THE SPIRIT OF 45

Another film in the WOW (Wales One World Film Festival) at Chapter Arts Centre at the moment. Ken Loach directs and writes the screenplay of  a history of the British Welfare State. The film was simultaneously transmitted by satellite to over 40 cinemas in the UK. In Cardiff it was sold out.
     Loach describes life in Britain before the war, when working class people in cities lived in squalid poverty and atrocious housing. We see the impact of the Depression and mass unemployment in the late 20's and 30's and the lead up to WW2. When fighting men came home from the war, they demanded a different way of life.  The Government borrowed money to invest in new housing, new towns, clear bomb damage, and provide new publically owned services. Loach shows us how the Welfare State and the NHS came into being with the courage of politicians such as as the Liberal, William Beveridge, and Aneurin Bevan under the Labour Party leadership of Clem Attlee. He shows us the hope and idealism of the age. All utilities, infrastructure of the Railways, the Docks, Mines, and the Car Industry were all taken into public ownership. Unfortunately, the new nationalised industries designed to give the working class a better deal, were managed by Boards chaired by former capitalist bosses. They were managed top-down and highly centralised bodies.
       Loach then whisks us off to the 1970s and 1980s and Thatcherism. The move from communities looking after each other to a culture of individualism.  Thatcher said,'There's no such thing as Society.' We see the dismantling of nationalised industry, the selling off of Council houses, and the long-term impact on what is happening now-the privatisation of the NHS and related services.
     In the panel discussions after the screening, Loach denies that this is a nostalgic film but rather a call to arms or a call for more discussion in the form of a People's Assembly and a new political party-a coalition of the left-to save the spirit of 45. Labour's period of government under Blair is ignored in the film. What happened to the Socialist party lead by George Galloway, called 'Respect?'
      I'm not a supporter of Thatcher at all, but I think it's a pity that Loach gives no time in his film for some of the not-so-good aspects of nationalisation. He romanticises nationalised industries and fails to discuss the impact of these large monopolies on the quality and cost of services to the public, and practices such as Trade Union Closed Shop practice, ripe in the print industry for example in the 1960s. There was a very good book puvlished in the 1980s called,  ' It's no way to run a rail road,' which gives a more balanced view. It would have been helpful to bring together the learning from the past. Who would want to return to heavily centralised organisations managed by men? If the NHS is going to survive as a national treasure, surely it has to be managed differently, so there's real accountability from bottom up and top down. Huge organisations have to be broken down into smaller parts if they're going to be able to be managed efficiently, owned by the people for the community, and providing excellent service.
     The problem for me in Loach's film is looking at the old order to find new order solutions. Of course we must learn from the past, but the reality is we aren't in a post-world war situation. There are different threats, including religious fundamentalism, the marginalisation of women in some societies, terrorism, the crisis of confidence in capitalism in the West and the burgeoning economies of China, Brazil, Nigeria, India, with crime, drug wars and ever widening gaps between rich and poor in the developing world. Then there's the biggest issue facing mankind today- climate change. Loach's answer is too simplistic for me. We need to prioritise what's important to us as a society. Socialists, Anarchists and Greens are coming together in the 'Occupy Movement.' If the spirit of 45 and the spirit of 2011 could be combined against the darker side of capitalism, without suppressing innovation, ideas and community entrepreneurship, perhaps we might see some progress.

For more information Google, The People's Assembly' and The Coalition of Resistence'.