The Pivot of Empire: Australia and the Imperial Fascism of the British Union of Fascists

This article concentrates on the British Union of Fascists and its attempts to build a ‘New Empire Union’ in the 1930s to transform the British Empire into a fascist, self-sufficient empire. The BUF, under Oswald Mosley, believed that a fascist revolution, in Britain and in the colonies, was the only way to maintain the British Empire. The BUF hoped that Australia would become a trading partner to create a self-sufficient empire, with the goal of removing Britain from the world of ‘international finance’. While Australia was a liberal democracy, the BUF pointed to the ‘White Australia Policy’ and the treatment of the Indigenous population as examples of the hierarchical racial politics that could form the basis for a sympathetic fascist settler colony.