Fascism: A Leftist Fantasy

Sir Oswald Mosley, A Story:

After the War, he sought to return to political life, but found little support, including when he stood for Parliament on separate occasions. In his last political race in 1966, to represent a district in London, he received 4.6% of the vote. He was an early supporter of a strong centralized European government. He saw it an opportunity for his corporate state: economic direction by “experts”, concentration of decision-making, a hedge against democracy—much as the European Union has become. He died in 1980. 

What to make of all this?

Much has been written of Mosley, a good deal centered on the theme of “lost promise”. It is said that Mosley would have been prime minister if only he had not been impatient in 1931 and resigned from the Labour Government; if only he had waited his turn; if only he had not succumbed to the attractions of fascism. “Mosley created the British Union of Fascists (emphasis added) as a vehicle for his economic vision of Britain as a Keynesian economic state”, writes Rubin. “After a period of initial popularity, his movement eventually became a haven for lunatic anti-Semites and fringe members of society. As Mosley became lost within the monster he created, frequent public violence at his group’s rallies made him a national pariah.”

All true to an extent. Yet, the early Mosley of the left and the Mosley of [the British Union of Fascists] have much in common, the core weaknesses in their policies the same. Both believed in government by “experts” and administrators, and replacing the pluralism of the market and entrepreneurial economy with a corporatist directorate. Both held a distrust of democracy, despite their professed populism. These beliefs continue to be are present in globalization debates—though today they are held mainly by the proponents of globalization, rather than its critics....

Mosley himself said in 1968, “I am not, and never have been, a man of the right. My position was on the Left and is now in the centre of politics.”

Fascism is the union of government with private industry in such a way that government directs and controls private industry. Government was seen as a coalition of experts, industry a coalition of businesses willing to be directed by experts. That was Mussolini's definition, that was FDR's execution of Mussolini's definition. Fascism always has been a Leftist fantasy.