Evening star., 1937-09-26
WORKERS
BACKING NATION
Trade Unions Hold Balance
of Power and Oppose
Socialist Front.
BY A. G.. GARDINER.

fA' ~.
LONDON. September 25.-British
labor has declared decisively for the
national front as opposed to the
Socialist front. That is the meaning
of the remarkable vote in support
OF the policy of rearmament at the
Trades Union Congress at Norwich.
There remains the conference of the
parliamentary Labor party, which is
to be held at Bournemouth next
month. But the decision there is not
| in doubt, for the trade union dele
gates hold the overwhelming balance
of power and they will vote at
Bournemouth as they have voted at
Norwich.
This is an event of immense signifi-
canoe, both for the government and
for labor. 1t implies for the former
national solidarity in face of the
tremendous world problems that con-
front 1t, And it clears away the fog
that has enveloped the Labor party
since the Abyssinian episode and has
dlscredlted 1t as responsible opposi-
tlon. 1t has sought to ride two horses
| travelling in opposite directions and
has incurred the inevitable conse-
| quence.
Reduced to Derision.
On the one side, it has denounced
the weakness OF the government policy
In regard to the Fascist powers. 1t
has demanded stronger measures. in
viting the possibility, if not the GER
talnty, of war both in the case of
Abyssinia and of Spain. On the other
hand, it has been as hostile as it dared
TO be to the policy of rearmament.
This attempt to combine pacifism with
warlike foreign policy has reduced
1t to derision and ineptitude.
The cause of this internal chaos
In the party was not the non-resisting
pacifists, led by Mr.. Lansbury. who
are quite negligible. 1t was the left
wing extremists of the Cripps-Col
Laski school who hold that Labor Is
a class party which should give no
support to the capitalist system of
government and should refuse to
have anything to do with the defense
OF the country until Labor itself is in
power
Numerically this group is small.
but Intellectually it is powerful and
until recently it has exercised ar in
huence in the Labor party out of all
proportion to its strength, especially
in the parliamentary sphere. The
anxiety of the rank and file of the
movement to avoid an open rupture
encouraged the extremists to force the
pace at the point Of the bayonet.
Tide Has Turned.
But with the deepening menace
abroad, the tide has turned. The de-
mand for fierce anti-Fascist policy
abroad, coupled with opposition 20 all
measures OF defense at home, shocked
the country and threatened to render
the party impotent. It means that
the security of the nation was to be
sacrificed to the achievement of a
Communist state which could only be
brought about by revolution.
This alternative had only to be
realized to cause stampede in the
movement. That movement depends
for its votes and its finance upon
the trade unions, and the British
trade unionist is about as revolution
ary as Christmas pudding. What
he wants is good work, good pay and
personal liberty, and events in Russia
do not encourage him to look in that
direction for the betterment Of his
position. He is anti-Fascist, but he
is equally anti-Communist. Parlia-
mentary government is good enough
for him.
(Copyright, 1879