Why extremist movements looked smaller before the London treaty

Looking backward from the Second World War can make fascist and communist movements seem more established before the London treaty than contemporaries experienced them. Britain's Oswald Mosley and Wal Hannington, along with American Communist presidential candidate William Z. Foster, were already active before the London treaty. Hannington's successes in union campaigns are contrasted with communist political messaging that struggled to connect with a wider British public. Yet these movements remained small enough that their later prominence was not obvious at the time. Their existence still registered political and economic strains that the Great Depression would intensify. Their early presence should therefore be distinguished from their contemporary reach and power.