National Union of Ex-Service Men

The National Union of Ex-Servicemen (NUX) was a socialist ex-servicemen's organisation founded in London in early 1919 with close links with the Labour Party. Many of its members were formerly supporters of the National Federation of Discharged and Demobilized Sailors and Soldiers and the Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen's Union (SSAU). Within six months it had grown from one branch with fifty members to over one hundred branches and claimed a membership of nearly 100,000.^[1][2]

The NUX was allied to the Labour Party. It also established close links to the Independent Labour Party. It articulated the grievances of ex-servicemen and campaigned for better living conditions for former soldiers by raising issues such as unemployment, higher back pay, better pensions, inadequate housing and improved medical care for soldiers disabled by injury. It played a role as a claimants union aiming to secure justice for disabled former soldiers and adequate provision for the widows and families of soldiers who died in the First World War. It argued for land reform and a tax on profiteering landlords, and pressed for reform of military court martials. It tried to organise a national rent strike. But - unlike other ex-servicemen's organisations - it called upon ex-servicement to unite to improve society as a whole rather than simply campaigning on veteran's issues.^[1]

The Union was based in London but had a strong regional presence especially in Birmingham, Glasgow and Lancashire. Its first President was Duncan Carmichael who was Secretary of the London Trades Council. He was succeeded by John Beckett (politician). Ernest Mander, a London lawyer who sold his home to help finance the NUX and later emigrated to New Zealand, became General Secretary.^[3] The NUX produced a monthly publication New World. It operated on a shoestring and always struggled financially although it received some financial support from the ILP.

The NUX was kept under close surveillance by the newly formed Home Office Directorate of Intelligence because of Government fears that it might be promoting subversion or revolution, although little evidence of subversive activity was found. A more militant international offshoot, the International Union of Ex-Servicemen (I.U.X) was formed in Glasgow in 1919, although it claimed only 7,000 members by November 1919.^[2]

Fifty-three NUX supporting Labour Party candidates were elected in the urban district council elections of 1920 but by the autumn of 1920 and following a ballot of its members, the NUX reconstituted itself as a loose federation of autonomous branches many of which were then absorbed into the ILP, the Labour Party or the Communist Party, and it was wound up as a national organisation.^[1]

In the eighteen months since its formation, the NUX had conducted vigorous propaganda campaigns throughout Britain and held an estimated 47,000 meetings.^[1] The NUX also served as an apprenticeship for future political campaigners such as John Beckett, who became a Labour MP and later a leading fascist, and the Birmingham journalists and politicians Jim Simmons (Charles Simmons (politician)) and CE Leatherland (Charles Leatherland, Baron Leatherland).

References

1. The National Union of Ex-Servicemen and the Labour Movement, 1918-1920. David Englander. History. 1991
2. Intelligence Surveillance of British Ex-Servicemen, 1918-1920. Stephen R Ward. The Historical Journal. 1973
3. The Rebel Who Lost His Cause - The Tragedy of John Beckett MP. Francis Beckett. 1999