The daily worker., 1924-12-27
The Defeat Of Macdonald and lts Con
sequences for England Itself.
BY A. MASLOW.


sequences for England Itself.
BY A. MASLOW.
To seek to attribute the annihilat-
ing defeat OF Macdonald solely to the
anomalous, obsolete English election
system is childish. A whole number
of factors have contributed to this de-
feat.
Numerically regarded, the defeat Of
the first English labor government"
is, at the first glance. not great. The
proportion Of the votes cast by the
conservative party and the labor party
respectively are as to 51s. But in
spite Of this these figures prove on
closer inspection, to be crushing for
the labor government.
For the masses of the electors con-
sist OF workers, of compact masses Of
workers, who, in the cities, as for In
stance, in Birmingham, have over
whelmingly voted for the conservates.
What is the reason for this?
1t can be regarded as rule that
masses who are not politically trained
and steeled do not think of support
ing a government which has not done
something definite for them.
This was the experience in Russia;
not only with Kerenslry, but In many
struggles in Siberia, in the Ukraine, in
Caucasus. This was the experience
in 1923 with the workers govern
ment" in Saxony, where the proIetar-
! lat entirely failed to defend "its" gov
srnment against the Reichswehr, pre-
cisely because 1t had experienced
nothing to show that it was "its" gov
ernment.
The Macdonald government had
given nothing to the broad masses OF
the English workers Not even good
propaganda. Therefore, there remain
ed nothing else for the broad masses
Of English workers, with their imper-
ialist tradition and their petty-bour-
geois theology, than to act like real
gentlemen. to be responsive to the
oratory of the conservatives, the more
so when the well-aimed bomb of the
forged zinoviev letter exploded. 1t
appealed to their British sentiments
'The first people in the world" ''the
freest people. and here was interfer-
ence on the part of the barbarian, un-
democratic and immoral Soviet gov
ernment." eve want to promote Eng
lish trade, not to give our money to
untrustworthy undemocratic despots,
who in return incite our brave sol
diers and blue jackets to mutiny,"
and such like cheap appeals.
This was to be seen on one side.
On the other hand there was the in
crease in the votes cast for the labor
party. That means that the English
working class is becoming politically
conscious and more revolutionary. In
fact there was no more radical party
in the elections than the labor party.
The eight Communists do not count.
And in spite of it's miserable policy
this party gained votes. in the
election. This shows that class an
tagonisms in England have increased.
are increasing, and will continue to
increase.
The new conservative government
in England viii no more be able to
solve the chief question, the question
of unemployment, than did the labor
party. On the other hand, the Bald
win government will soon restore the
McKenna duties upon sugar, tea and
coffee) and thereby abolish the only
cheapening Of food stuffs achieved by
Snowden's budget. Tariff reform will
follow, the notorious preference for
the dominions upon timed salmon,
plums, apples, dried fruit, etc, and
then Of course, there will come tar
ifs on Industrial products, and prob
ably also on corn and wheat. A fierce
struggle will flame up against these
tariffs and against the increase of
prices.
Secondly, the conservative govern
ment will abolish the Wheatley hous-
ing scheme. This act was a pure
swindle; it provided for the building
of two and a half million houses at
the cost of the state and municipal
authorities during the course Of Is
years. But the labor party will make
virtue Of necessity and mobilize the
workers against this abolition of the
housing scheme.
Thirdly, the conservatives will con
duct campaign against the unem-
ployed maintenance.
Fourthly, they will set up fascist
EXAMINATIONS in order to crush any
'ebelliods working masses. (They will
ave no opportunity of discharging
socialist" officials, as the labor gov.
rnment did not appoint any, but took
,ver the old conservative apparatus
as It stood)
The inner political effects will un-
loubtedly be a strong revolutionizing
OF the working class, an enormous
increase Of class antagonisms, and at
the same time differentiation within