The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-06-15
His Maesty's Second Labor Government

Inc General Election IN treat
Britain has resulted in the crushing
defeat of the Baldwin Government
and the election of a second Labor
Government. The mass of the work
ers have expressed their hatred of
the detested wage-cutting, war
making government by voting for
the Labor Party, which gained
striking victory at the polls, and is
now the largest party in parliament
for the first time. The Labor Party
has swept the industrial areas with
huge majorities and secured over
eight-million votes.
The Communist Party polled only
$4,000 votes. Even many active
sympathizers voted for the Labor
candidates. This vote by no means,
however, demonstrates the influence
of the C. P. G. B. or the degree of
the revolutionary feeling amongst
the working class. Everywhere
Communist candidates report good
enthusiastic meetings with but little
opposition. The workers at our
meetings were enthusiastic because
they felt the rising spirit of the
workers and expressed that spirit.
The mood of the active workers was
not antagonistic to the Communist
policy of Revolutionary Workers
Government. Their argument was:
eve want to get rid of Baldwin"
Give labor a chance" "We don't
want to vote communist and let the
Tory or Liberal in"
The enthusiasm for the programme
of the Revolutionary Workers Gov
eminent is proof of the radicaliza-
ton of the workers, and demon
strates the establishment that will
take place when the workers find
that they have been deceived by the
promises of the Labor Party, ano
I that Labor-Government far from i'm
proving their conditions carries out
the wage-cutting, war making policy
of the previous Tory Government.
There were only 25 Communist
candidates out of 615 constituencies.
The $50 deposit which each candi-
date must pay, and the heavy costs
of running an electoral campaign
were a big handicap against going
forward in other constituencies.
Moreover, this was the first time
in it's history that the Communist
Party took part in the General Elec-
ton as an independent party with
its own independent programme and
candidates. 1t was a new force in
the election. In previous elections
the Communist Party whilst putting
up one or two candidates had pur-
sued the policy of advising the
workers to vote for the Labor can
didate. 1t is, however, interesting
to note that in those constituencies
where the Party was well known
and had fought previously that fairly
good results were secured. This is
shown by the results in Greenock,
Battersea, Dundee, Fife, Rhondda,
and in Aberdeen. This shows that
the Party should have prepared the
ground better, and in particular
have fought more bye-elections in
order to prepare the workers for it's
independent fight at the time OF
the General Election.
1t must also be taken into con-
siderations that certain vacillations
made by the Communist Party of
Great Britain in the carrying out
of the new policy Of independent
leadership of the masses resulted in
the Party and it's sympathizers be-
ing insufficiently prepared for the
election, and in part explains the
fact that it failed to rally many
sympathizers behind it at the polls.
The bourgeoisie realizes that a
Labor Government will be exceed
ingly valuable and useful to them in
this period of capitalist rationaliza-
ton and feverish war preparations.
In fact the bourgeoisie are quite as
prepared for the advent of a Labor
Government in 1929 as they were in
1924. 1t was clear from the outset
that this parliamentary situation