National Socialist Action Party
Encyclopedia
The National Socialist Action Party (sometimes called the National Socialist Action Group) was a minor British
neo-Nazi political party
in the early 1980s. It gained notoriety due to its violent rhetoric and because of several exposés regarding the group's stockpiling of weapons and its plans for armed attacks.
and who during the struggle for leadership of that group between Michael McLaughlin
and Ray Hill
had sided with Hill. Malski had been involved with the Campaign for Nationalist Unity, a John Tyndall
-led initiative that involved elements of the British Movement along with his own New National Front and groups such as the Constitutional Movement
and British Democratic Party
. This group formed the basis of the British National Party
in 1982, although Malski did not join that party.
From early on, Malski supported the use of force, and in 1981 at a meeting of far right activists he claimed that he had a stockpile of weapons hidden near his home in South Oxhey
, Watford
which he had seized during a raid on a nearby Territorial Army
(TA) base. Malski himself had been a TA member and his house was searched for weapons on a number of occasions by Special Branch
. Feeling that the British Movement did not match up to his militancy, Malski broke from them in mid 1982 and, along with his deputy Phil Kersey, established the NSAP.
. The new party had a military-style structure with fifteen separate ranks awarded to party members at various levels, as well as four sub movements, the "Black Wolves", youth, women and "workforce". Malski's devotion to militarism
earned him the mocking nickname of "the Field Marshal" amongst far right activists not associated with his fringe party. Given that the NSAP had less than a hundred members, these military-style ranks seemed somewhat spurious.
However, the NSAP did enjoy a close relationship with the influential League of St George, which published the NSAP's glossy magazine The European, and Malski maintained that it was committed to direct action. An early letter sent to all party members stated that they should "support any action of paramilitary groups which come to the rescue of our so much corrupt and infested country". The Eurpoean similarly endorsed paramilitarism and claimed that an "effective paramilitary army" was being trained by the NSAP.
The militancy of the NSAP attracted press attention, and on more than one occasion articles appeared after undercover reporters claimed to have spoken to Malski. For example, a reporter for Searchlight
wrote that Malski had told him that he intended to send NSAP fighters into riot-hit cities to foment discontent, and that he had links to the Edelweiss Group, a paramilitary training operation run by Column 88
founder Ian Souter Clarence. This report was followed by one in the News of the World
in which Malski was quoted as having told their undercover reporter that the NSAP had a number of arms and ammunitions dumps. Such revelations led to Labour Party
MP
Joan Lestor calling for the Department of Public Prosecutions to investigate the activities of the NSAP, although ultimately they decided not to do so.
-Israel
i film-maker Ludi Boeken on a documentary for Channel 4
, part of which was to include an expose on the activities of the NSAP. To this end Hill arranged to meet Malski and Kersey in a London pub in October 1983, ostensibly to discuss a meeting Hill had earlier held with Yann Tran Long, a French
-Vietnam
ese arms dealer who maintained a wide circle of contacts within the far right across Europe. This meeting was filmed with a hidden camera and during it Malski claimed that the NSAP had around 1000 members and that members were regularly undertaking military-style training in a local gun club.
Malski also discussed his arrest by Special Branch in 1981 when he was preparing to travel to France to pick up detonators for explosive devices. This had been as part of an earlier plot that Malski had been involved with, along with Yann Tran Long and Alex Oumow of the Faisceaux Nationalistes Européens, and which was to plant a bomb at that year's Notting Hill Carnival
. Hill had been privy to the discussions about this initial plot and had informed Searchlight about it before it could be carried out. Malski was filmed telling Hill that he believed the plot had been disrupted by a high-ranking informer within the British far right, although he pointed the finger at Anthony Hancock
rather than at Hill.
Malski also told Hill that he had discovered the secret offices of Searchlight and published their address in The European (although the address published had actually been London Transport offices) as well as the details of the News of the World journalist who had written about the party. He further claimed that nine of the leading members of the NSAP were Oxbridge
graduates and that an NSAP attack squad had cleared the way for a recent BNP march by attacking and defeating all the protesters. Hill subsequently rejected most of this as fantasy, but vouched for some other claims, notably that the NSAP was working closely with Ian Souter Clarence and that he and Oumow were receiving funding from the wealthy Spanish
group CEDADE
. The footage of Malski and Kersey formed a significant part of the documentary, which aired in March 1984, during which Hill revealed himself as the mole.
Malski, who was dismissed by many on the far right
in Britain as something of a Walter Mitty
character, has occasionally surfaced at meetings, including speeches by David Irving
. Most recently he has been found guilty of racially harassing his neighbour, a woman of Pakistan
i origin. He has, on occasion, stood for election to St Albans District Council, as an independent.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
neo-Nazi political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
in the early 1980s. It gained notoriety due to its violent rhetoric and because of several exposés regarding the group's stockpiling of weapons and its plans for armed attacks.
Origins
The NSAP was the brainchild of Tony Malski, who had been an organiser for the British Movement in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and who during the struggle for leadership of that group between Michael McLaughlin
Michael McLaughlin
Michael McLaughlin was, for a time, a leading figure on the British far right.Born in Liverpool, he was the son of an Irish republican and socialist who was a veteran of the International Brigades....
and Ray Hill
Ray Hill
Ray Hill was a leading figure in the British far right who went on to become a well-known informant.Born in Lancashire, he spent three years in the army before making his first steps in the far right with the Racial Preservation Society in Leicester in the late 1960s...
had sided with Hill. Malski had been involved with the Campaign for Nationalist Unity, a John Tyndall
John Tyndall (politician)
John Hutchyns Tyndall was a British politician who was prominently associated with several fascist/neo-Nazi sects. However, he is best known for leading the National Front in the 1970s and founding the contemporary British National Party in 1982.The most prominent figure in British nationalism...
-led initiative that involved elements of the British Movement along with his own New National Front and groups such as the Constitutional Movement
Constitutional Movement
The Constitutional Movement was a right wing political group in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1979 by Andrew Fountaine as the National Front Constitutional Movement, a splinter group from the National Front...
and British Democratic Party
British Democratic Party
The British Democratic Party was a short-lived far-right political party in the United Kingdom. A breakaway group from the National Front the BDP was severely damaged after it became involved in a gun-running sting and was absorbed by the British National Party.-Formation and naming...
. This group formed the basis of the British National Party
British National Party
The British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982...
in 1982, although Malski did not join that party.
From early on, Malski supported the use of force, and in 1981 at a meeting of far right activists he claimed that he had a stockpile of weapons hidden near his home in South Oxhey
South Oxhey
South Oxhey is a suburb of Watford in the Watford Rural parish of the Three Rivers district of Hertfordshire, England. It is located in the south western corner of Hertfordshire and close to the boundary with Greater London.-History:...
, Watford
Watford
Watford is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, situated northwest of central London and within the bounds of the M25 motorway. The borough is separated from Greater London to the south by the urbanised parish of Watford Rural in the Three Rivers District.Watford was created as an urban...
which he had seized during a raid on a nearby Territorial Army
Territorial Army
The Territorial Army is the part time volunteer force of the British Army. With around 35,500 members, the TA forms about a quarter of the overall manpower strength of the British Army. TA members regularly volunteer to serve overseas on operations, either with TA units, or as individuals...
(TA) base. Malski himself had been a TA member and his house was searched for weapons on a number of occasions by Special Branch
Special Branch
Special Branch is a label customarily used to identify units responsible for matters of national security in British and Commonwealth police forces, as well as in the Royal Thai Police...
. Feeling that the British Movement did not match up to his militancy, Malski broke from them in mid 1982 and, along with his deputy Phil Kersey, established the NSAP.
Development
The programme of the NSAP was based entirely on NazismNazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
. The new party had a military-style structure with fifteen separate ranks awarded to party members at various levels, as well as four sub movements, the "Black Wolves", youth, women and "workforce". Malski's devotion to militarism
Militarism
Militarism is defined as: the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....
earned him the mocking nickname of "the Field Marshal" amongst far right activists not associated with his fringe party. Given that the NSAP had less than a hundred members, these military-style ranks seemed somewhat spurious.
However, the NSAP did enjoy a close relationship with the influential League of St George, which published the NSAP's glossy magazine The European, and Malski maintained that it was committed to direct action. An early letter sent to all party members stated that they should "support any action of paramilitary groups which come to the rescue of our so much corrupt and infested country". The Eurpoean similarly endorsed paramilitarism and claimed that an "effective paramilitary army" was being trained by the NSAP.
The militancy of the NSAP attracted press attention, and on more than one occasion articles appeared after undercover reporters claimed to have spoken to Malski. For example, a reporter for Searchlight
Searchlight (magazine)
Searchlight is a British anti-fascist magazine, founded in 1975 by Gerry Gable, which publishes exposés about racism, antisemitism, and fascism in the UK....
wrote that Malski had told him that he intended to send NSAP fighters into riot-hit cities to foment discontent, and that he had links to the Edelweiss Group, a paramilitary training operation run by Column 88
Column 88
Column 88 was a neo-nazi paramilitary organization based in the United Kingdom. It was formed in the early 1970s, and disbanded in the early 1980s. The members of Column 88 undertook military training under the supervision of a former Royal Marine Commando, and also held regular gatherings attended...
founder Ian Souter Clarence. This report was followed by one in the News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
in which Malski was quoted as having told their undercover reporter that the NSAP had a number of arms and ammunitions dumps. Such revelations led to Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
Joan Lestor calling for the Department of Public Prosecutions to investigate the activities of the NSAP, although ultimately they decided not to do so.
Exposure
Ray Hill, with whom Malski was long acquainted, had become a "mole" within the far right and had agreed to co-operate with DutchNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
-Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i film-maker Ludi Boeken on a documentary for Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
, part of which was to include an expose on the activities of the NSAP. To this end Hill arranged to meet Malski and Kersey in a London pub in October 1983, ostensibly to discuss a meeting Hill had earlier held with Yann Tran Long, a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
-Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
ese arms dealer who maintained a wide circle of contacts within the far right across Europe. This meeting was filmed with a hidden camera and during it Malski claimed that the NSAP had around 1000 members and that members were regularly undertaking military-style training in a local gun club.
Malski also discussed his arrest by Special Branch in 1981 when he was preparing to travel to France to pick up detonators for explosive devices. This had been as part of an earlier plot that Malski had been involved with, along with Yann Tran Long and Alex Oumow of the Faisceaux Nationalistes Européens, and which was to plant a bomb at that year's Notting Hill Carnival
Notting Hill Carnival
The Notting Hill Carnival is an annual event which since 1964 has taken place on the streets of Notting Hill, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea , London, UK each August, over two days...
. Hill had been privy to the discussions about this initial plot and had informed Searchlight about it before it could be carried out. Malski was filmed telling Hill that he believed the plot had been disrupted by a high-ranking informer within the British far right, although he pointed the finger at Anthony Hancock
Anthony Hancock (publisher)
Anthony Hancock has been a member of various far right groups in the United Kingdom and, as a publisher, has produced literature for almost all of Britain's right-wing extremists....
rather than at Hill.
Malski also told Hill that he had discovered the secret offices of Searchlight and published their address in The European (although the address published had actually been London Transport offices) as well as the details of the News of the World journalist who had written about the party. He further claimed that nine of the leading members of the NSAP were Oxbridge
Oxbridge
Oxbridge is a portmanteau of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge in England, and the term is now used to refer to them collectively, often with implications of perceived superior social status...
graduates and that an NSAP attack squad had cleared the way for a recent BNP march by attacking and defeating all the protesters. Hill subsequently rejected most of this as fantasy, but vouched for some other claims, notably that the NSAP was working closely with Ian Souter Clarence and that he and Oumow were receiving funding from the wealthy Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
group CEDADE
CEDADE
CEDADE was a Spanish neo-Nazi group that concerned itself with co-ordinating international activity and publishing....
. The footage of Malski and Kersey formed a significant part of the documentary, which aired in March 1984, during which Hill revealed himself as the mole.
Disappearance
Following the screening of the documentary, the NSAP ceased to operate and the name has not been used since although the party was publicly mentioned in 1986 when member Graham Paton was convicted of sending propaganda and a concealed razor blade to an anti-apartheid activist.Malski, who was dismissed by many on the far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
in Britain as something of a Walter Mitty
Walter Mitty
Walter Mitty is a fictional character in James Thurber's short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", first published in the New Yorker on March 18, 1939, and in book form in My World and Welcome to It in 1942...
character, has occasionally surfaced at meetings, including speeches by David Irving
David Irving
David John Cawdell Irving is an English writer,best known for his denial of the Holocaust, who specialises in the military and political history of World War II, with a focus on Nazi Germany...
. Most recently he has been found guilty of racially harassing his neighbour, a woman of Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
i origin. He has, on occasion, stood for election to St Albans District Council, as an independent.