This post is one of a loose series of explorations of the cultural impact of the British Union of Fascists. You can find other parts of the series here and here.

Although the British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a political party, numerous scholars have argued that it represented a social community as much as a political movement.[1] The BUF set itself apart from other political parties by its leadership cult around Oswald Mosley; mass production of branded memorabilia; and foregrounding of physical fitness as a key tenet of BUF membership. For many BUF supporters, the social and cultural aspects of membership were likely just as important as the political facets.

As the charismatic leader of the party, Mosley encouraged a leadership cult which centred on his image. The party distributed portraits of Mosley to the membership in a variety of formats, from framed pictures to postcards to, even, oil paintings.[2] Postcards, in particular, were a cheap way of mass-producing and mass-distributing an image. At party rallies, careful staging and lighting served to present Mosley in the best possible light, both literally and figuratively.[3]

Beyond photographs, BUF members could indicate their support for the party through the purchase of an array of consumables, including ‘cufflinks, bracelets, earrings, signet rings and brooches.’[4] These accessories were particularly useful after the wearing of the Blackshirt uniform was banned by law under the 1937 Public Order Act. Through the adoption of other signifiers as part of their dress, members could still signal their loyalty to the party to one another and to the public at large. The BUF had adopted a striking, simple logo of a jagged arrow pointing down through a circle. Modern, mass-produced memorabilia sporting the same logo can still be purchased from online auction houses today, demonstrating the lasting impact of the BUF’s visual identity.

Richard Hornsey has recently argued that the interwar period saw a proliferation of ‘brand mascots’ – fictional personifications of popular brands, such as the Michelin man and the ‘Nippy’ waitress.[5] Mosley’s centrality to the BUF brand arguably subverted the increasingly common use of fictional brand personification and replaced it with true personification. Mosley’s physical fitness was key to this construct; he was regularly pictured in sporting outfits and sports were central to the BUF’s activities.[6] At a rally in White City in 1934, during the peak of the BUF’s popularity and fame, Mosley’s speech was preceded by three hours of sports demonstrations: ‘physical training displays, inter-area athletics, boxing matches and fencing.’[7]

BUF members were not only expected to enjoy watching sports, but also to participate in it: the membership bulletin described the day of a typical member to include a couple of hours of ‘boxing, fencing, jiu-jitsu, and first aid.’[8] Such activities were to be undertaken in strictly sex-segregated environments, like most of the BUF’s ventures. This segregation extended to physical altercations with political opponents: there was an expectation that male BUF members would ‘handle’ male opponents, and female members would do the same for female opponents.[9] It was acknowledged internally within the party that physical fitness was pursued not just to increase discipline and mental fitness, but also in order to act offensively against detractors and opponents.

There was a wider interest in physical fitness during the interwar period, for example through the non-political Women’s League of Health and Beauty which boasted up to 170,000 members.[10] The BUF were able to tap into this general interest in physical fitness and ‘drill’ and subvert it for political ends, in the same way that they were able to use mass production and consumption to distribute branded items to a wide range of people. In this way, the BUF went much further than traditional political parties in disseminating its ideology, enabling it to filter through any aspect of a member’s life including their dress; home decoration; and leisure activities. The strong social aspects of BUF membership meant that party members were able to tap into a community, which in turn bound them closer to the party and made it harder to leave, as the party impacted on many parts of their lives.

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[1] Michael A. Spurr, ‘’Living the Blackshirt Life’: Culture, Community and the British Union of Fascists, 1932-1940’, Contemporary European History, Vol. 12, No. 3 (2003), 305-322

[2] Julie Gottlieb, ‘The Marketing of Megalomania: Celebrity, Consumption and the Development of Political Technology in the British Union of Fascists’, Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 41, No. 1 (2006), 42-43

[3] Ibid., 45

[4] Spurr, ‘Living the Blackshirt Life’, 318

[5] Richard Hornsey, ‘“The Penguins Are Coming”: Brand Mascots and Utopian Mass Consumption in Interwar Britain’, Journal of British Studies, vol. 57 (2018): 812–839

[6] Gottlieb, ‘The Marketing of Megalomania’, 43

[7] Julie Gottlieb, ‘Body Fascism in Britain: Building the Blackshirt in the Inter-War Period’, Contemporary European History, vol. 20, no. 2 (2011), 124

[8] Ibid., 121

[9] Ibid., 117

[10] Ibid., 115