My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleydissidents from our movement, after two and a half years he finished with abouttwenty. He failed to shake our members whose morale was much too strong for him,and shortly before the outbreak of war he went to Germany; his attitude wasfundamentally different in this test to that of our members, and the rest of the story iswell known. I was more fortunate in these troubles than most leaders of new parties,whether of the left, right or centre. The whole leadership of the Communist Partymelted away after the disaster of 1905; in the Lessons of October, Trotsky claims thathe and Lenin were the only survivors of the leadership in 1917. Hitler shot seventy ofhis previously most trusted assistants on June 30,1934, and Mussolini, not long beforehis arrival in power, was near to resignation on account of divisions within the party.My companions, with no compulsion and in face of long adversity, remained loyal.Lloyd George was right when he said our movement was a phenomenon, and it wasdue entirely to an idea which prevailed against the economic trend. We advanced byforce of the spirit alone, and with a rapidity which threw the old world into a panic ofspecial legislation. The defeat of violence and the failure of misrepresentation werefollowed by a new law of suppression. It was suggested that a triumphant 'privatearmy' might become a danger to the State. We were assailed by special Acts ofParliament. Has any other political party in Britain experienced, let alone survived,two special measures passed by Parliament for its suppression? If not, we must bearalone the burden of this dubious honour.The first measure was the Public Order Act, the second was the special order 18B(1A)passed with the approval of Parliament but without our knowledge, when in 1940 thenormal form of law had been suspended, including the traditional and long-vauntedHabeas Corpus Act, which now maintains British freedom only when it is not indanger. The Public Order Act was passed in October 1936. Its main provision was tomake illegal the wearing of uniform for political purposes and thus to bring to an endwhat was called a 'private army'. Happily, these Conservative gentlemen often shootbehind the bird, despite much practice. The black shirt had fulfilled its practicalpurpose, and the chief loss was sentimental, for men rightly love a symbol of theirstruggle and sacrifice together. Sacrifice was the essence of our movement and themaking of it.The second object of the Public Order Act was to prevent us maintaining order at ouroutdoor meetings, though we were still allowed to steward our indoor meetings withour own members. The result was that the indoor meetings continued in completeorder, but the outdoor meetings sometimes became shambles. The responsibility forkeeping order in the open air was placed on the police alone. An early effect was toput me in hospital for a week in Liverpool in October 1937. The cause was simple andeasily foreseeable. Our members surrounded the platform in the usual way at ameeting I was to address. The reds massed for a militant counter-demonstration,which our members could quickly have seen off as usual under the previous law. Alarge force of police was present to maintain order under the newly made law. Theyplaced a strong force in a ring between our members and the reds, and pressed ourpeople against the platform. The result was to bring the platform within easy range ofred missiles, and to prevent our members moving among the reds to stop them beingthrown.On arrival, I was informed that the previous speaker had been knocked out by a brick,and a barrage of considerable variety was crashing on the platform with such261 of 424