John
Strachey
was born in 1901. Educated at Eton and Magdalen
College, Oxford, he became
a Labour MP at the 1929
General Election. By 1931 Strachey resigned from the Labour
Party. and joined the New
Party, an organisation founded by Oswald Mosley,
but in the 1931 General Election none of
the New Party's candidates were elected.
In January 1932 Oswald Mosley met Benito
Mussolini
in Italy.
Mosley was impressed by Mussolini's achievements
and when he returned to England he dispanded the New Party and replaced
it with the British Union of Fascists (NUF).
Strachey, a strong opponent of the emergence of right-wing totalitarian
governments in Europe, did not join the NUF. Strachey wrote two important
books during this period, The
Menace of Fascism
(1933) and The
Theory and Practice of Socialism
(1936).
In 1936 he joined with Victor Gollancz
and Harold Laski, to form the Left Book
Club. The main aim was to spread socialist ideas and to resist the
rise of Fascism in Britain. Beginning with a membership of 10,000,
numbers rose to 50,000 by 1939. The most important book published
by the Left Book Club, was The Road to Wigan
Pier by George Orwell in 1937.
Strachey served in the RAF
during the Second World War and after the 1945
General Election returned to the House
of Commons as a Labour MP. He served
under Clement Attlee as Under-Secretary
for Air (1945-46), Minister of Food (1946-50) and Secretary of State
for War (1950-51). John Strachey died in 1963.
(1)
In her book My Life With Nye, Jennie Lee
explained her views on John Strachey.
John
Strachey was a brilliant expositor and in his work for the Left Book
Club made an imposing contribution to the political education of a
great many people on both sides of the Atlantic. The trouble was that
he had no compass on his ship. He was all over the place; he lived
entirely in a world of abstract concepts. When his pro-Mosley association
ended, he was as contemptuous as ever of the broadly based Labour
movement, and found a new role for himself as a leading exponent of
Communist theory and practice.
(2)
John Strachey, Post D (1941)
Its basis certainly came
from the torn, wounded, dismembered houses; from the gritty dust of
dissolved brickwork, masonry and joinery. But there
was more to it than that. For several hours there was an acrid overtone
from the high explosive which the bomb itself had contained; a fiery
constituent of the smell. Almost invariably, too, there was the mean
little stink of domestic
gas, seeping up from broken pipes and leads. But the
whole of the smell was greater than the sum of its parts. It was the
smell of violent
death itself.
(3)
Harold
Wilson,
Memoirs: 1916-1964 (1986)
There is a little-known Attlee story concerning John Strachey, at
that time Minister of Food. A Cabinet rule in the manual Questions
of Procedure for Ministers forbids any minister from publishing written
work, such as a book or press article, without the specific authority
of the Prime Minister. This is not usually withheld for a literary
or historic work, such as lan MacLeod's Neville Chamberlain.
Strachey telephoned the Prime Minister - he should have gone to see
him - "Prime Minister," he said, I see that under the rules
I have to get your permission to publish a book. I have written a
small collection of poems; there is nothing political or controversial
in them. I take it you will agree to my publishing them."
Attlee would have none
of it: "Better send them to me." A fortnight later, Strachey
had not heard from him, which was unusual since Attlee normally completed
his boxes every night and never deferred any correspondence. So Strachey
phoned again: "Clem, I take it you've no objection to letting
me go ahead and publish those poems I sent you." "Can't
publish," said Attlee, and when
Strachey asked for his reason: "Don't rhyme, don't scan."
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