Editing Tony Benn (section)

==In government, 1974–1979==

In the [[1974–1979 Labour government|Labour Government of 1974]], Benn was [[Secretary of State for Industry]] and as such increased [[nationalization|nationalised industry]] pay, provided better terms and conditions for workers such as the [[Health and Safety at Work Act 1974]] and was involved in setting up [[worker cooperative]]s in firms which were struggling,<ref>{{cite web|last=Hird|first=Christopher|url=http://www.newint.org/issue106/giants.htm|title=The Crippled Giants|work=New Internationalist|date=December 1981|access-date=18 September 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091125103953/http://www.newint.org/issue106/giants.htm|archive-date=25 November 2009|url-status=live}}</ref> the best known being at [[Meriden, West Midlands|Meriden]], outside [[Coventry]], producing Triumph Motorcycles. In 1975, he was appointed [[Department of Energy (United Kingdom)|Secretary of State for Energy]], immediately following his unsuccessful campaign for a "No" vote in the [[1975 United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum|referendum on the UK's continued membership of the European Community (Common Market)]]. Later in his diary, (25 October 1977) Benn wrote that he "loathed" the EEC; he claimed it was "bureaucratic and centralised" and "of course it is really dominated by Germany. All the Common Market countries except the UK have been occupied by Germany, and they have this mixed feeling of hatred and subservience towards the Germans".<ref>{{cite book|last=Benn|first=Tony|title=The Benn Diaries|publisher=Arrow|year=1995|page=432|isbn= 978-0-09-963411-9}}</ref>

[[Harold Wilson]] resigned as [[Labour Party (UK)#Leaders of the Labour Party since 1906|Leader of the Labour Party]] and [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] in March 1976. Benn later attributed the collapse of the Wilson government to cuts enforced on the UK by [[global capital]], in particular the International Monetary Fund.<ref name="Bagely">{{cite news|last1=Bagley|first1=Richard|title=Into The Archives: Tony Benn On The True Power Of Democracy|url=http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-7a6a-Into-the-archives-Tony-Benn-on-the-true-power-of-democracy|access-date=2 April 2016|newspaper=The Morning Star|date=1 May 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413114200/http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-7a6a-Into-the-archives-Tony-Benn-on-the-true-power-of-democracy|archive-date=13 April 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> In the [[1976 Labour Party leadership election|resulting leadership contest]] Benn finished in fourth place out of the six cabinet ministers who stood—he withdrew as 11.8 per cent of colleagues voted for him in the first ballot. Benn withdrew from the second ballot and endorsed [[Michael Foot]]; [[James Callaghan]] eventually won. Despite not receiving his support in the second and third rounds of the vote, Callaghan kept Benn on as Energy Secretary. In 1976, there was a [[Pound sterling|sterling]] crisis, and [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]] [[Denis Healey]] sought a loan from the [[International Monetary Fund]]. Underlining a wish to counter international market forces which seemed to penalise a larger [[welfare state]], Benn publicly circulated the divided Cabinet minutes in which a narrow majority of the Labour Cabinet under [[Ramsay MacDonald]] supported a cut in unemployment benefits in order to obtain a loan from American bankers. As he highlighted, these minutes resulted in the 1931 split of the Labour Party in which MacDonald and [[National Labour Organisation|his allies]] formed a [[National Government (United Kingdom)|National Government]] with Conservatives and Liberals. Callaghan allowed Benn to put forward the [[Alternative Economic Strategy]], which consisted of a [[self-sufficient]] economy less dependent on low-rate fresh borrowing, but the AES, which according to opponents would have led to a "siege economy", was rejected by the Cabinet.<ref>{{cite book|last=Powell|first=David|title=Tony Benn: a political life|publisher=Continuum|location=London & New York|year=2003|edition=2nd|pages=82, 84|isbn=978-0-8264-7074-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dYeVIfy0by8C&q=alternative%20economic%20strategy%20tony%20benn&pg=PA82}}</ref> In response, Benn later recalled that: "I retorted that their policy was a siege economy, only they had the bankers inside the castle with all our supporters left outside, whereas my policy would have our supporters in the castle with the bankers outside."<ref name="Bagely" /> Benn blamed the [[Winter of Discontent]] on these cuts to socialist policies.<ref name="Bagely" />

Upon the death of [[Mao Zedong]] in 1976, Benn described Mao as "one of the greatest—if not the greatest—figures of the twentieth century: a schoolteacher who transformed China, released it from civil war and foreign attack and constructed a new society there" in his diaries, adding that "he certainly towers above any twentieth-century figure I can think of in his philosophical contribution and military genius".<ref name="Benn2013 p.367">{{cite book|first=Tony|last=Benn|title=The Benn Diaries: 1940–1990|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LdCp8S5XK9wC&pg=PA367|date=31 January 2013|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-1-4464-9373-1|page=367}}</ref> On his trip to the Chinese embassy after Mao's death, Benn recorded in an earlier volume of his diaries that he was "a great admirer of Mao", while also admitting that "he made mistakes, because everybody does".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Hoggart|first1=Simon|title=Simon Hoggart's week: the honour of being loathed|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/oct/18/honour-loathed-tony-benn-political-writer|access-date=8 April 2016|newspaper=The Guardian|date=18 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160418015751/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/oct/18/honour-loathed-tony-benn-political-writer|archive-date=18 April 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

During Benn's time as energy minister from 1975 to 1979 he supported [[nuclear power in the United Kingdom]]. Later in his life he became an [[Anti-nuclear movement in the United Kingdom|opponent of nuclear power]], attributing his time as running it as a minister to persuading him it was not cheap, safe or peaceful.<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2009/11/anything-believe-life-ashamed |title= Tony Benn (1925-2014): "I would be ashamed if I ever said anything I didn't believe in" |work= New Statesman |first= Emily |last=Mann |date= 29 October 2009 |access-date= 16 March 2019 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151228100619/http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2009/11/anything-believe-life-ashamed |archive-date= 28 December 2015 |url-status= live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.channel4.com/news/by/michael-crick/blogs/ten-tony-benn |title= Ten things you may not have known about Tony Benn |work= Channel 4 News |first= Michael |last=Crick |date= 14 March 2014 |access-date= 16 March 2019}}</ref> When asked in an interview in January 2009 on what he had changed his mind on over the course of his life he expanded on this issue by saying:

{{Blockquote|text="Nuclear power, for example. In 1955 when Eisenhower said he was going for 'Atoms for Peace' I became a passionate supporter of it. Having been brought up on the Bible I liked the idea of swords into ploughshares. I advocated nuclear power as Minister of Technology. I was told, and believed, that nuclear power was cheap, safe and peaceful. Having been in charge of nuclear power I discovered it wasn't cheap, wasn't safe and when I left office I was told that during my period as Secretary of State for Energy, plutonium from our nuclear power stations went to the Pentagon to make nuclear weapons. So every nuclear power station in Britain is a bomb factory for America. I was utterly shaken by that. Nothing in the world would now induce me to support nuclear power. It was a mistake."<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.totalpolitics.com/articles/interview/conversation-tony-benn |title= In conversation... Tony Benn |work= Total Politics |first= Iain|last= Dale |date= 21 January 2009 |access-date= 16 March 2019}}</ref>}}

===Move to the left===

By the end of the 1970s, Benn's views had shifted to the [[left wing]] of the Labour Party. He attributed this political shift to his experience as a Cabinet Minister in the [[Labour government, 1964–1970|1964–1970 Labour Government]]. Benn ascribed his move to the left to four lessons:

# How "the Civil Service can frustrate the policies and decisions of popularly elected governments"
# The centralised nature of the Labour Party which allowed the Leader to run "the Party almost as if it were his personal kingdom"
# "The power of industrialists and bankers to get their way by use of the crudest form of economic pressure, even blackmail, against a Labour Government"
# The power of the media, which "like the power of the medieval Church, ensures that events of the day are always presented from the point of the view of those who enjoy economic privilege"<ref>{{cite book |last=Benn |first=Tony |title=Out of the Wilderness: Diaries 1963–67 |publisher=Arrow |year=1988 |pages=xi–xiii |isbn=978-0-09-958670-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/outofwildernessd0000benn }}</ref>

As regards the power of industrialists and bankers, Benn remarked:

{{blockquote|Compared to this, the pressure brought to bear in industrial disputes by the unions is minuscule. This power was revealed even more clearly in 1976 when the [[International Monetary Fund]] secured cuts in our public expenditure. ... These [four] lessons led me to the conclusion that the UK is only superficially governed by MPs and the voters who elect them. [[Parliamentary democracy]] is, in truth, little more than a means of securing a periodical change in the management team, which is then allowed to preside over a system that remains in essence intact. If the British people were ever to ask themselves what power they truly enjoyed under our political system they would be amazed to discover how little it is, and some new [[Chartism|Chartist]] agitation might be born and might quickly gather momentum.<ref>{{cite book |last=Benn |first=Tony |title=Out of the Wilderness: Diaries 1963–67 |url=https://archive.org/details/outofwildernessd0000benn |url-access=registration | year=1988 |page=xiii |publisher=Arrow |isbn=9780099586708 }}</ref>}}

Benn's philosophy consisted of a form of [[syndicalism]], [[state planning]] where necessary to ensure national competitiveness, greater democracy in the structures of the Labour Party and observance of Party Conference decisions.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kavanagh |first=Dennis |chapter=Tony Benn: Nuisance or Conscience? |editor= Kavanagh, Dennis |title=Politics and Personalities |year=1990 |page=184 }}</ref> Alongside an alleged 12 Labour MPs,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/profiles/story/0,9396,-361,00.html|title=Tony Benn {{!}} Aristotle {{!}} guardian.co.uk Politics|website=www.theguardian.com|access-date=9 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603203419/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/profiles/story/0,9396,-361,00.html|archive-date=3 June 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> he spent 12 years affiliated with the [[Institute for Workers' Control]], beginning in 1971 when he visited the [[Upper Clyde Shipbuilders|Upper Clyde Shipyards]], arguing in 1975 for the "labour movement to intensify its discussion about [[industrial democracy]]".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Matthews|first1=Nick|title=Benn, co-ops and workplace democracy|url=http://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/getDocument/DWMS_2014_04_14_020?fileType=PDF|access-date=9 April 2016|work=The Morning Star|date=14 April 2014|page=20|url-access=subscription|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160419165216/http://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/getDocument/DWMS_2014_04_14_020?fileType=PDF|archive-date=19 April 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

He was vilified by most of the press while his opponents implied and stated that a Benn-led Labour Government would implement a type of Eastern European state socialism,<ref>{{cite book |last=Kavanagh |first=Dennis|chapter=Tony Benn: Nuisance or Conscience? |editor=Kavanagh, Dennis |title=Politics and Personalities |publisher=Macmillan |year=1990 |page=78 }}</ref> with [[Edward Heath]] referring to Benn as "[[Commissar]] Benn"<ref>{{cite news|last1=Warden|first1=John|title=Heath broadside for 'Commissar Benn'|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8pFAAAAAIBAJ&pg=5317%2C2702134|newspaper=The Glasgow Herald|date=13 June 1974}}</ref> and others referring to Benn as a "[[Champagne socialist|Bollinger Bolshevik]]".<ref name="Turner2009" /> Despite this, Benn was overwhelmingly popular with Labour activists in the constituencies: a survey of delegates at the Labour Party Conference in 1978 found that by large margins they supported Benn for the leadership, as well as many Bennite policies.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Whiteley |first1=Paul |last2=Gordon |first2=Ian |title=The Labour Party: Middle Class, Militant and Male |journal=[[New Statesman]] |date=11 January 1980 |pages=41–42 }}</ref>

He publicly supported [[Sinn Féin]] and the [[unification of Ireland]], although in 2005 he suggested to Sinn Féin leaders that it abandon its long-standing policy of not taking seats at Westminster ([[abstentionism]]). Sinn Féin in turn argued that to do so would recognise Britain's claim over [[Northern Ireland]], and the Sinn Féin constitution prevented its elected members from taking their seats in any British-created institution.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/northern_ireland/4540343.stm |title=Benn's call for SF to take seats |work=[[BBC News Online]] |date= 12 May 2005 |access-date=2 May 2010 }}</ref> A supporter of the [[Scottish Parliament]] and [[political devolution]], Benn however opposed the [[Scottish National Party]] and [[Scottish independence]], saying: "I think nationalism is a mistake. And I am half Scots and feel it would divide me in half with a knife. The thought that my mother would suddenly be a foreigner would upset me very much."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Peterkin|first1=Tom|title=Scottish independence: Tony Benn: 'UK split would divide me with a knife'|url=http://www.scotsman.com/news/scottish-independence-tony-benn-uk-split-would-divide-me-with-a-knife-1-2475596|access-date=6 February 2016|newspaper=The Scotsman|date=18 August 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160207065807/http://www.scotsman.com/news/scottish-independence-tony-benn-uk-split-would-divide-me-with-a-knife-1-2475596|archive-date=7 February 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

In [[British politics]] during this period, the term "Bennism" came into use to describe the [[conviction politics]], economic, social and political ideology of Tony Benn; and an exponent or advocate of Bennism was regarded as a "Bennite".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://leftunity.org/benn-and-bennism/ |title=Benn and Bennism |publisher=LeftUnity |first=Kellaway |last=Dave |date=14 March 2014|access-date=13 June 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140619060406/http://leftunity.org/benn-and-bennism/ |archive-date=19 June 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Marr, pp. 392–395 (''The Left at War With Itself'').</ref><ref name="sr205">{{cite news|last=Renton|first=Dave|date=February 1997|title=Does Labour's Left Have an Alternative?|work=Socialist Review|url=http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/sr205/labour.htm|url-status=dead|access-date=2 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030911080922/http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/sr205/labour.htm|archive-date=11 September 2003}}</ref>