Why the Homeland Party is a fascist party

With the recent split in Patriotic Alternative we have seen the rise in a new political party, the Homeland Party. This rather nauseous group of anti-refugee nationalists pretends to be in support of the democratic parliamentary process. However, a little digging quickly reveals the extent of its fascist pedigree.

Let's take a look at some of its key values:

1. They say they believe the most important unit in society is the traditional family and that society should be geared towards the promotion of traditional values and creating a safe place to raise children.

2. They support the ideal of a monocultural, high trust community (ie anti-immigration) where people help their neighbours.

3. They believe in the principle of a nation-state that truly represents the interests of the English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish people - so no place for ethnic minorities or multiculturalism

4. They also believe the countryside should be managed and protected by those who best understand the land and have put down roots. A concept that could have easily been taken from Mosley's British Union of Fascists playbook.

5. The Homeland Party also argue that the economy and private industry should be run for the benefit of our people, not multinational corporations or international finance.  As part of this they believe we should become less reliant on foreign imports and more self-sufficient, to maintain a sustainable domestic market of local produce and meaningful work. Quite clearly this is only a very short step away from the notion of the Corporate State as defined by Gentile and in this country by Alexander Raven Thompson.

It is transparently obvious from this analysis that the Homeland Party is nothing more than another fascist party dedicated to the elimination of our hard-earned Liberal democracy.

This is a party that carries traditional racist and antisemitic values close to its heart. David Gardner, a senior activist in the Homeland Party, writing on the Telegram social media site stated:

"If the jew doesnt do it with their holocaust myth to protect them, then no one else really does. If we removed the jewish people in those power positions, there is no route for this evil power to seep in White people”

You don't get much clearer.

Homeland may not be a sizable force but their presence is a clear indicator that fascism has not gone away, it has simply sanitised its propaganda to make it look more attractive.

As always, the price of peace is eternal vigilance. 

Fascist and PA activist Kris ‘Charlie Big Potatoes’ Kearney imprisoned for nearly five years

In the last twenty-four hours, another far-right extremist has been jailed – this time because he thought it appropriate to distribute the manifestos of terrorist groups online.

Kristofer Kearney

Kristofer Thomas Kearney, 38, who is probably better known within the far-right community as “Charlie Big Potatoes” and, until yesterday had an active Telegram account, pleaded guilty in March to two offences of disseminating terrorist publications.

The media are reporting that he is believed to be the first member of far-right group Patriotic Alternative to be convicted of terrorist offences, although it must be mentioned the group are not averse to working alongside those who have, or are later convicted of criminal offences. Last month, James Allchurch — who allegedly suggested a politician’s daughter should be raped was convicted of 10 of 15 counts of distributing material intended to stir up racial hatred via his online radio station, Radio Albion. The material included references to hanging black and Jewish people. Following his conviction PA  offered him their full support and condemned “draconian restrictions on freedom of speech”. Additionally, PA Talk (their nasty ultra-nationalist podcast) previously were happy to broadcast an interview with the far-right extremist and convicted criminal, Blair Cottrell who, among his many ‘achievements’ can boast how he is the former leader of the white supremacist group, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).

As for Kearney, the offences relate to two Telegram posts that he distributed on January 23 and March 8, all in  2021. These posts disseminated dozens of documents encouraging extreme right-wing terror attacks, including the manifestos of Christchurch mosque killer Brenton Tarrant and Anders Breivik, who murdered 77 people in Norway. Alongside this, he unashamedly distributed two other far-right manifestos related to Texas Walmart mass killer Patrick Crusius and John Earnest, who killed a Jewish woman and injured three others attending a California synagogue in 2019.

The court heard previously that Kearney told fellow Telegram users Adolf Hitler “showed people the way” and “did nothing wrong” as he shared posts encouraging violence against Jews and Muslims. He also shared a “Punish a Muslim Day” letter, in which readers were encouraged to “butcher a Muslim” for 500 points, remove a woman’s headscarf for 25 points and bomb a mosque for 1,000 points, it has been said.

During 2021, Kearney also posted a numbered list and links to 89 extreme right-wing documents.

An image of Kearney with a National Action flag was also shown to the court, which the defendant said was taken at an anti-grooming gang rally in  Darlington. Although he denied membership, he is known to have been an active member of the neo-Nazi group until a week before it was proscribed.

Kearns seen saluting with members of National Action

In his lacklustre defence, the self-described British fascist said that he was “horrified” to have shared videos which encouraged violence and described some of the phrases used on his channel as little more than a “rallying cry” for people to get involved in community groups. Instead, he argued they were not aimed at promoting violence and denied that his intention was to prompt anyone who saw the material he posted to then go on to seriously injure people or damage property – this is despite that on one occasion alone, he called for people to ‘Butcher a Muslim’.

Kearney told the court the point of setting up his channel was to “spread the right-wing and the fascist world view”.

At the Old Bailey, the court heard how material on Kearney’s Telegram profile did, in fact, depict or encourage violence in the battle against “white genocide”. After a rather long and somewhat tedious trial, Judge Richard Marks KC jailed Kearney for four years and eight months with an extended licence period of two years after finding the defendant ‘legally dangerous’. A notification requirement for a period of 10 years was also ordered.

The judge determined at an earlier trial of issue that Kearney shared the posts both recklessly and with the intention of encouraging terrorism, accepting that he may not have familiarised himself with all of the postings but rejecting the claim that he was completely ignorant of any material involving violence. He told Kearney on Friday:

“In this country, we have lived for many years in a multicultural society which most people regard as being enriching … Right-thinking members of any society regard tolerance, kindness, understanding and inclusivity to everyone regardless of their background as being of absolutely fundamental importance … Much of the material that you posted entirely negates those values and is extreme, vile, inflammatory, divisive and deeply offensive … Whilst I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt that your entire agenda and intention was not throughout to encourage acts of terrorism, I conclude from the nature, extent and volume of the material posted that such was your fanaticism in achieving your state of objectives that you were prepared and intended at least in part for that to happen if that is what it took.”

The defendant, who was part of the Army’s parachute regiment for two years, regularly featured on right-wing podcasts called Patriotic Talk and The Absolute State of Britain, and had set up a channel called Fascist Fitness to hand out exercise and fitness tips.

As a result of his incarceration PA now have a vacancy for a new “Head of Fitness” – racists, hooligan and thugs are welcome to send their CV in to Mark Collett, but applicants are advised to use short sentences and single syllable words. Having said this, with the recent splintering of PA and the creation of the new Homeland Party, applicants may wish to consider whether it is worth taking a job with an organisation that will struggle to see out the rest of the year.

What is Fascism?

Most of us have heard people accusing politicians of being ‘fascists’ or ‘Nazis’, but what do we really mean? Is it a legitimate accusation, or is it just another term we throw out with the intention of offending or labelling.

 Well quite clearly some of these accusations do not stand the test of analysis if we carefully analyse what we mean by the term ‘fascist’ or ‘fascism’.

 Opponents of fascism usually tend to categorise it as a ‘far right ideology, yet this is something that adherents would violently oppose. Indeed, Paxton (2004 p.) has argued:

“The ultimate fascist response to the Right-Left political map was to claim that they had made it obsolete by being ‘neither Right nor Left’, transcending such outdated divisions and uniting the nation.”

 

Furthermore, Jackson (2018) complicated matters even further by pointing out how any defining fascism is inexorably obfuscated by the fact that any interpretation will be tainted by the analysts own worldview. Thus, for example, a Marxist might see fascism as a creation of modernity that identified how capitalism was in a state of crisis and offered a violent response to fend off a true workers’ revolution. Alternatively, psychologists have argued fascism is either an adolescent rebellion (Erikson) or an alienation of man in the modern world (Fromm).

 

	British Union of Fascists	PNF – Italian Fascist Party	Swastika – symbol of the NSDAP – Nazi Party (Germany
Symbols of Fascist Organisations

 While interesting, none of this fully explains what is fascism and what underpins it ideologically. In an attempt to address this, Paxton (1998) argued several mobilising passions needed to be present for a movement to be described as ‘fascist’. These included:

• The primacy of the group toward which one has duties, superior to every right whether universal or individual;
• The belief that one’s group is a victim and that action again those enemies (both internal and external is justified);
•  A dread that because of liberalism, one’s group is sliding into a state of decadence;
• Closer integration of the group into a ‘brotherhood’ to protect its purity is critical even if this includes exclusionary violence;
• The authority of natural chiefs (always male) culminating in a national leader who will guide the group’s identity;
• The beauty of violence when it is devoted to the success of the group in a Darwinian struggle.

 Meanwhile, Finchelstein (2008) argued:

“Fascism is a political ideology that encompassed totalitarianism, state terrorism, imperialism, racism and, in the German case, the most radical genocide of the last century: the Holocaust.”

 While Griffin saw fascism as:

“Fascism should be seen as a revolutionary form of nationalism guided by the myth of the imminent rebirth of the nation in decadence.” 

 Other theorists have seen it as an expression of lower middle-class resentments (Lipset, 1963) while a multitude of observers have seen fascism as a sub-species of totalitarianism.

Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists

Clearly, we can see from all this there is no universal agreement on what is meant by the term. However, for our purposes and for future understanding of all posts that will follow in this blog, the following elements will generally be assumed to exist within the ideology of what is generally termed ‘fascism’. While far from definitive, it offers a starting point for future discussion:

1. A closed ideological system that places the state and the nation at the centre of all human life;
2. A rejection of political and cultural liberalism;
3. Opposition to the democratic process including parliamentary democracy;
4.  A total opposition to Marxist/ Communist ideology;
5. A belief in the notion of the Corporate State as defined by Gentile and Mussolini;
6. Totalitarian or authoritarian ambition;
7. The leader principle - the belief that the party and the state should have a single leader with absolute power;
8. Mass mobilisation of the population;
9. The creation of “the new man” - transforming the ordinary man into the “new man,” a “virile” being who would put decadent bourgeoisie, cerebral Marxists, and “feminine” liberals to shame;
10. A sense of victimhood - despite claims of superiority, fascists tends to claim the nation group has been victimized by others;
11. Ultra-nationalism that seeks to expand the nation's influence and power;
12. Racial scapegoating - exclusion of certain groups, often through violence;
13. Sexism and misogyny - women are urged to perform their traditional gender roles as wives and mothers and to bear many children for the nation;
14. Anti-intellectualism;

 What does this mean?

Even a superficial reading of the above clearly shows that the term “fascism” is frequently misused and often reduced to a term of abuse. The trouble with this approach is that it leads to a dead end. If we allow this continue, where does it lead and, more importantly, what terms can we then adopt when we need to actually describe genuine fascist movements. Indeed, in the coming weeks, I will hopefully demonstrate that in the last thirty years, we often describe extreme, or far right groups as ‘fascist’, when in fact they may be nothing of the sort, even though many of their views may be repugnant to decent minded people.

 Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this post and do feel free to comment. In the meantime, have a great weekend.

 

References:

Finchelstein, F.  (2008) On Fascist Ideology Constellations. 15(3) 320 – 331

Griffin, R. (2002) Cruces gamadas y caminos bifurcados: las dinámicas fascistas del Tercer Reich” in Mellón, J.A. (ed.): Orden, Jerarquía y Comunidad. Fascismos, Dictaduras y  Postfascismos en la Europa Contemporánea, Madrid, Tecnos, p.103-149.

Jackson, P. 2018) Colin Jordan and Britain’s Neo-Nazi Movement – Hitler’s Echo. Bloomsbury, London.

Lipset, S.M. (1963) Political Man. Doubleday. New York

Paxton, R.O. (1998) The five stages of Fascism. Journal of Modern History. 70(1) 1 – 23.

Paxton, R.O (2004) The Anatomy of Fascism. Penguin. London

Welcome - I am back!!

First, and before I go any further, thanks for visiting my blog – I hope you’ll find it informative and interest you enough to make you want to come back. As I sued to 10 years ago, at the bottom of all my posts, I’ll leave space for you to comment, or ask questions on any of the topics, so feel free to participate in any way you feel appropriate. Most of my posts will be about fascism past and present as well as the far-right in the UK and some of my opinions won’t meet with everyone’s approval, particularly if you are, or have been a supporter of a British far-right, fascist or neo-Nazi group – so be warned. I’m not setting out to offend people, but equally, I think it would be dishonest if I tried to pretend that I have no opinion on the matter. I do (I would describe myself as anti-fascist) and with this in mind, you need to know that discussion and different views will always be welcomed, but any offensive comments directed directly towards me or any contributors will be deleted and repeat offenders will be blocked from making further comments.

Harsh I know, but I want this to be a safe space for moderate and liberal people to speak freely and without fear of being abused.

As for me, I first became “interested” in the far-right as a teenager and watched with interest and concern as groups like the National Front, National Party and British National Party grew and then faded away into near oblivion. It didn’t take very long for me to move from being a student sitting on the side-lines into becoming an activist and one of the early members of the Anti-Nazi League (ANL) in the South-West of England. As the years went by and the clashes between the far-right and ‘anti-fascist became fewer, I returned to being a student (albeit informally) as I was particularly interested in understanding their history and political ideology. In all this I was fired by a single question – ‘How could ultra-nationalist, anti-democratic ‘political soldiers’ attract support after all the misery and horror of the Second World War’?

I never really found an answer.

But what I did notice was that over the years, I heard liberals, left-wingers and ‘anti-fascists’ call their opponents “fascist”, “Nazi”, “far-right”, or “neo-Nazi” without regard for whether these labels were accurate. As I listened, it seemed most of the people were using these terms as abuse rather than with any concern for accurate political labelling. So, Margaret Thatcher became a “Nazi” with no evidence she was antisemitic (yes, that is how it should be spelt!) and Tony Blair was a ‘fascist’ because of his action against Saddam Hussein. Then, as this labelling became more common the power behind the words started to wane, until finally two mates drinking in a pub arguing about their local club football match might end up calling each other ‘fascist’, almost as an amiable (but with no offence meant) slur.

So, I decided to resurrect this blog, but this time I. I wanted to define these terms and see if others were also concerned about how we are watering down our language by using terms like ‘Nazi’. In all of this, I wanted to rediscover:

What is fascism?

What is Nazism?

What is neo-Nazism?

What do we really mean by the ‘far-right?’

With this as a foundation, I began to set about the task and as I did, I realised that it was impossible to discuss these terms without looking into the history of British and European fascism. So, it became clear that another aspect of this blog would be to go on to explore the nature and history of the far right in Britain tracing its roots from about the start of the twentieth century and following through to the present day. As part of this, it became clear to me that it was essential to look at the people behind these groups and how their views made them into some of the most hated people of their time.

I hope you agree it’s an exciting project and I look forward to sharing it with you.