1. The people of East London rose up and defeated Oswald Mosley at the Battle of Cable Street.

The Battle of Cable Street wasn’t fought between Blackshirts and the people of East London. It was fought between the police and communists imported from all over Britain. Ten days after Cable Street the Blackshirts marched to Limehouse in East London where Mosley spoke to over 100,000 people amid scenes of considerable enthusiasm.  In the local elections 6 months later, nearly 25% of the people of East London voted for Oswald Mosley which was an astonishing result considering that the vote was restricted to house owners. In the 1930s only heads of households had the right to vote in local elections – the young, the unemployed, and most women did not get a vote.  Read more…

2. Oswald Mosley and his supporters were anti-Semitic.

Oswald Mosley never criticised anybody for what they were born. But he didn’t believe that Jews were the only people in the world immune from criticism. Oswald Mosley criticised some Jews for what they did, not all Jews for what they were. That’s why Jews like John Beckett (British Union Director of Publications), Bill Leaper (Editor of the Blackshirt) and Harold Soref (later Tory M.P. for Ormskirk), and the Jewish boxer Kid Lewis had no problem supporting him. Read more…

3.  Members of British Union attacked Jews and Communists.

The British Union Regulations forbade members to carry weapons or engage in unprovoked attacks on opponents, regardless of their race or political allegiance, on pain of instant dismissal. These Regulations were always strictly enforced. No such embargo appears to have existed among British Union’s Communist and Jewish opponents. For example, both Claude Cockburn and Jacob ‘Jack the Spot’ Comacho boast in their memoirs about the weapons, which included razors, axes, knives, and iron bars, that some Jews / Communists  used to assault men and women members of British Union.

4. People who joined Oswald Mosley were violent thugs.

Among the people who joined Mosley were Henry Williamson, who wrote ‘Tarka the Otter’; Jorian Jenks, the pioneer of organic farming; Spike Milligan, the comedian; Donald Marendaz, the racing driver; and Dennis Lucan, DFM, the famous RAF Dambuster. Members who served as speakers at outdoor meetings or sold party newspapers on street corners were often subject to razor attack by Communists following their party’s instruction to “Clear the Blackshirts off the streets!” Therefore active members had to become proficient at self-defence or face horrific injuries. Although they never started fights they certainly knew how to finish them. Read more…

5. Oswald Mosley and his British Union were pro-German ‘Fifth Columnists’.

Oswald Mosley was pro-British not pro-German. He was against fighting a War in which 60-million people died unless Great Britain or its Commonwealth were attacked. But when War was declared he instructed all members in the Armed Services to strictly obey their orders and all other supporters to fight to the death if invaded to drive the foreigners from our shores. Nobody who was a member of his party when War was declared was ever charged or convicted of treason. But many members who obeyed Mosley’s call died fighting for their country.

6. Oswald Mosley and his supporters hated Black people.

Oswald Mosley was against immigration, not immigrants. He believed multi-racism undermined cultural cohesion in both communities and was driven by Big Business wanting to exploit immigrants as cheap labour. Mosley produced constructive proposals to give everybody a fair deal in their country of origin. After the War he founded the ‘Associate Movement’ for Black immigrants who supported his ideas. It was run by an African Airline Pilot and an Indian Solicitor. Read more…

7. Oswald Mosley was financed by the Nazis.

After the War, Oswald Mosley challenged the Labour Government to go through the British Union account books and bank transactions and find any evidence of donations by foreign governments. The Labour Government, which hated Mosley, produced no such evidence that he had been financed by Germany, Italy or any other country. Subsequent research by historians, journalists, and academics have also failed to produce a single piece of evidence to support the claim that Oswald Mosley or his political movement received finance from foreign countries. The fact was – British Union was financed by donations from thousands of patriotic British people who believed their fellow countrymen and women deserved better than long-term unemployment, hunger and war. There is however clear evidence that the British Communist Party, the Labour Party, and the Conservative Party have all in the past received donations from overseas sources.

8. Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts wouldn’t fight for Britain in World War Two.

The first two casualties of WW2 were RAF Gunners George Brocking and Ken Day who died on the second day of war attacking the German fleet. They were both members of Mosley’s British Union. The very first of the armada of ‘Little Ships’ to arrive at Dunkirk in May 1940 to rescue British troops from the beaches was sailed over by Eric Piercy and Colin Dick. They were both members of Oswald Mosley’s British Union. Read more…

9. Oswald Mosley and British Union were against trade unions.

Far from being against trade unions, Mosley wanted trade unionists to become majority stakeholders in the companies that employed them. Under the Corporate State that British Union proposed, working people would share in the ownership and running of the companies they worked for. All profits would be shared fairly between workforce and managers – not among absentee shareholders.  Instead of starting strikes which solve nothing, trade unionists would take responsibility for ensuring companies were run more efficiently and profitably. Read more…

10. British Union members broke up the meetings of political opponents.

Whilst many examples are recorded where Mosley’s enemies tried to break up his meetings to stop audiences from hearing him speak, there are no known reports in newspapers at the time indicating that British Union members retaliated by breaking up opponents’ meetings. All the famous political disorders during the period that the Blackshirts were active – Cable Street, Olympia, Holbeck Moor and Liverpool (where Mosley was knocked unconscious by a brick) – involved attacks on Mosley meetings and not attacks on Mosley’s opponents meetings.