Tony Benn, Jeremy Corbyn and Arthur Scargill warned the removal of Clause IV of the Labour Party’s constitution would be a disaster for the Labour Party which had been established in 1918 by Trade Unions and socialist parties primarily because it was based on a socialist policy which pledged to secure for all workers by hand and brain, the full fruits of their labour through 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 removal of Clause IV in 1995, we witnessed the disintegration of a socialist party and the introduction of privatisation of Britain’s nationalised industries, such as its railway system, car industry, aircraft industry and coal mining industry, education, and its National Health Service, with its replacement of trusts which have allowed the outsourcing of vital areas of care, particularly for the disabled and aged.
Following the Referendum in 2016 the Labour Party – no longer socialist – voted with Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, SNP, Plaid Cymru, and the Green Party to stay in the European Union, whilst the Socialist Labour Party campaigned strongly to leave the European Union, particularly as people were making clear that they wanted to leave the EU, which was effectively determining the policies of the United Kingdom.
The Chairman of the Labour Party offered to resign because he knew the feelings, particularly in the North of England and regarded that as the will of the people.
In the General Election in 2017 the Labour Party published a manifesto which could have been written as a plan for business, despite the fact that many Labour Party members were telling the leadership, that they should accept the result of the Referendum in full, which if it had been accepted would have won the election.
The manifesto published by the Labour Party was a policy calling for a reversal of the 2016 Manifesto which called for a new Brexit referendum, a new customs union, and a new single market. This policy was warned by the deputy leader Tom Watson, who said, “Ambiguity” over the party’s Brexit Policy had cost it votes at the European election in May.
Jeremy Corbyn said that Labour will negotiate a Brexit deal which will allow Britain to remain in a customs union and keep an alignment to the Single Market and Labour’s shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said remaking would the best thing for the UK – He said after the election that the “catastrophic election defeat is on me” an admission which is true.
When Jeremy Corbyn announced his resignation as leader in April 2020, I urged him not to do so and remember how many members had supported him and if he had to face an election, within the party for leader, the mass who supported him, would do so again, on the other hand, if he was so dissatisfied he should consider joining the Socialist Labour Party, whose constitution contains all the beliefs he and Tony Benn had always advocated.
If in 2025 he is considering establishing a new political party, it would be another disaster, on the other hand, if he intends to leave the Labour Party, then we invite him to become a member of the Socialist Labour Party, which was first launched in 1903 by the legendary James Connolly.
Arthur Scargill
Jim McDaid
John Tyrrell
