Functional socialism

I4 FUNCTIONAL SOCIALISM

the Labour Party has receded from view—an anomalous development in a movement which, ex hypothesi, is fundamentally functional.

There are plausible, if not sound, reasons for Labour’s reversion to reformist politics. I will mention two, the one strictly political, the other economic. Perhaps the second explains the first. We know that in times of depression Trade Unionism is the first to suffer. Members lapse, funds are depleted; the depression becomes psychological. In such circumstances, Labour ceases to be aggressive and is thrown back on defence. This has obviously been its plight during the past five years. That it has so successfully stood the strain proves the toughness of its fibre. But such conditions induce opportunism, upon which reformism thrives. A plain case of cause and effect. But to this must be added a political fact. Under the leadership of MacDonald and Henderson, the Labour Party, with the possibilities of a Labour Government well in view, more and more accommodated itself to the Liberal refugees who had fled from the Liberal déb@c/e. Being men of political knowledge and experience, these distinguished refugees soon occupied positions of influence in their new spiritual home. In this conconnection, it were well to remember that both MacDonald and Henderson were themselves, zz fond, Liberals. Henderson had, in fact, for many years been a Liberal agent, his religious affiliations all tending to Liberalism. One of the curiosities of modern political history is the persistent belief that