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Author: Searchlight | Date: January 1981
JOHN TYNDALL's recent decision to form the New National Front (NNF) has added yet another rival grouping to those already laying claim to be the "authentic" voice of the National Front.
The first sign of real trouble inside the Front appeared a few days before the General Election in May 1979 with the circulation of a document that appealed to Tyndall to assert his authority by taking action against Martin Webster and went into detail about Webster's personal behaviour. Matters came to a head during Tyndall's visit to the United States a few weeks later, when the Front's vice-chairman, Andrew Fountaine, who was also responsible for party discipline, suspended Webster following complaints about his rude, over-bearing behaviour and a letter from a Midlands member claiming that he had made advances towards his son. Tyndall immediately reversed the decision upon his return from the United States on July 6, not only reinstating Webster but also suspending Fountaine five days later pending an enquiry.
Fountaine's response was to start circulating the membership with details of what he claimed was the "unconstitutional" behaviour of Tyndall and his supporters, and he started moving towards setting up a rival grouping. The organisational basis for this move had in effect been laid by his supporters' effective control of NF Properties Ltd, who controlled the Front's new Headquarters in Hackney.
Before making any formal organisational moves, Fountaine and his supporters, who included amongst their numbers Paul Kavanagh, a company director, Malcolm Smith, party treasurer, and Jimmy Styles, owner of a carpet warehouse, decided to challenge Tyndall for the leadership at the October conference, but since he and his supporters were effectively being eased out as far as the party machinery was concerned, it was a forlorn hope and in reality was an exercise to enable them to gauge potential support.
After the October conference the NF Constitutional Movement was formally launched and with it a series of court cases over the property and for control of NF Properties Ltd which are still going on. It is estimated that the "Constitutional Movement" has taken about 750 members from the Front and that its rate of growth is slow.
Whilst these moves were taking place another member of the National Directorate, Anthony Reed-Herbert, leader of the Leicester branch, probably the largest and most successful NF branch, launched another breakaway party, the "British Democratic Party", which is mainly centred in the Midlands. There has been much speculation about the BDP, since after its formation Reed-herbert put his name to a document circulated by the "Constitutional Movement" and there have been regular reports of a merger between the two. But such a move could not take place until the legal wrangle over NF Properties is sorted out, because until then Fountaine and his supporters have to maintain their position of upholders of the NF constitution. Membership of the "British Democratic Party" is somewhere in the region of 600. They have recently been evolving a working relationship with British Movement. This would not, however, hamper an eventual merger with the Constitutional Movement, which is becoming increasingly controlled by Styles.
The latest split, producing the New National Front, was an inevitable development following John Tyndall's bid to reopen the question of placing almost full authority in the hands of the party leader after being defeated on the issue at the October conference. He tried to get the new Directorate to agree to changes, at the same time letting it be known through statements to the press that should he get the power he wanted he would get rid of Martin Webster. Had he taken such a position in July 1979 he might well have had the support he wanted, but by the time he made his challenge he was isolated on the Directorate and obviously knew he was sure to be defeated. So his threat to resign as party chairman if he didn't get his way was really a tactical move towards a final break. It is too early to give an estimate of the numbers that Tyndall is recruiting to the NNF but some branches are reported to have gone over to him, and in others part of the membership have pledged their support. Elizabeth the Lady Freeman, an original member of the NF Directorate, is on record as saying that now that Tyndall has broken away from Webster she feels she can give him her support.
Since the decision to form the NNF, Tyndall has used his journal Spearhead to make a number of attacks on homosexuals in the NF leadership, a line of attack that is at the moment the only issue that forms a common bond among the breakaway groups.
Although there are now four separate organisations whose aims are to re-unite the Front along "correct" lines, the reality is that there are two contending issues (with a subsidiary argument that revives the "Strasserite" row that split the Front in 1975/76).
The first is represented by those who think it is a waste of time to try and deny that the Front is a Nazi movement. The other is the argument that it was a mistake to create a party that attempted to embrace a "respectable" image, with many of its activists hardly disguising their adherence to Nazi ideals. The two factions should be separated organisationally by spheres of activity. The more "respectable" racist party would be careful to ensure that the Nazi element was not in evidence at its meetings, but would function through other organisations, with which they would have an "understanding".
Respectability, however, is not what the National Front was about at its inception. Its roots were and still are in national socialism and that is the issue that will ultimately be fought out by various factions. The hard core of committed members do not want dilution but a confirmation 'Q{ a hard line.
Meanwhile the NF under the leadership of Webster, Brons and Verrall remains the largest and most active party. Estimates put their membership somewhere between three and four thousand (though it is interesting to note, only 706 bothered to vote in the annual elections for the ten vacancies on the National Directorate last September).
We can safely predict that there will be a lot of manoeuvring and making and breaking of alliances during this corning year.
© Searchlight Magazine 1981