My Life

My Life - Oswald MosleyAfrica; but even in these conditions an extraordinary effort of state enterprise hastransformed housing conditions and left many European performances far behind. Astart has been made with the organisation of a genuine apartheid in which white andblack can have an equal chance. Personally, I have urged within South Africa theprinciple of equal pay for equal work, because it is right that the same reward shouldgo to the same skill when white and black are still working in the same industries. Ibelieve this reform will soon be completed, and will give to South Africa both fairconditions and a rapidly expanding market until the ultimate goal of two completelydifferent economic communities is reached.The rest of Africa presents a much more difficult problem because governments areweak and often corrupt. Finance capital is free to move in for the exploitation ofcheap labour, which is unprotected either by government or trade union organisation.A helpless, illiterate mass can be uprooted from the village to become the fodder ofthe factory. They will be sweated under the charge of a few white supervisors. Thegoods will eventually dislocate the European market to which these countries oftenhave free entry. It is nonsense to talk of racialism when the problem is so clearly inorigin economic. The point is emphasised by evidence that the same thing can happenin lesser degree within Europe itself, if nothing is done to organise effectively withina common market.The coming labour crisis in EuropeA fair basis of competition is essential within a common market. Otherwise, sooner orlater there will be both a tendency for mass migration of labour from the low-paidareas to regions where higher wages are paid, and an inclination of capital to moveinto the more primitive parts of Europe to exploit cheap labour. Migration is to someextent already occurring, with social effects which can be disruptive in a less buoyantmarket for labour. The movement of capital to the backward areas is at present largelyinhibited by the almost complete absence of basic facilities in these parts of Europe,such as power from coal, water or electricity, but capital may itself overcome thesedifficulties in time if differential wage rates become a permanent feature of Europeanlife, with opportunity to exploit the less well paid.The clear line of solution is to approach as rapidly as possible the principle of thesame rate for the same job throughout Europe, and for state capital investment toprovide basic facilities in the backward areas, which will enable their developmentwith fair and equal labour conditions. The novel idea may at some time be realised bythe rulers of Europe, that it is at least equally moral and desirable to provide capitalinvestment for the poorer parts of Italy, Spain or Scotland as for the darker parts ofAfrica. Not only the fantasies of existing thinking stand in the way, but also theprevailing root objection to regarding Europe as anything but a collection ofcompetitive sovereign states.407 of 424