It is hard to qualify the arrival of the ideas of Oswald Mosley into the British political arena in the period surrounding the General Strike without descending into crude panegyric; so remarkable was the programme being espoused by this singular figure within the Labour Party that it is hard to resist the myth, perpetuated by countless articles in periodicals such as Action and the like, that Mosley appeared fully formed, ‘as if with the express intention of having created a man designed in every way to lead the charge against the troubles of that grave moment.’
The myth is almost certainly an apt description of something like this...
who seek to recast the Mosleyite phenomenon within strictly Marxian terms
Ugh. I really dislike folks who do this consistently.
The litany of world history tends in character towards an ever-increasing exposé of the mistakes of “great men”. Mosley, alongside perhaps Lenin and Lloyd George, stands as a rare exception to this assessment.
LOL
Am I supposed to take this seriously?
Lenin made many mistakes that led to horrific outcomes. So too Lloyd George. The idea that these men stand as 'rare exceptions' is laughable to me.
It called instead for a socialism built upon “the conscious control and direction of human resources for human needs”, overseen not by wholesale state apparatus but through a developed system of worker control that harked back to the guild socialism of Morris and the thinkers of the Arts and Crafts movement seventy years before.
So...how did it avoid the issues experienced by the Soviets in the early 1920s? We rightly decry the small minded and selfish views of the industry owners...but do not forget that the workers are also human and prone to small mindedness and selfish behavior. Merely switching from owner control to worker control doesn't actually solve the problem (which is that ALL impacted parties are not part of the guidance of the organization).
After all, Britain is hardly the same context as Russia.
I'd need a heck of a lot more than just 'syndicalism is good' to actually believe it would work...
‘Mr. Churchill's effort to base this gold standard upon pre-war parity with the dollar … has involved the policy of drastic deflation which since the war has immensely increased the burden of the National Debt, and has proportionately benefited every idle rentier at the expense of the worker by hand or brain in productive industry. … Faced with the alternative of saying good-bye to the gold standard and therefore to his own employment, or good-bye to other people's employment, Mr. Churchill characteristically selected the latter course. A further dose of deflation followed, and the result is faithfully reflected in the unemployment figures, precisely as we foretold.’
Ah yes...the pig headed insistence on pegging currencies to gold or other more stable forms of value...essentially just a hedge for rich people to protect themselves from the consequences of their bad bets.
Of course, allowing the state to move to fiat currency essentially allows the state to pay off bad bets by inflating the currency...which places the cost of bad bets on the poorest members of society...i.e., there is no such thing as a free lunch.
Hardly a brilliant solution to the problems post world war 1...maybe Mosley is proposing something different?
He was pre-occupied by the success had by the United States in maintaining a strong economy with limited reliance on overseas trade, and became convinced of the need for an “island economy”, i.e. the economy of Great Britain, to be self-sustaining.
Oh.
Oh no.
I struggle to imagine a Britain attempting autarky...how on earth do you expect the country to feed itself? Britain has been a net importer of foodstuffs for...a long, LONG time.
Would that change overnight without significant economic disruption?
This is an oxymoron...if only because utilizing reason is usually only valued by the bureaucracy...not by the revolution.
Reason can underpin the context and causes of the revolution...but it is not why the revolution succeeds.
Claiming Mosley used reason to implement a revolution is another of those myths mentioned earlier. It's just not how revolutions actually work.
The crisis came in a lucky moment for them. Labour was in office, and had every resource of the State at its command. What happened? The great day dawned, and Labour resigned; cleared out just when they had the realisation of their greatest wish. What must we think of a Salvation Army which takes to its heels on the Day of Judgment?’
Heh.
This would be funny...
...but I'm watching it play out...AGAIN...in the world today.
Truly humanity is...something special.
The urgency of Mosleyism had outgrown its nursery. Its next steps would prove pivotal in the shaping of Britain for decades to come.
Oh no.
One hopes this doesn't bring into being some kind of utopia...because I struggle to see how it happens realistically.
