of the intensified assault against the left, Marxist and social democratic, launched in the 1970s and 80s by the Friedmanite Chicago School responsible for the lurch to the right under the banner of neo-liberalism. Not only was the term ‘socialist’ virtually banished from the vocabulary of New Labour; it became – and remains - obligatory never to use the term ‘working class’. Instead one must always refer to ‘hard working families’.

One of the most lamentable effects of this right wing offensive has been the seemingly deliberate encouragement of ignorance and disdain for history. It may be objected that this is too harsh; that television is overflowing with historical dramas and documentaries. Most of this is not serious history but part of what may be termed the ‘heritage industry’. It is very popular but has more to do with nostalgia than history. There is a woeful ignorance, not only about the more distant past, but also about the past that is part of the living memory of older people in this country. Those who have been politically active on the left for most of their lives, may be forgiven for occasionally succumbing to sentiments of despair when contemplating this pervasive culture of forgetfulness and ignorance about the history of the Labour movement in Britain.

The title chosen for this column, ‘Past Years’ Unhonoured List’ attempts to address this elision. For those unfamiliar with what has been called the ‘preposterous charade’ of the British honours system, there are three occasions during the year when the queen, on the advice of the prime minister, confers honours on certain people nominated for the outstanding contribution they are said to have made to public life. Additionally, for others there is the supreme accolade of elevation to the House of Lords – the creation of life peerages. Thus we have an arcane array of Lords and Dames, Knights, and Orders of the British Empire. Nearly 1000 have been ‘honoured’ this year. It is worth noting that of the fourteen bankers to have been knighted in past years, eight received their knighthoods under New Labour. Sir Fred Goodwin, who brought the Royal Bank of Scotland to its knees, received his knighthood from Blair for his ‘services to banking.’

Those old enough to recall political events of fifty and even sixty years ago may have difficulty in remembering much about the past recipients of honours and peerages. But those with any knowledge of, and affection for, the Labour movement in Britain will have vivid memories of many others who neither sought nor received rewards of that kind. To the wider public some of those on the ‘unhonoured list’ will be unknown. They deserve to be remembered and honoured. Many of us, in the past, may have been critical of them for one reason or another. From the standpoint of a somewhat puritanical Marxism, they sometimes seemed too closely wedded to reformist social democracy rather than to revolutionary socialism. Most of them were members of, or closely associated with, the Labour Party. Many were MPs. They were all proud to call themselves socialists. Many more could be included, but here are some who were outstanding in their day and who dedicated their lives to the cause of the working class and socialism.

Aneurin Bevan. 1897 – 1960.

Best remembered as Minister of Health in the post-war Attlee government, ‘Nye’ Bevan came from a working class Welsh mining background. He was elected for Labour in Ebbw Vale in 1929, a constituency he served in parliament until his death in 1960. He was one of Britain’s greatest orators. Always on the left of the party, during the 1930s he was a supporter of the republican cause in Spain and a staunch opponent of appeasement. As a minister he spearheaded the formation of the National Health Service. In 1951 he resigned from the cabinet when Gaitskell imposed prescription charges for NHS dentures and spectacles. With Labour in opposition after 1951, Bevan became the leader of the left wing of the party and was closely associated with the newspaper Tribune. One of his greatest speeches was delivered at the huge Trafalgar Square demonstration against the invasion of Suez in November 1956. It galvanized the opposition to the war and led indirectly to the resignation of Anthony Eden as prime minister.

Best known books: Why Not Trust the Tories. 1944. In Place of Fear. 1952.

Jennie Lee. 1904 – 1988.

Scottish socialist, married to Aneurin Bevan. Born into a mining family, she was elected to parliament in 1929. At the age of 24 she was the youngest MP in parliament. Her first parliamentary speech was an attack on Churchill’s budget proposals. In 1945 she was re-elected for the mining constituency of Cannock in Staffordshire. After Bevan’s death, in 1964 she was appointed Arts minister in Wilson’s government and was responsible for setting up the Open University. She died in 1988.

Ellen Wilkinson. 1891 – 1947.

Ellen Wilkinson was a dominant figure in the Labour Party and wider labour movement in the1920s and 30s. She was elected to parliament in 1924 for the depressed north-eastern steel making constituency of Middlesborough East. In 1926 she supported the General Strike. She lost her seat in 1931 but was re-elected in 1935 as MP for Jarrow, where, during the depression, 80% of the working population was unemployed. She was the main organizer of the Jarrow march to London in 1936. She immortalized the event in her book ‘The Town that was Murdered’. She was a supporter of the Spanish Republic and visited the international brigades in Spain. In the 1945 government she was appointed Minister of Education – the first woman ever to hold the post. She was only the second woman to be appointed to a cabinet post. She oversaw the implementation of the 1944 education act.

Books: The Workers’ History of the Great Strike. (With Frank Horrabin and Raymond Postgate)   The Terror in Germany. 1933. Why Fascism. 1934. The Town that was Murdered. (1939)

Sydney Silverman. 1895 – 1968.

Born in Liverpool into a working class Jewish family he won scholarships enabling him to attend Liverpool University. Unable to find work in England he spent some years teaching English at the National University of Finland. He later read Law at Liverpool University and qualified as a solicitor. As a conscientious objector during the First World War, he served three prison terms. He was elected to parliament in 1935 for Nelson and Colne, a constituency he served for the rest of his life. During his years in parliament he stood consistently on the left of the party. The Labour whip was withdrawn in 1954 over his opposition to German re-armament, and again from 1961 – 63. He was one of the founders of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and in 1960 became Chair of the Victory for Socialism group. His most enduring achievement was his tireless campaign for the abolition of the death penalty which he pursued from the back benches. His private member’s bill was finally passed in 1965. He died in 1968.

Konni Zilliacus. 1894 – 1967

Konni Zilliacus was one of the most extraordinary MPs of the modern era. He was a left-wing socialist and internationalist who had the unique distinction of being refused a visa for both the United States and the Soviet Union. He was expelled from the Labour Party for being a communist ‘fellow traveler’ and, during the Stalinist trials in Eastern Europe in the late 1940s and early 50s, accused by Moscow of being an agent of British imperialism. The son of a Swedish-Finnish father and an American mother, educated in Sweden, Finland, England and America, he was fluent in eight languages and understood several more. He served in the First World War and was later a member of the British military mission in Siberia. He became a supporter of the Bolshevik revolution. He joined the Labour Party in 1919. From then until 1938 he was also a member of the League of Nations Secretariat. In 1945 he was elected Labour MP for Gateshead. Zilliacus was described by Bernard Shaw as ‘the only internationally minded member of any note in the House of Commons.’ He was an indefatigable campaigner for peaceful co-existence during the cold war and a scathing critic of NATO and the Anglo-American alliance. There has been no one remotely like him since.

Best known of his many books:

I Choose Peace. 1949. New Birth of Freedom? World Communism after Stalin. 1957.

These are just a few of the outstanding MPs who belonged to the left wing of the British Labour Party fifty and more years ago. Today, more is the pity, there is no-one to compare with them.

The next ‘Letter from the UK’ (Fellow Travelers of the Right) will return to this theme with a serious consideration of the evidence that after 1947 the right-wing leaders of the British Labour Party were suborned by the U.S Central Intelligence Agency, which was determined to destroy the party as a viable vehicle for radical social change.