My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleytruth essential to human survival. We had done the thinking, now came the time foraction, to turn thought into deed.We faced an experience similar to all who were disapproved by the organisers of redviolence. Quotations from members of other parties need not be repeated extensively;a few will suffice. Mr. T. Howard, M.P. for South Islington, said: 'I challenge anyleader of the Conservative Party, or of the Liberal Party, to organise a meeting inLondon . . . and to advertise the meeting as an open meeting and to get a hearing'. Mr.Cecil Pike, M.P. for the Attercliffe Division of Sheffield, said: 'I have seen in myDivision meeting after meeting wilfully broken up, and I am perfectly convinced thatevery other member of this House has had the same experience'. The ManchesterGuardian reported on March 8, 1934: 'Lord Beaverbrook was shouted down last nightat an eve-of-the-poll meeting at Camberwell. . . . When Lord Beaverbrook rose tospeak, his words were inaudible beyond the front of the hall, owing to the stampingon the floor and persistent singing. It appeared at one time that the platform would berushed, but there was a strong bodyguard of stewards. After a further attempt to makehimself heard. Lord Beaverbrook sat down, amid opposition cheers. Later, he left thehall, after shaking hands with those on the platform. .. . Later several free fights tookplace in front of the platform.... Several stewards were knocked down in the rush, andafterwards one was carried out battered and bleeding. The police were called in, andthe hall gradually cleared'.A notorious case was Mr. Churchill's meeting during the 1922 election in hisconstituency at Dundee, when he had just undergone an operation for appendicitis andhad to address the meeting from a bath-chair. The Times of October 14, 1922,reported the meeting under the heading: Mr. Churchill Shouted Down: 'Mr. Churchillwho addressed an audience of 5,000 persons at the Drill Hall, Dundee, last night, metwith so much interruption and disorder from the Labour element that the meeting waseventually abandoned. The hall was packed. Mr. Churchill was received with a stormof boos, hissing and cheers, and the chairman's remarks were greeted with the singingof "Tell me the old, old story". Mr. Churchill began his speech from a sitting positionto the accompaniment of booing and cries. ... He said, "If about a hundred young menand women choose to spoil a whole meeting, and a hundred of these young reptileschoose to deny to democracy the power to conduct a great assembly, the blame is withthem...." The meeting broke up in disorder.' Mr. Churchill was unable to put his caseat open meetings throughout the election, which he lost.Such cases can be multiplied many times, but enough has been said to show that I didnot invent violence at British public meetings. Many others had the same experience,but as members of the old parties, they had the Press and the ticketed meetings of theparty leaders. I had to hold open meetings and secure a hearing, if the large and fairmindedaudiences who had come to listen were not to be denied the right of freespeech by an organised minority. We had either to throw out 'the young reptiles', or toclose down. I am no snake-fancier. We acted, we won: that was our offence. For someyears there were fights at our meetings all over Britain, but never once were themeetings broken up. Even in that period, many meetings were orderly, but they wouldalways have been liable to attack if I had not organised and led the blackshirtmovement. These devoted young men saved free speech in Britain.The proof is that for several years before the war our meetings were held all over the245 of 424