TheOfficial National Front (ONF) was one of twofar-right groups to emerge in theUnited Kingdom in 1986 following a split within theNational Front. Following ideological paths that were mostly new to theBritish far-right, the ONF stood opposed to the more traditionalistFlag Group.
The ONF emerged in the early 1980s when young radicals such asNick Griffin,Derek Holland,Patrick Harrington andDavid Kerr became attracted toThird Position ideas and, eschewing the route of electoral politics favoured by theNational Front up to that point, hoped to develop a cadre of devoted nationalist revolutionaries.[1] Emphasising a stronganti-capitalist as well asanti-communist line, the ONF began to emerge as the most powerful group within the NF after the series of splits in late 1979 and early 1980 though they did not come to prominence within the NF until 1984 when Martin Webster was expelled from the Party.[2]
The Political Soldier faction began with the support of chairmanAndrew Brons but before long differences between the two factions began to show. This came to a head in 1986 when the party split in two, with around 2,000 of the NF's 5,000 membership following Griffin into the ONF and the rest departing for the Flag Group.[3] The ONF maintained the monthly newspaper theNational Front News and took control also ofNationalism Today during this period.
With control assured the ONF took on responsibility for instructing its members ideologically and gained the backing ofRosine de Bounevialle, a veteran of theLeague of Empire Loyalists and the publisher of theanti-Semitic journalCandour, who allowed these training seminars to be held on herHampshire estate.[4] Subsequently, these were moved to specially prepared buildings on land owned by Nick Griffin's fatherEdgar.[5]
Aided byRoberto Fiore, whoseTerza Posizione held similar views, the ONF developed an ideology that stressed the need for a "New Man" with the cadre structure influenced by the "nest" system of the pre-Second World WarRomanianIron Guard.[4] The two main sources of ideology for the ONF were the journalRising published from 1983 to 1986 andThe Political Soldier, a 1984 book by Derek Holland. Within the pages of these works the ONF committed itself to a revolt against modernity, echoing many of the words of the likes ofCorneliu Codreanu andJulius Evola.[6] The party put emphasis on the values of ruralism with Nick Griffin, who lived on a farm in Wales, running a "Smash the Cities" campaign for the ONF that has been compared byNicholas Goodrick-Clarke toPol Potism.[7]
Unlike the earlier NF, that had emphasised British identity, the ONF showed sympathy towards indigenousnationalisms within theUnited Kingdom. The ONF adopted a policy of support forUlster nationalism, a fringe idea withinNorthern Ireland, and through this shift forged links with theUlster Defence Association and in particularJohn McMichael who was advocating such an idea at the time.[8] Separate links were also maintained with sometimeDemocratic Unionist Party activistGeorge Seawright who, although not avowedly an Ulster nationalist, was the brother of ONF activist David Seawright.[9] Although there was no evidence of a direct connection between the two groups the ONF broke from the exclusively British nationalist vision of its predecessors to praise the activities of theWelsh nationalistMeibion Glyndŵr.[7]
The desire for the development of a fanatical Political Soldier also led the ONF to follow theirItalian counterparts in expressing some admiration for a similar fanaticism that they saw inIslam.[6] This idea led to the publication of the most notorious issue ofNF News which featured a cover extolling the 'new alliance' of the party with theAyatollah Khomeini,Muammar Gaddafi andLouis Farrakhan, a previously unthinkable stance in the NF.[10] During a march forQuds Day in 1988 Patrick Harrington and Graham Williamson took their place alongside a group ofIslamic fundamentalists.[9]
The 'scientific racism' that had been the cornerstone of NF ideas up to that point was abandoned by the ONF in favour of an emphasis onethnopluralism and expressions of admiration forBlack separatist leaders such as Farrakhan andMarcus Garvey, a new departure illustrated by the August 1987 edition ofNational Front News in which the slogan 'Black is beautiful' appeared.[11] Copies of theNation of Islam-linked newspaperThe Final Call could also be purchased from the ONF.[12]
The desire to build a Political Soldier leadership meant that the ONF was by its nature exclusive and limited. Membership in its strictest sense was effectively closed off with outsiders only allowed to become "Friends of the Movement" and full membership being only open to those chosen by the leadership.[13] The ideas held less appeal for theracist skinheads that the ONF still had links with.[12] The ONF saw the skinheads as a source of eager foot-soldiers for their revolutionary struggles, a factor that led the ONF to hostRock Against Communism concerts in the mid-1980s.[14] However, disillusionment set in with the ONF's esoteric ideas and in 1987 sometime NF member andSkrewdriver singerIan Stuart Donaldson joined withBritish Movement organiserNicky Crane to set upBlood and Honour, initially as a magazine before developing it into a movement forWhite power bands independent of the parties. The departure of these groups also meant a loss of one of the ONF's main sources of revenue and the split proved fairly divisive with B&H supporters dubbing the ONF the "Nutty Fairy Party" due to their unusual ideas and rumours ofhomosexuality within the leadership.[15] The split came at a bad time as membership had already been curtailed by the decision in 1986 to double the price of membership fees and to restrict membership to those considered worthy of Political Soldier status by the leadership.[16] The group's devotion to the likes of Evola and Codreanu also damaged its chances as these thinkers were virtually unknown in Britain and as such the ONF's ideas were considered too foreign to be relevant to a British context.[17]
In an attempt to gain much needed funds, Griffin and Holland travelled toLibya in 1988 in the hope of persuadingMuammar Gaddafi to provide money to bankroll the ONF. However, the pair were able to secure only a consignment of copies of the colonel's political testamentThe Green Book, meaning that the group's financial woes were not alleviated.[18] Breaking from its own ban on electoral activity, Harrington ran as a candidate in the1989 Vauxhall by-election, during which his rival candidates included the Flag Group'sTed Budden, who confusingly was standing as a "National Front" candidate. Both men received derisory vote shares.[19]
In 1989 Harrington, who was by then effective leader of the group, approachedThe Jewish Chronicle with a view to opening dialogue with theJewish community. The move proved unpopular with Griffin and Holland who broke off in 1989 to form theInternational Third Position (ITP), which advocatedanti-capitalistStrasserist views, as well as continuing anti-Zionism.[20] With the ONF in disarray, Harrington (by then effective leader, although the ONF had eschewed an individual leader at their peak) wound up the group in January 1990 and reconstituted it, along with about fifty NF members, as theThird Way, which continued to offer a programme akin to that of the Political Soldier movement.[20] TheFlag Group, led byMartin Wingfield andIan Anderson, reclaimed the NF name and identity and sought to reposition the NF once again by following the example of the base itself on theFront National, which was experiencing growth inFrance throughright-wing populism.[21]
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