The New Zealand National Front is a small white nationalist political party in New Zealand.
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Mirroring developments in the UK, a group called the National Front evolved out of the New Zealand branch of the League of Empire Loyalists in 1967.[1] It was led by Brian Thompson; another notable member was Roger Clare who would later become an activist with the League of St George.[2] It published a magazine called Counter-attack. The group dissolved by the beginning of the 1970s, with Thompson remaining an overseas supporter of the UK National Front.
The National Front of New Zealand, commonly known as the "New Zealand National Front" (NZNF) was an initiative of John Tyndall of the British National Front formed in 1977; sister organisations were also formed in Australia and South Africa at the same time.
The party's first Chairman was David Crawford aided by Brian Thompson, with Kerry Bolton joining in 1978. It distributed "large numbers of Holocaust denial pamphlets and books".[3] Thompson represented the NZNF at the march in Lewisham in 1977.[4] The NZNF encouraged its activists to infiltrate mainstream parties such as the National Party.[5] The organisation became moribund during the early 1980s, many of its members leaving to form the 'New Force' which Bolton formed in 1981.
From June 1978 the party jointly published a magazine called Frontline with the National Front of Australia. After the demise of the party the magazine continued to March 1987 in support of a more general non-party "nationalist cause".
In 1989 Anton Foljambe sought to revive the Frontline title for his "Conservative Front" groupuscule. This led to the reformation of the NZNF with himself as leader. It published a magazine, edited by Flojambe, called Viewpoint. Foljambe resigned as leader in 1997 establishing the rival National Democrats Party in 1999. Kyle Chapman then led the party until resigning as leader in 2005, with Bolton rejoining in 2004. Its peak strength was in 2003 - 2005, under the leadership of Chapman and Bolton, when it seemed to never be out of the headlines . Membership and support has declined since Chapman's resignation. His replacement, Sid Wilson, was abrasive and struggled to retain the support built up by Chapman. Wilson was sacked as leader in July 2007. Since 2008 the NZNF has been led by Colin Ansell. Answell stated that the NZNF was to be a "broad spectrum nationalist movement" with a "strong view on immigration"[6]
In June 2008, the NZNF joined forces with the National Democrats and another international organisation, the 'New Right', to jointly contest the 2008 elections as the Nationalist Alliance.[7]
The National Front has received a small amount of public support, with 1.9% voting in favour of Kyle Chapman in the 2005 Christchurch mayoral election.
On 23 October 2004, the National Front held a protest in Wellington in support of retaining the current New Zealand flag, which was attended by an estimated 45 persons.[8] An 800-strong counter-demonstration was organised by the MultiCultural Aotearoa coalition as well as many anarchists to expose the sympathies of the National Front.[9] According to the New Zealand Herald, Chapman complained the following day of "insufficient police protection".[10] This "Flag Day Rally" has now become an annual event, with NF members and protesters squaring off outside parliament every year since.
In 2004 the NZNF reformed the National Front Australia].[11]
The National Front claimed to have benefitted from favourable media coverage, with Kyle Chapman telling the Dominion newspaper that "the media is our best recruiter". National Radio host Linda Clark, claiming the need to "give a voice to all New Zealanders", has interviewed Chapman and Australian One Nation founder Pauline Hanson.
However, the organisation had not updated its website since September 2011. There has been no media coverage or publicity related to the organisation since December 2009, according to the Index New Zealand print media reference website controlled by the National Library of New Zealand [12][13]
According to its website, policies of the National Front include:
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