The ‘Forward March’ of Labour Halted?

Eric Hobsbawm's article and Ken Gill's reply afford the left the possibility to begin an overdue debate, both on the period 1968-74 and on the whole question of the relationship between wages and trade union struggles and a strategy for socialist advance in a highly developed capitalist democracy. It is also important because beneath the question is the problem of why the movement subsided so quickly after Labour came to power, and why it has not recovered since. The need to clarify problems relating to this period gain further urgency from the fact that we may now be standing on the edge of a new surge in wages and trade union struggle, renewed inflation, and a possibly worsened economy. I think Hobsbawm's…