Fascism for the British Audience

Lewis Young

doi:10.1163/22116257-00302002

Abstract

A key player in the campaigns against fascism, the Communist Party of Great Britain (cpgb) has been subject of much attention by historians of anti-fascism. The Party’s approach to anti-fascism, through various campaigns such as the ‘united front from below’ and the Popular Front have been well documented, however its own analysis of fascism has been subjected to much less scrutiny. It has generally been accepted that the cpgb faithfully followed the interpretation of the Communist International. While this is true, this article will argue that the cpgb’s analysis of fascism was often adapted to suit the British political climate. By examining the cpgb’s approaches to ‘social fascism’, democracy and the British Union of Fascists (buf), this article will show that the cpgb’s analysis of fascism was much more fluid. Moreover it will suggest that the Party only adhered to the strictest of Comintern analyses at times of increased attention from Moscow. Finally this article will show that the cpgb’s analysis of fascism as an antithesis to all things ‘British’ survived, and indeed was strengthened, by the end of the Second World War. By 1945 its analysis of fascism was much more generic, following an economic and ideological reading as per the Stalinist interpretation, but with a strong focus on patriotism, and the empirical evidence of the destructive and murderous qualities of fascism as shown by the Holocaust.

Highlights

Much attention has been paid to the role of the Communist Party of Great Britain in the interwar struggle against fascism
The official Comintern line was followed, often to the letter when Moscow exerted its authority upon the Party, the cpgb made great efforts to adapt the interpretation to suit the political climate in Britain, and to appease its members who often had their own ideas about what constituted the real fascist threat in 1930s Britain.[1]
This article will add to the revisionist arguments of Andrew Thorpe who regards the cpgb-Comintern relationship as an unequal partnership[2] and Matthew Worley whose work on the cpgb in the Third Period (1928– 1935) concluded that the Comintern often had the final word on matters of policy, if domestically the ultra-left interpretation ‘proved to be unproductive it was quickly realigned.’[3]. With the analysis of fascism, the cpgb had to ensure it suited the situation in Britain – otherwise it would not have resonated with the public