British fascism had its roots in the "radical right", a distinct political force that emerged before, during and after the First World War. It developed from fears that Britain's imperial interests were threatened by newly industrialised nations such as Germany, and its domestic cohesion menaced by liberal laissez-faire, democratisation and an assertive labour movement. Drawing upon Social Darwinism, eugenics and "scientific racism", those motivated by such fears concluded that these problems could only be overcome by adopting "solutions" that were "social imperialist". These "solutions" displayed authoritarian, militaristic and antisemitic tendencies, and were articulated through various patriotic, nationalist and racialist groups.
The most significant of these was the Tariff Reform League (TRL), founded in 1903 to popularise the programme advocated by the Unionist MP Joseph Chamberlain. Chamberlain proposed replacing the economic orthodoxy of free trade with a system of import duties (tariffs) to protect Britain and its Empire from foreign competition, forging a self-contained imperial unit. This would stimulate the economy, create jobs, raise wages and standards of living, and provide money for defence and social reforms. Chamberlain presented imperial protectionism both as a means of defending Britain's interests and as a viable alternative to the "radical" policies of the Liberals and Socialists. As such, it had more to offer than earlier "single-issue" pressure groups such as the Navy League (1895) and the National Service League (1901), and quickly established itself as the main focus for radical right activists.
1928 Imperial Fascist League founded, led by Arnold Leese
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Initially, the TRL's antisemitic propaganda simply reproduced these arguments, merely adding that to protect British workers from "immigrant" (Jewish) labour at home was senseless without also protecting British industries from "foreign" (Jewish) competitors overseas. But this soon developed into a "conspiracy theory". Rich Jews were portrayed as "international financiers", parasites who exploited their control of "finance capital" to drain the British Empire of its wealth. The "International Jew", it alleged, used "money power" to corrupt the political parties, compelling them to accept policies (free trade) to strengthen "usurious capital" at the expense of "productive capital". This conspiracy theory reached its height after the Marconi scandal of 1912, when tariff reformers joined with the Chestertons and Hilaire Belloc in the National League for Clean Government to expose Liberal-Jewish involvement in that affair and in other "corrupt practices".
Antisemitism, however, failed to convert "the masses" to protectionism: tariff reform was rejected by the electorate, divided the Conservative Party and contributed to Liberal election victories in 1906 and 1910. Frustrated, the radical right became increasingly militant, its adherents providing support to those Tory "Diehard" peers who opposed the "People's Budget" of 1909 and the House of Lords reform of 1912. How far they were prepared to take that militancy was demonstrated in their resistance to the Irish Home Rule Bill (1913-14), when, by providing financial aid, arms and military recruits to the Ulster Volunteer Force, the radical right seemed willing to plunge Britain into civil war.
The outbreak of the First World War prevented that confrontation and compelled the radical right to pledge support for the war effort, but its adherents remained active throughout, establishing organisations such as the British Empire Union (1915), the British Workers League (1916) and the National Party (1917) to promote "patriotic" crusades and ensure the radical right agenda survived into the postwar world.
The first fascists 1919-31
That postwar world, however, presented the radical right with new fears: the upsurge of industrial unrest and the rise of a "socialist" Labour Party provoked anxiety that a Bolshevik-style revolution was imminent. Accordingly, radical right activists helped organise the anti-socialist groups such as the Economic League (1919) and the National Citizens Union (1919) that were formed, and joined forces with existing bodies (notably the British Empire Union), to combat this threat. They were prominent, too, in promoting the view that Bolshevism was part of the "international Jewish conspiracy", and ensuring through groups such as the Britons (1919) that the notorious forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, remained in print.
The fear of "revolution" was especially acute during 1923, when a Labour Party victory at the next election seemed likely. The radical right believed that the labour movement was riddled by "Jewish-Bolshevik agents" waiting for a Labour victory to implement a revolutionary agenda. The British Empire Union and the National Citizens Union urged anti-socialists to resist Labour attempts to "Bolshevise Britain", proposing a paramilitary force along the lines of Mussolini's fascisti in such an eventuality.
1923 British Fascists founded by Rotha Lintorn-Orman
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The BF was organised along paramilitary lines, with units, troops, companies, divisions, districts, county and area commands. Decision-making was vested in the Fascist Grand Council, and executive control in the General Headquarters in London. Its nucleus was its Defence Force (the "Q" divisions), commanded by a Chief of Staff. Its members - male and female - received training in jujitsu, unarmed combat and survival techniques, and were subject to military discipline. The BF also boasted an "intelligence and counterespionage" department and claimed to operate secret "fascist cells" in the trade unions and Communist Party.
The movement's chief activity was the stewarding of meetings held by Conservatives and radical right-wing groups. These frequently ended in violent clashes with left-wing protesters. The BF, however, held back from launching its own offensive "punitive expeditions", preferring to adopt defensive tactics and remain within the law. This led to a serious split in 1924, with the BF's more militant members (including William Joyce and Arnold Leese) breaking away to form the National Fascisti (NF), claiming that the BF "did not understand fascism at all".
A further split occurred at the time of the 1926 General Strike. The BF sought to enlist its members as self-contained fascist units in the government's strikebreaking machine, the Supply and Transport Organisation (STO), but was refused. Members could enlist as individuals, they were informed, provided they relinquished their identity as fascists. The BF divided over the issue. Four members of its Grand Council accepted the government's stance and defected with a substantial proportion of members to form the British Loyalists (subsequently absorbed into the radical right's "Clear Out the Reds" campaign of 1927).
This marked the end of the BF as an independent, coherent force. The outcome of the General Strike had demonstrated the government's capacity to defeat challenges to the existing order and rendered the BF superfluous. It gradually disintegrated. The bulk of its members defected to Mosley's British Union of Fascists (BUF) in 1932, the rest following in 1935 when the BF was wound up.
The NF collapsed in 1927. Some of its members formed the Imperial Fascist League (IFL) the following year, which came under Arnold Leese's leadership in 1930. The IFL focused exclusively on the "international Jewish conspiracy", combining this with the Social Credit theory of Major C H Douglas. It enjoyed close ties with the Britons and the Social Credit Secretariat, and in the 1930s championed the Nazi cause. Other former NF members joined either the equally pro-Nazi, antisemitic National Workers' Party (1931) or the BUF.
By the early 1930s, then, the "first wave" of British fascism had fragmented, its energies dispersed. It had succeeded, nonetheless, in transmitting through its activists the discourse and practice it had inherited from the radical right to the "second wave" of British fascism that emerged in the 1930s. Those who joined that "second wave" brought with them organisational and paramilitary skills that proved invaluable.
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by John Hope |