Such an austerity policy might appear economically irrational in the sense that it damaged the economy. But it was very rational in that it guaranteed the survival of capitalism and its relations of production. G. D. H. Cole put his fi nger on the essence of the austerity counteroffensive, which will be explored in the coming pages: “Th e big workingclass off ensive had been successfully stalled off ; and British capitalism, though threatened with economic adversity, felt itself once more safely in the saddle and well able to cope both industrially and politically with any attempt that might still be made from the Labour side to unseat it” (Cole 1958, 419). In a nutshell, the economic downturn fortifi ed capitalism. Not only were the pillars of private property and wage relations reaffi rmed— austerity also guaranteed wage repression and a resurgence of private profi t.

Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, loc. 415