The Question of ‘Left-Wing Fascism’ within the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s

Abstract

Fascist movements in interwar Europe, like the infamous Nazi Party and Mussolini’s Fascists, are generally positioned on the far right of contemporary political culture. Yet, the small but significant fascist movement in England was led by Sir Oswald Mosley, a former minister in the Labour government in 1929–30, and attracted a significant number of other defectors from the Labour party. Some historians have come to describe these men as “left-wing fascists,” a term that is meant to indicate the paradoxical nature of Mosley’s movement, since fascism is generally held to be an ideology from the right edge of the political spectrum. My research will seek to place this notion of “left-wing fascism” under a critical lens by compiling a database of fascist recruits from the Labour party and the wider Left in order to determine where they truly fell on the political spectrum. By examining their published works and statements before, during, and after their association with Mosley’s movement, I believe that I will be able to show that those who whole-heartedly embraced fascism were never truly “left wing” at all, and those who were genuinely trying to look out for the proletariat were only temporarily misled into supporting fascism and quickly jumped ship once the more conservative aspirations of the fascist party were revealed