Clement Atlee

[ReD_ReBeL]

He was the leader of Great Britain from 1945-1951. would we consider Clement Atlee to be a Socialist?
Here is some of the aims that Labour performed header by Atlee:

The landslide 1945 Election returned Labour to power and Attlee became prime minister. The party had clear aims. Several controversal policies were enacted, including the nationalisation of utilities and the long-distance transport system and the creation of the modern Welfare State. India became independent, and Britain's role in Palestine ended. Attlee's first Health Secretary, Aneurin Bevan, fought against general medical disapproval, to create the British National Health Service that still survives today and is often just as controversial as then.

[Vanguard1917]

The Attlee government spent most of its time trying to restore the profitability of British capitalism after the end of the war. This meant sending troops to break strikes, sending militants to prison, and restraining wages in 1948.

The NHS (the National Health Service) was primarily a product of the post-war economic boom and the consequent rise of the Keynesian economic consensus - not socialist ideology.

Also, the nationalisation of one-fifth of the economy had a practical motivation: to support infrastructural industries that were fundamental to the capitalist economy but unprofitable in themselves.

No, Clement Attlee was not a socialist.

[LSD]

What a ludicrous question.

Like all British Prime Ministers before and since, Atlee was an ardent capitalist.

He may have implemented some social democratic reforms, but that was a product of the times. Post-war Britain was reconstructing its economy and re-integrating millions of servicemen back into civilian life.

That meant social welfare.

It didn't mean "socialism"!

No true "socialist" has ever risen to power through bourgeois politics, nor could one in the future. The system itself is designed to prevent it.

This website is called Revolutionary Left because it is through revolution and revolution alone that true class emancipation can be achieved.

It certainly won't come through "voting Labour"! :rolleyes:

[Roses in the Hospital]

Even though he was a reformist, I know mine (and most other peoples') lives are better off for the welfare measures he introduced. Off the top my head I can't think of a better Prime Minister...