June 30, 2010
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Harold Joseph Laski (June 30, 1893 – March 24, 1950) was an English political theorist, economist, author, and lecturer, who served as the chairman of the Labour Party during 1945-1946.

 Harold Laski was born in Manchester on 30 June 1893 to Nathan Laski and Sarah Laski (née Frankenstein). Nathan Laski was a Jewish cotton merchant and a member of the Liberal Party. His elder brother was Neville Laski. A cousin was the author and publisher Anthony Blond. Harold did his schooling at the Manchester Grammar School. In 1911, he studied Eugenics under Karl Pearson for six months. The same year he met and married Frida Kerry, a lecturer of Eugenics. His marriage to Frida, a gentile and eight years his senior antagonized his family. He also repudiated his faith in Judaism, claiming that Reason prevented him from believing in God. In 1914, he obtained an undergraduate degree in History from New College, Oxford. He was awarded the Beit memorial prize during his time at New College. He failed his medical eligibility tests and thus missed fighting in World War I. After graduation he worked briefly at the Daily Herald under George Lansbury. His daughter Diana was born in 1916.

In 1916, Laski was appointed as lecturer of modern history at McGill University and also started lecturing at Harvard University. He also lectured at Yale University during 1919-20. Laski's outspoken support of the Boston Police Strike of 1919, earned him severe criticism. He returned to England in 1920 and took up a job at the London School of Economics (LSE). Six years later he was made professor of political science at LSE, a post he held till his death in 1950. He also lectured regularly in America and wrote for The New Republic. During his years in Harvard, he became friends with Oliver Wendell Holmes, Herbert Croly and Morris A .Cohen. Apart from his academic work at the LSE, Laski was a executive member of the socialist Fabian Society during 1922-1936. In 1936 he co-founded the Left Book Club along with Victor Gollancz and John Strachey. He was a prolific writer producing a number of books and essays throughout the 1920s and 1930s. As a lecturer, Laski has hugely popular amongst his students.

Laski was a proponent of Marxism and believed in a planned economy based on the public ownership of the means of production. He also believed since the capitalist class would not acquiesce in its own liquidation, the cooperative commonwealth was not likely to be attained without violence. But he also had a commitment to civil liberties, free speech and association, and representative democracy. Initially he believed that the League of Nations would bring about a "international democratic system". However from the late 1920s his political beliefs became radicalized and he believed that it was necessary to go beyond capitalism to "transcend the existing system of sovereign states". In his last years he was disillusioned by the Cold War and the communist takeover of Czechoslovakia. George Orwell described him as "A socialist by allegiance, and a liberal by temperament".

Laski was involved in Labour party politics from the early 1920s. In 1923, he turned down the offer of a parliament seat and cabinet position by Ramsay MacDonald. In 1931 he left the Labour party after becoming disillusioned with party politics. In 1932, Laski joined the Socialist League. In 1937, he was involved in the failed attempt by the Independent Labour Party and the Communist Party of Great Britain to form a Popular Front to bring down the Conservative government of Neville Chamberlain. During 1934-45 he served as an alderman in the Fulham Borough Council and also the chairman of the libraries committee. In 1937, he rejoined the Labour party and became a member of its' National Executive Committee, of which he remained a member till 1949. Laski suffered a nervous breakdown during the World War II years, brought about by overwork. In 1944, he chaired the Labour party conference and served as the party's chair during 1945-46.

During the 1945 general elections Laski was involved in a libel trial which was used by the Conservative party to criticise Clement Attlee. While speaking against the Conservative candidate in Newark, Nottinghamshire, on 16 June 1945, Laski said "If Labour did not obtain what it needed by general consent, we shall have to use violence even if it means revolution". He was replying to a question posed by a member of the audience, Wentworth Day. The next day accounts of Laski's speech appeared in the Newark Advertiser and other newspapers. The Conservatives seized this issue and criticised the Labour party for advocating violence. Laski's position as the member of Labour executive committee and a popular member of the LSE faculty meant the issue could do serious damage to Labour party's electoral chances. To mitigate the damage, Laski filed a libel suit against the Conservative Daily Express newspaper. Appearing for the defense, Patrick Hastings was able to convince the jury to throw out the case. The jury found for the defendant within forty minutes of deliberations and pronounced the Newark Advertiser's account to be a fair and accurate representation of Laski's speech. Laski met the cost of the case (about £13,000) through public donations.

Though Laski played a prominent role in Labour party winning the 1945 elections, he did not have any practical influence in the Labour government's decision making process. Even before the Newark libel case Laski's relationship with Attlee was a strained one. Laski had once called Attlee "uninteresting and uninspired" in the American press and even tried to remove him by asking for Attlee's resignation in an open letter. He tried to delay the Potsdam Conference until after Attlee's position was clarified. He tried to bypass Attlee by directly dealing with Winston Churchill. When Laski began laying down guidelines for the new Labour government's foreign policy, Attlee rebuked him:

“You have no right whatever to speak on behalf of the Government. Foreign affairs are in the capable hands of Ernest Bevin. His task is quite sufficiently difficult without the irresponsible statements of the kind you are making ... I can assure you there is widespread resentment in the Party at your activities and a period of silence on your part would be welcome.”

This rebuke together with the Newark libel case damaged Laski's reputation irreparably. Though he continued to work for the Labour party till the 1950 elections, he never regained his earlier influence.
Laski contracted influenza and died on 24 March 1950.