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British Union of Fascists

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The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a political party of the 1930s in the United Kingdom. The party was formed in 1932 by ex-Conservative Party MP, and Labour government minister Sir Oswald Mosley. The party was a union, comprised of several smaller Fascist parties, such as the British Fascisti.

Contents

Character

Mosley modelled himself on another fascist leader, Benito Mussolini. He also modeled his party along the lines of fascist movements in other countries, primarily Italy.

He instituted a black uniform, gaining the party the nickname blackshirts. The BUF was anti-communist and protectionist. It supported the replacement of parliamentary democracy with a system of elected executives with jurisdiction over their own industries - something similar to the corporatism of the Italian fascists.

Many of the BUF's members were drawn from aristocratic and military families and included celebrated military man J.F.C. Fuller. Its official policy, as represented in speeches and publications through the early 1930s, was anti-Jewish.

The listeners heard Sir O.Mosley refer to his would-be interrupters as "sweeping of the Continental ghettoes, hired by Jewish financiers": "and alien gang imported from all quarters of Britain by Jewish money to prevent Englishmen putting their case" (The Times, Oct 01, 1934)
In answer to a question about the Blackshirt attitude towards Jews, Sir Oswald Mosley said:- "We will not tolerate within the State a minority organized against the interests of the State. Jews must either put the interests of Britain before the interests of Jewry or they will be deported from Britain." (The Times, March 25, 1935)

Prominence

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

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

Despite considerable - and sometimes violent - resistance from Jewish people, the Labour Party, assorted democrats and the Communist Party of Great Britain, the BUF still found a following in the East End of London, where in the London County Council elections of 1937 they obtained good results in their strongholds of Bethnal Green, Shoreditch and Limehouse. However, the BUF never faced a General Election - feeling unready in 1935, they urged voters to abstain, offering the promise of "Fascism Next Time".

Towards the middle of the 1930s, the BUF's increasingly violent activities, and a growing discomfort at their perceived alignment with the German Nazi party (although there was never any evidence of such an alignment), began to alienate some of their middle-class supporters. Membership accordingly decreased. At a rally in London, in 1934, BUF stewards became involved in a violent confrontation with militant communists, and this bad publicity caused the Daily Mail to withdraw its support from the party.

Final years and legacy

With its lack of electoral success, the party was drawn away from mainstream politics and further toward extreme anti-Semitism during 1934-1935. They organised several anti-Semitic marches and protests in London, such as the one that resulted in the famous Battle of Cable Street in October 1936. Nonetheless, membership fell to below 8,000 by the end of 1935. The government was sufficiently concerned, however, to pass the Public Order Act of 1936, which banned the wearing of political uniforms during marches, required police consent for political marches to go ahead, and effectively destroyed the movement. The BUF was completely banned in May 1940, and Mosley and 740 other senior fascists were interned for much of World War II. Mosley made several unsuccessful attempts at a political comeback after the war, most notably in the Union Movement.

BUF Anthem

The BUF Anthem strongly resembles the German Horst Wessel Lied (anthem of the NSDAP), and was set to the same tune. [Sound recordings are available of this anthem].

The lyrics are as follows:

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

References

External links

 

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