League of Saint George
Encyclopedia
The League of St. George is a Neo-Nazi organization based in the United Kingdom
.
, 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
. In the 1970s the League became a political home for the more intellectual adherents of "Neo-Nazi" ideology, particularly those who, looking back to the pan-European Waffen-SS
, 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
. 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 50–100 members. Indeed membership of the League was restricted to those invited to join only.
The group often had a torrid relationship with the far right
parties, and indeed the National Front
barred its members from joining the League in 1977. Similarly the British Movement
, which had originally co-operated with the League, eventually severed its ties over the Northern Irish issue.
, 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
. 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).
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 Européens of France, founded by Mark Fredriksen
, and Italy
's Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari
(NAR). 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.
current affairs show World in Action
exposed their attempts to set up safe-houses for suspected Italian terrorists, based on information given by Ray Hill
, who had been active in the League.
published an article calling for the development of an underground struggle. This article was credited with attempts to revive the British Movement
and to set up other groups to carry out Jordan's ideas.
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.
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.
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
.
-based John Harrison, millionaire Robin Rushton, Mike Griffin, and Roger Clare, who has also been active in South Africa
and New Zealand
. Ian Souter Clarence, the former head of Column 88
, was a member, whilst both publisher Anthony Hancock
and National Front
and National Party veteran Denis Pirie
were also closely associated with the group.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
History
The League was formed around 1974 as a political club by Keith Thompson and Mike Griffin as a breakaway from the Action PartyUnion Movement
The Union Movement was a right-wing political party founded in Britain by Oswald Mosley. Where Mosley had previously been associated with a peculiarly British form of fascism, the Union Movement attempted to redefine the concept by stressing the importance of developing a European nationalism...
, founded by British fascist, Oswald Mosley
Oswald Mosley
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats, was an English politician, known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists...
. 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
Jeffrey Hamm
Edward Jeffrey Hamm was a leading British Fascist and supporter of Oswald Mosley.Born in Ebbw Vale, Wales, he came into contact with the British Union of Fascists during a family trip to London and joined in 1935 when he relocated to London although initially, due to his youth, his role in the...
. In the 1970s the League became a political home for the more intellectual adherents of "Neo-Nazi" ideology, particularly those who, looking back to the pan-European Waffen-SS
Waffen-SS
The Waffen-SS was a multi-ethnic and multi-national military force of the Third Reich. It constituted the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel or SS, an organ of the Nazi Party. The Waffen-SS saw action throughout World War II and grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions, and served alongside...
, wanted a united Europe with a European-derived population, a continuation of Mosley's Europe a Nation
Europe a Nation
Europe a Nation was a policy developed by British politician Oswald Mosley as the cornerstone of his Union Movement. It called for the integration of Europe into a single entity....
policy. Alongside this the League also followed Mosley's lead in endorsing Irish republicanism
Irish Republicanism
Irish republicanism is an ideology based on the belief that all of Ireland should be an independent republic.In 1801, under the Act of Union, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
, something of a change from their contemporaries in the British far right who reserved their support for Ulster loyalism
Ulster loyalism
Ulster loyalism is an ideology that is opposed to a united Ireland. It can mean either support for upholding Northern Ireland's status as a constituent part of the United Kingdom , support for Northern Ireland independence, or support for loyalist paramilitaries...
. 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 50–100 members. Indeed membership of the League was restricted to those invited to join only.
The group often had a torrid relationship with the far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
parties, and indeed the National Front
British National Front
The National Front is a far right, white-only political party whose major political activities took place during the 1970s and 1980s. Its popularity peaked in the 1979 general election, when it received 191,719 votes ....
barred its members from joining the League in 1977. Similarly the British Movement
British Movement
The British Movement , later called the British National Socialist Movement , is a British neo-Nazi organisation founded by Colin Jordan in 1968. It grew out of the National Socialist Movement , which was founded in 1962...
, which had originally co-operated with the League, eventually severed its ties over the Northern Irish issue.
International contacts
Adopting the emblem of the Arrow CrossArrow Cross
A cross whose arms end in arrowheads is called a "cross barby" or "cross barbee" in the traditional terminology of heraldry. In Christian use, the ends of this cross resemble the barbs of fish hooks, or fish spears...
, the League sought to forge links with like-minded groups in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, and took part in international Neo-Nazi rallies at Diksmuide
Diksmuide
Diksmuide is a Belgian city and municipality in the Flemish province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Diksmuide proper and the former communes of Beerst, Esen, Kaaskerke, Keiem, Lampernisse, Leke, Nieuwkapelle, Oostkerke, Oudekapelle, Pervijze, Sint-Jacobs-Kapelle,...
in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, where they forged links with the Vlaamse Militanten Orde
Vlaamse Militanten Orde
The Vlaamse Militanten Orde or VMO – originally Vlaamse Militanten Organisatie – was a Flemish nationalist activist group in Belgium defending far-right interests by propaganda and political action...
and the National States' Rights Party
National States' Rights Party
National States' Rights Party was a far right, white supremacist party that briefly played a minor role in the politics of the United States.-Foundation:...
. Eschewing the route of electoral politics, the League instead sought to set itself up as an umbrella group for National Socialists
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
of any affiliation, although the League did work closely with first the British Movement
British Movement
The British Movement , later called the British National Socialist Movement , is a British neo-Nazi organisation founded by Colin Jordan in 1968. It grew out of the National Socialist Movement , which was founded in 1962...
and then the British National Party
British National Party
The British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982...
when it was founded (with Thomspon and John Graeme Wood
John Graeme Wood
John Graeme Wood was an English politician who was prominent on the nationalist scene from the late 1950s until his death.-Career:Wood was a member of Sir Oswald Mosley's Union Movement and became a Branch Leader...
attending the party's inaugural meeting whilst claiming to speak for the League).
Steve Brady, a former activist in the short-lived National Party
National Party (UK, 1976)
The National Party was a short-lived British far right political party formed on 6 January 1976 and which dissolved before the 1979 general election...
(and who retained close links to the Ulster Defence Association
Ulster Defence Association
The Ulster Defence Association is the largest although not the deadliest loyalist paramilitary and vigilante group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in September 1971 and undertook a campaign of almost twenty-four years during "The Troubles"...
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 Européens of France, founded by Mark Fredriksen
Mark Fredriksen
Mark Fredriksen as a French extreme right figure and the founder, in 1966, of the neo-Nazi Fédération d'action nationaliste et européenne....
, and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
's Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari
Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari
The Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari was an Italian neofascist terrorist organization active from 1977 to November 1981. It committed 33 murders in four years, and had planned to assassinate Francesco Cossiga, Gianfranco Fini and Adolfo Urso...
(NAR). The group also gained support in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
amongst some leading supporters of the Herstigte Nasionale Party
Herstigte Nasionale Party
The Herstigte Nasionale Party van Suid-Afrika was formed as a right-wing splinter group of the South African National Party.-Formation:...
who were responsible for funding the League during the early 1980s.
'Safehousing'
The League went into hiatus in the early 1980s after an episode of ITVITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
current affairs show World in Action
World in Action
World in Action was a British investigative current affairs programme made by Granada Television from 1963 until 1998. Its campaigning journalism frequently had a major impact on events of the day. Its production teams often took audacious risks and gained a solid reputation for its often...
exposed their attempts to set up safe-houses for suspected Italian terrorists, based on information given by Ray Hill
Ray Hill
Ray Hill was a leading figure in the British far right who went on to become a well-known informant.Born in Lancashire, he spent three years in the army before making his first steps in the far right with the Racial Preservation Society in Leicester in the late 1960s...
, who had been active in the League.
Subsequent activities
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 JordanColin Jordan
John Colin Campbell Jordan was a leading figure in postwar Neo-Nazism in Britain. In the far-right nationalist circles of the 1960s, Jordan represented the most explicitly 'Nazi' inclination in his open use of the styles and symbols of the Third Reich.Through organisations such as the National...
published an article calling for the development of an underground struggle. This article was credited with attempts to revive the British Movement
British Movement
The British Movement , later called the British National Socialist Movement , is a British neo-Nazi organisation founded by Colin Jordan in 1968. It grew out of the National Socialist Movement , which was founded in 1962...
and to set up other groups to carry out Jordan's ideas.
In 1996 it was alleged in Searchlight
Searchlight (magazine)
Searchlight is a British anti-fascist magazine, founded in 1975 by Gerry Gable, which publishes exposés about racism, antisemitism, and fascism in the UK....
that members of the League had recruited mercenaries
Mercenary
A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...
for a mission in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
organised by Constand Viljoen
Constand Viljoen
General Constand Viljoen SSA SD SOE SM is a former South African military commander and politician. He is partly credited with preventing the outbreak of armed violence by disaffected Afrikaners prior to the 1994 elections.-Military service:Viljoen received a degree in military science in 1955...
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.
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.
The group was featured in Bill Buford
Bill Buford
Bill Buford is an American author and journalist. Buford is the author of the books Among the Thugs and Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany....
's Among the Thugs
Among the Thugs
Among the Thugs: The Experience, and the Seduction, of Crowd Violence is a 1990 work of journalism by American writer Bill Buford documenting football hooliganism in the United Kingdom....
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
Pol Pot
Saloth Sar , better known as Pol Pot, , was a Cambodian Maoist revolutionary who led the Khmer Rouge from 1963 until his death in 1998. From 1976 to 1979, he served as the Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea....
and the Khmer Rouge
Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge literally translated as Red Cambodians was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, who were the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan...
.
Members
Leading members of the League have included DagenhamDagenham
Dagenham is a large suburb in East London, forming the eastern part of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and located east of Charing Cross. It was historically an agrarian village in the county of Essex and remained mostly undeveloped until 1921 when the London County Council began...
-based John Harrison, millionaire Robin Rushton, Mike Griffin, and Roger Clare, who has also been active in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. Ian Souter Clarence, the former head of Column 88
Column 88
Column 88 was a neo-nazi paramilitary organization based in the United Kingdom. It was formed in the early 1970s, and disbanded in the early 1980s. The members of Column 88 undertook military training under the supervision of a former Royal Marine Commando, and also held regular gatherings attended...
, was a member, whilst both publisher Anthony Hancock
Anthony Hancock (publisher)
Anthony Hancock has been a member of various far right groups in the United Kingdom and, as a publisher, has produced literature for almost all of Britain's right-wing extremists....
and National Front
British National Front
The National Front is a far right, white-only political party whose major political activities took place during the 1970s and 1980s. Its popularity peaked in the 1979 general election, when it received 191,719 votes ....
and National Party veteran Denis Pirie
Denis Pirie
Denis Pirie is a veteran of the British far right scene who took a leading role in a number of movements.He began his career as a member of the 1960s British National Party and was appointed a member of the party's national council not long after its foundation...
were also closely associated with the group.