British Union of Fascists

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100 Questions
State and Citizen
The Corporate State
Stability and Progress
Power Over Finance
Strike Action
Fascist Europe
Foreign Policy
Conclusion
Peace Statement
Regulation 18b
Roll of Honour

The British Union of Fascists - 1932 - 1940

British Union was opposed to both Finance Capitalism (the private ownership of industry) and State Socialism (the state ownership of industry) and sought to reorganise economic life along the lines of the Corporate State. This meant that all companies above a certain size would be run by one of 16 Corporations under the joint control of Management, Workers and Consumers. The Government would only intervene in the event of major discord within the Corporation. For example, there would have been a Coalmining Corporation, Agricultural Corporation, Steelmaking Corporation, Medical Corporation, Transport Corporation and so on. However, British Union was opposed to the multi-party system of government. Voting would be based on an occupational franchise, rather than the present geographical basis, with miners voting for a choice of miner candidates, farm workers voting for agricultural candidates, doctors and nurses voting for medical candidates. It was suggested that this would create a Government of experts elected by experts.

Although regular elections would be held at which the Government could be dismissed and replaced, only one party would legally exist until that happened: British Union. Whilst never a movement of pacifism, British Union declared that it was opposed to British involvement in any war whatsoever - unless the interests of Britain or her Empire were directly threatened. So it campaigned against war with Germany, whose territorial ambitions it saw as being directed eastwards into Russia.

Although Mosley specifically forbade anti-Semitism to his followers, and British Union actually had a number of Jewish members*, events however soon propelled the Blackshirts and large sections of the Jewish community into hostile conflict. British Union alleged that a large proportion of the people convicted of physical attacks on BU speakers and paper sellers were Jewish; that many Jews were trying to push Britain into war with Germany not in the British but the Jewish interest; and that Jews were over-represented in International Finance and Communism - activities that British Union strongly opposed.

Notable Jewish members of British Union included John Beckett (BU Director of Publications and Editor of Action, Bill Leaper - Editor of the Blackshirt, and Harold Soref - a BU Standard Bearer at the Olympia meeting who later became Tory M.P for Ormskirk. Also Mosley was taught German during his wartime imprisonment in Brixton Gaol by another BU internee: Albert Lynden (aka Lewinska), a Polish-Jew who was a member of British Union's Ealing branch.

The B.U.F. quickly established a network of branches throughout Great Britain. Organisation was on semi-military lines: each branch consisted of Units under the charge of a Branch Officer (later called District Leader) who was in turn under the supervision of a National Inspecting Officer. This reflected the fact that a high proportion of early members were ex-servicemen of the First World War. All active members wore a uniform that consisted of grey trousers and a black fencing tunic displaying insignia of rank. Mosley alone wore the blackshirt without any distinction of rank. Women were organised in a separate local formation under a Women's' District Leader.

By 1933 British Union had established its National Headquarters in a former teachers' training college in Kings Road, Chelsea, next to the Duke of York Army Barracks. This NHQ became known as the 'Black House' and it contained extensive offices, dormitories, gymnasium, dining hail, mess rooms and parade grounds. It was also the London base for the '1 Squad': a mobile defence force that could quickly be dispatched to any part of London to protect Blackshirt meetings from violent attack by left-wing opponents.

The Movement embarked on an ambitious programme of propaganda activities that included street sales of its newspapers and literature, public meetings, marches and demonstrations.

In the early days of the Movement, major Blackshirt meetings addressed by Mosley were held at Trafalgar Square, the Royal Albert hall (4 meetings), Olympia, Hyde Park and Manchester Bell Vue. The increase in membership was assisted by support given to British Union by the Daily Mail newspaper and numbers rose to reach 40,000 members by 1934. However, many members who joined as a result of the Daily Mail's campaign were Conservatives who did not appreciate the revolutionary nature of British Union and they usually left in haste when this was realised.

Secretly, the leaders of British Union were not altogether displeased when the Daily Mail eventually withdrew its support, following pressure from large Jewish advertisers such as Joseph Lyons, who ran a popular chain of tea houses. Early in 1936 the new Action Press Uniform was introduced as a reward for members selling a certain number of newspapers through street sales. Based on the uniform of the Brigade of Guards, only in black, it was far more military in appearance than the simple black shirt, and it enabled British Union members to more readily recognise each other when they were attacked at public meetings by communist rabble who would attend the meetings for the sole purpose of causing trouble.

On Sunday October 4th. 1936 the so-called "Battle of Cable Street" was fought between left-wing / communist demonstrators and the police who were attempting to clear a way for a march led by 5,000 uniformed Blackshirts through East London. The march was called off by the police and this has since been falsely represented by many left-wing groups as a great victory over Mosley and the Blackshirts. What such critics of Mosley fail to mention is that ten days later, Mosley showed the measure of support he had gained in East London by organising another march from Shoreditch through Bethnal Green to Salmon Lane, Limehouse, where he addressed a crowd of East Londoners estimated as over 100,000 people amid scenes of public enthusiasm and a complete absence of opposition.

Special Branch files at the Public Record Office indicate that in the East London district of Limehouse alone, British Union had 2,000 active members by 1937. The local council elections of 1937 and 1938 clearly show that the largest support for Blackshirt policy in East London was in Bethnal Green. These elections were a further test of British Union penetration of East London. Although only the heads of households were then permitted to vote, and the majority of Mosley's supporters were young, British Union candidates gained up to 24% of the vote.

Alarmed by the growing number of disturbances at Blackshirt meetings and the appearance of the more militaristic Action Press Uniform, the Government passed the Public Order Act that made the wearing of political uniforms illegal from January 1st. 1937. To prevent further possible censure from the Act, British Union also reorganised itself on a less military basis. For example, District Officers were retitled as District Leaders and Unit leaders became Team Leaders. By this time the National Head Quarters had removed from its military-style barracks at the Black House, Chelsea, to more business-like offices at Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street, near Parliament Square.

The improvement in the British economy and the withdrawal of much 'respectable' support caused a decline in national membership to about 20,000 by 1936-1937. The subsequent increase in unemployment and the threat of war with Germany caused membership to increase once again until at the outbreak of the Second World War it had again reached approximately 40,000 again.

From 1937 onwards, British Union was banned from marching through East London where it drew its largest support but it held large marches from Kentish Town to Trafalgar Square (July 1937); Westminster to Bermondsey (October 1937 and May 1938); and following the British Union Day march from the Embankment to Dalston in May 1939, Mosley's speech was heard by a crowd of over 100,000 people without significant opposition. The highest attendance at a meeting addressed by Mosley is estimated to have been 250,000 people at Victoria Park, Bow, in July 1936. In July 1939 British Union also held the largest indoor meeting in the world when Mosley addressed a Peace Rally of some 30,000 people at Earls Court in London.

Mosley's Men in Black
by John Millican

Oswald Mosley
My Life