Difference between revisions of "Clement Attlee"
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In November 1948 Attlee stated that the European Recovery Program had helped to close the gap between imports and exports and to balance Great Britain's dollar account. He added that Great Britain was making a substantial contribution to the restoration of the European economy under the inter-European payments scheme. | In November 1948 Attlee stated that the European Recovery Program had helped to close the gap between imports and exports and to balance Great Britain's dollar account. He added that Great Britain was making a substantial contribution to the restoration of the European economy under the inter-European payments scheme. | ||
| − | ===Political | + | ===Political ideology=== |
Unexpectedly, Attlee found most of his trouble on the left. He took a hard line on industrial unrest, especially the numerous unofficial dock strikes defying the Transport and General Workers' Union formerly headed by Foreign Secretary [[Ernest Bevin]]. The strikes were led by Communists loyal to the Soviet Union which vehemently opposed Attlee's Cold War policies. The result was to deflate expectations, as the dream of a socialist utopia kept mysteriously receding. | Unexpectedly, Attlee found most of his trouble on the left. He took a hard line on industrial unrest, especially the numerous unofficial dock strikes defying the Transport and General Workers' Union formerly headed by Foreign Secretary [[Ernest Bevin]]. The strikes were led by Communists loyal to the Soviet Union which vehemently opposed Attlee's Cold War policies. The result was to deflate expectations, as the dream of a socialist utopia kept mysteriously receding. | ||
| − | The postwar Labour Party's democratic socialist ideology was expressed in its 1945 election manifesto and its 1949 policy statement, "Labour Believes in Britain." There was consensus both in the Labour party's national executive committee and at party conferences on a definition of socialism emphasizing moral as well as material improvement. Despite the Attlee government's daunting economic problems, he remained committed to rebuilding British society as an ethical commonwealth, using public ownership and controls to abolish extremes of wealth and poverty. Labour ideology and policies contrasted sharply with the contemporary Conservative Party's defense of individualism and inequality and its exploitation of public discontent with bureaucratic interference.<ref> Martin Francis, "Economics and Ethics: The Nature of Labour's Socialism, 1945-1951," ''Twentieth Century British History'' 1995 6(2): 220-243. | + | The postwar Labour Party's democratic socialist ideology was expressed in its 1945 election manifesto and its 1949 policy statement, "Labour Believes in Britain." There was consensus both in the Labour party's national executive committee and at party conferences on a definition of socialism emphasizing moral as well as material improvement. Despite the Attlee government's daunting economic problems, he remained committed to rebuilding British society as an ethical commonwealth, using public ownership and controls to abolish extremes of wealth and poverty. Labour ideology and policies contrasted sharply with the contemporary Conservative Party's defense of individualism and inequality and its exploitation of public discontent with bureaucratic interference.<ref> Martin Francis, "Economics and Ethics: The Nature of Labour's Socialism, 1945-1951," ''Twentieth Century British History'' 1995 6(2): 220-243. </ref> |
| + | Attlee sought consensus and could never be a dictator. Deeply held political values prevented his socialism from turning into tyranny. The Labour Party was committed to parliamentary sovereignty, consensual "tripartism" (government, employers and unions), free collective bargaining over wages, and use of of public corporations that were not directly controlled by the government or the unions.<ref> J. D. Tomlinson, "The Iron Quadrilateral: Political Obstacles to Economic Reform under the Attlee Government," ''Journal Of British Studies'' 1995 34(1): 90-111. </Ref> | ||
| + | ===Losses mount=== | ||
Labour was stung when middle class housewives began to organize against its policies. The British Housewives' League (BHL) was effective in bringing down the Labour government in 1951. BHL women protested continuing rationing during 1946-47. Their uniqueness as a political group was in making domesticity into an ideology to combat what they perceived as Labour totalitarianism and the Conservatives who appeased it.<ref> James Hinton, "Militant Housewives: The British Housewives' League and the Attlee Government," ''History Workshop Journal'' 1994 (38): 128-156. </ref> | Labour was stung when middle class housewives began to organize against its policies. The British Housewives' League (BHL) was effective in bringing down the Labour government in 1951. BHL women protested continuing rationing during 1946-47. Their uniqueness as a political group was in making domesticity into an ideology to combat what they perceived as Labour totalitarianism and the Conservatives who appeased it.<ref> James Hinton, "Militant Housewives: The British Housewives' League and the Attlee Government," ''History Workshop Journal'' 1994 (38): 128-156. </ref> | ||
Revision as of 13:20, May 31, 2009
| Clement Attlee | |
|---|---|
| |
| Term of office 1945 - 1951 | |
| Political party | Labour Party |
| Preceded by | Winston Churchill |
| Succeeded by | Winston Churchill |
| Born | January 3, 1883 Putney |
| Died | October 8, 1967 |
| Religion | Anglican |
The Right Honorable Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee (3 January 1883 - 8 October 1967) was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951. He was a member of the Labour Party, and is remembered as the leader of the strongly socialist government that was elected in the aftermath of World War II. During the war, he served as Winston Churchill's Deputy Prime Minister.
Contents
Career
Attlee, the son of a prosperous lawyer, was born in Putney, a middle-class London suburb, in 1883. Educated at University College, Oxford, he was admitted to the bar in 1905 and practised law briefly. An intellectual, he was converted to socialism by reading the works of John Ruskin and William Morris. From 1907 to 1922 he lived in a settlement house in the impoverished East End of London. In 1907 he joined the Fabian Society and in 1908 the Independent Labour Party. In 1913-1923 he taught social science at the London School of Economics. He served in the First World War as a major in the Tank Corps; he was badly wounded and recovered. His political career began in 1919 with election as mayor of Stepney.
Parliament
Attless was a born parliamentarian, paying close attention to rules and procedures. He held a large number of secondary and major posts before becoming Prime Minister in 1951.
He was elected to Parliament in 1922 as Labour Party member for Stepney and in 1924 he was made Undersecretary of State for War. In 1927 Attlee was a member of the Indian Statutory Commission under the chairmanship of Sir John Simon, and since he supported self-government for India he dissented from the report of the Joint Select Committee in 1933.
He joined Ramsay MacDonald's Labour cabinet as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, 1929-1931 (that is, he was minister without portfolio and did not run a department). He became Postmaster General in 1931. Along with most Labour MP's, he broke with Ramsay MacDonald when the Macdonald joined with the Conservatives to form the National Coalition government in 1931.
Attlee was one of the few Labour MPs to save his seat in the 1931 Conservative landslide; he became deputy leader of the Labour party under George Lansbury. In 1935 Lansbury retired and Attlee became leader of the opposition.
Attlee opposed the policy of neutrality in the Spanish Civil War because he wanted Britain to help the left-wing side and defeat Franco. He visited the Communist-controlled International Brigades in Spain in 1937 to show his solidarity, though he generally opposed the Communists at home. He denounced the Hoare-Laval Pact.
As the Second World War opened in 1939 and turned against Britain in 1940, Conservative Winston Churchill became prime minister in 1940 and Attlee joined Churchill's wartime coalition cabinet as Lord Privy Seal, and continued as Labour leader in Parliament. In 1942 he became secretary of state for the dominions and deputy prime minister. Attlee became Lord President of the Council in 1943. To the astonishment of the world, Churchill and the Conservatives were defeated in the elections of July 1945.
Prime Minister
In the 1945 General Election Attlee led the Labour Party to its largest victory at the polls. He explained his policies in 1947, noting that the chief challenge which faced Britain was the need for a transition from a war to a peace economy, and for a transition from capitalism to socialism. However the nation had been impoverished by the war and was unable to hold its increasingly expensive and restive British Empire. Attlee's solutions were to make India independent, to pull out of Palestine, to nationalize major industries and begin socialized medicine, and to turn to the sympathetic liberal governerment of Preasident Harry Truman to pay for it all.
Nationalization was voted by Parliament for the Bank of England, the coal mining industry, hospitals, the iron and steel industry, communications, gas and electricity production, and transportation. The owners were compensated. He began a comprehensive system of social security in 1948 with the National Insurance Act; the Industrial Injuries Act; the National Assistance Act (ending the old Poor Law); and the National Health Service Act, which provided free medical care for all.
In November 1948 Attlee stated that the European Recovery Program had helped to close the gap between imports and exports and to balance Great Britain's dollar account. He added that Great Britain was making a substantial contribution to the restoration of the European economy under the inter-European payments scheme.
Political ideology
Unexpectedly, Attlee found most of his trouble on the left. He took a hard line on industrial unrest, especially the numerous unofficial dock strikes defying the Transport and General Workers' Union formerly headed by Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin. The strikes were led by Communists loyal to the Soviet Union which vehemently opposed Attlee's Cold War policies. The result was to deflate expectations, as the dream of a socialist utopia kept mysteriously receding.
The postwar Labour Party's democratic socialist ideology was expressed in its 1945 election manifesto and its 1949 policy statement, "Labour Believes in Britain." There was consensus both in the Labour party's national executive committee and at party conferences on a definition of socialism emphasizing moral as well as material improvement. Despite the Attlee government's daunting economic problems, he remained committed to rebuilding British society as an ethical commonwealth, using public ownership and controls to abolish extremes of wealth and poverty. Labour ideology and policies contrasted sharply with the contemporary Conservative Party's defense of individualism and inequality and its exploitation of public discontent with bureaucratic interference.[1]
Attlee sought consensus and could never be a dictator. Deeply held political values prevented his socialism from turning into tyranny. The Labour Party was committed to parliamentary sovereignty, consensual "tripartism" (government, employers and unions), free collective bargaining over wages, and use of of public corporations that were not directly controlled by the government or the unions.[2]
Losses mount
Labour was stung when middle class housewives began to organize against its policies. The British Housewives' League (BHL) was effective in bringing down the Labour government in 1951. BHL women protested continuing rationing during 1946-47. Their uniqueness as a political group was in making domesticity into an ideology to combat what they perceived as Labour totalitarianism and the Conservatives who appeased it.[3]
Labour lost many seats in the 1950 election, retaining a narrow majority. Two top leaders Aneurin Bevan and Harold Wilson resigned in protest from Attlee's government when he introduced small fees in the previously free health system. Labour lost power in 1951 as the Conservatives won and Churchill returned to power. Attlee stayed on as leader until the next defeat in 1955. Churchill made him an Earl and he was active in the House of Lords until his death.
Further reading
Biographical
- Brookshire, Jerry H. Clement Attlee. (1996). 257 pp.
- Howell, David. Attlee (British Prime Ministers of the 20th Century) (2006), good brief biography excerpt and text search
- Radice, Giles. The Tortoise and the Hares: Attlee, Bevin, Cripps, Dalton, Morrison (2008)
- Swift, John. Labour in Crisis: Clement Attlee and the Labour Party in Opposition, 1931-1940 (2001)
Party and national studies
- Brooke, Stephen. Labour's War: The Labour Party during the Second World War (1992)
- Davies, Andrew. To Build a New Jerusalem: The British Labour Party from Keir Hardie to Tony Blair (1996)
- Fyrth, Jim, ed. Labour's High Noon: The Government and the Economy 1945-51 (1993),
- Hennessy, Peter. Never Again: Britain 1945-1951 (2nd ed 2006), 560pp; detailed social history
- Kynaston, David. Austerity Britain, 1945-1951 (2008), 704pp; highly detailed, well-written social history
- Mercer, Helen. Labour Governments and Private Industry: The Experience of 1945-1951 (1992)
- Morgan, Kenneth O. Britain since 1945: The People's Peace (2001)
- Worley, Matthew. Labour inside the Gate: A History of the British Labour Party between the Wars (2005),
References
- ↑ Martin Francis, "Economics and Ethics: The Nature of Labour's Socialism, 1945-1951," Twentieth Century British History 1995 6(2): 220-243.
- ↑ J. D. Tomlinson, "The Iron Quadrilateral: Political Obstacles to Economic Reform under the Attlee Government," Journal Of British Studies 1995 34(1): 90-111.
- ↑ James Hinton, "Militant Housewives: The British Housewives' League and the Attlee Government," History Workshop Journal 1994 (38): 128-156.
