British Union of Fascists
영국 파시스트 연합
A British fascist party founded by Oswald Mosley in 1932, renamed the British Union in 1937 and banned and dissolved by the government in 1940 after the outbreak of the Second World War.
In depth
It emerged from Mosley’s New Party after its defeat in the 1931 general election and at one point claimed 50,000 members. The press baron Lord Rothermere (Harold Harmsworth) backed it early on, his Daily Mail running the editorial “Hurrah for the Blackshirts”. Support fell away after anti-fascist protesters were beaten by its stewards at the Olympia rally in London in 1934, and in 1936, having embraced Nazi-style antisemitism, it tried to march through London’s East End and was blocked by workers, Jews and Communists at the Battle of Cable Street. The Public Order Act 1936, banning political uniforms, followed. Mosley and its leaders were interned in May 1940.