It is May 1st, May day - 50 years after the Summer of 1968 protests.
I wish I was a revolting student again. In my bit of the UK, it was the neo-nazis we were demonstrating against. And what a lot of them there were. And they have not gone away - closet fascists instead of open about it.
British National Party
The British National Party was formed in 1960 by the merger of the National Labour Party and the White Defence League.[19] The party was led by John Bean, with Andrew Fountaine holding the position of Party President, and other leading members including John Tyndall, Colin Jordan (who served as Activities Organiser), Denis Pirie and Ted Budden. The widow of Arnold Leese served as vice-president of the party.[13] The party's main policies were an end to immigration, repatriation of immigrants and belief in an international Jewish conspiracy.[20] Elements within the party also expressed support for Nazism and a paramilitary arm, Spearhead, was set up by Tyndall.[20] The BNP managed to secure an 8.1% share of the vote in Deptford in the 1960 London County Council (LCC) elections, a large result for a new party without name recognition. After some in-fighting Jordan and Tyndall left in 1962 to set up the National Socialist Movement, leaving the BNP in the hands of Bean.[20] The group merged into the National Front in 1967.
The National Socialist Movement
The National Socialist Movement was formed on 20 April 1962, Adolf Hitler's birthday, by Colin Jordan, with John Tyndall as his deputy.[21] as a splinter group from the original British National Party. A strongly neo-Nazi group it campaigned against "race traitor" Patrick Gordon Walker, the Foreign Secretary. It collapse in the late 1960s and was replaced by the British Movement.
The Greater Britain Movement
The Greater Britain Movement was a political group formed by John Tyndall in 1964 after he split from Colin Jordan's National Socialist Movement. The group broke from open Nazism to follow what Tyndall called "Authoritarian Nationalism". It was absorbed into the National Front in 1967 with members admitted 'on probation', leading to the GBM ceasing to exist.[22]
The British Movement
The British Movement (BM), later called the British National Socialist Movement (BNSM), was a neo-Nazi political party founded by Colin Jordan in 1968 as a continuation of the NSM. It contested the UK general elections in 1970 and in February 1974 on a neo-Nazi platform, attracting little support. Michael McLaughlin became the leader in 1975 and won the BM new support from the growing racist skinhead and football hooligan movements.[23] The group disappeared in the mid-1980s following revelations from Ray Hill but returned in September 1983 and has continued to exist in some form to the present day.
The Racial Preservation Society
The Racial Preservation Society (RPS) was a right-wing pressure group opposed to non-white immigration and in favour of white supremacy. It was established in 1965 by Robin Beauclaire and Jimmy Doyle as a propaganda organisation.[24] Elements of the group were associated with the National Democratic Party and others with the National Front although it continued to exist at least until the 1970s.
The National Democratic Party
The National Democratic Party was formed by Dr David Brown of the RPS in 1966. The group attracted local pockets of support but struggled to cope with the emergence of the National Front the following year and faded in the 1970s.
The National Front
The National Front (NF) was formed in 1967 by the amalgamation of a number of other groups. Initially led by A.K. Chesterton it went through a number of stages of development. John Tyndall led the party twice during the 1970s, a time marked by his clashes with John O'Brien and John Kingsley Read, the latter forming his own National Party in 1976. Nonetheless the NF also reached its zenith in terms of support during the 1970s and had as many as 20,000 members in 1974.[25]
The NF failed to make any headway at the 1979 general election, resulting in the group falling apart as various factions left to found the British Democratic Party, the Constitutional Movement and the New National Front. Under Andrew Brons the remaining members were regrouped for a time but in 1986 the NF fell apart completely as two parties, the Official National Front and the Flag Group, emerged. The Flag Group eventually regained control of the NF name in 1990 and the party has continued to date, albeit very much in the shadow of the British National Party.
