A Touch Of Madness: 1. A Scary Thought

Oswald Mosley, a self-declared fascist, created a militaristic and anti-Semitic movement in 1930s England, dressing his followers in black shirts and staging large-scale rallies in emulation of Hitler and Mussolini.

- Greater even than the stink of oil is the stink of the Jew, he once said, and in his book outlining British Fascism, «Fascism – 100 questions asked and answered», he argued for the deportation of Jews, 'who as a whole have chosen to organise themselves as a nation within the Nation and to set their interests before those of Great Britain. They must, like everyone else, put Britain first, or leave Britain'.

In the 1937 London County Council elections his British Union of Fascists stood in three of its East London strongholds, polling up to a quarter of the vote.

As Stanley G. Payne points out in his «A History of Fascism 1914-1945», fascism 'remains probably the vaguest of the major political terms. This may stem from the fact that the word itself contains no explicit political reference, however abstract, as do democracy, liberalism, socialism and communism. To say that the Italian fascio means 'bundle' or 'union' does not tell us much'.

Payne goes on trying to find a working definition. He writes of the ideology and goals of fascism, that they include an 'espousal of an idealist, vitalist and voluntaristic philosophy, normally involving the attempt to realize a new modern, self-determined, and secular culture', the idea of creating 'a new nationalist authoritarian state not based on traditional principles or models', a positive evaluation and use of, or willingness to use, violence and war, and the goal of empire, expansion, or a radical change in the nation's relationship with other powers, etc. Fascism is anticonservative, anticommunist and antiliberal, there's an extreme stress on the masculine principle and on male dominance and a tendency towards an authoritarian, charismatic, personal style of command, whether or not the command is to some degree initially elective.

There's a problem with Payne's definition, though. It lets some fascists off the hook.

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, it must be a duck, the proverb goes. But today's ducks aren't necessarily obsessed with male dominance, and they might even call themselves liberals and not spend too much time dreaming about empire building. Fascism has evolved. Because fascism stayed with us. It wasn't buried with the fall of the Third Reich at all.

II
Oswald Mosley was imprisoned during the war, first interned under Defence Regulation 18B and sent to Holloway prison, and then living under house arrest from 1943 on. After the war, however, he was convinced by supporters to go back into politics. He started the Union Movement, supporting the idea of a pan-European national state as a counterweight to the US and the USSR. Staying in Ireland and in Paris, he returned for the 1959 parliamentary elections. His campaign issue was immigration, and he combined calls for assisted repatriation with scare stories regarding the criminality and sexual deviance of blacks.

In a biography of his father, novelist Nicholas Mosley writes:
"There was dad on top of a van again and bellowing; [...] there he was roaring on about such things as black men being able to live on tins of cat food, and teenage girls being kept in attics. And there were all the clean-faced young men around his van guarding him; and somewhere, I suppose, the fingers of the devotees of the dark god tearing at him."

Exploring the extreme right is sometimes a bit like walking through a labyrint of parties. It takes a bit of patience just to hang on.

Take John Bean, one of the young men who was attracted to the Union Movement early along. He soon grew to a leading figure in the movement's stronghold in East End London and eventually was appointed to head a branch in Putney. That was in 1952. The next year he left the movement, however. And by the time Mosley was standing on the roof of van's in 1959, Bean had already set up the National Labour Party together with Andrew Fountaine.

After joining forces with the White Defence League this party became the first British National Party. Other figures in the party where John Tyndall and Colin Jordan. They soon set up the National Socialist Movement – an openly Nazi organization that used the slogan «If you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Labour» in the 1965 elections. By that time, of course, John Tyndall had already left the Movement, partly because Jordan had married Tyndall's former fiancée. And Bean? Well, his BNP went on to cofound the National Front. Another cofounder was A.K. Chesterton, a former admirer of Mosley, who – after having been the editor of Blackshirt, BUF's official newspaper – joined up with the Nordic League, 'an association of race-conscious Britons', '[at the service of] 'those patriotic bodies known to be engaged in exposing and frustrating the Jewish stranglehold on our Nordic realm'.

After the National Front faded away Bean pretty much disappeared off the political radar. Much later on, he was to join up with Nick Griffin's second British National Party (founded by the previously mentioned John Tyndall), editing the official monthly magazine of the party - Identity.

In a rather recent article he writes:
"Incidentally, for any cynic who may believe that I have only become «moderate» in my old age, here is another extract from the Special Branch Report:The National Labour Party... held a meeting on 13.6.59 at Queensway, W.2. Up to 70 persons were present to hear John Bean emphasise that the policy of his party was not anti- racial or violent – his party 'just wanted this country to remain white'.Sorry I was not exactly successful: not enough of your fathers and mothers would listen to me."

It might have had something to do with the National Labour Party using symbols such as the Celtic Cross and the Sun Wheel? Or that they cooperated closely with – and eventually merged with – the openly Nazi White Defence League?

In his autobiography «Many shades of black», Bean writes 'I thought then' - the late 1950's - 'that the 'world plot' theory of international finance and communism working in tandem was rather far fetched... Looking at it now after events of the last half of the twentieth Century, not least the collapse of the Soviet Empire, it appears even more unlikely'. So, Bean was not too hot for the Jewish conspiracy theory, but does that really change much?

III
"It would have been like any ordinary Saturday afternoon at the Dulles Hyatt. Inside the lobby of the sterile suburban Northern Virginia hotel, a gray-haired man busied himself at a baby grand piano, filling the room with the sound of schmaltzy jazz standards. Travelling businessmen sat around chatting, puffing cigars, drinking cocktails and chortling at one another's quips. In the corner a woman cradled a sleeping baby. It would have been like any Saturday at the Hyatt, except for the obvious plainclothes cops guarding the hotel's entrances, the employyes forbidden by management from speaking to lurking reporters and the presence, in a hallway, of the beaming white supremacist David Duke, surrounded by a gaggle of admirers.«The Jewish supremacist not only want to control Israel, the want to control America, Europe and the whole world,» Duke announced to a dozen men who crowded around to hear his every word. «The best thing we can do is expose Jewish influence. Then one day the world will rise up, people will fill the streets and call general strikes – just like in Europe»."
(Max Blumenthal, The Nation, March 23rd, 2006)

For the last 12 years, Jared Taylor, of the pseudo-scientific racist magazine American Renaissance have been sponsoring a series of biennial conferences. While his magazine spends much of its time opposing immigration from Mexico and is promoting «the clear conception of the United States as a nation ruled by and for whites» the theme of this year's conference was «The Global Crisis: Perspectives from Europe, Africa and Australia».

It was at this conference Max Blumenthal encountered David Duke, the former National Director of the Knights of Ku Klux Klan and the 1990 governor candidate for the Republican Party in Louisiana (he won 60 percent of the white vote, according to exit polls). But David Duke wasn't the only one there. Stormfront.org, one of the largest far right websites (under the slogan 'White Pride – World Wide'), was represented by founder Don Black – the former Klansman who planned an invasion of the island state of Dominica in 1982.

The announced speakers included British Nick Griffin, South-African Dan Roodt ('Prospect for the White Tribe'), French Guillaume Faye ('The Threat to the West') and Andrew Fraser ('Reversing the Racial Revolution – Reinventing a Responsible Ruling Class'), the Canadian-born professor who stirred up quite a storm in Australia with his talk of a rising ruling class of Asians. In one article Fraser writes:

"Given the relentless and revolutionary assault on their historic national identity, white Australians now face a life-or-death struggle to preserve their homeland. Whether effective resistance to their displacement and dispossession can be mounted is another question. Unlike other racial, ethnic or religious groups well-equipped to practice the politics of identity, white Australians lack a strong, cohesive sense of ethnic solidarity. As a consequence, ordinary Australians favouring a moratorium on non-white immigration cannot count on effective leadership or support from their co-ethnics among political, intellectual and corporate elites. On the contrary, our still predominantly Anglo-Australian rulers are indifferent; some profit from, and others actually take pride in their active collaboration with the Third World colonisation of Australia. None of the major parties, indeed, not one member of the Commonwealth Parliament, offers citizens the option of voting to defend and nurture Australia's Anglo-European identity. The problem, in short, is clear: The Australian nation is bereft of a responsible ruling class. The solution is, in principle, no less obvious: namely, the restoration of a ruling class rooted in the reinvigorated folkways of an authentically Anglo-American civic patriotism, a ruling class re-attached to the history and destiny of its own people. Only time will tell whether and how any such constitutional reformation could take place."

And – in case you wondered – the Nick Griffin mentioned above is the very same Nick Griffin who's leading the British National Party. In his speech, Nick Griffin stated that 'the proper enemy to any political movement isn't necessarily the most evil and the worst. The proper enemy is the one we can most easily defeat'. I guess that means he thinks Muslims are easier to defeat than... who? His past as a Holocaust-denier, and as co-author of the pamphlet «Who Are the Mind-Benders?« (the Jews, according to the pamphlet), might give you a hint or two.

Nicholas Faye, at least, might have gotten himself a surprise at the conference. As Blumenthal points out, Faye disgressed from his barbarian-hordes-are-bearing-down-on-gates-of-the-West-speech to warn that Israel might not survive to see its 100th birthday. Sustained applause immediately burst from the crowd.

IV
The British National Party recently had its best showing ever in local elections in Britain. The party is still a miniature party, but they are gaining weight. Some would say it's because they have become more moderate. One could discuss how much truth there is to that. The below message can hardly be said to belong to a 'moderate' voice:

"This insult to those who happen to be 'White British' is being run by 'Churches Together', a Roman Catholic inspired initiative. So what, some may say. It doesn't matter to me whose stupid idea this was. To those people, I say: Never forget that the hidden agenda behind this politically correct hocus-pocus is the destruction of Protestant/Anglo-Saxon values. That's why it matters!To move forward, we have to be realistic, and accept that, today, both the 'Spiritual' and 'Temporal' pillars of our nation have already been effectively neutered! By whom? By the active connivance of our Monarch? Most likely! The only other alternative would be supreme indifference on Her part! Either way she's guilty of betraying Britain and the British! She has broken Her Coronation Oaths and she has appointed acquiescent yes men to all the important 'spiritual' positions. That the political leadership has been similarly suborned is not in any doubt!So Ladies and Gentlemen there is no point looking for protection from any element of the Establishment. There will be no succour for Britons from the Monarch, the Church, the Judiciary or from Westminster. [...] The reality that has to be faced is that only the voice of the BNP, now remains to defend our ancient liberties and way of life. That leaves another possible conclusion; The British National Party is gaining weight because their opinions – just as despicable and hateful as they've always been - are becoming more mainstream."

It's a scary thought, but it's a scary thought worth considering. Is Fascism on the rise again? Quoted in the Daily Telegraph, Henry Guterman, a Holocaust survivor said: - The BNP is a racist organisation which targets Muslims and Jews and all minority communities. These results are an insult to all those who perished under the Nazis.

Opprinnelig publisert 28.05.2006