From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The original version of Clause IV read,
"To secure for the workers by hand or by brain the full fruit of their industry and the most equitable distribution thereof that may be possible upon the basis of the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service."
This is usually assumed to mean nationalization of the whole economy. That is not true. Common Ownership can also mean Municipal Ownership, Workers Cooperatives or Consumer Cooperatives. It has to mean something which would be seen by traditionalists as Socialist.
__________________________________________________________________________
The present version reads,
"The Labour Party is a democratic socialist party. It believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone, so as to create for each of us the means to realise our true potential and for all of us a community in which power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many, not the few. Where the rights we enjoy reflect the duties we owe. And where we live together, freely, in a spirit of solidarity, tolerance and respect."
Clause 4 of the Labour Party constitution
This should mean that New Labour is pledged to introduce redistribution of income. Although the Labour government has introduced a number of mildly redistributive measures such as the Working Families Tax Credit, they have not made redistribution a major plank of their policies, disappointing many of their members.
