By Jason Sibert
NATO was born in 1949 when the United Kingdom had a Labor Government led by Prime Minister Clement Atlee. The Atlee government 1945-1951 created a democratic socialist country whose government nationalized 20 percent of the country’s economy.
Ernst Bevin was the UK Foreign Secretary at the time of NATO’s founding. Labour Party historian David Lammy refers to him as one of the best foreign secretaries Britain has ever had. Bevin was born into crippling rural poverty, and he became foreign secretary in 1945 after a career as a union leader, being one of the founders of the Transport and General Workers Union. Lammy said Bevin’s biggest accomplishment was convincing the Harry Truman Administration to commit to the alliance. This April, NATO celebrated its 75th anniversary. Bevin’s commitment to the alliance was based on ideology and deterrence, as he was very anti-Communist.
During the 1930s, Bevin cooperated with the Conservative-dominated National Government on practical issues but became increasingly involved in foreign policy. He was a firm opponent of fascism and of the British appeasement of the fascist powers. In 1935, arguing that Fascist Italy should be punished by sanctions for its recent invasion of Abyssinia, he made a blistering attack on the pacifists in the Labor Party. He accused the Labor leader George Lansbury at the Party Conference of “hawking his conscience around.” Bevin’s efforts to promote sanctions were successful, with an overwhelming majority of delegates voting in favor of sanctions.
While Communism in Eastern Europe collapsed in 1989 and the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the West faces a threat from Vladimir Putin’s Russia and its allies. Remember, all the West is social democratic in one way or another. Therefore, NATO protects social democracy, and it should be supported by all social democrats. In addition, NATO will be a key point of our security until Putin’s Russia and its allies explode, severely mellow, or severely mellow and then explode. It would be nice if Switzerland, Ireland, or Austria joined the alliance. We’ll see how the future pans out.
Bevin was a model for social democratic thinking in foreign policy. He spent a part of his life in the labor movement fighting for freedom for working people and stood up to totalitarianism from the left (Communism) and the right (Fascism). It will take social democratic voices modeled like Bevin to move us through this Cold War. Let’s make liberal democracy and its cousin, social democracy, our cause until we declare victory in this Cold War. It will likely take a generation or maybe two for this to happen. Regardless of how tiring the new Cold War becomes, we must remember that our fight is a just fight!
Jason Sibert is the lead writer for the Peace Economy Project in St. Louis and a member of SDUSA’s National Executive Committee.
Excellent summary of an important part of world history, Jason! Still, I hope you and everyone will consider the risks of unconditionally supporting any power, including NATO. And also consider alternatives to continuing the Cold War for another generation or two.
Putin is KGB thug and an odious creature. That does not, in and of itself, make him a threat to the West. The Russian autocrat may indeed be a threat to one or more Western nations, but an argument for such a position has to be made not just asserted as Mr. Silbert has done. It would also be helpful if the author identified just who Putin’s “allies” are, and whether these nations are capable of threatening Western liberal and social democracies.