Anyone who doubts that the current war fever being up along with Ukrainian nationalism drinks from the same poisoned well as British nationalism, should pay a visit to Audlem. Yesterday, we had a bit of a drive out to Nantwich, and back through Audlem, which is also about mid way between Newcastle and Market Drayton, on the way to Shrewsbury. It is a typical Tory shire area. As we entered the village we were drenched in a wave of Ukrainian-British patriotic fervour, with every available building festooned with Ukrainian flags draped alongside Union Flags. It was as though the shooting war had already begun, between Britain and Russia, and we were being thrown back to the days of the Crimean War, only missing martial music being piped through the streets, and public performances of Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade".
Audlem is one of those typical Tory shire areas, where its as though feudalism was still in living memory, and all of the hangovers from it still remain beneath the surface, and within the subconscious. Its not a surprise that it voted for Leave in the EU referendum. The war fever being whipped up now, in relation to Ukraine cannot be separated from the carnival of reaction whipped up by British patriotism over Brexit, any more than can the juxtaposition of the Ukrainian and British flags swathing every available inch of Audlem. It is yet another outpouring of reactionary nationalism, and the futile hopes of British colonialists that the days of the Crimean War, and of Empire might return, which accompanies their delusion that Britain itself is somehow independent after Brexit, and has some significant role, as against the reality that it is economically subordinated to the EU, and politically subordinated to the US.
Of course, Putin's invasion of Ukraine has contributed to that atmosphere of reactionary nationalism, but as Brexit showed that sentiment was already rife within Britain, long before. It is feeding off the growth of a sizeable petty-bourgeoisie, which that developed from the 1980's policies of Thatcherism, and, in turn, was then able to come to dominate the Tory membership, and its core vote, as well as being allied with all those even older vestiges of reaction from Britain's feudal/colonial history that survive in its vast swathes of untouched rural idiocy, together with the backwardness of lumpen elements concentrated in the old urban areas, who have been deprived of any hope as a result of decades of conservative social-democratic failure, tempered only by large dollops of paternalistic welfarism that infantilises all those it touches, and reduces its dependents to a level of neo-serfdom.
A short way out of Newcastle, on the way to Audlem, as the crow flies, is Apedale, and it was at Apedale Hall that Britain's own potential Fuehrer, Oswald Moseley lived with his mother and grandfather. Mosley's wife, Lady Cynthia Mosely was Labour MP, for Stoke on Trent, and for a time, sat as an MP for Moseley's New Party. Mosely himself later stood in Stoke on Trent, in 1931, as New Party candidate, but lost. The New Party was founded upon the economic nationalist agenda that Mosely had set out as a Labour Minister, in his Moseley Memorandum that was supported by Nye Bevan, John Strachey, and others on Labour's nationalistic, statist Left. As with Pilsudski in Poland, and Mussolini in Italy, it shows how those of the statist, nationalistic Left, who are also imbued with nationalism and patriotism, tend very easily to slide into the mire of national socialism.
Another illustration was Lady Moseley's predecessor in the Stoke seat, John Ward. Ward's history is a warning to those today lining up behind British imperialism in the war against Russia, over Ukraine. Ward was the creator of the Navvies and Bricklayers Union. He was also a member of the "Marxist" SDF, of Hyndman. Ward was also one of those union leaders responsible for the creation of the Labour Party, though Ward was, by this time opposed to including socialist organisations within it, wanting it as purely an extension of the TUC. He stood as a Lib-Lab, and later as a Coalition Liberal, National Liberal, Constitutionalist, and finally outright Liberal.
Ward's progression to the dark side, can be seen in his role in recruiting "labour battalions" to fight and die for the interests of British capital, in WWI. he also took his battalions to Vladivostok to unite with the White Forces of Admiral Kolschak against the Bolsheviks.
No doubt, Mosely and these other nationalist reactionaries who became traitors to the labour movement, would be more than at home, in today's political atmosphere, as large sections of the Left are imbued with rancid nationalism and patriotism, whilst others rapidly collapsing into Liberalism have become the flag wavers of social patriotism and imperialism.
Today, we saw another aspect of that. My wife and I went into Newcastle town centre. We went for two reasons. Firstly, Greyhound Gap were holding an event, and having lost our greyhound six months ago, we sent to give support, and to use some of our remaining treats to give to the dogs. Secondly, the old Civic Offices where both me and my wife had worked, are being pulled down, and we went to see their demise, though keeping a safe distance as the building was riddled with asbestos.
The half demolished building was not the most depressing part of the townscape. It has been in a state of increasing decrepitude for a long time. Its not just that, as a result of the High Street being dead for a long time, and so shops being left vacant, but that the shops are then left to fall into an increasing state of dereliction, an the shops and other buildings that are in use are little better. But, its not just the physical decay that is the problem, but the whole demeanour of the place that has the stench of decadence. It is more like a third world country.
If Audlem reflects Tory Brexit Britain in one of its aspects, then Newcastle Town Centre reflects it in another. It is a mixture that Mosely would have well recognised. And, the delusion of that nationalism and jingoism of Brexit Britain was emphasised in one more thing as we came to drive home. We called in at Sainsbury's, where we were told that they had no fuel, and had had none since the day before. Just another example of the shortages caused by the delays of Brexit, the shortages of labour caused by the ending of free movement, and loads of EU workers leaving the country. Had we not been told, we would not have known, because, as with the delays at ports that have been going on for months, the Tory media keeps quiet about all of these aspects arising from the effects of Brexit.
No doubt, as the consequences of Brexit intensify in coming months the Tories will be looking for even more patriotic and nationalistic outlets for jingoism to distract the working-class, and all of the social-patriotic, and social imperialist lackeys will be there to play the role of useful idiot, just as they have done on supporting Johnson's Bonapartist regime over the last two years.
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