Abstract
In the early years of the twentieth century one antidote to the Communist menace and the spectre of a ‘red’ London was fascism. Many of the groups that coalesced to form the core of London’s fascist parties had their origin in the covert war fought over wages between industrialists and workers. The crisis in Liberal politics during the period around the First World War was defined by a growing and apparently unstoppable challenge from socialism on the one hand, and on the other a determined and intransigent rejection of compromise in industry, and over empire or Ireland by the ultra-Conservatives known as the Diehards. In Liverpool and elsewhere, industrialists such as the Cunard family were paying spies to inform on Communist or anarchist troublemakers, and the Cunards’ man, J. McGuirk Hughes, was only one of a number of infiltrators and agents provocateurs used by the right to disrupt left-wing opposition. Some union leaders also subscribed to having Communists watched or sacked.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Francis Selwyn, Hitler’s Englishman: The Crime of Lord Haw Haw (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1987), p. 29.
Robert Skidelsky, Mosley (London: Papermac, 1990), pp. 368–9.
Collin Brooks, Daily Mail, 6 June 1936.
Richard Griffiths, Patriotism Perverted: Captain Ramsay, The Right Club and British Anti-Semitism 1939–40 (London: Constable, 1998), p. 184.
Nicholas Mosley, Rules of the Game/Beyond the Pale (London: Pimlico, 1994), p. 428.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2010 Clive Bloom
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bloom, C. (2010). Brave Boys of the BUF. In: Violent London. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230289475_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230289475_16
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-230-27559-1
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-28947-5
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)