Edward Conze and Ellen Wilkinson 1935
The first Fascist organisation was founded in England by a woman, Miss Linton-Orman. Its title, British Fascists, shortened to an unfortunate combination of initials which convulsed the irreverent British public. This movement lingered long enough to fight the Mosley Fascists with bare fists for the copyright of the term Fascist. In 1932 most of its members were absorbed in the British Union of Fascists, the Mosley organisation.
The Blackshirt, one of the official papers of the BUF, ascribes the collapse of the Linton-Orman organisation to ‘its Carlton Club ideas of blank reaction’, and the utter absence of any policy. The mere success of foreign Fascism was not a sufficient basis on which to found any serious Fascist movement in this country. Such a movement could only have any success at all if it grew out of British conditions. This the Mosley movement did, reinforced though it was by the prestige of Mussolini and Hitler.
Disappointment with the inactivity of the second Labour government, and the refusal of the Labour cabinet to accept his public works proposals, led in 1930 to Sir Oswald Mosley’s resignation from the government. [1] The conventional Labour explanation is to ascribe this resignation to ambition... if ambition be a fault in a politician. Actually, the immediate result was to close the avenue of political advancement to him. The important thing, however, is why Mosley’s peculiar psychological make-up did just find this political outlet, and turn against the Labour Party, instead of using their powerful political apparatus.
The politically important fact is that the second Labour government furnished British Fascism with its case. It provided Mosley with the magnificent platform asset of being the only Labour Minister to resign on behalf of the unemployed. Its passion for evading decisions by appointing innumerable commissions led to Mosley’s justified gibe: ‘We cannot govern by the simple process of putting this country into commission.’ In the face of what he regarded as governmental inactivity on important questions, he was able to gather round him a considerable amount of Labour support, both inside and outside the House of Commons, for his programme of action.
On this basis he appealed to the local Labour Parties and the trade unions, and at the National Conference of the Labour Party in 1930 got the surprisingly large vote of 1,046,000 against 1,251,000 votes for his unemployment schemes. He then issued a manifesto for a new policy which was signed by 17 Labour MPs, and other signatures included that of the left-wing leader of the miners, Mr AJ Cook. But when he resigned to form the New Party only three of them followed him: his wife, his parliamentary private secretary, Mr John Strachey, and Dr Robert Forgan. Mr WED Allen, the Conservative MP for West Belfast, also joined him, and later, under the name of James Drennan, wrote a panegyric of Mosley under the title BUF.
The New Party was intended as a rival Socialist party. It completely failed because it struck against the bitter hostility of the labour movement which is always shown to any secessionist. Almost all the 18 candidates of the New Party lost their deposit in the General Election of 1931. This complete debacle determined Mosley to make a wider appeal for support. He went to Germany and studied the National Socialist movement. In September 1932, the British Union of Fascists was founded.
The victory of Hitler in 1933 gave a new impetus to the Mosley movement as to Fascist groups in every other country. He visited Rome in April 1933, together with Goering and von Papen, shortly after the Congress of the Fascist International, and took part in various Fascist parades. He received a personal testimonial from the Duce. Immediately after Hitler came to power in February 1933, the first number of The Blackshirt appeared, urging Britain to imitate the national revolution which was happening in Germany.
The Retreat from Socialism: Like Fascism in Italy and Germany, the BUF started with a programme that was almost indistinguishable from that of any Socialist party. In addition to Mosley himself, many of its leaders are former Socialists, members of the Independent Labour Party, and these occupy the most responsible posts. Dr Robert Forgan, an ex-Labour MP, is the Chief Organiser. Mr Risdon, ex-ILP, is the Director of Propaganda. Mr Marshall Diston, ex-ILP, holds a high position in the Publicity Department, as does Mr Leaper, also ex-ILP. Mr John Beckett, a later recruit, was an ILP Member of Parliament, and is now one of the chief Fascist propagandists. The District Organiser of Tyneside is a former Labour man, and the Organiser for South Wales, a former Communist.
In quite a number of strikes, the Fascists have taken part, always showing hostility to the trade-union officials. They are trying to get influence in the trade unions. The President of the NUR, in 1934, declared Fascism to be a danger among the rank and file of his members on the railways. The trade-union recruits to Fascism are instructed to stay in the unions as ‘a living proof that Fascism is not hostile to the working class’. They are to mobilise ‘the dissatisfaction that incompetent leadership has created’ (Blackshirt, no 16). As in Germany, the leadership of the older, particularly the craft, unions has grown very settled and old-fashioned. It is inclined to resent ‘over-activity’ on the part of the younger members. These, therefore, form fruitful ground for either Fascist or Communist activities.
The unemployed are organised in the Fascist Union of British Workers which recommends its members to sympathetic employers for work. They help the unemployed by legal assistance in Means Test cases, and have secured spectacular advertisement for their action in protecting tenants in certain eviction cases. Certain unemployed are attracted to their ranks by the remuneration they get for selling the party papers. These are usually recruited from the shelter for the destitute which is maintained by Fascist funds in York Road, London.
The Fascists in this country have shown that they are a mature Fascist movement by their realisation of the importance of securing a basis among the working class. Beyond this they have done little of importance, but as in every other country they grow less by their own strength than by the mistakes of their opponents. The policy pursued by the Labour and Communist Parties of either ignoring them, refusing to debate with them, or breaking up their meetings, is based on a wrong idea of what Fascism really is. In the long run, it is likely to prove as ineffective as similar policies pursued by the German working-class parties.
Attracted by the Fascist label, ex-military officers streamed in. As on the Continent, these men from the war began to form an important factor in the Fascist movement. Mosley himself was trained at Sandhurst and the Royal Military College, and was an air-officer during the war. In spite of the declared imperialist aims of his movement, Sir Oswald Mosley himself always stresses the pacific mission of Fascism. Major Yeats-Brown, a prominent convert, by his Dogs of War expresses the general attitude of the military section of the BUF. An ex-naval officer, G Dundas, has the high-sounding title of Chief of Staff. A Captain Lewis is the editor of The Blackshirt.
The influence of these ex-officers is seen in the salutes, uniforms, physical and military exercises, and the whole outfit of a well-organised private army, complete with GHQ, intelligence officers, orderly rooms, canteens, etc. The boxing section of the early days becomes the Leader’s Bodyguard. Despite Sir Oswald Mosley’s repeated assurances that the BUF is a law-abiding and gentlemanly organisation, even possible supporters got somewhat of a shock by the revelation at Olympia of the brutality which lies so near the surface of every Fascist movement. [2] It was not so much the blood and wounds of the fighting inside and outside the hall as the deliberate policy of manhandling which startled even Conservative opinion in Britain.
A further step to the Right, a further watering down of the Socialist elements of British Fascism, came with the support of Lord Rothermere, and the flowing in of Daily Mail readers. In the first week of this campaign 700 are said to have joined. This support began on 15 January 1934 with a sensational article by Lord Rothermere, ‘Hurrah for the Blackshirts’. Support was continued with short intervals until July 1934. The letters which were then exchanged to explain the break between Lord Rothermere and Sir Oswald Mosley showed that the press baron was in favour of the Fascist Air Force policy, its patriotic and anti-Socialist propaganda, while against the Corporate State, the anti-Jewish propaganda, and the establishment of a non-parliamentary dictatorship.
The Rothermere support helped the Fascists very considerably while it lasted, because of the press boycott that had existed previously. Lord Beaverbrook did not follow the Rothermere lead, and his papers were surprisingly anti-Fascist, apparently because Lord Beaverbrook considered that if successful in England, Fascism would mean the break-up of the British Empire.
The Daily Mail support brought in the most politically backward elements of the middle class. These were not converted to the original Socialist programme. On the contrary they altered the whole emphasis of the Fascist propaganda. The ‘King and Empire’ posters, the absurd deification of the Leader, the strengthening of the anti-working-class bias in the party papers, all date from this period.
Following the Nazi tradition, capitalists were now divided into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ ones, to take out the sting from the anti-capitalist propaganda. The ‘good’ were the native variety, the ‘bad’, the foreign and Jewish capitalists. Patriotic declamations increasingly took the place of economic argument. Thus the Mosley movement is treading the identical path of the continental Fascist parties, beginning as a largely Socialist organisation, and then through the pressure of military, capitalistic and undigested middle-class elements being changed into a party of reaction.
The propaganda of the Fascists in the countryside must not be ignored, for here also they tread the continental road. Mosley demands the exclusion of foreign foodstuffs to the value of £220 million in order that this may be produced in England. If he is asked why this has not been done, he invariably retorts that this is due to alien finance which earns £30 million annually from the present state of affairs.
They have secured a spectacular advertisement from their energetic and occasionally embarrassing interference in the ‘tithe’ war, a struggle of the farmers against the Church tithes. The Fascists have made much capital out of the fact that the man responsible for the enforcement of the tithes, the head of Queen Anne’s Bounty, is an ex-Labour MP and trade-union official, Mr George Middleton, who was appointed to this post by the Labour government.
In the Eastern areas there is a good deal of agricultural unemployment, and many bankruptcies, owing to foreclosing by the banks. As the labourers do not come under Unemployment Insurance they are naturally scared at anything that may cause them to lose their jobs. Hence on the whole they tend to support the farmers in the tithe war. To this extent the Fascists have won sympathy among the labourers as well as the farmers.
The Future of the Mosley Movement: The present membership is estimated at 20,000. The News Chronicle investigator gave 17,000, the Daily Herald 35,000. The Fascist propagandists give their strength at numbers varying from 250,000 to 500,000 according to the enthusiasm of the speaker. There is admitted to be a considerable fluctuation in membership, especially among the working-class members. The BUF is allied in the New Empire Union with Fascist parties in the Dominions... especially in Canada and Australia. Colonel Eric Campbell of the New Guard of Australia claims to have 100,000 members. They are also linked with the Ulster Fascist movement. The Union aims at securing a common Fascist policy throughout the Empire.
The chances for the future success of the Mosley movement depend partly on external conditions, which will be discussed in detail in Part III. Partly, of course, though to a lesser extent, these chances depend on the personnel of the leaders and their policy. There is much speculation as to whether Sir Oswald Mosley has the qualifications that would make either a Mussolini or a Hitler if the chance came. While he was in the Labour Party, he was considered to have a great political future, and was even spoken of as a possible future Premier.
On the credit side, as a political leader he has boundless ambition, an obsession for power and great energy. He has considerable personal charm when he chooses to exercise it, and, in which he differs from both Hitler and Mussolini, great personal courage. He does not go away in a car and leave his followers to fight it out. On the debit side are his irritable vanity and his continual preoccupation with himself.
Mosley is unpopular with his own class. Yet he is too scornfully aristocratic to be beloved by the masses. He does not let himself go sufficiently on the platform, is too conscious of the impression he wants to make, to be a great orator. His audience is chilled by this restraint. Mosley has none of Hitler’s ‘Urkraft'... that upsurging of the soul of the unintellectual man, that is the secret of Hitler’s power over the mass. The wise man will suspend his judgement as to how Mosley would be likely to come out of a crisis... murmuring to himself as he enumerates Mosley’s faults: ‘... but then... Hitler!’
The absence of known personalities in the British Union of Fascists does not matter now. This disadvantage it shares with all the other Fascist movements in their early days. Only if it came to power would this be a great disadvantage, for then, like Hitler, Mosley would find himself in the hands of the capitalist experts and the civil service. [3] The greatest asset that the Mosley movement has is that it has grown out of the Labour Party and that it has seen the necessity of gaining mass support from its very beginning.
Fascist Tendencies Outside the BUF: The four other organisations which call themselves Fascist, such as the Imperial Fascist League, are of no importance, but there are well-marked tendencies in Britain which may lead to a different type of Fascism from Mosley’s, and undermine his leadership. Chief among these is the National Government itself. The conditions of its birth and the size of its majority are reminiscent of the elections which swept Hitler into power. Stripped of all the theatricality which surrounds Fascism, the National Government may develop into a distinctively British form of Fascism. It has all the features which distinguish Fascism from pure and simple reaction.
None can deny that it has a mass basis, the greatest that has ever been given to one set of leaders in British history. Its leader is a former Socialist, like every other Fascist leader, and there is much Socialist phraseology left in his speeches to the masses. War preparation becomes more and more marked as its central and controlling aim, for which it is taking great pains to secure popular support, in spite of the atmosphere of profound pacifism with which it started.
By relying more and more on Orders in Council, whether to get through quota schemes or put through economy proposals such as the Means Test, it is following the Fascist tradition of dispensing with parliament as much as possible. By its system of commissions, it is tending to supersede parliament in other ways. The Unemployment Act puts the grievances of the unemployed in the hands of an appointed commission, and removes their right to have their grievances voiced in the House of Commons.
Mr Elliott with his planning schemes fits into the classic scheme of Fascist planning, for it is planning with the consent of the capitalist at the expense of the consumer. His services in this direction have been warmly recognised by Mussolini, and the Corriere della Sera regards him as a more typical and influential English Fascist than Sir Oswald Mosley.
The tightening of restrictions on the workers by the Sedition Bill, the numerous free-speech prosecutions, the concentration camps for the unemployed, and the overwhelming show of force at any demonstration of workers, particularly of the Left, moves the Liberal press to occasional protest as being ‘un-British’.
The formation of class forces of repression... the Trenchard Police and the subsidised training clubs for middle-class amateur flyers are not in the usual tradition of British conservatism, but they would be necessary pieces of the Fascist furniture. The lessons of the Organisation for the Maintenance of Supplies, that early essay in governmental Fascism, for which Sir William Joynson-Hicks was responsible in the days of the General Strike, are still pigeon-holed in the appropriate desks, and there is plenty of evidence that they have been learned.
The Organisation for the Maintenance of Supplies and the Trenchard Police reforms are not properly Fascist in that they would govern only through members of the ruling class, while the danger and importance of Fascism is that the social basis of the governing class is broadened by drawing in lower middle-class and proletarian elements. But the instruments forged by a Lord Trenchard or a Lord Brentford may, at the appropriate moment, be of great use to the Fascists.
1. Oswald Mosley; born 1896. Conservative MP, 1918; Independent MP, 1922; joined Labour Party, 1924. Published, 1925, Revolution by Reason. Elected to Labour Party Executive, 1927. Labour Minister, 1929. Published The Greater Britain (1932).
2. See Fascists at Olympia, compiled by Vindicator (Gollancz, 1934). And for the Fascist reply, see Blue Lies and Red Violence (BUF).
3. See Part II, Chapter III, Section IV.