Union Movement
Encyclopedia
The Union Movement was a right-wing political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

 founded in Britain by Oswald Mosley
Oswald Mosley
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats, was an English politician, known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists...

. Where Mosley had previously been associated with a peculiarly British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 form of fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

, the Union Movement attempted to redefine the concept by stressing the importance of developing a European nationalism rather than narrower country-based nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...

s. The UM has therefore been characterized as an attempt by Mosley to start again in his political life by embracing more democratic
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...

 and international policies than those with which he had previously been associated.

Mosley's post-War activity

Having been the leader of the British Union of Fascists
British Union of Fascists
The British Union was a political party in the United Kingdom formed in 1932 by Sir Oswald Mosley as the British Union of Fascists, in 1936 it changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists and then in 1937 to simply the British Union...

 (BUF) before the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, it was expected that Mosley would return to lead the far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...

 afterwards. However Mosley initially remained out of the post-War political arena, instead turning to writing, publishing his first work, My Answer (1946), in which he argued that he had been a patriot
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...

 who had been unjustly punished by his internment under Defence Regulation 18B
Defence Regulation 18B
Defence Regulation 18B, often referred to as simply 18B, was the most famous of the Defence Regulations used by the British Government during World War II. The complete technical reference name for this rule was: Regulation 18B of the Defence Regulations 1939. It allowed for the internment of...

. In this and his 1947 follow up, The Alternative, Mosley began to argue for a much closer integration between the nations of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, the beginning of his 'Europe a Nation
Europe a Nation
Europe a Nation was a policy developed by British politician Oswald Mosley as the cornerstone of his Union Movement. It called for the integration of Europe into a single entity....

' campaign that sought a strong united Europe as a counterbalance to the growing power of the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and USSR
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

.

Europe a Nation

Mosley detected a linear growth within British history and he saw Europe a Nation as the culmination of this destiny. Therefore he argued that it was "part of an organic process of British history", as Britain had united into one nation he argued that it was Britain's national destiny to unite the whole continent.

He further envisaged a three-tiered system of government headed by an elected European government to organise defence and the corporatist
Corporatism
Corporatism, also known as corporativism, is a system of economic, political, or social organization that involves association of the people of society into corporate groups, such as agricultural, business, ethnic, labor, military, patronage, or scientific affiliations, on the basis of common...

 economy, the continuation of national governments and a collection of local governments for the sake of independent identities.

Mosley’s ideas were not as such new, as concepts of a Nation Europa
Nation Europa
Nation Europa is a monthly magazine, published in Germany, that was originally established in support of Pan-European nationalism...

 and Eurafrika (the same idea only with parts of north Africa included as natural sectors of Europe’s traditional sphere of influence, an idea that Mosley himself felt had some merit) were already growing in Germany’s post-War underground, whilst Mussolini’s
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....

 1944 Italian Social Republic
Italian Social Republic
The Italian Social Republic was a puppet state of Nazi Germany led by the "Duce of the Nation" and "Minister of Foreign Affairs" Benito Mussolini and his Republican Fascist Party. The RSI exercised nominal sovereignty in northern Italy but was largely dependent on the Wehrmacht to maintain control...

 had returned to fascism’s roots with an attempt at a corporatist
Corporatism
Corporatism, also known as corporativism, is a system of economic, political, or social organization that involves association of the people of society into corporate groups, such as agricultural, business, ethnic, labor, military, patronage, or scientific affiliations, on the basis of common...

 economic system during its brief run. Nonetheless Mosley was the first to express the ideas in English and it came as no surprise when he returned to proper political activism in 1948. These plans were to form the basis for the policy programme of the Union Movement.

Formation of the Union Movement

Following the release of interned fascists at the end of the Second World War, a number far-right groups had been formed. These were often virulently anti-semitic and tried to capitalise on the violent events taking place in Palestine. Large meetings were organised in Jewish areas of east London and elsewhere which were often violently broken up by anti-fascist groups such as the 43 Group
43 Group
The 43 Group was an English anti-fascist group set up by Jewish ex-servicemen after World War II. They did this when, upon returning to London, they encountered British fascist organisations such as Jeffrey Hamm's "British League of Ex-Servicemen" and later Oswald Mosley's reformed fascist party,...

. Fifty one separate groups were united under Mosley's leadership in the Union Movement (UM), launched at a meeting in Farringdon Hall, London, in 1948. However the four main groups were Jeffrey Hamm
Jeffrey Hamm
Edward Jeffrey Hamm was a leading British Fascist and supporter of Oswald Mosley.Born in Ebbw Vale, Wales, he came into contact with the British Union of Fascists during a family trip to London and joined in 1935 when he relocated to London although initially, due to his youth, his role in the...

's British League of Ex-Servicemen and Women
British League of Ex-Servicemen and Women
The British League of Ex-Servicemen and Women was a British ex-service organisation that became associated with far right politics during and after the Second World War.-Origins:...

, Anthony Gannon's Imperial Defence League, Victor Burgess's Union of British Freedom and Horace Gowing and Tommy Moran
Tommy Moran
Thomas P. "Tommy" Moran was a leading member of the British Union of Fascists and a close associate of Oswald Mosley. Initially a miner, Moran later became a qualified engineer and also served in the Royal Navy, where he became a champion boxer in the Light heavyweight division.-Entry into...

's Sons of St George, all groups led by ex-BUF men. Another early member was Francis Parker Yockey
Francis Parker Yockey
Francis Parker Yockey was an American political thinker and polemicist best known for his neo-Spenglerian book Imperium: The Philosophy of History and Politics, published under the pen name Ulick Varange in 1948. This 600-page book argues for a culture-based, totalitarian path for the...

, who had come to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 to seek Mosley's help with publishing his written work. Yockey briefly headed up the UM European Contact Section, although he was gone fairly quickly after a fall-out with Mosley.

Mosley remained a critic of liberal democracy
Liberal democracy
Liberal democracy, also known as constitutional democracy, is a common form of representative democracy. According to the principles of liberal democracy, elections should be free and fair, and the political process should be competitive...

, and the UM instead extolled a strong executive that people could endorse or reject through regular referendums, with an independent judiciary in place to appoint replacements in the event of a rejection. The party marched 1500 members through Camden
Camden Town
-Economy:In recent years, entertainment-related businesses and a Holiday Inn have moved into the area. A number of retail and food chain outlets have replaced independent shops driven out by high rents and redevelopment. Restaurants have thrived, with the variety of culinary traditions found in...

 that same year and went on to contest the following year's local elections in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. However, outside of Stepney
Stepney
Stepney is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in London's East End that grew out of a medieval village around St Dunstan's church and the 15th century ribbon development of Mile End Road...

 and Bethnal Green
Bethnal Green
Bethnal Green is a district of the East End of London, England and part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, with the far northern parts falling within the London Borough of Hackney. Located northeast of Charing Cross, it was historically an agrarian hamlet in the ancient parish of Stepney,...

 where there was some support, the UM performed very poorly at the polls and secured no representation. After this, the Union Movement ceased to be a significant political party and attendance at meetings dwindled until it was negligible. Disillusioned by the stern opposition that the UM faced, and with his style of street politics being exposed as somewhat passé, Mosley went into self-imposed exile in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, leaving the UM to languish.

Racial tensions and the return of the Union Movement

After the British Nationality Act 1948
British Nationality Act 1948
The British Nationality Act 1948 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that created the status of "Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies" as the national citizenship of the United Kingdom and its colonies....

 there was a great increase in immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...

, particularly from the newly independent Commonwealth states, as well as, to a lesser extent, from the colonies. In the early 1950s immigration was estimated at 8,000–10,000 per year, but this had grown to 35,000 per year by 1957. Perceptions of the new migrant workers were frequently oppositional and stereotypical, although the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

, despite the private opinions of some of its members, were loath to make a political issue out of it, for fear of being seen as gutter politicians. Minor disturbances occurred in 1958 in Notting Hill
Notting Hill
Notting Hill is an area in London, England, close to the north-western corner of Kensington Gardens, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...

 (following a Mosley rally) and Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...

 with clashes between racial groups, a new phenomenon in Britain.

The new uncertainties revitalised the UM and Mosley re-emerged to stand as a candidate in the 1959 election in Kensington North
Kensington North (UK Parliament constituency)
Kensington North was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Kensington district of west London. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....

 (which included Notting Hill), a first parliamentary election for him since 1931. Mosley made immigration his campaign issue, combining calls for assisted repatriation
Repatriation
Repatriation is the process of returning a person back to one's place of origin or citizenship. This includes the process of returning refugees or soldiers to their place of origin following a war...

 with stories regarding criminality and sexual deviance of blacks, a common theme of the time. The 8.1% share of the vote he secured was a personal humiliation for a man who still hoped that he would be called to serve as Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...

 some day, although the UM as a whole was buoyed by the immigration problem, which it saw as the next big issue in British politics.

European dimension

Alongside his domestic politics Mosley continued to work towards his goal of 'Europe-a-Nation' and in 1962 attended a conference in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

 where he helped to form a National Party of Europe
National Party of Europe
The National Party of Europe was an initiative undertaken by a number of political parties in Europe during the 1960s to help increase cross-border co-operation and work towards European unity....

 along with Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

's Reichspartei, the Mouvement d’Action Civique and Jeune Europe
Jeune Europe
Jeune Europe was an Europeanist movement formed by Jean Thiriart in Belgium. Emile Lecerf, a later editor of the Nouvel Europe Magazine, was one of Thiriart's associates....

 of Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 and the Movimento Sociale Italiano. Adopting the slogan "Progress - Solidarity - Unity", the movement aimed to work closely for a closer unity of European states, although in the end little came of it as only the Italian MSI enjoyed any success domestically. This group replaced the earlier European Social Movement
European Social Movement
The European Social Movement was a neo-fascist Europe-wide alliance set up in 1951 to promote Pan-European nationalism.The ESM had its origins in the emergence of the Italian Social Movement , which established contacts with like-minded smaller groups in Europe during the late 1940s, setting up...

 in which Mosley had also been involved. The Union Movement itself did not play an active role on the European stage, although it did help to set in motion co-operation between like-minded groups across Europe, which continues to this day with the European National Front
European National Front
European National Front is a coordinating structure of European Third Positionist, anti-communist and nationalist parties. Sometimes members of the ENF also use anti-capitalist rhetoric...

.

Final days of the Union Movement

Membership of the UM grew in the early 1960s and Mosley briefly considered the possibility of allowing the smaller British National Party to merge into his group. However Mosley was largely unimpressed by what he saw as John Bean
John Bean
John Edward Bean is a long-standing participant in the British far right, who has been active within a number of movements during the course of his life and is the voice behind the BNP election broadcasts.-Early life:...

's over-emphasis on race and especially by Colin Jordan
Colin Jordan
John Colin Campbell Jordan was a leading figure in postwar Neo-Nazism in Britain. In the far-right nationalist circles of the 1960s, Jordan represented the most explicitly 'Nazi' inclination in his open use of the styles and symbols of the Third Reich.Through organisations such as the National...

's 'racialist twaddle' and the UM continued alone. With talk of mergers dispelled, Mosley stood again in the 1966 election
United Kingdom general election, 1966
The 1966 United Kingdom general election on 31 March 1966 was called by sitting Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Wilson's decision to call an election turned on the fact that his government, elected a mere 17 months previously in 1964 had an unworkably small majority of only 4 MPs...

, this time in the Shoreditch and Finsbury constituency
Shoreditch and Finsbury (UK Parliament constituency)
Shoreditch and Finsbury was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Shoreditch district of the East End of London and the adjacent Finsbury area...

. However capturing only 4.6% of the vote, Mosley lost interest thereafter and effectively departed the scene, despite still officially being UM leader until 1973. The increasingly marginalised UM carried on into the 1970s, still advocating 'Europe-a-Nation', but had no real influence and failed to capture support with their fairly unusual policies.

Union Movement post-Mosley

A brief revival looked possible after they were renamed the Action Party in 1973, under which name they fought six seats at the Greater London Council election
Greater London Council election, 1973
The fourth election to the Greater London Council was held on April 12, 1973. Labour, benefiting both from the unpopularity of the Conservative GLC's transport policy and from the difficulties of the national Conservative government, won a very large majority of 58 seats to 32 for the...

. Under the leadership of Jeffrey Hamm
Jeffrey Hamm
Edward Jeffrey Hamm was a leading British Fascist and supporter of Oswald Mosley.Born in Ebbw Vale, Wales, he came into contact with the British Union of Fascists during a family trip to London and joined in 1935 when he relocated to London although initially, due to his youth, his role in the...

, the party hoped for something of a revival, although they were damaged severely in 1974 when leading member Keith Thompson and his followers split to form the League of Saint George
League of Saint George
The League of St. George is a Neo-Nazi organization based in the United Kingdom.-History:The League was formed around 1974 as a political club by Keith Thompson and Mike Griffin as a breakaway from the Action Party, founded by British fascist, Oswald Mosley. The League sought to continue what it...

, a non-party movement which they claimed was the true continuation of Mosley's ideas. Having lost a sizeable chunk of their membership and finding the far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...

 vote had long since been lost to the National Front
British National Front
The National Front is a far right, white-only political party whose major political activities took place during the 1970s and 1980s. Its popularity peaked in the 1979 general election, when it received 191,719 votes ....

, the Action Party gave up electoral politics and, in 1978, became the Action Society which acted as a publishing house rather than a political party. The group continued until the death of Hamm in 1994, after which the funding of Mosley's widow Diana Mitford
Diana Mitford
Diana Mitford, Lady Mosley , was one of Britain's noted Mitford sisters. She was married first to Bryan Walter Guinness, heir to the barony of Moyne, and secondly to Sir Oswald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats, leader of the British Union of Fascists; her second marriage, in 1936, took place at the...

 was withdrawn. The Action Society was quietly wound up, representing the end of the Union Movement as a force in British politics.

Well known members

  • John Bean
    John Bean
    John Edward Bean is a long-standing participant in the British far right, who has been active within a number of movements during the course of his life and is the voice behind the BNP election broadcasts.-Early life:...

  • Neil Francis Hawkins
    Neil Francis Hawkins
    Neil Francis Hawkins was a leading British fascist, both before and after the Second World War.-British Fascisti:A salesman of surgical instruments by trade, Francis Hawkins, a homosexual, was a descendant of the sailor John Hawkins...

  • Jeffrey Hamm
    Jeffrey Hamm
    Edward Jeffrey Hamm was a leading British Fascist and supporter of Oswald Mosley.Born in Ebbw Vale, Wales, he came into contact with the British Union of Fascists during a family trip to London and joined in 1935 when he relocated to London although initially, due to his youth, his role in the...

  • Diana Mitford
    Diana Mitford
    Diana Mitford, Lady Mosley , was one of Britain's noted Mitford sisters. She was married first to Bryan Walter Guinness, heir to the barony of Moyne, and secondly to Sir Oswald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats, leader of the British Union of Fascists; her second marriage, in 1936, took place at the...

  • Oswald Mosley
    Oswald Mosley
    Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats, was an English politician, known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists...

  • Tommy Moran
    Tommy Moran
    Thomas P. "Tommy" Moran was a leading member of the British Union of Fascists and a close associate of Oswald Mosley. Initially a miner, Moran later became a qualified engineer and also served in the Royal Navy, where he became a champion boxer in the Light heavyweight division.-Entry into...

  • Keith Thompson
  • Alexander Raven Thomson
    Alexander Raven Thomson
    Alexander Raven Thomson was a leading figure in the British Union of Fascists and was considered to be the party's chief ideologue. He has been described as the "Alfred Rosenberg of British fascism".-Early life:...

  • John G. Wood

Related groups and concepts

  • British Union of Fascists
    British Union of Fascists
    The British Union was a political party in the United Kingdom formed in 1932 by Sir Oswald Mosley as the British Union of Fascists, in 1936 it changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists and then in 1937 to simply the British Union...

  • Europe a Nation
    Europe a Nation
    Europe a Nation was a policy developed by British politician Oswald Mosley as the cornerstone of his Union Movement. It called for the integration of Europe into a single entity....

  • League of Saint George
    League of Saint George
    The League of St. George is a Neo-Nazi organization based in the United Kingdom.-History:The League was formed around 1974 as a political club by Keith Thompson and Mike Griffin as a breakaway from the Action Party, founded by British fascist, Oswald Mosley. The League sought to continue what it...

  • History of British fascism since 1945
    History of British fascism since 1945
    The Far right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, fascist-right and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. The terms are often used to imply that someone is an extremist...


External links

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