A WINK, A NOD, OR A SHAKE OF THE HAND

Stuart Christie looks at the history and power base of the ‘Brotherhood’— the West’s largest secret society. If secrecy is to be considered a factor in British politics and commerce then without doubt Freemasonry is one of its principal vehicles. Freemasonry is the largest semi-covert organisation of the western bourgeoisie, with over six million members worldwide sharing a vision of a unified world order bound together through a series of interlocking Masonic alliances. Among the worlds most influential institutions must be the United Grand Lodge of England, the mother lodge of Craft Freemasonry, with its headquarters at Freemasons Hall in Great Queen Street near Covent Garden. It is here that the wealthy and influential members of the British Establishment meet in conditions of ritual secrecy, ostensibly to listen to lectures on Masonic history and to discuss charitable and. other Masonic business. In practice, the Masonic brotherhood constitutes a clandestine network for the defence of the status quo and established privilege, a mutual-aid society for the British ruling class.