John Strachey (politician)

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John Strachey
The Coming Struggle for Power (1932)

Evelyn John St Loe Strachey (born October 21, 1901 in Guildford , Surrey , † July 15, 1963 in London ) was a British politician, writer and socialist ideologist . His numerous writings made him a thought leader on the left in Britain. From 1945 to 1951 he was State Secretary in the Aviation Ministry , then Minister of Food, then State Secretary in the War Ministry during the Labor government of Clement Attlee .

Life

Youth and education

Born the son of the conservative journalist John St Loe Strachey, editor of the influential The Spectator , he received first-rate training at Eton and Oxford . He left the university in 1922 without a degree. In early 1924 he joined the Independent Labor Party (ILP), a strictly socialist sub-group of the Labor Party. In the same year he ran unsuccessfully for the constituency of Aston near Birmingham .

First political activities and collaboration with Oswald Mosley

From the beginning of 1925, a close cooperation and personal friendship developed between him and his fellow party member at the time, Sir Oswald Mosley . He published his first book Revolution by Reason , in which he dealt with imbalances in the political and economic ideas of the Labor Party. At times he was editor of the Socialist Review (the party newspaper of the ILP) and the union newspaper The Miner . In 1929 he ran again at Aston for the House of Commons , this time successfully. As a MP, he closely followed Mosley and his aggressive criticism of the government. He was the Parliamentary Private Secretary (comparable to a Parliamentary Secretary of State ) for Mosley, who, as a minister without portfolio, had been entrusted with the development of labor market policy measures. With this in 1931 Strachey was one of the six Labor MPs who founded the New Party . In the early general election in mid-1931, none of them was re-elected. Mosley came increasingly under the influence of fascism , especially after a meeting with Benito Mussolini and prepared the establishment of the British Union of Fascists . This led to the rift between Strachey and Mosley. Critics later accused Strachey of being ideologically close to fascism for a time, although this cannot be proven by sources.

Work for the Communist Party

Although he never officially joined the Communist Party , from 1932 he worked in its ideological environment and represented Marxist theses in articles and books that had a great influence on the entire left spectrum in Great Britain and also in the USA. His books The Coming Struggle for Power and The Theory and Practice of Socialism were great hits. From 1936 he was one of the three jurors of the Left Book Club , arguably the most influential left-wing cultural institution in Great Britain in the 1930s. From 1939 he was increasingly influenced by Keynesianism and especially by Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal . He increasingly believed that capitalism could be reformed and that communist revolution was no longer necessary. In addition, differences arose between him and leading communists about the Second World War , for the outbreak of which he made Josef Stalin jointly responsible as a result of the Hitler-Stalin Pact . In the spring of 1940 he formally broke with communism.

Back at Labor

During the war he worked for the Royal Air Force as a press officer, and later as a press officer in the Ministry of Aviation. He rejoined the Labor Party and was re-elected to the House of Commons for the constituency of Dundee in 1945 . In the new government under Clement Attlee, he was first Undersecretary in the Ministry of Aviation. There he was responsible for ensuring that Air Marshal Arthur Harris was not named on the Victory Honors List and also - as the only leading officer - received no further honors.

Ministerial post in the Attlee government

In 1946 he was given an important government office as Minister of Food. He took over the major agricultural industrial project Tanganyika Groundnut Scheme , which had just started, and made it a personal prestige object. The catastrophic failure of the project was mainly blamed on him in public. Attlee was forced to transfer Strachey to the post of State Secretary in the War Department while the Groundnut Scheme was still in effect. With the lost general election in 1951, his government activities ended.

MP and political writer

He remained a Member of Parliament for Dundee until his death. He wrote several highly regarded books including Contemporary Capitalism , The End of Empire, and On the Prevention of War . He remained a leading figure on the right wing of the Labor Party until his death.

Remarks

  1. ↑ according to more recent findings, presumably with Attlees approval
  2. ↑ This probably happened because Harris's leadership of the bombing war for the crews were extremely lossy, which had earned him the nickname Butcher Harris . Harris was therefore also controversial in Great Britain. However, it was seen by the public as a criticism of Bomber Command and led to Harris' resignation in late 1945.
  3. ↑ Through an indiscretion, it became known in Harris resignation that he was responsible for the transfer of Strachey from the Air Force to the Aviation Department, as he had judged Strachey as "politically unreliable". In public, the lack of honor was therefore taken as Strachey's revenge.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Strachey, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Strachey, Evelyn John St Loe (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician, Member of the House of Commons, writer and socialist ideologist
DATE OF BIRTH October 21, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Guildford , Surrey
DATE OF DEATH July 15, 1963
Place of death London