In October 1932, sir Oswald Mosley , at the time British government minister elected to the Labor Party , officially gave birth to a new political movement, strongly conservative, protectionist and isolationist, far right, which would initially take the name of British Union of Fascists and later, in 1934 it would change its name to British Union of Fascists and National Socialists , to then change its name once again, in 1937 becoming simply British Union .
Mosley is a great admirer and supporter of Benito Mussolini, later also of Hitler, and between 1930 and 1932, as a member of the British government, he met Mussolini on several occasions, from whom he draws inspiration.
Mosley builds his party by exploiting various channels that would have brought him the favor of both the British working class, the British bourgeois class and the aristocracy, furthermore Mosley's officially anti-Bolshevik positions would have guaranteed him a certain freedom of action. Mosley, however, did not really seek a confrontation with the Communists and initially proposed himself in an intermediate position, almost as an ally, which would bring the revolution to England, without however alerting those who feared a revolution too much.
Mosley's isolationist turn came after the collapse of the New York stock exchange in 1929, the effects of which were not long in coming to Europe, with the consequent closure of factories, the loss of countless jobs and a contraction in national consumption by the class. worker.
Mosley blamed the country's impoverished financial crisis on phantom foreign conspirators, including large Jewish families and bankers. Argument already used by Mussolini in Italy and which was later taken up by Hitler in Germany as well.
Pointing the finger at the Jews at that time was extremely simple, there were widespread theories of Zionist conspiracies that were apparently confirmed by the almost total closure and strong distrust of the Jewish communities towards non-Jews. Mosley's only enemy and they were not the only ethnic group the British Fascists would point the finger against, for Mosley and the British Fascists, anyone who was not "British" was a threat to the nation and the empire, and among the great enemies the party included "gypsies", Irish and Winston Churchill .
During the BUF rallies of 1932 and until 1936 there were numerous clashes and riots, between the British fascists assisted by some criminal groups, including the Billy Boys of Glasgow, led by Billy Fullerton, to manage the security and the British population. Generally during a Mosley rally, when the fascist crowd began to praise and wish death to the Jews and exhibited the fascist salute (remember, not to be a Roman gesture) , anti-fascist and Jewish groups rose up, often unleashing episodes of violence that were then recounted by Mosley in a very imaginative way, for example by waving a newspaper in which there was talk of a clash between fascists and anti-fascists and saying "it is they, the anti-fascists, the violent, those who instigate hatred, not us fascists ", tracing back the fascist violence (which on several occasions left some dead behind) as a legitimate defense against Jewish aggression.
In October 1936, during a demonstration in London, there was a huge British anti-fascist mobilization, known today as the "Battle of Cable Street" in which British socialists, liberals, and even independence activists of the IRA, assisted by armed groups of British criminal families, clashed against the fascists and definitively "broke" the British fascist rise and relegating the British fascists to a minor and minority party, until the moment of the dissolution of the party and the arrest of Mosley in 1940.
The Battle of Cable Street has many anomalies, including the mobilization of the police force that was not particularly clear, and it is hypothesized, behind the episode, there was the hand of the British government and of Churchill who perhaps had sensed the danger of fascism , and if they tolerated it abroad, they could not allow it to flare up also in the United Kingdom, also because, in his ambitions and in his public speeches, Mosley, father and inspirer of British fascism, even aspired to overthrow the British crown.
The story of Mosley and British Fascism is told very well, in the narrative background of the fifth season of Peaky Blinders , a series of which I have always appreciated the way it is linked to real history, and in this case it tells us closely the way in which the British lived the experience of fascism, if you have not already seen it, I recommend you recover Peaky Blinders from season 1 to season 5, because he really deserves a lot. Some time ago I published an article explaining why everyone should watch that series.
The story of Mosley and the BUF shows us the true face of fascism, the one that the post-war Italian narrative has forgotten, due to the great general amnesty. The fascism that emerges from Mosley's speeches, but also what emerges from Mussolini's speeches, is a strongly anti-Semitic and xenophobic fascism, which out of opportunism was told differently depending on what the audience was.
Mosley, speaking to the workers, promised wage guarantees, less hours of work and more money, speaking to the owners of the factories, he promised protection from foreign competition and greater freedom in the management of personnel, speaking abroad promised the intensification of commercial exchanges, and perhaps the only ones. of which he never sought consensus, it was the Jews, because they were the enemy to be eliminated, and this many years before Hitler seized power in Germany and presented the "final solution" .
The history of the BUF shows us a Europe that we are not used to imagining, a Europe that defeated Fascism in the bud. Just imagine what the world would be like if Mussolini had not taken power and Germany had risen against Hitler and National Socialism. We would probably never have had World War II and today we would live in a profoundly different world.
Bibliografia
Fascismo britannico e nuova Europa. Scritti e discorsi di battaglia dalla British Union of Fascists all'Europa-Nazione
L.Biancani, Il fascismo britannico (1920-1945)
T.Linehan, British Fascism, 1918-39: Parties, Ideology and Culture
N.Copsey, D.Renton, British Fascism, the Labour Movement and the State