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Clause IV of the United Kingdom Labour Party constitution sets out the objects of the party, and has been the scene of political fights over its direction.
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The original version of Clause IV, drafted by Sidney Webb in November 1917 and adopted by the party in 1918, read, in part 4:
- "To secure for the workers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry and the most equitable distribution thereof that may be possible upon the basis of the common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange, and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service."
In 1918 nationalisation was seen by many voters as akin to modernisation – the nationalisation of the railways was a widely supported policy, for instance, in that it would have ended the plethora of unco-ordinated and competing companies.
This text is usually assumed to mean nationalisation of the whole economy, but close reading of the text shows that there are many other possible interpretations. Common ownership, though later given a technical meaning by the 1976 Industrial Common Ownership Act, could mean municipal ownership, worker cooperatives or consumer cooperatives. Many would also include the John Lewis Partnership as a company in common ownership.
In practice, however, mainstream Labour viewed common ownership as some form of nationalisation – proposing in the party's 1982 programme to nationalise the 25 biggest companies. The following 1983 manifesto included proposals for significant extensions of nationalisation.
Gaitskell's fight
After losing the 1959 general election, Labour Party leader Hugh Gaitskell came to believe that public opposition to nationalisation had led to the party's poor performance, and announced that he proposed to amend Clause IV. The left fought back and managed to defeat any change; symbolically it was then agreed to include Clause IV, part 4 on Labour Party membership cards.
Blair's fight
Tony Blair had in 1993, before becoming Leader of the Labour Party, written a pamphlet for the Fabian Society which criticised the wording of Clause IV for confusing ends with means. Blair put forward a case for defining socialism in terms of a set of values which were constant, while the policies needed to achieve them would have to change ("modernise") to account for changing society. After becoming Leader, he announced at the conclusion of his 1994 conference speech that the Labour Party needed a new statement of aims and values, and that he would draw one up and present it to the party. The new version was adopted at a Special Conference at Easter 1995, after an internal Labour Party debate.
The present version reads:
- "The Labour Party is a democratic socialist party. It believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone, so as to create for each of us the means to realise our true potential and for all of us a community in which power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many, not the few. Where the rights we enjoy reflect the duties we owe. And where we live together, freely, in a spirit of solidarity, tolerance and respect."
The change achieved an immediate signal to the electorate that Blair was serious about changing the factors about the Labour Party which he perceived as holding it back in gaining popular trust. The content of Clause IV has not been a cause of serious dispute nor has it been used to criticise the party; however, many on the left regard the original wording as preferable. Since Labour came to power in 1997, the government has introduced a number of mild income redistribution measures such as the Working Families Tax Credit. However redistribution of wealth has not been a major cause for the government and Ministers rarely mention the subject in public. Although absolute poverty has decreased, especially for children, inequality of wealth has not diminished.
The new clause did, for the first time, declare Labour to be a "socialist" party, though Blair generally prefers to describe himself as a social democrat.
The re-writing of Clause IV is generally considered to have been of greater symbolic than practical importance. Presentationally, the abandonment of the nationalising principles of the original Clause IV represented a break with Labour's past - and, specifically, a break with its 1983 Manifesto in which greater state ownership was proposed.
The changing of Clause IV has come to be seen as a defining act of self-realisation: the moment at which Old Labour became New Labour. Labour's "Clause Four moment" has come, subsequently, to become parlance for any need or perceived need for a fundamental re-casting of a political party's principles or attitudes. Accordingly, Conservative modernisers have argued that the Conservative Party must similarly undergo its "Clause Four Moment", rejecting past commitment and demonstrating, rhetorically at least, change to the electorate.
Trivia
Sidney Webb, who first drafted Clause IV, lived on the site of Millbank Tower, which was to be New Labour's campaign headquarters for their victorious 1997 general election campaign, after re-writing Clause IV. *
Clause Four was also the name of a campaigning group within the Labour Party's student wing, which succeeded in ending its control by the Militant Tendency in 1974.
"Clause IV"