Union Movement - Formation of The Union Movement

Formation of The Union Movement

Following the release of interned fascists at the end of World War II 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. 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's British League of Ex-Servicemen and Women, Anthony Gannon's Imperial Defence League, Victor Burgess's Union of British Freedom and Horace Gowing and Tommy Moran's Sons of St George, all groups led by ex-BUF men. Another early member was Francis Parker Yockey, who had come to England 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, 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 that same year and went on to contest the following year's local elections in London. However, outside of Stepney and Bethnal Green 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, leaving the UM to languish.