Clause IV - Gaitskell's Fight

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.

The economic crisis of the 1970s, and the defeats suffered by the trade union movement, as well as the decline in influence of the British Communist party, led to a strengthening of the position of Labour party members who were opposed to Marxism.

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