Organisation and structure of the National Front (UK)
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The Organisation and structure of the National Front is the management of the National Front, a far-right political party in the United Kingdom.
In its 1970s heyday, the National Front was headed by its directorate, a body of seven to twenty party members.[1] With strict control over local and regional organisations,[2] the directorate determined party policy, controlled its structures and finances, oversaw admissions and expulsions, and determined tactics.[3] A third of the directorate were required to stand down every year, with a postal ballot of the membership to determine their replacements.[4] Between 1971 and 1975, the directorate elected two of its members to be the most senior figures in the party, the chairman and deputy chairman.[5] However, at the 1977 annual general meeting it agreed—at Tyndall's instigation—that the chairman would instead be elected through a postal ballot of the membership.[6] As the directorate met in London infrequently, in practice the running of the party was left to the chairman and deputy chairman.[7] The formal organisation resulted in the party's elite having most of the power, with the membership exerting little control over policy or the actions of party leaders.[8] Fielding suggested that this centralisation of power would have presaged the framework of any NF government had they obtained power.[9] As with most other UK political parties, in the 1970s the NF's elite was overwhelmingly male, middle-class, and relatively young.[10] The party's constitution did not acknowledge the existence of factions,[11] although the Front had a long history of factional rivalry within its ranks,[12] with Wilkinson noting that it had been plagued by "personal squabbles and splits" among its hierarchy.[13]
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The NF's local presence was divided into "groups", which had under twelve members, and "branches", which had over twelve.[14] The NF was not eager to publicise how many branches were active.[15] Fielding stated that in July 1973 the party had 32 branches and 80 groups,[15] while Walker claimed that in January 1974, it had 30 branches and 54 groups.[16] The majority were in south-east England, with 11 branches and 8 groups in Greater London and 5 branches and 22 groups elsewhere in the south-east.[16] It had five branches and 3 groups in the midlands, 7 branches and 11 groups in the north, 1 branch and 7 groups in western Britain, and one group each in Scotland and Northern Ireland.[17] Each branch or group had its own five-person committee, with annual elections for the committee positions.[14] NF branch meetings were much like those of other British political parties, preoccupied largely with practical issues like raising finances.[18] Typically, branch meetings took place in a pub.[19] Some NF branches also established supporters' associations for individuals who backed the NF but were not willing to become members out of fear of potential repercussions.[20] In April 1974, the party introduced regional councils to co-ordinate between the national party and its local groups and branches.[3] These regional councils were required to contain two members from each branch in the region.[3]
Supporter organisations were established among white communities of British descent elsewhere in the world; in New Zealand in 1977 and in Australia, Canada, and South Africa in 1978.[21] After the Strasserite faction secured control in 1986, it formally adopted a cadre system of leadership.[22] This made the party more elitist, creating what the Strasserites called "a revolutionary cadre party – a movement run by its most dedicated and active members rather than by armchair nationalists".[23] This was linked to the idea—promoted through a book by Holland—that each NF member should be a "political soldier", a "New Type of Man" who rejected the "materialist nightmare" of contemporary capitalist society and underwent a personal "Spiritual Revolution" through which they dedicated themselves fully to the nation.[24]
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