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gobears10

(310 posts)
Fri Oct 16, 2015, 09:03 PM Oct 2015

One of my favorite democratic socialists: British Prime Minister Clement Attlee

One of my favorite democratic socialists is Clement Attlee, who served as Britain's Prime Minister between 1945 and 1951. Attlee was born into a middle class family, and held conservative views early in his life. However, after witnessing the dire poverty and deprivation of slum children in London's East End, Attlee became a full-fledged supporter of democratic socialism. Attlee abandoned his previous conservative views, coming to realize that private charity would never be sufficient to alleviate poverty, and that poverty could only seriously be addressed through direct action and income redistribution by the state. Attlee subsequently joined the Labour Party, ultimately becoming its leader in 1935, and becoming elected British Prime Minister in 1945.

After the devastation of World War II, Attlee successfully used government intervention to build an economy out of ruin, and established Britain's "cradle to grave" welfare state that continues to lift millions of out squalor every single year. The Attlee government also nationalized and rebuilt key industries, and had the Bank of England reinvigorate Britain's economy by embracing Keynesian crisis policy. Under Attlee's leadership, the Labour Party took up the Beveridge Report in its manifesto, and established the National Health Service, Britain's extremely successful system of socialized healthcare. To this day, Britain's single-payer system is far more cost-effective than America's convoluted healthcare system.

When William Churchill became Prime Minister again in 1951, he did not dare undo Attlee's domestic reforms. In fact, until the 1980s, both Tory and Labour governments adhered to the "post-war consensus," in which the government maintained full unemployment via Keynesian policies, with the UK staying on the hard-left of social democracy until Margaret Thatcher almost completely obliterated it in the 1980s.

Having said that, despite being politically left-wing and a committed democratic socialist on domestic policy, when it came to foreign policy, Attlee was a cold-blooded pragmatist. For example, Attlee presided over the large and steady decolonization of the British Empire. Moreover, Attlee vehemently opposed "authoritarian communism," and his vigorous anti-communist views manifested themselves in Britain's strong support for the U.S. in the Cold War against Stalin's USSR. Attlee was also a huge proponent of NATO and the Marshall Plan. Attlee also started UK's own development program for nuclear weapon. So Attlee gave Britain the three N's: nationalization, NATO, and nukes.

Overall, Clement Attlee, along with Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, are my favorite democratic socialist leaders, and I'm inspired at how they built the foundations of a decent society in their respective countries. I'm really glad that Bernie Sanders is popularizing democratic socialism in the U.S., and Sweden and the UK are two great case studies of social-democratic policies in action.

I posted a previous thread about Olof Palme, and here's an excellent documentary on Clement Attlee for your viewing pleasure

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One of my favorite democratic socialists: British Prime Minister Clement Attlee (Original Post) gobears10 Oct 2015 OP
Thanks, bookmarking. I recall Attlee's labor record and will look into him more now. appalachiablue Oct 2015 #1
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