Fascist violence and the politics of public order in inter-war Britain: The Olympia debate revisited

Historical Research

Volumn 76, Issue 192, 2003, Pages 238-267

  Lawrence, Jon ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 33748306758     PISSN: 09503471     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1468-2281.00174     Document Type: Article

References (168)

1. The claim, of course, was nonsense. Over half a century earlier Gladstone was said to have addressed an audience of more than 25,000 at the Bingley Hall in Birmingham, while amplification had been widely used since the mid 1920s to facilitate large outdoor meetings.
2. M. Pugh, 'The British Union of Fascists and the Olympia debate', Historical Jour., xli (1998), 529-42.
3. R. Blythe, The Age of Illusion: England in the Twenties and Thirties, 1919-40 (1964). pp. 201-4.
4. R. Benewick, Political Violence and Public Order: a Study of British Fascism (1969), p. 169;
5. R. Thurlow, Fascism in Britain: from Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts to the National Front (2nd edn., 1998), p. 71.
6. Pugh, 'Olympia debate', passim.
7. A. L. Lowell, The Government of England (2 vols., New York, 1908), ii. 65.
8. Hansard, Parliamentary Debates. 4th ser., cxcvii, cols. 2169 and 2331. although Radford, at least, was prepared to accept that disorder was regrettable.
9. Report of the Departmental Committee on the Duties of the Police With Respect to the Preservation of Order at Public Meetings, ii;
10. Minutes of Evidence [Cd. 4674], H.C. (1909), xxxvi. 107, Q572-3, 588-9.
11. Report on the Duties of the Police, Q573. The chief constable of Staffordshire took the same line: 'it is the business of the steward to get a big friend to help him to eject the big man' (Q1174).
12. A few authorities, most notably Manchester, allowed police to be hired to act as stewards at political meetings, while others such as Birmingham insisted on police being allowed at indoor meetings if serious disorder was anticipated (Report on the Duties of the Police, Q10-12). The Home Office sought to discourage these local variations.
13. D. Williams. Keeping the Peace: the Police and Public Order (1967). pp. 132-4.
14. See J. Lawrence, Speaking for the People: Party, Language and Popular Politics in England, 1867-1914 (Cambridge, 1998). ch. 7.
15. and 'Contesting the male polity: the suffragettes and the politics of disruption in Edwardian Britain', in Women, Privilege and Power: British Politics 1750 to the Present, ed. A. Vickery (Stanford, Calif., 2001), pp. 201-27, 368-80.
16. See A. Henderson, 'The outlook for Labour', Contemporary Review, cxiii (Feb. 1918), 122 on the need to break with the methods of '"man-made" parties';
17. Liberal Agent, xxi (Jan. 1919), 14-18;
18. Labour Organiser (Apr. 1922), 20-1;
19. Conservative Agents' Journal (Sept. 1919), 7.
20. See also M. Pugh, Women and the Women's Movement in Britain, 1914-59 (Basingstoke, 1992). pp. 61-71, 101-53;
21. D. Jarvis, 'British Conservatism and class politics in the 1920s', Eng. Hist. Rev., cxi (1996), 59-84.
22. For instance. Daily News, 23 Oct. 1924 (Maryport);
23. The Times, 23 Oct. 1924 (Kelvingrove);
24. Daily Telegraph. 24 Oct. 1924 (Maldon);
25. Westminster Gazette, 28 Oct. 1924 (Glasgow).
26. The Times, 6 and 7 Dec. 1923.
27. See Glasgow Herald, 22 Oct. 1924 (St. Rollox);
28. Daily Express, 24 Oct. 1924 (editorial).
29. J. R. MacDonald. Parliament and Democracy (Social Studies Ser., i, 1920), pp. 3-4;
30. see also Liberal Agent, xxv (Apr. 1924). 26, which went further, claiming redistribution had created 'a neurotic and butterfly type of elector'.
31. See Liberal Agent, xxi (July 1918). 15-20;
32. xxii (Jan. 1920), 32 and (Apr. 1920), 45-6;
33. xxv (Jan. 1924), 18;
34. Labour Organiser (Apr. 1921), 14;
35. Conservative Agents' Journal (Dec. 1920), 15-16.
36. The ideas discussed here, and in the next paragraph, are explored more fully in J. Lawrence, 'Forging a peaceable kingdom: war, violence and the fear of brutalization in post-First World War Britain', Jour. Modern Hist. (forthcoming, 2003).
37. See also S. Kingsley Kent, Making Peace: the Reconstruction of Gender in Inter-War Britain (Princeton, N.J., 1993);
38. and S. Gilbert, 'Soldier's heart: literary men, literary women, and the Great War', in Behind the Lines: Gender and the Two World Wars. ed. M. Higonnet and others (New Haven, Conn., 1987).
39. Derbyshire Advertiser, 22 June 1934 and Buxton Advertiser, 23 June 1934. The author is grateful to Philip Williamson for providing copies of these local reports.
40. M. Dawson, 'Liberalism in Devon and Cornwall, 1910-31: "the old-time religion"', Historical Jour., xxxviii (1995). 425-37.
41. Daily Telegraph, 22. 23. 24 Oct. 1924;
42. Glasgow Herald, 24 Oct. 1924;
43. [Wolverhampton] Express and Star, 20, 21, 23 May 1929.
44. J. Strachey, The Menace of Fascism (1933), p. 161;
45. Harold Nicolson: Diaries and Letters, 1930-9. ed. N. Nicolson (1966), p. 91.
46. See also J. Jones, Unfinished Journey (1938), pp. 263. 268-70.
47. See especially Action, 12, 19 Nov. 1931 and Nicolson, pp. 91, 105, 112;
48. Thurlow, Fascism in Britain, pp. 64-6.
49. The Blackshirt, 1 May 1933, 19 Jan., 15 June 1934.
50. On fascist pugilism, and the resort to less conventional weapons, see R. Skidelsky, Oswald Mosley (1st edn., 1975; rev. edn., 1981), pp. 321, 353;
51. and D. S. Lewis, Illusions of Grandeur: Mosley, Fascism and British Society, 1931-81 (Manchester, 1987), pp. 63, 116, 128-9.
52. Daily Telegraph, 11 June 1934.
53. For a declaration of the need to 'meet force with force' see O. Mosley. The Greater Britain (1932), p. 40.
54. Manchester Guardian, 8 June 1934.
55. New Chronicle, 8 June 1934;
56. Daily Herald, 8 June 1934.
57. Manchester Guardian, 9 June 1934;
58. Daily Mail, 7 June 1934.
59. Daily Express, 8 June 1934.
60. Daily Mail, 8, 12 June 1934.
61. N.J. Crowson, Fleet Street, Press Barons and Politics: the Journals of Collin Brooks, 1932-40, (Camden 5th ser., xi, 1998). pp. 59-61 (Collin Brooks to Norman Watson, 10 June 1934).
62. See Public Record Office. MEPO 2/3073 [Harvester microfilm edn.], 'Fascist demonstration at White City', fos. 5, 7.
63. The Times, 8 June 1934.
64. See also N. Mosley, Beyond the Pale: Sir Oswald Mosley and Family, 1933-80 (1983). pp. 62-3;
65. G. C. Webber. 'Patterns of membership and support for the British Union of Fascists'. Jour. Contemporary Hist., xix (1984). 575-606, at p. 77;
66. Skidelsky, p. 378.
67. Morning Post, 8 June 1934.
68. Morning Post, 15 June 1934. The editorial concluded: 'Let Parliament reform itself and it will have no need to fear fascism'. For a sense of the conflicting accounts of the injuries sustained at Olympia
69. see 'Vindicator' [H. T. Hopkinson], Fascists at Olympia: a Record of Eye-Witnesses and Victims (1934);
70. I. Montagu. Blackshirt Brutality: the Story of Olympia (1934);
71. and the B.U.F.'s Red Violence and Blue Lies: an Answer to 'Fascists at Olympia' (1934).
72. For criticism of the paper's comments see The Blackshirt, 14 Sept. 1934.
73. T. Jones, Diary with Letters, 1931-50 (Oxford, 1954), p. 130
74. and see P. Williamson, Stanley Baldwin: Conservative Leadership and National Values (Cambridge, 1999). p. 319.
75. Derbyshire Advertiser, 22 June 1934 and Buxton Advertiser, 23 June 1934.
76. Parliament and Politics in the Age of Baldwin and MacDonald: the Headlam Diaries, 1923-35, ed. S. Ball (1992), pp. 292-3 (13 Feb. 1934), 306 (14 June 1934).
77. Nicolson. p. 174 (12 June 1934).
78. See also Chips: the Diaries of Sir Henry Channon, ed. R. Rhodes James (1967). p. 22 (18 Jan. 1935) deploring Mosley 'the demagogue'.
79. Hansard. 5, Commons, ccxc, col. 1920 (14 June 1934).
80. Hansard. 5, Commons, ccxc, cols. 1928, 2002.
81. Hansard, 5, Commons, ccxc, col. 2036. Even Macquisten acknowledged that many fascists were 'very violait' and felt that Mosley suffered from 'megalomania' (Hansard. 5, Commons, ccxc, col. 2038).
82. Hansard, 5, Commons, ccxc, cols. 1945, 2017, 2034.
83. Hansard, 5, Commons, ccxc, cols. 1989 (Earl Winterton). 1995 (Adams), 2009 (Howard), 2021 (Petherick). 2035 (Macquisten). Winterton was prepared to argue that interrupters were hurt 'in the good old fashioned way by the use of a fist', to which O'Connor retorted that 'the old-fashioned way was when both patties were erect and untrammelled' (Hansard, 5, Commons, ccxc, col. 1984).
84. Hansard, 5. Commons, ccxc, cols. 2001-4, 2028, 2040.
85. Only Earl Winterton and Macquisten did not take this line - perhaps significantly both were veterans of pre-war party politics.
86. Besides Macquisten and Winterton, the most obvious old-style pugilists were James Maxton, the I.L.P. leader, and David Logan, the Labour M.P. for Liverpool, Scotland. Maxton thought M.P.s had become overly concerned about the breaking up of meetings, while in a speech apparently made 'under the influence'. Logan observed. 'I am an Irishman who believes in a scrap. I am anxious to fight if it is necessary to fight' (Hansard, 5, Commons, ccxc, cols. 1992, 2024).
87. Hansard, 5, Commons, ccxc, cols. 1983, 1985.
88. Hansard, 5, Commons, ccxc, col. 2011.
89. Hansard. 5. Commons, ccxc. cols 1958, 2037. Howard's main line of argument had followed a similar logic (see Hansard, 5, Commons, ccxc. col. 2010).
90. Hansard, 5, Commons, ccxc, col. 1957.
91. Report on the Duties of the Police. Q28, Q74-6, Q221, Q258, Q273. Q986, Q1017, Q1316, Q1677-80. Q1799, Q1864.
92. Hansard, 5. Commons, ccxc. col. 1957.
93. Hansard, 5. Commons, ccxc, col. 1958
94. Indeed, Beaumont argued that the B.U.F. had an even stronger claim to free speech than other parties because it had no other means of putting its views to the country (Hansard, 5. Commons, ccxc. col. 1942).
95. Opponents of pre-war suffragette disruption also focused on the fact that ministers' 'ticketed' meetings were not 'fair game' since they were called to outline issues of policy (see Lawrence. 'Contesting the male polity', passim).
96. There was considerable controversy over the B.B.C.'s decision to give Mosley airtime to debate the events at Olympia with Gerald Barry of the News Chronicle on 8 June (see News Chronicle. 9 June 1934).
97. Mosley, Greater Britain, pp. 155-6.
98. Hansard, 5. Commons, ccxc, col. 1997.
99. Hansard, 5, Commons, ccxc, cols. 2018-19, 2026. Powell went on to emphasize the distinction between 'organised opposition' and the 'opposition of the heckler', arguing that the heckler 'makes our meetings interesting' (Hansard, 5, Commons, ccxc, col. 2026).
100. Hansard. 5, Commons, ccxc, cols. 1953-4.
101. Thus Powell argued that Mosley 'stands for free speech as long as it is convenient for him, and not one day longer' (Hansard, 5, Commons, ccxc, cols. 2026, 2021 (Petherick)).
102. See also P. Williamson, 'Christian Conservatives and the totalitarian challenge, 1933-40', Eng. Hist. Rev., cxv (2000), 607-42, at pp. 615-17.
103. see also Lewis, p. 117.
104. S. M. Cullen, 'Political violence: the case of the British Union of Fascists', Jour. Contemporary Hist., xxviii (1993), 245-67, esp. pp. 247, 260-1;
105. see also D. Baker, 'The extreme right in the 1920s: fascism in a cold climate, or "Conservatism with knobs on"?', in The Failure of British Fascism: the Far Right and the Fight for Political Recognition, ed. M. Cronin (Basingstoke, 1996);
106. and G. C. Webber, 'Intolerance and discretion: Conservatives and British fascism, 1918-26', in Traditions of Intolerance: Historical Perspectives on Fascism and Race Discourse in Britain, ed. T. Kushner and K. Lunn (Manchester, 1989).
107. See G. Mosse, Fallen Soldiers: Reshaping the Memory of the World Wars (Oxford, 1990), ch. 8;
108. K. Theweleit, Male Fantasies, trans. S. Conway and others (2 vols., Cambridge, 1987-9);
109. D. Forgacs, 'Fascism, violence and modernity', in The Violent Muse: Violence and the Artistic Imagination in Europe, 1910-39. ed. J. Howlett and R. Mengham (Manchester, 1994);
110. B. Weisbrod, 'Military violence and male fundamentalism: Ernst Jünger's contribution to the conservative revolution', trans. P. E. Selwyn, History Workshop Jour., xlix (2000). 69-94.
111. The Blackhirt, 21 Oct. 1933.
112. For a discussion of secret B.U.F. efforts to foment political violence in the period before Olympia, see J. Hope. 'Blackshirts, knuckle-dusters and lawyers: documentary essay on the Mosley versus Marchbanks papers', Labour History Rev., lxv (2000). 41-58.
113. The Blackshirt, 29 June, 6. 13, 20 July 1934;
114. Skidelsky. pp. 323-4;
115. and T. P. Linehan. East London for Mosley: the British Union of Fascists in East London and South-West Essex, 1933-40 (1996), pp. 4-7.
116. Hansard, 5, Commons, ccxc, cols. 1345 (11 June 1934), 1972 (14 June 1934).
117. P.R.O., MEPO 2/3077 (Albert Hall, Oct. 1934), fos. 70-1, 75-6 and esp. fo. 96, where Mosley informed police that the B.U.F. had changed tactics.
118. See also MEPO 2/3074 (Hyde Park, 1934). fos. 121-2;
119. MEPO 2/3047 (Adelphi, 1935), fo. 49.
120. R. Thurlow, 'State management of the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s', in Cronin, p. 42 (citing P.R.O., HO 144/20142/225).
121. see also P.R.O., MEPO 2/3047 (Adelphi, 1935), fos. 24-5.
122. See R. Thurlow, 'Blaming the Blackshirts: the authorities and the anti-Jewish disturbances in the 1930s', in Racial Violence in Britain in the 19th and 20th Centuries, ed. P. Panayi (Leicester, rev. edn., 1996). pp. 128-9.
123. and Webber, 'Patterns of membership', pp. 594, 597.
124. For fleeting discussions of the B.U.F., see Daily Worker. 11 Jan., 16 Feb., 21 Apr. 1934. Even the coverage of Mosley's Albert Hall rally was surprisingly low-key and whimsical (Daily Worker, 24 Apr. 1934).
125. Daily Worker, 28, 31 May 1934.
126. See Daily Worker. 26. 28. 31 May, 4 June 1934;
127. see also the paper's editorial of 8 June 1934 with its boast that 'In the great industrial centres of this country thousands of workers have rallied (in most cases spontaneously and without organised leadership) against Mosley's travelling circuses' (author's emphasis).
128. G. D. Anderson, Fascists, Communists and the National Government: Civil liberties in Great Britain, 1931-7 (Columbia. Mo., 1983), pp. 120, 147-9.
129. New Leader, 15 June 1934.
130. The suffragettes had deployed a similar propaganda tactic before the war (see S. Kingsley Kent, Sex and Suffrage in Britain, 1860-1914 (1st edn., Princeton, N.J., 1987; 1990), esp. ch. 6;
131. S. Holton, 'In sorrowful wrath: suffrage militancy and the romantic feminism of Emmeline Pankhurst', in British Feminism in the 20th Century, ed. H. L. Smith (Aldershot, 1990);
132. and M. Vicinus, Independent Women: Work and Community fir Single Women, 1850-1920 (1985), ch. 7).
133. E.g., Daily Worker, 11, 13. 14 June 1934.
134. Police evidence would suggest that the number of such clashes had also declined sharply (see P.R.O., MEPO 2/3038, 'Disturbances: number of fascists concerned, June/July 1934').
135. See also leaflets and Special Branch report regarding Hyde Park in P.R.O., HO 45/25383, 'Anti-Fascist activities', fos. 572-660, and MEPO 2/3074 fos. 40-52, 100-3.
136. New Leader, 14 Sept. 1934 (author's emphasis).
137. See J. Stevenson, 'The politics of violence', in The Politics of Reappraisal, 1918-39, ed. G. Peele and C. Cook (1975), esp. p. 160.
138. According to Stephen Cullen, Special Branch files on disruption at fascist meetings attribute only 14% of cases to communist opposition. He further argues that communists accounted for only 24% of those arrested at fascist meetings, and that nearly half of these were Jewish communists (Cullen. pp. 245-67, esp. pp. 249-51).
139. J. Jacobs, Out of the Ghetto: my Youth in the East End, Communism and Fascism, 1913-39 (1st edn., 1978; 1991), pp. 151, 204-5.
140. P. Piratin, Our Flag Stays Red (1st edn., 1948; 1978). pp. 17-18, 27. There had been similar divisions over strategy in 1934 (see P.R.O., MEPO 2/3077 fo. 29).
141. Jacobs, pp. 238-41.
142. Jacobs, pp. 263, 272.
143. For Gilmour's hints, see Hansard, 5, Commons, ccxc, col. 1972.
144. The Observer, 17 June 1934 took a similar line, arguing that 'if he [Mosley] invites the public, the public takes its rights there along with it'. See also Simon's comment, during the debate on the 1936 Public Order Bill, that people retain 'their rights as free citizens when they attend a public meeting' (Hansard, 5, Commons, cccxviii, col. 1672 (7 Dec. 1936)).
145. Hansard, 5, Commons, ccxc, cols. 1924 (Foot) and 1968 (Gilmour). Sir Austen Chamberlain had made the same observation in 1909 (see Report on the Duties of the Police, Q8).
146. See also Earl Winterton during the 1936 Public Order Bill debate (Hansard, 5. Commons, cccxviii, col. 684 (26 Nov. 1936)).
147. See Lawrence, Speaking for the People, esp. ch. 7, and P.Joyce, Democratic Subjects: the Self and the Social in 19th-century England (Cambridge, 1994).
148. Thurlow. 'State management', p. 35;
149. J. Morgan, Conflict and Order: the Police and Labour Disputes in England and Wales, 1900-39 (Oxford. 1987), pp. 262-3.
150. Morgan, pp. 264-75;
151. Williams, pp. 142-9. In both cases the police were acting against left-wing, rather than right-wing political groups, thereby adding credence to Labour fears about the likely consequence of increased public order powers.
152. Hansard, 5. Commons, cccxviii, col. 1763 (7 Dec. 1936).
153. Hansard, 5, Commons, cccxviii, cols. 112-13, 117 (23 Nov. 1936), 1671-3 (7 Dec. 1936), 2781 (17 Dec. 1936).
154. Williams, pp. 137-40;
155. Benewick, pp. 241-4.
156. Hansard, 5. Commons, cccxviii. cols. 1777-8 (7 Dec. 1936).
157. Hansard, 5, Commons, cccxviii, cols. 662-89 (26 Nov. 1936). Gallcher spoke forcefully against this doctrine of 'police democracy' (col. 688).
158. Hansard, 5, Commons, cccxviii, cols. 1671-4, 1689-90 (7 Dec. 1936). Sir John Simon (Home Secretary) stressed that only a 'reasonable number' of stewards could be employed and that they must act within the law. He subsequently agreed to a minor concession by dropping an ambiguous, and some felt sinister, reference to the 'organisation' of stewards (Hansard, 5, Commons, cccxviii, col. 2781 (17 Dec. 1936)).
159. The controversy surrounding the Hornsey meeting is charted in detail in P.R.O., MEPO 2/3104, 'Fascist meeting: allegations of unnecessary violence used by stewards', which notes that fascist headquarters privately acknowledged that stewards had been 'over violent', but also that one victim, a member of the National Council for Civil Liberties, was allegedly seen by a janitor throwing himself to the ground after being evicted (MEPO 2/3104 fos. 36, 7).
160. P.R.O., MEPO 2/3104 fos. 28-9, Simon to F. Messer, M.P., 17 May 1937.
161. P.R.O., MEPO 2/3104 fos. 30, 36. Privately, officials acknowledged that the officers had not understood their duties fully, and that there was some suggestion of confusion concerning stewards' powers under the new act.
162. See P.R.O., MEPO 2/3116, 'Disturbances at Fascist meetings', esp. fos. 5-7, 15.
163. See Lewis, pp. 137-8, and E. Thurtle, Time's Winged Chariot: Memories and Comments by Ernest Thurtle (1945), pp. 102-3.
164. P.R.O., HO 45/24996, file 22, 'York Hall meeting'.
165. P.R.O., HO 45/24996, file 27, 'Fascist disturbances at indoor meetings'.
166. As late as Oct. 1934 Mosley could still devote large sections of a speech to refuting Ms opponents' account of Olympia (see P.R.O., MEPO 2/3077 fos. 33, 40-1;
167. See also O. Mosley, My Life (1st edn., 1968; repr. 1970), pp. 300-1;
168. N. Mosley, pp. 62-3;