With its track record of leveraging cultural power for US gain and barely concealed promotion of coup attempts, the US Agency for International Development will not be mourned among the US’s southern neighbours, write JOHN PERRY and ROGER D HARRIS
Labour victories in 1964 and 1974: did things get better?
KEITH FLETT reflects on the 1964 and 1974 election victories, arguing that despite years in power, Labour failed to fundamentally reshape society in the way Thatcher later would — a pattern Blair and now Starmer would follow
![](https://msd11.gn.apc.org/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Untitled-12_21.jpg.webp?itok=qimwESRx)
IT is the anniversary of the Labour election win on October 15 1964, and also the anniversary of the victory on October 10 1974. In both cases, Harold Wilson became Labour prime minister.
The election victories and the context in which they took place are fast moving from living memory into labour history.
In both cases, the Labour majority was slim — an overall majority in single figures in both 1964 and in October 1974. Indeed, so small was the margin in 1974 that Labour spent some of the time up to the 1979 election in a pact with the Liberal Party (now the Lib Dems), which itself may seem rather odd to those more familiar with the events from 2010-15.
More from this author
![](https://msd11.gn.apc.org/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/9thatcher.jpg.webp?itok=aRd4J344)
KEITH FLETT looks back 50 years to when the Iron Lady was elected Tory leader…
![](https://msd11.gn.apc.org/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/cato-pic.jpeg.webp?itok=OmsKrUUg)
The legacy of an 1820 conspiracy in revenge for Peterloo resonates down the ages, argues KEITH FLETT
![](https://msd11.gn.apc.org/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/9%20-%20Reeves.jpg.webp?itok=6OQoTLVZ)
Britain’s first woman Chancellor delivers the same old fudge, as Labour’s commitment to economic orthodoxy, seen throughout its history, always betrays working people, writes KEITH FLETT
![](https://msd11.gn.apc.org/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/9%20-%20Corbyn%20mass%20support.jpg.webp?itok=vgWB7K0b)
Every few years, it seems like the ‘right time’ to build a new left party — but what are the right conditions, asks socialist historian KEITH FLETT, looking back at the last two centuries and the insights of Ralph Miliband and EP Thompson
Similar stories
![](https://msd11.gn.apc.org/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/greek_junta_webpic.jpg.webp?itok=eYJ_SyNJ)
JOHN ELLISON looks back to the 1974 general election in Greece which freed the people from the oppressive military junta
![](https://msd11.gn.apc.org/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/PA-54091589.jpg.webp?itok=CVcTPpAS)
KEITH FLETT draws parallels with the 1834 Tory crisis, noting the absence of modern-day Robert Peel among the leadership contenders capable of reinventing the party for a new era
![](https://msd11.gn.apc.org/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/9%20-%20Wilson%20arrives%20in%20Downing%20St%201974.jpg.webp?itok=jdTYcqPk)
JOHN ELLISON looks back at the Wilson government’s early months, detailing how left-wing manifesto commitments were diluted, and the challenges faced by Tony Benn in implementing socialist policies
![](https://msd11.gn.apc.org/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/PA-18179828.jpg.webp?itok=If11tBpa)
As the cost-of-living crisis deepens, large strikes once again become the norm and the Tories remain in permanent crisis, KEITH FLETT recalls 1974 — when organised labour brought down a government