The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a British fascist political party formed in 1932 by Oswald Mosley. Mosley changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists in 1936 and, in 1937, to the British Union. In 1939, following the start of the Second World War, the party was proscribed by the British government and in 1940 it was disbanded.
The BUF emerged in 1932 from the electoral defeat of its antecedent, the New Party, in the 1931 general election. The BUF's foundation was initially met with popular support, and it attracted a sizeable following, with the party claiming 50,000 members at one point. The press baron Lord Rothermere was a notable early supporter. As the party became increasingly radical, however, support declined. The Olympia Rally of 1934, in which a number of anti-fascist protestors were attacked by the paramilitary wing of the BUF, the Fascist Defence Force, isolated the party from much of its following. The party's embrace of Nazi-style antisemitism in 1936 led to increasingly violent confrontations with anti-fascists, notably the 1936 Battle of Cable Street in London's East End. The Public Order Act 1936, which banned political uniforms and responded to increasing political violence, had a particularly strong effect on the BUF whose supporters were known as "Blackshirts" after the uniforms they wore.
Growing British hostility towards Nazi Germany, with which the British press persistently associated the BUF, further contributed to the decline of the movement's membership. The party was finally banned by the British government on 23 May 1940 after the start of the Second World War, amid suspicion that its remaining supporters might form a pro-Nazi "fifth column". A number of prominent BUF members were arrested and interned under Defence Regulation 18B.
^Martin Ceadel (2000). Semi-detached Idealists: The British Peace Movement and International Relations, 1854-1945. Oxford. p. 404.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Cite error: The named reference AS was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Lewis, David Stephen (1987). Illusions of Grandeur: Mosley, Fascism, and British Society, 1931-81. Manchester / Wolfeboro, NH: Manchester University Press. p. 68.
^Stephen Dorril, Blackshirt (2006), p.258.
^ Martin Pugh, Hurrah For The Blackshirts!: Fascists and Fascism in Britain Between the Wars, pp. 133-135, Random House
^Webber, G.C. (1984). "Patterns of Membership and Support for the British Union of Fascists". Journal of Contemporary History. 19 (4): 575–606. doi:10.1177/002200948401900401. JSTOR 260327. S2CID 159618633.
^ abDavid Stephen Lewis. Illusions of Grandeur: Mosley, Fascism, and British Society, 1931-81. P. 51.
^Oswald Mosley. Fascism: 100 Questions Asked and Answered. Question 1
^Oswald Mosley. Fascism: 100 Questions Asked and Answered. Question 1
^A Workers' Policy Through Syndicalism. Union Movement. 1953. ISBN 9781899435265.
^Oswald Mosley. Fascism: 100 Questions Asked and Answered. 10 points of Fascism: V. The Corporate State
^Roger Griffin. Fascism, Totalitarianism And Political Religion. Oxon, England, UK; New York, New York, USA: Routledge, 2005. P. 110.
^Oswald Mosley. Fascism: 100 Questions Asked and Answered. Question 88
^W F Mandle, Anti-Semitism and the British Union of Fascists Robert Benewick The Fascist Movement in Britain, pp 132-134 Alan S Millward, "Fascism and the Economy", in Walter Laqueur (ed.), Fascism: A reader's Guide, p 450 Nigel Copsey, Anti-Fascism in Britain, p. 38 and pp. 40-41
^Richard Thurlow. Fascism in Britain: A History, 1918-1945. Revised paperback edition. I. B. Taurus & Co. Ltd., 2006. Pp. 28.
^David Stephen Lewis. Illusions of Grandeur: Mosley, Fascism, and British Society, 1931-81. P. 51.
^Grundy, Trevor (1998). Memoir of a Fascist Childhood: A Boy in Mosley's Britain. William Heinemann Ltd. pp. 31–33. ISBN 0434004677.
^Salvador, Alessandro; Kjøstvedt, Anders G. (2017). New Political Ideas in the Aftermath of the Great War. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 165–166. ISBN 978-3-319-38914-1.
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