Action (newspaper)

Action was a newspaper of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists (BUF). The paper first appeared in 1936. The editor of the paper from 1939 was Alexander Raven Thomson, the BUF's chief ideologue.^[1] It ceased publication in 1940^[2] due to the outbreak of the Second World War and the internment of the BUF's leadership. In fact the British government banned the paper.^[2] For most of its existence, Action ran parallel to the official mouthpiece of the BUF, The Blackshirt. After the launch of the less hard-line and more intellectual Action, The Blackshirt became more low-brow and finally ceased publication in 1939.^[3]

Action took its name from an earlier 1931 newspaper of the same name published by Mosley's New Party.

A later newspaper of the same name was published by the Union Movement from 1966.^[4]

References

1. Robert Benewick, Political Violence and Public Order, London: Allan Lane, 1969, p. 119
2. John Jenks (2006). British Propaganda and News Media in the Cold War. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 14. doi:10.1515/9780748626755. ISBN 9780748626755.
3. The Blackshirt. British Online Archives. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
4. British Library online catalogue. 19 November 2015.