My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleynot think this scratch could have been done with a finger nail, but that some sharpinstrument must have been used. While treating this case, another girl Fascist wasbrought in; she had been struck by a man and her glasses smashed in her face. Shewas bleeding from the region of the left eye.' A long list of these cases could be made,but no evidence was produced of similar injuries among the opposition or of anyserious injuries at all.Why then did we find it necessary to organise a dressing-station at Olympia, whichwe intended to be another political meeting to convert the British people to our cause,after a series of quiet meetings which had followed the effective organisation of theblackshirt movement? The answer is that the attack on the meeting was openlyorganised in advance. We knew all about it, and so did the authorities. For threeweeks before the meeting, incitements to attack it were published, and maps wereprinted to show how to get to the meeting.For instance on May 17: 'The London District Committee of the Communist Party hasdecided to call upon the London workers to organise a counter-demonstration againstthe demonstration of Sir Oswald Mosley, which is advertised to take place at Olympiaon Thursday, June 7th'May 26: 'Marches will be organised from five different parts of London in the lateafternoon to arrive in the Hammersmith Road in the vicinity of Olympia at 6.30p.m. . . . Arrangements should be made in the localities for parties of workers to travelon the Underground to obtain cheap facilities for parties'May 28: 'The Communist Party is confident the workers in the capital city will resist,with all means, the Fascist menace'May 31: 'Every militant worker in London should put his whole energy intomobilising the masses of London against Mosley on Thursday, June 7th'June 1: 'The workers are going to be all out at Olympia on Thursday week, June 7th,when Oswald Mosley and his Blackshirts hold their monster demonstration'June 4: 'The workers at a debate decided to march against Mosley on Thursday night.The anti-Fascist front grows every day. Thursday night will see the London workersmarching on Olympia'These extracts are taken from various newspapers, and are on public record availableto anyone. This attack was organised, so far as their limited experience would permit,in the manner of a military operation. We had a legal and a moral right to resist, ifauthority permitted the attack to take place. In the fair light of history, can our men beblamed for defeating with their bare fists this armed attack, which had the deliberateand declared purpose of suppressing free speech in Britain?I am content to accept the verdict of Lloyd George, who wrote in the Sunday Pictorialon June 24,1934: 'People began to ask themselves what was the meaning of the AlbertHall phenomenon: what might be the subterranean strength of the BlackshirtMovement, and what its promise or menace for the future government of the country.But still more startling was the summoning, on June 7, of a meeting of this body at248 of 424