League of Saint George
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The League of St. George is a Neo-Nazi organization based in the United Kingdom.
In the 1970s the League became a political home for the more intellectual adherents of "Neo-Nazi" ideology, particularly those who, looking back to the pan-European Waffen-SS, wanted a united Europe with a European-derived population. These included Keith Thompson and Mike Griffin who in 1974 broke away from the Action Party, founded by British fascist, Oswald Mosley. The League sought to continue what it saw as a purer form of the ideas of Mosley than those offered by Jeffrey Hamm. This, as well as the far higher educational background of many members, set the League apart from less intellectual British nationalist groupings like the National Front.
The League was never intended to be a political party, but more of a social, intellectual, and cultural organization, albeit with the ultimate political aim of promoting European people and their culture.
Adopting the emblem of the Arrow Cross, the League sought to forge links with like-minded groups in Europe, and took part in international Neo-Nazi rallies at Diksmuide in Belgium, where they forged links with the Vlaamse Militanten Orde and the National States' Rights Party. Eschewing the route of electoral politics, the League instead sought to set itself up as an umbrella group for National Socialists of any affiliation, although the League did work closely with first the British Movement and then the British National Party when it was founded.
The League went into hiatus in the early 1980s after an episode of ITV current affairs show World in Action exposed their attempts to set up safe-houses for suspected Italian terrorists, based on information given by Ray Hill, who had been active in the League. The group became dormant, but did not close down, and it continues to exist under Thompson's leadership to this day. Previously publishing a regular magazine, The League Review, which had a comparatively wide European readership, it now publishes a quarterly journal, The League Sentinel which it currently sells through the Nationalist Alliance [1]. Current membership is estimated to be no more than one hundred people.
[edit] References
- R. Hill & A. Bell, The Other Face of Terror- Inside Europe’s Neo-Nazi Network, London: Collins, 1988