The Economic League was an organisation in the United Kingdom dedicated to opposing what they saw as subversion and action against free enterprise.
The organisation was founded in 1919 by a group of industrialists and then MP William Reginald Hall under the name of National Propaganda. Its chief function was to promote the point of view of industrialists and businessmen. Predating McCarthyism, it worked closely with the British Empire Union. John Baker White worked as the league's Assistant Director, and then from 1926 to 1939 as Director.
They later worked with MI5 to blacklist workers who they suspected of association with certain left wing groups, ranging from the Communist Party of Great Britain to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
The League became more visible in the 1980s, as the press investigated its activities, and questions were asked in Parliament in a campaign against the League, led by Maria Fyfe. It was wound up in 1994, with two of its former directors forming the similar organisation CAPRiM shortly afterwards. Another similar organisation was The Consulting Association which was raided by the Office of the Information Commissioner in February 2009.
The league's running cost was funded by contributions from various companies.
In the early 1980s numerous companies would check out employees with the League to ensure that employees were not communist-trained with the intent of disruption.
Famous quotes containing the words economic and/or league:
“The American suffrage movement has been, until very recently, altogether a parlor affair, absolutely detached from the economic needs of the people.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“He will deliver you from six troubles; in seven no harm shall touch you. In famine he will redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword. You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, and shall not fear destruction when it comes. At destruction and famine you shall laugh, and shall not fear the wild animals of the earth. For you shall be in league with the stones of the field, and the wild animals shall be at peace with you.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Job 5:19-23.