Britain: Prospects for the Seventies

Abstract

Prediction without power to influence events is not much more than idle guessing. Theory and practice diverge in opposite directions. And like all individual guesses, subjective wishes and prejudices tug at our sleeve, taking us far from what might seem obvious to a significant political force in society trying to appraise the future. We have to steer between the Left's penchant for immanent slump and the Right's assumption that all is really normal under the surface. This account is concerned to suggest some of the important conjunctures in the coming years, with the background concern of creating just such a force to begin to influence events, rather than leaving us as creatures of circumstance. The account is no more than a r6sumk of some of the "theses" current in International Socialism, with little claim to originality or analysis in depth. In most cases, the factual support is omitted lest the account plough into a book. Again, the account is restricted deliberately to Britain, despite the obvious fact that Britain is more a function of the world economy than master of its own independent fate. Some of the main determinants of Britain lie abroad, and these have received extensive treatment elsewhere.