The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-02-25
NOTES OF AN INTERNATIONALLY
The Dilemma of the British Labor Party
BY JOHN PEPPER.

THE sharpening of class antagon-
l. ism in Great Britain begins to ex-
press itself also within the powerful
mass organization of the British pro-
letariat, the labor party. More and
more clearly appears the contour OF
right and left wing in the labor
party. Ever larger proletarian mass
es affiliate from below with the labor
party but at the same time the official
party leadership marches even further
toward the right. The official Mac
Donald leadership is making the
greatest efforts to convince the bour-
geois world that they are really not
so very dangerous, that they are real
ly not the class party of the proletar-
lat, but universal party in the old
liberal sense Of the word.
The government of Great Britain
proceeds (and quite systematically
with ever sharper measures against
the working class. The persecution
Of the Communists is only prepare
ton by which the government seeks
to expose to its attack the left flank
of the working class. The conserva-
tives speak up openly for general
attack against the trade unions.,a I'm
employment insurance is beginning to
be handled with brutal rigor. Hun
dreds of thousands of unemployed
workers have been stricken from the
maintenance lists in recent months.
The government is proceeding with
all war preparations for the month of
May when the conflict in the coal
industry will break out and when it
must be fought to conclusion. In
addition to the unofficial fascist or
ganization the government is founding
official strike-breaker organizations, it
is arming a special police force.
THE working class views the con
i sentative governments prepare
lions with growing uneasiness and be-
gins also to demand from it's leaders
that they prepare themselves for the
fight. The right leaders of the Mac
Donald stripe seek to retreat from the
battle, seek to surrender the interests
of the proletariat undefended to the
A dual danger menaces
the present labor party If it continues
to remain inactive; on the one side
its masses could be diverted left
ward toward the Communists, on the
other, discouraged and disillusioned,
they might return to the liberals.
This dial danger has now impelled
to action the left wing leaders of the
labor party. They openly support the
and imprisoned Commun-
lists partly because they know that az
ter the wiping out-of the Communists
the attack will be directed against
themselves, but partly also TO show
the masses that they are at least as
left, as revolutionary, as the Commun-
lists. At the same time, however, they
try to push the leadership of the labor
party toward the left. This is the ex-
PLANTATION OF the demonstrative atti-
tude OF Wheatley, Wedgewood, Lans-
bNAy oAN Aho0eOh WAthNioWihb AlOnl
the executive committee of the labor
party because II does not wage the !
class struggle with sufficient energy,
because 1t adapts itself too far to
bourgeois parliamentarism. thereby
they seek to assure themselves free
hand for their political activities.
Twenty other labor party M. P.'s have
Identified themselves with the four
left leaders OF the labor party and
there is now not only the possibility, |
but even the probability that an or
ganized left wing OF the. British labor
party will crystalline around these
leaders. 49,
uOW far the movement for the or.
IL ganization of left wing In the
labor party has already progressed Ia