The group saw the middle classes being squeezed by not only a growing labour movement but also by a government that was taking on an increasing role in economic life and banded together with the aim of protecting middle-class interests against both potential enemies. Its main pre-occupation was its opposition to socialism and in particular strike action, although it also became associated with the policies of eugenics and sterilisation programmes as a means to reduce the population and as a result reduce poverty. In opposing high taxation to pay for social reform the Union pre-empted the policies of the Anti-Waste League, a party formed in 1921 from a similar middle-class basis which briefly threatened the hegemony of the Conservative Party on the political right.