The national executive of the Labour Party has now apparently
decided to keep the Bevanites in order and make it one degree more difficult for them to flout the authority of the party leadership. That is the meaning, so far is it can be ascertained, of the resolution passed after a lengthy and diffi- cult debate on Tuesday morning. Decisions arrived at by a majority vote " are binding upon the national executive com- mittee unless otherwise decided by the national executive com- mittee itself " and " any infringement of this rule shall be dealt with at the next subsequent meeting." Mr. Morgan Phillips made it clear after the meeting first that the resolution means that majority decisions are binding upon all individual members of the executive, and secondly that the escape clause is only designed to accommodate the conscience of pacifists, teetotallers and so on. It is a pity that the executive did not take the trouble to say exactly what it meant. Everybody assumes that the resolution means, "Bevanites, beware 1 " but the ambiguities of its wording may leave Bevanites free for a little to make as much difficulty as they can. Does the conscience clause, for instance, leave Mr. Aneurin Bevan and his followers on the executive free to pursue their campaign against German rearmament ? This is the immediate issue. The Bevanites will obviously insist that it does, and if the executive adheres to the official interpretation of the resolu- tion Mr. Bevan and his fellow rebels will have to be had up before it at " the next subsequent meeting." If in this matter e determination of the majority matches that of the minority here will certainly be a major clash within the party.
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