Anti-Socialist Union

The Anti-Socialist Union was a British political pressure group that supported free trade economics and opposed socialism. It was active from 1908 to 1948 with its heyday occurring before the First World War.

Coming from the same laissez-faire economic position as contemporaries such as the Liberty and Property Defence League and the British Constitution Association, the ASU was established in 1908 by Daily Express editor R. D. Blumenfeld. Avowedly non-political its main membership came from the Conservative Party and the ASU campaigned against the social reforms enacted by the Liberal Party governments of Henry Campbell-Bannerman and Herbert Henry Asquith, denouncing these as socialist initiatives.

The group was active in the election campaigns of January and December 1910 when some of its rallies and meetings ended in violence.Keir Hardie was a focus of its activity. Enjoying a circulation of some 70,000 for its journal around that time, the ASU included a young Stanley Baldwin amongst its membership. Other leading members in the early years included William Hurrell Mallock, Walter Long and Samuel Hoare.

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