Battle of Carfax

Fascists in Oxford Oswald Mosley, then leader of the British Union of Fascists (BUF), visited Oxford numerous times for political meetings throughout the early 1930s. These meetings were often disorderly, but had never broken out into a large violent fight. and £50,000 in 1930 to support the activities of the fascist New Party, which would soon afterwards join with other organisations to form the British Union of Fascists. Anti-Fascism in Oxford In 1933 students from Ruskin College founded the Red Shirts, Oxford's first organisation dedicated solely to anti-fascism. Many of the Red Shirts were communists and volunteered to act as stewards at events held by the October Club, Oxford University's communist society. Lazarus was a Marxist activist who had been raised in London by a Jewish family. Upon arriving in Oxford, Lazarus soon became a popular figure among Oxford's working class for leading the successful 1934 strike of thousands of factory workers in one of William Morris's factories, for leading the Florence Park rent strikes against local slumlords, and for organising a march of approximately 2,000 people against Oxford's Cutteslowe walls. Lazarus was also able to create successful links between local communist activists and the Oxford branch of the Labour Party. Although Lazarus was not present at the Battle of Carfax, his work to organise anti-fascist activism within the city of Oxford helped facilitate the decline of fascist politics in the city. Alongside the rise of Communist Party activity among Oxford's working class, another factor in the rising tide of anti-fascist activity in the city was the arrival of German refugees fleeing the Nazis. Many of these refugees were academics with the most notable examples including the scientists Albert Einstein and Ernst Chain. Many working German refugees also made Oxford their home such as the activist Liesel Carritt and her family. == The Battle of Carfax ==

The meeting On the night of 25 May 1936, Oswald Mosley who was then serving as the leader of the British Union of Fascists (BUF) held a public event in a hall called the Carfax Assembly Rooms. This location was a popular venue for public events in Oxford and was owned by Oxford City Council, who allowed Mosley to host his event in the Carfax Assembly Rooms after denying him the right to use Oxford Town Hall for his public event. The Assembly Rooms were filled with an estimated 1,000 people, though a large number of the people inside the hall were anti-fascists who showed up to protest against Mosley and the BUF. Blackshirts were lined up around the walls of the hall, surrounding the crowd of attendees. Eyewitnesses who attended the meeting noted that many people in the crowd attempted to peacefully disrupt the meeting by making loud noises with their hands and feet, rustling large newspapers, and heckling the fascists. While Mosley spoke inside the Carfax Assembly Rooms, a crowd of local workers held an anti-fascist demonstration outside the meeting. These workers were influenced by communist political ideology, and consequently anti-fascism. These workers attended the anti-fascist demonstration not to violently break up the fascist meeting, but to intervene if the BUF were to become violent against anti-fascist protesters. The brutality of the Blackshirts shocked many in the audience, and the hall erupted into a violent fight. Despite the violence being instigated by the Blackshirts and the presence of a large number of organised fascist paramilitary-style members, the physical fight appeared to have been an overwhelming anti-fascist victory. Four Blackshirts were hospitalised, while anti-fascists appeared to have only suffered minor injuries including bruises and a cut lip. Following the violence, the meeting ended quickly and there was no further violence. == Accounts of the battle ==

Following the Battle of Carfax, many local Oxford residents and students published their eyewitness accounts and reactions to the events and their opinions on Mosley and the BUF. In a testament to how deeply the Battle of Carfax damaged the reputation of fascism among Oxford's residents, almost all of the available published reactions have been negative, condemning Oswald Mosley and the Blackshirts for their violent behaviour. Hugh Trevor-Roper, a British historian who was then a student studying in Oxford, wrote to his mother with an account of the Battle of Carfax:"Great damage to the Blackshirts was done by one of the dons of Christ Church (Frank Pakenham), who, being struck over the head by a Blackshirt with a steel chain, was roused to a berserk fury." Richard Crossman, the future chair of the Labour Party, professor, and editor of the New Statesman, denounced Mosley's tactics and sympathised with the anti-fascists:"I cannot pretend I am sorry that an Oxford audience did not take this 'sitting down.' It is Mosley's peculiar art to make decent law-abiding people see red. In that case it might be better for the decent law-abiding people to leave him to mouth in a vacuum."Frank Pakenham, who took part in the Battle of Carfax and fought against the fascists, also gave a published account of the Battle of Carfax:"Whether or no Mosley and his agents are guilty of having committed criminal offences on Monday is for the courts to decide; but in any case, no decent person who was present is likely to attend any more meetings addressed by this grotesque clown. For his dupes, even for the wretched quartet who continued to rabbit-punch me for some time after the uproar had subsided, I feel nothing but pity. They looked timid and uneasy, and anything but happy to have to carry out their leader's work. Thank God, Oxford is not likely to be impressed by the mechanical bleating of this gimcrack fencing master, so facetious about working-class accents, so deaf to the sound of his own." == Aftermath ==

Basil Murray and Bernard Floud were subsequently tried for breach of the peace. Floud's case was dismissed but Murray was fined in a proceeding described by Isaiah Berlin and Maurice Bowra as a miscarriage of justice. Although the physical violence during the Battle of Carfax was minor and paled in comparison to similar events such as the Battle of Cable Street, the aftermath was a disaster for the BUF, destroying their reputation among Oxford's residents and crippling the BUF's ability to openly organise in the city. The aftermath of the Battle of Carfax also resulted in an increase in cooperation between various left-wing movements across Oxford. The long-term result of the Battle of Carfax was a sharp decline in support for fascism throughout Oxford, many of whom opposed the violent tactics of the British Union of Fascists. This decline in the public support for fascism in Oxford was hastened by the fascist uprising in Spain which sparked the beginning of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) only several months after the Battle of Carfax, and further declined following local aid campaigns for Spain and the arrival of Spanish refugees. By 1939 the BUF had entirely retreated from the city's working class population and retreated to the privacy of Oxford University. Soon afterwards came the beginning of the Second World War which practically ended fascist politics in Oxford. Mosley and other leading British fascists were then interned under Defence Regulation 18B. However, fascist movements began to reemerge in Oxford during the late 1940s. == See also ==