If I were an American with a moment to spare from the Presidential elections, I’m sure I should be feeling considerably worried about recent events in Britain. The most spectacular of these events was, of course, the Labor Party conference. It seems to mean that Britain’s Opposition Party, the alternative government which might theoretically come into power at any time has declared for immediate unilateral nuclear disarmament and the abolition of American bases; an alarming enough prospect in all conscience. It isn’t actually as bad as that. For one thing, the Party conference cannot commit the Parliamentary Labor Party, and the majority of Labor Members of Parliament are certainly not “unilateralists.” And the decisions of the Party conference are themselves arrived at in a very odd way. The results are determined by “block votes” wielded by the trade union leaders in proportion to the size of their unions. Which way the block vote shall be cast has itself already been decided by small groups of trade union politicians meeting in secret: the members are not consulted. So the real significance of this unilateralist vote remains highly doubtful.
What cannot be in doubt is its shattering effect on the Labor Party as a political entity. The quarrel about nuclear weapons is only one aspect of the great rift which has now unmistakably appeared: a rift between the Marxist side of the Party and those who are merely Social Democrats. No single party can honestly contain such incompatible elements. And no party which tries to do so can possibly be fit to govern. People have begun to realize this.
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