Initiation and initiative : an exploration of the life and ideas of Dimitrije Mitrinović

POLITICAL INITIATIVES 107

For Mitrinovié European federation was seen as a major step towards world federation. The significance of Europe was that it was the continent where individual self-consciousness was most highly developed. But individual liberty was threatened by what he called the “Block State, the overcentralization of power and control. The transformation of the European order was called for, a ‘revolution of order, a conscious, planned voluntary revolution guided by the twin principles of devolution and federation. These represented the twin opposing principles upon which every human organisation was based—the forces of cohesion which tended to preserve unity and stability and the forces of diversity which tended to preserve individual differences and freedom. Devolution, the application of the principle of diversity, meant that every decision should be taken in the smallest possible grouping of those who either had to implement it or would be affected by it. Such devolution, if it was not to result in chaos, needed to be complemented by federation whereby all those with a common interest through their work, place of residence or cultural activity should consult together to reach agreement on matters of shared concern. The ideal of devolution was complete liberty for every individual. The ideal of federation was total harmony between all people and groups up to the level of world federation with the will of the larger whole or grouping continually prevailing over the smaller. Tension and conflict between the two principles was therefore inevitable and neither could ever be fully attainable, yet Mitrinovié insisted that they be taken as regulative ideals, each to be taken as an absolute guide to action, maintaining the conflict and tension between them so that neither principle should prevail at the cost of the other.

To promote and develop these ideas a new organisational vehicle was launched in 1931—the New Europe Group. Unlike many of the other groups and movements initiated by Mitrinovic the New Europe Group (NEG) was to enjoy a relatively long life, continuing after the war until its last recorded public meeting took place on September 21st 1957 to commemorate the death of Professor Frederick Soddy the previous year. Despite this, its early recruiting leaflets bore a striking resemblance in style and content to those issued by the Eleventh Hour Group.

The New Europe Group is convinced that the PRESENT SITUATION can only be saved from BECOMING DISASTROUS by the active cooperation of

individuals. Politics have failed... We are drifting towards violence for want of vision. There is no school of thought which has surveyed the situation as a whole . . . No one is proclaiming that all man’s activities are interrelated, since

the forces which produce these activities are all connected at their source, which is the human organism. And no political or economic system which fails to