Paul Foot

Ten things everyone should know
about the Labour Party

From Socialist Review, No. 179, October 1994, p. 9.

Downloaded with thanks from the Socialist Review Archive.

Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.

Labour, which is linked to organised workers, is better at any time than the Tories, who are linked to organised capital.
‘Without struggle there is no progress’: everything worth winning by the workers and the dispossessed has to be fought for.
The less Labour fights the Tories, the less it is likely to beat them at the polls or anywhere else.
The more Labour compromises and prevaricates, the more the fighting spirit of the people who vote Labour is dampened.
The more that fighting spirit is dampened, the stronger and more confident grow employers, racialists and reactionaries of every description.
The power of the elected parliament is all the time frustrated by the power of the undemocratic banks, corporations, judges and the media.
The more a Labour government tries to be fair to the banks, corporations, judges or media, the more it becomes their captive.
The more it becomes their captive, the more it attacks the people who vote Labour, thus ensuring a Labour defeat next time.
This vicious circle is written into the history of the whole century. Clement Attlee and Harold Wilson couldn’t avoid it. There’s no chance that Blair and Co, further to the right even than Attlee and Wilson, will avoid it either.
(Conclusion) Vote Labour, but keep up the fight down below to build the resistance into a force which is strong enough to dictate to the undemocratic elite at the top of society – and put an end to their interminable dictatorship.