PLANNERS AND THE LEFT

Though the Socialist League increasingly adopted the rhetoric of marxism, its heritage included a body of ideas whose source was closer to Keynes than Marx, and which it shared with politicians of the centre and right. This it never acknowledged – and ‘progressives’ in capitalist parties were attacked with as much vigour as conservatives and traditionalists. Yet the links were strong.

One basis for this connection was the association of Sir Oswald Mosley and John Strachey and part of the founding group of the Socialist League in the ILP in the 1920s. In 1925 Mosley, in collaboration with John Strachey arid Allen Young, an ILP organiser from Birmingham, had produced a policy statement, Revolution by Reason, which came to be known as the Birmingham proposals. These owed much to the direct influence of Keynes and stressed monetary policy as the key to increasing demand. The nationalisation of the banks was advocated as a first step, in order to give industry a lead by expanding national credit in order to create demand. Additional working class demand would be created through a fixed minimum wage level, to be financed by the new money, which would work by means of government subsidies to industry. Any attempt by ‘the great capitalist monopolies’ to restrict output to force a price rise would be met by immediate socialisation. A fluctuating exchange rate would be established. The bulk purchase of raw materials would be instituted.