Synopses & Reviews
This new book brings together the leading historians in the field to trace the history of labor movement responses to the far-right from the 1920s to the present. It examines the rise and fall of different fascist groups in terms of wider social processes, above all the hostility of the labor movement, left-wing parties, the women's movement, and the trade unions.
Synopsis
Considerable attention has been paid to far-right parties and their leaders, Oswald Mosley, A. K. Chesterton, John Tyndall and Nick Griffin. But what about the forces that have been organised in opposition to fascism in Britain? British Fascism, the Labour Movement and the State brings together the leading historians in the field to trace the history of labour movement responses to the far-right from the 1920s to the present. It examines the rise and fall of different fascist groups in terms of wider social processes, above all the hostility of the labour movement, left-wing parties, the women's movement and the trade unions.
About the Author
Nigel Copsey is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Teesside.
David Renton is a Research Fellow attached to the Rand-Afrikaans University in Johannesburg.
Table of Contents
Introduction * 'The Fascists Are to Be Depended Upon:' The British State, Fascists and Strike-Breaking, 1925-26'--R.Maguire * The Security Service, the Communist Party of Great Britain and British Fascism, 1932-51--R.Thurlow * Practical anti-fascism? The Spanish Aid Campaigns in North East England, 1936-1939--L.Mates * Feminism and Anti-Fascism in Britain: Militancy Revived?--J.Gottlieb * 'Left-Wing Fascism' in Theory and Practice--P.M.Coupland * Pressmen, Politics and the Police: Policing British Fascism, 1945-51--G.Macklin * Guarding the Barricades: Working-Class Anti-Fascism, 1974-79--D.Renton * Whatever Happened to the Labour Movement? Proletarians and the Far Right in Contemporary Britain--T.Linehan * Meeting the Challenge of Contemporary British Fascism? The Labour Party's Response to the National Front and British National Party--N.Copsey * 'Awakening the Dead': Towards a Higher Synthesis in Marxist Conceptualizations of Fascism--R.Griffin