The past & future of scottish fascism
Article: Clèireach. Illustration: Rory Robertson-Shaw
On 7 September, 2024, fascists in Glasgow staged their most successful demonstration in decades, gathering a few hundred flag-waving and Hitler-saluting specimens of the 'Aryan race' under Union Jacks, St. Andrew's Crosses, Red Hands of Ulster, and even a single, lonely, Irish Tricolour. Fascism in Scotland has never been particularly successful as a movement compared to the rest of these isles, whether the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s, the subcultural "brown wave" of the 1980s-90s, or the present day. But is this demonstration a sign that things may be starting to change? And if so, what can be done about it?
Historically, fascism in Scotland has struggled to gain traction due to the primary societal division being sectarian (between Protestants and Catholics), rather than racial. Indeed, compared to the British Union of Fascists' stronghold of East London, where a large proportion of locals were Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe, Scotland's Jewish community is tiny, and so did not provide a scapegoat for fascist movements, as elsewhere. The main group that emigrated to Scotland was, from the Famine in the 19th Century until very recently, Irish Catholics. In 1851, almost one in every five people in Glasgow was Irish-born. As is often the case, the majority population did not look positively on a poor immigrant out-group. Racialised, violently sectarian and, at times, eugenicist language and force were used to keep Irish Catholics out of mainstream respectable Scottish society. Indeed, as late as 1923, the Church of Scotland officially published, "The Threat of the Irish Race to our Scottish Nationality", arguing for eugenicist policies against the Irish population.
One might expect that this environment would provide fertile ground for fascism. Indeed, it did form the basis of mass proto-fascist movements on the Protestant/anti-Irish side. However, the British fascist movement, officially represented by the British Union of Fascists headed by Mosley, was unable to capitalise on this. While Protestant Action, a militantly anti-Catholic group strongly tied to the church and state, and the most prominent quasi-fascist organisation in interwar Scotland, occasionally attacked fascist meetings (believing fascism to be a Catholic notion imported from Rome), Mosley's organisation had a more complex relationship with Irish Catholics. The British Union of Fascists—while anti-Irish in orientation—officially supported a united Ireland, and included many prominent English Catholics in its membership. The only effort at a Scottish fascist party based on popular Protestant anti-Catholicism, the strangely named Scottish Democratic Fascist Party, was Scottish nationalist in orientation and utterly failed to gain any ground with Scottish Protestant right-wingers—their natural base—who held an overwhelmingly British nationalist view. It folded in 1933, the same year it was established, and the leader became a Labour councillor in the small town of Peebles. Meanwhile, the BUF itself was opposed at every step; the largest branch, in Aberdeen, was beaten back by communist and socialist militant opposition, who disrupted meetings and speeches.
The fortunes of Scottish fascism haven't been much better since the Second World War; always stuck on the sectarian issue, split over the question of Scottish vs British nationalism, and limited to tiny neo-Nazi groups quibbling over who ought to be the next Führer. However, in the fifteen years following the 2008 economic crisis, there has been a larger-scale emergence of fascist or quasi-fascist groups. The Scottish branch of the English Defence League (EDL), known as the Scottish Defence League (SDL), managed to gather some 200 football hooligans in support of their racist anti-Muslim views. They were, however, by and large confronted and opposed by anti-fascists when they attempted to hold public events. Similarly, when the Scottish branch of National Action, rebranded as Scottish Dawn, tried to hold a rally in George Square in 2018, the six wannabe synagogue shooters were chased off by a group of anti-fascists—one even took a pride flag to the head. That marked the end of fascist activity in Glasgow for a good few years.
However, in the last year or two, there have been some signs that the fate of Scottish fascism might be changing again. An increasing number of fascist micro-groups have popped up in the Glasgow area; greater and greater numbers of stickers and posters have been put up; old Loyalist groups have re-activated, and transphobic populism and conspiratorial narratives have mobilised new groups into a broader far-right scene. There's no need to rehash the well-known arguments about the general rise of the far-right in Britain, most of which also holds in Scotland. Still, it is perhaps worth discussing in the context of the increasing integration of the Irish into Scotland and, indeed, into right-wing politics in general. In 2024, when there are racist riots in Dublin, and Protestants and Catholics in Belfast will join hands in the name of perpetuating racist violence against immigrants, the fundamental and eternal racial difference between the Scots and the Irish doesn't seem as fundamental and eternal as it once did for our local fascist movement.
Instead, other groups are increasingly being targeted, especially Southeast Asians, Black people, and the Muslim world in general, in a new line of division between the White "us" and the Brown "them" that transcends sectarian affiliation. This new world is rife with opportunities for the fascist movement in Scotland. Whether they can capitalise on these opportunities and achieve political success remains to be seen. Much depends on whether they can navigate issues of national identity—whether they identify as just Scottish, Scottish and British, or solely British—which currently seems further from resolution than ever. But a lot will also depend on how people like you and me face them. Will we pretend that they aren't there, leave them to their own devices, to multiply and expand? Will we pretend that Scotland is immune to racism, that it's an English problem? Or will we confront the fascist movement and the environment of racial hatred in Scotland, which sustains them? We have an important role to play in their future failures, but only if we choose to act and act together.
Clèireach is a longtime anarchist and anti-Fascist active in Glasgow.
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