Fascism in Manchester
Oswald Mosley at the New Hippodrome, October 1939
"He spoke for well over an hour to an audience of close upon 2000, about three-quarters of whom, judging from the numbers of hands raised in the fascist salute when the ‘leader’ entered, were members of, or sympathisers with, his movement.
;)
As in London [at a meeting the week before] Mosley alleged that the war had been caused by 'international financiers.' Apart from an attack on Mr Hore-Belisha, as a 'Jewish warmonger', there were no specific Jewish references in Mosley’s speech, although anti-Semitic exclamations came periodically from the audience. A few hecklers who ventured to shout 'Down with Hitlerism' or called Mosley 'Hitler the Second' were ejected by Mosley’s SS men."
(Jewish Chronicle, 27 October 1939)
Fines for Fascist Agitators
"Fascists have been very busy of late in the Manchester district, chalking up their familiar slogans. One in the wall of the University Athletic Grounds in Mosely Road, Fallowfield, read: ‘Christians awake! Don’t be slaughtered for Jewish finance.’
Last week, James Whelan (25), said to be a well-known member of the BUF [British Union of Fascists], was fined 20s by the Manchester City magistrates for defacing a wall at Bogart Hole Clough by chalking Fascist slogans on it during the black-out. A representative of the Manchester Parks Department said that chalking had caused them a great deal of trouble, as they had to be ‘ever-lastingly cleaning walls’."
(Jewish Chronicle, 27 October 1939)
See also Michael Wolf's account of Mosley's arrival in Manchester in 1934.
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IMAGE AND DOCUMENT CREDITS: O Mosley (Robert Skidelsky, Oswald Mosley) Full reference: Sources.
