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Ramsay MacDonald: 'We are not on trial', Labour Party Conference - 1930

February 2, 2018

7 October 1930, Llandudno, United Kingdom

It is not the Labour Government that is on trial; it is Capitalism that is being tried. We told you in those days that the time would come when finance would be more powerful than industry. That day has come.... We told you in those days that the time would come when the man who went into the workshop and into the factory, and his employer as well, would no longer be in the simple relationship of maser and man, but that the master would become impersonal, and that powers that have nothing to do with industry would control industry—the powers of gambling with credit. That day has come....

So, my friends, we are not on trial; it is the system under which we live. It has broken down, not only in this little island, it has broken down in Europe, in Asia, in America; it has broken down everywhere, as it was bound to break down. And the cure, the new path, the new idea is organization—organization which will protect life, not property; organization which may protect property, but protect property in proper relation to life; organization which will see to it that when science discovers and inventors invent, the class that will be crushed down by reason of knowledge shall not be the working class, but the loafing class. This is the policy that we are going to pursue slowly, steadily, persistently, with knowledge and with our minds working upon a plan.

Source: http://library07.com/world-history-modern-...

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In 1920-39 Tags RAMSAY MACDONALD, WE ARE NOT ON TRIAL, UNITED KINGDOM, LABOUR PARTY, LABOUR PARTY CONFERENCE, THE GREAT DEPRESSION, TRANSCRIPT
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