Fascists and the Right
Sir: It was disappointing to see your correspondent Stephen Aris's phrase 'blueshirted right wingers' (5 December). Although the blue shirt became the standard dress of Franco's functionaries after the Falange was absorbed into the 'National Movement' in 1937, it is a misleading media cliche to call the Falarigistas 'rightwing'.
Like its counterparts, the German National Socialist Workers' Party and the Italian Fascist Party, the Falange was a radical party which scorned the values of bourgeois parliamentary democracy. Many fascists 'graduated' from socialism (e.g. Mussolini and Mosley). And the hatred which communists and fascists feel for each other is clearly explicable in terms of their appeal to much the same social constituency in the working and lower middle classes. The old Right of liberals and monarchists in each country may have tried to use their local fascists at first but this was against a background of considerable disdain. Incidentally, the true Right in Spain today seems to be led by Fraga Iribarne. Even though he served Franco as a Minister and as Ambassador to the Court of St James, no one of any sense would call Fraga a 'fascist'.
Neville Beale
Members' Lobby, The County Hall, London SE1
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