1. It is conceivable that Sir Hartley Shawcross could be
come a judge but unlikely that Mr. D. N. Pritt, Q.C.,
expelled from the Labour Party for his left-wing views,
will become one.
2. An old, almost forgotten statute of King Edward III,
the Justice of Peace Act, 1361, was dragged out to
imprison Tom Mann in 1932 on suspicion that he might
commit an offence.
3. All this, says the programme, " would provide the basis
for a new, close, voluntary and fraternal association of
the British people and the liberated peoples of the pres
ent Empire to promote mutually beneficial economic
exchange and co-operation, and to defend in common
their freedom against American imperialist aggression."
4. As in the United States, these struggles forced some re
lief concessions from the local government and made
unemployment insurance a living issue, eventually to be
translated into national legislation.
5. And in Canada, in August 1930, with no better choice
than this before them, the Canadian people kicked out
Prime Minister Mackenzie King and elected Richard
B. Bennett, who was full of demagogic promises, declar
ing that he was going " to blast his way into the mar
kets of the world."
6. It remained open to the House of Lords to insist that
nothing should be brought before it without a clean
mandate from the electors, unless it was done in the
early life of the administration.
7. The answer to this is of course that the 'revising' pow
ers of the Lords only come into operation when the
Tories are not the government: when the Tories are in
office its legislation goes through without delay.
8. How and when they intend to proceed with these propo
sitions is not the point, the intention is clear, and
the purpose of the so-called reforms is equally clear, to
strengthen the Lords as a buttress of reaction against the advancing working-class movement. 9. It (Good Neighbor policy) was the adoption of more efficient methods of imperialist penetration. It constituted a system whereby the Latin American peoples had the semblance of national independence, but with the substance of general control remaining in the hands of the United States.
10. The treachery of the reformist leadership in 1931 was
not the treachery of the individuals, it was part of some
thing more fundamental, that is, the crisis of the
whole policy and outlook of reformism.
11. At the 1947 Labour Party Conference the matter came
up again in the form of a specific resolution from the
Vehicle Builders which demanded a broadening of the
Diplomatic Corps, the speedy replacement of ambassa
dors " by people more in touch with the aspirations of
the common people of the world", and the training of
more " understanding personnel" for diplomatic posts.
12. Our modern law of real property is simply founded on
judicial evasion of Acts of Parliament, which, however,
was of such a flagrant kind as could not take place
nowadays.
13. The more skilfully any public figure or concern deserv
ing of censure or criticism conceal their activities, the
harder it will be to criticize without being confronted
with all the difficulties and dangers of having to justify
when not in a position to access to all the facts of
strict proof of them.
14. It (the Incitement to Disaffection Act) was condemned
by eminent legal authorities and M.P.s of all parties,
who together with the National Council for Civil Liber
ties, which waged a great campaign against it, secured
valuable amendments.
15. Apart from Metropolitan Police, which contains the
central Criminal Record Office, the Central Finger Print
Bureau and various other central institutions, including
the all-important Special Branch, his (Home Secretary's)
control of the provincial forces is ensured by his power
to issue regulations under the Police Act of 1919, regu
lations which do not have to be laid before Parliament.
16. This is made crystal-clear by Hart, a retired Home Of-
268
ficial, in his book, an admission all the more valuable because in general he favours the police.
17. In 1919 the Police Bill was introduced, the main pur
pose of which was to force men out of the Union and
join a government stooge Police Federation which the
Bill was to establish.
18. The real issue here, of course, is not that of a 'split'
between the unions and the Labour Party, it is a strug
gle over policy, with important trade unions as well as
the majority of the constituency Labour Parties challeng
ing the right wing.
19. The U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. could and should live to
gether harmoniously in this world, despite their different
types of social systems, but Wall Street is opposed on
principle to such harmony. This is a policy which, if
not halted by the people, will lead to war.
20. Lip-service is paid to the Health Service (by the To
ries) followed by the demand of administrative efficiency
and economy and correct priorities. On these grounds
they could, and will, slash the service to ribbons.
21. They (United States reactionaries) likewise cynically
sabotaged co-operation with the U.S.S.R. during World
War II, in the hope that Hitler's forces would so butch
er the Red Army as to make it virtually powerless
after the war. And at the present time they are busily
seeking to organize the capitalist world for an all-out
atomic war against the Soviet Union.
22. The remnants of the once-strong syndicalist movement
in Latin America now consist mostly of old immigrant
workers from the Latin countries of Europe. And in the
United States and Canada the once very active I.W.W.
has vanished from the scene of labor struggle.
23. The Cooperative Commonwealth Federation of Canada
stands vaguely for a " co-operative commonwealth",
based on production for use, not for profit. It is for the
" socialization" of banking institutions and certain basic
industries, also the transportation and communication
systems.
24. In 1936, in an effort to prevent the re-election of Pres
ident Roosevelt, the du Ponts launched the American
Liberty League, with Al Smith as its front-man. Every
fascist grouping in the country rallied behind this organ
ization, which was filled with a deep spirit of reaction.
25. As we have previously remarked, the general crisis of
capitalism operates in a twofold sense. That is, as that
system breaks up, socialism comes increasingly into ex-
istance.
26. In the eighteenth century tea and tobacco had become
as much the national food as beef and beer. And ever
since the seventeenth century the adventurous and the
discontented had been going across the ocean, first to
the American colonies, then to the United States, to
Canada, to Australia, to South Africa.
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