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.
I.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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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