Richard Lawson (activist)

Richard Lawson has been a member of various far right groups in the United Kingdom.

Lawson was the Student Organiser for the British National Front.[1] In 1976, he was part of the Strasserite split away from the National Front which formed the National Party.[2]

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".[3] Presenting itself as an intellectual elite concerned with British culture and environment, it was closely linked to the far right magazine Scorpion.[4] IONA has subsequently been characterised as a Nazi group.[5]

Lawson contributed articles to Michael Walker's Scorpion magazine, as well as co-organising at least one conference with the publication.[5][6][7]

In 1989, Lawson was involved with setting up the Transeuropa Collective[1] to discuss "European identities, autonomies and initiatives". Transeuropa published ten issues of a journal titled Perspectives. The magazine was criticised by Searchlight magazine for anti-semitism and for infiltrating the green movement.[7] Here & Now magazine's review stated that Perspectives "says 'Green' but means 'White'".[8]

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."[9] Around this time, he also became involved with Alternative Green magazine along with Troy Southgate.

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".[10]