Alexander Raven Thomson
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Alexander Raven Thomson (1899-1955) (known usually as simply Raven) was a leading figure in the British Union of Fascists and was considered to be the party's chief ideologue.
Born in Scotland, Thomson was educated in universities in his homeland, the United States and Germany, studying philosophy. He became a leading authority on the works of Oswald Spengler and in 1932 published the book Civilization as Divine Superman, which rejected Spengler's theories about the decline of civilization, arguing that it could be avoided by the rejection of capitalism and its replacement with collectivism. Thomson's political career began with him joining the Communist Party of Great Britain, although his membership did not last long as he rejected notions of historical materialism and saw himself move more towards corporatism.
He joined the British Union of Fascists in 1933 and soon rose to the post of Director of Policy, from where he became the leading ideological light in the party and a close associate of Oswald Mosley and Neil Francis Hawkins. Whilst in this position he produced his seminal work The Coming Corporate State (1938), in which he set out the vision of a BUF government in Britain. Thomson envisaged the formation of twenty corporations, each controlling a specific sector of the economy. These corporations would be further divided up to cover each individual industry and would also feed into a National Corporation, which would effectively form the government. Corporations would have equal representation for employers, workers and consumers, with elections to the corporations taking the place of existing political activity. Thomson became a leading figure in the BUF and in 1937 he represented the party in Municipal elections in Bethnal Green (SW), winning 23.17% of the votes and finishing ahead of the Liberal candidates. Although he was not elected, the result marked a good total for the BUF. His status in the party now assured, Thomson became editor of the party weekly, Action, in 1939.
Along with most of the leading members of the BUF, Thomson was detained under Defence Regulation 18B in May 1940 and interned for much of the Second World War. He spent his entire jail spell in Brixton Prison, rather than the generally more favourable prison camp on the Isle of Man, until his release in 1944. Following his release Thomson set up a number of book clubs across Britain to ensure the continuing spread of Mosley's ideas. He joined the Union Movement on its foundation in 1948 and became a leading figure in the new party as both General Secretary and the editor of the UM newspaper Union. Thomson continued to serve as leading UM figure until his death in 1955 from cancer.
