There are two versions of ethical socialism and this causes confusion. The early one, described by Fenner Brockway, was the philosophy of the Independent Labour Party (the ILP) before it broke away from the Labour Party in 1932. It was based on spontaneity and comradeship in the struggle to defeat capitalism and establish an ethical-socialist society. Its motto was friendliness and co-operation and it looked forward to a country where most enterprises and organisations were run as co-operatives. As far as international affairs were concerned, the ethical socialism of the ILP looked forward to the unity of humanity and the subordination of national states to some world co-ordinating body, or even some decentralised world government. The essence of this ethical socialism was humanitarianism.
The second version of ethical socialism appeared in the 1950s and was promoted in particular by the German Social-Democrats. This concentrated on traditional morality: loyalty to the family, the region, religious faith, the nation. Strictly speaking it was not an ‘ethical socialism’, based on some universally applicable ethic such as humanitarianism or co-operation, but a ‘moral socialism’ based on traditional family values, regional values, religious values and national values. It still had a universal (and religious) dimension because everywhere in the world there were families, regions, religions and nations. Like the ILP’s ethical socialism it was in opposition to competitive individualism, but it had no vision of a New World in which capitalism had been abolished.
The ILP’s version of ethical socialism, championed by Keir Hardie and the Salters, is the inspiration of the Quaker Socialist Society. The Social-Democrat version has inspired the ‘New Labour’ of Tony Blair and later the ‘Blue Labour’ of Maurice Gasman.
Quaker Socialist Society 