EXPOSING FASCISM

22 Ninety years ago, during some of the most turbulent years of the last century, John Marchbank was elected National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) general secretary at around the same time as the Nazis came to power in Germany. As a result, Marchbank is probably best remembered for his long-running legal battle with the fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley which went a long way to exposing his infamous Blackshirts as the thugs and racists they were. Born in Lambfoot in Dumfriesshire in 1883, John Marchbank worked as a shepherd before he joined the Caledonian Railway Company at the age of eighteen. In 1906, he joined the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants before it became part of the new NUR in 1913. He joined the NUR executive committee in his twenties, became president at just 39 years old before going on to become general secretary in 1933 following the death of his predecessor Charlie Cramp. As the fascist threat was still not widely understood the union’s annual general meeting in Morecambe in July of that year resolved that the best method to combat fascism was the creation of ‘a highly disciplined and organised working class schooled in militant socialist principles’. Delegate Jim Campbell – who would later become NUR general secretary in 1953 – also argued that the best way to defeat fascism was to create a united front of working-class organisations and ‘do away with divisions’. However, this was defeated by delegates after Cramp, who died within the month, warned against communist influence in the union. As a result, only anti- fascist literature from the TUC and the Labour Party was circulated to branches. Mosley received a massive media boost when Daily Mail and Daily Mirror newspaper owner Lord Viscount Rothermere wrote articles under his own by-line in January 1934 in both newspapers with headlines such as ‘Hurrah for the Blackshirts’ and ‘Give the Blackshirts a helping hand’. Mosley had initially enjoyed a wide and even glamourous appeal. Endowed with huge personal wealth, he began his political career as the Conservative MP for Harrow before switching to Labour and winning a by-election in 1926 as Labour MP for Smethwick. By 1931 he had resigned as a minister from the government and launched the New Party (NP), which led to his expulsion from Labour along with a handful of other Labour MPs. Interestingly, its first electoral contest was at the Ashton-under-Lyne by- election in April 1931 following the death of the sitting NUR MP, Albert Bellamy. Much to the chagrin of the NUR, the NP split the vote which led to the NUR- backed Labour candidate J W Gordon losing out to the Conservatives. EXPOSING FASCISM How the National Union of Railwaymen humbled the leader of the Blackshirts Sir Oswald Mosley