Alexander Raven Thomson - Union Movement

Union Movement

Following his release Thomson set up a number of book clubs across Britain to ensure the continuing spread of Mosley's ideas. The book clubs served as planning meetings for the future of Mosleyite politics after the war. He also led the Union of British Freemen, a group he set up with fellow ex-BUF member Victor Burgess in 1944 as an attempt to bring together former BUF members. After the war Thomson travelled regularly to Ireland to meet with Mosley and discuss political development. Eager to expand the base of operations of fascism in Britain he also sought unsuccessfully to forge alliances with the proto-environmentalist Rural Reconstruction Association through leading member Jorian Jenks, a former BUF activist, as well as individuals on the fringes of Welsh nationalism.

He joined the Union Movement on its foundation in 1948 and became a leading figure in the new party as both General Secretary and the editor of the UM newspaper Union. Playing a leading role in the development of the ideology of the UM, Thomson initially supported Europe a Nation enthusiastically, but soon tired of the esoteric policy and in 1950 organised a brief, and even more unsuccessful, move to neo-Nazism. After this he came to advocate a "left-wing fascist" approach, arguing that the UM should target the working class for support with leftist style, anti-capitalism rhetoric.

As well as his important position within the UM domestically, Thomson was also a central figure in the party's international links. Thomson was sent to Spain in 1949 to try to build up support for Mosley in the country, although the trip was somewhat unsuccessful as he failed to impress the falangists and had to contend with the negative words of former BUF member Angus Macnab, who had grown to loathe Mosley. later Thomson was central in liasing with the New European Order, a group Mosely had no official contact with due to his support for the European Social Movement. His international reputation grew further in 1952 when he was appointed to the editorial board of the prestigious Nation Europa magazine. He also became known as the publisher of Frederick J. Veale's Advance to Barbarism, one of the early pieces of Second World War Historical revisionism. He also contributed to The European, a magazine edited by Diana Mosley.

Thomson continued to serve as leading UM figure until his death in 1955 from cancer.