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The ‘Penny Farthing’ Machine Revisited: Labour Party Members and Participation in the 1950s and 1960s
Abstract
In her recent study of party membership in Britain and Germany Susan Scarrow warned against the ‘myth’ of the ‘golden past’.1 Firmly challenging this ‘myth’ she stated that participation levels within the Labour Party were probably higher in the 1990s than in the 1950s and 1960s. This state of affairs was, she suggested, related to the Labour leadership’s belief that a growing and active membership could help reverse the party’s electoral problems after 1983. Thus top-down initiatives were the main reason Labour had become more inclusive, less hierarchical and increasingly democratic since 1983 (Scarrow, 1996, pp. 181, 190–2 ch. 8).
... Other factors such as a perception or reality that membership of the local party might bring benefits in terms of housing cannot be entirely discounted or proved either. 11 Nevertheless the most important factor seems to have been the organisation of the local party itself. In organisational terms, South Lewisham and East Lewisham before seemed to have been model parties. ...
Much of the disillusionment with Harold Wilson as Labour's leader and prime minister was due to his perceived failure on the economic front. He pledged not to devalue sterling, but did exactly that in 1967; he promised to keep unemployment low, but had by 1970 accepted a higher rate of joblessness than the Conservatives had managed. Some of the elements in Labour's programme – the emphasis on steadier growth, for instance – were probably misguided. These problems and defeats have, however, obscured some of the real achievements of the period. Science and education spending grew very quickly; industrial investment rose; government was increasingly well informed and better advised about the performance of the economy. In an increasingly unstable and rapidly changing economic environment, this government's economic record is here shown to be, if not hugely impressive, then at least relatively creditable. The problems of 1964–70 require more understanding and analysis than condemnation.
ShawEric. Discipline and Discord in the Labour Party: The Politics of Managerial Control in the Labour Party, 1951–87. Manchester: Manchester University Press; distributed by St. Martin's Press, New York, N.Y. 1988. Pp. xi, 387. $59.50 cloth, $19.95 paper. - Volume 22 Issue 2 - Jacques Leruez
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