British Fascists - The 1926 Strike

The 1926 Strike

The British Fascists began to take on a more prominent role in the run-up to the General Strike of 1926, as it became clear that their propaganda predicting such an outcome was due to come true. They were not however permitted to join the Organisation for the Maintenance of Supplies (OMS), a group established by the government and chaired by Lord Hardinge in order to mobilise a non-striking workforce in the event of general strike without first relinquishing any explicit attachment to fascism as the government insisted this group remain non-ideological. The structure of the OMS was actually based on that of the British Fascists although the government was unwilling to rely on the British Fascists, due both to what they saw as the group's unorthodox nature and their reliance on funding from Lintorn-Orman (who had garnered a reputation for high living), and so excluded them as a group from the OMS. As a result a further split occurred as a number of members, calling themselves the Loyalists and led by former BF President Brigadier-General Blakeney, did just that. In the event the British Fascists formed their own Q Divisions which took on much of the same work as the OMS during the strike, albeit without having any official government recognition.

The strike severely damaged the party as it failed to precipitate the "Bolshevik Revolution" that Lintorn-Orman had set the party up to fight. In fact the strike was largely peaceful and restrained, and fears of future outbreaks were quelled somewhat by the passing of the Trades Disputes Act. Many of its most prominent members and supporters also drifted away from the group in the aftermath of the strike. The party journal, initially called Fascist Bulletin before changing its name to British Lion, went from a weekly to a monthly whilst the loss of a number of key leaders and the erratic leadership of Lintorn-Orman, who was battling alcoholism, brought about a decline of activity. The group also became ravaged by factionalism, with one group following Lady Downe and the old ways of the British Fascists and another centred around James Strachey Barnes and Sir Harold Elsdale Goad advocating full commitment to a proper fascist ideology.