Union Movement

Union Movement
Founder	Oswald Mosley
Founded	1948
Dissolved	1973
Preceded by	British Union of Fascists
Merged into	National Front
Succeeded by	Action Party (LaterLeague of Saint George)
Ideology	Europe a Nation Pan-European nationalism
Political position	Far-right
European Parliament group	European Social Movement(1951–1960s) National Party of Europe(1960s)
Colours	RedWhiteBlue
Party flag
Politics of the United Kingdom Political parties Elections

TheUnion Movement(UM) was afar-rightpolitical partyfounded in theUnited KingdombyOswald Mosley.Before theSecond World War,Mosley'sBritish Union of Fascists(BUF) had wanted to concentrate trade within theBritish Empire,but the Union Movement attempted to stress the importance of developing aEuropean nationalism,rather than a narrower country-basednationalism.That has caused the UM to be characterised as an attempt by Mosley to start again in his political life by embracing moredemocraticand international policies than those with which he had previously been associated. The UM has been described aspost-fascistby former members such as Robert Edwards, the founder of the pro-MosleyEuropean Action,a British pressure group and monthly newspaper.

Mosley's postwar activity

Having been the leader of the BUF in the 1930s, Mosley was expected to return to lead the far right. However, he remained out of the immediate postwar political arena, instead turned to writing and published his first work,My Answer(1946) in which he argued that he had been a patriot who had been unjustly punished by his internment underDefence Regulation 18B.In it and his 1947 sequel,The Alternative,Mosley began to argue for a much-closer integration between the nations ofEurope,the beginning of his 'Europe a Nation' campaign, which sought a strong united Europe as a counterbalance to the growing power of theUnited Statesand theSoviet Union.

Europe a Nation

Mosley perceived a linear growth withinBritish historyand saw Europe a Nation as the culmination of that destiny. Therefore, he argued it to be "part of an organic process of British history" since Britain had united into one nation and that it was Britain's national destiny to unite the whole continent.

He further envisaged a three-tiered system of government, headed by an elected European government, to organise defence and thecorporatisteconomy. The continuation of national governments and a collection of local governments were still seen as necessary for the sake of independent identities.

Mosley's ideas were not new since concepts of aNation EuropaandEurafrika(the same idea but with parts of north Africa included as natural sectors of Europe's traditional sphere of influence, an idea that Mosley himself felt had some merit) were already growing in Germany's postwar underground. Also,Benito Mussolini'sItalian Social Republichad returned to fascism's roots with an attempt at a corporatist economic system during its brief existence. Nonetheless, Mosley was the first to express the ideas inEnglish,and it came as no surprise when he returned to proper political activism in 1948. Those plans were to form the basis for the policy programme of the Union Movement.

Formation of party

British Facist(1923-1934)

Imperial League(1931)

Various minor facist groups

New party(1931–1932)

British Union of Fascists(1932–1940)

British People's Party(1939-1954)

Union Movement(1948-1973)

National Socialist League(1937-1939)

Action party(1973-1994)

League of Saint George

After the release of interned fascists at the end of theSecond World War,a number of far-right groups were formed. They were often virulentlyanti-Semiticand tried to capitalise on the violent events taking place inMandatory Palestine.Large meetings were organised in Jewish areas ofEast Londonand elsewhere, which were often violently broken up by antifascist groups such as the43 Group.Fifty-one separate groups were united under Mosley's leadership in the Union Movement (UM), launched at a meeting inFarringdon Hall,London, in 1948. The four main groups wereJeffrey Hamm'sBritish League of Ex-Servicemen and Women,Anthony Gannon's Imperial Defence League,Victor Burgess's Union of British Freedom and Horace Gowing andTommy Moran's Sons of St George, all of which were led by ex-BUF men.Another early member wasFrancis Parker Yockey,an American who had come toEnglandto seek Mosley's help to publish his written work. Yockey briefly headed up the UM's European Contact Section, although he left after a dispute with Mosley.

The Union Movement was also known for its attempts to recruitIrish peopleliving in Britain, and Mosley wrote a pamphlet in 1948,Ireland's Right to Unite when entering European Union.There were also links between the UM and the Irish nationalist and pro-fascist partyAiltirí na hAiséirghe(Architects of the Resurrection), and Mosley wrote articles for its newspaperAiséirghe.

Mosley remained a critic ofliberal democracy,and the UM instead extolled a strong executive that people could endorse or reject through regularreferendums,with anindependent judiciaryin place to appoint replacements in the event of a rejection.In 1948 the party marched 1,500 supporters throughCamdenand went on to contest the following year's local elections inLondon.However, outsideShoreditchandBethnal Green,where they polled 15.7% and 7.7% respectively in the wards contested, the UM performed very poorly and secured no representation.The Union Movement then declined as a political party, and attendance at meetings dwindled until it was negligible.Disillusioned by the stern opposition that the UM faced and his style of street politics being exposed as somewhat passé, in 1951 Mosley went into self-imposed exile inIreland.

A member of Union Movement called F.B. Price-Heywood was elected as a councillor inGrasmere,Lake District,Cumbria,during the 1953 local elections, but it was a rare success for the party, and the UM gained no parliamentary seats.

The Union Movement published several weekly newspapers and monthly magazines includingUnion,Action(also the title of the prewar weekly newspaper of theNew Partyand theBritish Union of Fascists),Attack,Alternative,East London Blackshirt,The EuropeanandNational European.

Racial tensions and rise of party

After theBritish Nationality Act 1948,there was a great increase in immigration, particularly from theCommonwealthand the colonies. In the early 1950s, immigration was estimated at 8,000–10,000 per year, but it had grown to 35,000 per year by 1957. Perceptions of the new migrant workers were frequently stereotypical, but theConservative Party,despite the private opinions of some of its members, was loath to make a political issue out of it for fear of being seen as gutter politicians. Disturbances occurred in 1958 inNotting Hillafter a Mosley rally and inNottinghamwith clashes between racial groups, a new phenomenon in Britain.

The new uncertainties revitalised the UM, and Mosley re-emerged to stand as a candidate in the1959 general electioninKensington North,which included Notting Hill, his first parliamentary election since 1931. Mosley made immigration his campaign issue and combined calls for assistedrepatriationwith stories regardingcriminalityandsexual devianceof black people, a common theme of the time.The 8.1% share of the votethat he secured was a personal humiliation for a man who still hoped that he would be called to serve someday as theBritish prime minister.However, the UM was as a whole buoyed by the immigration question, which it saw as the next big issue in British politics.

In April 1965, Mosley attempted to show that he and the UM were not racist by forming an "Associate Movement" for ethnic minorities who agreed with his policies, including the financially-assisted repatriation of immigrants to their homelands of origin. The group was led by an Indian solicitor and an African airline pilot but was short-lived.

Final days

Along with his domestic politics, Mosley continued to work towards his goal of Europe a Nation and in 1962 attended a conference inVeniceat which he helped to form aNational Party of Europe,along withGermany'sReichspartei,theMouvement d'Action Civique,andJeune EuropeofBelgiumand theItalian Social Movement(MSI).Adopting the slogan "Progress - Solidarity - Unity", the movement aimed to work closely for a closer unity of European states, but in the end, little came of it as only the MSI enjoyed any success domestically. The group replaced the earlierEuropean Social Movementin which Mosley had also been involved. The Union Movement itself did not play an active role in Europe, although it helped to set in motion co-operation between like-minded groups across Europe, which continued with theEuropean National Front.

Mosley stood again in the1966 election,this time in theShoreditch and Finsbury constituency.However, gaining only 4.6% of the vote, Mosley effectively departed the scene thereafter, although he remained the official UM leader until 1973.The increasingly marginalised UM carried on into the 1970s and still advocated Europe A Nation but had no real influence and failed to capture support for its policies.

A brief revival seemed possible after the UM became the Action Party in 1973, the name under which it fought six seats at theGreater London Council election.Under the leadership ofJeffrey Hamm,the party hoped for something of a revival although it was damaged severely in 1974 when a leading member,Keith Thompson,and his followers split to form theLeague of Saint George,a non-party movement that they claimed was the true continuation of Mosley's ideas. With a sizeable chunk of its membership long since lost to theNational Front,the Action Party gave up electoral politics and in 1978 became the Action Society, which acted as a publishing house rather than a political party.The group continued until Hamm's death in 1994, when the funding of Mosley's widow,Diana Mitford,was withdrawn. The Action Society was then wound up – this represented the final end of the Union Movement.

Election results

House of Commons

Election year	# of seats contested	# of total votes	% of vote in seats contested	# of seats won	Rank
1959	1	2,821	8.1%	0	13
1966	4	4,075	3.7%	0	14

In popular culture

The 1980sITVtelevision seriesShine on Harvey Moonfeatures members of Mosley's Union Movement. It was created by the writersLaurence MarksandMaurice Granwho would later produce theChannel 4mini-seriesMosleybroadcast in 1998.

See also

Well-known members

• John Bean
• Victor Burgess
• Jeffrey Hamm
• Neil Francis Hawkins
• Diana Mitford
• Tommy Moran
• Max Mosley
• Oswald Mosley
• Robert Row
• Keith Thompson
• Alexander Raven Thomson
• John G. Wood
• Francis Parker Yockey

Related groups and concepts

• British Union of Fascists
• Europe a Nation
• League of Saint George
• History of British fascism since 1945
• Friends of Oswald Mosley

Bibliography

• Eatwell, R. (2003)Fascism: A History,Pimlico
• Mosley, Oswald (1970)My Life,Nelson Press
• Mosley, Oswald (1958)Europe: Faith and Plan,Euphorion Books
• Skidelsky, Robert(1975)Oswald Mosley,Macmillan
• Thurlow, R. (1998)Fascism in Britain,I.B. Tauris
• Macklin, Graham (2007)Very Deeply Dyed in Black: Sir Oswald Mosley and the Resurrection of British Fascism after 1945,I.B. Tauris

External links

• Union Movement on OswaldMosley
• "Britain’s post-war fascist pro-Europeans"– article about Oswald Mosley's Union Movement inThe New Europeanweekly newspaper
• Europe a Nation - 1948an article written by a former member of Mosley's Union Movement and the founder and editor of theEuropean Actionmonthly newspaper and UK pressure group, Robert Edwards
• History of the formation of Union Movement on British Guardian blog
• British Pathe film footage of Union Movement marches and rallies in London and Manchester