A modern history of the Labour Party: 1945: Labour's great triumph?

Labour Briefing no. 69, 28 September 1988, p. 6

Transcribed or corrected by hand from the printed page.

By-line as printed: Phil Hearse (Islington North CLP).

With this article on the Attlee government, Labour Briefing begins a new series on Labour Party history. Future topics include Bevanism, Gaitskell's war on Clause Four, the first Wilson government, the Heath years, the Social Contract and the rise of Bennism.

Socialists opposed to the "new revisionism" of Kinnock and Gould often hearken back to the 1945-51 Labour government as if it was the embodiment of the socialist ideal.

But a closer look at history reveals a different picture.

A process of radicalisation had swept through the working class as a result of the 1930s depression and the experiences of the War. Attlee's government therefore came to power not only with a sizeable majority but with a mandate for radical socialist change.

Civil aviation, coal, electricity, gas and the Bank of England were nationalised.

It was widely noted at the time that Tory opposition to these measures was more muted than expected: in some cases they did not even force a Commons division.

Establishment opinion clearly accepted that following the War the reconstruction of British capitalism required that certain public utilities be placed under state direction. In any case, phenomenal amounts of compensation (especially to the coal owners) were awarded — saddling the nascent nationalised industries with a mountain of debt.

These new public sector companies quickly took on the form of huge, monolithic, bureaucratic institutions, completely outside popular control. Indeed, the government explicitly rejected workers' control in industry.

Controversy only broke out when the ruling class thought nationalisation had gone too far. In 1947 there was a bitter battle over road haulage and later over iron and steel and sugar.

The National Health Service, inaugurated in 1948, was a major gain for the working class. It met opposition from the consultant doctors, but from hardly anyone else.

Social security also received a major boost, as did state education. Most of these reforms had been advocated in the Beveridge Report, published during the War, which reflected a broad consensus that economic reconstruction needed a healthy and educated working class.

Attlee's foreign policy, guided by Ernest Bevin, was a model of Cold War Atlanticism. Britain became a founder member of NATO, developed its own nuclear bomb, used its troops on the side of reaction in Greece and Malaya, and sent them into the US war in Korea. De-colonisation was begun (notably the granting of Indian independence) but only hesitantly.

By 1948 the bulk of Labour's reforms had been implemented. Morrison then declared the need for "consolidation", after which the government began to run out of steam.

Labour won the 1950 election but its majority slumped from 148 to six. Labour's social welfare reforms were popular, but it had no further socialist vision of major transformation.

The left's standard bearer, Aneurin Bevan, was a leading member of the first Attlee government, which had generally enjoyed the support of the left in the Party. A real left opposition emerged only after 1950, in response to two issues — the introduction of health service charges and German rearmament.

Even then, only a handful of left MPs (not including Bevan or Michael Foot) opposed the US war in Korea. In 1951 the Tories led by Churchill were returned to power.

Attlee's government has retained its place in Labour's mythology because, unlike the subsequent Wilson and Callaghan governments, it was able to carry through important reforms — many of which are now under threat from Thatcherism.

But the Attlee government's key failing was that it was a government of reforming capitalism. For this reason, the nationalisation of industry which it carried out conformed with the bureaucratic logic of the capitalist system, and not with the needs and priorities of the workers.

While we defend the remaining gains of 1945-51 against Thatcher, we should be under no illusions that a return to 1945 is possible or desirable. Today, a much more radical programme is needed to take the working class forward.

transcribed from the page image, 2 Nov 2026; no misspellings noted. Labour Party page; series title "A modern history of the Labour Party" set above the headline and used as the kicker; the headline is printed "1945: Labour's Great Triumph?" in title case, set here in sentence case. By-line "By Phil Hearse (Islington North CLP)" in a ruled panel at the head of the third column. The ruled editorial note that introduces the series (head of column one) is kept in italics before the text, as it belongs to the piece; the bold opening runs over two paragraphs and is kept bold. Complete on the page, no jump. Left out: photo (Glasshoughton Colliery sign), its caption ("The 40s saw the popular nationalisation of the coal industry...") and photo credit. The rest of the page (Scottish Labour Briefing, Govan by-election, Birmingham) is by others. The next part of the series is Paul Lawson's "The fight against 'revisionism'" in no. 73, p. 6.