My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleyprofusion that it was clear no speaker could long survive. In fact, I was hit by a pieceof metal on the left side of my forehead within two minutes of mounting the platform.The surgeon who operated in the Liverpool hospital informed me that an inch fartherback it would have killed me. The police action was due not to malice but toinexperience. They had no idea how to handle the situation, and had only the simpleintent of preventing the two sides fighting. The minor matter of the speaker possiblybeing killed had been overlooked. However, they did their best to provide someremedy by prosecuting a young man who was alleged to have thrown the missile.Two plain-clothes officers gave evidence that they saw him with the object in hishand, saw him throw it, and watched its flight until it hit my head. The case againstthe young man was dismissed.The second effect was that the removal of the black shirt also removed the disciplineof our movement. When our young men were in uniform we were able to enforce ourrule against even heckling at the meetings of opponents, and, of course, against anyform of violence. With the removal of the uniform and the consequent anonymity itwas difficult to enforce the rule among men and women made angry by a sense ofpolitical injustice, which further inflamed their indignation against the disgracefulfailure of the old parties to remedy economic conditions. They had been the victims ofviolence and persecution in the days which followed Olympia, and they rememberedit. Consequently, disorder then occurred for the first time at Labour meetings, and inthe streets. It was difficult to obtain evidence after the removal of the uniform, but ifthe facts were clear my rule was simple. A man would be expelled for seeking outopponents and attacking them, or for any form of aggression or bullying, but certainlynot for defending himself against attack on the streets, to which our men and womenwere still subject when alone or in small parties. In fact, any disorder from our sidewas almost always the work of non-members, camp-followers to whom my sanctionscould not apply. The general uproar which followed the passing of the Public OrderAct combined with the clear possibility of electoral defeat to make Labour leadersfeel that the air of East London had become less healthy; Mr. Attlee left Limehouse,and Mr. Morrison left Hackney for constituencies in other parts of London.I appealed for order and free speech for my opponents, although I am unaware thatthey ever did the same for me. What occurred in East London was much exaggerated,and Labour leaders were not responsible for the earlier disorders of some of theirsupporters, any more than I was responsible for the later disorder of some of mysupporters. It is true that I had then considerable influence in East London, becausefor years I had spoken at the great meetings and led the marches which finally swungits people to our side. It is also true that this influence in the period of our strength didsomething to save those who had sown the wind at Olympia from reaping the fullforce of the whirlwind.The results of our efforts in East London led to an electoral triumph, whichincidentally revealed the falsity of the allegations against us. We polled an average ofnearly 19 per cent throughout the area in the London County Council elections ofMarch 1937; 23 per cent in Bethnal Green, 19 per cent in Limehouse, and 14 per centin Shoreditch. At that time this was a householders' vote, because even young marriedcouples living with their parents in that overcrowded area had not got the municipalvote. The young were then almost solidly with us, but had not the right to vote, exceptat parliamentary elections; our 19 per cent was a vote of the old. If a general election262 of 424