John Strachey

Evelyn John St Loe Strachey (21 October 1901 – 15 July 1963) was a British Labour politician and writer.

A journalist by profession, Strachey was elected to Parliament in 1929. He was initially a disciple of Oswald Mosley, and, feeling that the Second Labour Government was not doing enough to combat unemployment, joined Mosley in founding the New Party in 1931. He broke with Mosley later in the year and so did not follow him into fascism. Strachey lost his seat in 1931, was a Communist sympathiser for the rest of the 1930s and broke with the Communist Party in 1940.

During the Second World War, Strachey served as a Royal Air Force officer in planning and public relations roles. He was once again elected to Parliament as a Labour MP in 1945 and held office under Clement Attlee as Minister of Food (he became an unpopular figure because of the continued food rationing) and as Secretary of State for War. He continued to be a Labour MP, generally as a supporter of the party's right wing until his death.

Throughout his career, Strachey was a prolific writer of books and articles from a communist perspective in the 1930s and as a social democrat after the Second World War.

Early and education Strachey was born in Guildford, Surrey, on 21 October 1901, the youngest of three sons of John St Loe Strachey (1860–1927), editor of The Spectator.

He was educated at Eton College (1915–19).

In 1925 Mosley and Strachey published the "Birmingham Proposals", calling for better policies to deal with unemployment. In 1925 Strachey published Revolution by Reason, calling for money-printing, redistribution and state planning. In 1926, during the General Strike, he became editor of the ILP's Socialist Review and of The Miner. He was sympathetic to Marxist analysis, but disliked class warfare.

At the 1929 general election he became the MP for Birmingham Aston and Mosley's Parliamentary private secretary. In May 1930 Mosley and Strachey resigned over the government's unemployment policies. In 1930 he visited the USSR for a second time. In February 1931 Strachey supported Mosley in founding the New Party, but he resigned in July 1931 when Mosley rejected socialism and close links with the USSR. Mosley subsequently turned to fascism.

Second World War By 1938 Strachey was persuaded by Keynesianism and the New Deal of American president Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1940 he published "A Programme for Progress". He broke with the CPGB in April 1940. then as the PR officer with a bomber group. Hugh Thomas claims in his biography of Strachey that:"One day, Crossman, now in the House of Commons, came to see Strachey. The former was devoting his efforts to the Zionist cause. He had heard from his friends in the Jewish Agency that they were contemplating an act of sabotage, not only for its own purpose but to demonstrate to the world their capacities. Should this be done, or should it not? Few would be killed. But would it help the Jews? Crossman asked Strachey his advice, and Strachey, a member of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet, undertook to find out. The next day in the smoking room of the House of Commons, Strachey gave his approval to Crossman. The Haganah went ahead and blew up all the bridges over the Jordan. " He was appointed Minister of Food in May 1946 and became a Privy Counsellor that same year. Another issue which he was a proponent of was the Tanganyika groundnut scheme. Strachey was an opponent of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. In 1963 he supported George Brown for the party leadership; the victorious candidate, Harold Wilson, appointed him Shadow Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs.

Publications

Revolution by Reason (1925) Workers' Control in the Russian Mining Industry, (1928) The Coming Struggle for Power (1932) – in which he advocated reason, science and culture Unstable Money, John Day (1933) The Menace of Fascism (1933) – calling for militant resistance and arguing that fascism was based on the defence of private property The Nature of Capitalist Crisis (1935) The Theory and Practice of Socialism (1936) – described by ODNB as "the most important book ever published by the Left Book Club" What Are We to Do? (1938) Why You Should be a Socialist (1938) – which sold 200,000 copies within two months of publication A Programme for Progress (1940) Digging for Mrs. Miller: Some Experiences of an Air-Raid Warden in London (1941) A Faith to Fight For (1941) Post D (1941/1942) Labour's task (1951) Contemporary Capitalism (1956) – a blend of Keynesian and Marxist analysis, in which he argued that there was an inherent conflict between capitalism and democracy The End of Empire (1959) The pursuit of peace (1960) On the Prevention of War (1962) – advocating deterrence theory rather than unilateral disarmament The Strangled Cry (1962) – a critique of communism "The Challenge of Democracy" (1963)