Communism In 1930s

The 1930s was a period of depression in the UK. While the US, Germany, Canada, and Canada had all had periods of economic boom in the 1920s, (though the US had entered a depression in the 1930s, also) the United Kingdom had yet to have their economic breakthrough. As the US had their Wall Street crash, they cut off their loans to other countries and stopped importing foreign goods in an effort to stop themselves from plunging into a depression. In response to this, many countries plummeted into a depression, especially the United Kingdom. By 1933, 25% of the workforce was unemployed. (BBC, 2009) Since the industrial revolution had taken place and many factories were shut down due to the depression, this really hit industrial workers hard. With
most of the jobs being in factories, the unemployed looked to the government for help. The government had no idea what to do to fix the depression. (BBC, 2009) In times like these, governments usually look to completely change everything, and try a new governmental system (such as communism) like Russia did in 1917. I believe Huxley, seeing the problems taking place in the UK in the time of writing Brave New World, feared of a complete governmental change in the UK that could grow to be as extreme and controlling as the World State.
The struggle for employment within a country is easily fixed by a governmental system where everyone is given a job and equal opportunity: Communism.
Communism (Marxism) swept the world in the 1900s by being an 'easy fix' for a struggling economic country. It gives everyone a job, the same things (food, money, and necessities), and most importantly: no power. (Johnson, 2005) Communism basically dehumanizes the country. No one is an individual. Everyone is equally successful and equally de-powered. The government controls the entire growth and actions of the country and fixes only what they believe should be fixed. They make their own laws without checks and balances, they limit what the people do and see, and the make the population believe it is working and is the right choice (manipulating them to think it works, manipulating them to think they're at peace and happy, etc.) which is exactly what the World State does in Brave New World. The World State gives everyone jobs, limits what they can see (no historical knowledge/allowed to see the Bible), and makes everyone think that they're happy. They mass produce the babies in the society, so just like Communism, it dehumanizes the babies at birth and no one is born an
individual. Huxley is predicting that the UK had no other choice but to turn to Communism to fix their country. With 2.5 million workers unemployed, they needed a method of giving everyone jobs. So, he figured that becoming a Communist state would be the easiest solution. He believed that once they turned to Communism, the government would become too powerful and begin to take over/influence other countries. After WWI, the US was extremely powerful and had great influence on the world. (If the UK became powerful enough, they could influence other countries) Also, developments of things such as the League of Nations showed governments coming together in agreement, like a world government, almost. The World State seems exactly like a Communist state. They mass produce their humans and give them jobs, like the Communists mass produce jobs and give them to their humans. They have control over all media and historical items, just like Communists control all media and use censorship. However, Huxley's predictions for a possible Comminist state in the UK didn't come true. The UK government exited the depression by coming off of the gold standard, reducing interest rates, the Special Areas Act (giving industry to suffering areas), and building 500,000 council houses (which put more money into the economy.)