Bevanism

File:Aneurin Bevan (1943).jpg]]

Bevanism was a movement on the left wing of the Labour Party in the late 1950s led by Aneurin Bevan which also included Richard Crossman, Michael Foot and Barbara Castle.Matt Beech, et al. eds. The Struggle for Labour's Soul: Understanding Labour's Political Thought Since 1945 (2004) pp 7-23. Bevanism was opposed by the Gaitskellites, moderate social democrats within the party.{{cite web |title='Bevanism' vs 'Gaitskellites' Labour Party Divisions flashcards |url=https://quizlet.com/82580255/bevanism-vs-gaitskellites-labour-party-divisions-flash-cards/ |publisher=Quizlet |date=1956-07-26 |access-date=2016-03-29}} The Gaitskellites typically won most of the battles inside Parliament, but Bevanism was stronger among local Labour activists. The Bevanites split over the issue of nuclear weapons, and the movement faded away after Bevan died in 1960.

History

Bevanism was influenced by Marxism; Bevan's biographer and later Leader of the Labour Party Michael Foot said that Bevan's "belief in the class conflict stayed unshaken", while acknowledging that Bevan was not a traditional Marxist.{{cite book |last=Foot |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Foot |title=Aneurin Bevan: A Biography: Volume 2: 1945–1960 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0jeyDZ_1h1cC&pg=PT15 |publisher=Faber & Faber |year=2011 |page=15 |isbn=978-0-571-28085-8}}{{Cite book|last=Campbell|first=John|author-link = John Campbell (biographer) |title=Nye Bevan: A Biography|publisher=Hodder & Stoughton|year=1994}}{{pn|date=June 2022}} Despite declaring inspiration from Karl Marx, Bevan did not visibly support insurrectionist concepts of proletarian revolution, arguing that revolution depended on the circumstances,{{cite book |last=Thomas-Symonds |first=Nicklaus |author-link=Nick Thomas-Symonds |title=Nye: The Political Life of Aneurin Bevan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ytHGBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA34 |publisher=I.B.Tauris |year=2014 |page=34 |isbn=978-0-85773-499-0}} or the typical organisational model of many Communist parties. According to Ed Balls, Bevan and his supporters instead preferred a strident but pluralist conception of democratic socialism, tempered by pragmatic sensibilities and practical application.{{cite news|last1=Balls|first1=Ed|authorlink1=Ed Balls|title=A visionary pragmatist: why Bevan is a Labour hero|url=http://www.edballs.co.uk/blog/speeches-articles/a-visionary-pragmatist-why-bevan-is-a-labour-hero-2011-aneurin-bevan-memorial-lecture/|access-date=29 March 2016|work=2011 Aneurin Bevan Memorial Lecture|via=Ed Balls' personal blog|date=25 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413192021/http://www.edballs.co.uk/blog/speeches-articles/a-visionary-pragmatist-why-bevan-is-a-labour-hero-2011-aneurin-bevan-memorial-lecture/|archive-date=13 April 2016|url-status=dead}}{{Cite book|last=Howell|first=David|title=The Rise and Fall of Bevanism|year=1980}}

The Bevanite Group of MPs, of which there were about three dozen, coalesced following Bevan's resignation from the Cabinet in 1951 when the health service started charging for previously free services such as spectacles in order to help pay for Britain's involvement in the Korean War.{{cite book|last1=Kynaston|first1=David|title=Family Britain 1951-7|year=2009|publisher=Bloomsbury|location=London|isbn=9780747583851|page=[https://archive.org/details/familybritain1950000kyna/page/79 79]|url=https://archive.org/details/familybritain1950000kyna/page/79}} Bevanites Harold Wilson and John Freeman resigned with Bevan himself. The group in Parliament drew heavily from the previous "Keep Left" group, which had previously dissented from the pro-American foreign policy of the 1945–1951 Labour government favoured by Clement Attlee, his Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin and Hugh Gaitskell.{{cite web |url=http://labourhistory.org.uk/hugh-gaitskell-50-years-on/ |title=Hugh Gaitskell – 50 Years On | Labour History Group |publisher=Labourhistory.org.uk |date=2013-06-24 |access-date=29 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160327214225/http://labourhistory.org.uk/hugh-gaitskell-50-years-on/ |archive-date=27 March 2016 |url-status=dead }} According to Crossman in December 1951 the group was not organised, and Bevan could not be persuaded to have any consistent or coherent strategy, but they did have a group who met regularly and liked each other and came to represent "real Socialism" to a large number of Party members. Picture Post called them the "Bevanly Host" in April 1952.{{cite book|last1=Kynaston|first1=David|title=Family Britain 1951-7|date=2009|publisher=Bloomsbury|location=London|isbn=9780747583851|page=80}}

Local organisations

Bevanites organised in Constituency Labour Parties across Britain, and set up local discussion groups known as "Brains Trusts", also a legacy of the "Keep Left" group.

Brains Trusts organised in support of the newspaper favoured by Bevanites, Tribune magazine, allocating left-wing MPs and campaigners to form speaking panels around the country. Tribune itself provided an important print voice for Bevanite politicians and was in wide circulation.

Objectives

The main Bevanite objectives were:

State ownership of the "commanding heights of the economy". Many nationalisations had made up the bedrock of Labour's previous manifestos, such as "Let us face the future". Bevanites' views towards nationalisation mirrored those of Vladimir Lenin, in that state control was only seen as necessary in the context of exchange or distribution, as opposed to the total and immediate appropriation of as much private property as possible.
A comprehensive and completely free 'cradle to grave' system of welfare, health provision and education.
Housing for all.
Full employment.
The nationalisation of the steel industry, contrary to the views of many colleagues.{{cite news|title=TUC Caution on Further Nationalisation|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=W0JAAAAAIBAJ&pg=1768%2C651647|work=The Glasgow Herald|date=9 January 1953|page=5}}
Contempt for dogma as a modus operandi; an open-minded approach to democratic socialism.
Respect for the arts.
General unwillingness to yield upon the perceived gains made since 1945, for example, opposition to means testing for social security benefits, and opposition to prescription charges as military spending increased.
A complementary ability to drop unpopular policies.
Freedom of debate, opinion and criticism within the Labour Party.
Scepticism towards most American foreign policy, especially the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization and West German rearmament.{{Cite book |last=Campbell |first=John |url=https://archive.org/details/pistolsatdawntwo0000camp/13960/t6wx5mm07 |title=Pistols at Dawn: Two Hundred Years of Political Rivalry from Pitt and Fox to Blair and Brown |date=2010 |publisher=Vintage |isbn=978-1-84595-091-0 |location=London |pages=222 |oclc=489636152}}{{Cite book |last=Thorpe |first=Andrew |author-link = Andrew Thorpe |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-1-349-25305-0 |title=A History of the British Labour Party |date=1997 |publisher=Macmillan Education UK |isbn=978-0-333-56081-5 |location=London | language=en |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-25305-0}}{{rp|133}}
Greater industrial democracy and workers' control of nationalized industries, which Bevan believed were governed unconstitutionally due to their lack of public accountability.{{rp|139}}

Party role

Historian Kenneth O. Morgan says. "Bevan alone kept the flag of left-wing socialism aloft throughout – which gave him a matchless authority amongst the constituency parties and in party conference."Kenneth O. Morgan, Labour in Power (1984) p 57. At the 1952 Labour Party Conference, Bevanites were elected to six of the seven places on the National Executive Committee by constituency representatives.{{cite book |last=Kynaston |first=David |title=Family Britain 1951-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/familybritain1950000kyna/page/250 |publisher=Bloomsbury |location=London |date=2009 |page=[https://archive.org/details/familybritain1950000kyna/page/250 250] |isbn=9780747583851}}

Split over nuclear disarmament

Later in his political career, Bevan began advocating the maintenance of Britain's nuclear deterrent, against those who became associated with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), saying that without them a future British foreign secretary would be going "naked into the conference chamber."{{cite news |title=Your favourite Conference Clips |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/the_daily_politics/6967366.stm |website=BBC Daily Politics |date=3 October 2007 |access-date=29 March 2016}} This split the Bevanites; many, such as leading Bevanite{{cite news |author=John Beavan, Baron Ardwick |title=Michael Foot: Writer and politician who rose to become leader of the Labour Party |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/michael-foot-writer-and-politician-who-rose-to-become-leader-of-the-labour-party-1915727.html |work=The Independent |date=4 March 2010 |access-date=29 March 2016}} Michael Foot, continued to oppose Britain's nuclear weapons, with Labour's 1983 manifesto under Foot's leadership of the party calling for unilateral nuclear disarmament.{{cite news |last=Vaidyanathan |first=Rajini |title=Michael Foot: What did the 'longest suicide note' say? |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8550425.stm |access-date=29 March 2016 |publisher=BBC News |date=4 March 2010}}

Bevanism

History

Local organisations

Objectives

Party role

Split over nuclear disarmament

See also

References

Further reading