FASCISM

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 105, 6 May 1933, Page 13 (Supplement)

FASCISM

WILL IT COME TO BRITAIN?

THE PRO AND THE CON OF IT 'yilE following two articles were published concurrently in the Christian Science Monitor and give at once the pro and the eon of the discussion.

NO By R. A. Scott-James. No. Fascism is unlikely to come to Great Britain for the same reason that Communism is unlikely to come. Tho former was a movement born of the fear of Communism, and flourishes only where the latter is strong. There are safety valves against both in Great Britain. Fascism proposes to cure like with like—the spirit of revolution by the spirit of another revolution —one form of violence by another form of violence—dictatorship by dictatorship —irresistible executive power by irresistible executive power. It would forestall a tyranny which attempts to enlist the sympathies of the proletariat by another tyranny resting upon the sympathies of the bourgeois. It cuts right through all endeavours to improve Great Britain by reform, and telies on tho desperate remedy of scrapping institutions and starting afresh Fascists seek to blind our eyes to essential character of their metho<:

pointing to the excellent things I would do if they were in power. In other words, they endeavour to commend Fascism to us by policies which might bo promoted without Fascism. Sir Oswald Mosley and his associates are not alone in perceiving the perilous defects in modern democracy. 1 agree with him that those defects are real and dangerous, but I would endeavour to ascertain whether they are curable before I would lightly scrap the experiment of democracy and start a revolution to establish an oligarchy. Much of the policy of the British Union of Fascists (some of which is to bo found in the proposals of the British Independent Labour Party, and some in the Liberal Industrial Yellow Book) is admirable. It indicates plans for raising consumption power to the level of productive power, improving the standard of living, enlisting finance in the service of industry, making Protection scientific, and, in general, substituting a planned economic state for a lethargic and plan-less state. Excellent. But all this is not essentially Fascist. It is merely what the Fascists say they will do when they have smashed Parliament and remade the British Constitution. The Socialists have an equal right to say that their methods would lead to these results.

Fascism springs from disbelief in the possibility of reforming democracy, and the desire to anticipate the alternative of Communism. Its essence lies in the assertion of arbitrary authority. It cannot conceive of Parliament continuing to be anything but the effete instrument of the “Old Gang” of politicians who plan nothing and do nothing. Liberty is “the last entrenchment of obstruction.” The distinction between legislature and executive is to disappear. “Government must have power to legislate by Order,” says the Fascist Manifesto, though it considerately adds “subject to the power of Parliament to dismiss it by vote of censure.” The language of the Fascists is the language of force. Theirs is the “steel creed of an iron age.” Their discipline is to be that of an army. Their members are to “live like athletes,” and it is one of their doctrines that ”wc shall certainly meet force with force.” The British people are eagerly awaiting a powerful leader who will face realities and plan the measures for dealing with a changing world. But the British Fascists are fronting an unreality, an impalpable enemy, starting from tho false assumption that Communism is an imminent danger in Great Britain. It is not. Communism failed to make headway even under the favourable conditions of a general strike.

The British have an equal distrust of Communist violence and the counterviolence of Fascists. When the latter suggest the necessity of organising to meet tho force of the “red terror,” they will find that the British public arc more inclined to trust the job of keeping order to the police than . to bands of politica’ “athletes” out on tho spree. The British people like order, but not orders issued by selfappointed commanders. They have no need to be taught athletics, for they are athletic already. They would welcome a determined statesmanship which weeded out the “old gang.” but not through Fascist revolution. Political tradition is strong with them, and they cherish tho right to hold and assort any opinion they choose, whereas Fascism, like Communism, tolerates no opinion hut. its own. Passive submission to authority, such as is postulated by the systems of Mussolini, Stalin and Sir Oswald Mosley, has never been a quality of the British people; They will not accept it, because they believe that healthy citizenship is not to be found in a nation dragooned into becoming a uniform wealth-producing machine, but depends upon giving free play Io active minds. Fascism is no permanent solution.. It is a temporary expedient which begins with force,rests upon force, and is certain to be expelled by force. Britons are not allured by invitations to civil war.

YES By Str Oswald Mosley

Founder British Union of Fascists. Will Fascism come to Great Britain? My answer is “ Yes.” It will come, not only to Britain, but to all the great countries in turn as die hour of crisis approaches. That crisis is inevitable in the modern age, because we have reached the end of an epoch of civilisation. In all countries, the old system comes to an end. The system of nineteenth century individualism crumbles in ruins. Modern science and industrial technique are breaking it with hammer blows. We Fascists it rests in the hands of man to determine whether the new instruments of physical science shall destroy the world or shall be employed for building a greater civilisation than we have ever known. If the new industrial system is to be constructive, instead of destructive, wo must devise a new system of government to meet it.

The case of Fascism has no appeal to those who belicvethatthe present depression is just part of a trade cycle which is familiar in previous experience. Those who beelicve that we can

iuddle out of the present crisis as we iave muddled out of previous crises have no time for Fascism. They haveno need for constructive policy, and will live on hope and the promises of the" Old Gang of party politicians until the roof falls in on their heads. On the other hand, there is no effective alternative to Fascism available to those who believe that the present depression will not pass away by the automatic processes of tho past. We appeal to the modern mind, which has gripped tho modern situation and has realised that natural science has brought a revolutionary ’ change out of the range of all previous experience. Such a mental attitude must come in tho end to Fascism.

Wo arc faced witi the problem that industry has greatly increased the power to produce goods, without any corresponding increase in the power to market the goods which industry is producing. Rationalisation without an increase in the demand for goods displaces labour. Tho labour displaced adds to the unemployment problem, and reduces tho purchasing power of tho community. A reduction in purchasing power, at a time when more purchasing power is urgently required, violently aggravates tho industrial problem. The present system is a vicious circle: rationalisation, unemployment. lower purchasing power, rhorc unemployment. Nearly everyone is agreed to-day on this bioad diagnosis of the problem. The researches of the American technocrats in the technical and industrial field brought fresh evidence in support of it. Their conclusions, which they proceeded to advance as remedies, are far more open to doubt. Fascism, and Fascism alone, produces a complete and logical system to break the vicious circle of industrial disaster.

Tn brief, we divide industry into selfgoverning areas which we call corporations. Those corporations are control led by representatives, of employers, workers and consumers, operating under the general direction of corporative government. ’Their task is not merely to settle industrial disputes without recourse to the barbarous weapons of class war, such as lockout or strike. Their greater task is systematically to raise wages and salaries over the whole field of industry, as physical science and technique increase the power of industry to produce goods. Ln conjunction with finance, which is also brought within the corporate system, their task in fact is no less than to adjust consumption to production. The operation of the system is, of course, far more detailed and technical than can possibly be described in a brief article. Those who wish" to study it in broader detail can obtain my book. “The Greater Britain,” price 2s 6<l (from 1, Great George Street, Westminster. London). Under the corporate system, government will not be responsible for the conduct of industry, nor will it interfere at every turn with industry. The Fascist conception is that government should lay down rhe limits within which industry may operate, and that they shall be the welfare of tho whole nation.

Within those limits, the individual may operate and may enrich himself, provided that his activity at tho same time enriches the nation. On the other hand, profit-making at the expense of the nation and of the working class would be prevented. Every interest, whether of Right or Left, employers’ federation, trade union, banking or professional, will be subordinated to the purpose of corporate government. No state within the state will be toler-

ated, nor any attempt by an interest to dominate, tho nation. We seek to secure these ends by peaceful and constitutional means. On the other hand, we realise that the

collapse of tho present system might produce a different situation.

Fascism is the creed of tho modern age, and is born in conditions of stress and of danger. We hope for peace, and wo bog our countrymen to preserve pea ex? by taking action in time. On tho other hand, whatever danger arises, Fascism must, lie ready to meet it. We are determined that. Britain shall live and shall again be great.