A round up of the anti-fascist mass mobilizing that blocked Oswald Mosley’s blackshirts in the mid-1930s.

‘British Workers Make Successful Struggle Against Mosley Fascists’ by Joseph Bergson from The Daily Worker. Vol. 11 No. 269. November 10, 1934.  

Up to a few months ago, fascism had been making great strides in England. With the worsening of economic conditions, With unemployment over the two million mark, with the growth of large “derelict areas” over many of the industrial districts of the north, and above all, with the closing up of other avenues of escape to the middle class, England presented a fertile field for the fascist propagandists. Big business was more than ready to put up the money. Strong arm men and thugs were easily recruited from the economically declassed elements of the bourgeoisie. Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, began a campaign of large mass meetings, which were surrounded with all the propaganda devices perfected by Hitlerism. At these meetings “order” was kept by Mosley’s black-shirted mercenaries. Hecklers and interrupters were mercilessly and brutally beaten up. The young blackshirts, usually fighting with an advantage of five or ten to one, enjoyed themselves.

During this period, the British Labor Party pursued the policy of the traditional ostrich, and buried its head in the sand. The fascists were too insignificant to be noticed. The best way to defeat fascism was to ignore it. Opposition, such as was put up against fascism right from the start by the Communist Party, only served as an irritant. In fact, said the Labor leaders, the Communists, by irritating the fascists, really make fascism much worse.

This attitude of the Labor Party leaders aroused much opposition from the rank and file of trade unionists and from Labor Party members. All over the country, as soon as fascist meetings were held, as soon as the blackshirts were seen on the streets, the workers were clamoring and shouting to take action against them. They demanded the organization of counter-demonstrations. They looked for a lead in the fight against fascism. From Transport House, the national headquarters of the Labor Party, they got only advice to do nothing, to stay at home and leave the streets to the fascists, to boycott the counter-meetings arranged by the Communist Party.

FROM the beginning, the Communist Party took on, almost single-handed, the fight against the growing fascist movement. Gradually more and more of the Labor Party workers shook themselves free of the “do-nothing policy” laid down for them by Transport House, and joined in the fight under the leadership of our Party. At first this cooperation was spontaneous and unofficial. Then came a day in which the Trades and Labor Council of Bradford, one of the biggest textile towns in England, voted I down the resolutions of the platform, and decided to back the united front protest demonstration organized by the Communist Party, and support a militant program against fascism. More recently, in London, Sir Oswald Mosley announced a monster fascist rally in Hyde Park. The Party issued the slogan, “All out to the Park to drown fascism in a sea of working class activity.” Official Labor in its newspaper the Daily Herald cried out, day after day until the meeting, that the Communists were playing the game of the fascists, that no worker should attend the counter-demonstration. On the Sunday morning of the meeting the workers began gathering. Processions a thousand strong started marching on the Park from the working class districts. By two in the afternoon a hundred and fifty thousand workers were in the Park. Less than a thousand fascists, protected by five times that number of police, tried in vain to hold their meeting in the shadow of this terrifying manifestation of proletarian strength. Mosley stood inside the police ring, making futile gestures. No one heard a word that he said. Soon afterwards, the fascists marched out of the Park under police protection, with their tails between their legs.

This was not only a Mosley fiasco. It was also one of the most striking victories of the Party in its fight against fascism. The Party’s course was completely vindicated. The sabotaging attitude of the Labor Party was completely exposed. And to a hundred and fifty thousand workers the role of the Party, in taking the offensive against and defeating fascism, was made plain. Since Sunday September 9th the fascists have been unable to hold any outdoor meetings in London.

DIFFERENT story comes from the town of Leicester. The Leicester Labor Party has raised the cry of “Free speech for the fascists.” A pretty exchange of courtesies has been taking place. In response to what the fascists described as the “gentlemanly” attitude taken by the Labor Party there, they last month called off a meeting which had been scheduled on the grounds that it would clash with the Labor Party’s campaign week. The fascist meeting was therefore postponed for a week. Gentlemen on both sides.

Both from situations such as this, and from the successes won in London and in the big towns of the industrial north, the importance of the Party’s leading role in the struggle of the working class against fascism is plain. Under the well-directed attack of the workers England’s first fascist movement is already showing signs of collapse. Serious splits in the fascist ranks have taken place in Bristol where fighting broke out among the fascists themselves. The fascist national organizer, Dr. Forgan, has just been compelled to resign “for reasons of ill health.” A well-known Brigadier General, who has more than once looked for work with the Socialist Party, recently offered to organize the blackshirts of the London and Home Counties area on a military basis. He asked a salary of $4,000 a year plus an expense account and a small car. This was refused. An ex-major of the Royal Air Force, however, is still at the head of the fascist air unit. Mosley disposes of large sums of money, though his financial resources are not any more as large as they were a year ago. The automobile manufacturers, particularly the head of the Austin Motor Company, remain generous supporters.

Though money is getting tight, though many of his own dupes are beginning to see through him, though Mosley’s egomania is having disruptive effects on his party. Mosleyism remains a potential menace. The fighting leadership against fascism has been given and will still be given by the Communist Party of Great Britain.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n269-NY-nov-10-1934-DW-LOC.pdf