MOSLEY FASCISM

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(Sir Oswald Mosley, in Fascist TVeek, roth February, 1934). Let us see how much truth there is in this con- tention, who this" leader" is, and to what he owes.
11 MOSLEY FASCISM THE MAN HIS

POLICY &

METHODS

AUGUST 1935

LABOUR

RESEARCH DEPARTMENT

60 DOUGHTY STREET, LONDON, W.C. 1

MOSLEY FASCISM: THE MAN AND HIS POLICY Mr. William Joyce, at Brighton:" We know that England is crying for a leader, and that leader has emerged in the person of the greatest Englishman I have ever known, Sir Oswald Mosley . . . When the history of Europe comes to be written I can assure you that his name will not be second to either Mussolini or Hitler." (Fascist Week, 9th March, 1934). " TVe seek to establish a new ideal of public service and a new system of authority which rests on merit." (Sir Oswald Mosley, in Fascist TVeek, r oth February, 1934). Let us see how much truth there is in this contention, who this" leader" is, and to what he owes his position. The method we shall employ is mainly that of quotation from the writings and speeches of the Fascists themselves or from reputable newspapers and reference books. SOCIAL ORIGINS A memoir written by a member of the Mosley family describes how early in the seventeenth century Sir Nicholas Mosley attempted to enclose land at Collyhurst, near Manchester, but the principal inhabitants of the town resisted the attempt. In 1629 complaints were lodged against the Mosleys of Rolleston (the family seat, in Staffordshire on the border of Derbyshire), and they were charged in Parliament with "oppression, injustice and vexation." Seven 2

years later the same Mosley used threats against the freeholders of Uttoxeter to compel them to consent to the enclosure of the Highwood, which was ultimately "carried into effect by force." Besides the Rolleston estate of 3,800 acres, together with some 300 acres surrounding the hall, the family owned estates in Collyhurst and in Ancoats, which is now the slum centre of Manchester. In The Town Labourer, record that: -

J.

L. and B. Hammond

"In 1596 a Mr. Oswald Mosley . . . bought the land on which Manchester now stands for £3,500. In 1846 the town of Manchester bought the manor and all the rights and incidents from Sir Oswald Mosley for £200,000. The town could have acquired it in 1808 for £90,000.

In this fashion the Mosleys acquired wealth. They fought on the side of Charles during the Civil War. The family motto is M os legem regit-" Custom, or precedent, rules the law." The present Sir Oswald was educated at Winchester College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. A writer in the Evening Standard who knew him at school describes him as "precocious, impatient, full of contempt for most boys of his own age, and a complete hedonist. He carried those qualities to Sandhurst and added to them a dislike of discipline." (aoth September, 1932). When he stood for Smethwick, his father, in a letter to the Press, wrote that " for many years I paid out of my own pocket thousands of pounds for his education and upkeep," and that "he had never done an honest day's work in his life." 3

Sir Oswald inherited £60,000 from his grandfather, who died in 1915, and, according to an article in the Sunday Dispatch, "the lion's share in land worth £247,000 in respect of settled land left by the late Baroness." The writer remarked that" the estate consists largely of lands which, being in an area likely to be developed, have increased considerably in value." (24th February, 1929). In 1920 he married Lady Cynthia Curzon, a daughter of the late Marquis Curzon of Kedleston and a granddaughter of Levi Zeigler Leiter, a Jewish Chicago millionaire. The ceremony took place at the Chapel Royal by special permission of the King. " ... the reception was a brilliant throng of famous men and women . . . Before the wedding ceremony the bridegroom had a bachelor's luncheon party at the Ritz. Two kings and two queens were present." (The Times, rzth May, 1920). Lady Cynthia inherited £28,000 a year from her own family. (Sunday Dispatch, 24th February, 1929). POLITICAL BEGINNINGS After Sandhurst Sir Oswald joined the 16th Lancers, and served in France with them and with the Royal Flying Corps. His political career began in December, 1918, when he became Conservative M.P. for Harrow. In November, 1920, he crossed the floor into opposition, partly as a protest against the Government's Irish policy with regard to reprisals. He made it clear, however, that he had not left the Conservative Party, and in a letter to a constituent declared that he had "vigorously carried out his election obligation to support the Government in their general election programme." (The Times, r jth November, 1920). 4

From 1922-24 he became independent, and in 1924 joined the Labour Party when it first won any considerable number of seats. He remained in this party till his expulsion in 193I. Although he did not go over till April, 1924, the Daily Herald was able to predict, in the middle of the previous year (zoth June, 1923), that he would not be " independent for very much longer," and in July, 1923, he attacked the Government for failure to use the League of Nations in the solution of the Ruhr and reparations problems (Manchester Guardian, zoth July, 1923). In January, 1924, he said, " I agree with all that Mr. MacDonald said at the Albert Hall, and I am determined to see that a Labour Government has fair play"; and a week later, "The Minister of Health has been trying to dress up the Red bogey." (Daily Herald, loth and r Sth January, 1924). His definition of Socialism is much what might be expected from a baronet accustomed all his life to a retinue: .. Socialism substitutes a general idea of unselfish service for unlimited selfishness and unfettered competition." (Daily Herald, 6th May, 1924).

"The Emergency Powers Act could be made a powerful instrument for the realization of Socialism," he declared in 1926 at the Independent Labour Party Summer School, and hoped Socialists would not criticize the Act unduly. "He knew enough of the owning class to know that it would not give up possession until it was thoroughly beaten in a fierce political and economic struggle." (Daily Herald, 3rd August, 1926). At that time his own meetings were broken up by Fascists-as at the Cambridge Guildhall when 5

"several hundred undergraduates, carrying Union Jacks and Fascists flags, did their level best to prevent Sir Oswald Mosley from speaking." (Daily Herald, 14th May, 1927). In his own words : " We have lost the good old British spirit. Instead we have cheap American journalism and black-shirted buffoons making a cheap imitation of ice-cream sellers." (Daily Herald, 22nd December, 1926).

The Fascist movement, he had said, "slavishly, but ineffectually imitated the latest frenzy of Continental hysterics." He accused Mr. Churchill of " strutting in a borrowed shirt-a black shirt-which he had begged, borrowed or stolen from Signor Mussolini." (Daily Herald, 17th May, 1924). In 1926 Mosley thought his father's title "not worth taking up." But in 1928, when his father died, it was "not worth giving up." (Sunday Express, 23th September, 1928). We may recall his father's remark, that" more valuable help would be rendered to the country by my Socialist son and daughter-inlaw, if, instead of achieving cheap publicity about the relinquishing of titles, they would take more material action and relinquish some of their wealth, and so help to make easier the plight of some of their more unfortunate followers." (Daily Mail, r zth April, 1926). In 1926 Mosley stated, "When my wife and I joined the Labour movement it meant a complete break with family and former associations." (Daily Herald, r jth April, 1926). Not with monetary associations, however, for in 1926 the pair" bought one of the most beautiful and ancient manor houses, not merely in the county of Bucks, but in all England." This pearl of great price "was thought to be dirt cheap at a cost of £9,000, but as its new Socialist 6

owners find it somewhat small for their accommodation they are building additions, the cost of which is estimated at another £10,000 or so . . . The " Savoy," as this charming residence is appropriately called, is fortunately guarded from vulgar intrusion not only by a moat but by fifty acres or thereabouts of pleasant park and meadow." In the new wing they were "providing new bedrooms, installing central heating, converting the old barn into a loggia." (ll1orning Post, 9th December, 1926). Not content with a new country seat, at the same time they took two new town houses, Nos. 8 and 9 Smith Square, Westminster. As the Daily Record explained, "the simple truth is that Mr. Mosley, faced with the housing shortage, knocked the two houses into one . . . some sixteen rooms." (loth December, 1926). During the election campaign at Smethwick, the Daily News records that : " His own luxurious car has been left alone in his garage for the period of the election. He is now employing an • old hired car.' He has even gone to such lengths to woo the privy Socialists of Smethwick as to announce that • personally he prefers beer to any other drink.' His wife has consented to be addressed as • plain Mrs. l\1osley'." (9th December, 1926).

As the Daily Mail put it : " Both of them love the good things of life, town house and country estate, tours to Egypt and India, the expensive places of the Riviera, a 250 h.p. motor car, the gourmet's dishes, the Paris gowns." (30th May, 1930).

After his defeat at Ladywood in the autumn of 1924, he and his wife left for a grand tour to India, Irak, Spain, Palestine and Egypt. Later, they toured 7

in America and Russia, not to mention their many visits to the South of France. In 1929 Mosley was made Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. In the idleness of this sinecure he began to produce a scheme for the salving of capitalism. This scheme was rejected by the Labour Governrnent, and Mosley resigned from the Cabinet. He did not, however, leave the Labour Party, but throughout the remainder of 1930 continued to support it. He said: "I stated on my resignation that for my part I should vote for the Government." (Daily Telegraph, 24th May, 1930). "I shall go forward in any attempt to secure a vigorous unemployment policy not by forming any group or fraction in our movement but by appealing to our party as a whole to adopt such a policy." (Manchester Guardian, 24th May, 1930). In his efforts to convince the whole party and not merely a section of it, Mosley invited 2,000 members of Smethwick, Stoke and South Bucks Labour Parties to a garden party at Sarahay Farm, Denham. Special trains were provided. (Daily Herald, 13th July, 1928). Towards the end of 1930 invitations were issued to 250 people prominent in the Trade Union and political Labour movements to discuss a proposal to start a new Socialist movement or group pledged to a form of economic nationalism. These activities led to the expulsion of Sir Oswald from the Labour Party in March, 1931. This brought about a lightning change in his attitude to the Labour Government. In January he was saying, " the Labour Government has made a much bigger 8

contribution to the unemployment problem than any other Government has ever done." In April he said, "The Labour Government has done nothing." "Anybody who claimed that the Labour Party would introduce Socialism was dishonest or stupid, and at the present time there was no difference between the Labour Party and the Conservative Party." The Labour Party had" grossly and shamefully betrayed its pledges." (Daily Herald, 28th April, 1931). THE NEW PARTY A TD FASCISM After convalescence at Monaco, in a villa constructed above the sea by Captain Edward Molyneux, our baronet formed the New Party with Dr. Forgan. He returned to propaganda among the Conservatives, and once again his ideas began to get a friendly reception. At Oxford University Conservative Association, and again before city men at the Cannon Street Hotel, he propounded his "national policy" that was to develop so soon into Fascism. At the latter meeting in the summer of I 93 I he affirmed his belief in the principle of "universal sacrifices," which the National Government was almost immediately to operate. (Manchester Guardian, rst July, 1931). The New Party demanded immediate compulsory reorganisation of British industry, and" insulation" from foreign competition. "Protect the home market at once. Conditional on reorganisation," he wrote in an article in the Daily Mail, 31st August, 1931. The Socialist members of the New Party very soon resigned, differing on all the main questions. They stated on resignation that" Sir Oswald Mosley appears to us to be attempting to depart from the agreed basis on which we all entered the New Party, and to be leading it in a Conservative or Fascist 9

direction." (Daily Herald, 25th July, 1931). Theirprediction was soon fulfilled. In January, 1932, Mosley visited Rome, and had an hour's conversation with Signor Mussolini, as well as a long interview with Signor Starace, Secretary General of the Italian Fascists. Previous to this he had been in Germany, in touch with the Nazi leaders, including Hitler. In August, 1932, the Assistant-Director of the 1 [ew Party stated that "the decision on all matters of policy is in the hands of Sir Oswald Mosley." (Daily Herald, zoth August, 1932), and a few weeks later there was published his book, The Greater Britain, outlining Fascist doctrine as applied to Britain. The ew Party was speedily transformed into the British Union of Fascists, and Sir Oswald was launched on his career of "National Leader" and the greatest Englishman Mr. 'V. Joyce has ever known. MOSLEY'S PROMISES All things to all Men . .. I intend for the coming year to live on less than a quarter of the income to which I am accustomed. I am doing this in order . . . . to meet the losses I have suffered, in common with others, throu gh the fall in British securities. It is unpleasant . . ." (Da ily Mail, 1st September, 1931).

Every section will dip into the Blackshirt luckypacket; here are a few of Mosley's promises : .. Under Fascism," we learn, .. private ownership will be permitted and encouraged." .. In the corporate state you will be left in possession of your business" (Open letter to Business M en , Fascist Week, 1st February, 1934). .. The making of profit will not only be permitted but encouraged" (The Greater Britain, p. 85). .. The State 'will not attempt to conduct industry as it would under Socialism."

10

"Fascism will recover millions of acres from the sea." (Fascist Week, 19th January, 1934). "Agricultural production will be doubled." (Sir Oswald Mosley, ibid.). "Only Fascism can prevent war." (Fascist Week, 5th January, 1934). "Fascists will clear the slums in three years." (ibid.). "Fascism and Culture. We wiII not shrink from generous patronage." (Fascist Week, 6th April, 1934). "Fascism believes in greater freedom." (Fascist Week, 5th January, 1934). " Fascism upholds the throne of Britain." (Fascist Week, 9th February, 1934). "Under Fascism . . . commercial rivalries wiII be diminished." (The Greater Britain, p. 154). " Honesty is the best policy. Fascism wiII make it a National Asset." (Fascist Week, 9th March, 1934). "Fascism wiII abolish tithes." (Fascist Week, 16th March, 1934). " Fascism wiII further religious tolerance." (Fascist Week, 19th January, 1934). " A Fascist Government .. would offer the Church a fair annual income from the consolidated fund of the Exchequer." (Fascist Week, 16th March, 1934).

Mosley reassures the capitalists that they will keep their businesses and their profits. The Fascist dictatorship is a regrettable necessity, demanded by the urgency of the situation, and will be used in their interest, not against them. As protector of the rentier from the peril of the workers' revolution, he reveals his antagonism to the workers:"In the final economic crisis . . . the eternal protagonists in the history of all modern crises must struggle for the mastery of the State. Either Fascism or Communism emerges victorious." (The Greater Britain, p. 181). 11

The workers' power haunts Mosley like When he cannot explain the benefits of his in any other way, he presents them as the wark against Communism. To the workers, Mosley promises higher

a spectre. proposals only bulwages:-

" The function of the corporations will be to raise wages and salaries over the whole field of industry as science, rationalisation and industrial technique increase the power to produce. Consumption will be adjusted to production, and a home market will be provided by the higher purchasing power of our own people."

But he also believes in economy and rationalisation, and workers know what this means under a profitmaking system which Mosley seeks to maintain. " The power ruthlessly to cut down the redundant . . . can only rest with a government stronger in its whole constitution than the so-called democratic governments of to-day . . . The only means of enforcing economy is the constitution of a strong government." (ibid. pp. 176-77).

The workers in Lancashire, in South \Vales, and on the Tyneside already know the misery, the unemployment and the poverty that result from this policy. As in Germany and Italy, under Hitler and Mussolini, Mosley attempts to turn the minds of the workers and the small business people in Britain from their real enemy, the big capitalists and financiers, by attacking the Jews. In the Blackshirt of 4th November, 1933, in a front page article headed" Shall Jews Drag Britain to War? " it is stated in italics that, "In the light of recent events, we state deliberately that Jews are striving to involve Britain in war." "The Jews have now organised as a racial minority within the State 12

to conduct a furious agitation with all the force of their great money power, which can have no effect except to drag this country towards war with Germany." "The Jews, gripping great instruments for the expression of opinion, use such instruments not for the benefit of Britain, but for their own race." "It is the Jews, not we, who are now clearly proved to have forced the struggle . . . Against us are the forces of war, the Jews and old parties, whom they dominate, whether Conservative, Liberal or Socialist. " Does Mosley believe that the workers have forgotten who benefited from the last war, the big capitalist profiteers of all nations? And has not Hitler Fascism, assisted by the British Government, led the drive to re-armament and the race towards war? Who is the aggressor in Abyssinia? Is it not the capitalist class in Italy who find their able lieutenant in the Blackshirt Mussolini? The workers know that the capitalist class, of whatever creed or colour, and not the Jews as a race, are their real enemies. Fascism, by its very nature, leads vigorously to war and conquest. BLACKSHIRT BRUTALITY The methods of terrorism employed to establish the Fascist regime in Italy and Germany, which led to the destruction of the workers' organisations, the co-operative movements, the trade unions, and their political organisations are paralleled by the acts of violence which Mosley's followers have inflicted on their opponents at meetings. A few examples, from unimpeachable sources, are worth recording here. 13

There is an overwhelming body of evidence from the most conservative quarters, of acts of violence by Blackshirts at the Olympia meeting on 7th June, 1934. "I saw one man being set on by a gang of Blackshirts, who seized him from every side," said Mr. Anstruther-Gray (Conservative M.P. for Northern Lanark). "He flung up his hands to show his willingness to surrender and allow himself to be escorted out of the hall. Despite his obvious reluctance to enter into an entirely unequal fight, he was thrown down by a ju-jitsu trick and kicked in the ribs, while unable to move. Having yanked him up again the Blackshirts were not content with leading him away, but others ran behind battering him on the head with their bare fists." Mr. Geoffrey Lloyd, M.P. (Conservative, Ladywood), Parliamentary Private Secretary to Mr. Baldwin, said:" After thinking the matter over carefully, I do not think I saw a single heckler ejected in a decent and orderly way. Again and again, as five or six Fascists carried out an interrupter by arms and legs, several other Blackshirts were hitting and kicking his helpless body. Sir Oswald Mosley talks of an organised Socialist attack on Olympia, assaults on women wearing the black shirt, and the use of razors and other weapons. What miserable hypocrisy Sir Oswald's statement is. Clearly these events, if they actually took place, were stimulated by the past brutalities of the Blackshirts."

These remarks earned for Mr. Lloyd the statement by Sir Oswald that he was "Mr. Baldwin's little private jackal." There is space for only two other examples. A meeting at Oxford, addressed by Sir Oswald Mosley on znd 1 ovember, 1933, resulted in many injuries to opponents of the Blackshirts. 14

After the meeting the principal of Ruskin College, Mr. A. Barrett Brown, and a tutor, Mr. J. L. Etty, took sworn statements from some of the injured men. These statements were read out at an anti-Fascist meeting called by the Master of Balliol, the Dean of Wadham, Professor J. L. Brierly of All Souls, and two other dons, to protest against the Fascist violence at the Mosley meeting. Again at Bristol, in March, two men were ejected by Blackshirts. " Sydney Kyte of Bristol, was . . . . seriously hurt and was carried unconscious on a stretcher, his head swathed in bandages and covered with blood. He had been ejected from the meeting. As he was put into the ambulance the police had to form a ring to prevent the crowd surging forward into the building." (Manchester Guardian, 29th March, 1934).

The Home Secretary, although he said he had obtained a full report from the Chief Constable of Bristol, made no reference to the real cause of the trouble, but explained it as "largely due to the adoption of semi-military evolutions by the Fascists," and their general behaviour." (Hansard, 9th April, 1934)· As early as 1931, Mosley said:" We want to get as many physically fit young men as we can for it. In the coming years of crisis, in times of trial and ordeal, we shall be ready to fight." (Daily Herald, 15th May, 1931).

When the New Party was transformed into the B.V.F., Mosley is reported to have said:"We have a detachment that nearly every young man who is physically strong joins. They are highly disciplined in a semi-militaristic manner." (NewsChronicle, 30th September, 1932). 15

In this way, Sir Oswald Mosley, following in the steps of Fascism in Italy and Germany, is building up an anti-working class force that is intended to salvage a decaying system, and, as one of the first steps, seeks to break up working-class resistance.

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USEFUL REFERENCES Fascism and Social Revolution by R. Palme Dutt. Special Edition, 2/6. (Martin Lawrence). Fascists at Olympia, 6d. (Gollancz). Blackshirt Brutality, rd. (Workers' Bookshop). Mosley and Lancashire by W. Rust. rd. (Labour Monthly). Who Backs Mosley (out of print), 6d. (Labour Research Department).









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