|
Union Movement was founded in 1948 when over 50 separate organisations came together under the leadership of Oswald Mosley.
Most parts of the country had Area Organisers. These areas were broken down into branches. For example the North West Home Counties Area was controlled by a pre-war member, Ron Webb. His branches consisted of Watford, Harrow, Wembley, Luton and, from time to time others. Small groups not large enough to be branches were in existence in Uxbridge, Ealing, Barnet etc etc.
There was also an anual camp held at Beenham,which is between Newbury and Reading.
Local council elections, including elections for The Greater London Council were often contested and the average vote gained was about 8%. Often higher, sometimes a little lower.
Manchester had two branches as did Birmingham. Bristol, Poole, Southampton, Salisbury, South Wales and Hull often featured in Union Movement news items.
Other events that generated publicity were the Battle of Ridley Road in Dalston, East London, The North Kensington Election, The Uxbridge By-Election and the unsuccessful attempts to prevent the growth of the movement in 1962 by thuggery and violence of left wing extremists also brought in new supporters..
Throughout the 1960s a great number regular street meetings were held all over the country. For example in the London Area: Chapel Street Market in North London, South London in Electric Avenue, Brixton on Friday evenings. Saturday mornings in Portobello Road in West London and Kerbella Street in East London on Sunday mornings.
Marches were held throughout Britain led by Mosley and accompanied by a drum corps and a flag contingent. The party newspaper was called Action and this was sold at regular sales pitches.
Union Movement's last great public effort before it concentrated its resources on publishing was the contesting all 32 seats in the Greater London Council elections in 1970.
At this time the National Front was gaining ground with its patriotic principles and many activists from Union Movement joined with this new movement taking with them the old Union Movement slogans, such as, "Britain First" and "Britain for the British" . This continuation of tradition has continued to the present day with the emergence and successes of the
British National Party.
Union Movement Publications:
Union and The East London Blackshirt
in the late 40s and early 1950s.
This was followed by
The European
which was in book format and stocked by W.H. Smiths, the national newsagents. When this ceased publication
Action
appeared and this was followed by
The National European
which was in A4 magazine style.
Action then resumed publication again to be followed by
Lodestar.
Local branches often produced their own news media such as
The North Kensington Leader
In addition Union Movement Headquarters printed frequent newsletters and bulletins.
|