The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-01-16
By JOHN PEPPER.


is on the threshold of government.
The capitalist class in Great
Britain and in many other countries
as well is discussing with fear the
possibility of a labor government.
Ramsay Macdonald the leader of
the British Labor Party is trying to
pacify the capitalists. In his Royal
Albert Hall speech he made the de-
claration eve are not going to jump
to our goal, we are on a pilgrimage"
True, the capitalists are pleased with
his promises, but they don't exactly
have faith in him. The Evening News
compares Macdonald to Kerensky
and says: "He might be surprised, if
he were to divide his party into pill
grims and jumpers, at the strength
of the latter, and numbers apart, it
is the jumpers who have the punch"
The New York Times reports from
London, that the English capitalist
press is greatly pleased with Mac
Donald's policy of moderation, but
the British Daily Mail says, it is all
very true, Macdonald IS sincere and
earnest, but the big trouble with
him is that che serves only as a mask
behind which actual revolutionaries
are preparing their campaign to take
possession of this great country"
We see the English bourgeoisie
hesitating between fear and love at
the possibility of the Labor Party's
taking over the government. The
capitalists of Great Britain would
prefer Baldwin or Asquith or Lloyd
George as the guardians of the rul-
ing economic system; but as they are
realists, if there is no help for it,
they will be content with Macdonald
just as well. The capitalists are
aware of what George Bernard Shaw
the "enfant terrible of the British
Labor Party has said with his usual
sharpness and frankness: "The ad-
vantage Of the Labor Party in such
troubled times as these is that it
stands between the country and the
possibility of revolution"
What is the real significance of the
acquisition of power by the British
Labor Party?
1t is a tremendous event of uni
versal significance. 1t means the
breaking of the old English two-party
system. It will be the proof Of the
gigantic growth of the political pow
er of the British working class. 1t
will prove that the English capital
lists can no longer master the great
problems of decaying British indus
try, increasing unemployment and
political world crisis.
But it would be foolish to think
for a moment that the rule OF the
British Labor Party means the rule
of the British working class. Mac
Donald and the Labor Party do not
desire the rule of the working class
at all, and they have betrayed even
the immediate demands of the work.
ing class already before they have
come into power. Macdonald re-
ceives the power from the hands of
the king, and not from the hands Of
the victorious revolution. The Labor
Party was the Opposition of His
Majesty, and it will be the Govern
ment Of His Majesty. The Labor
Party will take over power as a
minority in Parliament, but in such a
way that it will not have at its dis
posal even the resources of power of
a parliamentary majority. The Labor
Party can only go as far as the libe-
raj parties will suffer it to go. Mac
Donald will be nothing more than the
rubber stamp of Asquith and Lloyd
George. The Liberal Party will be
in a position to drive him out Of pow
er by combining its votes with those
Of the Conservatives, the very first
moment that Macdonald shows the
slightest inclination TO turn from a
"Pilgrim" into Jumper.
In his last speech Macdonald al
ready forgot two measures Of the
Labor Party, the capital levy and
naturalization Of mines and rail-
roads. And the Labor Party will be-
tray its program on the solution Of
the tremendous unemployment and
Of the terrible housing situation. The
Labor Party will bring about the re-
cognition Of Soviet Russia; but 1t will
not have the revolutionary courage
TO inaugurate new foreign policy
in Europe. The Labor Party will