Official National Front

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The Official National Front (ONF) was one of two

British far-right, the ONF stood opposed to the more traditionalist Flag Group
.

Development

The ONF emerged in the early 1980s when young radicals such as

National Front up to that point, hoped to develop a cadre of devoted nationalist revolutionaries.[1] Emphasising a strong anti-capitalist as well as anti-communist line, the ONF began to emerge as the most powerful group within the NF after the series of splits in late 1979 and early 1980 though they did not come to prominence within the NF until 1984 when Martin Webster was expelled from the Party.[2]

The Political Soldier faction began with the support of chairman Andrew Brons but before long differences between the two factions began to show. This came to a head in 1986 when the party split in two, with around 2,000 of the NF's 5,000 membership following Griffin into the ONF and the rest departing for the Flag Group.[3] The ONF maintained the monthly newspaper the National Front News and took control also of Nationalism Today during this period.

With control assured the ONF took on responsibility for instructing its members ideologically and gained the backing of

Edgar.[5]

Ideology

Aided by

Corneliu Codreanu and Julius Evola.[6] The party put emphasis on the values of ruralism with Nick Griffin, who lived on a farm in Wales, running a "Smash the Cities" campaign for the ONF that has been compared by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke to Pol Potism.[7]

Unlike the earlier NF, that had emphasised British identity, the ONF showed sympathy towards indigenous

Welsh nationalist Meibion Glyndŵr.[7]

The desire for the development of a fanatical Political Soldier also led the ONF to follow their

Islamic fundamentalists.[9]

The '

Black separatist leaders such as Farrakhan and Marcus Garvey, a new departure illustrated by the August 1987 edition of National Front News in which the slogan 'Black is beautiful' appeared.[11] Copies of the Nation of Islam-linked newspaper The Final Call could also be purchased from the ONF.[12]

Decline

The desire to build a Political Soldier leadership meant that the ONF was by its nature exclusive and limited. Membership in its strictest sense was effectively closed off with outsiders only allowed to become "Friends of the Movement" and full membership being only open to those chosen by the leadership.

Blood and Honour, initially as a magazine before developing it into a movement for White power bands independent of the parties. The departure of these groups also meant a loss of one of the ONF's main sources of revenue and the split proved fairly divisive with B&H supporters dubbing the ONF the "Nutty Fairy Party" due to their unusual ideas and rumours of homosexuality within the leadership.[15] The split came at a bad time as membership had already been curtailed by the decision in 1986 to double the price of membership fees and to restrict membership to those considered worthy of Political Soldier status by the leadership.[16] The group's devotion to the likes of Evola and Codreanu also damaged its chances as these thinkers were virtually unknown in Britain and as such the ONF's ideas were considered too foreign to be relevant to a British context.[17]

In an attempt to gain much needed funds, Griffin and Holland travelled to

The Green Book, meaning that the group's financial woes were not alleviated.[18] Breaking from its own ban on electoral activity, Harrington ran as a candidate in the 1989 Vauxhall by-election, during which his rival candidates included the Flag Group's Ted Budden, who confusingly was standing as a "National Front" candidate. Both men received derisory vote shares.[19]

In 1989 Harrington, who was by then effective leader of the group, approached

Front National, which was experiencing growth in France through right-wing populism.[21]

References

  1. ^ Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity, New York University Press, 2003, p. 68
  2. ^ Gerry Gable, 'The Far Right in Contemporary Britain', L. Cheles, R. Ferguson, and M. Vaughan, Neo-Fascism in Europe, London: Longman, 1992, p. 252
  3. ^ Gable, 'The Far Right in Contemporary Britain', p. 255
  4. ^ a b Goodrick-Clarke, Black Sun, pp. 68-69
  5. ^ Gable, 'The Far Right in Contemporary Britain', p. 256
  6. ^ a b Goodrick-Clarke, Black Sun, p. 69
  7. ^ a b Goodrick-Clarke, Black Sun, p. 43
  8. ^ Gable, 'The Far Right in Contemporary Britain', pp. 260-261
  9. ^ a b Gable, 'The Far Right in Contemporary Britain', p. 260
  10. ^ National Front News, No. 108, 1988
  11. ^ N. Copsey, Contemporary British Fascism: The British National Party and the Quest for Legitimacy, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, p. 45
  12. ^ a b N, Lowles & S. Silver, White Noise, London: Searchlight, 1998, p. 10
  13. ^ Gable, 'The Far Right in Contemporary Britain', p. 253
  14. ^ Goodrick-Clarke, Black Sun, pp. 194-195
  15. ^ Lowles & Silver, White Noise, pp. 9–14
  16. ^ Copsey, Contemporary British Fascism, p. 45
  17. ^ Richard C. Thurlow, Fascism in Britain: From Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts to the National Front, I.B.Tauris, 1998, p. 270
  18. ^ Searchlight, October 1999, p. 5
  19. Politico's Guide to the History of British Political Parties
    , 2001, p. 190
  20. ^ a b Copsey, Contemporary British Fascism, pp. 45–46
  21. ^ Piero Ignazi, Extreme Right Parties in Western Europe, Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 181
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