Editing British Movement (section)

==Violence==
[[File:British Movement Skinheads 90191.jpg|thumb|Skinhead and punk supporters of BM, London, circa 1979]]
Not long after its formation the BM gained news coverage in [[Leicester]], where a growing Midlands branch was being organised by [[Ray Hill (British activist)|Ray Hill]], when local members attacked students who were supporting an Anti-Apartheid Movement protest against a [[South Africa]]n trade delegation visiting the city.<ref name="Hill36">Hill & Bell, ''The Other Face of Terror'', p. 36.</ref> Direct action activities such as this, which usually ended in violence, became the stock in trade of the BM during its early days.<ref name="Hill36"/> An underground cell, the National Socialist Group, was also established in [[Blackheath, London|Blackheath]] by David Courtney and this undertook paramilitary training exercises in [[Scotland]] whilst also seeking to build links between the BM and like-minded groups in [[Europe]]. The group vanished suddenly in 1969 when [[Special Branch (Metropolitan Police)|Special Branch]] began to investigate them, with Courtney in particular dropping out of the far-right scene for some time afterwards.<ref>Hill & Bell, ''The Other Face of Terror'', pp. 117–118.</ref>

Despite this setback violence remained on the agenda as the party maintained a "Leader Guard" of violent members whom it encouraged to join the [[Territorial Army (United Kingdom)|Territorial Army]], as well as a Women's Division and a National Youth Movement.<ref name="Barb">Peter Barberis, John McHugh, Mike Tyldesley, ''Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations'', 2002, p. 177.</ref>  Members of the BM also took part in paramilitary training exercises in [[Germany]].<ref>Geoffrey Harris, ''The Dark Side of Europe: The Extreme Right Today'', Edinburgh University Press, 1994, p. 123.</ref> One of the BM's fiercest street fighters, [[Nicky Crane]], led and organised several violent attacks by the BM on non-whites. Following a BM meeting in May 1978, Nicky Crane and other BM members took part in an assault on a black family at a bus stop in [[Bishopsgate]], east London using broken bottles.<ref name="bbc.co.uk">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25142557|title=Nicky Crane: The secret double life of a gay neo-Nazi|first=Jon|last=Kelly|date=6 December 2013|publisher=BBC|website=BBC News|access-date=4 February 2017}}</ref> In 1979, Crane and BM members were part of 200-strong skinhead mob that attacked Asians on Brick Lane, east London.<ref name="bbc.co.uk"/> Crane also led and instigated the Woolwich Odeon attack of 1980. After their intended victims ran inside the Odeon cinema to escape attack, Crane and BM members started smashing windows and doors. One Pakistani man was knocked unconscious.<ref name="bbc.co.uk"/>

Convictions were not uncommon. Crane was jailed in 1981 for his part in an ambush on black youths at Woolwich Arsenal station. An Old Bailey judge described Crane as "worse than an animal" after his part in the May 1978 bus stop attack in Bishopsgate.<ref name="bbc.co.uk"/> Other BM members felt the force of the law as was the case in January 1981 when three members, Rod Roberts, Harvey Stock and Robert Giles, were arrested for possession of illegal weapons and attempted arson with Roberts imprisoned for seven years as a result.<ref>Hill & Bell, ''The Other Face of Terror'', pp. 141–142.</ref>