Lease-Lend Crisis: Burdens to Fall on the Working Class¶
Core Argument¶
The abrupt termination of Lend-Lease by the United States, without consultation or warning, exposes the fraudulent character of Allied wartime unity. The sugary rhetoric of cooperation in the great battle of democracy is revealed as a mere cover for the real interests of imperialism. No sooner had Germany and Japan been knocked out than the scramble for world markets intensified among the victors. Lend-Lease was only granted after the Americans had already stripped British imperialism of the major part of her investments, markets and interests abroad.
The chapter draws on a detailed economic indictment of Britain’s position, citing the Observer’s complaint that other nations have grown rich at Britain’s expense to the tune of £4 billion in gold and securities, and that without Lend-Lease a further £1 billion dollar debt looms. The Daily Mail is quoted extensively via Tory MP Captain L. D. Gammans, who catalogues Britain’s catastrophic deterioration since 1939: the liquidation of overseas investments under the earlier American ‘cash-and-carry’ policy; the transformation from a creditor to a debtor nation owing over £3,500 million; the sacrifice of export trade and the loss of customers who have learned to manufacture for themselves; and a coefficient of industrial efficiency lagging far behind the USA, with an American coal miner producing nearly four times as much per shift as a British miner.
The core argument is that Britain, though nominally among the victors, is in fact a defeated power, reduced to a satellite of American imperialism. Wall Street will now call the tune. The chapter polemicises sharply against the capitalist politicians and their Labour and Stalinist lackeys who painted glowing pictures of post-war plenty and prosperity. Socialist Appeal had warned the workers that this was a lie. Now the pressure is being exerted to force Britain to open up all her markets to American goods, including the British Empire and the former sterling bloc. The Daily Mail’s New York correspondent reports that an alternative to Lend-Lease might involve continuing shipments of food and raw materials with no interest on the debt, but in return Britain would be asked to agree to open up all her markets to American imports. The historical parallel is drawn with the way Britain used her dominant position during and after past wars to force her allies to bow to her policy. The burdens of this crisis, the chapter concludes, will fall on the working class.