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Ian Birchall
Bailing out
the system
Reformist Socialism in Western Europe:
1944-1985
111
Bookmarks
London, Chicago and Melbourne
BAILING OUT THE SYSTEM
REFORMIST SOCIALISM IN WESTERN EUROPE 1944-1985
by Ian Birchall
Published October 1986
by Bookmarks
BRITAIN: 265 Seven Sisters Road, Finsbury Park, London N4 2DE.
USA: PO Box 16085, Chicago, IL 60616.
AUSTRALIA: GPO Box 1473N, Melbourne 3001.
ISBN 0 906224 30 6
Printed in Great Britain by A. Wheaton & Co. Ltd, Exeter
Typeset by Kate Macpherson, Clevedon.
Cover design by Peter Court.
Bookmarks is linked to an international grouping of socialist organisations:
AUSTRALIA: International Socialists, GPO Box 1473N, Melbourne 3001.
BELGIUM: Socialisme International, 9 rue Marexhe, 4400 Herstal, Liege.
BRITAIN: Socialist Workers Party, PO Box 82, London E3.
CANADA: International Socialists, PO Box 339, Station E, Toronto, Ontario.
DENMARK: Internationale Socialister, Morten Borupsgade 18, kid, 8000
Arhus C.
FRANCE: Socialisme International (correspondence to Yves Coleman, BP
407, Paris Cedex 05).
IRELAND: Socialist Workers Movement, PO Box 1648, Dublin 8.
NORWAY: Internasjonale Sosialister, Postboks 5370, Majorstua, 0304
Oslo 3.
UNITED STATES: International Socialist Organization, PO Box 16085,
Chicago, Illinois 60616.
WEST GERMANY: Sozialistische Arbeiter Gruppe, Wolfgangstrasse 81,
D-6000 Frankfurt 1.
Contents
5 Acknowledgements
6 Abbreviations used in text
Part one: INTRODUCTION
9 The long and winding road
17 Daydream believers
Part two: 1944-1953: FROM WORLD WAR TO COLD WAR
29 What are we fighting for?
36 Dancing in the streets?
48 Meet the new boss
60 Beneath the flag of democracy
Part three: 1953-1963: DRIFT TO THE RIGHT
73 No more heroes
79 No faith to lose
90 The bitterest pill
Part four: 1963-1973: NEW OPENINGS
103 ‘I want to be elected’
119 Riders on the storm
Part five: 1973-1985: THE CRISIS RETURNS
133 Working for the clampdown
142 Nowhere to run
153 Stepping stones
172 Time for truth
195 Halfway to paradise?
207 Ashes to ashes
Part six: CO-OPTING THE LEFT
223 Friend or foe?
232 Living in a nowhere land
244 How to sell a contradiction
251 Children of the revolution
260 Keep on keeping on
269 Notes
280 Chronology
283 Index
This book is published with the aid of the Bookmarks Publishing
Co-operative. Many socialists have a few savings put aside, probably in a
bank or savings bank. While it’s there, this money is being re-loaned by the
bank to some business or other to further the aims of capitalism. We believe it
is better loaned to a socialist venture to further the struggle for socialism.
That’s how the co-operative works: in return for a loan, repayable at a month’s
notice, members receive free copies of books published by Bookmarks, plus
other advantages. The co-operative has about 130 members at the time this
book is published, from as far apart as London and Australia, Canada and
Norway.
Like to know more? Write to the Bookmarks Publishing Co-operative,
265 Seven Sisters Road, London N4 2DE, England.
*
1
Acknowledgements
I wrote this book as a member of the Socialist Workers Party, and its main
ideas are not mine but those of the party. I of course take individual
responsibility for any errors and for detailed formulations. However, I
undoubtedly owe many detailed points to swp comrades with whom I have
discussed the issues, informally or in meetings, and I have drawn on
innumerable articles in Socialist Worker and Socialist Review, of which only
some are acknowledged in footnotes. I also owe a debt to many European
comrades whom I have met and learnt from over the past two decades. I am
particularly grateful to Alex Callinicos, Norah Carlin, Tony Cliff, Pete
Goodwin, Duncan Hallas, Pete Marsden, Alan Rogers and Steve (‘not in the
afternoon’) Wright for searching criticisms of earlier drafts. Thanks to Danny
Birchall for the index.
I must also give thanks to the many members of the Labour Party whom I
have worked with, or against, in various political contexts over the past
twenty-five years, and who have helped me to understand better the nature of
reformism. The first draft of this book was written during the 1984-85 miners’
strike, and I am especially grateful to Neil Kinnock mp, who confirmed my
basic arguments by his conduct on every single day of that heroic struggle.
Ian H Birchall
February 1986
★
Ian Birchall’s previous publications include France: The struggle goes on
(with Tony Cliff, London 1968), Workers Against the Monolith (London
1974), and The smallest mass party in the world (London 1981). He is senior
lecturer in French at Middlesex Polytechnic in London.
Abbreviations used in text
CERES: Centre for Socialist Studies, Research and Education (in French
Socialist Party)
CFDT: French Democratic Confederation of Labour
CGIL: Italian Confederation of Labour
CGT: General Confederation of Labour (France)
CISL: Italian Confederation of Workers’ Unions
CND: Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (Britain)
CP: Communist Party (of the country under discussion)
DC: Christian Democracy (Italy)
DGB: German Trade Union Confederation
EAM: National Liberation Front (Greece)
EDA: Union of the Democratic Left (Greece)
EEC: European Economic Community; ‘Common Market’
ELAS: People’s Liberation Army (Greece)
FDP: Free Democratic Party (West Germany)
FGTB: Belgian General Confederation of Labour
FLN: National Liberation Front (Algeria)
FO: Workers’ Force (French trade union federation)
GNP: Gross National Product
IRI: Institute for Industrial Reconstruction (Italy)
KKE: Greek Communist Party
LCR: Revolutionary Communist League (French section of Fourth
International)
LO: Confederation of Trade Unions (Sweden)
MRP: Popular Republican Movement (French Christian Democrats)
NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
PAR: Panhellenic Liberation Movement (Greece)
PASOK: Panhellenic Socialist Party (Greece)
PCE: Spanish Communist Party
PCF: French Communist Party
PCI: Italian Communist Party
PCP: Portuguese Communist Party
PS: Socialist Party (France) (after 1971)
Bailing out the System 7
PSDl: Italian Social Democratic Party
PSI: Italian Socialist Party
PSIUP: Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity
PSOE: Spanish Socialist Workers Party
PSP: Portuguese Socialist Party
PSU: United Socialist Party (France)
SAP: Social Democratic Labour Party (Sweden)
SDLP: Social Democratic and Labour Party (North of Ireland)
SDP: Social Democratic Party (Britain)
SDS: Socialist Student Association (West Germany)
SFIO: Socialist Party (France) (up to 1971)
SP: Socialist Party (of the country under discussion)
SPD: Social Democratic Party (Germany)
SPO: Socialist Party of Austria
UDSR: Socialist and Democratic Union of the Resistance (France)
UGT: General Workers’ Union (Spain)
UIL: Italian Union of Labour
Parti
Introduction
