British Fascism: Difference between revisions

On racial issues, the various British fascist movements held different policies. Mosley's BUF believed that culture created national and racial differences (a policy closer to the views on race by Italian fascism rather than German Nazism). Initially the BUF was not explicitly anti-Semitic and was in fact based upon the views on race of Austrian Jewish sociologist Ludwig Gumplowicz and Scottish anthropologist Arthur Keith, who defined race formation as the result of dynamic historical and political processes established within the confines of the nation state and that the defining characteristics of a people were determined by the interaction of heredity, environment, culture, and evolution over a historical period of time. However, Mosley later prominently asserted anti-Semitism, invoking the theory of German philosopher Oswald Spengler, who described that Magian Jews and Faustian Europeans were bound to live in friction with each other. In contrast to the Nazis, however, Mosley's anti-Semitism was largely conspiratorial rather than racial, with Mosley often stating "he was against the Jews not for what they were, but for what they did".

 

The BUF declared support for the British monarchy, regarding the monarchy as a beneficial institution for its role in bringing Britain to preeminence in the world, and seeing it as a symbol of Britain's imperial splendour. Its support went as far as "Absolute loyalty to the Crown" with Mosley saying that British fascists aimed to "in every way maintain its dignity".