Derek Holland (activist)

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Derek Holland is a figure on the European far-right noted for his Catholic Integralism. [1]

Holland was brought up in Huntingdon and was already trying to recruit new members to the National Front while a student at Cambridgeshire College of Art and Technology. He then went to Leicester Polytechnic to study history and to bolster support for the already-established Young National Front Student Organisation. [2] In the May 1979 general election, he contested Cambridge for the NF, receiving 311 votes (0.6%). [3] After his studies Holland became closely associated with the Political Soldier wing of the party. One of the party's main writers in a time when their ideology was shifting, he contributed regularly not only to the party journal Nationalism Today, but was also co-editor of Rising, a radical nationalist journal that was independent of the NF and drew heavily from Julius Evola and Corneliu Zelea Codreanu. [4] Holland became one of the leading lights on the Political Soldier wing of the party when his pamphlet The Political Soldier was published in 1984. Along with Nick Griffin and Patrick Harrington he became effective joint leader of the Official National Front following the resignation of Andrew Brons from overall leadership in 1984. In 1988 the three travelled to Libya on a fund-raising trip as an official representatives of the NF, although in the end they were given only copies of The Green Book . [5]

In 1989, Holland broke with Patrick Harrington and joined Michael Fishwick in following Nick Griffin and Roberto Fiore into the International Third Position (ITP) after Harrington had contacted The Jewish Chronicle with regards to opening dialogue. [6] Holland injected his sympathies for anti-Zionist groups, as part of his nationalist philosophy, into the ITP. He supported the ideas of Muammar Gaddafi and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who had previously featured on a cover of National Front News.[ citation needed ]

Holland's last public appearance was at a Swedish nationalist convention in 2002, during this time Holland lived in the Irish Midlands.[ citation needed ] Since that time the ITP appears to have gravitated towards the European National Front, and Holland has retired from active involvement in politics.[ citation needed ]

Holland has received considerable treatment in works on European extremist nationalism, including Fascism: A History by Roger Eatwell (1997) and Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (2002). Holland’s writings on the Political Soldier are also featured in Fascism: A Reader published by Oxford University Press (1995).

Elections contested

Date of electionConstituencyPartyVotes %
1979 general election Cambridge NF 3110.6

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{{Infobox officeholder | honorific-prefix = | name = Andrew Brons | image = | caption = | office = Member of the European Parliament
for Yorkshire and the Humber | parliament = | term_start = 14 July 2009 | term_end = 26 May 2014 | majority = | predecessor = Richard Corbett | successor = Richard Corbett | office2 = Chairman of the National Front | deputy2 = Richard Verrall | predecessor2 = John Tyndall | successor2 = Martin Wingfield | term_start2 = 1980 | term_end2 = 1984 | office3 = President of the British Democratic Party | term_start3 = 9 February 2013 | term_end3 = | predecessor3 = Position Established | successor3 = | birth_date = 3 June 1947 | birth_place = Hackney, London | death_date = | death_place = | nationality = British | spouse = | party = British Democratic Party | otherparty = BNP (2005–2012),
[[National Front |National Front] (1967-1999),
BNP (1960) (1965–67),
NSM (1964–65), | relations = | children = 2 daughters | residence = Spofforth, North Yorkshire, England. | occupation = Retired college lecturer, Harrogate College of Further Education | alma_mater = University of York | profession = | religion = | signature = | website = www.andrewbronsmep.eu/ }} Andrew Henry William Brons is a British politician and former MEP. Long active in far-right politics in Britain, he was elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Yorkshire and the Humber for the fascist British National Party (BNP) at the 2009 European Parliament election and held the seat until May 2014. He was the chairman of the National Front in the early 1980s. He resigned the BNP whip in October 2012 and became patron of the British Democratic Party. He did not seek re-election in 2014.

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The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right political party in the United Kingdom formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982 and was led by Nick Griffin from September 1999 to July 2014. Its current chairman is Adam Walker. The BNP platform is centred on the advocacy of "firm but voluntary incentives for immigrants and their descendants to return home", as well as the repeal of anti-discrimination legislation. It restricted membership to "indigenous British" people until a 2010 legal challenge to its constitution.

References

  1. N. Copsey, Contemporary British Fascism: The British National Party and the Quest for Legitimacy, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, p. 183
  2. Bulldog (Paper of the Young National Front), #12, 1979
  3. The Guardian, 5 May 1979
  4. Copsey, op cit, p. 33
  5. Copsey, op cit, p. 45
  6. Copsey, op cit