workingclasshistory:

On this day, 15 January 1934 the popular UK tabloid the Daily Mail published an article called “Hurrah for the Blackshirts!” in support of Oswald Mosley’s fascist movement. The article was written by Viscount Rothermere, who was an avid supporter of Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini, as well as Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party. Rothermere declared in the paper that the election of Nazi MPs “represent[ed] the rebirth of Germany as a nation”. After the Nazi seizure of power, when democracy was abolished and many socialists and communists were sent to the concentration camps, Rothermere praised how “Under Herr Hitler’s control, the youth of Germany is effectively organised against the corruption of Communism.” Rothermere corresponded personally with Hitler, and met with him several times, and wrote approvingly of how the Nazis had dealt with Jewish people: “Israelites of international attachments were insinuating themselves into key positions in the German administrative machine… It is from such abuses that Hitler has freed Germany.”
Rothermere’s family still own the Mail, which today continues to advocate far right politics. For example in recent years they have attacked the National Health Service for distributing HIV medication, falsely claimed that a terrorist bomber was an LGBT+ activist, falsely claimed that most people trying to claim sickness benefits were faking it, criticised the National Trust for acknowledging the existence of gay people, falsely claimed that 10,000 people were trying to claim sickness benefits because they were “too fat”, mocked gay marriage, made countless false claims about Muslim immigrants and much more. Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips was repeatedly quoted in the manifesto of Norwegian neo-Nazi terrorist Anders Brevik who murdered 93 people. Today, the Mail is the top-selling newspaper in the UK.
Learn about the fight against Mosley after WWII in our podcast: https://workingclasshistory.com/2020/02/17/e35-37-the-43-group/ https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1899397200245421/?type=3