National Front (UK)

National Front
Leader	David MacDonald[1]
Deputy Leader	Tony Martin[2]
Founded	7 February 1967 (1967-02-07)
Headquarters	Kingston upon Hull[1]
Ideology	British fascism[3] Neo-fascism[4]
Political position	Far-right
Colours	Red, white, blue
Website
nationalfront.info
Politics of United Kingdom Political parties Elections

The National Front (NF) is a far-right political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Kingston upon Hull and is currently led by David MacDonald. A minor party, it has no elected representatives at any level of UK government. During its heyday in the 1970s, it had a small number of local councillors, although it has never secured a seat in the British Parliament.

The NF was founded by A. K. Chesterton in 1967 as a merger between his League of Empire Loyalists and the British National Party. It was soon joined by the Greater Britain Movement, whose leader John Tyndall became the Front's chairman in 1972. Under Tyndall's leadership, it capitalised on growing concern regarding Asian migration to Britain, rapidly increasing its membership and vote share in urban areas of East London and Northern England. Its public profile was raised through street marches and rallies, which often resulted in clashes with anti-fascist protesters. In 1982 Tyndall left the party to form his own British National Party (BNP). Many NF members defected to the BNP, while the Front's electoral support deteriorated heavily. During the 1980s, the NF split in two; the Flag NF retained the older ideology while the Official NF adopted a Third Positionist stance before disbanding in 1990. In 1995, the Flag NF's leadership transformed the party into the National Democrats, although a small splinter group retained the NF name; they continue to contest elections, albeit without success.

Ideologically positioned on the extreme or far-right of British politics, the NF has been characterised as fascist or neo-fascist by political scientists. Various different factions have dominated the party at different points in its history, each with their own ideological bent, including Neo-Nazis, Strasserites, and racial populists. The party is ethnic nationalist, and espouses the view that only white people should be citizens of the United Kingdom. It calls for an end to non-white migration into the UK and the compulsory deportation of settled non-white populations from the country. It promotes biological racism, calling for global racial separatism and condemning mixed race relationships and miscegenation. It espouses anti-semitic conspiracy theories, endorsing Holocaust denial and claiming that Jews seek to dominate the world through both communism and international capitalism. It promotes economic protectionism, Euroscepticism, and a transformation away from liberal democracy, while its social policies oppose feminism, LGBT rights, and societal permissiveness.

Along with the BNP, the NF has been described as the most successful extreme-right group in British politics since the Second World War. During its history, it has established sub-groups like a trade unionists' association, a youth group, and the Rock Against Communism musical organisation. Only whites are permitted membership of the party, with most of the party's support coming from White British working and lower middle-class communities in Northern England and East London. The NF has generated much opposition from leftist and anti-fascist groups throughout its history. The British police and prison services forbid their employees to be members of the party.^[5]

History

Late 1960s: formation

The NF was formed through a merger of the LEL (logo pictured) with other far-right parties

The National Front was established as a coalition of small extreme-right groups which were active on the fringes of British politics during the 1960s.^[6] In early 1966, A. K. Chesterton, the leader of the League of Empire Loyalists (LEL), resolved to unite many of these parties.^[7] Over the following months many members of Britain's extreme-right visited him at his Croydon apartment to discuss the proposal,^[7] among them Andrew Fountaine and Philip Maxwell of the British National Party (BNP),^[8] John Tyndall and Martin Webster of the Greater Britain Movement (GBM),^[7] and David Brown of the Racial Preservation Society (RPS).^[9] In principle, everyone agreed with the idea of unification, but there were many personal rivalries that made the process difficult.^[7]

Chesterton agreed to a merger of the LEL and BNP,^[8] and a faction of the RLP also agreed to join the venture.^[8] The BNP was eager to accelerate the process of integration, in part because it was running out of funds and hoped that the LEL could help to financially sustain it.^[8] The LEL also discussed the idea of a merger with the GBM, although the LEL withdrew from this after Tyndall and seven other GBM members were arrested for illegal weapon possession.^[10] The BNP and RPS independently discussed a merger; although agreeing to this in September 1966, the idea had foundered within a week.^[11]

Chesterton and the BNP agreed that Tyndall's GBM would not be invited to join their new party because of its strong associations with Neo-Nazism and anti-Semitism.^[12] Chesterton had also met with the Neo-Nazi Colin Jordan of the National Socialist Movement, but again deemed it political suicide to unite with his faction.^[11] In October 1966 the LEL and BNP established a working committee to determine what policies the two parties could agree upon; it continued to meet twice a month until February 1967.^[13] Its initial policy platform revolved around opposition to the political establishment, anti-communism, support for Rhodesia and the white dominions, a ban on migration into Britain and the repatriation of all settled immigrants to their ancestral nations.^[14] They considered various names for the new party, among them the "National Independence Party" and the "British Front",^[15] before settling on the "National Front" in December 1966.^[16]

Early 1970s: growth

The National Front (NF) was founded on 7 February 1967.^[17] At the time it had approximately 2500 members, 1000 from the BNP, 300 from the LEL, and over 100 from the RPS.^[14] According to the journalist Martin Walker, "for the great union of the Right, the National Front was a feeble beginning".^[14] Conversely, the historian Richard Thurlow noted that NF's formation was "the most significant event on the radical right and fascist fringe of British politics" since the internment of the country's fascists during the Second World War.^[18] The NF's first year was marked by a power struggle between the LEL and BNP factions.^[19] The LEL faction were unhappy with the BNP's behaviour, such as its propensity for chanting,^[20] while the BNP criticised Chesterton's elitist pretensions by calling him "the Schoolmaster".^[20]

The BNP faction called for the NF to welcome Tyndall and the GBM into the Front.^[21] In June 1967 Tyndall discontinued the GBM and called on its members to join the NF.^[22] Contravening his earlier commitment to keeping Tyndall out, Chesterton welcomed him into the party.^[23] Tyndall had written a book titled Six Principles of British Nationalism in which he had espoused more moderate positions than those he previously promoted; he believed that this was the most important factor in Chesterton changing his mind on GBM membership.^[24]

The party held its first annual conference in October 1967, when it was picketed by anti-fascist demonstrators.^[25] In January 1968 the Liverpool-based British Aid for the Repatriation of Immigrants joined the NF, to be followed later that year by another Liverpudlian group, the People's Progressive Party.^[26] In 1969, the NF gained further recruits from the Anglo-Rhodesian League and the Anti-Communist League.^[27]

In 1968, Chesterton's leadership was challenged by ex-BNP member Andrew Fountaine, who was backed by Gerald Kemp and Rodney Legg. A leadership election produced a strong mandate for Chesterton and his challengers left the party.^[28] Throughout this, Tyndall had remained loyal to Chesterton.^[29] There was further arguments in the party after the lease ended on their Westminster HQ. LEL members wanted another base in Central London, while the GBM and BNP factions favoured moving to the former GBM's HQ, the "Nationalist Centre" in Tulse Hill. Chesterton backed the LEL position and rented a small office in Fleet Street.^[30]

In the 1969 local elections, the NF fielded 45 candidates, averaging 8%, with a few of their candidates securing over 10%.^[31] They focused on these latter seats in the 1970 local elections, fielding 10 candidates, although almost all secured under 5%.^[32] The party had faced militant left opposition, including a lorry that was driven into their Tulse Hill building in 1969,^[33] and to counter this the NF installed a spy in the London anti-fascist movement.^[34] Against Chesterton's wishes, NF activists began carrying out stunts to raise publicity for them; in December 1968 they marched on a London Weekend television show uninvited and in spring 1969 assaulted two Labour Party ministers at a public meeting, thus accruing a reputation for rowdiness.^[35] While Chesterton was in South Africa, a faction led by Gordon Brown launched a leadership challenge against him. On realising that his support was weak, Chesterton resigned.^[36] Brown offered the party's leadership to Tyndall, but the latter declined the offer.^[37] Tyndall instead endorsed John O'Brien, who had contacts across Britain's far-right. The NF directorate was unconvinced but with no alternative selected O'Brien in February 1971.^[38]

The National Front grew during the 1970s and had between 16,000 and 20,000 members by 1974, and 50 local branches.^[39] Its electoral base largely consisted of blue-collar workers and the self-employed who resented immigrant competition in the labour market and for scarce housing. Some recruits came from the Monday Club within the Conservative Party that had been founded in reaction to Harold Macmillan's "Wind of Change" speech. The NF fought on a platform of opposition to communism and liberalism, support for Ulster loyalism, opposition to the European Economic Community, and the compulsory repatriation of new Commonwealth immigrants who had entered Britain under the British Nationality Act, 1948.^[40][41] In May 1973, in a by-election in West Bromwich West, the National Front candidate, the party's National Activities Organizer, Martin Webster, polled 4,789 votes (16.2%), a result which shook the political and media Establishment.

National Front march in Yorkshire, 1970s.

A common sight in England in the 1970s, the NF was well known for its street demonstrations, particularly in London, where it often faced anti-fascist protestors from opposing left-wing groups, including the International Marxist Group and the International Socialists (later the Socialist Workers Party). Opponents of the National Front claimed it to be a neo-fascist organisation, and its activities were opposed by anti-racist activists such as those connected with Searchlight magazine. The NF was led at first by Chesterton, who left under a cloud after half of the directorate (led by the NF's major financer, Gordon Marshall) moved a vote of no confidence in him. He was replaced in 1970 by the party's office manager John O'Brien, a former Conservative and supporter of Enoch Powell. O'Brien, however, left when he realised the NF's leadership functions were being systematically taken over by the former Greater Britain Movement members, in order to ensure the party was really being run by John Tyndall and his deputy Martin Webster.^[42] O'Brien and the NF's treasurer Clare McDonald led a small group of supporters into John Davis' National Independence Party, and the leadership of the National Front passed to Tyndall and Webster.

Mid-1970s: height of party and success

Between 1973 and 1976 the National Front performed better in local elections, as well as in several parliamentary by-elections, than in general elections. No parliamentary candidates ever won a seat, but the party saved its deposit on one occasion.^[43][44] The NF sought to expand its influence into the 'white dominions' of the Commonwealth.^[45] In 1977, overseas organisations were set up in New Zealand (the New Zealand National Front), South Africa (the South African National Front^[46]) and in Australia (the National Front Australia). A Canadian organisation was also set up (National Front of Canada) but it failed to take off.^[47]

Already by 1974, the ITV documentary This Week exposed the neo-Nazi pasts (and continued links with Nazis from other countries) of Tyndall and Webster. This resulted in a stormy annual conference two weeks later, where Tyndall was booed with chants of "Nazi! Nazi!" when he tried to make his speech. This led to the leadership being passed to the populist John Kingsley Read. A stand-off between Read and his supporters (such as Roy Painter and Denis Pirie) and Tyndall and Webster followed, leading to a temporary stand-still in NF growth. Before long Read and his supporters seceded and Tyndall returned as leader. Read formed the National Party, which won two council seats in Blackburn in 1976, and was dissolved in 1983.^[48]

A National Front march through central London on 15 June 1974 led to a 21-year-old man, Kevin Gately, being killed and dozens more people (including 39 police officers) being injured, in clashes between the party's supporters and members of anti-fascist organisations.^[49] The National Front was also opposed to British membership of the European Economic Community, which began on 1 January 1973. On 25 March 1975, some 400 NF supporters demonstrated across London in protest against EEC membership, mostly in the Islington area of the capital.^[50]

During 1976 the movement's fortunes improved, and the NF had up to 14,000 paid members.^[39] A campaign was launched in support of Robert Relf, who had been jailed for refusing to remove a sign from outside his home declaring that it was for sale only to English buyers. In the May local election the NF's best result was in Leicester, where 48 candidates won 14,566 votes, nearly 20% of the total vote.^[51] By June, the party's growth rate was its highest ever. In the May 1977 Greater London Council election, 119,060 votes were cast in favour of the NF and the Liberals were beaten in 33 out of 92 constituencies.^[52]

A police ban on an NF march through Hyde in October 1977 was defied by Martin Webster, who separately marched alone carrying a Union Jack and a sign reading "Defend British Free Speech from Red Terrorism", surrounded by an estimated 2,500 police and onlookers. He was allowed to march, as 'one man' did not constitute a breaking of the ban. The tactic attracted media publicity for the Front.^[53]

Late 1970s: riots, in-fighting and decline

If anything epitomised the NF under Tyndall and Webster it was the events of August 1977, when a large NF march went through the largely non-white area of Lewisham in South East London under an inflammatory slogan claiming that 85% of muggers were black whilst 85% of their victims were white.^[54] As the NF was then contesting the Birmingham Ladywood by-election, such a large march elsewhere was construed by some as an attempt to provoke trouble. 270 policemen were injured (56 hospitalised) and over 200 marchers were injured (78 hospitalised), while an attempt was made by rioters to destroy the local police station.^[55] At this march, riot shields were used for the first time in the UK outside Northern Ireland. The event is often referred to by anti-fascists as the Battle of Lewisham. Many of those who took part in the riot that day were not members of any anti-fascist or anti-racist group, but local youths (both black and white).^[56]

At the same time, Margaret Thatcher as opposition leader was moving the Conservative party back to the right and away from the moderate Heathite stance which had caused some Conservatives to join the NF. Many ex-Conservatives returned to the fold from the NF or its myriad splinter groups, in particular after her "swamping" remarks on the ITV documentary series World In Action on 30 January 1978:

... we do not talk about it [immigration] perhaps as much as we should. In my view, that is one thing that is driving some people to the National Front. They do not agree with the objectives of the National Front, but they say that at least they are talking about some of the problems.... If we do not want people to go to extremes... we must show that we are prepared to deal with it. We are a British nation with British characteristics.^[57]

Also, Tyndall insisted on using party funds to nominate extra candidates so that the NF would be standing in 303 seats to give the impression of growing strength. However, it brought the party to the verge of bankruptcy when all of the deposits were lost.

National Front deputy leader Martin Webster claimed two decades later that the activities of the Anti-Nazi League played a key part in the NF's collapse at the end of the 1970s. The NF stood its largest number of parliamentary candidates at the 1979 general election only a few months later.

Most damning of all, a full set of minutes of National Front Directorate meetings from late 1979 to the 1986 split between "Third Way" and "Flag Group" factions, deposited by former NF leader Patrick Harrington in the library of the University of Southampton, revealed that during the party's post-1979 wilderness years it was in the habit of "tipping off the reds" in the hope of giving its activities greater credibility with the public, through being attended by hordes of angry protestors. This was later confirmed by the MI5 mole Andy Carmichael, who was West Midlands Regional Organiser for the NF during the 1990s.^[58]

Tyndall's leadership was challenged by Andrew Fountaine after the 1979 debacle. Although Tyndall saw off the challenge, Fountaine and his followers split from the party to form the NF Constitutional Movement. The influential Leicester branch of the NF also split around this time, leading to the formation of the short-lived British Democratic Party. In the face of these splits, the party's Directorate voted to oust Tyndall as chairman after he had demanded even more powers. He was replaced by Andrew Brons, but the 'power behind the throne' was Martin Webster who, somewhat surprisingly, had supported his old ally's deposition. After failing to win title to the National Front name in the courts, Tyndall formed the British National Party.

Strasserites and the Flag Group: 1983–1990

In the 1980s, the NF was taken over by a 'Strasserite' faction influenced by German fascist ideologue Otto Strasser.

In 1983, Webster was ousted as the party's chair.^[59] In May 1985, the Strasserite faction secured controlled of the party's directorate and suspended the membership of its opponents.^[60] The Strasserites described themselves as "radical, youthful and successful", contrasting their approach with the "out-dated conservative policies" of their opponents, whom they claimed wanted the NF to be a "reactionary anti-immigrant pressure group".^[61] These opponents then formed a rival organisation, the Flag Group, which officially adopted the name "National Front" in January 1987.^[62] There would therefore remain two organisations claiming the name of National Front—that controlled by the Flag Group and the Official National Front run by the Strasserites—until early 1990.^[63] In contrast to the Strasserite NF's increased centralisation as a response to perceived state repression, the Flag Group gave autonomy to its branches, seeking to focus upon local issues.^[62]

The Strasserites officially reformulated their party along the centralised cadre system at the November 1986 AGM.^[60] They emphasised the ideology of the Third Position, which they presented as being opposed to both capitalism and Marxist-oriented socialism.^[64] They stated their support for "a broad front of racialists of all colours" who were seeking an end to multi-racial society and capitalism,^[64] praising black nationalists like Louis Farrakhan and Marcus Garvey.^[65] Their publication, Nationalism Today, featured positive articles on the governments of Libya and Iran, presenting them as part of a global Third Position in international politics.^[66] One issue of National Front News prominently featured the slogan "Fight Racism", resulting in the party's Manchester branch refusing to distribute it.^[67] This new rhetoric and ideology alienated much of the NF's rank-and-file membership.^[67]

In 1989, Griffin, Holland, and Colin Todd split from the NF to establish their International Third Position group.^[67] In March 1990 the Official National Front was then disbanded by its leaders, Patrick Harrington, Graham Williamson, and David Kerr, who instead established a new group, the Third Way.^[67] This left the Flag Group as the only remaining group using the National Front banner.^[67] An estimate of membership of the National Front in 1989 put adherents of the Flag Group at about 3,000 and of the 'Political Soldier' faction at about 600, with a number in between embracing Griffin's Third Position ideas.^[68]

Further decline: 1990–present

Over the course of the 1990s, the NF was eclipsed by Tyndall's new British National Party as the foremost vehicle on the British far-right.^[69] Following the Lansdowne Road football riot of 1995, in which English far-right hooligans attacked Irish supporters, the NF's Chairman Ian Anderson reformed the party as the National Democrats.^[70] A small faction broke away from this to form their own group, retaining the Nation Front name.^[69] This party then contested the general elections in 1997 and 2001, but made little impact in either.^[71] By 2001, the NF had developed close links with Combat 18, a Neo-Nazi paramilitary founded by the BNP.^[72]

In February 2010, when the BNP had to change its constitution to allow non-whites into the party because of a High Court decision, the NF claimed to have received over 1,000 membership enquiries from BNP members and said that local BNP branches in Yorkshire and north Lincolnshire had discussed switching over to them.^[73] In March 2015 Kevin Bryan became chairman.^[74] In November 2015, the party's official website announced that Bryan had relinquished the leadership following a "shocking car crash", to be replaced by Dave MacDonald.^[75]

Ideology

Far-right politics, fascism, and Neo-Nazism

The National Front has been characterised as a far right or extreme right party.^[76] It displayed commonalities with older extreme-right groups while at the same time having "unique ideological traits of its own".^[77] More specifically, it has been described by political scientists as neo-fascist,^[78] with the terms "fascism" and "National Front" becoming largely synonymous in much of the British press.^[79] The NF rejects the term "fascist" as a way of describing its ideology,^[80] and spent much time denying the "blatant past fascist associations" of its leading members.^[18] The party's founders sought to present it as a British nationalist party with no links to the fascism of the past, recognising that this would be vital if they were to succeed as an electoral force.^[81] To do so they adopted "new labels, styles and tactics", in order to "pass themselves off" as a "respectable political party engaged in legitimate electoral competition".^[82]

The historian Martin Durham stated that the NF, like France's National Front and Germany's The Republicans, were "the direct descendants of classical fascism" and that they shared "many of the concerns of the pre-war extreme right".^[84] Walker stated that to deem the NF "fascist" as the term was "in the classic sense of the 1930s is silly".^[85] The sociologist Christopher T. Husbands cautioned against attempts to understand the National Front through comparisons with Italian Fascism or German Nazism as they existed when they were in power.^[86]

Fielding observed that while some of the NF's views were grounded "in popular common-sense opinion" that was widely shared on the political right, many of its other views, namely those on race, departed considerably "from what is normal or acceptable to the average citizen" in the UK.^[87] In 1977, Walker stated that many of the NF's policies were akin to the idea of people on the right-wing of the Conservative Party.^[88] Its ideological world-view emphasises its ties to tradition and the past while proposing radical reforms to the country's governance that are not traditional.^[89] Fielding thus noted that it was "not blindly traditionalist" but "wishes to return to what it conceives of as the spirit of the old order", even if its conception of the "old order" was not historically accurate.^[90]

Over the course of the NF's history, there have been many different factions within it, often displaying distinct ideological orientations from one another. From the party's early days until the Tyndall/Webster split in 1980, the NF's ideology and propaganda output was dominated by the ex-GBM faction.^[91] According to Wilkinson, theirs was a leadership "deeply imbued with Nazi ideas" which retained "intimate connections with small Neo-Nazi cells in Britain and abroad".^[83] According to Thurlow, theirs was "an attempt to portray the essentials of Nazi ideology in more rational language and seemingly reasonable arguments", and that in doing so they were influenced by Chesterton.^[91] He added that the party's leadership in this period displayed a "barely concealed Nazism", and that they treated the party as a means by which to attract those with anti-immigrant sentiments and then "convert [these] racial populists into fascists".^[92]

In the late 1970s, the "Populist" faction rose in strength within the party and challenged the ex-GBM faction's dominance; according to Thurlow, they were "pseudo-Conservative racial populists", representing the party's "non-fascist and ostensibly more democratic element".^[93] After Tyndall and Webster were ousted and replaced by Brons and Anderson, a new faction took control of the party which regarded itself as Strasserite in ideology, drawing inspiration from German Nazi Party members Otto Strasser and Gregor Strasser.^[94] This faction embraced the Third Position ideology and drew inspiration from Gaddafi's Third International Theory,^[95] and have also been characterised as National Bolshevist in orientation.^[96] The political scientist David L. Baker argued that many of the ideas embraced by this group were akin to those promoted by Chesterton and that it reflected a return of Chesterton's intellectual influence on the direction of the party.^[97]

Ethnic nationalism

One variant of the NF logo used by the party

The National Front is a British nationalist party,^[98] and in its early policy statements declared that it "pledged to work for the restoration of full national sovereignty for Britain in all affairs".^[99] It claimed that if all nations embraced nationalism then there would be global peace because they would eschew internationalism and imperialism.^[100] It also labels itself a racial nationalist party,^[101] with its concept of nationalism being bound up with that of race.^[102] Party activists used the terms "race" and "nation" interchangeably.^[103]

NF members typically referred to themselves as "racialists",^[104] while the historian Martin Durham stated that the NF was "undeniably a racist organisation".^[105] The Front rejects the concept of racial equality,^[106] and argued that racial segregation was both natural and ordained by God.^[107] It opposes both inter-racial marriage and miscegenation.^[106] Fielding expressed the view that in NF ideology, alien races were perceived as "threatening the coherence of British culture. Homogeneity is the key to heritage".^[108] He believed that this "dialectic of insiders and outsiders" was the "linchpin of its ideology",^[109] adding that the NF's "rigid boundaries between in-group and out-group" was typical of the extreme right.^[110]

The NF presented the view that non-white racial groups were often genetically inferior to "Caucasoids and Mongoloids".^[111] In the mid-1970s, Tyndall used Spearhead to claim that "the negro has a smaller brain and a much less complex cerebral structure" than white Europeans,^[112] while in the early 1980s, Nationalism Today carried articles maintaining that black Africans had lower average IQs than white Europeans and that as a result, "negroes... are not fitted to go to white schools or to live in white society".^[62] The NF has been concerned with establishing academic support for its racial views, and offered academic and quasi-academic books on race research on its booklist.^[106] Early party literature made regular references to the work of Hans Eysenck, William Shockley, Arthur Jensen, and Richard Herrnstein,^[99] while members were encouraged to obtain copies of H. B. Isherwood's Racial Integration and Wesley Critz George's Biology of the Race Problem.^[99] However, Fielding observed that the NF's racial views rely "as much on blind assertion, on faith, as on 'scientific' sources".^[106]

The NF claimed that all members of the British race shared certain common interests.^[114] It viewed class as a false and needless distinction among the British race,^[115] rejecting the concept of class war as "nonsense".^[116] It also condemned both Welsh nationalism and Scottish nationalism, treating them as a threat to British racial unity.^[117] For the NF, patriotism was deemed "essential in maintaining the cohesion and morale of the nation".^[116] The party perceives nationalism to be the vital component of patriotism.^[118] Members of the National Front regard themselves as British patriots,^[119] and the party makes heavy use of British patriotic symbolism, such as that of the Union flag and of Remembrance Day.^[119]

In its 1974 electoral manifesto, the NF called for a "vigorous birth-rate" among the white British, claiming that any ensuing overpopulation of the UK could be resolved be emigration to the British Commonwealth.^[120] By 1979, the party was combining this policy with eugenicist ideas, calling for the improvement of the quality as well as the quantity of the white British racial group.^[121] The party also stands for "white family values", including the white supremacist slogan (known as the Fourteen Words), which stipulates, "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children."^[122]

Anti-immigrationism and repatriation

The cornerstone of the National Front's manifesto since 1974 has been the compulsory deportation of all non-white immigrants along with their descendants to other parts of the world.^[124] It accompanies this with a call to prohibit any further non-white migrants from being permitted entry to Britain.^[125] It stated that the process of repatriation could take ten years,^[126] and also stated that prior to deportation, all non-whites would be accorded alien status and be placed behind British citizens when it comes to access to welfare, education, and housing.^[127][128]

Over its first decade, the party emphasised the claim that immigrants themselves should not be blamed for immigration, but rather the blame should be placed on the politicians who enabled this migration.^[129] In 1969, it publicised the claim that "Your enemies are not the coloured immigrants, but the British government which let them come in hundreds of thousands."^[130] The NF claimed that non-white migration to Britain had been masterminded by communists and promoted by the Labour Party, who believed that it would boost their vote, and the Conservative Party, who believed that it would provide cheap labour for capitalists.^[131] Its early manifestos avoided describing non-white immigrants with derogatory terms, although more pejorative descriptions were provided at the party's rallies.^[108]

In the 1970s, the NF stated that it did not oppose immigration of white individuals from Commonwealth countries,^[132] but called for "firm controls" on the arrival of whites from other countries.^[129] Ted Budden, a former organiser for the party in the 1980s proclaimed that white immigrants such as Poles in Britain would not be repatriated, adding: "Ah, it's the Poles who are the most forthright in the fight against coloured immigrants everywhere".^[111] The National Front's manifesto has also called for white emigrants to the Commonwealth countries to return to Britain, claiming: "These immigrants should be given completely free entry into Britain and full rights of British citizenship".^[133]

The NF attempted to link many other political themes to the issues of race and immigration,^[134] and targeted concerns among the white British population about immigrants as competition for jobs, housing, and welfare.^[135] Among the "standard forms of NF propaganda" was the claim that immigrants carried diseases like leprosy and tuberculosis,^[136] that it was these diseased immigrants who were placing a heavy burden on the National Health Service (NHS),^[137] and that incompetent and poorly trained migrant staff were detrimental to the NHS.^[138] It presented the idea that school quality was being eroded by black pupils,^[134] and that unemployment among whites were not getting jobs because they had been taken by blacks.^[134] It claimed that immigrants evaded taxes, and that they were arrogant, aggressive, and unhygienic in the workplace.^[139] During the 1970s, the NF's propaganda regularly presented black people in Britain as a source of crime.^[140] This anti-immigrant discourse was similar to that employed against the recently arrived Ashkenazi Jewish community in the late nineteenth century and also had echoes of the response to gypsies and Huguenots in seventeenth-century England.^[141]

Anti-Semitism

Fielding noted that, as with migrants of African and Asian descent, the NF presents Jews as "strange outsiders who are alien to British life and culture".^[142] Its views on Jews are tied up with conspiracy theories,^[126] are akin to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion,^[143] and display clear similarities with the views previously articulated by the British Union of Fascists.^[126] Whereas the BUF had been explicit in presenting this global conspiracy as being run by Jews, the NF was more circumspect, instead referring to "Money Power" as being in charge.^[144] The NF professed the view that those who disagreed with its conspiracy theories were ignorant of reality, and experiencing false consciousness.^[145] The party engaged in Holocaust denial, referring to the Holocaust as "the six million myth" in its literature.^[142]

Many of the party's central members, among them Chesterton, Tyndall, and Webster, had a long history of anti-Semitic activity before they joined the party,^[146] and over the course of the 1970s the articles in Spearhead and Britain First became increasingly explicit in their anti-Semitism.^[144] However, during that decade the NF rejected the characterisation of its policies as "anti-Semitism",^[143] instead portraying itself as "anti-Zionist",^[147] insisting that it only opposed "Zionists" rather than all Jews.^[143] Fielding commented that within the party, the term "Zionist" is used indiscriminately and without precision, against many of its critics.^[142] He also noted that there were widespread anti-Semitic attitudes among party activists.^[148]

Government and the state

The NF called for the UK's withdrawal from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (flag pictured)

During the 1970s, the Front alleged that the UK's liberal democratic governance structure was "bogus democracy" and claimed that it would forge "a genuinely democratic political system".^[149] As part of this, it claimed that it would utilise public referenda on major issues.^[149] Fielding nevertheless believed that "the essence of the NF ideology is incompatible with democracy" and instead reflects an "elitist tendency" quite at odds with the "populist rhetoric" that it used to promote its message.^[150] Tyndall called for the state to be governed by a strong, central leader,^[151] while the NF also stated its support for the retention of the British monarchy.^[149] In that decade it suggested that national service be reintroduced to the UK,^[152] that the country obtain larger numbers of nuclear weapons,^[153] and that it withdraw from international defense pacts like the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.^[154]

Under the party's Strasserite leadership during the 1980s, the NF adopted a radically different position to governance and the state, one which was influenced heavily by the Third International Theory developed by Libyan political leader Muammar Gaddafi and propounded in his work, The Green Book.^[155] Accordingly, they promoted the establishment of communal political structures, with street councils, area councils, county councils, and a National People's Council "for each of the British Nations".^[156] In their view of this future, the British population would be armed and trained in military tactics, allowing for the establishment of local militia throughout the island rather than a state-controlled professional army.^[156]

The NF called for the UK's withdrawal from the European Economic Community (flag pictured)

In its 1970s heyday, the NF called for the UK's withdrawal from the United Nations, claiming that the supranational organisation was both a "major weapon of International Finance" and unduly impacted by a "Communist and AfroAsian influence".^[157] From its early years, the Front opposed the UK's membership of the European Economic Community (EEC), deeming membership to be a threat to British national sovereignty.^[158] During the early 1970s it called on its members to obstruct the EEC bureaucracy in any way possible,^[159] calling for its supporters to "defy the law - be prepared to go to prison too as a gesture of defiance" against the EEC.^[159] In March 1975 it tried to affiliate itself with the National Referendum Campaign (NRC)—which was campaigning for the UK to leave the EEC in that year's referendum on the issue—although the latter turned down the offer.^[160] In response, NF members disrupted the April 1975 NRC meeting at London's Conway Hall, storming the platform and having to be removed by police.^[160] To replace the EEC, the NF called for the UK to establish stronger links with the "White countries" of the British Commonwealth, namely Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, but also the white-minority governments of Rhodesia and South Africa.^[161] According to the Front, this would "strengthen the ethnic, cultural and family ties between peoples of British stock all over the world".^[149]

During the 1970s the Front was British unionist, advocating for the continued political unity of the United Kingdom.^[162] From the late 1960s onward, the NF expressed support for the Ulster Unionist community, deeming Irish republicanism to be part of a communist conspiracy to undermine British unity.^[163] Despite Tyndall's strong support of Ulster's continued membership of the UK, he nevertheless refused to take a side in the conflict between Catholic and Protestant in Northern Ireland, using Spearhead to state that such "religious squabbles" were "absurd".^[164] The NF argued that the British government had been ineffective in dealing with the Provisional Irish Republican Army and other militant Irish republicans because it was too soft in its approach to them; it argued that civil courts should be replaced by military ones, that the British Army should abandon "kid gloves" for "the mailed fist", that they should replace rubber bullets with lead ones, that IRA members should be interned, and that those guilty of sabotage or murder should be executed by firing squad.^[165] While leader of the NF, Tyndall expressed the view that "The duty of Britain is to fight [Irish] republicanism and to destroy republicanism, not just violent republicanism – as represented by the IRA – but republicanism in every shape and form".^[166] In the early 1970s it also alleged that the Irish Republic was harbouring republican militants active in Ulster, and that this should be treated as "an act of war against Britain" that required trade sanctions.^[167]

In the 1970s the NF endorsed the Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party.^[166] Many Ulster Unionists were however suspicious of the NF, and in 1973 the Ulster Defence Association proscribed it, circulating an internal memorandum that stated: "we regard the National Front as a neo-Nazi movement".^[168] In 1985—by which time the Strasserite faction were very influential in the party—the NF called for Ulster to unilaterally declare independence from the United Kingdom in response to the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement.^[60]

Economic policy

During the 1970s, the Front claimed that it was neither capitalist nor socialist in orientation.^[149] It endorsed the place of private enterprise in the economy but rejected laissez-faire capitalism, claiming that the latter places the interests of business above that of the nation.^[169] It promoted economic nationalism, calling for maximum national self-sufficiency and a rejection of international free trade.^[170] The NF opposed any foreign ownership of British industry,^[170] arguing that North Sea Oil production should only be in the hands of British companies and not foreign ones.^[171] It advocated the state control of banking and financial services,^[170] and called for the state bank to provide interest free loans that would fund the construction of municipal housing.^[172] These economic views were common within Britain's extreme-right milieu, and were for instance akin to those promoted by Oswald Mosley and his British Union of Fascists in earlier decades.^[170]

After the Strasserite faction took control of the party in the 1980s, they aligned its economic policies with distributism, maintaining the emphasis on the need for an economic system that was neither capitalist nor socialist.^[173] In the party's material from 1980, it claimed that "Capitalism and Communism" were "twin evils" that could be overcome by "Revolutionary Nationalism".^[174] In keeping with the Strasserite's distributist doctrine, the 1980s NF called for all large business and industry to be broken up and redistributed into a tripartite system: small privately owned enterprises, workers' co-operatives, and—in the case of financial institutions and heavy industry—nationalised enterprises.^[175] Retaining the party's longstanding economic nationalism, the Strasserite leadership called for the abolition of the stock exchange, with the introduction of import controls and preventing capital from being exported.^[176] As a solution to unemployment, the party stated that it would encourage urban-to-rural migration, with heavily mechanised agriculture being replaced by small, privately owned, labour-intensive farms.^[177] This policy was also likely influenced by the far-right movement's general antipathy toward urban living and its belief that rural life is better.^[178]

Social issues

The NF adopted a strong anti-permissive stance.^[180] It was concerned with what it perceived as the growing permissiveness of British society, claiming that this had resulted in moral decadence and social decay.^[181] The party attributed this to a conspiracy orchestrated by Jews and other enemies of the white British race.^[182] Tyndall called for a project of moral regeneration that would penetrate "every sphere of work and leisure".^[182] During the 1970s, the party espoused a belief in absolute moral values, claiming that these had been set out by God.^[183] However, the party placed little apparent importance on religion;^[119] although endorsing Ulster loyalism it never shared the Ulster loyalists' emphasis on the defence of Protestantism.^[184]

The party censures homosexuality,^[185] supporting the reintroduction of Section 28 and the recriminalisation of same-sex sexual activity.^[186] From its early years, the party has opposed mixed race marriages.^[128] During the 1970s, NF activists were involved in anti-prostitution campaigns,^[187] and in 1977 also took a key role in protests against a pro-paedophile organisation, the Paedophile Information Exchange.^[188]

The party has been described as anti-feminist,^[189] and has been highly critical of changes to traditional gender roles.^[190] Although in its first year the party largely ignored the recently passed 1967 Abortion Act that legalised abortion in Great Britain, by 1974 the party had adopted an anti-abortion stance, stating that abortions should only be legally permitted in certain medical emergencies.^[191] According to Tyndall, the legalisation of abortion was part of a conspiracy to reduce the white British birth rate.^[192] The issue decreased in resonance within the party during the early 1980s but was re-emphasised when the Strasserite faction took power in the mid-1980s.^[193] In 1987, National Front News claimed that abortion was "the greatest and most fundamentally evil holocaust that the world has ever seen", insisting that each human received its soul from the moment of conception.^[193] The NF opposed the provision of birth control to white British citizens, believing that doing so restricts the growth of the white British race.^[194] Tyndall again saw contraception as part of a conspiracy, lambasting it as a "propaganda weapon aimed at driving the White peoples to racial suicide through the limitation of births".^[195]

NF members protesting against LGBT rights at the London Pride march, 2007

Under Tyndall, the NF claimed that the teaching profession was full of communists,^[151] and stated that under an NF government all teachers deemed unsuitable would be removed from their positions.^[196] In the 1970s, the party stressed its belief that education should be suited to the varying academic abilities of different students although did not outright condemn the egalitarian comprehensive school system.^[172] It called for far greater emphasis on exams and sporting competitions in schools, with a rejection of what it called "slapdash Leftwing-inspired teaching fads".^[196] It stated that it would emphasise the teaching of British history to encourage patriotic sentiment among students,^[196] while also expanding the place of science and technology in the curriculum at the expense of the social sciences, lambasting the latter as "a mere form of academic Marxism".^[196] On the issue of further education, it called for much stronger emphasis to be placed on training in technology and industrial management.^[172]

Tyndall claimed that an NF government would render illegal "the promotion of art, literature or entertainment by which public moral standards might be endangered".^[179] The Front exalts self-sufficiency as a virtue, asserting that the individual should be willing to serve the state and that a citizen's rights should be subordinate to their duties.^[185] During the 1970s, the Front expressed opposition to the UK's welfare state as it then existed, instead promoting a self-help ideology.^[197] At the time it stated that it would end the perception of the UK as a "loafer's paradise" by ensuring that all those capable of working do so rather than subsiding on unemployment benefits.^[172] It stated that the welfare state should nevertheless exist in order to provide support for the "very young, very old, the sick and the disabled".^[172]

Since its early years, the NF has promoted a tough stance on law and order issues,^[198] calling for harsher sentences for criminals,^[198] tougher prisons,^[199] and the reintroduction of capital punishment.^[198] It has rejected the idea that an individual's misdeeds should be attributed to their societal background, placing an emphasis on self-responsibility.^[200] The National Front focused on crimes committed by black people, as well as crime figures involving immigrants produced by the Metropolitan Police.^[201] The party also linked racially integrated schools with crime, saying that "every white parent whose children attend racially integrated schools" would be aware of "negro crime ... Rapes, muggings, and even murder".^[201] Martin Webster also made connections with crime statistics regarding the African-American community in the United States. These, Webster argued, showed that "adult negroids fall below other races in acceptable behaviour", lamenting that "the criminal Blacks cannot help themselves".^[201] It also called for the scrapping of the Race Relations Act 1965, arguing that individuals should have the legal right to racially discriminate against others.^[136]

Organisation and structure

Leadership and branches

The formal organisation resulted in the party's elite having most of the power within it.^[202] The party's directorate had strict control over both local and regional organisations.^[203] During the 1970s, the party's membership voted candidates on to the party's directorate, which consisted of between seven and twenty members.^[202] The party's internal structure gave the Front's membership little control over its policy or the actions of its leaders.^[202] The Front has a long history of factional rivalry within its ranks,^[204] with Wilkinson noting that it had been plagued by "personal squabbles and splits" among the party hierarchy.^[205]

After the Strasserite faction secured control of the party in 1986, they formally adopted a cadre system of leadership.^[60] This meant that the party became more elitist, becoming what the Strasserites called "a revolutionary cadre party - a movement run by its most dedicated and active members rather than by armchair nationalists".^[206] This was linked to the idea—promoted through a book by Holland—that an NF member should be a "political soldier", a "New Type of Man" who rejected the "materialist nightmare" of contemporary capitalist society and underwent a personal "Spiritual Revolution" through which they dedicated themselves fully to the cause of the nation.^[207]

The NF did not publicise the number of branches that were active across the UK.^[208] Fielding stated that in July 1973 the party had 32 branches and 80 groups,^[208] while Walker claimed that in January 1974, the NF had 30 branches and 54 groups.^[128] The majority of these were located in South-East England, with 11 branches and 8 groups in Greater London and 5 branches and 22 groups elsewhere in the south-east.^[128] It had five branches and 3 groups in the Midlands, 7 branches and 11 groups in the North, 1 branch and 7 groups in Western Britain, and one group each in Scotland and Northern Ireland.^[209] NF branch meetings were much like those of other political parties in Britain, being largely preoccupied with practical issues such as raising finances.^[210] Typically, branch meetings took place in a local pub and would be followed by a social period in the establishment.^[211] Some NF branches also established supporters' associations for individuals who backed the NF but were not willing to become memberships out of fear of potential repercussions.^[212]

Security and violence

The Front had a strong preoccupation with security.^[213] The party for instance refused to reveal information about its leader's standard working hours or the number of staff that it had based at its headquarters.^[213] The NF formed "defence groups" largely made up of young men in order to guard their marches from anti-fascist protesters.^[214] By 1974, this group had come to be called the Honour Guard.^[215] Members of this group often carried makeshift weapons such as iron bars and bicycle chains.^[216] These marches often took place in areas that had experienced high levels of immigration; in doing so they sought to instil fear in immigrant communities, whip up racial tensions, and generate publicity by clashing with counter-protesters, all of which they could exploit politically.^[217]

One variant of the NF flag

The Front claimed that all such violence was caused by their opponents, and that NF members only resorted to violence as a form of self-defence.^[218] On observing the group during the 1970s however, Fielding noted that "the NF uses force aggressively",^[218] and was "not above exacting revenge" on its critics.^[219] Fielding believed that the most notable violent clash involving the NF was the Red Lion Square disorders which took place in central London's Red Lion Square in June 1974. The NF had planned a meeting at Conway Hall and were expecting that anti-fascist protesters would picket the event. The event resulted in clashes between the NF, anti-fascists, and the police stationed to keep the peace; 54 demonstrators were arrested, many were injured, and one protester, Kevin Gateley, was killed.^[220]

In other instances, the NF deliberately disrupted the meetings of their opponents, including both anti-fascist groups and mainstream politicians.^[221] In November 1975, NF activists attacked a meeting of the National Council of Civil Liberties that was being held at the University of Manchester, with eight people requiring hospitalisation.^[222] In another instance, eighty NF activists stormed a meeting held by the Liberal Party to discuss the Rhodesian Bush War and the transition to black-majority rule in Rhodesia. NF members threw flour bombs and chairs at the assembled delegates while chanting "White Power".^[223] Another event disrupted by the NF was a town hall meeting held in Newham, where female members pelted the Home Secretary Roy Jenkins with flour bombs and manure.^[221] There have also been actions carried out by right-wing extremists where covert NF involvement was suspected but not proven.^[224] This can result from NF members engaging in "freelance" activism not authorised by the party hierarchy.^[225] For instance, in February 1974, a number of men were observed putting up NF posters in Brighton, assaulting passers by that they accused of being Jewish, and attacking staff at a socialist bookshop run by the Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist). The local NF branch denied any knowledge of the incident or the individuals in question.^[226] The party's leadership showed little concern with the violent activities of some of its members and supporters, and openly praised some of those members convicted of violent criminal activity.^[227]

Sub-groups and propaganda output

In June 1974, the party launched its NF Trade Unionists Association, seeking to promote NF membership among Britain's trade unions.^[228] Tyndall believed that the NF should take control of the trade union movement and suppress the leftists within it.^[229] During the 1970s it also encouraged members to infiltrate other groups, such as the Hunt Saboteurs Association and ratepayers' and residents' associations, in order to promote the NF cause within them.^[230] In 1973, Hanna noted that the party had made "virtually no impact in academic circles" and that it was therefore planning on rearing its own academics.^[231]

During the 1970s, the NF formed its own Student Association,^[232] and also issued a student magazine titled Spark, which was edited by a law student at Chelmsford Polytechnic.^[231] During the 1970s this group attempted to recruit students on university campuses, but on having little success they refocused their attention towards recruitment at schools and particularly sixth forms.^[233] In 1977 the party held a meeting to discuss how best to attract teenagers to their cause, and in 1978 it launched a group called the Young National Front (YNF).^[234] The YNF was restricted to individuals aged between 14 and 25 years old, and was the means by which individuals like Nick Griffin and Joe Pearce, who later became influential figures in the party, first entered it.^[235] The YNF issued a newsletter, Bulldog, which was edited by Pearce, and also held "training seminars" for schoolchildren.^[235] The YNF distributed leaflets and copies of Bulldog at football matches and concerts that it believed would attract large numbers of white working-class people,^[236] and also organised its own football competition between YNF teams from different cities.^[235] The YNF also encouraged young women to join the party and used sexualised imagery of its female members to attract young male recruits.^[237] Bulldog for instance carried an advert urging female supporters to become "a Bulldog bird" by sending in photographs of themselves, "the sexier the better", for publication in the magazine.^[238] These images were then printed with slogans such as "one good reason for joining the YNF" in an attempt to entice more men to join.^[238]

Members of the NF observed how the left had mobilised anti-fascist support through musical ventures like Rock Against Racism, and decided to employ similar techniques to advance their own cause.^[240] In 1979 the YNC's leader Joe Pearce established Rock Against Communism (RAC), through which concerts featuring Neo-Nazi skinhead bands could be organised.^[240] Advertising the RAC, the March 1979 issue of Bulldog stated that "For years White, British youths have had to put up with left-wing filth in rock music... But now there is an anti-commie backlash."^[241] Its first RAC event was held in Conway Hall in August 1979, and featured performances by The Dentists, Homicide, and White Boss; one YNC member in attendance later noted that most of the audience were drunk men.^[241] Tyndall and other senior NF members liked the opportunity for greatly expanding party membership that RAC offered them, but were concerned that associations with the skinhead subculture would damage the NF's image.^[242]

After Tyndall left the party, in 1982 RAC was revived with Skrewdriver as its flagship band; they had been having difficulty finding venues willing to host them due to the violence that often accompanied their performances.^[243] In 1983 the NF then set up a record label, White Noise Records,^[244] which proved to be an important source of revenue for the party for several years,^[244] and a new means of disseminating its ideas.^[245] Its first release was Skredriver's White Noise EP.^[246] The RAC had difficulty finding venues willing to stage its concerts, although in 1984 got around this by staging its first large open-air concert at the large rural home of Nick Griffin's parents in Suffolk.^[247] The assembled crowd saluted Skrewdriver's performances with Nazi salutes and calls of "sieg heil" while the band's Ian Stuart responded with "Fucking right Seig Heil, fucking nigger bashing".^[247] To further promote this music scene, senior NF members then established the White Noise Club which distributed the White Noise magazine internationally.^[248] Later in the 1980s Skrewdriver broke from the NF and the White Noise Club and established its own extreme-right music promotion network, Blood & Honour.^[249]

Support

Fielding observed that there was regional variation in the levels of support that the NF received during the 1970s, reflected both in the share of the vote it gained and the size and number of its branches.^[250] The party's levels of support were clustered around London, Birmingham, and England's South Coast; conversely, there were other areas of the UK, such as Scotland and Wales, where the party received particularly low levels of support.^[251] Fielding added that this distribution had "strong parallels" with the earlier support of the British Union of Fascists.^[251]

Finances

The National Front was not open about its finances,^[252] but often stressed that it was short of funds and required more money to finance its operations.^[253] During the 1970s branches were given specific financial targets that they were expected to reach, which they had to attain through selling Spearhead and the NF's newssheet Britain First.^[254] Branches also held jumble sales, totes, and social events as a means of raising funds.^[255] These branches were not held responsible for providing funds for the party's headquarters, but were expected to finance their own candidates in election campaigns.^[256] The party also succeeded in raising additional funds during its rallies and meetings, where donations were specifically requested from the attendees.^[257] It had a number of wealthy supporters who provided donations of up to £20,000,^[258] including sympathisers living in apartheid-era South Africa,^[250] and in France.^[259] It also received funds from individuals in the Arab world in order to finance the publication of material espousing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial.^[259] Walker noted that in 1974, the NF raised at least £50,000.^[260] That same year, it went into debt in order to finance its electoral campaigns.^[260]

Membership

In 1977, Walker described the party's membership as being "like a bath with both taps running and the plughole empty. Members pour in and pour out."^[85] Fielding echoed this, stating that the NF's "stable membership" was lower than the number of people who have "passed through" it.^[208] Thurlow noted that even at its peak in the 1970s, the Front's membership was still only half the size of that of the British Union of Fascists during their 1930s heyday.^[262]

The Front refused to officially disclose the number of members that it had.^[263] Thurlow suggested that "the most reliable estimates" were those produced by the anti-fascist investigatory magazine Searchlight.^[259] Following its establishment, the NF claimed to have 4000 members in 1968,^[264] and in February 1974 a branch chairman claimed that it had 20,000 members.^[264] Fielding suggested that it probably had about 21,000 members in early 1975, of whom 6000 to 8000 were 'paper members' who had not renewed their membership subscriptions but not officially terminated their membership.^[264] Searchlight claimed that from its origins with 4000 members in 1968, the party reached a peak membership of 17,500 in 1972, which had declined to 10,000 in 1979 and then down to 3,148 in 1984 and further down to 1000 in January 1985.^[259]

No adequate sociological sampling of NF members ever took place, but impressionistic interviews with members were carried out during the 1970s by Taylor, Fielding, and Billig.^[259] Max Hanna noted that as of 1973, most members of the NF were "from the skilled working class and lower-middle class" but that there was variation according to branch.^[231] Fielding observed that most members of the party during the late 1970s were working-class.^[265] He also noted that in the party's South Coast branches there was a higher concentration of lower middle-class members.^[266] He furthermore observed that party activism was generally carried out by upper working and lower middle-class members rather than by those who were lower working or upper middle-class.^[267] Fielding noted that the party's membership contained individuals of all age ranges, although added that there were branches with a particular concentration of largely retired persons.^[212] He also observed that branches exhibited a greater number of men in their thirties or fifties rather than their forties, suggesting that the latter were typically too preoccupied with raising their families to involve themselves heavily in NF matters.^[212] Hanna also noted that "men in their thirties" appeared to be the party's main cohort.^[231] The male dominance of the membership was in common with most other British political parties active in the period, although the Front also projected an image of "overwhelming masculinity" and "virulent machismo".^[268]

NF flag variant

Members of the NF were sociologically regarded as political deviants, and thus parts of the cultic milieu.^[269] Fielding's interviews with NF members in the 1970s led him to conclude that "there is something exceptional about the NF member, and particularly about the activist", for they differed from other members of society in their willingness to join a politically extreme group.^[270] He noted that race was the main issue that led members to joining the Front,^[113] and that these members generally perceive their racial ideas to be "common sense".^[271] He added that members commonly expressed "harsh expressions of prejudice" against non-white Britons,^[272] for instance citing one woman member who called on members to "get out there and smash that bleedin' wog filth", a group whom she juxtaposed with "respectable people like us".^[270] Fielding found that "ordinary members feel uneasy about Britain's present political life but cannot express why this is".^[273] A common perception among members was that life had changed for the worse in Britain, something that they commonly expressed using the saying "the country is going to the dogs".^[273] As evidence, they cited what they believed were declining standards of living, the erosion of British identity, and the collapse of the British Empire.^[274] Members typically looked with pride on the UK's past military and colonial exploits,^[275] and wanted the country to return to a preeminent position on the world stage.^[276] There was a widespread perception among NF members that the country's political leaders were both corrupt and cruel,^[274] and a tendency toward believing and espousing conspiracy theories.^[274]

Fielding also believed that some of the membership were "motivated by a search for community and reassurance in a world they find difficult to understand".^[277] For some, joining the NF was a psychological act of defiance against society,^[273] while many had joined because their friends and relatives had also done so.^[273] Fielding suggested that the NF's moral indignation regarding perceived slackers and anti-social elements had particular appeal for upper working and lower middle-class Britons because these were the sectors of society which felt that they worked hardest for the least reward.^[181] Ryan Shaffer stated that the party's shift away from traditional campaigning during the 1980s and its growing affiliation with Neo-Nazi youth groups resulted in its appeal becoming restricted to "mostly young people".^[278]

Voter base

During its 1970s heyday, a strong area of NF support was Haggerston (pictured), part of London's East End

The NF's electoral support had "a distinctive geographical distribution", with the party's support coming from "some voters within certain towns and cities".^[279] According to Walker, the 1974 election results suggested that the NF's electoral heartlands at the time were in London's East End and in the north-east inner London suburbs.^[134] He noted that it typically gained much of its support from 'respectable working-class' areas, where many traditional Labour voters who felt let down by Labour governments had been attracted by its racial appeals.^[280] In 1976, Webster claimed that his party did best "when an immigrant problem is in sight nearby", in white-dominated areas close to migrant communities.^[281] Examining the party's East End support in greater depth, the sociologist Christopher T. Husbands argued that NF support was not evenly distributed across the area, but was constrained to a "relatively restricted area", the two or three square miles containing Bethnal Green, Shoreditch, Hoxton, and Haggerston.^[282] He noted that even in urban strongholds such as these, "only a minority even of their white residents were sympathetic" to the NF.^[283]

A 1977 survey conducted by Essex University found that 8% of those polled were likely to vote for the Front, and that the party had "strong support amongst the working class, the young and the poorly educated".^[284] This survey found that support for the party was strongest in the East Midlands (10%), followed by London (8%), East Anglia (7%), the West Midlands (6%) and then Yorkshire and Humberside (6%).^[251] By 1977, the party's electoral support had peaked, and by the London Borough Council elections of 1978, its support "had very noticeably declined" in the city, something that was then reflected in local elections elsewhere in the UK.^[285]

Various explanations for the electoral growth of the NF in the 1970s held that it was impacted by the levels of non-white immigration in any particular area. One argument was that areas with large non-white immigrant communities were most susceptible to NF support; according to this view, the higher the non-white population, the higher the resentment among local whites and the greater the support for the NF. An alternate explanation is that the NF did particularly well in areas where the non-white population was moderately sized rather than large; according to this, local whites turn to the NF because they are fearful that the area's non-white population will grow to a large size, particularly if there are neighbouring areas which already have large non-white populations.^[286]

On examining the voting data for the 1977 Greater London Council election, the political scientist Paul Whiteley argued that the NF had picked up on the votes of alienated working-class individuals by "providing simple answers to complex problems".^[287] He argued that the NF's vote share might best be explained by the "working-class authoritarianism" phenomenon examined in the United States by S. M. Lipset.^[287] Husbands instead believed that "local working-class cultures" were "the crucial factor for understanding some pro-NF susceptibility".^[288] He cited earlier studies indicating that "territorial sensitivity" was an element of English working-class culture, with this "localism" manifesting as corollaries of "parochialism and a sensitivity to supposed threat".^[289] He argued that this led many working-class English people to focus their identities around their neighbourhood rather than their profession, which meant that many were more susceptible to far-right appeals based on location rather than leftist ones based on workplace solidarity.^[289] He argued that there were parallels with the Netherlands, where urban working-class communities had also expressed support for the far right, although there were no parallels in France, Germany, or Italy, where the far right had not received any substantial support from the urban proletariat.^[288]

Electoral performance

Summary of general election performance

In the 1970 general election, the NF fielded ten candidates and averaged 3.6% of the vote share in those constituencies.^[290] It did better in subsequent by-elections; in the 1972 Uxbridge by-election it received 8.2% and in the 1973 West Bromwich by-election it received 16%, the first time that the party saved its electoral deposit.^[291]

Within a few years the NF's electoral support had drastically declined; in the 1979 general election, it fielded 303 candidates and averaged 0.6% of the vote, losing £45,000 in deposits.^[292]

During the 1970s, members of the party continually reiterated the belief that "all decent people" agreed with the party's policies.^[293] In doing so they sought to reject the idea that he NF was in any way extraordinary or extreme in its views.^[293] Tyndall shared these views, believing that most white Britons agreed "at heart" with the Front, but that they failed to vote for it because they believed that it would not win.^[293]

EU parliament elections

Local elections (1967–2012)

The National Front performed better in local elections than in general ones.^[294] The National Front has contested local elections since the late 1960s, but only did particularly well in them from 1973, polling as high as 15%.^[295] It never won a seat, however.^[296] In the 1976 local elections the NF notably polled 27.5% of the vote in Sandwell, West Midlands, and over 10,000 votes in some councils.^[297][298] The May 1976 local election results were the most impressive for the National Front, with the jewel in the crown being Leicester, where 48 candidates won 14,566 votes, nearly 20% of the total. However, after 1977 the NF vote-share ceased growing and by 1979 had begun to decline.^[299] The local election results from 1977 and 1978 suggested that the NF's vote share was stagnating.^[284]

During the 1980s and early 1990s the National Front only fielded a handful of candidates in local elections, but it has increased this to 35 for the 2012 local elections.^[52] An article in The Independent on 23 April 2012 reported that the National Front intended to field 35 candidates in local elections – the highest number for 30 years – aiming to revive the 1970s 'glory days'.^[300] Among the NF candidates for the 2012 local elections was Derek Beackon in Thurrock with Mick Griffin of Tilbury Essex receiving the party's best result.^[301]

Councillors

The National Front has never won a contested council seat in any election. However, in October 1969, two Conservative councillors, Athlene O'Connell and Peter Mitchell, defected to the National Front on Wandsworth London Borough Council,^[302] but they left only two months later, rejoining the Conservative Party. On 3 May 2007, a National Front candidate Simon Deacon was elected unopposed to Markyate Parish council, near St Albans (there were ten vacancies but only nine candidates). However, Deacon soon defected to the British National Party, after becoming disillusioned with the direction of the NF.^[303]

In the May 1974 London council elections, the party averaged 10% of the vote in boroughs of Haringey, Islington, Brent, Southwark and Lewisham, doing better in Hounslow.^[304] In the April 1976 council elections, the NF boosted its vote in many towns, securing 21% of the vote in Sandwell, 20.7% in Wolverhampton, 18.54% in Leicester and 17% in Watford.^[304]

In March 2010, the NF gained its first councillor in Rotherham by defection: John Gamble, who had been in the BNP and then the England First Party (EFP).^[305] However, not long afterwards he was expelled. Later the same year, a parish councillor from Harrogate, Sam Clayton, defected from the BNP to the NF.^[306] However, on 29 November 2010, it was revealed that Clayton had resigned as parish councillor for Bilton in Ainsty with Bickerton ward.^[307] As of mid-2011 the National Front had one parish councillor, who represented Langley Hill Ward on Langley Parish Council.^[308] However, in September 2011 it lost its councillor after the party failed to complete the necessary paper work.^[309]

The National Front currently has one local councillor, NF Chairman David MacDonald who was elected to Garthdee Community Council in Aberdeen, Scotland in October 2015.^[310]

Reception

In 1981, Fielding noted that the NF "dominated" Britain's "extreme Right",^[311] and in 1998 Durham stated that the NF, along with the BNP, had been the two most significant extreme-right British groups since the end of the Second World War.^[312] By 1977, the NF was England's fourth largest political party in terms of electoral support.^[313] This success was something which—according to Thurlow—"testified to the significance" of the immigration issue in British politics during that decade.^[18] In 2013, the political scientist Ryan Schaffer stated that through helping to cultivate the early white power skinhead music scene, the NF had "transformed far-right politics in Britain by creating a cultural project in which neo-fascists introduced their ideology through music instead of political campaigning. In the process, the NF developed an international community that approved of the message and the music."^[314]

Fielding noted that "the very existence of an avowedly racialist nationalist party is a provocation to the Left, and indeed, to the whole range of established political opinion".^[290] According to Walker, the NF's opponents perceive it as "a loathsome graveyard echo of the old Nazism".^[315] By the October 1974 election, the Labour Party had forbidden its candidates to share either a public platform or a radio or television slot with NF candidates.^[316] 120 Labour-controlled councils banned the party from using local municipal halls for their activities.^[317] At its 1974 annual conference, the National Union of Students adopted a 'no platform' policy with regard to the NF.^[316] Also in the mid-1970s, the National Union of Mineworkers called for the government to ban the NF.^[318]

The Rock Against Racism movement was established to combat the NF in the 1970s

In November 1977, the Anti-Nazi League was established by various left and far-left groups to counter the impact of the Front and related far-right organisations in Britain.^[236] In the following years, Rock Against Racism was also created to counter the NF's growth; in 1978 it held two well attended music festivals in London, where bands like The Clash and Steel Pulse performed.^[319] Far left activists demonstrated outside NF meetings and encouraged landlords not to allow the NF to use their premises.^[316] Many anti-fascists and leftists seeking to obstruct the NF were basing their strategy on a quote attributed to Hitler: "Only one thing could have stopped our movement - if our adversaries had understood its principle and from the first day smashed with the utmost brutality the nucleus of our new movement."^[320] In several instances, NF members were physically attacked by their opponents.^[316] During the 1970s, the NF created a card-index and photo file of its opponents, which included names and addresses.^[321]

During the NF's 1970s heyday, the mainstream media only occasionally paid attention to the party, thus contributing to the wider perception of it as a part of the political fringe.^[322] The NF claimed that this lack of coverage was part of a conspiracy against the party, thus presenting itself as being victimised by the media.^[323] It often had a better relationship with local newspapers, particularly in the London area, which were more likely to publish letters that the NF sent in to them.^[322] During the 1970s, NF branches often sought good relations with local police forces in order to ensure protection of NF events from protesters.^[213] While the party acknowledged that there was sympathy for its views among the lower ranks of the police force, it maintained that the police hierarchy was part of a conspiracy against it, thus explaining instances where leftists who allegedly harassed the NF escaped prosecution.^[324] Fielding noted that in turn the party received "a substantial measure of co-operation from local police".^[213] During the 1970s, the party also had cells among prison officers at Dartmoor Prison, Strangeways, Wormwood Scrubs, and Pentonville.^[325]

References

Footnotes

Sources

Further reading

External links

• National Front website
• 2005 Manifesto
• 2010 Manifesto
• BBC 1975: National Front rallies against Europe
• 1975 video