Mark Cotterill

Mark Adrian Cotterill (born 3 October 1960) is a far right political figure who has been involved in a number of movements throughout his career. He is noted for activity to establish links between the far right in Britain and America, by founding the American Friends of the British National Party.

National Front and Patriotic Forum years

Cotterill was a member of the National Front (NF) from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, and was the party's South West England organiser from 1978 to 1992.^[1] He “helped promulgate the New Atlantic Charter, signed between the National Front and the Nationalist Movement, pledging Anglo-American solidarity” and was “instrumental in arranging the exchange visit of (Nick) Griffin to America”.^[2]

In 1992 Cotterill left the NF and formed the Patriotic Forum.^[3][4] The Patriotic Forum was largely composed of fellow ex-NF members, such as Alan Harvey, Keith Jowsey, John Samuel and Kelvin Sanderson, the former National Front Overseas' Liaison officer.^[5] The Patriotic Forum published a magazine British Patriot^[6] which Cotterill edited.

Cotterill and Alan Harvey also formed the short-lived White Rhino Club,^{[citation needed]} which supported apartheid in South Africa; Harvey later accused Cotterill of sabotaging the Club's activities, but without substantiating the claim.^[7] In turn Cotterill expelled Harvey from the Patriotic Forum. Cotterill was, for a short time, a member of the Conservative Party in Torquay in 1993,^[8] and was active in the Revolutionary Conservative Caucus.^[9] In 1994 he was attacked, receiving severe head injuries, by two members of Anti-Fascist Action who were subsequently "charged with unlawful wounding".^[10] He stood as an independent in the local elections in 1995.^[11]

Cotterill wound up the Patriotic Forum and ceased publication of British Patriot, in 1995.

British National Party years

Cotterill then moved over to the British National Party (BNP). In 1998, when he lived just outside Washington, D.C., he formed and ran the American Friends of the British National Party (AFBNP), which aimed to raise funds for the BNP. The, “AFBNP was extremely successful though it has been claimed that a lot of the money raised went adrift and never ended up in the party coffers.” ^[12]

While living in the United States he campaigned for David Duke in his bid to be elected to the United States Congress in 1999, and worked for Pat Buchanan's bid to be elected President of the United States in the 2000 U.S. presidential election. However, “Buchanan's campaign threw out Cotterill and other racist volunteers after their presence was exposed by the Center for New Community and other groups.” ^[13]

Cotterill became an associate of Dr. William Pierce, editing his Resistance magazine in 1999, but he was subsequently "fired from the National Alliance in America by Pierce for swindling $100,000 from Resistance Magazine."^[14]

Cotterill was also the U.S. distributor for Right Now! magazine.^[15]

Cotterill was by now defined by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a "key British neofascist".^[16] Cotterill was later deported from the U.S.^[17] in 2002.

England First Party years

Back in England, Cotterill broke with the BNP and joined the "openly fascist" White Nationalist Party (WNP)^[18] until he broke with them, too.

In 2004, Cotterill founded the England First Party (EFP). He publishes and edits a quarterly magazine called Heritage and Destiny,^[19][20] which he describes as the "radical voice of racial nationalism".^{[citation needed]}

He was elected councillor for Meadowhead on Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council in the 2006 local elections as leader of the England First Party. However, Cotterill resigned the seat in May 2007 and also stood down from the party leadership.^[21]

In 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012, Cotterill stood as the EFP candidate in the Preston local council elections.^[22]

References