Year: 1933
Source: Action, 1933, February 1, pages 1 and 4
This paper will work for the Fascist revolution. Nothing less than, a revolution in the system of Government will do to-day.
Let our position be quite clear. We seek our ends by legal and constitutional means. We hope that the British people will take action in time. We desire to avert the collapse which has led to ... violence on the Continent. ... that it is possible to .... by peaceful means the great changes that must come.
On the other hand, we recognize that things may be allowed to drift too far, and that other methods may thus become necessary. If the present system of Government continues too long, and the present politicians are allowed to muddle along much further, we may reach disaster before action has been taken.
In that event, a different situation will arise for which Fascism must also be prepared. If our present political system muddles to collapse, Fascism alone can stand between the country and anarchy. We must be prepared to save Britain by force from whose who seek to destroy her by force.
Therefore, the British Union of Fascists is an altogether different organization from the old political parties. Primarily, we act as a political movement carrying on propaganda for revolutionary changes by peaceful means. To this end we seek to penetrate every element and institution in national life. Ultimately we seek even to capture Parliament itself, in order to transform it to different purposes.
On the other hand, we also organize to meet a violent situation. Already we have reached a point in this country in which free speech is a thing of the past. Organized bands of "Reds", armed with sticks, bottles and razors, attend all important political meetings which their position in areas where they are strong, with the declared object of breaking them up.
Fascism alone to-day can hold open meetings in such areas without police protection. The reason is that our Fascist Defense Force has been organized to protect free speech, and has often met and defeated "Red" violence.
But all this is only a beginning. As the situation gets worse, the anti-British forces will get stronger and more vigorous. If no Fascist movement existed in this country, Britain might well succumb to such forces. Only ten years ago, Italy was saved by Fascism from such a situation. Every appeal to take action in time had been rejected; the country had drifted to collapse and chaos. From that position, Italy was rescued by a Fascist revolution. The situation had gone so far that violence could not be avoided.
That violent struggle produced many things which in themselves have nothing to do with Fascism, and which we hope will prove unnecessary in this country. For instance, the dictatorship of Mussolini which was necessary to save Italy, is an incident of violent revolution and not of Fascism.
If the State is allowed to drift to a violent struggle, such things as dictatorship, the imprisonment of opponents, censorship, the suppression of speech and other acts, the iron hand, inevitably arise as factors in the struggle for power and in the maintenance of order after that struggle. But it is quite possible for a nation to embrace the principles of Fascism without such incidents if it recognizes the necessity for change before things go too far.
It is true that we suggest for Britain authoritative Government. Without authority and decision nothing can ever be done. The endless blether of the Parliamentary system is paralyzing the action that is necessary. But our authoritative Government would be subject to a Vote of Censure by a House of Commons elected on an occupational franchise. Consequently, that Government would not be a dictatorship, but it would be a Government which had power to act.
It would act rapidly, through Orders in Council, and would be free from the daily obstruction of a Party Opposition. If it abused this great power, the Parliament elected by the people would dismiss it by Vote of Censure. That Vote of Censure would not be used unless it was really necessary, because a Parliament elected on an occupational franchise would be a Parliament of technicians and not of Party politicians. It would be a Parliament interested in doing the job, and not interested in Party scores. Consequently, so long as a Government did the job and exercised its authority with good results, a technical Parliament would support it.
Our suggestion is, in fact, simply bring Parliament up to date. They modernize and rationalize it; they give it a business procedure. Why should Parliament be the only one institution in national life which is allowed to jog along on a century-old procedure - that, too, at a time when it is urgently necessary to re-organize the whole life of a nation?
Our proposals do not suggest dictatorship, but they do demand business government by technicians.
These are our suggestions for the introduction of Fascist principles in a normal situation by peaceful means. We are quite frank, however, in our belief that if things are allowed to drift too far, violent struggle may arise from collapse, and from that violent struggle will also arise dictatorship and all the other instruments of turmoil and revolution.
If Fascism came to power after such a struggle, it would be necessary to adopt other and more drastic measures for the saving of the State. We ardently desire to avert this situation, and to carry the measures which are necessary by peaceful means without the use of instruments which in Britain we all desire to avoid.
We seek to solve our British problem by British methods. Fascism, like all the great political creeds, is a world-wide movement. It comes to each great country in turn as the hour of crisis approaches. Here in Great Britain we seek to give it a British form characteristic of our nation.
But it must never be forgotten that Fascism is a revolutionary creed or it is nothing. Fascism and reaction are as much opposed as Fascism and Communism.
We do not seek revolution for the mere sake of change. Science has already made the revolution; we have to adapt our system of Government to the revolution that science has created. Science, in the last few years, has so greatly increased the power to produce that our industrial system is threatened with collapse unless a new system of the State is devised for the absorption of that production.
This was the main theme of my economic analysis in "The Greater Britain". Now from American scientists and engineers comes considerable support of that thesis, after a ten-year survey of American production. It is very doubtful whether every conclusion of the new Technocrats can be sustained, but no one can seriously challenge their premise that the power of modern industry to produce has revolutionized the world, and makes necessary a corresponding revolution in Government.
Fascism alone stands out as the real Technocracy of Government, as the spirit of the modem age and the science of the modern age translated into a movement of action. The authority and the will to act can only be given by an organized and disciplined movement. That organized and disciplined movement is Fascism.
By Fascism the technician shall be released from the chains of prejudice and folly, and, under Fascism and through Fascism, science shall rule Great Britain in the name of order, civilization and illimitable progress.