That dangerous and unacceptable set of myths and ideas part 3 ….. today on the wireless

If there was anything which highlights the need to examine the history of fascism, it is perhaps the exchange of comments on a social media platform after I posted a story on part two of Britain's Fascist thread on Radio 4.

It came in the form of a defence of Spanish Fascism, and the Nationalist military rising which took place in Spain in 1936.

Out of the blue the contributor, attacked the International Brigade for desecrating churches, and went on to praise the Spanish Fascist Party while suggesting  there was no difference between the legitimate democratically elected Republican Government and the Bolsheviks.

It all played out with a series of assertions and rebuttals, until I took that simple and obvious decision that you don't debate with those who seek to paint Fascism in a favourable light, whether it be .... Spanish Fascism, Italian Fascism or that brand peddled by the Nazi Party.

And for those that doubt the ever present dangers of Fascism, just check Campaign Against Antisemitism,* which posts daily reports of antisemitic, behaviour and its links with Fascist ideology.**

All of which brings me to part three of Britain's Fascist thread, on Radio 4 today, at 11.00 am, in which "Historian Camilla Schofield explores a century of British fascism.

From the formation of the British Fascisti in 1923, through the BUF, the National Front and the BNP, the history of fascism in Britain is, in a sense, an unbroken thread.

But if the politics – or anti-politics – has remained more-or-less consistent, with a lineage of hatreds, pseudo-science, failed leaders and tactics, the means by which fascism is calibrated and communicated in the 21st century has fundamentally changed".***

Picture; demonstration at Belle Vue, Demonstration against Oswald Mosley, 1962, m07971, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Campaign Against Antisemitism, https://antisemitism.org/about/

**One day's reporting, https://antisemitism.org/the-time-has-come-for-a-reich-empire-with-muslims-and-jews-exterminated-reads-graffiti-on-welsh-war-memorial/?mc_cid=bd62743f4f&mc_eid=5199852f38

***Britain's Fascist thread, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000ss3c

That dangerous and unacceptable set of myths and ideas part 2 ….. today on the wireless

 The second of the fascinating series on Britain's Fascist Thread 

Belle Vue, Demonstration against Oswald Mosley, 1962

Historian Camilla Schofield explores a century of British fascism.

"From the formation of the British Fascisti in 1923, through the BUF, the National Front and the BNP, the history of fascism in Britain is, in a sense, an unbroken thread.

But if the politics – or anti-politics – has remained more-or-less consistent, with a lineage of hatreds, pseudo-science, failed leaders and tactics, the means by which fascism is calibrated and communicated in the 21st century has fundamentally changed.

In the second programme in the series we look back at a march staged by the National Front – and the ensuing counter-demonstration – in Lewisham in 1977.

Featuring Paul Gilroy, Peter Hain, Lez Henry, Paul Jackson and Joe Mulhall.

Producer: Martin Williams"*

Picture; demonstration at Belle Vue, Demonstration against Oswald Mosley, 1962, m07971, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Britain's Fascist Thread, Radio 4 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000skcb

That dangerous and unacceptable set of myths and ideas ….. today on the wireless

Now the word Fascist is often bandied around and will sometimes be used as a lazy insult to a political enemy, and that I think diminishes the real nature and danger of Fascism.

It is a set of ideas and a movement which threaten our freedoms and the simple belief that no matter what our ethnic and cultural backgrounds we all contribute so much to our society, and it seeks to exploit and divide what we have in common.

So I shall be listening on the wireless today to historian Camilla Schofield exploring a century of British fascism, which the BBC sleeve notes explain has “From the formation of the British Fascisti in 1923, through the BUF, the National Front and the BNP, the history of fascism in Britain is, in a sense, an unbroken thread. 

But if the politics – or anti-politics – has remained more-or-less consistent, with a lineage of hatreds, pseudo-science, failed leaders and tactics, the means by which fascism is calibrated and communicated in the 21st century has fundamentally changed. 

Membership groups intermittently attempting conventional electoral acceptance have given way to more atomised networks of ‘post-organisational’ activists.

Fascism is not an alien import but a central and on-going part of the British story.

At a time of debates around the character and memory of our national past, this series tries to bring the deep rooted and persistent vein of British fascism into focus. It might be that a less unreal sense of ourselves could be gained by shifting fascism out of the blind spot created by war stories which begin and end with this country standing alone against Nazism.

The first programme takes the rally staged by the British Union of Fascists at Olympia in June 1934 as a keyhole through which to look in order to understand fascism in the years before WWII. The second programme focuses on the so-called Battle of Lewisham in 1977 as a way of grasping the character of post-war fascism. The third programmes traces the thread to the present day".

Picture Anti Nazi badge, circa 1970s, from the collection of Andrew Simpson and John Hacking

*Britain's Fascist Thread, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000sbdx