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.
Read more about this topic: Union Movement
Famous quotes containing the words formation of the, formation of, formation, union and/or movement:
“That for which Paul lived and died so gloriously; that for which Jesus gave himself to be crucified; the end that animated the thousand martyrs and heroes who have followed his steps, was to redeem us from a formal religion, and teach us to seek our well-being in the formation of the soul.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“... the mass migrations now habitual in our nation are disastrous to the family and to the formation of individual character. It is impossible to create a stable society if something like a third of our people are constantly moving about. We cannot grow fine human beings, any more than we can grow fine trees, if they are constantly torn up by the roots and transplanted ...”
—Agnes E. Meyer (1887–1970)
“The formation of an oppositional world view is necessary for feminist struggle. This means that the world we have most intimately known, the world in which we feel “safe” ... must be radically changed. Perhaps it is the knowledge that everyone must change, not just those we label enemies or oppressors, that has so far served to check our revolutionary impulses.”
—Bell (c. 1955)
“The rank and file have let their servants become their masters and dictators.... Provision should be made in all union constitutions for the recall of leaders. Big salaries should not be paid. Career hunters should be driven out, as well as leaders who use labor for political ends. These types are menaces to the advancement of labor.”
—Mother Jones (1830–1930)
“Failure or success seem to have been allotted to men by their stars. But they retain the power of wriggling, of fighting with their star or against it, and in the whole universe the only really interesting movement is this wriggle.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)