National Socialist Movement (United Kingdom)

Last updated

The National Socialist Movement (NSM) was a British neo-Nazi group active during the late 1990s. The group is not connected to the earlier National Socialist Movement of Colin Jordan.

Contents

Origins

The roots of the NSM lay in a split that developed in Combat 18 in the mid to late 1990s. In early 1997 it was claimed on ITV's World in Action [1] that the original leader of Combat 18 Charlie Sargent, who at the time was on remand for the murder of fellow C18 member Chris Castle, had acted as a paid informant for the police, although no evidence for this allegation was provided. Whilst Sargent was disowned by some of the rank and file membership of C18, his brother Steve, also a C18 member, supported Sargent and together with David Myatt led away fifty or so like-minded members to form a separate group, the National Socialist Movement, in June 1997. [2] [3] [4] [5]

Development

David Myatt was the first leader of the NSM [4] [6] [7] until his resignation in March 1998 following his arrest by detectives from Scotland Yard on charges relating to incitement to racial hatred and incitement to murder [8] [9] when Tony Williams, a former member of the International Third Position, assumed the position of leader. [10] Williams, who had also been involved with the National Front since the 1970s, had been the person chosen to escort the ashes of Savitri Devi to Arlington, Virginia where they were given to the American Nazi Party. [11] As leader, the duties of Williams included overseeing membership inquiries and levying the £10 annual fee from registered supporters. [12]

Mike Whine of the Board of Deputies of British Jews described the NSM as a "very small but very violent neo-Nazi group. Their whole programme is one of terrorism ... against Jews, against blacks and against Asians." [13] Myatt, who was the architect of the NSM, denied that NSM supported racial hatred but admitted that they intended to accomplish their aim of "an entirely new society, based upon personal honour" through revolutionary activity. [14] The group's own mission statement claimed that the NSM was "formed in June 108 yf ["Year of the Führer" - a system of measuring the years from Adolf Hitler's birth also employed by the National Alliance and similar groups] for the purpose of championing the cause of Aryan identity and Aryan freedom" whilst also committing the group to the establishment of a "National Socialist State", [5] and although the NSM claimed to be a political party, much of its literature advocated violent revolution. [15]

Steve Sargent served as propaganda director of the new group and produced their magazine White Dragon, which, although a neo-Nazi publication, garnered a following due to its often humorous style of reporting and Sargent's propensity to fill its pages with his take on events at his favourite football club, Arsenal. [5] A further magazine was also published in support of the NSM, sharing the name Column 88 with an earlier neo-Nazi paramilitary group, although this was as much a personal concern of Williams as White Dragon was of Sargent. [16]

Nail bomber

The NSM was not widely known until 1999 when David Copeland, the London nail-bomber, received six life sentences for his April 1999 bombing campaign against London's black, Asian, and gay communities, which killed three people, including a pregnant woman, and injured 129, some of whom lost limbs. Copeland, who had joined the NSM after becoming disillusioned with the British National Party, served as Hampshire organiser for the group. [17]

David Myatt would claim that the attacks had been the work of Copeland on his own and could not be blamed on the NSM. [14] Nonetheless the arrest of Copeland saw the other members of the NSM go to ground. [18]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Tyndall (far-right activist)</span> British neo-Nazi (1934–2005)

John Hutchyns Tyndall was a British fascist political activist. A leading member of various small neo-Nazi groups during the late 1950s and 1960s, he was chairman of the National Front (NF) from 1972 to 1974 and again from 1975 to 1980, and then chairman of the British National Party (BNP) from 1982 to 1999. He unsuccessfully stood for election to the House of Commons and European Parliament on several occasions.

The 1999 London nail bombings were a series of bomb explosions in London, England. Over three successive weekends between 17 and 30 April 1999, homemade nail bombs were detonated respectively in Brixton in South London; at Brick Lane, Spitalfields, in the East End; and at the Admiral Duncan pub in Soho in the West End. Each bomb contained up to 1,500 4-inch (100 mm) nails, in holdalls that were left in public spaces. The bombs killed three people and injured 140 people, four of whom lost limbs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Nazi Party</span> Fascist political party in the United States

The American Nazi Party (ANP) is an American far-right and neo-Nazi political party founded by George Lincoln Rockwell and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. The organization was originally named the World Union of Free Enterprise National Socialists (WUFENS), a name to denote opposition to state ownership of property, the same year—it was renamed the American Nazi Party in order to attract 'maximum media attention'. Since the late 1960s, a number of small groups have used the name "American Nazi Party" with most being independent of each other and disbanding before the 21st century. The party is based largely upon the ideals and policies of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party in Germany during the Nazi era, and embraced its uniforms and iconography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Movement</span> British Neo-Nazi organisation

The British Movement (BM), later called the British National Socialist Movement (BNSM), is a British neo-Nazi organisation founded by Colin Jordan in 1968. It grew out of the National Socialist Movement (NSM), which was founded in 1962. Frequently on the margins of the British far-right, the BM has had a long and chequered history for its association with violence and extremism. It was founded as a political party but manifested itself more as a pressure and activist group. It has had spells of dormancy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Savitri Devi</span> Greek-French fascist writer (1905–1982)

Savitri Devi Mukherji was a French-born Greek fascist, Nazi sympathizer, and spy who served the Axis powers by committing acts of espionage against the Allied forces in India. She was later a leading member of the Neo-Nazi underground during the 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colin Jordan</span> British neo-Nazi activist (1923–2009)

John Colin Campbell Jordan was a leading figure in post-war neo-Nazism in Great Britain. In the far-right circles of the 1960s, Jordan represented the most explicitly "Nazi" inclination in his open use of the styles and symbols of Nazi Germany. Through his leadership of organisations such as the National Socialist Movement and the World Union of National Socialists, Jordan advocated a pan-Aryan "Universal Nazism". Although later unaffiliated with any political party, Jordan remained an influential voice on the British far right.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Myatt</span> British author, religious leader, Islamist and Neo-Nazi militant (born 1950)

David Wulstan Myatt, also known by the pseudonym Abdulaziz ibn Myatt al-Qari, is a British author, religious leader, far-right and former Islamist militant, most notable for allegedly being the political and religious leader of the White nationalist theistic Satanist organization Order of Nine Angles (ONA) from 1974 onwards. He is also the founder of Numinous Way and a former Muslim.

Matthias Koehl Jr. was an American marine, neo-Nazi politician and writer. He succeeded George Lincoln Rockwell as the longest serving leader of the American Nazi Party, from 1967 to 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke</span> British historian (1953–2012)

Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke was a British historian and professor of Western esotericism at the University of Exeter, best known for his authorship of several scholarly books on the history of Germany between the World Wars and Western esotericism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Françoise Dior</span> French socialite (1932–1993)

Marie Françoise Suzanne Dior was a French socialite and neo-Nazi underground financier. She was the niece of French fashion designer Christian Dior and Resistance fighter Catherine Dior, who publicly distanced herself from her niece after she married British neo-Nazi activist Colin Jordan in 1963. She was a close friend of Savitri Devi.

The World Union of National Socialists (WUNS) is an organisation founded in 1962 as an umbrella group for neo-Nazi organisations across the globe.

The National Socialist Movement (NSM) was a British neo-Nazi group formed on 20 April, Adolf Hitler's birthday, in 1962, by Colin Jordan, with John Tyndall as his deputy as a splinter group from the original British National Party of the 1960s.

<i>Black Sun</i> (Goodrick-Clarke book) History book by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke

Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity is a book by the historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, in which the author examines post-war Nazi occultism and similar phenomena.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harold Covington</span> American neo-Nazi (1953–2018)

Harold Armstead Covington was an American neo-Nazi activist and writer. He advocated the creation of an "Aryan homeland" in the Pacific Northwest and was the founder of the Northwest Front (NF), a white separatist political movement.

The Landig Group was an occultist and neo-völkisch group formed in 1950, that first gathered for discussions at the studio of the designer Wilhelm Landig in the Margareten district of Vienna. The circle's most prominent and influential members were Wilhelm Landig (1909–1997), Erich Halik and Rudolf J. Mund (1920–1985). The circle has also been referred to as the Landig Circle, Vienna Group and Vienna Lodge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Order of Nine Angles</span> Satanic and left-hand path occultist group

The Order of Nine Angles is a Satanic and left-hand path occultist group which is based in the United Kingdom, and associated groups are based in other parts of the world. Claiming to have been established in the 1960s, it rose to public recognition in the early 1980s, attracting attention for its neo-Nazi ideology and activism. Describing its approach as "Traditional Satanism", it has also been identified as exhibiting Hermetic and modern Pagan elements in its beliefs by academic researchers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esoteric Nazism</span> Mystical interpretations and adaptations of Nazism

Esoteric Nazism, also known as Esoteric Fascism or Esoteric Hitlerism, refers to a range of mystical interpretations and adaptations of Nazism. After the Second World War, esoteric interpretations of the Third Reich were adapted into new religious movements of white nationalism and neo-Nazism. They included beliefs in finding a mythical Hyperborea.

The Black Order or The Black Order of Pan Europa are a Satanist group formerly based in New Zealand. Political scientists Jeffrey Kaplan and Leonard Weinberg characterized the Black Order as a "National Socialist-oriented Satanist mail order ministry".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Combat 18</span> British neo-Nazi organisation

Combat 18 is a neo-Nazi terrorist organisation that was founded in 1992. It originated in the United Kingdom, with ties to movements in Canada and the United States. Since then it has spread to other countries, including Germany. Combat 18 members have been suspected of being involved and directly responsible in the deaths of numerous immigrants, non-whites and German politician Walter Lübcke and internecine killings of C18 members.

References

  1. ↑ McLagan & Lowles, Mr. Evil, pp. 63-64
  2. ↑ Langenohl, Andreas Langenohl & Westphal, Kirsten. (eds.) "Comparing and Inter-Relating the European Union and the Russian Federation," Zentrum für internationale Entwicklungs- und Umweltforschung der Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, November 2006, p.84.
  3. ↑ "The Nailbomber", transcript of BBC Panorama documentary, aired June 30, 2000
  4. 1 2 Michael, George. (2006) The Enemy of My Enemy: The Alarming Convergence of Militant Islam and the Extreme Right. University Press of Kansas, p. 142.
  5. 1 2 3 McLagan & Lowles, Mr. Evil, p. 64
  6. ↑ Goodrick-Clark, N. (2001) p.50 Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity
  7. ↑ Searchlight, April 1998
  8. ↑ "Cyberspace: A New Medium for Communication, Command and Control by Extremists" . Retrieved 2011-05-05.
  9. ↑ Vacca, John R. "Computer Forensics: Computer Crime Scene Investigation", Charles River Media, 2005, p.420 ISBN   1-58450-389-0
  10. ↑ Ryan, Homeland, p. 77
  11. ↑ McLagan & Lowles, Mr. Evil, p. 66
  12. ↑ McLagan & Lowles, Mr. Evil, pp. 66-67
  13. ↑ Transcript of Panorama
  14. 1 2 What the neo-Nazi fanatic did next: switched to Islam
  15. ↑ McLagan & Lowles, Mr. Evil, p. 65
  16. ↑ McLagan & Lowles, Mr. Evil, p. 67
  17. ↑ Ryan, Homeland, p. 84
  18. ↑ Ryan, Homeland, p. 225

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.