The Northern League was a

neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...

organisation founded by Roger Pearson. It was active in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

and in northern continental Europe in the latter half of the 20th century.

History

Roger Pearson formed the Northern League in collaboration with Peter Huxley-Blythe, who was active in a variety of neo-Nazi groups with connections in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. The League published the periodical ''The Northlander''. The stated purpose was to save the "

Nordic race The Nordic race was a racial concept which originated in 19th century anthropology. It was considered a race or one of the putative sub-races into which some late-19th to mid-20th century anthropologists divided the Caucasian race, claiming th ...

" from "annihilation of our kind" and to "fight for survival against forces which would mongrelize our race and civilization". The Northern League merged newsletters with Britons Publishing Company, an

anti-Semitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

publisher and a major distributor of the ''

Protocols of the Elders of Zion ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' () or ''The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion'' is a fabricated antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination. The hoax was plagiarized from several ...

''. Leading members of the Northern League included the Nazi racial

eugenicist Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior or ...

Hans F. K. Günther, who continued his work in the post-war period under a pseudonym. Other active members included the founder of ''

Mankind Quarterly ''Mankind Quarterly'' is a peer-reviewed journal that has been described as a "cornerstone of the scientific racism establishment", a "white supremacist journal", and "a pseudo-scholarly outlet for promoting racial inequality". It covers phys ...

'',

Robert Gayre George Robert Gayre of Gayre and Nigg (6 August 1907St. Martin's Press Staff (2001). ''Who Was Who 1996–2000 Volume X: A Companion to WHO'S WHO – Containing the Biographies of Those Who Died During the Period 1996–2000.'' Palgrave Macmillan, ...

, and its editors

Robert E. Kuttner Robert E. Kuttner (March 10, 1927 – February 19, 1987) was an American biologist and white supremacist.Jackson, John P. (2005). ''Science for Segregation: Race, Law, and the Case against Brown v. Board of Education''. New York University Press. ...

and Donald A. Swan; the American

segregationist Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crime against humanity under the Statute of the Interna ...

Earnest Sevier Cox Earnest Sevier Cox (January 24, 1880 – April 26, 1966) was an American Methodist preacher, political activist and white supremacist. He is best known for his political campaigning for stricter segregation between blacks and whites in the Uni ...

, the ex–

Waffen SS The (, "Armed SS") was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with volunteers and conscripts from both occupied and unoccupied lands. The grew from th ...

officer and post-war neo-Nazi leader

Arthur Ehrhardt Arthur Ehrhardt (21 March 1896 – 16 May 1971) was a Waffen-SS commander who served as a Nazi security warfare expert during World War II. After the war, he became a leading figure in the neo-Nazi movement. Early years Ehrhardt was born Mengers ...

, and a number of post-war British fascists, though even among fascists, the Northern League was considered extremist. Among its co-founders and activists was Alastair Harper, the

United Kingdom Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest pa ...

(UKIP) parliamentary candidate in Dunfermline West in 2001. Northern League literature was written in the style of

scientific racism Scientific racism, sometimes termed biological racism, is the pseudoscience, pseudoscientific belief that empirical evidence exists to support or justify racism (racial discrimination), racial inferiority, or racial superiority.. "Few tragedies ...

(e.g., the work of Pearson's collaborator

Raymond B. Cattell Raymond Bernard Cattell (20 March 1905 – 2 February 1998) was a British-American psychologist, known for his psychometric research into intrapersonal psychological structure.Gillis, J. (2014). ''Psychology's Secret Genius: The Lives and Works ...

) and its Statement of Aims reflects 19th-century conceptions of ''Rasse and Volk''. Andrew S. Winston of the

University of Guelph , mottoeng = "to learn the reasons of realities" , established = May 8, 1964 ()As constituents: OAC: (1874) Macdonald Institute: (1903) OVC: (1922) , type = Public university , chancellor ...

writes in an analysis of this group:

According to the "Aims", Northern Europeans are the "purest survival of the great Indo-European family of nations, sometimes described as the Caucasian race and at other times as the Aryan race". Almost all the "classic civilisations of the past were the product of these Indo-European peoples". Intermarriage with conquered peoples was said to produce the decay of these civilizations, particularly through interbreeding with slaves. "The rising tide of Color" threatens to overwhelm European society, and would result in the "biological annihilation of the subspecies", according to the Northern League.Andrew S. Winsto
"Shared Eugenic Visions: Raymond B. Cattell and Roger Pearson"
Institute for the Study of Academic Racism

References

* Billig, M. (1979). ''Psychology, Racism, and Fascism''. Birmingham: A. F. & R./Searchlight. * Pearson, R. (1959). "Editorial: Our third birthday". ''Northern World'', 4, 1–4. (Copy available in Herbert C. Sanborn Papers, Special Collections, Vanderbilt University) * Tauber, K. (1967). '' Beyond Eagle and Swastika: German Nationalism Since 1945'' (two vols.). Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Northern League (Neo-Nazi) Neo-Nazi organisations in the United Kingdom