The British Extreme Right has a long history of violence and riots going back to the early twentieth century when Jewish communities were its main target. But it was the 1970s, that saw groups like the National Front and British Movement become a menace on the streets of Britain. Many of those who have shaped today’s Extreme Right in Britain were schooled in those years.
1970s – decade of crisis
In 1978, the UK’s Labour government – led by Prime Minister Jim Callaghan – had lost its parliamentary majority and was having a tackle a major economic crisis. Unemployment and inflation had been rising and traditional manufacturing industry was in severe decline. With many young people feeling angry and disaffected, neo-fascist groups saw an opportunity to recruit by blaming ethnic minorities for growing poverty, poor housing, and joblessness. The reality – needless to say – was that white and black working-class people were facing the exact same issues.
A general election was on the horizon – postponed until the middle of 1979 by Callaghan – and the National Front fielded a record number of candidates. NF members, often dressed in black shirts, sold their newspapers in shopping centres and even entered school playgrounds to distribute their toxic propaganda. For many in the older generation, the re-emergence of Nazi-style views was shocking given that Hitler had only been crushed barely three decades before. In the 1970s, head teachers running schools had more than likely served in the armed forces during World War Two fighting the Third Reich.
British Extreme Right claims it’s not behind riots
Supporters of the NF often wrote to local newspapers hoping to get their letters published. Sadly – they were. The message was nearly always the same. Protesting that they were not a neo-Nazi party, simply patriotic. Some of the letter writers stressing that they had done wartime service in the fight against Hitler and would never support an avowedly Nazi organisation. However, facts are stubborn things. NF thugs did chant ‘Sieg Heil’ on rallies and one of Britain’s leading neo-fascists, John Tyndall, had a long record of neo-Nazism and sympathy to Hitler.
They also claimed – as we still hear today – that the NF never instigated violence on demonstrations, but were always provoked by the likes of the Socialist Workers Party. But as the Daily Mirror rightly pointed out in a leader article, the NF organised events to be intentionally provocative. In 1979, the NF took the Sunday Mirror to the Press Council complaining about the headline “National Front Riots”. The council backed the newspaper.
The media airs the allegedly legitimate claims of the Extreme Right
Today, the BBC feels obligated to air the views of the Extreme Right on immigration, which have become way more mainstreamed than even in the 1970s. This frames their violent rioting as the airing of a legitimate grievance over the scale of immigration. Today the slogan is ‘stop the boats’. In the 1970s, a letter to the Daily Telegraph on the 20th May, 1977, claimed the NF was tackling the ‘colour problem’. If only – the argument ran – the Conservatives and Labour had addressed immigration, then the Extreme Right would not be taking to the streets. Sounds familiar?
