British fascism

Historical examples of fascist organisations in Britain include the British Fascists (1923–1934), the British National Fascists (1924–1928), the Imperial Fascist League (1929–1939), the British Union of Fascists (1932–1940), the British League of Ex-Servicemen and Women (1937–1948), the National Socialist League (1937–1939), The Link (1937-1940), the British People's Party (1939–1954) and the Union Movement (1948–1978). More recent examples of British fascist groups include the British Movement (1968–1983), the National Front (1967–present), the British National Party (1982–present), Britain First (2011–present), National Action (2013–2017), and the Sonnenkrieg Division (2015–2020). Parties inspired by British fascist movements include the New Zealand National Front (1968–2019) and the Australian Protectionist Party (2007–present).

Ideology

Origins

British fascism, like other forms of fascism, lacks a common "intellectual genealogy"; it developed its ideas from various sources, British and foreign. British fascism acknowledges the inspiration and legacy of Italian fascism and Nazism but it also states that it is not a mere application of a "foreign" ideology, alleging roots within British traditions. Early British fascism, as seen in the British Fascists, initially had "little evidence of fascism in its ideology". It evolved its ideals in response to conservative influences on the domestic scene and the post-war anti-labour movement. From Italian fascism it took inspiration of strong leadership and strong opposition to communism.

Although later British fascism, as seen in the British Union of Fascists, was inspired by ideas such as the Corporate State in Italian fascism, its proponents asserted that both its economic and political agenda intended to embody that of Tudor England (1485–1603). It claimed that its advocacy of a centralised national authoritarian state was based upon the Tudor state's hostility to party factions and to self-interested sectional interests, and upon the Tudor goal of national integration through a centralised authoritarian state. Supporters saw the Tudor state as a prototype fascist state. In 1935 A. L. Glasfurd, a member of the British Union of Fascists (BUF), praised Henry VII's subjugation of "lawless barons who had brought about the Wars of the Roses"; he also praised the "Tudor dictatorship" for introducing national policies and restrictions on the export of English capital by self-serving private speculators. Glasfurd also praised the Tudor state for instituting a planned economy that he claimed was a predecessor of the "scientific" national economic planning of fascism.

British fascism also claimed the legacy of Oliver Cromwell, who dominated the British Isles in the 1650s; Oswald Mosley claimed that Cromwell brought about "the first fascist age in England". English political theorist Thomas Hobbes in his work Leviathan (1651) systematised the ideology of absolutism that advocated an all-powerful absolute monarchy to maintain order within a state. Hobbes' theory of absolutism became highly influential in fascist theory. British fascists claimed that their corporatist economic policy was in accord with England's historical medieval guild system, with its enlightened regulation of wages, prices and conditions of labour providing precedents for a British fascist corporatist economic system.

Specific policies could take ideas and inspiration from theorists and politicians of various stripes: for instance, as well as being informed by Italian and Nazi fascism, Mosley's economic policy took inspiration from Keynes and Roosevelt. Mosley is also seen as taking political and economic arguments from the Edwardian radical right and was influenced by Hegel and Nietzsche.

Tenets

There have been a number of British fascist groups, each with their own emphases; some less developed than others. Below are tenets shared by many of the groups, or those set out by the most established groups.

Societal degeneration and renewal

Like others on the right, British fascists diagnose the nation as in decline and under threat. For the BUF, the fragmenting of the British Empire and the changes in gender roles following WWI were examples of the weaknesses of British society. The BUF and the Union Movement described the weaknesses they saw in misogynistic terms, equating them with femininity. The decline was blamed on liberalism and outside (usually Jewish) influences and propagandists.

The fascist cure to this decline was renewal of the nation. Renewal for the BUF included the assertion of masculinity as virile, strong, hard and fortitudinous, and saw man as rightfully the authority. Under a Britain run by Mosley's fascists, girls would be educated up to the age of 15 so that they would be able to serve their families and the nation, and married women would be allowed to work but wouldn't need to because men, who are better suited to work, would receive higher wages so husbands would provide for their families. Mosley called for a 'return of seriousness and the restoration of social values' to curb homosexuality.

Nationalism and racialism

The British Union of Fascists (BUF) sought to unify the British nation in a number of ways. The division between workers and employers, for instance, would be resolved, they argued, by the "machinery of government" (i.e., the corporate state) providing an "equitable distribution of the proceeds of industry" to those involved.

The BUF also sought to bridge the divide between Protestant and Catholic Britons, and in particular it sought to appeal to Catholic Irish living in Britain. The BUF declared support for complete religious toleration. BUF Leader Sir Oswald Mosley emphasised the "Irish Connection" and the BUF held both Protestant and Catholic religious branches. Mosley condemned the Liberal government of David Lloyd George for being responsible for allowing reprisals between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland. As a result of the BUF's conciliatory approach to Catholics, it gained a substantial support amongst Catholics, and several BUF leaders in Hull, Blackburn, and Bolton, were Catholics. Support by Catholic Irish in Stepney for the BUF increased after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War that involved clerical traditionalist and fascist forces fighting against an anti-clerical government.

On racial issues, the various British fascist movements held different—although invariably racialist—policies. Mosley's BUF believed that culture created national and racial differences—a policy closer to the views on race by Italian fascism rather than German Nazism. Initially the BUF was not explicitly anti-Semitic. In April and May 1933, the BUF newspaper The Blackshirt wrote that antisemitism was not an inherent characteristic of fascism. Rather, BUF considered it to be attributable to the specific German circumstances. On the contrary, Jewish issue was unknown to the Italian fascism, which BUF considered as "perfect". The BUF's ideology was in fact based upon the views on race of Austrian Jewish sociologist Ludwig Gumplowicz and Scottish anthropologist Arthur Keith, who defined race formation as the result of dynamic historical and political processes established within the confines of the nation state and that the defining characteristics of a people were determined by the interaction of heredity, environment, culture, and evolution over a historical period of time. However, Mosley later prominently asserted anti-Semitism, invoking the theory of German philosopher Oswald Spengler, who described that Magian Jews and Faustian Europeans were bound to live in friction with each other. In contrast to the Nazis, however, Mosley's anti-Semitism was largely conspiratorial rather than racial, with Mosley often stating "he was against the Jews not for what they were, but for what they did". Arnold Leese's Imperial Fascist League, on the other hand, promoted pro-Nazi racial policy including anti-Semitism.

The British Union of Fascists differed from other fascists in viewing the evolution in neo-Lamarckian terms. Lamarckism viewed the adaptation in terms of the interaction between the mind and will of man and the environment, rather than in terms of random mutation and natural selection like Darwinism. Mosley and the BUF emphasized the willpower as the prime agent of the evolution. Therefore, he viewed the main changes in the history as being driven by the social and cultural factors rather than the physical. The adaptation, according to Mosley, was a response to the events and the will to transform the reality. Like German philosopher Oswald Spengler, Mosley viewed the race as a feature of culture, expression of its symbols and values. Mosley wrote that "biology begins again to teach that the wilful determination of the species to rise above the limitations of material environment is the dominating factor in evolution. … In fact every tendency in modern science assures us that in superb effort the human spirit can soar beyond the restraint of time and circumstance." Mosley synthetized the Nietzschean and Christian values. He believed that fascism was the will to power harnessed into the service of community. He wrote: "every Blackshirt is an individual cell of a collective Caesarism. The organised will of devoted masses, subject to a voluntary discipline and inspired by the passionate ideal of natural survival, replacing the will to power and a higher order of the individual superman". Mosley developed his thoughts from heroic vitalism and creative evolutionism. He believed that Europe was facing a historic crisis, and that it would have been overcome through a strong will, ushering Europe into the new order. Mosley argued that Spengler was mistaken in his cultural pessimism, instead claiming that fascism based on modern science could rejuvenate Western culture. He came to see fascism as a "mutiny against destiny", writing that "rise of the National Socialist and Fascist doctrine throughout Europe represents in historic determinism the supreme effort of modern man to challenge and overcome the human destiny which in every previous civilisation has ordained irretrievable downfall".

Mosley argued against immigration, adopting the motto "Britain for the British". However, he wrote in 1938 that he did not consider the German Nazi racial policy appropriate for Britain, because Britain, unlike Germany, possessed an empire which consisted of many different races, and thus it would be inappropriate to adopt laws which would stigmatise any race within the empire. Mosley argued against race-mixing and considered the preservation of "British race" and its culture as important, however, he argued that the same approach would extend to other races as well. In particular, he criticized the imposition of the Western culture on other races of empire, such as Indians, writing: "Fascist teaches pride of race and racial culture. Under Fascism, Indian leaders will arise to carry forward their own traditions and culture within the framework of Empire and the modern world of science". Regarding Jews, Mosley told them: either adopt "Britain First" or leave.

Pan-Europeanism

The BUF considered fascism as a "European tradition", "European movement", a new spirit of transformation, stronger than national distinctions. It believed that fascism would one day "unite Europe in a new civilization". In June 1934, Robert Gordon-Canning wrote that the "local patriotisms" in Europe would give a way to the "greater patriotism to the unified country". However, before that, it would be necessary to build nations with sound and well-balanced economic basis. In 1936, Oswald Mosley warned of the possibility of the "brother's war" in Europe, instead, urging them to focus on the Soviet Russia. However, Mosley considered British fascism as a unique movement, and wrote that Britain would assume the leading role in the world, with Germany as a complementary, since Germany did not strive to build a worldwide empire, as it considered this to be a threat to its racial purity. Mosley, on the other hand, thought that Britain would maintain racial purity while maintaining its empire as well.

After the defeat of the Axis powers in 1945, Sir Oswald Mosley founded the Union Movement (UM) as the successor to his inter-war BUF. The Union Movement diverged from the BUF's focus on British nationalism and instead focused on promoting the idea of Pan-European nationalism. Mosley's pan-Europeanism was inspired by German philosopher Oswald Spengler and his concept of unity of European culture and its primary Faustian symbols.

Leadership

For the BUF, only a dictator could bring to an end the weaknesses of the current political and economic system and bring in and manage the new. The dictatorship would not be constrained by committees and talk but would be defined by action. Mosley's idealised fascist leader was stylised in his post-war writing as the "Thought-Deed Man", described by Daniel Sonabend as "a philosopher, scientist and statesman combined, a man whose genius allowed him to see how the world should be, and then, through his prodigious will, make it so".

Mosely tried to assuage the British public's fears about a dictator by saying they could vote the government out if necessary (and the monarch would select new ministers to take their places). Other members of the BUF, however, advocated for a dictator in the style of Italy's or Germany's, as did Arnold Leese of the Imperial Fascist League.

Corporatism

For Mosley, the corporate state was to give the nation its direction: it would set the limits within which individuals and the economy function and "[w]ithin these limits all activities would be permitted and private enterprise and profit-making encouraged". Foremost, this politics was to be economic: employers' groups and employees' groups within their specific industries would be grouped together into "corporations" that represented their sector (e.g., agricultural, iron and steel, textiles, etc.—there would be twenty of them) in a National Corporation and the government would nominate consumer representatives. The corporations would make decisions on prices, output, and competition, and on expansion and contraction of industries. The corporatism of the BUF was often talked about using the metaphor of the (healthy, youthful, athletic) body, in which "[e]very organ plays a part in relation to the whole and in harmony with the whole".

Corporatist policies would also be spread to the empire. It was seen as natural that the Dominions would accept these policies as it would be beneficial to them. The spread of corporatist policies would have also led to an increased hold on India and British fascists argued that it would have improved working conditions there.

Economics

In economics, the BUF opposed both socialism and laissez-faire economics for being an outmoded system and proposed instead a national syndicalist economic system guided by a corporate state. While Mosley was against liberal or, as Matthew Worley puts it, "untrammelled" capitalism, he wasn't against the system as a whole—rather, he wanted to retain capitalism and "make it more perfect". For Mosely, a more perfect system was for the State to manage capitalism, with the government regulating "the factors of supply and demand by the manipulation of wages and price levels". Mosley declared: "Capitalism is a system by which capital uses the nation for its own purposes. Fascism is a system by which the nation uses capital for its own purposes". Thus, Webber categorises Mosley as a "capitalist statist" and Rubin describes the BUF's economics as "fascist capitalism". The BUF also wanted Britain and its empire to be self-sufficient, an autarky.

In contrast to Mosley, Imperial Fascist League leader Arnold Lees was, according to Webber, an "anti-capitalist statist". He had "old-fashioned" solutions to economic issues, wanting to "re-establish a form of pre-industrial aristocratic rule in which industrial interests were to be controlled by political appointees and financial interests made the servant of the state by tightening control over investments".

Foreign policies

The fascism of the BUF had "selective pacifism": it was non-interventionist and argued against war when it was not in defence of the United Kingdom or the British Empire. It believed the only threat to the British Empire was from the Soviet Union. In defence of this policy Mosley pointed to Benjamin Disraeli who opposed going to war with Turkey over its mistreatment of Armenians.

BUF and IFL economic policies were isolationist, desiring Britain and its empire to be an autarky.

Militarism

BUF militarism was strong: for William Joyce, "war and imperialism were the ultimate expressions of national identity against which there could be no valid objections". Leese of the IFL was of a similar opinion.

Traditionalism and modernism

The BUF declared support for the British monarchy, regarding the monarchy as a beneficial institution for its role in bringing Britain to preeminence in the world, and seeing it as a symbol of Britain's imperial splendour. Its support went as far as "Absolute loyalty to the Crown" with Mosley saying that British fascists aimed to "in every way maintain its dignity".

The BUF declared its support for complete religious toleration, but also declared that it sought to merge both religious and secular spheres of the nation into a "higher harmony" between church and state, by supporting political representation for leading clerics in the House of Lords and state maintenance for religious schools for those who demanded them. The BUF declared its support for Christianity and its opposition to atheism, saying "atheism will perish under British Union; Christianity will find encouragement and security, in which it may prosper to the glory of its Creator".

The BUF stressed the need for Britain to be linked to modernity, especially in economics. Mosley had declared such in 1931 in addressing the action needed in response to the onset of the Great Depression: "we have to face modern problems with modern minds, we should then be able to lift this great economic problem and national emergency far above the turmoil of party clamour and with national unity could achieve a solution adequate to the problem and worthy of the modern mind". They found "the money spent on both scientific and technical research [was] absurdly inadequate".