Why did extremists fail in the 1930's?

Why did extremists fail in the 1930’s

The most significant challenge to the british parliamentary democracy in the 1930’s came form sir Oswald Mosley, who in 1932 set up the BUF (British Union of Fascists) the party peaked at 22,000 members in 1939 but then declined why?

The main body of support for the BUF came from the North and the BUF headquaters was transferred to Manchester form London as the BUF attempted to make a big push to gain control of the country but the BUF along with the CPGB failed

One of the main reasons for the failure of the Fascist party was the fact Mosley the leader of the BUF planned on the depression getting worse and he would appear as a saviour with his policies such as tariffs on imported goods, but as War began to come closer the depression did not start to worsen but began improving as more and more people were becoming employed and businesses and industry became stronger because of this. Without the crisis of a depression Mosley knew he would find it hard to be elected and as the depression kept improving the chance of his election worsened. This point directly leads to the next reason why the BUF began to struggle

The countries parliament and leadership became strong , Britain’s parliamentary institutions proved remarkably resilient to Mosley. Unlike in Germany where Hitler overpowered the Government because it was unstable ad very weak. Again this made it very hard for Mosley to win election or overpower the government.

With the country coming out of depression the British people were very much against violence and after the disgrace to the BUF after the Olympia meeting where many people were injured because of fighting. There was so much fighting that Mosley couldn’t even make his speech. In 1943 the Disafection act was created giving police powers to search seditious literature.

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Public opinion really began to turn because of this, then in October 1936 the battle of Cable street happened which began to see Mosley more anti – semitic side become more visible. Fascists gathered at the Royal mint and headed towards the east-end, but were met by around 100,000 anti-fascists who erected barricades in Cable street. The police were unable to clear a way. In the fighting that followed over 100 people were injured and another 100 were arrested. This led to the Public order act in 1936. This meant the wearing of political uniforms was banned and gave police the power to ban processions and meetings.

As Hitler became more Anti-semitic the Public began to see this in Mosley and the BUF began to decline and comparisons were beginning to be made. The media often compared Mosley’s stewards to the NAZI storm troopers and the Fascists members fell to only 5,000. His cause was not helped by his marriage to a women from Berlin who idolised Hitler. This just added to his weakening support.

Mussolini who headed Italy then cut his loans to support the fascist party and it became apparent that the fascists had a lack of funds to continue This was a blow and then coupled with the unity that the British people were now having because of the war coming near the fascist parties chances became slimmer and slimmer until gradually all hope was lost and they failed in the 1930’s.

The CPGB was formed in August 1920 with the aim of bringing about a workers revolution . The CPGB tried to work through the labour party but were marginalized and their attempts to affiliate were rejected on three separate occasions. By 1930 CPGB had a membership of roughly 2,555 which was only half of their original numbers.

The depression was to the communists advantage and so to the advantage of the NUWM (National unemployed workers movement) The communist party didn’t have as much members as the NUWM by `1929 it had 10,000 members over 7,000 more than the CPGB. Wal Hannington founded both parties. Extremists were getting some support and sympathy especially for the unemployed. They rallied against fascism and rallied for unemployment.

The NUWM failed because not many unemployed supported it and the funds were limited. Wal Hennington was imprisoned three times in the 1930’s because of numerous things. One of them was a petition of a million people apposed to the means test which gathered thousands of people in Hyde park turned into some scuffles and so the petition was never showed to parliament. Hunnington campaigned for communism but his main strong point was the advice he gave t people about what benefits they can claim.

The communists party was hit by a treaty signed by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union called the Nazi-soviet pact in august 1939. This meant the CPGB was ordered to reverse its policy. This meant Fascism was no longer their enemy, because Germany was an ally of the Soviet union. This was to much for most members apart from the most faithful of members to take and it began to fall apart. Communism was eclipsed by the mood of patriotism which Britain’s entry into the war produced.

None of the extremists ever posed a real challenge to the national government because they were never that big enough of support for either the left or right wing parties. Lack of funding played a major role especially when the BUF funds were cut by Mussolini. Without the funds it would be very hard to expand which is what all the extremists parties needed to do. BUF only had real support from the North which is not enough if you want to challenge the national government at that time in the 1930’s. However, if the extremists parties would have gained the same support they did at the end of the 1930’s in the early 1930’s just as the depression started to unfold then one of the parties would have had a great chance to lead the challenge against the national government and win. By the time support had been received for the parties the depression had already reached its peak and was improving.

The extremists party as a knock on effect of the depression improving and Britain coming closer to war were knocked back by the unity beginning to be formed in Britain which meant the extremists parties could not succeed. All the parties relied on each other to gain advances to challenge the government. The BUF needed a communist uprising but because of lack of support it never happened.

The big factor was that Britain saw that Hitler was an extremist and they began to see the evil in the extremists views such as anti-semities. Mosley was constantly being compared to Hitler which obviously did not make him popular amongst the public.

LIAM HAYES.