Spring Comes Again

Uckfield, Sussex: Historical Review Press, 2011
114 pages

only in paperback: $16

Jorian Jenks was a trusted senior member of Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists. He was also a pioneer of ecology and organic farming. Spring Comes Again is a summation of the doctrine of the British Union of Fascists, with special reference to agricultural policy.

Jenks favored agricultural autarky for Britain, import controls, and the establishment of an Agricultural Land Bank in order to make farm debt more manageable.

In addition, he wanted an Agricultural Corporation to set prices and fit in with the BUF corporatist economic policy. Landowners who were seen to be misusing their land would also be subject to compulsory purchase, with a Volunteer Land Army established to restore the reclaimed territory.

Jenks’ ideas had an impact on government policy, as moves towards agricultural self-sufficiency became the cornerstone of policy in the late 1940s whilst earlier initiatives such as the British Empire Economic Conference and Import Duties Act 1932 were based on Jenks’ protectionist vision. The Defence Regulations included DR49 which allowed for compulsory land purchase, whilst the Agriculture Act 1947 allowed for price-fixing as Jenks had suggested.

When Mosley was detained under the notorious Defence Regulation 18B, he named Jenks as temporary leader of the BUF. Jenks was however detained as well, and after his release in 1941, withdrew from active politics. Long out of print and quite hard to come by, this engagingly written volume is an enduring contribution to Third Way agricultural economics.

CONTENTS

Prologue: The Winter of Our Disconent

Part I: The Decay of Liberalism

1. “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”
2. This Freedom
3. Democracy in Theory and Practice
4. Party Politics
5. Economic Liberalism
6. The Great Trade Myth
7. The Fruits of Free Trade
8. Financial Dictatorship
9. The Plutocratic State

Part II: The Age of Formulae

10. The Endless Quest
11. The Illusion of Internationalism
12. The Rationalisation Racket
13. Short-Cuts to Paradise
14. Marxism and the Class War
15. On to Communism
16. The Bureaucratic State

Part III: Rebirth

17. The Disintegration of Socialism
18. The Re-Emergence of Leadership
19. The Spirit of Fascism
20. Tolerance and the Totalitarian Concept
21. “Unity, Equity, Security”
22. Resurgent Nationalism
23. Responsible Imperialism
24. Realist Economics
25. The Corporate State

Epilogue

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jorian Edward Forwood Jenks (1899–1963) was an English farmer, a leading member of the British Union of Fascists, and a pioneer of radical ecology and organic farming. His other writings include The Country Year (1946), British Agriculture and International Trade (1948), From the Ground Up: An Outline of Real Economy (1950) and The Stuff Man’s Made Of: The Positive Approach to Health through Nutrition (1959).

only in paperback: $16