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Clement Attlee | |
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| Born | 3 January 1883 Putney, England, United Kingdom |
| Died | 8 October 1967 (aged 84) Westminster, London, United Kingdom |
| Political orientation | Social democracy Imperialism |
| Political party | Labour |
Clement Richard Attlee (3 January 1883 – 8 October 1967) was a British politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. Attlee was Deputy Prime Minister during the coalition government of the Second World War under Winston Churchill, and served in various other ministerial positions in that government and the 1924 and 1929-35 governments of Ramsay MacDonald.
Attlee is commonly regarded as the most progressive British Prime Minister by virtue of a lack of competition and his government's introduction of an array of social reforms, most notably the creation of the National Health Service (NHS). The modern Labour Party commonly cites the Attlee government as evidence of their socialist credentials ignoring that nationalization is not necessarily socialist and that a large proportion of Labour policies in this period were also supported by the Conservatives. Although Attlee can be recognized for the creation of the welfare state and the nationalisation of key industries including the central bank, coal, steel, railways, gas, and electricity, it is also true that no attempt at worker's control or even participation over the nationalized industries was even considered.[1][2]
In foreign policy Attlee was more explicitly reactionary and Britain remained fully committed to imperialism, with policies near identical to their Conservative counterparts. Following the end of the Second World War, the Attlee government decided to become subservient to the U.S., due to Britain's ruined economy, rather than work with the Soviet Union or pull troops out of its colonies, this decision would set the tone for all post-war British foreign policy. Attlee can be credited with allowing the independence of India but his government's failure to properly implement the partition of India led to a bloodbath whilst more effort was put into preserving the investments of British capitalists. Furthermore, Attlee not only declined to give independence to very few British colonies but played a leading role in supporting imperialism with actions such as the creation of NATO, support for the Korean War and the secret manufacture of a nuclear bomb.[2]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Donny Gluckstein, Tony Cliff (1988). The Labour Party - A Marxist History: 'The Attlee government: Zenith of reformism'. [MIA]
- ↑ Jump up to: 2.0 2.1 John Saville (1983). C.R. Attlee: an assessment. Socialist Register, vol.20 (pp. 144-167). [MIA]