Article in today's Guardian on how ex-Revolutionary Communist Party members have become key advisors and influencers at the heart of Johnson's Tory government. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/01/why-johnsons-tories-fell-for-a-tiny-sect-of-libertarian-provocateurs-rcp Part of the Anarchist Workers Group (which always carried some leninist baggage) dissolved into the RCP.
Ex-RCPer, and also former Farageist Brexit MEP, Claire Fox was today awarded a peerage and will now sit as a Baroness in the House of Lords.
Are there any people on the
Are there any people on the right who have moved left?
Georges Valois apparently
Georges Valois apparently went from anarchism to fascism to libertarian socialism (I haven't read the book); https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/From_Fascism_to_Libertarian_Communism.html?id=GC6pngEACAAJ&redir_esc=y
Matty Blag Ricky
Matty Blag
Ricky Tomlinson
The journey rightwards seems a lot more lucrative though.
wojtek wrote: Are there any
wojtek
Galvano della Volpe, Alfred Weiland, Hans-Jürgen Krahl
Jack "from unionism to
Jack "from unionism to anarchism" White.
I only recently heard of him,
I only recently heard of him, but that guy had a fascinating life. Also, I guess that virtually everyone who's not a red diaper baby probably starts off with vaguely liberal/centrist beliefs at some point and then sheds them as they go on (or else they don't, I suppose). But looking at people on the harder right, there's that Faraday Speaks fella, and a few others like Matt Collins - not that Hope Not Hate is ideal or anything, but it's certainly left of where he was. Trying to think if there was another musician who had a similar trajectory to Matty Blag but maybe I'm just getting him mixed up with someone else. There's Paul Weller, I suppose.
R Totale wrote: there's that
R Totale
Another youtuber I know of who went from far-right to far-left (anarcho-communist in this case) is RE-EDUCATION.
Kind of an unfortunate name... my mind always adds the word "camp" at the end.
Oh, there's also
Oh, there's also BadMouseProductions who went from anti-state pro-capitalist (so-called "ancap") to anarcho-communist and then became some sort of Leninist.
Ammon
Ammon Bundy
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/ammon-bundy-comes-out-in-support-of-blm-calls-to-defund-the-police/
Bundy hasn't moved to the
Bundy hasn't moved to the left; his stance regarding BLM is that of a principled american libertarian who opposes police abuse as a manifestation of a larger authoritarian agenda of surveillance and other government intrusions into people's private lives. his public embrace of BLM has provoked a cognitive implosion among his erstwhile white supremacist and conservative supporters and followers, who thought of him as an arch-conservative and fellow racist. now, he may indeed be those things, but as i said, he's *primarily* (in this instance and at least so far) a principled libertarian in a sea of arch-conservatives and white supremacists who support the police when it serves their interests.
I think Christian Piccolini
I think Christian Piccolini probably counts, although I don't know too much about what his politics are like now.
Anyway, going back to the original post, who would win in a cult-off between the British Furedi RCP vs the American Avakian RCP?
Have any of these characters
Have any of these characters made any worthy reflections about their reasons for being drawn towards and then away from fascism/nationalism?
wojtek wrote: Are there any
wojtek
The documentary Divide and Rule Never! https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-divide-and-rule-never-1978-online
had a number of white youths who used to be in the NF reflecting on why they joined it what it offered, what it didn't, and why they're no longer part of it.
Faraday: IGD interview,
Faraday: IGD interview, youtube channel
Matthew Collins wrote a book (which I've not read, so idk if it's any good)
Christian Picciolini has done an IGD interview and written two books (which I've also not read)
Not to be too reliant on IGD or anything, but their latest podcast has an interview with Adam Naughton where they say that they discuss his evolution from a Right political position to a libertarian socialist one, but I've not listened to that either.
RT wrote: Anyway, going back
RT
The Avakians win on sheer staying power by some decades; and in the overt pride and intensity of their absolute cult of personality. But I can't see His Bobness or any of them gaining much influence in the White House.
The UK Left press comment on
The UK Left press comment on the original item and it's reporting in The Guardian newspaper for those of us who remember these groups evolution over time:
https://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1311/arise-lady-fox/