British Union of Fascists
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The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a political party of the 1930s in the United Kingdom. The party was formed in 1932 by ex-Conservative Party MP, and Labour government minister Sir Oswald Mosley. The party was a union, comprised of several smaller Fascist parties, such as the British Fascisti.
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[edit] Character
Mosley modelled himself on another fascist leader, Benito Mussolini. He also modeled his party along the lines of fascist movements in other countries, primarily Italy.
He instituted a black uniform, gaining the party the nickname Blackshirts. The BUF was anti-communist and protectionist. It supported the replacement of parliamentary democracy with a system of elected executives with jurisdiction over their own industries - something similar to the corporatism of the Italian fascists. Although unlike Italy the British Fascist Corporatism would remain a democracy, replacing the House of Lords with elected executives drawn from major industries, clergy and representatives of the colonies. The House of Commons was to be reduced in size to allow for a faster, less 'factionist democracy'.[1]
The BUF had the most developed political programme and ideology of any fascist movement, laid out in such publications as Tomorrow We Live, and The Coming Corporate State.
Most of the BUFs policies were based around isolationism, a economic policy where-by Britain would trade only within the British empire as would the nations within the empire in a similar manner to the United States of America, the main attraction to this is that it would separate the British economy from the falls and fluxs of the world market Great Depression and prevent the loss of industrial production within Britain from the influence of "... labour the east, paid a third of our wages and working for ten hours a day.", and "Cheap slave competition from abroad." These were referring to the rise of western backed mass production in Indo-China similar to what is said about Chinese labour today. [2]
Many of the BUF's members were drawn from aristocratic and military families and included celebrated military scientist J.F.C. Fuller. Its official policy throughout the 1930s was not anti-Semitic; however, some ranking members during this period were vehement proponents of it, and so the BUF was often represented as such.
- The listeners heard Sir O.Mosley refer to his would-be interrupters as "sweeping of the Continental ghettoes, hired by Jewish financiers": "and alien gang imported from all quarters of Britain by Jewish money to prevent Englishmen putting their case" [3]
- In answer to a question about the Blackshirt attitude towards Jews, Sir Oswald 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." [4]
[edit] Prominence
The BUF claimed a membership as high as 50,000 at one point, and the Daily Mail was an early supporter, 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[citation needed] in 1935, they urged voters to abstain, offering the promise of "Fascism Next Time".
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 a 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
In Harry Turtledove's alternative history novel, In the Presence of Mine Enemies, which is set in 2009 in a world where the Nazis were triumphant, the BUF governs Britain — and the first stirrings of the reform movement come from there.
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 shorts, and their leader was Roderick Spode who was eventually revealed as the owner of a ladies' underwear shop.
[edit] BUF Anthem
The BUF Anthem strongly resembles the German Horst-Wessel-Lied (anthem of the NSDAP), and was set to the same tune. Sound recordings are available of this anthem.
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:
- William Edward David Allen
- John Beckett
- A. K. Chesterton
- Robert Forgan
- Neil Francis Hawkins
- J.F.C. Fuller
- Reginald Goodall
- Jeffrey Hamm
- Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere
- William Joyce
- Tommy Moran
- Alliott Verdon Roe
- Alexander Raven Thomson
- Henry Williamson
[edit] See also
- List of British fascist parties
- Mosley (movie) (1997)
- Diana Mosley - Wife of BUF leader Oswald Mosley
[edit] Further reading
- Blackshirt: Sir Oswald Mosley and British Fascism by Stephen Dorril
[edit] References
- ^ Tomorrow We Live (1938)
- ^ Tomorrow We Live (1938), by Sir Oswald Mosley and http://www.oswaldmosley.com/audio/speeches.html entitled http://www.oswaldmosley.com/audio/speeches.html'
- ^ The Times, Monday, Oct 01, 1934; pg. 14; Issue 46873; col C - Fascist Rally At Manchester Counter-Invective
- ^ *The Times, Monday, Mar 25, 1935; pg. 16; Issue 47021; col D - Fascist Policy
[edit] External links
Categories: Articles lacking sources from January 2007 | All articles lacking sources | Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Political parties established in 1932 | 1940 disestablishments | British Fascist movements | Defunct political parties in the United Kingdom
