Mussolini Archives - New Historian

Who Was Oswald Mosley? “He struck me as being an earnest, rather humourless man; a bit of a bore, but in no way abhorrent; just rather dreary, like a Jehovah’s Witness, or one of those figures one meets in out-of-the-way places who produce a cyclostyled plan for world government which they have sent to Adlai Stevenson, Mrs Roosevelt and the late Duchess of Atholl.” Said Malcolm Muggeridge about Oswald Mosley in 1962, shortly after interviewing him for the BBC. Muggeridge’s description of the former leader of the British Union of Fascists makes him seem timid and harmless. Maybe by 1962 that was the case, but in the years leading up to the Second World War Oswald Mosley was a dangerous and influential voice in British politics. In 1932 Mosley united Britain’s fascist movements into the British Union of Fascists. The BUF gained widespread attention: MI5 claimed it had 50,000 members, including several prominent figures in society, and it won public support from the Daily Mail newspaper. The BUF was obsessively nationalistic to the point of authoritarianism. It was explicitly anti-Semitic and anti-Communist, while publicly supporting the policies and governments of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. The party, its members distinguished by their black shirt uniforms, was frequently involved in violent clashes. The most famous example came in 1936, when Blackshirts attempted to march through East London, an area with a high Jewish and Irish immigrant population. The violent confrontation that ensued has come to be known as the Battle of Cable Street. Mosley’s connections to the worst proponents of fascism was deep. His wedding to Diana Guiness took place in the home of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels , and boasted Adolf Hitler as one of its few guests. Oswald Mosley and the Tory and Labour Parties Oswald Mosley was born in London in 1896. He served on the front lines of the First World War, as both a pilot and then as a soldier in the trenches on the Western Front. From 1916, when he was deemed unfit for front line duty due to an ankle injury, he took up a desk job for the rest of the war. In 1918 he became the youngest MP in the House of Commons, winning the Harrow seat for the Conservative Party. In 1924 he switched allegiances, joining the Labour Party. By 1927 he had become one of the leading figures in the party, viewed as a charismatic individual whose ideal of European Socialism meant many saw him as a future Labour prime minister. Mosley was influenced by the economic ideas of John Maynard Keynes, in particular government investing heavily to boost employment and secure the economy. In 1930 he proposed a radical programme to deal with Britain’s unemployment problem. Among other things it advocated a complete overhaul of the systems of government, with public funds being used to bolster the industrial sector. The proposals, which included the provision of old age pensions from the age of sixty, met massive resistance in the Labour government and Mosley’s radical ideas were ultimately blocked. Infuriated, he abandoned the Labour Party and founded the New Party in 1931. That year’s general election proved a disaster, with none of the New Party candidates being elected. Mosley Turns to Fascism and Antisemitism In 1932 Mosley met Benito Mussolini, who had been in power in Italy since the 1920s. Mosley was impressed by the Italian dictator’s government. Upon returning to England he dissolved the New Party, and replaced it with the British Union of Fascists. The new party quickly gained support, taking a fierce stand against Communism, and by October 1933 had its first elected official when Charles Bentinck Budd won a seat on Worthing Town Council. Soon however, the unsettling reality of the BUF’s ideology became apparent. BUF deputy leader William Joyce pledged to a public meeting in 1934 to rid British industry of foreigners “be they Hebrew or any other form of alien… Reclaim what is your own in the fullness of Fascist victory.” The anti-Semitic sentiment also saw the Blackshirts begin staging provocative marches in primarily Jewish populated areas, fostering tensions and igniting riots on British streets. Second World War and Mosley’s Arrest Throughout the 1930s the BUF remained a potent force in British politics, until the outbreak of World War Two. The declaration of war with Germany increasingly turned public opinion against the BUF, Mosley’s support of Hitler proving particularly alienating. On 23rd May, Mosley was arrested as part of new legislation allowing the Home Secretary to imprison without trial anyone believed to be a danger to national security. Soon other prominent BUF members were incarcerated, its publications banned, and the organisation quietly dissolved by 30th May 1940. ]]>

Ezra Pound, The Poet Who Supported Mussolini, is Released

The Cantos. Combining memories, feelings and impressions from the poet’s life alongside fragments of other literature, the poem was also remarkable for revealing his growing interest in history and politics. Perhaps responding to the massive upheavals that had befallen Europe in the First World War and the decades leading to the Second, Pound became increasingly obsessed with economic history. In particular, he came to believe that misunderstanding of the financial system by governments and the general population was allowing international bankers to take advantage. This, he believed, was the main cause of war in the world. Pound’s world view ultimately led him to support Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. In 1939 he returned home to the USA, hoping he could prevent his home country going to war against the Axis powers. He soon realised he wouldn’t be able to achieve his goal, and set off for Rome. He recorded hundreds of radio broadcasts for Rome Radio, praising Mussolini, criticising the USA, and claiming that the war was the result of a Jewish conspiracy. A belief that a fascist state was the most fertile for the creation of art was another key idea behind Pound’s support for Il Duce. In 1943 Italy was invaded by the Allies, and Pound was handed over to the US forces in 1945, who soon flew him back home to stand trial for treason. He was declared insane however, and sent to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. His incarceration lasted for close to thirteen years, but it failed to stem his creativity. He continued work on The Cantos, publishing two more volumes of what had become his life’s work, and translated works of Chinese poetry. Pound stayed visible to the public throughout his time at St. Elizabeth’s, controversially winning the Bollingen Prize while also receiving visitors and maintaining correspondence with the outside world. On 18th April 1958, Pound was declared unfit to stand trial, and all charges against him were dropped. Then, as now however, Pound’s mental state was a cause of significant controversy, with many questioning whether he was really insane. In the 1980s, a decade after Pound’s death, a series of articles were published by psychiatrists with access to newly released records, claiming that Pound had in fact been sane all along. “The Pound case is one of the earliest and most flagrant examples of the ongoing abuse of psychiatry in the American criminal-justice system. For it seems clear that one man, Dr. Overholser, decided that Pound should not stand trial for treason and then singlehandedly engineered the testimony that led to his hospital confinement.” wrote Dr. Fuller Torrey in a Psychiatry Today article in 1981, suggesting that almost every doctor who examined Pound considered him sane. After his release, Pound returned to Italy where he lived until his death in 1972. While back in Europe, he publicly declared the whole of the USA to be an ‘insane asylum’, and performed a fascist salute in public several times. Pound was a pioneer of modern literature who vocally supported the most abhorrent political idea of the twentieth century, a renowned critic who inspired debates on the very nature of sanity. Before he died he never finished The Cantos, leaving behind a sprawling, unpredictable and uncategorisable work which seems an accurate testimony to his remarkable life. This article was updated on 18th April 2016. The original wrongly suggested that Italy was invaded by the Allies in 1945, rather than 1943.]]>