Page - 62 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 05/02

ment.61 Labour strikes led to the loss of 85 million working days in 1921 alone.62 These strikes had started in 1919 on the Clyde, where mass demonstrations were held in favour of a 40-hour week. In response, the government mobilised the military and civilian volunteers to break up demonstrations.63 This oppres- sive response to strikers is significant to Nordenholt’s Million, which utilises such contemporary events to make its case for political and cultural transformation. Alluding positively to actions taken against Clyde Valley strikers under the De- fence of the Realm Act and overtly critical of the strike’s context, in which post- war rebuilding was occurring only slowly, the novel justifies action against an- yone refusing to work hard. Nordenholt allows no unionisation in his Nitrogen Area and to achieve a suitable level of efficiency continues his manipulation of the population.64 Using a rhetoric of fear and fairness Nordenholt manoeuvres the population towards policing itself for maximum efficiency. He asks the workers, “Is it right that a man who will not strain himself in the common service should reap what he has not sown? […] Or do you believe this community should rid itself of par- asites? I leave myself entirely in your hands in the matter.”65 Behind the rhetoric, Nordenholt’s motives are clear: “I shall deal with them – and I shall do it by the hand of their own fellows”, he admits. By this strategy, Nordenholt quashes disputes over pay and ruthlessly enforced long working hours, and terror be- comes a means of securing National Efficiency. As Flint observes, “For the first time, fear in more than one form had entered the Nitrogen Area.”66 Norden- holt’s strategy ensures that the Clyde Valley population has no sympathy for the condemned while at the same time it exonerates him from blame. At no point in its description of Nordenholt’s tyrannical behaviour does the novel hint at irony: his actions are presented as entirely pragmatic, a “higher morality” that emphasises the necessity of terror as a strategy in the control of population and the securing of National Efficiency. Any objections the reader may have regarding the means by which Norden- holt secures his achievements are mitigated by the novel’s framing his actions as necessary and rational, and by its treatment of his niece Elsa’s opposition to his selection of 5 million survivors. In a key argument between Elsa and Flint, the emotional and logical implications of Nordenholt’s actions are evaluated.67 Drawing on conventional gender binaries of the emotional, empathetic female 61 Taylor 2001, 145. 62 Taylor 2001, 163. 63 Rubinstein 2003, 110. 64 Connington 1923, 92. 65 Connington 1923, 111. 66 Connington 1923, 112. 67 Connington 1923, 220–230. 62 | Jennifer Woodward www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/2, 51–68