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Table of contents :
Fascism in Britain
Half-title
Title Page
Printer's Imprint
Dedication
Contents
Introduction
What is Fascism?
A. Bibliographies
B. British Fascism: General
C. British Fascism: 1923-1931
D. British Fascism: 1932-1939
E. British Fascism: 1932-1939: Particular Meetings, Fascism and the law, Public Order
F. British Fascism: 1932-1939: Special Aspects:
(i) Anti-Semitism
(ii) Lancashire and Cotton
(iii) Anti-Fascist Activities
(iv) Other Aspects
(v) Writings on Particular Fascists
G. British Fascism: 1932-1939: Writings by the Fascists
(i) Anonymous BUF Pamphlets
(ii) Anonymous I.F.L. Pamphlets
(iii) Writings by particular Fascists
H. British Fascism: Second World War
I. Writings of William Joyce and the National Socialist League
J. Writings on William Joyce
K. British Fascism and the Radical Right: 1945-1967
(i) The Fascist Revival: 1946-1949
(ii) 1950-1967
(iii) Anti-Semitism
(iv) Anti-Fascist Activities
L. The British Radical Right: 1967--
M. The British Radical Right: 1967— : Special Aspects
(i) Works on particular Individuals
(ii) Particular localities and meetings
(iii) Opposition to the radical right
(iv) other aspects
N. Writings of the Radical Right: 1945--
O. Writings of Sir Oswald Mosley
P. Writings on Sir Oswald Mosley
(i) General
(ii) Up to 1932
(iii) 1933-1942
(iv) 1943-1977
Q. Intellectuals and Fascism
R. Fascist and Radical Right Periodicals
S. Periodicals of the Opposition
Appendix
Index

Citation preview

FASCISMIN BRITAIN

PHILIP REES Dip. Lib., Head of Acquisitions University of Yark Library

FASCISM IN BRITAIN

FASCISMIN BRITAIN PHILIP REES Dip. Lib., Head of Acquisitions Uniwrsity of Yark Library

THE HARVESTER PRESS . SUSSEX HUMANITIES PRESS . NEW JERSEY

First published in Britain in 1979 by THE HARVESTER PRESS LIMITED

Publisher: John Spiers 2 Stanford Terrace, Hassocks, Sussex

and in the USA by HUMANITIES PRESS INC., Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey 07716 © Philip Rees, 1979

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Rees, Philip Fascism in Britain. 1. Fascism - Great Britain - Bibliography I. Title 016.3205'33'0941 Z2021.F2 ISBN 0-85527-911-7

Humanities Press Inc. ISBN 0·391.Q0908·7

Printed in Great Britain by Redwood Burn Limited Trowbridge and Esher

All rights reserved

To Margaret. Anne and Helen

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

What is Fascism? A. B. C. D. E. F.

G.

H. I. J. Ko

L M.

N. O. P.

1 7

BIBUOGRAPHIES 27 BRITISH FASCISM: General 27 BRITISH FASCISM; 1923-31 34 BRITISH FASCISM: 1932-39: General 35 BRITISH FASCISM: 1932-39: Particular meetings, Fascism and the law, public order 51 BRITISH FASCISM: 1932-39: Specialaspects: 58 (I) Anti-Semitism 58 (11) Lancashire and Cotton 62 (Ill) Anti-Fascist activities 63 (IV) Other aspects 64 (V) Writings on particular fascists 67 BRITISH FASCISM: 1932-39: Writings by the fascists 68 (I) Anonymous BUF pamphlets 68 (11) Anonymous I.F.L. pamphlets 70 (Ill) Writings by particular fascists 72 BRITISH FASCISM: Second World War 85 WRITINGS OF WlLLIAM JOYCE AND THE NATIONAL SOCIAUST LEAGUE 88 WRITINGS ON WILUAM JOYCE 90 BRITISH FASCISM AND THE RADICAL RIGHT: 1945-67 91 (I) The Fascist Revival: 1946-49 92 (II) 1950-67 98 (Ill) Anti-semitism 104 (IV) Anti-fascist activities 106 mE BRITISH RADICAL RIGHT: 1967- 106 mE BRITISH RADICAL RIGHT: 1967- : Special aspects: 118 (I) Works on particular individuals 118 (11) Particular localities and meetings 119 (Ill) opposition to the radical rilht 121 (IV) Other upectI 121 WRITINGS OF THE RADICAL RIGHT: 1945- 122 WRITINGS OF SIR OSWALD MOSLBY 131 WRITINGS ON SIR OSWALDMOSLBY 162 (I) General 162 (11) Up to 1932 170 (Ill) 1933-42 187 vii

(IV) 1943-77 192 Q. INTELLECTUALS AND FASCISM 197 R. FASCIST AND RADICAL RIGHT PERIODICALS S. PERIODICALS OF THE OPPOSITION 210

APPENDIX Index

219

215

INTRODUCTION

Definition This bibliography is intended to cover the history of British fascism from its beginnings in 1923 when Rotha Lintorn-Orman founded the British Fascisti to the present time (mid-1977). Sir Oswald Mosley is undoubtedly the most important British fascist leader and I have, therefore, thought it necessary to devote two sections to him - one of his own writings and the other of writings about him. These sections cover the whole of Mosley's career, not merely his years as a fascist, on the grounds that it is difficult to isolate this period of his life from what came before. Such a broad thread of consistency can be traced through. the evolution of his ideas from 1918 to the present that his career must be judged as a whole; his career after 1931 was not (as some have argued) a mere aberration, the result of character defects. In the next section What isfascism? I have attempted to define fascism in the sense in which it is used in this bibliography. In brief, I have taken the term fascism to include not only those groups which have described themselves as fascist but also 'National Socialist' movements taking their inspiration from Nazi Germany ego the National Workers' Party of Great Britain, or the National Socialist Movement. Ironically, some of the early movements which accepted the fascist label borrowed the style and the trappings of fascism without disguising their true function as bizarre militants on the right of the Conservative Party. Since the war the term fascist is rarely used. Therefore, I have selected from the radical right those movements which have continued many of the policies and conform closely to the pattern of the classic fascist movements. The National Front has been included although I would argue that it is fascistic rather than fascist; its leadership owes much to the ideology of the German National Socialists, its economic policy to the example of the BUF, but the rank and me where they do DOt share the views of many on the right of the Conservatives have more iD common with certain regressive social movements like

Poujadism. '!be application of these principles has led to the appearance of such maqlna1 cases u the British People's Party (because it served as a link between two generations of fascists - many refugees from the BUF like Fuller, Chesterton, Beckett on the one hand, and later prominent aeo-NaziIsud.t as Colin Jordan) and the League of Empire Loyalists wIddl was in some ways a continuation of the British People's Party but could also appeal to many on the non-fascist right. In addition 1

certain pro-Nazi, anti-War and anti-Semitic movements (the link, the Right Club, and Militant Christian Patriots) have been included for the sake of completeness. In the sections on anti-Sernitism only works relevant to fascist anti-Semitism appear. 'Intellectuals and Fascism' could have been expanded to include T.S. Eliot, Roy Campbell, Ezra Pound and others but as none of these is technically British, I have used this as an excuse for skirting this particular quagmire.

Scope

The ephemeral nature of much of the material has made the compilation of a completely comprehensive bibliography impossible. It is largely based on the present holdings of British and foreign libraries and not on material which is no longer extant. My aim has been to cover as wide a range of printed material dealing with British fascism as possible including the actual publications of the fascist groups, the opinions of contemporaries concerning these groups and their members, and later, more objective, opinions. The following types of material have been excluded:(l) articles in periodicals appearing more frequently than weekly except in the case of Sir Oswald Mosley. (2) correspondence in periodicals except in the case of letters by Mosley. In the case of the following types of material, it has been necessary to be selective:(i) editorials (ii) book reviews (ill) shorter articles and notes of little historical interest (iv) articles in weeklies which are modelled on dally newspapers in content and format except in the case of works by Mosley. Editions other than the first have not been given individual entries but has been included in the form of notes to the fust edition. In the case of certain important translations. I have felt justified in giving them separate entries. I have not included all the writings of anybody merely because he happened to be a fascist but only those works which are relevant to fascism (except as explained above in the case of Mosley). Where whole periodicals have been listed in the fmal two sections, individual items from them have not normally been cited, except in the case of con.. tributions to Age ofPlenty, British Union QUIl1"terly, Fascist QUII1'terly, and The European by Mosley and articles in Pattern' ofPrejudice 8ftd the Wiener Library Bulletin. These I have considered too important to omit.

2

Purpose and Arrangement The purpose of this bibliography is to provide a source-book for the study of British fascism and its successors and of Sir Oswald Mosley. I have, therefore, thought it useful to provide an annotated bibliography and have also included a location for the less readily obtainable items. The arrangement of entries is by subject and within most sections alphabetical by heading. However, in the case of writings by Mosley, the arrangement is chronological by date of publication. Translations, where they are important enough to warrant a separate entry ~ have been placed in chronological order immediately after the original.

Information in each entry Books The first paragraph of each entry begins with the heading, ie. the author or editor or lacking that, the title. For pseudonyms I have entered under the best-known name and where this is the real name I have included the pseudonym in the body of the entry, using square brackets around the heading. Where an item has the same author as the previous one I have omitted to repeat the heading. The heading is followed in most cases by the full title (where this has not been used as the heading). In the few cases where alteration has been made, dots indicate omissions and square brackets additions. Following the main body of the entry I have given details of other editions published. In the notes I have attempted to indicate the scope of the work, its general viewpoint and bias, its importance and especially whether it contains information on particular movements or individuals, giving quotation where necessary. In a few cases I have not been able to see entries or verify details such as pagination. In these cases I have simply omitted pagination. Contributions to Periodicals The entries for periodical articles give title of periodical, volume or issue number, date and pages. Where a periodical shares a name with others, or is rather more obscure I have given in brackets the place of publication. . Periodicals The last two sections devoted to periodicals give as much information at pollible. I have attempted, where the information is available, to give title, subtitle, starting and closing numbers and dates, place of publication and publisher, continuations, absorptions and mergers, frequency, variations in title or subtitle, editor, changes of publisher. Appendix The appendix consists of a list of periodicals which for one or more of

3

the (1) (2) (3)

following reasons could not be included in the final section The periodical is not extant in any library Sufficient details of the periodical are not available The periodical is not primarily fascist in aim though it may have fascist connections, fascist undertones, or be marginally relevant to fascism. I have given in round brackets after the title the name of the organisation associated with the periodical where relevant and given as many details as can be traced, few though these be in most cases. Dates are approximate, only the surmised years when the periodical flourished being given.

Libraries used This bibliography is largely based on the collections of the British library Reference Museum, the British library of Political and Economic Science, the University of London Library, the Wiener Library, the National Library of Scotland, the Labour Party library, the Marx Memorial Library, the Union Movement, the Institute of Jewish Affairs, and the NCCL archive housed in Hull University library. I have also had occasion to use Leeds University Library, York University Library, Liverpool City Library, Glasgow Mitchell Library, Bradford City Library, and York Public Library as well as the resources of other libraries through inter-library loan.

Abbreviations AJ .EX. Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women B.M. B.N.P. B.P.L. B.U.F. G.B.M. G.M.L. H.U.LA.

JD.C. L.P. L.S.E. L.U.L. MM.L. N.F. N.C.C.L.

4

British Library Reference Division British National Party Bradford Public Library British Union of Fascists Greater Britain Movement Glasgow Mitchell Library Hull University Library Archives, National Council for Civil Liberties Archive Jewish Defence Committee Labour Party Library British Library of Political and Economic Science, London School of Economics Leeds University Library Marx Memorial Library National Front National Council for Civll Uberties

N.L.S.

N.P. N.SM. R.P.S. T.U.C. U.L.L. UM. W.L. Y.U.L.

National library of Scotland National Party of the United Kingdom National Socialist Movement Racial Preservation Society Trades Union Congress University of London library Union Movement Wiener library York University library

Acknowledgements As is obvious in a work of this sort I owe an enormous debt to a large number of people, particularly to the warm welcome and unstinting assistance which I received from Mrs. M. Johnson and the staff of the Wiener library (the only library where I have been offered a cup of tea), from Jeffrey Hamrn and Robert Row of the Union Movement, the librarians of the Labour Party library, the Institute of Jewish Affairs, the British library of Political and Economic Science, the BM., the National library of Scotland, Mr. Norman Higson of Hull University library, Rosine de Bounevialle, Henry Morris of AJ .E.x., and the General Secretary of N.C.C.L. among others. I thank Maggie !.awty and Anita Gowlett of York University Library for their patience in the face of my demands and Barbara Higginson and Carol Oxtoby for their excellent typing. Grateful acknowledgement is made to St. John's College and Hogarth Press for permission to reprint the translation of lines by Rilke used in What is Fascism?

5

WHAT IS FASCISM?

These impressionistic remarks are designed to present British fascism in the context of the wider fascist movement in the light of some of the more recent controversies surrounding the topic. It is in no way an attempt at a survey of British fascism which can be approached best through the works in the bibliography. Only two fascist or fascistic movements have attained any real importance in British politics, the BUF and the National Front; the rest like so many sub-atomic particles are notable for combining a very high energy with a very brief existence. Early in the 1920s a young Frenchman wrote an essay 'The Music Hall' in which he described men's livesas being theatrical and unreal in the post-war world.' The young Pierre Drieu La Rochelle was later to become the darling of French fascism in the PPF of Jacques Doriot. In his novel, Gllles, he complained of 'towns full of cinemas and cafes, brothels, newspapers, stock exchanges, political parties, and barracks'. 2 This kind of fascism was a 'counter-revolution against an industrial revolution which had uprooted man from the open country and cooped him up in the city'.3 That other hero of French fascism, Robert Brasillach called fascism a 'great moral revolution' , a revolution of the senses, an attempt to create a counter-civilisation against the allpervading corruption and materialism of liberal bourgeois democracy. Years later, after the demise of classical fascism, Guy Debord was to argue that life had become a show contemplated by an audience. 'To make the world a sensuous extension of man rather than have man remain an instrument of an alien world is the goal of the Situationist revolution'," What the Situationists called for was a total revolution against the 'Spectacle' defmed as 'the moment when the commodity has attained the total occupation of social life'.S The proletariat of Marx was enlarged to include anyone who has no control over the conditions of his existence. The targets were to be 'rapid transport systems, mopping centres, museums as well as the various new forms of culture and the media,.6 Debord's Society of the Spectacle is perhaps an advanced technological venion of Drieu's society of the music hall. The solution for Drieu was the purifying barbarism of fascism, for the Angry Brigade who acted in the name of SituationJsm it was the destruction of the 'Spectacle' and its offspring 'urbanism'.1s it not also possible to see in the concept of the Spectacle a modern variant of a conspiracy theory? 'The concept of the spectacle unifies and explains a great diversity of apparent phenomena'.' So does the National Front believe that 'global communism and global capitalism are not antagonists but co-partners'.' 7

Detecting parallels between apparently opposite extremist movements has become something of a cottage industry of late. The blind actionism and incipient anti-Semitism of the Baader-Meinhof gang, 9 the violent abstract idealism of a Rose Dugdale, Guevara's new man of will and action, heroic and vital, the refusal of many New Left groups to await the objective conditions for a revolution in favour of their creation by elite activists.l'' all these have obvious echoes in fascist theory or practice.!' This is not to suggest that these later movements are fascist but that features of the many faces of fascism can be linked with similar features of the many faces resulting from the erosion and metamorphosis of classical Marxism. It is to suggest that the political spectrum is circular rather than linear with the extremes of 'left' and 'right' occupying simultaneously adjacent and distant positions. Many have regretted the inadequacy of the concepts 'left' and 'right' and have suggested alternative categories which could better accommodate fascist movements. Weber suggests moderate and radical, theoretical and spontaneous as better categories. 12 The great transformation or reversal of ideas which occurred at the end of the nineteenth century and the failure of the process of transformism, 'the political neutralization of possible opposition from new social groups by eo-option of their respective political organizations into the power bloc',13 led to the appearance of a nationalism of the left, an authoritarianism of the right, and a socialism of the right. Conservatism was in certain countries altered from an 'aristocratic, cosmopolitan creed to a demagogic nationalist one'14 and at the same time was synthesized with certain heresies of the international socialist movement which arose in response to problems left unresolved by the theories of Marx and Engels. Fascism was the outcome of this climate of ideas which explains to some extent its appearance as Janus-faced, paradoxical and protean and that its variegated nature differed in each country according to peculiar factors of national experience. Despite the taxonomic diffICulties inherent in the species, it is still possible to detect 'family resemblances' in Wittgenstein's usage, between the various movements, that is, la complicated network of similarities f overlapping and criss-crossing: sometimes overall similarities, sometimes similarities of detail' .15 How far did movements of the traditional right, suffering from failures of perception and recognition, array themselves in the trappiDgs and paraphernalia of fascism without changing their basic orientation? Rothennere certainly blundered when he saw Mosley as a man of the right. The Croix de Feu in France, an ex-servicemen's movement like the Stahlhelm in Germany, dedicated to the support of the middle classes, adopted much of fascist style, but showed its true colours when

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it transformed itself into the PSF to support the Daladier government. In Finland, the People's Patriotic Movement, set up in 1932 as a nonparty bourgeois front opposed to social democracy and communism soon developed into a 'creative radical alternative' to communism; it declared itself to be closer to communism than to the regime of parties. 16 Is it surprising that the old right was confused? The Blueshirts in Ireland with the full panoply of a fascist movement turn out to have been 'a spontaneous reaction to counter the threat of anti-democratic forces' .17 Belgian Rexism, Professor Weber tells us, was 'political adventurism dressed up in currently-modish fancy clothes which happened to be fascist by historical coincidence' .18 Beware the imitations! How far was the BUF a copy of the Italian and later the Nazi model? Mostey's fascism arose autochthonously out of his economic and political analysis of the failure of British parliamentary democracy to solve chronic structural problem of the economy. Men like Doriot and Degrelle, the Belgian Rexist leader, responded as much to the indefmable 'spirit' of fascism as to its economic or social content, to the symbolic and emotional satisfactions of revolt, the leap in the dark; Degrelle on his return in SS uniform from the Russian front, declared that 'an army of young apostles, of young mystics, carried by a faith that nothing can check, will emerge one day from the great seminary of the Front' .19 True that Mostey often spoke in terms of the 'great adventure'; of the 'different spirit' of fascism from that of the old parties; GordonCanning compared the 'warrior spirit' of fascism to 'that of the nightclub'. The BUF under Mostey's influence, however, was always highly programmatic. Mostey believed in producing detailed policies despite evidence of pragmatism in getting the policies across to the people. I referred earlier to the Janus-faced and protean qualities of fascism, its apparent ability not only to synthesize elements of both 'right' and 'left' but its facility for changing shape. Skidelsky comments that 'Mosley was often to remark that the ability to assume as many shapes u Proteus is an indispensable requirement for political leadership in the modem age'.20 This process has already been noted at work in movements like Croix de Feu and the Finnish People's Patriotic Movement but perhaps the best example is the career of George Valois, founder of le Faisceau (the first of the true French fascist movements) which traced an Jnelegant parabola from support for Action Fran~, through uatloaalsyndicalism, to disillusion with fascism and the adoption of a 40ctrine cloaer to socialism, finally ending in a German concentration CIDIP for the crime of Gaullism. Tlte two movements which achieved power for any sustained period, tile Italian and Gennan, both mutated into different animals from their orIgIna1 manifestations under the pressure of the exigencies and compromises necessary to attain power. A fundamental distinction has to

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be made between fascism as movement and as regime, between origin and later development. British fascism can, of course, only be studied in its movement phase but the BUF did evolve from its earlier, more pragmatic, Italian-influenced beginning towards a more National Socialist doctrinaire orientation. To Mosley they were sister movements within one universal upsurge; to others Italian fascism was born on the left with the purpose of mobilizing the classless masses in the cause of national regeneration and was modernizing in intention, while National Socialism was an extreme revolt against the modern industrial world 21 or a pathological response to the welfare problems of a consumerorientated post-industrial society.21. However they are analysed, the two were very different movements.P Before we move any further we should perhaps clarify the position on the right. Weber has categorized three types, the right of reaction which opposes itself to the tendencies of the present (Maurras and Poujade), the right of resistance to change (most conservative moderately reforming parties) and the radical right which is for revolutionary change. He also suggests that the three can often be reconciled through confusion as to their differences. So with the two extremes of left and right which can achieve rapprochement 'by the temporary conjunction of their hatreds'. On this last point Weber adds:- Whatever their ultimate intentions, activists of any ilk find themselves involved in similar campaigns, similar organizational and didactic problems, so that the sociopolitical dynamism of their enterprise is stronger than the verbal differences between them'. 2A A British example of the confusion of the R's is the National Front which can accommodate all three and is therefore only fascistic. It should be clear that the regimes of Salazar in Portugal, Horthy in Hungary, Petain in France, and Franco in Spain although superficially fascist in some aspects of style do not belong to the radical right which alone is entitled to be called fascist. In fact, as is frequently noted, many of these regimes neutralized, destroyed or absorbed the true fascists. A British example of the uneasy proximity of extremes is the smooth evolution of Mosley and some of his supporters from the UP to faldsm and the recruitment of Communists. Roger Corbet of the Birmingham branch did the return trip after his departure from the BUF. Nor can we forget that one of the 'Shrewsbury Two' had earlier been a member of the NF or that Mike Lobb, a former Front parliamentary candidate hid been a Communist. In Hungary the Communist Party ordered It, followers to vote for the Anow Cross Movement25 and as a result in the 'Red' Csepel district of Budapest two Arrow Cross deputies wereelected in May 1939.26 Eros confirms this fluctuation of worker elements between extremes of left and right.21 Many of the Arrow Cross small-

10

fry switched to the Communists after the 'liberation' of Hungary by the Red Army thus boosting enormously the membership figures. In Britain, Phil Piratin recalling the Communist Party's campaign against landlord evictions says that 'BUF membership cards were destroyed voluntarily and in disgust' when they 'learned the real meaning of the class struggle,.28 The French Communist leader Thorez called the members of the fascist leagues 'sons of the people' while the ex-Communist Doriot retained a large part of his working-class constituency in S1. Denis when he turned fanatically against the Party in favour of fascism. Can fascism have been anything but revolutionary? Mosley saw it as coming from the left but in opposition to social democracy which had weakness inherent in its structure; it was 'equally remote from stand-pat Conservatism and woolly-headed socialism or destructive Cornmunism'r" 'I am not and never have been a man of the right. My position was on the left and is now in the centre'.30 This latest theme of Mosley's can be seen in Action's current concern with Union Movement as a movement of the 'hard centre', that is the 'realistic centre' in the sense in which Mostey had earlier declared: 'Fascism has answered a flabby theory with an iron fact' .31 Fascism often found itself in fact aspiring towards the centre although everywhere it claimed to be outside the political spectrum. Drieu in 1934 called for a Third Party of the most virile members of left and right. Mosley himself was influenced by Schelling's idea of the 'higher third' evolving out of opposites. Peron, too, who may be populist or fascist according to taste, considered his Justicialism as a third way between the two 'redemptive' movements of the twentieth century, communism and fascism. This third way was a reflection of the late arrival of fascism on the political scene when the party system in most countries had already crystallized. 32 It needed to emphasize its metapolitical aspects in order to recruit from a broad spectrum of the masses. It saw itself as a movement of reconciliation, unity, and class collaboration which 'excludes the possibility of collaboration with any old party because the psychologies of the old parties are irreconcilable with revolutionary Fascism,.33 'You cannot put the new wine of the new world into the old bottles of the old world', as Mostey put it. John Tyndall of the National Front stresses his arriviste position: 'We do not stand on the richt of the Tory Party any more than we stand in any kind of proximity to the Labour Party ... that is why we seek power for ourselves'.34 Fatetam was the movement of the new men, often the young and the ex....-ricemen, whose experiences in the trenches had put them above party and ClUB and in opposition to the previous generation. Can we take the fascists at their word when they called themselves revolutionary or were they counter-revolutionary? Did they want an alternative revolution or merely an alternative to revolution? , Weber

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asks. 3S Mosley wanted a revolution of sorts but what are we to make of Major-General Fuller's view that 'though a revolutionary philosophy, fascism is politically a counter-revolutionary instrument,?36 Here we leave the door open for a variety of Marxist arguments that fascism is 'authoritarian populism harnessed with the support of bourgeois forces to defend capitalism by totalitarian means' .37 In Fuller's case we are more likely to be dealing with a further confusion of the three rights, a failure of recognition by a man who displayed 'a combination of scientific individualism and aristocracy' .38 In Hungary after 1936 a coalition running the whole spectrum from aristocrats to representatives of organised labour stood for domestic peace, order, and historic values, while the National Socialist right 'argued for social reform, an end to feudalism and capitalism, and the necessity of a close alliance with a triumphant Germany' .39 Sz81asi, the Arrow Crossleader wrote some very radical articles in New Hungarian Worker, between 1929 and 1945 and was in 1937 considered the brightest hope of frustrated revolutionaries.t" Where there was no effective left most of the accumulated social discontent was expressed through the radical right in a thoroughly revolutionary manner. As Weber has said:- 'In countries like Romania and even Hungary, fascist movements appear in quite a different guise from that with which we are familiar in the west: not because their slogans or activities were very different, but because their role was different. They were free to act as the radical and revolutionary movement they never clearly became in the West'.41 Even in the West it would be absurd to see Mostey or Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera as the tools of monopoly capitalism and this had been admitted by a number of recent Marxist commentators. Vajda seems to echo Korsch's viewthat Italian fascism as a progressive alternative springing from a situation where proletarian revolution had failed to come about and liberal democracy proved itself inadequate to the task of securing satisfactory economic growth.42 Laclau adopts the Althusserianconcept of interpelJations to argue that 'fascism was a popular radical discourse, neutralized by the bourgeoisieand transformed by it into its political discourse in a period of crisis'.43 Both these views are admissions of the radical and revolutionary nature of fascism. The question of whether fascism was truly revolutionary, counterrevolutionary or pseudo-revolutionary can hardly be separated from the related problem of whether it was modernizing in intention or regreaive, 'utopian anti-modernism,.44 The NSDAPin Germany did not reject the developing industrial state but used it in its pursuit of pure politfcl, the search for that 'primacy of politic.. which it succeeded in eltablWdna in power.4! However, in itl movement stage it was the outcome of the complexities of a society which had suffered a rapid but patchy and incomplete process of industrialization; it wu a protest against the

12

direction of change towards what has been called 'organized capitalism' or liberal corporatism in which the broker state mediates between powerful organized pressure groupS.46 It was for this reason that the Nazis 'did not emerge in politics merely as the rival of the workers' parties but rather as that power which was committed to crushing them'.47 Those groups working for the overthrow of the whole Weimar organised capitalist state had to ensure that the working class movement would never again be able to wield the influence which had gained it wide socio-economic privileges. The alternative the Nazis offered was that package of volkisch, social racialist, and aggressive nationalist ideas which shifted the arena of struggle from a classperspective to one of race and nation. So irrational did the racialobsession become that it marks a profound difference with Italian fascism which sought a strong state as an end in itself. Nazi'socialism' was that form of regressive anticapitalism more vehement in its rhetoric than revolutionary in its practice, which has as its aim social justice, not as an end in itself, but as a means to attain unity, integration and expansion. Whereas German National Socialism with its vision of a romanticized Volksgemeinschaft and its idealisation of those pre-industrial types, the peasant and the soldier, tended (although ambiguously) to be a reaction against post-industrial society, Italian fascism was in its three main components, revolutionary nationalism,futurism, and national syndicalism, an ideology of developing industrialization.A. lames Gregor has convincingly argued the case for Italian fascism as a 'mass-mobilizing developmental dictatorship under single-party auspices' whose appearance was the result of delayed or thwarted industrialization and modernization. It belongs,he concludes,with a classof movements occurring today in the Third World, African socialism, Nasserism, Castroism or Maoism to say nothing of the 'Red' fascism of Stalin.4& If we do postulate two breeds of fascism, an adolescent fascism appropriate to modernizing under-developed societies, as in Italy, and a fascism of postindustrial communities as in Germany, a consequence of the deterioration and crlsis of mature capitalism,how do we account for the situation in Britainwhere clearly Mostey was an 'authoritarian modemizer'49 in a mature indUltrial society whilst at the sametime a quest for modernity fluctuated with a revolt against the dislocating processof unplanned capltalimt under the aegis of liberal democracy? W.B.D. AlIen,one of Mosley's collaborators, spoke of fascism as a 'reIctIon against the demoralizing effect of the mechanistic conditions of life which the uneontrolled development of modem capitalismhas produced'.50 We find British fascism facing both ways at once. The 101ution to the paradox may be contained in Weber'. idea that .. nolta1gia for thinp past Informsmost visions of the future'. 51 Althouah the mix is different from country to country, facism wu 13

everywhere rational and irrational; forward-looking and reactionary, revolutionary and counter-revolutionary. In the case of the BUF the synthesis was never quite resolved between the 'left' representing the first factor and the 'right' representing the second. The right, (Chesterton, Joyce, Fuller, etc.) was obsessed with the problems of moral degeneration and national dec1ines2 whilst the left was more concerned with the failures of capitalism which could be overcome by a drive towards autarchy and a rationalized state. 'If you love our country you are national, if you love our people you are a socialist', said Mosley,S3 'a rich enough mix to set all the engines of history backfiring', as Deat commented on another occasion." The battle between the two elements was fought out in the Italian and British movements but not in the German NSDAP. Richard Verrall of the NF made this revealing remark in Spearhead for December/January 1976, referring to the so-called 'populist' element within the party:'The emergence of these ideas within the NF represents ... the perennial heresy of Nationalist politics, it was preached before by the National Bolsheviks and National Syndicalists, by the Strasser faction of the early Nazi party and by syndicalist groups on the Italian right. It is Marxism in the guise of Nationalism'. The 'socialist' element has never been prominent in the NF even among the break-away 'populists'; to take it seriously would be as mistaken as to speak of the Nazi Left which was little more than an example of the party's 'strategic opportunism ... it was the workers' wing within the movement as a whole' .55 Perhaps what Verrall was referring to was the difference between ideological purity and opportunism. Verrall's colleague Martin Webster once extolled the 'Party as the servant of the Idea' in an article attacking ideological pragmatism. S6 Most of the rank and file NF supporters would respond like the seasonal workers, members of the Scythe Cross movement, Istvan Kovacs met in Hungary in 1934 'who repeated "we fight for the Idea" ... but were unable to tell what "the Idea" was about. They hated the Communists and the Gentlemen'."? How far is it possible to establish the attitude to modernization as a taxonomic principle which could be applied to fascist movements? Milller has written a challenging article on French fascism suggesting that 'a number of significant phenomena, hitherto classified more or less unreflectingly as fascist, are better understood as responses and reactions to manifest shortcomings in traditional French capitalism and to certain factors inherent in the system which were hindering France'. development into an advanced industrial society'. He highlights the lack of co-operation between industry and the state and the structural discrepancies between modem and traditional sectors of the economy. Valois, founder of Le Faisceau, the fust of the genuinely fascist movements in France, wanted a rational organization of production with

14

revolutionary social implications. Muller concedes that certain fascist or semi-fascist movements were socially reactionary and anti-modern, for example, the 'fascisme vert' of Dorgeres and the imitatory fascism of Bucard's Francistes. However, certain industrialists who wanted to establish co-operation between government and a technical, industrial elite to create a modern bourgeois economy were prepared to back those fascist movements which they saw as achieving this. 58 How can both these types of 'fascism', the modernizing and the backward-looking be subsumed under the name fascism? The link between the two, leaving aside the intractable terminological problem, may be found in the ambivalent position of the urban and rural petty bourgeoisie, the class that almost everywhere formed a very substantial segment of the support for all shades of fascism. It is best described as a class fraction or an agglomeration that exists on the fringes of the productive process." Its anomalous position between big business and the organized working class is founded on the 'illusion of independence'. 'From this illusive consciousness and from their perennial insecurity arises the oscillation between conservatism and radicalism which is characteristic of the petite-bourgeoisie ... they cannot entirely identify themselves or make common cause with either of the other two classes,.60 In the 19208 and 1930s this oscillation veered drastically towards what Laclau has called 'the jacobinization of the petty bourgeoisie' .61 The ideological equivalent of this process of identification in the economic sphere is the pendular motion between realism and romanticism. Poujadism (not a true fascism) is a classical example of the petty bourgeoisie in its anti-modern reactionary but realistic mood. Weber guesses that the Poujadists would have preferred a Croix de Feu to a Deat or a DoOOt.62 It was a rebellion against the technological imperatives of modem industrial society, against the 'System' seen as a conspiracy of supercapitalism, alien international finance, state socialism, and the technocrats.63 It was realistic in that its economic objectives remained paramount; it never developed a metapolitical romanticized racial ideology al did the Nazis. Different, too, were the socio-economic circumstances of the disintegration of society in Gennany in the 1930s; the Poujadlsts were pockets of tragedy in a booming economy.64 The National Front supporters conform much more to the latter description althoUlh the social base appears to be working class rather than petty

bourpoil. The IOCfal composition of the fascist movements still causes controwny. Whereas most are agreed on the overwhelminS middle-class iD'VOlvement in fascism (the main exception beinB the Romanian Legion of the Archansel Michael which recruited Iarsely from peasants and poor Itudents), other sub"lfoups were equally affected by the traumas of modernization or the post.indultrial crisis, the II18IJinal agricultural

IS

classes, the deracine, the youthful unemployed, the 'conservative' workers. Industrial workers are reported to have made up 50 per cent of the Hungarian Arrow Cross movement in 1937 at a time when only 23 per cent of the population were working in industry although it has been claimed that these were the lower strata of the working classes, the unemployed,the unskilled, and the unorganised artisans and their journeymen." Tim Mason has identified three groupsof wage earners who supported the NSDAP, firstly the young lumpenproletarians who manned the SA, secondly the public service 'uniformed' workers, and thirdly in the provinces those who followed the example of their social superiors. 66 He stresses that the workers were under-represented in the NSDAP. However, we should remember the Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei which before the First World War recruited many German nationalist workers in Bohemia where they faced competition with Czech workers." The middle class was probably predominant in the BUF. A glance through the newspaper cuttings me of the NCCL archive in Hull University reveals a consistent pattern among those BUFmembers charged with offencesagainst public order. Occupationslike shoe manufacturer, waitress, woodworker, constantly recur. The leadershipsuggests a high degree of restlessness, of marginal professional men, the jublic school unemployed,and inevitably the young and ex-military .6 Reynell Bellamy returned to fmd the country in a mess,69 not the last to do so if we recall the recent caseof the Rev. Spong, who returned from Rhodesia to join the NF.?O The small owners and the small unorganized craftsmen,especially in industrial areas,were particularly vulnerable." However, as Skidelsky asserts,the 'BUF certainly did become more proletarian after 1934'.72 Where trade unionism was weak as amongthe Lancashire textile workers or traditionally nationalist (the seamen),the BUF hoped to get a toe-hold. The fascist threat clearlycaused apprehension in the ranks of the National Unemployed Workers' Movement." The National Front is an altogether more proletarian phenomenon than the BUF. Harrop and Zimmerman have testified to the disproportionate support it receives from the working class, the poorly educated and the young74 although a more middle class kind of Frontism can be seen both in areas like the South coast resorts and among the embattled newly-mortgaged owner-occupiers aurrounded by council estates and decaying terracea.75 Perhaps Dam Bdgar is dght when he remarks that the NF is forced to penetrate the worldna dass becaule.of the lack of an independent petty bourgeoisie." Perhaps the NP, rather than beq a survival of pr....ar fascllm (despite the ideologically National Socla1ist predilectionsof the leadership) is a new populilt movementwhich mJaht at lQt have found a social constituency, the result of paralyzin& staaflation, the high IOCia1 vilibDity of iInmJIratJon, 16

the neglect and decay of the inner cities, and the resentments caused to vulnerable groups by their imagined exclusion from the processes of the broker state. The comparison with Poujadism is instructive, less so the analogy with McCarthyism. Both have often been ascribed to status anxieties. However, Rogin has demonstrated that J oseph McCarthy'~ supporters were neither more status anxious nor more authoritarian than the rest of the electorate."? Douglas Schoen's study of Enoch Powell comes to the conclusion that Powellism cannot be explained in terms of status worries. These movements took up a particular issue which neither of the two major.rearties was prepared to take up (immigration in the case of Powellism). 8 If the supporters of Powellism and McCarthyism 'were not part of a vague populist movement willing indiscriminately to support someone on the right or left,79 it is not clear that this description can be applied to the Front. Populism can be assigned the following characteristics: 1. An emphasis on the common people and their virtue 2. A mistrust of the old gang, often seenas a conspiratorial elite and resulting in anti-intellectualism 3. Belief in the unmediated sovereignty of the people manifesting itself, either as a direct relationship between the leader and the mass-base, or as a plebiscitary enthusiasm 4. A hostility to the status quo expressed in vague reformist rather than social revolutionary terms and a tendency to call for simple solutions S. The direction of hostility to an outside group during periodsof crisis. The parallels with the NF are self-evident. However, we should be carefulto notice that populist movements of an authoritarian kind sometimes use populistic ideasto create 'some kind of elitist or socially or racially unequal regime something totally incompatible with the fundamental faith •.. of the real populist movements' .80 Hitlerexpressed a real contempt for the masses which wu incompatible with the spirit of genuine populism. Neither should we forget that North American populilm, despite a strain of anti-semitism, xenophobiaand 'funnymoney' IOlutions to economicproblems, was on the wholea progressive force.1! A further area of controversy concernsthe nature of fascist 'socialJIm'• How pnuine was the socialist component in the national socialist IfJlthelia, Nazi 'lIOCia1iIm' was not in the mainstream of modem eeleI.. thought. It was the lOCiaIJsm of those occupied In small bust.... artiIanJ employed in trade and handicraft., and of Mason'. three Jroupl of wap earners. Nazi socialism is better labelled social racialiam, a IUCCelmr to that 'SoziaUImUI der blOdtn Mannel' (the socialism of the blockhead) a term which Kronowetter, or wu it Debet (or Adler or 17

Pernerstorfer) applied to anti-Semitism and later to that combination of anti-Semitism with economic and social populism to be found in Schonerer's Pan-Gerrnanism.V It was no coincidence that this social racialism envisaged a category of producers, workers of brain and hand, ranged against the anonymous powers of banking and finance. The enemy was the organized working class more than the financial interests because these middle class enrages were denied adequate machinery for collective bargaining. This was not the first or last time that a threatened social class or sub-class had turned to an irrational racialist ideology to raise their self-esteem. The socialist element in Italian fascism, in contrast, despite inevitable similarities with the practice of German national socialism, was, in origin, a legacy of the confusions and unanswered questions of classical Marxism. 83 Italian fascism was born on the left. 84 The flrst generation of fascists struggled with the twin problems unresolved by Marx of the unrevolutionary proletariat and the accommodation of nationalism into the process of revolutionary mobilisation. 8s Fascists as diverse as Drieu La Rochelle and Robert Michels wanted to restore to socialism a psychological dimension based on the fact that men are moved by passions and emotions. Mussolini was influenced by Gustave Le Bon who was absorbed by the psychological dimensions of crowd behaviour and mass mobilisation. 'Feeling alone gives to abstract terms ... hands, wings, feet', Hamann had declared in the eighteenth century; 'sentiments are the dynamic motives of human actions', echoed Mussolini in the twentieth. An alternative socialist tradition to that of Marx has always existed; Fourier began with 'the given and unalterable natural passions of the human being' .86 Bakunin, too, understood something of the symbolic elan necessary for the focusing of revolutionary feeling. 'We need something different, storm and vitality and anew, lawless, and consequently free world' .&7 Drieu referred to fascism as a 'pro_ foundly human reaction against the narrowness of Marxism'. Mostey saw himself in his early socialist days as a LassaDean rather than a Marxist;88 Lassalle spoke of 'love' and 'reconciliation' in opposition to ag the abrasiveness of class conflict. There was an innate tendency in fascist practice for the qualities necessary for revolution, action, faith and will to become separated from the revolutionary end and valued as pure style in themselves. The irrationalism of much fascism was the playing out of the Sorelian dIctum that myths are determinations to act, not descriptions of thJnp.. The appeal to vitality, to passion, and to action for its own sake, and to a quasi~eligioUB faith became a substitute for real social content and led to the launching of short-term revolt at the expense of long-term revolution. Dotiot confessed that the e4:0nomtc doctrines of the ppp were 'insufficient and flabby compared to the eneraY and force of Ita

18

members,.90 Drieu regarded political activism 'as a means of regenerating his moi, as a way of revitalizing his existence' .91 Though the place of irrationalism in fascist thought and practice has received much attention, the converse impulse towards rationalism, scientific theory, and the statistical state has not always been given due weight. Skidelsky contrasts WJ. Leaper's view of the fascist state as the 'statistically ruled state' with the idea of fascism as 'an orgasm of the soul of modern man which will bring forth in the end a new life, strange and beautiful and strong'. He comments: 'After the orgasm what? The statistical state? A depressing prospect'. It was a dilemma which fascism never resolved'.92 According to George Valois, to the bourgeois 'brandishing his contracts and statistics - two plus two makes ... - Nought the barbarian replies, smashing his head in' .93 Yet Valois on other occasions talked of the fascist state as being instituted to 'rationally organize production'. Mosley, who was not averse to the use of irrationalism to mobilize the masses (his anti-Semitism), was essentially on the side of science, the rational analysis of society, and the efficient state. 'Nothing but the rationalized state can hope to overcome the problem created by rationalized Industry'." The BUF also attracted the 'narrow rationality' of J .F .C. Fuller. 95 David Beetham in a recent article argues that Robert Michels' theory of fascism was a scientific theory and not a revolt against reason." Throughout Mostey's career his enemy was 'fmance capitalism' not 'productive capitalism'. His fascism, along with the neo-socialtsm of Deat in France and the socialism of Henri de Man, President of the Belgian Workers' Party, who saw the New Order in Europe as an opportunity to implement his vision, was concerned more with managing capitalism than destroying it. 'Capitalism is the system by which capital uses the nation for its own purposes. Fascism is the system by which the nation uses capitalism for its own purposes'. 97 De Man and Mosley both strugled for a strong executive at the expense of the legislature. The IIeCOnd generation of Western European fascists wanted a sOcialism that was modern, national, and authoritarian. If there was a 'left' fucism this was it. Uke their Italian predecessors they called for a repnerative uni.tY of all those preyed upon by finance capital. The eaence of the new socialism was expressed by that deserter from the ILP, John Scanlon: 'The workJng director, the technician, the man. r , the foreman, and worker, all have an identity of interest ... if they could .combine to produce for use, they could end the fear of poverty and the fear of war tomorrow'.· Another who embraced fUCllm though never denying hiSlOcIaUsm, wu Hugb RolS Wmiamson. He COIlduded that capitaUlm 'has let its two opponents (fascism and ~ ) at each others throats'." 19

In extension of this last point, how far was fascism presented with an opportunity by the failures of orthodox socialism? Lac1au believes that fascism arose partly from a crisis of the working class movement, from its failure to present itself to the popular classes as a whole, and from its pressure group mentality. 100 Mason and others point to the failure of the SPD and KPD in Gennany to respond to the crisis with new nonsectarian strategies. lOt The SPD kept up its ritualistic hostility to the bourgeoisie instead of buildingbridges. 'What are we to think' said Mostey, about the Labour Party, 'of a Salvation Army which takes to its heels on the day of judgement'. The democratic socialist movement everywhere in Western Europe had lost its vision and become bureaucratized and corporatized. The Arrow Crossmovement in Hungary performed a function for workers excluded from the socialist Trade Unions which served only skilled workers in heavy industry and large plants. Thus fascism, itself a transformation of one species of socialism, appeared in part as a reaction to the shortcomings of another species. The last and most persistent paradox associated with the fascist experience is encapsulated in Keith Kyle's description of one of Mosley's speechesduring his 1959 campaign to be elected for the North Kensington constituency. His speech contained a 'high road' and a 'low road'; the high road argued rationally for compulsory free passage to the West Indies for immigrants, while the low road clothed in fancy words the fouler thoughts of the audience.un A variation of this theme is expressed in Nicholas Mosley's interview in The Guardian of June 29, 1971 in which he says of his father Cl see clearly that while the right hand dealt with grandiose ideas and glory, the left hand let the rat out of the sewer'. On the one hand the revolution of the 'total man' (Deat), the glory of a new civilisation, the appeal to sacrifice, discipline,the heroic virtues, and the chivalrous code of the medievallaUght,on the other the unspeakable reality of the S.8. and the Mi1ice.1t was a short step from the 'all or nothing' philosophy of a D~grelle to the ovensof Auschwitz. Fascist magic, the histrionics, the entry into a world of metaethics made all excesses poSSIble. Dante Germino in a review of A. James Gregor's book The Ideology ofFascism took the author to task for omitting the 'deep scars' left by Italian fascism. 103 Grelor replied in a later book that he had catalogued neither fascist horrors nor socialist horrors. 'Only if one could provide a defensibledistinction between the mall murder of Jews and the mill rrmrder of kulaks or landed aentry could inteDigent discussion c:ommence' .104 Both totalitarian creeds are perhaps gulty of belnl t.mbIa limpll/kflteur" their appeal lying in their attempt to silence 'the thousand incoherent and strugg1.ing voices' to which Mol1ey referred. In the first of the Five Hymns, AuJUst 1914, RJlke wrote of the impact of

war: 20

, ... ihn, der noch eben hundert stimmen vernahm, unwissend, welche im Recht sei, wie erleichert ihn jetzt der einige Ruf' 'he who has stood perplexed in the web of a hundred contradictory voices oh, how the single call has lightened his life'}OS

In the end we must ask: with Melvin Lask:y 'what philosoorhy can mediate between utopian longings and humane commitments?'} Notes 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

7. 8. 9.

10.

Frank Field. Three French writer» and the Great War: studies in the rise of Communism and Fascism. Cambridge, V.P., 1975. p, 82. Quoted in Zeev Sternhell. 'Fascist ideology' in Waiter Laqueur, ed. Fascism: a reader's guide. London, Wildwood House, 1976. p. 339. Stemhell, op, cit, p. 341. Gordon Carr, The Angry Brigade. London, Gollancz, 1975. p. 20. Guy Debord.The society of the Spectacle. Detroit, Black &. Red, 1970. Section 42. Raoul Vaneigem. The revolution of everyday life. London, Action Books, 1971. The response of Marinetti and the Futurists, those founders of Italian fascist style, to high culture was to 'destroy the museums, libraries, and ... deliver Italy from its canker of professors, archaeologists, cicerones and antiquaries'. Initial Manifesto of Futurism, 1909. Debord,op. cit. Section 10. John Tyndall in Spearhead, April 1972. p. 6. See the testimony of Ulrike Membof at the Mahler Trial quoted in Wiener Library Bulletin Vol. 26 No. 3/41972/3. p. 65. 'Anti-Semitic Germans are today the supporters of the Red Army Faction, unconscious supporters, however, sbnply because no-one has bothered to absolve them of fascism and the murder of the Jews and to explain to them that anti-Semitism is in reality hatred of capitalism'. See am Melvin J. Lasky. 'Ulrike Meinhof and the Baader-Meinhof gang'. Encounter June 1975. pp. 9-23. One example of this among many is the Manifesto of SaQr Eire quoted in RedMole Vol. 2 No. 10. June 1. 1971. p. 8. 'The objective conditions for a revolution must not be waited upon but must be created from the material already exiJtina. The inability or unwil1in8ness of any party or group and their lack of success in this field has made it imperative to create small armed aroupinal who can take an active part in creatina thOle necessary

coDdWon•

11. On 11111 topic lenerally see A. J ames Greeor. The FtI,ci,t p.'Uluion in Ttldlctll politic&. Princeton. U.P., 1974 and R. Lowenthal. 'Unreason and revolution', Encountel' Vol. 33 No. 5 Nov. 1969. pp. 22-34. 12. Eupn Weber. Introduction to No. 10 in the bibliography. p. 3. U. Etneato Ladau./lbltlic, tlnd Ideology In .rxllt theory: Ctlpitllltma, "1dIm, popu1llm. London, New Left Boolca. 1977. p. lIS. 14. Robert Soucy.FtllCiIm In France.' the Ctl,eofMllurice 1JIur1.. Berkeley, U.

Of California P.,1972. p. 16. U. Ludwil Wittaemlt• • PhllolOphlcal inveltigations; 3rd ed. Oxford, Blackwell, 1967. Sections 66-67.

21

Marvin Rintala. 'Finland' in no. lOin the Bibliography. p. 437. Maurice Manning. The Blueshlrts. Dublin, Gill and Macmillan, 1970. If we must look for fascism in Ireland a better candidate would be the I.R.A.. Sinn Fein has long been recognised as populist; was not its militarized wing at least fastistoid with its extra-parliamentary national socialism, its support among the smaller, poorer, and more backward farmers, its military structure, violent nature, and even its racism? C/p this passage from Sean O'Callaghan, The Easter Lily: the story of the I.R.A. London, Wingate, 1956. pp. 199-200. 'They [the I.R.A.) see the country being invaded by coloured men who come to study at the universities and very often ... deprive Irishmen of places at its own universities ... As this brigade commandant said to me: "What we need in Dublin is a fiery cross and a couple of niggers hanging from a lamp post".' See E. Rumpf and A.C. Hepburn. Nationalism and socialism in Twentieth Century Ireland. Liverpool, V.P., 1977. Eugen Weber. 'Revolution, counter-revolution, what revolution?, in Waiter Laqueur, op. cit. p. 446. Quoted in Eugen Weber. Varieties 0/ Fascism. Pnnceton, Van Nostrand, 1964. p. 42. See No. 697 in the Bibliography. p, 165. Henry Ashby Turner. 'Fascism and modernization', World Politics Vol. 24 No. 4. July 1972. pp. 547-564. A.F .K. Organski. The stages of political development. New York, Knopf, 1965. pp. 170-171. See A. James Gregor, op. cit. and the same author's 'Fascism and modernization: some addenda', World Politics. Vol. 26.

1973/4. pp. 370-384. p. 382.

·

• •

• •

See Renzo de Felice. Interpretations of Fascism. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard V.P., 1977. Eugen Weber. Introduction to No. 10. p. 19. C.A. Macartney. October Fifteenth: a history of modern Hungary. 192945; 2nd ed, Edinburgh, U.P., 1961. Part 1. p. 350. Istvan Deak. 'Hungary' in No. 10. p. 392. J. ErGs in No. 696. p. 137. See No. 128. See No. 532. See No. 636. See No. 539. Juan J. Linz. Some notes toward a comporlltlve study offascism in IOcloIot/CdI historical perspective in Walter Laqueur, op. ctt. pp. 4-8. Fllletst QUIlI't.')'. Vol. 1. No. 3. 1935. p. 258. Speorhesd, August 1970. Eugen Weber. 'Revolution, counter revolution, what revolution?' op. cit. pp. 435-63. See No. 232. See, for example, Peter R. Sinclair. 'Fascism and crisis in capitalist society', New Ger"",n Oitique. No. 9. Fall 1976. pp. 87-112. See No. 84. Istvan Deak, op. elt. pp. 380-81. C.A. Macartftey, op. cit. pp. 184-86. EUlen Weber. *The men of the Archangel' ,Jouf1llll of CbntempofGI'Y Hl.tory. VoL 1. No.t. 1966. pp.IOI-1U. Mihaly Vajell. FlllCilm '" 11 ",." mo,ement. Londoa. ADiaoa and Butby,

1976.

22



· • • • •

• •

Ernesto Laclau, op. cit., p. 142. Henry Ashby Turner, op. cit, Tim Mason. The primacy of politics: politics and economics in National Socialist Germany', in SJ. WooIf, ed. The nature of Fascism. London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1968. pp. 165-195. Charles S. Maier. Recasting bourgeois Europe. Princeton, V.P., 1975. p. 592-93. Tim Mason. 'National Socialism and the working class, 1925-May 1933', New German Critique. No. II Spring 1977. pp. 49-93. A. James Gregor. Interpretations offascism. Morristown, General Learning Pr., 1974 and The Fascist persuasion in radical politics, op. cit. Henry Ashby Turner, op. cit. p. 562. See No. 212 p. 225. Eugen Weber, Revolution. counter-revolution, what revolution? op. cit. p. 454. See especially Nos. 219 and 236. See No. 567 p. 57. Quoted in Sternhell, op. cit, p. 337. Tiro Mason. 'National Socialism and the working-class'. op. cit. p. 66. Spearhead. Jan. 1975. Istvan Deak, op. cit, p. 385. Klaus-J urgen Muller. 'French fascism and modernization', Journal of Contemporary History. Vol. 11. No. 4 October 1976 pp. 75-107. Laclau, op, cit. C.B. Macpherson. Democracy in Alberta: social credit and the party system; 2nd ed. Toronto. V.P.• 1962. pp. 225-27. Laclau, op. cit. p. 119. Eugen Weber. Introduction to No. 10. p. 14. Sean Fitzgerald. 'The anti-modern rhetoric of Le Mouvement Poujade', Review of Politics. Vol. 32. 1970. pp. 167 -190. Eugen Weber, op. cit, p. 14. Istvan Deak, op. cit. p. 397. Tiro Mason, op. cit. pp. 67-69. Andrew Whiteside. A ustrian National Socialism before 1918. The Hague, Nijhoff, 1962. pp. 87 -Ill. See No. 697 pp. 317-21 and No. 172. See No. 697. p. 320. The 7Ymes. October 16 1977 p. 2 & October 17 1977 p. 1. See No. 697. p. 317. J effrey Hamm, a teacher who joined the BUF in the industrial valleys of Wales, claims that he was an early Angry Young Man dillUsted by the treatment meted out by the Courts to miners accused of Itealq coal. His nationalist (British) background acquired from his father disposed him to the BUF rather than to Labour or the Communist Party. Interview with Jeffrey Hamm. See No. 697:p. 320. See No. 170. See No. 402. See No. 438. See No. 396. MichaeI Rosin. The intellectUIJIs and McCflrthy: the radiall 'Peeter. ~mbridse, Mau., MJ.T. Pr., 1967. pp. 219-251. Doqlas Schoen. Enoch PoweU IInd the PoweUttel. London, MacmUlan, 1971. pp. 158-9.

23

ibid., p. 158. Sir Isiah Berlin. 'To define populism', Government and Opposition. Vol. 3 1968.p.I77. For conflicting views on North American populism see Victor Ferkiss. 'Populist influences on American fascism', Western Political Quarterly. Vol. ID. No. 2 1957. pp. 350-373. and W.T.K. Nugent. The tolerant populists: Kansas populism and Nativism. Chicago, U.P., 1963. Andrew Whiteside. The socialism of fools: Georg Ritter von Schonerer and Austrian Pan-Germanism. Berkeley, U. of California Pr., 1975. pp. 89-90. A. James Gregor. The Fascist persuasion in radical politics, op. cit. De Felice./nterpretations of fascism, op. cit. A. James Gregor, op. cit. R.N. Berki. Socialism. London, Dent, 1975. p. 53. Bakunin once admitted that 'there was in my character a radical defect ... love for the fantastic, for the out-of-the-way adventures, for undertakings which open up an infinite horizon and whose end no man can foresee'. Quoted in Melvin J. Lasky. Utopia and revolution. London, Macmillan, 1976. p. 77. The elements of pure revolution for its own sake recall not only Drieu, Brasillach, D~relle but also Mosley who was fond of quoting Cromwell's 'No man goes very far who knows where he is going'. See No. 529. p. 159. See No. 697. p. 165. Berki, op. cit. p. 15. Quoted in Saucy, Fascism in France, op. cit. p. 284. ibid. p. 196. See No. 697. p. 31S. Quoted in Sternhell, op. cit. p. 339. See No. 553. 'Statesmen should live with scientists as the Medici lived and worked with artists'. he wrote at another time. See No. 181. David Beetham. 'From socialism to fascism: the relation between theory and practice in the work of Robert Michels. The fascist ideologue', Political Studies. Vol. 25 No. 2June 1977. pp. 161-181. . See No. 558. Question 35. 'Labour's real enemy'. New Pioneer. Vol. 1 No. 9. August 1939. pp. 214-

15. See No. 97 pp. 238-39. Laclau, op. cit, p. 124-134. Tim Mason. 'National Socialism and the working class', op. cit. p. 59. See No. 800. Dante Germino. Review of A. James Gregor's The ideology of flllCimt: the ftltioMle of toraliwillnism. New York, Free Pr., 1969. AmerlClln Polltbl Scienee Rep;eM!. Vol. 64.1970. pp. 614-616. . A. James Gregor. The FOletlt persuasion in rodfCJd politic" op. cit. pp. ix-x. Professor Gregor is disingenuous when he claims an 'objective' attitude to fascism, nor is Zeev Sternhell correct when he describes Gregor's theories u based on 'scientific objectivity and intellectual detachment'. StemheU, op. cit. p. 367. Greaor was a phnofascist whatever he may be now. He wrote several articles for Molley'sjournal The Europetm, in one oC Which, 'An American considers European Socialism', Nov. 1955, pp. 11-24, thJa pa.... occurs: 'The revolutionary situation that is manifesting itself may weD pe Sir Oswald Modey and his idea their historic opportunity. Sir Oswakl OWM it to those who foUow him and those who watch him that his idea be precile.'

24

According to Robert Row of the Union Movement, Gregor believed fascism to be a viable creed in the contemporary world. His article on 'National Socialism and race' in The European refers to the thought of the later Nazi racial theorists as containing the 'germs of a world view which makes of man a creator, a builder of future races, a philosophy which unites history, politics, and race, eugenics and humanism, pride in self and respect for others, a philosophy scientifically sound and emotionally satisfying'. I OS. Translation from Rilke. Selected works. Vol. 2. Poetry; tr. by j .B. Leishman. London, Hogarth Pr., 1960. p. 308. 106. Melvin J. Lasky. Utopia and revolution, op. cit. p. 172.

25

A. BIBLIOGRAPHIES

1. COMMUNITY RELATIONS COMMISSION Race relations in Britain: a select bibliography;

6th ed. London, C.R.C., 1976. 24p 2. LEHMANN, Ruth P. Anglo-Jewish bibliography, 1937-1970 London, Jewish Historical Society of England, 1973. xi, 364p

pp 65-69 list a number of works on anti-Semitism, Jewish defence, and anti-Jewish polemics 3. SlYANANDAN, Ambalavaner Coloured immigrants in Britain: a select bibliography;

3rd ed. London, Institute of Race Relations, 1969. vi, 110p This bibliography contains a number of references on anti-immigrant organisations,fascist and non-fascist 4. WIENER LIBRARY, London Prejudice: racist, religious, nationalist

London, Vallentine, Mitchell, 1971. x, 384p (Catalogue Series No. 5) Pub. for the Institute of Contemporary History A section is devoted to racial and religious prejudice in Britain. There is also a selected list of periodicals produced both by those responsible for, and by those opposed to prejudice.

B. BRITISH FASCISM: General S. BENEWlCK, Robert

T1Ie Fuc18t movement in Britain; rev. eel. London, A. Lane, 1972. 340p Illus. Previously pub. as Political violence and public order in 1969. Bued on the author's thesis,the British Fascist movement, 1932-1940: ita development and significance. PhD. thesis from Manchester UniverIity in 1963. A detailed study of fascism in Britain between the wars. It is maJn1y OIDtred on the BUF. The basic assumption on which the book is based

.. that British political culture can be 'characterized by its relative peacefuJnHs and the attempt on the part of Sir O.ald Mosley and the British UDlon of Fascists to Introduce a violent political stylewasself-defeating'. 27

The Cabinet minutes, Home Office and police records which became available for the revised edition confirm the view that the BUF was treated 'not so much as a threat to the state but as a menace to public order'. The BUF challenged but never seriously threatened the stability of the political system because (a) 'there was little evidence that the basic political and economic structure was deteriorating beyond repair' (b) crisis never appeared (c) fascism was never successfully adapted to British political culture because its ideology was ambiguous (d) antiSemitism and violence were counter-productive (e) Mosley had too many negative qualities (f) internal divisions in the BUF led to a high turn-over of members (g) British political and social institutions remained viable. There are some interesting analyses of the social composition of the leaders and rank and me members, the latter said to be composed of 'marginal members of all social and economic classes'. Mass theory, the idea that the alienated and unattached of all classes are more attracted to extremist movements than their class-rooted compatriots, is employed to suggest a further reason for the failure of fascism in Britain as a mass mobilizing movement.

6. CATLIN, Sir George Edward Gordon 'Fascist stirrings in Great Britain',

Current History. Vo139. Feb. 1934. pp 542-7. An excellent summary of the history of the various fascist movements in Britain starting with British Fascists Ltd., founded in 1924; 'the program of the British Fascists Limited is a curious medley of vague imperialism and anti-Semitism. It co-operated in anti-Communist activities with such bodies as the Anti-Socialist and Anti-Communist Union, the Economic League, and the 1912 Club and its officials admitted it was an unofficial adjunct of the Conservative Party'. The National Fascists were 'the first in Great Britain to advocate the Corporate State'. Mosley's career, the foundation and policy of the BUF receive a good deal of attention. The sketch of Mosley declares: 'His defects are those of a cavalry officer who is under a temperamental compulsion to charge; they are not those of a man who hesitates in a crisis' .

7. CROSS, Colin

The Fascists in Britain London, Barrie and Rockliffe, 1961. 212p Illus. American ed. pub. by St. Martin's Pr. in 1963. Still one of the most comprehensive and objective books yet to appear on British fascism up to 1940, with a postscript chapter deaUilI with the years since the war. 'Most of the space, naturally, loes to the movement led by Sir Oswald Mosley, whose early career it has seemed 28

necessary to cluonicle in some detail ... my approach to the subject has been in a spirit of pure inquiry'. 8. DUTI, Rajani Palme Fascism and social revolution London, Lawrence, 1934. xi, 296p American ed. pub. in New York by International Pubs. in 1934. Rev. ed. pub. in 1935 with the subtitle: a study in the economics and politics of the extreme stages of capitalism in decay. 2nd ed. pub. by Proletarian Pubs. in 1974. Chapter 11 Tendencies to Fascism in Western Europe and America includes a classic Marxist analysisof British fascism, discussing Mosley and the BUF, the British Fascists, and quoting from Leese's The Fascist. 9. GRAHAM, Alistair Fascism in Britain: an account of the riseand decline of Fascism in

BritiJh politics. Badminton, Pharos Pr., 1966. 19p (Beacon Background Series) A surveyof fascism in Britain from the BUF to the neo-Nazi movements of the mid-1960s by the co-editor of Socialist Beacon. 10. lONES, JR. 'England' In ROGGER, Hans, and WEBER, Eugen, eds. The Europell1l Right: a historical profile. Berkeley, Univ. of California Pr., 1965. pp 29-70 Mostly on the Tory right but includes British fascism. The British Fascisti appealed to the reactionary rather than the radical elements of the Tory party and was almost entirely upper-class in composition. Of. the BUF it is declared that only the extreme left (ex-ILP) and extreme right elements tended to remain in the movement for any length of. time. The bibliography mysteriously refers to Mosley's articles In the 'National Review'.

11. MUlJ..ALLY, Frederic Fuel"" inIIdtt-EngIimd

B.P.L.

Im1dcm,MorrlJBooks, 1946. lOOp mus. The t1nt chapter is a fictional account of why a young man joined the IUP. Clapter 2 discuJles Mostey'. career and character: 'He was preeodous lat W'mchelter) ,impatient, full of contempt for most boys of hla own aae, and a complete hedonist. H~ carried those qualities to SIIldhurst and added to them a dilUke for discipHne'. Mr. MuDaBy then p •• history of pre-Mostey fascist movements in Britain beginning in 29

1901 with WilIiam Stanley Shaw's British Brothers League. He traces the birth, growth and activities of the BUF and the anti-fascist reaction during 1933 and 1934 concentrating especially on the 'terror tactics' of the Blackshirt stewards. The notorious Olympia meeting receives detailed coverage including lengthy statements by eye-witnesses. Strong documentary evidence is brought forward to suggest the difference in treatment 'meted out by the bench to rank and file fascists and antifascists charged with comparable offences'. A chapter is devoted to those in high places 'whose sympathy with the Axisarose from, or led them to active support of British Fascism'. Lord Rotherrnere's support is discussed in detail. This chapter also mentions the January Club, the 'friends in the city', the support of retired officers, and BUF election policy. The final two chapters deal with the BUF from the East End disturbances of 1936 through the immediate pre-war and wartime periodsto the resurrection of fascist activity in 1946. Described by the Foreign Affairs Bibliography as a 'documented expose of Oswald Mosley'. 12. NATIONAL CONSTITUTION DEFENCE MOVEMENT L.S.E. Extremism in Britain London, N.C.D.M., [1937] 22p (Vigilance Pamphlets, No. 2) 'So-called British Fascism may be traced back to the fact that there have always been in this country a few academic admirers of Signor Mussolini and a rather largerbody who expresscontempt for or impatience of Parliamentary institutions.' A short account of the origins of fascism in Britain, the career of Sir Oswald MosIey t the early enthusiasm for the BUF by the Daily Mail and others, the birth of antiSemitism after Mosley's visit to Berlin, relations with Streicher and the NaziS, and the subsequent decline of the BUF. 13. NATIONAL COUNCIL OF LABOUR and CO-OPERATIVE UNION L.P. Statement on fascism at home and abroad London, N.C.L., [1934] 19p Illus. Also appears as Appendix C of the TUC annual report of proceedings for 1934 and as a section of the 34th annual conference report of the Labour Party in the same year . A short general survey of fascism t the British section of which is centred mainly on Mosley's BUF but also mentions in passing the BrittIh Fascists, National Fascisti, IFL, and the United Empire Fascist Party. 14. NUGENT, Neill and KING, Roger, ed,. TheBritish Right: Conservative and right wingpolltb in Britain 30

Farnborough, Saxon House, 1977. 230p This collection of essays on the right in Britain beginswith an analysis of the concept of the Right which can be distinguished from the Left Trevor, eds.

Directaction and democratic politics London, Alien and Unwin, 1972. pp 49-63 (Acton Society Studies No. 1) American ed. published by Humanities Pr. in 1973 An attempt to describe a threshold of violence in British politics using the BUF activity in the 1930s as an example. The threshold is defined as the 'point beyond which a stable democratically-styled, albeit imperfect, order is unable or unwilling to countenance from within, organized, collective, and sustained abuse, disruption, or threats to the state ... ' There is a critique of the view that there are parallels between fascism and the New Left. 106. BERMONDSEY TRADE COUNCIL

Bermondsey saysno to Fascism: united against Mosley London, B.T.C., 1937. Bp A broadsheet, using the slogan 'All out Sunday Oct. 3rd', designed to publicize and coordinate opposition to the proposed march by the BUF through Bermondsey. 107. BERNAYS, Robert 'Fascism and the answer', Spectator. Vol. 152.27 April 1934. pp 652-3 The writer, a Conservative M.P., describes two disquieting experiences, the Albert Hall meeting of the fascists and the National Government meeting, and compares the two. He analyses the audience of the first as consisting of 'minor business-men, returned exiles from Empire outposts, disgruntled Conservative women, a good proportion of rather hard-faced beribboned ex-servicemen, and criticizes Mosley's speech for 'a lack of personal touch, gaps in his knowledge and in the chain of his reasoning,' concluding, 'he is not in the front rank of orators.' He compares the National Government meeting unfavourably with the fasCist meeting for vigour and draws the conclusion: 'Democracy if it is to survive must strike a far more clear and vigorous note than it does now" 108. BESTERMAN, Theodore 'Fascists at Hampstead', New Statesman. Vo1.12. 31 Oct. 1936. p 666 The writer gives his impressions of a fascist meeting held at Hampstead Town Hall. The speaker was WilliamJoyce who indulged in antiSemitic vituperation and ordered stewards to eject interrupters forcibly. 109. BISHOP, R. 'Wagingwar on Fascism',

52

lntemational Press Correspondence. Vol. 14. 1934. P 1316 The Communist demonstration against the BUF march in Hyde Park. 110. BRITISH UNION OF FASCISTS N .L.S. Red violence and blue lies: an answer to 'Fascists at Olympia' London, BUF, 1934. 48p Cover title adds: 'Statements from the Rt. Hon. David Uoyd George M.P., the Lord Strathspey, Michael Beaumont Esq. M.P., Lieut-Col. T.C.R. Moore M.P., Patrick Donner Esq. M.P., Sir Nicholas GrattanDoyle M.P., Vice-Admiral G.B. Powell, Sir l..eonard Lyle, Hamilton Fyfe Esq., Christopher Lowther Esq., T. Howard Esq. M.P., Cecil Pike Esq. M.P.' Designed as a refutation of charges of fascist brutality at Olympia as put forward in Fascists at Olympia. [See No. 138.]

Ill. BURKE, Barry Rebels with a cause: the history ofHackney Trades Council, 1900-1975 London, Hackney Trades Council and Hackney Workers Educational Assn., 1975. 87p 4In Hackney, opposition to Mosley was centred round the Hackney Anti-Fascist Committee.' A whole chapter is concerned with the activities of the BUF in Hackney during 1936 culminating in the Battle of Cable Street on October 4 after which the fascists 'retained some support in Hackney and particularly in the adjacent boroughs of Bethnal Green and Shoreditch but with the storm clouds gathering over Europe, the slogan "Fascism means war" began to take on a meaning for most people.' 112. COMMISSIONER OF POLICE OF mE METROPOLIS Report of the Commissioner . . . for the year 1936 London, H.M.s.O., 1937. 73p (Cmd.5457) A short section (pp 25-27) of the report of the Metropolitan police is de\'Oted to the political disturbances in the East End of London durq 1936. Some 3000-400O police were used at BUF meetings. There were numerous complaints from Jews and counter-allegations from fucistl; few could be substantiated through lack of evidence. The Pr. I1 criticized for exaggeratq the numbers at fascist meetings. The ae:tive oppolition of rival factions gives the 'unaller political orpnisatioDIan Importance to which they are not entitled.'

113. FASCL~ AND THE BAST END 8p«tIItOl'. Vol. 157.9 Oct. 1936. pp 572-3

Comments on the disturbances In the East End on Sunday 4th October 1936. 'The march was an act of wilful and calculated provo53

cation.' It advocates a 'severer application of existing police powers' 114. FASCIST AND COMMUNIST Round Table. vet. 27. Dec. 1936. pp 181-3 An account of BUF anti-Semitic activity, marches, especially that of

Sunday October 4th 1936 in the East End, and anti-fascist demonstrations. Discusses the progress of the bill to outlaw the uniforms and private armies which was to become the Public Order Act. It compares fascist and communistdisturbances. 115. THE FASCISTS IN BERMONDSEY New Statesman. Vo!. 15.9 Oct. 1937. p 510 An account of the fascist march through Berrnondsey which was broken up by anti-fascists. 116. GROVES, Reg L.P. EastEnd crisis: Socialism, the Jews, and Fascism London, Socialist League London Area Committee, [1937] 6p 'Many workers in East London have given a more attentive ear to Fascist propaganda than normally they would have done because of weaknesses within the Labour movement.' An appeal to workers to reject fascism and its concomitant anti-Semitism in favour of the struggle of the international working-class movement against capitalism. 117. INDEPENDENT LABOUR PARTY W.L. They did not pass: 300.000 workers say no to Mosley: a souvenir of the East London workers'Victory overFascism London, tL.P., [19371] lip A pamphlet commemorating the break-up of a BUF march in South London by anti-fascist demonstrators.

118.KIDD, Ronald British liberty in danger: an introductio1J to the study ofcwil rightl; with a foreword by Henry W. Nevinson London, Lawrence & Wishart, 1940. 270p In the course of expressing tile author's thesis that 'our Uberties are being progressively reducedt, the book contains material on the East End disturbancesof 1936 which led to the passing of the PublicOrder Act. Chapter S, the Police,argues that the police in the 19308 were used as a political instrument by the authorities who showed a partiality towards the fascists. 119.KIM,pseud. 'Tories as Communist supporters', S4

Saturday Review. vet. 157. 16June 1934. pp 688-9 'The attitude of a large section of the Press and certain members of Parliament ... in abusing Sir Oswald Mosley and his Blackshirts, as the result of the huge meeting he held at Olympia ... is one of the most amazing revelations of sheer stupidity I have encountered for years: An eye witness account of 'Red brutality' at that meeting follows. Mosley 'on that night was patient, calm, and collected despite much provocation'. 120. LANGLEY, M. 'Disordered Sunday', Spectator. Vol. 159.8 Oct. 1937. pp 579-80 The South London march of Oct. 3 by the BUF passing through Lambeth, Southwark, and Bermondsey. 121. LOUIS, Marguerite 'What I saw inside Olympia' , New Leader. 15 June 1934. p 3 An eyewitness account of the Olympia meeting accusing the BUF stewards of brutality. 122. MALLON,JJ. 'Uniforms and processions' , Spectator. Vol. 158. 23 Oct. 1936. pp 673-4 On the clashes between fascists and communists in East London. The communists are 'fanatical but sincere'; the fascists are 'raucous disturbers of the peace'. The solution is that 'military uniforms must go, military exercises must go'. 'With meetings as with processions, however, places should be prescribed for them, and they should be kept away from the habitations of those whom they are intended to offend.' 123. MARTIN, Kingsley The Black army' ,

New Statesman. Vot. 7. 16 June 1934. pp 904-5 An account of alleged fascist brutality at Olympia. 'The consensus of ••• eYidence supports Mc. Geoffrey Uoyd's outspoken remarks about Fasciat ubulliescand cads".' Sir Oswald Mostey 'relied on a bodyguard of mme 1,000 or more blackahirts to obtain him a hearing'. The article refen to the 'existence of a private army which threatens to destroy the whole workmg class movement in England .•. The only solution is to prohibit by I,V{ all private armies and political uniforms'.

124.MILNER, Luclle B. 'Pilhttns Pascism by law',

ss

Nation (New York). Vol. 146. 15 Jan. 1938. pp 65-7 Reply with rejoinder. Vol. 146. April 30 1938. pp 515-16 A detailed description of anti-Jewish agitation and violence in the East End with allegations of leniency by magistrates towards fascists. The final half of the article discusses the Public Order Act of 1936: "The Public Order Act has had one good effect and one only. It has deprived the fascists of uniforms which had proved valuable in advertising and recruiting .' 125. MONTAGUE, Ivor M.M.L. Blackshirt brutality: the story of Olympia London, Workers' Bookshop, 1934. 30p A detailed account of the Olympia meeting of June 7 1934 giving the authorised version of the Communist Party. Extracts from eyewitness accounts are employed to create the impression of BUF brutality. The need for a strong anti-fascist movement is seen as one of the consequences of Olympia. 126. NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES L.S.E. Sir Oswald Mosley's Albert Hall meeting, March 22, 1936: extracts from statements of eye-witnesses London, N.C.C.L., 1936. In 8 mimeographed parts. An account of the break-up of the anti-fascist meeting by police outside Mosley's meeting in the Albert Hall. 127. - The Thurloe Square baton charge: L.S.E. report ofa Commission ofInquiry into certain disturbances at Thurloe Square, South Kensington on March 22nd, 1936; with a preface by Harold J. Laski London, N.C.C.L., 1936. 31p An account of the baton charge in Thurloe Square. 128. PlRATIN, Philip Our f/Ilg stays red; ... with a foreword by Wmiam Gallacher London, Thames Pubs., 1948. xi, 91p Chapter 3 entitled &Masses against Mosley' deals with BUP activity in the East End of London from 1936 to 1937 and especially the Communist Party's anti-fascist campaign. 'Only the Communist Party stood out as the forthright opponent of fascism.' The Battle of Cable Street is described in some detail. 129. PRITT, Denis Nowell 'Public Order Bill,' New States1nIln. Vol. 12. 14 Nov. 1936. pp 761-3

S6

130. ROUGE ET NOIR: den ne va plus, ReviewofReviews. Vol. 85. July 1934. pp 39-42 Selections from the Presson the Olympia meeting. 131. ROWDON, John 'Mosley's British. Fascists', Current History. Vol. 40. Aug. 1934. pp 601-2 A comment on the meeting at Olympia of June 1934 held by the BUF and a detailed discussion of the legal position of such movements and such meetings. 132. SHOULD BLACKSHIRTS BE BANNED? Spectator. Vol. 152. 15 June 1934. p 910 After the Olympia meeting, the article raises the question of a ban on the BUF and gives arguments for and against banning political uniforms but 'there can be no question of banning the Fascists as a political organization'. 133. SOCIALISM, FASCISM, AND SEDITION Round Table. Vol. 24. June 1934. pp 853-60 The article begins with an account of Cripp's Socialist League and goes on to discuss the legal position of the BUF. the effectiveness of the Incitement to Disaffection Bill, and precedents for political violence. 134. TOYNBEE, Philip Friends aptITt: (l memoirofBsmondRami/ly cl Jasper Ridley London, MacGibbon & Kee, 1954. 189p A personalreminiscence of the Olympia meetingof 1934 is recounted on pp 21-3. 135. TRORY, Brnie Between th. war,: recollections ofIl Communi3t organisei' BrIghton, erabtree Pr., 1974. 159p Written originally in 1941, this is an autobiographical account of the author's experiences in the Communist party between 1931 and 1939. Qlapter 3 dea1l briefly with various encounters between the BUF and communiltJor"other anti.fucilts in Brighton and Hyde Park in 1934. One of the Party memberswrote a song, which is quoted, entitled 'Bye bye BI8cktbJrtI', I parody of the popular tune 'Bye bye B1ackbird t •

136. UNIFORM AND UNIFORM11Y RIJMd TtIbIe. Vol. 27. Jan. 1937. pp 400-5 A comment on theblUUlinl of Blackshirt uniforms. 57

137. UNION OF DEMOCRATIC CONTROL L.P. Eye witnesses at Olympia: a collection of statements by people who were present at the meeting of the British Union ofFascists at Olympia, June 7th, 1934. London, V.D.C., 1934. 13p 'The statements, none of which have been published in full before, provide an important survey of the scenes of brutality at Olympia ... The methods adopted by the Fascists at this Olympia meeting were the methods which are an inseparable part of the Fascist movement whether it is in this country or in any other'. 138. VINDICATOR .pseud. B.M. Fascists at Olympia: a record of eye witnesses and victims London, Gollancz, 1934.48p The cover title of this pamphlet by Henry Thomas Hopkinson adds the subtitle 'statements from:- the injured, doctors who attended the injured, and from eyewitnesses including Mr. Geoffrey Uoyd, M.P., Mr. Gerald Barry, Mr. R.E. Coppard, Mr. AJ. Cummings, Mr. Aldous Huxley, Very Rev. H.R.L. Sheppard , Miss Vera Britain.' The statements from these and others are given without comment. 139. YEATS-BROWN, F. 'Mosley in Manchester', Everyman. No. 247.20 Oct. 1933. p 2 A pro-Mosley description of one of his Manchester meetings. 'Mosley is a power in England.'

F. BRITISH FASCISM: 1932-1939: Special Aspects: (I) Anti-Semittsm 140. BUF AND ANTI-SEMITISM: an exposure London, Lane, [19371] 4p

W.L.

141. [BENEWICK, Robert] 'Mosley's anti-Semitism: a survey of his record, 1933-1939', Wiener Library Bulletin. Vol. 13. Nos. 3/4. 1959. pp 33,41 'Anti-Semitism played a deliberate and prominent role in the pronouncements of Sir Oswald Mosley and in the Programme and taettca of the British Union of Fascists'. Die Stmmer is quoted as evidence to suggest that to the Nazis the BUF looked like a genuinely anti-8emitic movement. 58

142. BLUME, Hilary Sharon Braverrnan 'A study of anti-Semitic groups in Britain, 1918-40', Brighton, Sussex University, 1971. M.Phil. thesis. 364p llius. Although anti-Semitism remained on the fringe of British politics in this period, 'by examining the fortunes of tne anti-Semitic groups of the period some insight may be afforded into the whole question of the receptivity of British society to the issue of racism in general'. Among the fascist groups cited are the British Fascists, National Fascisti, BUF, IFL, National Socialist League, Nordic League, the National Workers' Party, the Link, and the British People's Party. On the question of BUF anti-Semltism the author concludes that the decline of the organisation was accelerated but not caused by the turn to anti-Semitism, The loss of elite elements who had a certain sympathy with Mosley was more important as a factor in the organisation's decline. 143. BONDY, LouisW. BM. 'Racketeers of hatred: Julius Streicher and the Jew baiters' International London, Wolsey, 1946. 248p Illus. pp 117-178 are concerned with 'Great Britain and the British Empire' and give an account of the fascist and anti-Semitic organisations in Britain. There are sections on Joyce, the IFL, H.H. Beamish and the Britons, Mosley and the BUF, Captain Ramsay and the Right Club, Militant Christian Patriots, Ratc1iffe and the British Protestant League, Unity Mitford, the Link, Dr. Laurie, and 'some other anti-Semites in the running'•

144. CRITIC, pseud. London diary

New Stlltelmlln. Vol. 11. Mar. 28 1936. pp 487-8 A comment on the Albert Hall meeting and the 'deterioration of Sir Oswald Mosloy' who has turned for inspiration to Hitler and antiSemitiJrn. 'There werehisses and yells of "Jew" at the mention of the names not only of Sir Philip Sassoon but also of D.M. Pritt and Sir 1homu Inskip' [neither of them Jewish].

145.GBlGER, Dam Martin

'Blackthtrt. u

Jew-baitera',

W. . .Library Bulktln. Vol. 20. N.8. No. 4. Autumn 1966. pp 11-14 'Although anti-8emltiam was in essence a sine quanon of British facIIm, it was not originally a part of the party programme.' By November 1934 the BUP had turned to a frank, undisguised anti· SemitiIm. The solution ,of the 'Jewish problem' varied. 'So Ions as the S9

Jews behaved they would be unmolested in their worship and would enjoy most of the civil rights accorded other citizens. They would, however, be debarred from holding any government office or any military position, and would be prevented from acquiring any financial power which would be incumbent with the ownership or control of banks, utilities, newspapers', etc. Other schemes were to settle Jews in the wastelands of the world. 'At best the Jew would be allowed to remain as a second-class citizen in Britain; at worst he would be exiled ... ' 146. JEWISH LABOUR COUNCIL WORKERS' CIRCLE

L.P.

Sir Oswald Mosley and the Jews

London, I.L.C. w.e., [1935] 4p 'For the first time in English history anti-Sernitism is being used as the official policy of a political movement.' Anti-Semitism is being used by the ruling class as a means of diverting the wrath and discontent of the workers from itself against some convenient helpless minority. 147. JEWISH PEOPLE'S COUNCIL AGAINST FASCISM AND ANTISEMITISM H.U.L.A.

Fascism, anti-Semitism, and the Jews London, Jewish People's Council, [19367] 4p A broadsheet justifying the formation of the Jewish People's Council. 'Jew baiting has been deliberately introduced as a conscious attempt to create a "Jewish issue" without which Fascism can make no headway.' 148. KIDD, Ronald 'Anti-Semitism in East London', Left Book News. Nov. 1936. pp 147-153 A summary of the East End campaign by the BUF in 1936 alleging window-smashing, looting, intimidation and assaults against Jews by fascists. Local M.P.'s are cited as evidence of the violent provocative nature of the fascist campaign. It is suggested that the police discriminate in favour of BUF members in the use of their discretionary powers at public meetings. 149. KRIEGER, Heinz L.S.E. England und die Judenfrage in Geschichte und Gegenwrut Frankfurt am Main, V. Moritz Diesterweg, 1938. liSp An anti-Semitic history of the Jews in Britain which quote. Grabam Seton Hutchison, Arnold Leese, and Mostey to suggest that the Jewl are in control of Britain.

150. LANSBURY,George

W.L.

Anti-Semitism in the East End 60

London, Woburn P., [1936] 4p Reprinted from the Spectator. 151. LANSBURY, George 'Anti-Semitism in the East End', Spectator. Vol. 157. July 241936. pp 133-4 Lansbury expresses opposition to Mosley's anti-Jewish activities and asks why conununist speakers are often prosecuted for speeches maligning and scandalising their opponents while there seems to be little action taken against fascists. He offers a warning: 'People remember Lord Carson and his rebel army and how it grew because of toleration and support in high places.' 152. MANDLE, W.F.

Anti-Semitism and the British Union ofFascists London, Longmans, 1968.78p (Monographs in Politics) The purpose of this study is to show how a particular anti-Semitic campaign began, what it did, and why it failed. 'The campaign will be shown to have most of the characteristics of anti-Semitic movements of modem times: it was paranoid, violent and offensive; and both its motivation and activities parallel, in microcosm, larger and more successful contemporary continental ones.' Mosley's lack of total conviction in his anti-Semitism lent a certain lack of commitment and whole-heartedness to BUF propaganda. The BUF's campaign in 1936 and 1937 'shows that a measure of political advantage can be gained by a racist campaign' which is intensive and concentrated in area; however this is a study of a campaign that failed. 153. MARTIN, Kingsley 'Fucilm and the Jews', New Statelmll1l. Vol. 12. 10 Oct. 1936. pp 496-7 Reprinted u a 4 page pamphlet by N.C.C.L. A comment on the East End march of October 4th and an attack on Mol1ey's UIe of a 'private army'. The writer attempts to answer the question why Mosley adopts this method of propaganda and concludes that IUs 'e