ABSTRACT
As the May 1979 general election approached, the leadership of the National Front was showing ever more difficulty in responding to public opposition. A growing number of inner-party critics could be only silenced by the promise of the Front's leaders that their party was on the verge of an electoral breakthrough. This was the answer the Front's leaders gave to any sort of challenge. Articles in Spearhead insisted that elections were 'the activity around which all else in the National Front revolved' and that their organisation was 'a serious and seriously-taken political entity'. The few parts of the Front to retain any vitality were its youth and music wings. Rock Against Communism had its first public outing in August 1979, at London's Conway Hall. The historian of British fascism, Richard Thurlow writes that At the time of the 1979 general election membership was around 10,000.
