Richard Lawson has been a member of various

far right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

groups 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 ...

. Lawson was the Student Organiser for the

British National Front The National Front (NF) is a far-right, fascist political party in the United Kingdom. It is currently led by Tony Martin. As a minor party, it has never had its representatives elected to the British or European Parliaments, although it gaine ...

.''Searchlight'', April 1997, page 14. In 1976, he was part of the

Strasserite Strasserism (german: Strasserismus or ''Straßerismus'') is a strand of Nazism calling for a more radical, mass-action and worker-based form of the ideology, espousing economic antisemitism above other antisemitic forms, to achieve a national ...

split away from the National Front which formed the National Party. He founded the NF-affiliated IONA (Islands of North Atlantic) group in the mid-1980s for the purpose of "the study, revival, promotion and development of the islands of the North Atlantic". Presenting itself as an intellectual elite concerned with British culture and environment, it was closely linked to the far right magazine ''Scorpion''. IONA has subsequently been characterised as a Nazi group.Bernard O'Mahoney - Future Books - HATELAND - Articles - ??/??/?? - Fascism today - groups in Britain
Lawson contributed articles to Michael Walker's ''Scorpion'' magazine, as well as co-organising at least one conference with the publication.''Searchlight'', August 1995, page 12. In 1989, Lawson was involved with setting up the Transeuropa Collective to discuss "European identities, autonomies and initiatives". Transeuropa published ten issues of a journal titled ''Perspectives''. The magazine was criticised by ''

Searchlight A searchlight (or spotlight) is an apparatus that combines an extremely bright source (traditionally a carbon arc lamp) with a mirrored parabolic reflector to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a particular direc ...

'' magazine for anti-semitism and for infiltrating the green movement. ''Here & Now'' magazine's review stated that Perspectives "says 'Green' but means 'White'". In 1995, Lawson launched the Fluxeuropa website as "A postmodernist cultural review of art, books, films and music focusing on the creative tension between tradition and modernity." Around this time, he also became involved with ''Alternative Green'' magazine along with

Troy Southgate Troy Southgate (born 22 July 1965) is a British far-right political activist and a self-described national-anarchist. He has been affiliated with far-right and fascist groups, such as National Front and International Third Position. He co-cre ...

. In 1997, Transeuropa launched a new magazine called ''Radical Shift''. ''Searchlight'' magazine described the magazine's intention as "to delegitimise anti-racism, anti-fascism and liberal democracy in favour of... ethnic separation, bigoted regionalism and chauvinistic nationalism".''Searchlight'', April 1997, page 15.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawson, Richard Living people National Front (UK) politicians English activists Year of birth missing (living people)