Abstract

The Communist Party of Great Britain was the dominant force in the anti-fascist struggles in Lancashire in the 1930s. A variety of sources — local, regional and national — reveals a massive popular response to the growth of the British Union of Fascists in the two main urban centers of the county, Liverpool and Manchester. The CPGB was at the forefront of campaigns in these two widely differing urban centers only 30 miles apart, and the approaches adopted in each differed significantly. The local and national state authorities responded to opposition to the BUF in several ways, all of which make visible their great concern regarding the potential of the anti-Fascist movement and CPGB influence within it.