British Movement

From Free net encyclopedia

The British Movement was a British neo-Nazi group. It grew out of the National Socialist Movement which was founded by Colin Jordan in 1962, reconstituting itself as the British Movement in 1968. Under Jordan's leadership the BM campaigned on an openly neo-Nazi platform, with members wearing the swastika and picture of Adolf Hitler appearing on party literature. It published a number of journals including British Patriot and British Tidings.

Support for the British Movement grew at the end of the 1970s and beginning of the 80s when the National Front fragmented. It was particularly popular with the violent youth and skinhead element who had formerly supported the Front. A key part of its tactic for gaining both publicity and members was in formenting violence at football matches and music gigs.

Following a conviction for shoplifting women's underwear (an incident which did not go down well with the Movement's violently homophobic membership) Jordan left the British Movement with leadership falling into the hands of Michael McLaughlin, a Liverpudlian former milkman, in 1975. McLaughlin would later clash with another leading member Ray Hill, who was later revealed to be a "mole" for the anti-fascist Searchlight magazine, and as a result about half of the membership followed Hill in joining the newly launched British National Party in 1982. The BM failed to recover from the split and McLaughlin announced its liquidation in September 1983.

A group calling itself the British Movement has continued to operate since McLaughlin wound up the initial BM. However beyond holding an Annual General Meeting and very occasionally publishing a pamphlet this BM does not function and has only a tiny, largely inactive, membership.

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This group is not directly related to the present group called the National Socialist Movement, which was formed in 1997.