British Union of Fascists

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

British Union of Fascists
Flash and Circle logo
Years active 1932 - 1940
Political Ideology Fascism
Political Position Far right
International Affiliation N/A
Preceded by New Party
British Fascisti
Succeeded by N/A
Colours Flash and Circle

The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a political party in the United Kingdom formed, in 1932, by former MP of the Conservative Party and Labour's former government minister Sir Oswald Mosley. The party was a union composed of several smaller fascist parties such as the British Fascisti.

Contents

[edit] Character

Mosley modelled himself on another fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, and the BUF itself primarily on Mussolini's National Fascist Party in Italy.

Both Mussolini and, later, Mosley instituted black uniforms for party members, earning them the nickname "the Blackshirts." The BUF was anti-communist and protectionist, and proposed the replacement of parliamentary democracy with a system of elected executives having jurisdiction over specific industries – a system similar to the corporatism of the Italian fascists. Unlike the Italian system, however, British fascist corporatism planned a democracy that would replace the House of Lords with elected executives drawn from major industries, the clergy, and colonial representatives. The House of Commons was to be reduced in size to allow for a faster, "less factionist" democracy.[1]

The BUF's political programme and ideology were outlined in such publications as Mosley's Tomorrow We Live (Abbey Supplies, Ltd., 1938), and A. Raven Thompson's The Coming Corporate State (1938).

Most of the BUFs policies were built on a framework of isolationism, a political and economic policy prohibiting trade by British nationals outside the British Empire. Moseley proposed that this policy would help protect the British economy from the flux of the world market, especially during the Great Depression, and prevent "cheap slave competition from abroad." [2]

Many BUF members were drawn from aristocratic and military families and included celebrated military scientist J.F.C. Fuller. Its policy throughout the 1930s was not officially anti-Semitic; however, many of its members were openly so. The BUF's appointed propaganda director, American-born William Joyce, was candid and outspoken with regard to his disdain for Jewish people, whom he denounced as "a perpetual nuisance," and, in his last public message as reported by the BBC, announced, "In death as in life, I defy the Jews who caused this last war, and I defy the powers of darkness they represent." [3] However, Oswald Mosley, in his autobiography, My Life, admitted: "As we shall see I had a quarrel years later with certain Jews for political reasons, but have not at any time been an anti-semite."[4]

Of anti-Semitism in the BUF, The Times wrote, in 1934:

"The listeners heard Sir O. Mosley refer to his would-be interrupters as 'sweeping of the Continental ghettoes, hired by Jewish financiers...an alien gang imported from all quarters of Britain by Jewish money to prevent Englishmen putting their case [forward]....'" [5]

Responding, in 1935, to a question from The Times about the official BUF policy regarding Jewish Britons, Mosley said: "We will not tolerate within the State a minority organized against the interests of the State. Jews must either put the interests of Britain before the interests of Jewry or they will be deported from Britain." [6]

[edit] Prominence

 This does not cite any references or sources. (January 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

The BUF claimed a membership as high as 50,000 at one point, and the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror were early supporters, the Daily Mail famously running the headline "Hurrah for the Blackshirts!".

Opinion was divided in response to the BUF's black-shirted followers; in some quarters, their unified appearance, and the vision of militant Britishness they presented, won the party supporters[citation needed]. Others found in them something absurd. P.G. Wodehouse, for example, based the "amateur dictator" Roderick Spode and his Black Shorts, which appear in his Jeeves and Wooster stories, on Mosley and the BUF.

Despite considerable - and sometimes violent - resistance from Jewish people, the Labour Party, assorted democrats and the Communist Party of Great Britain, the BUF still found a following in the East End of London, where in the London County Council elections of 1937 they obtained good results in their strongholds of Bethnal Green, Shoreditch and Limehouse[citation needed]. However, the BUF never faced a General Election: feeling unready in 1935[citation needed], they urged voters to abstain, offering the promise of "Fascism Next Time". There never was a "next time", as the next General Election was not held until July 1945, by which time World War II in Europe had ended and Fascism had been discredited.

Towards the middle of the 1930s, the BUF's increasingly violent activities, and a growing discomfort at its perceived alignment with the German Nazi party, began to alienate some of its middle-class supporters. Membership accordingly decreased. At the Olympia rally in London, in 1934, BUF stewards became involved in a violent confrontation with militant communists, and this bad publicity caused the Daily Mail to withdraw its support from the party.

[edit] Final years and legacy

With its lack of electoral success, the party was drawn away from mainstream politics and further toward extreme anti-Semitism during 1934-1935 (which saw the resignation of leading members such as Dr. Robert Forgan). They organised several anti-Semitic marches and protests in London (recalling the earlier tactics of predecessors such as the British Brothers League), such as the one that resulted in the famous Battle of Cable Street in October 1936.

Nonetheless, membership fell to below 8,000 by the end of 1935. The government was sufficiently concerned, however, to pass the Public Order Act of 1936, which banned the wearing of political uniforms during marches, required police consent for political marches to go ahead, and effectively destroyed the movement.

The BUF was completely banned in May 1940, and Mosley and 740 other senior fascists were interned for much of World War II. Mosley made several unsuccessful attempts at a political comeback after the war, most notably in the Union Movement.

[edit] The BUF in popular culture

Harry Turtledove's alternative history novel, In the Presence of Mine Enemies, is set in 2010 in a world where the Nazis were triumphant, the BUF governs Britain — and the first stirrings of the reform movement come from there. The BUF and Mosley also appear as background influences in Turtledove's Colonization trilogy which follows the Worldwar quadrology and is set in the 1960s.

British humorous writer P.G. Wodehouse extensively satirized the BUF and their leader in a number of books and short stories. The BUF was satirized as "The Black shorts" for their wearing of black shirts, and their leader was Roderick Spode who was eventually revealed as the owner of a ladies' underwear shop.

The BUF and Oswald Mosley are also alluded to in Kazuo Ishiguro's novel The Remains Of The Day.

[edit] BUF Anthem

The BUF Anthem strongly resembles the German Horst-Wessel-Lied (anthem of the NSDAP) which is now banned in Germany, and was set to the same tune.

The lyrics are as follows:

Comrades, the voices of the dead battalions,
Of those who fell that Britain might be great,
Join in our song, for they still march in spirit with us,
And urge us on to gain the fascist state!
(Repeat Last Two Lines)
We're of their blood, and spirit of their spirit,
Sprung from that soil for whose dear sake they bled,
Against vested powers, Red Front, and massed ranks of reaction,
We lead the fight for freedom and for bread!
(Repeat Last Two Lines)
The streets are still, the final struggle's ended;
Flushed with the fight we proudly hail the dawn!
See, over all the streets the fascist banners waving,
Triumphant standards of our race reborn!
(Repeat Last Two Lines)

[edit] Prominent members

Despite their relatively short period of operation the BUF attracted a number of prominent members and supporters. These included:

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

  • Blackshirt: Sir Oswald Mosley and British Fascism by Stephen Dorril

[edit] References

  1. ^ Tomorrow We Live (1938)
  2. ^ Tomorrow We Live (1938), by Sir Oswald Mosley and http://www.oswaldmosley.com/audio/speeches.html entitled http://www.oswaldmosley.com/audio/speeches.html'
  3. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/29/a2015029.shtml
  4. ^ http://www.globusz.com/ebooks/Mosley/
  5. ^ The Times, Monday, Oct 01, 1934; pg. 14; Issue 46873; col C - Fascist Rally At Manchester Counter-Invective
  6. ^ *The Times, Monday, Mar 25, 1935; pg. 16; Issue 47021; col D - Fascist Policy

[edit] External links