The Labour Party of Britain was born in 1900 as the confederation of three labor-oriented political parties, and stood as the bastion of the establishment left in British politics for most of the 20th century. Though Labour led the government a number of times, the ascendancy of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives in the 1980s diminished the party’s political strength and popularity. The leader of Labour in the early 1980s was Michael Foot, who passed away this week at the age of 96. The disastrous election loss in 1983 shook up Labour, forced out Foot, and led to the rise of Tony Blair and what is called “New Labour” — a more centrist, if not outright conservative, platform that has held the government since the mid-1990s (although it is widely expected that the Conservatives are likely to return to power in the next general election).
In reading the several obituaries and blog posts I ran across, I was most impressed by this quote from Foot that reminded me very of why there was, and still is, a need for social democratic politics and political parties, not just in the U.K. but all over the world:
“We are not here in this world to find elegant solutions, pregnant with initiative, or to serve the ways and modes of profitable progress. No, we are here to provide for all those who are weaker and hungrier, more battered and crippled than ourselves. The is our only certain good and great purpose on earth, and if you ask me about those insoluble economic problems that may arise if the top is deprived of their initiative, I would answer, to hell with them. the top is greedy and mean and will always find a way to take care of themselves. They always do.”
British and American liberal politicians alike need to be shaken from their from their cozy alliances with “the top” and restored to their roots as the champions of the working man. The passing of Foot, like the passing of Ted Kennedy, reminds us that there are too few people like them left.
