Economic League (UK)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Economic League was an organisation in the United Kingdom dedicated to opposing what they saw as subversion and action against free enterprise.

The organisation was founded in 1919 by a group of industrialists and then MP William Reginald Hall under the name of National Propaganda. Its chief function was to promote the point of view of industrialists and business men. Its largest collaborator was the British Empire Union.

They later worked with MI5 to blacklist workers who they suspected of association with certain left wing groups, ranging from the Communist Party of Great Britain to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

The League became more visible in the 1980s, as the press investigated its activities, and questions were asked in Parliament in a campaign led by Maria Fyfe. It was wound up in 1993, with two of its former directors forming the similar organisation CAPRiM shortly afterwards.

[edit] References

• Friends of the Heroes
• House of Commons Hansard Debates for 8 Feb 1989
• The Economic League - The Silent McCarthyism, Mark Hollingsworth and Charles Tremayne (National Council for Civil Liberties)
• Spies at Work, Mike Hughes