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The League

The League was formed around 1974 as a political club by Keith Thompson and Mike Griffin

as a breakaway from the Action Party, founded by British fascist, Oswald Mosley. The

League sought to continue what it saw as a purer form of the ideas of Mosley than those

offered by then leader Jeffrey Hamm.[2] In the 1970s the League became a political home for

the more intellectual adherents of "Neo-Nazi" ideology, particularly those who wanted a

united Europe with a European-derived population, a continuation of Mosley's Europe a

Nation policy. Alongside this the League also followed Mosley's lead in endorsing Irish

republicanism, something of a change from their contemporaries in the British far right who

reserved their support for Ulster loyalism.[3] The League was never intended to be a political

party, but more of a social, intellectual, and cultural organization, albeit with the ultimate

political aim of promoting European people and their culture. Intended as an exclusive club

for what were seen as the leading minds on the British far right, its membership tended to be

restricted to around 50100 members.[4] Indeed membership of the League was restricted to

those invited to join only.[5]

The group often had a torrid relationship with the far right parties, and indeed the NationalFront barred its members from joining the League in 1977.[6] Around this time Spearhead

even included articles claiming that the League was in fact a cult dominated by clandestine

leaders, secret oaths and profane initiation ceremonies.[7] Nonetheless individual members

maintained ties to both organisations, with some contributing to both Spearhead and The

League Review.[8] Similarly the British Movement, which had originally co-operated with

the League, eventually severed its ties over the Northern Irish issue.[9]

International contacts[edit]

Adopting the emblem of the Arrow Cross, the League sought to forge links with like-minded

groups in Europe, and took part in international Neo-Nazi rallies at Diksmuide in Belgium,

where they forged links with the Vlaamse Militanten Orde and the National States' Rights

Party.[10] Eschewing the route of electoral politics, the League instead sought to set itself up

as an umbrella group for National Socialists of any affiliation, although the League did work

closely with first the British Movement and then the British National Party when it was

founded (with Thomspon and John Graeme Wood attending the party's inaugural meeting

whilst claiming to speak for the League).[11]

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Steve Brady, a former activist in the short-lived National Party (and who retained close links

to the Ulster Defence Association despite the League's avowed support for Irish

republicanism), was appointed International Liaison Officer in 1978 and helped to oversee the

development of links with groups internationally such as the Faisceaux Nationalistes

Europens of France, founded by Mark Fredriksen, and Italy's Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari

(NAR).[12] The group also gained support in South Africa amongst some leading supporters

of the Herstigte Nasionale Party who were responsible for funding the League during the

early 1980s.[13]

'Safehousing'[edit]

The League went into hiatus in the early 1980s after an episode of ITV current affairs show

World in Action exposed their attempts to set up safe-houses for suspected Italian

terrorists,[14] based on information given by Ray Hill, who had been active in the League.

Subsequent activities[edit]

Following these revelations the group became less active, but did not close down altogether.

Their magazine, The National Review, received some attention in far right circles in 1986

when Colin Jordan published an article calling for the development of an underground

struggle.[15] This article was credited with attempts to revive the British Movement and to set

up other groups to carry out Jordan's ideas.[16]

In 1996 it was alleged in Searchlight that members of the League had recruited mercenaries

for a mission in South Africa organised by Constand Viljoen with the aim of assassinating the

country's leaders and damaging its infrastructure. Ultimately the plan was foiled by the South

African secret service and by a change in strategy by Viljoen, who abandoned his Afrikaner

Volksfront in order to lead the Freedom Front.[17]

It continues to exist under other leadership to this day. Previously publishing a regular

magazine, The League Review, which had a comparatively wide European readership, it now

publishes a quarterly journal, The League Sentinel.[18]

The group was featured in Bill Buford's Among the Thugs where the author commented to a

member that his ideas of leaving urban life and returning to the soil recalled those of the Pol

Pot and the Khmer Rouge.[19]