Socialism Abroad: The Revisionist Debate

An editorial in the April, 1960 issue of Socialist Comentary begins as follows:

It would be stupid to deny that demoralization has overtaken the Labor Party since the election. What could be more depressing than the contrast between the position today and the buoyant enthusiasm at the height of the election campaign six months ago? Defeat in itself need not be demoralizing—it is sometimes remarkably stimulating; the trouble has been in the reactions to defeat.

Socialist Commentary—a supporter of the Gaitskell leadership of the Labor Party—goes on to express the wish that the latter’s retreat on his proposal to revise the famous clause four of the party constitution (the clause proposing public ownership of the major means of production) will calm the atmosphere and restore party peace. We have every right to wonder; the polemics that appeared before Gaitskell’s withdrawal indicate major rather than minor differences. To get an indication of this we must turn to the non-socialist publication Encounter which carried some of the most important exchanges of opinion within the ranks of British socialism.

C. A. R. Crosland (“The Future of the Left,” Encounter, March, 1960) accepts the charge of “revisionism” levied against him by the Left. But to him, revisionism—the proposal to revise the Labor Party’s platform and tradition—”. . . is a long-term effort to enable the Labor...