Rodman Calls Wilson Opportunist, But Says He Will Unify Labor

Harold Wilson, new leader of Britain's Labor Party, is "an opportunist, and not a doctrinaire socialist at all, John E. Rodman, assistant professor of Government, told the CRIMSON yesterday.

"Wilson was the first man on Mye Bevan's bandwagon and the first to leave it," Rodman said, and at the time of the intra-party debate on unilateral disarmament he was found talking both ways."

Rodman, who teaches a source in contemporary British government, said Wilson was probably not a bad choice as party leader, though he personally would have preferred the more conservative George Brown, deputy party leader.

"Wilson is better known than Brown, and he's enough of an opportunist to unite the party," Rodman said. "If an election comes soon, the Labor Party will be stronger with Wilson than it would have been with Brown.

Beer Not Enthusiastic

Samuel Beer, professor of Government, said he has "no great enthusiasm for the choice," but he added that he thought it "no greater disaster than any of the alternatives."

Wilson won the Labor leadership ever Brown Thursday by a 144-103 vote of the party's members of the House of Commons. He has called himself "left of center politically," and was among the first members of his party to speak out against British entry into the Common Market. Wilson plans to visit the U.S. and Moscow, the Associated Press Reported yesterday.