A Movement of Long Knives: Death in June, Alternative Nationalism, and Building a New Anti-Fa

Death in June mixing "irony" with sincere, esoteric fascism.

In the wake of recent protests around the neo-folk(and neo-fascist) band Death In June, some thoughts on how we can develop an anti-fascist movement for the 21st century.

Submitted by Eviction Free Zone on November 12, 2014

As Death in June began making its rounds on the Death of the West tour (a line often used throughout White Nationalist literature, and the title of a book by it’s public face, Patrick Buchanan), an anti-fascist group began to rally to have the dates canceled and shows protested. As the organizing began there was a mad rush to defend DIJ by a fan base that could not imagine that an iconoclastic band such as this could really be responsible for the kind of hate they were being accused of. “They are representing a kind of folk culture.” “They only use fascist imagery as an ironic shock.” “They are queer friendly, and play in Israel.” These are only a few of the justifications given, while most people simply cited that they don’t usually say anything racial so therefore do not fit in the Nazi category. This was responded to by a difficult discussion about the factions within Nazism and an attempt at a critical analysis about the use of fascist and nationalist imagery, most of which was lost on those defending DIJ.

What this tends to bring up is less a question of how DIJ presents themselves and more a difficulty in the discourse around anti-fascism. Today a rising tide of fascism takes on multiple political programs, finds entryism into a variety of cultural movements seen as traditionally both left and right, and often times shades itself in images that are completely alien.

The term Nazi is often hard to apply, and therefore the discussion often creates confusion and robs anti-fascists of the ability to truly mobilize around this issue. It is much easier, in comparison, to target things like the North Dakota town being infiltrated by the National Socialist Movement and the Creativity Movement (formerly World Church of the Creator) as the aesthetics and most people generally understand rhetoric. But what about the tribalist rhetoric present in DIJ? How about the discussion of paganism, right wing anti-capitalism, folkish culture, and the various tenants of rising ”intellectual” fascism. This creates a disconnect as anti-fascists are often reduced to the most obvious, and often least effective, target. The question here becomes what the goals of an anti-fascist movement should be, and what the results of a fascist current can be when not countered.

There are two primary problems that a fascist movement can create when entering a community.

1. Extreme violence towards members of communities that oppose them. This means the targeting of minorities, Jews, LGBTQ folks, and others for violence.
2. Entry into existing movements to push them in a fascist direction, whether on the right or the left.

The first one has often been the target of anti-fascist groups, and for good reason. The most common issue that a militant racist movement will cause is spontaneous violence for people, such as the random attacks on people of color on the street. This is an incredibly difficult problem since, by and large, anti-fascist groups are really not equipped for the kind of community policing that this requires. This does not mean it is unnecessary, but in reality it creates such a point of violence that most people cannot risk their lives to participate. Likewise, though people often hurl epithets at the police, calling them fascists, they are usually not, and the police usually targets Nazi gangs pretty regularly. Problems with the police do not usually come from their participation in openly fascist movements (at least in this country), but instead in their protection of a system of capital and institutionalized oppression. The system exhibits consistent racism on a daily basis, but this is fundamentally different than a paramilitary force that hopes to establish an explicitly racist social system. For anti-fascists that do want to target these groups, they are going to have to commit to a life at risk of violence and retaliation.

This fact does not, however, mean that their efforts are not needed, but instead much less effective. The violence of explicit Nazis is often unprovoked, unplanned, and difficult to counter. Instead, a praxis of community protection and solidarity can be employed, where safe spaces are established and large-scale community response networks can be created.

The second problem is the one that is both more persistent in our current climate and often less targeted. This comes in several forms, less often having participants of an open Neo-Nazi self-identification. Instead, these people may refer to themselves as radical traditionalists, revolutionary conservatives, reactionaries, neo-pagans, or simply “concerned citizens.” The rhetoric here often changes with whatever the cultural subsets of these ideas are, but the fact remains that they share a White Nationalist worldview. Their primary focus is to now enter social movements, community spaces, spiritual communities, and the like, and influence them in a certain direction, usually towards the “preservation of the European traditions and people.” They may not recite the “14 words” explicitly, but the content of their speech remains the same. It is here that things become more difficult, but there are some mainstays that we can look towards.

What is the primary issue for White Nationalists to focus on? Immigration (you may also say Affirmative Action, but this has really receded as will be discussed later). What is the second most primary issue for them? There is none.

This is not because White Nationalists view immigration as a problem above all else, even though their current rhetoric will lead you to believe this. Instead, they have found a dividing issue in which they can enter and shift the conversation consistently. In a different generation, there were contentious issues that were easy to enter the public discussion about, yet today immigration is on many people’s minds and mixed consciousness about this issue is common even in “progressive” communities.

A great example of this is the clearly racialist website VDare. Run by White Nationalist Paul Goddfried, this is an anti-immigration website that hosts a “variety of viewpoints” that are critical of immigration. It is through this website, and really only through this type of discourse, that someone like Peter Brimelow is able to be taken seriously and be invited to mainstream conservative events like C-PAC. Brimelow hosts openly racist writers on VDare, as well as well known reactionaries like Pat Buchanan. Here they are given a gift in that racist immigration ideas are still mainstream and accepted within the sphere of “reasonable discourse,” and therefore White Separatist ideas become part of this sphere through VDare’s position on the issue. The same is true of overt racists like Steve Sailer and the former National Review contributor John Derbyshire.

Other issues come and go as racists feel as though they can utilize them. At times they have been on both the vanguard of the pro and anti-environmental movements. They have at times been conservative Evangelical Christians, while also shifting to Germanic Neo-Pagan movements with an ethnic identitarianism. They are both hyper rational, and critical of materialism and science. They lack consistency in their issues and their approach to criticism, yet remain consistent in their conclusions.

The diversity and complexity of this has really taken shape with the injection of far-right academics into this discourse, usually coming out of Western Europe. Movements like Noveaux Drois, GRECE, the French New Right, as well as individual authors like Alain DeBenoit and Jonathan Bowden developed a canon to be essentially the fascist equivalent of Frankfurt School Marxism. Domestically, the vanguard of this “novel restatement of fascism” comes in places like Alternative Right, Count-Currents publishing, Voice of Reason radio, and others. There is again nothing consistent in the politics of these areas, except their criticisms of multiculturalism, egalitarianism, and anything that could possibly rip white Europeans from their “glorious history.” At Attack the System we see the North American lead of National Anarchism, amongst other similar strains like Anarcho-Feudalism and Anarcho-Monarchism. Here former Worker Solidarity Alliance member turned National Anarchist, supports secessionist movements where people abolish the state in favor of ethnically homogenous tribal sects. Richard Spencer, previously of Alternative Right and now Radix Journal, focuses on what he calls Radical Traditionalism, creating an essentialist and biological explanation for almost every social system. Here he consistently argues for fascist policies as the continuation of the great “Western civilization,” based on heroism, strength, and a strict nationalism. All of these utilize the language of academia and activism to argue for some of the most reprehensible views on race and politics, with a starting point that popular democracy is a perversion and that people are inherently unequal.

There have always been intellectual vanguards on the far right, so these new terms and publications are nothing new. What is different, however, is that the vigilance of their entryism has waned. It may seem obvious when looking at their writing that they are getting at something fundamentally fascist, even when avoiding the word outright. At the same time, as these ideas enter our movements we have not created the kind of united fronts that are important.

An example of this has been the uncomfortable relationship between these nationalist neo-tribalist movements and the radical environmental and Anarcho-Primitivist currents. While people like John Zerzan and Kevin Tucker critique all aspects of civilization for its alienating effects, and advocate a return to a pre-civilized way of living, there are definite elements to their discourse that have become questionable. What Zerzan often refers to as a critique of “mass cultural orientation” often resembles the newly forming critiques of multiculturalism that are happening on the far-right, as well as the inherent belief in Primitivist politics that people with special needs must be sacrificed. There is a definite spiritual element to this analysis, at times echoing the folkish connection between the people and the land. Fetishism of tribal communities is common, often forgetting to discuss how a return to these original tribal communities often takes the form of racial segregation. This is not to say that people like Zerzan himself share these fascist worldview, and likely far from it, but this has created a clear opening. Recently, a National Anarchist was added to the editorial collective of Green Anarchist in Britain, forcing many infoshops to remove it from their shelves. Often times this discourse has affected green communities, and it is not uncommon for things like race and nation to be discussed alongside these anti-civ perspectives. In Deep Green Resistance we see a respect for the top-down militia style that we see in right-wing paramilitarism, as well as an acceptance of transphobia without a consistent backlash.

As we entered into the Occupy Movement, the diversity of political ideas and backgrounds created a lot of ideological conflicts. While this disagreement is totally welcome in a multifaceted mass movement, we again saw a return of the conspiracy theory and “libertarianism”(for most anarchists, calling capitalists libertarians feels like a punch in the stomach). We saw things like 9/11 Truthers, Mises Institute fellows, and many on the fringes of right-wing economics being discussed. As an undercurrent to many of these are classic conspiracies about the control Jews have in the media, banking, and politics, many of which are the same that the John Birch Society had in the past. The inherent “inequality” of people is central to the ideas present in people like Murray Rothbard, and his racial views are well known. As a search for openness was heralded as incredible in these burgeoning occupations, we began to see an unquestioning acceptance of borderline conspiracy theories and disgusting views on the poor as part of the acceptable range of discourse. While many of these “libertarians” had connections to neo-confederate, militia, and racial movements, we still sat through talks on the gold standard and the Federal Reserve as if this fringe element was just a part of our revolutionary milieu.

The problem is, they aren’t. These ideas do not make up political allies in left communities, especially ones that have committed themselves to an anti-racist egalitarian worldview. Without the ability to identify this rhetoric for what it is it is difficult to be able to see it when it begins to influence our movements. Just like a parasite turns its host against itself, these movements go from being our tools for social change to their weapon for social destruction.

The question that comes up here is how can we go forward with an anti-fascist praxis that can be both effective and comprehensive. This often begins by knowing what we are looking for, and what we are fighting. Without a clear understanding of what fascism is we will only be able to spot it in its most obvious caricatures of itself. Unfortunately, the fascist movements that will attempt to gain powerful holds in America will likely not be under a Nazi flag. This makes them harder to spot, harder to attack, and harder to suffocate.

What people have done for years is attempt to create a “generic definition of fascism.” What this means is a way to describe what fascism is that is not dependent on a particular movement, conflict, country, or period of time. What is the specific fascist element? Some argue that there is no generic fascism because it is always a false ideology that is specific to the dictator and always just a way to exploit a population. While this is true, there are common features that bind together fascist movements even though they may be culturally and contextually different.

There has often been an effort to simply define authoritarian movements as fascist, though this is not a universal connection. Marxists often define fascism as the more reactionary sector of capital, but this misses its most key elements. Fascism as a state philosophy is almost universally anti-capitalist because capitalism creates too much multiculturalism and does not put the welfare of a homogenous racial or cultural group first. In this way fascism is often described as a right-wing socialism, where by a welfare state is used to systematically exclude people. The fundamental core of fascism is the belief in the essential nature of hierarchy. If people are fundamentally unequal, then society should be stratified and democracy should be waned since the governing of the people is best left up to an elite. Any form of capitalist representative democracy, which most anarchists and anti-authoritarians would say isn’t even a true democracy, allows for too much class mobility and popular control. Instead, a fascist state is meant to force hierarchy to exist without the irregularity of capital. This state is meant to subvert democratic institutions along an ideological line, force “class collaboration,” and make sure that inequality is observed. Many on the modern intellectual fascist line return to the ideas of Julius Evola, a radical right wing philosopher that states that societies are healthier the more clearly the social stratification and hierarchy is. He asserts that modernity is a “feminizing” and equalizing force that strips of our national, racial, and spiritual identity, which is inherent in “traditional” societies. This shows the next key element of fascism, which is a paleogenic myth about the “true nature” of society. Fascism promises to restore the true order, the heroic history that never was. Fascism outlines a mythology about a particular grouping by suggesting that in the past it was racially homogenous, filled with heroes, perfectly run, and where by people are spiritually fulfilled. This often forgets the history of extreme oppression that most people experienced historically as subjects of the empires they hope to emulate in a modern context, as well as the fact that there is no genetic homogeneity in any of these European communities at any point in history. The reality is that this vision of its past was never true, but that does not negate that fascists believe we can return to it.

Elitism, essentialism, and racism are all key since they create a worldview that inequality is “natural” and that nations are essential characteristics of a person’s biology. Without this return to the pure essential it is hard for them to argue that a nation has something crucial to offer, but if you assume that all things are based in biology they can string together a narrative that racial categories define our cultural realities. There is no contemporary science to justify these racial categories and no evidence to propose that people of Germanic decent have something fundamentally different about them than anyone from any other part of the world, which is why they easily slip into pseudo-scientific double speak, quoting obscure philosophers and playing with subjective terms like “identity”

There is a lot of discussion about what is truly fascist, what is proto-fascist, and what simply has “fascist elements.” The answer to this for anti-fascist organizers comes a lot different than academics that make it simply an intellectual exercise. Instead, we have to see fascism as something to be opposed and countered, not simply something that exists as an idea on its own. Fascism attempts to conquer and transform our communities, so its definition is only as useful as we can use it as a category to identify and destroy. Fascism is not defined by its command economics or its anti-capitalism, but by its elitist, hierarchical, racist nationalism and mythology. It’s perceived return to the past, its utopian visions of superiority, and its belief in the essential nature of sexual, gender, racial, and social roles.

Within this context we can see an entire historical run for fascism as it arises as a distinct current within a political movement, even if that current does not take over every apparatus of government and social life. Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany, and Fascist Italy are often proposed as the only true manifestations of fascism, but this negates the reality of its place in the Fallange in Spain, the Iron Guard in Romania, and, most recently, the paranoid race-based nationalism of North Korea. Fascism makes up a distinct worldview where by imagery has substantive meaning and ethnicity is a defining characteristic.

Fascism does likewise not attach itself to specific political formations. There has often been a very common comparison, usually by the less intelligent conservative milieu, that any kind of nationalized industry thus denotes fascism because they also nationalized that industry in Germany and Italy. This is an obvious logical fallacy, but does present some of the problems with discerning fascism. While it does often take on authoritarianism, and the idea of authority whether in a macro level through “fuher” type leadership and on the micro level by strong men within the family, it does not necessarily denote totalitarianism. National Anarchists argue for a state-free form of nationalism, where by tribal and racial authorities are important without the apparatus of the state. This is one of the many “third position” fascist ideas that have become popular, where it is not uncommon to combine previously thought of as non-complimentary social ideas.

The key element here will never be a type of political machinery, but instead a distinct one of values. Political methodology is usually chosen because of its perceived effectiveness in realizing a sort of value. From the perspective of most people, equality, freedom, and the like are common values, though the methods of how to achieve this very greatly. Among the radical right, this sense of value is completely different. Instead, hierarchy, authority, tradition, and strength over the weak are the values, and the political apparatus that is chosen is just the method. While the kind of state fascism seen in Italy and Germany may be the kind that is commonly known, it is not the only method that these people come up with. The totalitarian tyranny of Soviet Russia took on many of the state functions that Nazi Germany did, but different in that they thought this oppression could lead to an egalitarian democracy. The difference is the Nazis used these tools to smash both.

From here we can begin to sketch together a profile that is common amongst the various groups, often hiding behind the syncretic “dualism” of Third Position fascism. At their core is a disbelief in the capability of all people to rule, the inequality and stratification amongst people, the essential nature of value in biology, and the need to lead through violence, heroism, and strength.

The definition of fascism should then come from what is useful rather than what is academically perfect. In this way, the broader definition of the history of fascism can trace a series of examples of fascism that may not fit the definitions verbatim. The reason is that while these movements are diverse and may not hold every single element of fascism, this is still their dominant current and can be reduced to this common denominator for the purpose of targeting. This does not mean, however, that we should be liberal with the term. Without the key elements of inequality, authoritarianism, and the like it does not really represent a revolutionary fascist current, but rather just the most barbarous elements of the current capitalist system. When the Obama, and previously Bush, administration engage in corporatism and totalitarianism, it does not inherently make it fascist. As anti-authoritarians we already have a critique of these elements and currently oppose the state of the system, but this does not necessarily represent fascism. Instead, fascism is going to run counter the current mechanisms of capitalism and the State since they do not perfectly represent the forceful implementation of their vision. Instead, they can influence or overthrow the State, in the same way that various strains of the left could. We very well could devolve into fascism in America, but it is likely to not simply come from the regular functions of capital and the State.

The war that is at play here is not with the fascists for the fate of society (yet), but instead over the fate of radicalism.

Fascism, as a radical current, critiques the current social order for various reasons, often times taking to task the same things that revolutionaries do on the left. Boredom. Environmental destruction. Alienation. Poor living standards. All of these things are presented often times within the fascist program of critique, but it does so with a fundamentally different set of values. As they come in contact with people looking for a deeper analysis and have a general distrust of the system, they present an alternative. They do this inside the various radical movements that are at play to attract revolutionaries, and inside conservative social movements to attract the reformists. While we will not be persuading potential converts inside the right-wing anti-immigration movement, those working in Palestinian support and radical environmentalism can and should be comrades in an intersectional struggle against oppression. If these struggles are primary to someone, they are susceptible to systemic critiques that support their current issue. If we allow these disgusting ideas to become a viable option for those in struggle, we will let our movements be areas of inflation for the fascist movements.

For committed anti-fascist organizers there needs to be a few ideas that can lead a way forward away from the current failures and to begin to target fascist movements as they arise, try to make entry into radicalism, and shift current social movements.

1. It is important to differentiate fascist intellectual movements and political organizing from fascist gang culture. The main reason for this is not ideological, but tactical. In the case of skinhead gangs or KKK militants there is rarely a deeply thought ideological root, but rather a pairing of racial difference with economic and personal strife. Here they tend to recruit the down and out, often youths with difficult backgrounds, and their main tool is violence. The reality here is that they will never influence any movement, and even the far right would like to disassociate at any chance. Instead, they pose the risk of spontaneous violence to communities of color, LGBT color, and anyone else they begin to add to their list of discontents. This presents a fundamentally different challenge from targeting white nationalists in American Renaissance or The Occidental Observer, who are there making poised ideological arguments to people willing to absolve themselves of conventional ethical logic. The plan of action is completely different, as approaching skinheads is really a matter of physical defense of self and community. Here they need to be dealt with simply as agents of violence, and in reality police will still act as their adversary. This is also not a conventional battle of political organizing as it would be with actual political organizers, and you do not have to win people to your side since they have already done a pretty good job alienating everyone around them already. This does not mean that anti-fascists should not strike against groups like Combat 18, but it means that this is a guerilla war and community organizing does not take on the same precedence. Instead, it is social movement fascists and intellectual right-wingers that need to be targeted through social movements that hold a radical enough analysis that their charade can be unveiled.

2. The fascism of tomorrow will never look like the fascism of yesterday. While a fetishism of nationalist images is a permanent fixture of far right institutions, with Death in June being the perfect example, the most classic images of World War II fascism have been completely stripped from the intellectual and social movement fascists. You are not going to see a swastika from the National Anarchists at a Palestinian solidarity rally, nor are you going to see pictures of Hitler in the pages of the Radix. Instead, you are going to see vague references to nationalism, identity, spirituality, tradition, and the like, all of which can go under the radar if you are looking for “Heil Hitlers.” The reality is that the obvious images of traditional war fascism are so repugnant to everyone in modern society that people who share those ideas are never going to cloak themselves in them if they want any chance of success. The fascist movements that do so, like the National Socialist Movement or the National Alliance, make up the most organized wing of the skinhead gang culture, but in the end the only threat they present is motivating spontaneous violence. They will never have power in social movements or statist politics. Instead, fascism will take on the same core ideological principles and motivate them within existing movements. This was seen very plainly in the reactionary behavior of the Tea Party, and the open invitation that they gave to openly fascist organizations like the American Third Position Party (now called the American Freedom Party). Here the rhetoric was the same, though cloaked in libertarian jargon. This society is being stripped from the inside by immigrants and non-whites, degenerating our culture, and taking the country from its rightful inheritors. The rhetoric was so cleanly disguised that it was often dismissed by even left-wing people as something wholly different. When the release of the Ron Paul papers came out, he was able to disguise clearly racist and homophobic articles as being some kind of clerical error. When Anonymous hacked the website for the American Third Position Party they found clear communication between those in the Ron Paul camp and those in the “whites only” political party. There was even an image of Ron Paul shaking hands with Don Black, the founder of the large white nationalist network Stormfront. None of this seemed to matter to young Ron Paul supporters who were more interested in his attacks on the TSA and marijuana laws than the fact that he was exploiting racial tension to bring in a southern voting base. These are fascist ideas repackaged, and having a clearly successful strategy to influence political discourse. Similar situations have occurred in different radical communities, whether it is continuing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories around the 9/11 attacks or influencing the pagan religious movement by associating Norse paganism with ethnic identity. The names and faces have changed, but the core ideology has not. It means that while we are looking for swastikas, we miss the Asatru Alliance creating bonds between mainstream Wiccans and white nationalists. Nazis will never rise again, but nationalists of a different sort can and will influence the social movements that continually reshape society.

3. Anti-fascist organizers should be able to differentiate between fascists, but there is no reason to do so when organizing publicly. It is important to be able to understand fascist ideas, imagery, and history so that they can be identified and their efforts countered, but this does not mean that we need to engage in long winded public exercises on the difference between National Bolshevism and nationalist Satanism. Instead, call a fascist a fascist. There is an effort to differentiate between proto-fascism, crypto-fascism, and real fascism, but in the end they are all just various levels of the same thing. To the public, the declarations should be simple. Someone can go on long diatribes about ethnic identity and Jungian archetypes, but in reality they simply are a racist. It may be more complicated than that to them, but it is not in any practical terms to the anti-fascist. The definition of fascism must remain useful, so do not publicly overcomplicate the discussion. This differentiation is exactly what they want since they do see themselves as more complicated than those stereotypes, but it is more useful to maintain them because in the end they simply are anti-egalitarian, anti-democratic, race baiting authoritarians. To successfully target them we need research, but to the outside we need only scorn

4. Drop your liberal moralism. Fascism is the core opposite of a free and equal society. It represents the exploitations of the darkest parts of humanity, and the barbarism that is at the polar opposite of anti-authoritarian and egalitarian movements. There should be one, and only one goal, destroy fascism. The kind of respect and “even playing field” logic that many people like to utilize in a liberal democracy needs to go out the window when you are dealing with a direct spawn of evil. Success is the only possibility; their defeat is the only goal. This should come from any means possible, with no moral reservation. This does not mean that you should target confused people with absolute impunity, but know a real fascist organizer when you see one and seek to destroy. They do not deserve to make their case, this allows them to talk around issues and cloud things. Do not let them speak, do not let them have their own organizations, do not let them have a livelihood, do not let them live in your community.

5. Know fascism when you see it, but not all things that should be opposed are fascist. Free market corporate capitalism is a radical tool of class destruction and should be opposed. Imperialist wars on the Muslim world are racist and used to deepen the pockets of corporate pockets, and should be opposed. Rape culture is a disgusting aspect of the ongoing patriarchal structure, and should be opposed. Domestic spying and wiretapping are an encroaching police state that strips us of our liberties, and should be opposed. This does not mean that they are all necessarily fascist. If you have a clear understanding of what fascism is then you will be able to target and irradiate it. If you have a social and class analysis that is growing and targets systemic flaws, then you have the ability to really deal with society as a whole. This means knowing what you are looking and seeing it for what it is. As an anarchist I find capitalism and the state incredibly tyrannical, but they are not always fascist (and today, usually are not). Fascism remains the vanguard of the reactionary elements of every social sector, boiled down and magnified.

Where does this leave us with Death in June? As has been pointed out by many an anti-fascist blog, his ideas make up an affinity for radical Strasserist fascism aligned with National Bolshevist Third Positionism. This sounds like academic pseudo-jargon, and it is. The fact of the matter is that this is how they see themselves, how they differentiate themselves from the other forms of fascism that they do not perfectly align themselves with. What does it mean for us? The bottom line is that they are fascist, not matter what sub labels and traditions they attempt to quote from. Simply because they appeal to a queer audience or play shows in Israel does not mitigate the layers of fascist ideas that permeate not only their imagery and lyrics, but also outright statements in interviews. We do not need to get into a discussion about the details, especially when we can look at those details and see them for what they really are. A fascist does not deserve to be argued with. They do not deserve point and counter point. They do not deserve to have their ideas paired against ours. They represent the purest form of the enemy, the crystallization of every element of the current society that forces us to reject its basic premise. If Death In June wants to go on diatribe about folkish communities and tradition, let them. We will be on the other side trying to end the words before they even begin. To really combat fascism, we have to know what it looks like and what its tactics will be. To do this we need a way forward that does not only look to the past, but looks at our own communities and sees it when it begins to take shape.

Death in June has hidden itself from criticism with irony and calls to pre-Christian paganism, and these are claims that can be debunked with a quick Google search. Pearce has said openly that they began looking towards the ideas of early Nazi Gregor Strasser, which often takes a more economically socialist position than Hitler ended up taking the party in later years. In an article by John Eden at Who Makes the Nazis, he re-asserted Pearce’s public affiliation for violent White Nationalist actions. “It has been widely corroborated that Pearce dedicated a song from the stage to the ‘White Wolves’ – a neo-Nazi grouping who had initially claimed responsibility for these atrocities. In much the same spirit, a valedictory message was posted to the Di6 Yahoo group forum immediately following Anders Breivik’s Utoya massacre, and mainland bombing.” Pearce has also shown open support for genocidal Croatian nationalists, and continues to take inspiration from the neo-fascist National Bolshevist movement that is popular amongst the most violent skinhead gangs in Russia.

Pearce’s eugenic ideas have been posted in very clear terms, though he often shades the racial elements. “MAINLAND EUROPA, HAS SEVERE STOCK PROBLEMS. THAT, AS FAR AS I CAN SEE HAS ONLY GOT WORSE. THOSE WHO SHOULDN’T BE ABLE TO BREED ARE DOING SO WITH SUCH FREQUENCY THAT THE UK IS BEING OVER POPULATED BY MORONS WITH NOTHING TO DO EXCEPT HARASS THE REST OF THE POPULATION,” said Pearce. Whether it was when he glorified white domination of people of color by saying “Thank the Gods for Euro-colonialism,” or when he openly attacks non-white immigration and Islam, it is pretty clear where his allegiances are. In an interview in 1998 with Scapegoat he said plainly, “Depending upon their ‘version’ of Eurocentric Racialism, then 9 times out of 10 I feel very comfortable with it.”

These quotes are not a-typical for him, and this has happened on a regular basis. For those who see the esoteric and gothic turn that a lot of White Nationalism has taken in the last twenty years, then this is no surprise. But for those who are regularly looking for the traditional demons, they are going to have trouble parsing them out in a subcultural that treats shock as inherently artistically valid. They are likely not to know about the occasional acceptance of various queer identities in White Nationalist circles these days, often championed by Portland’s Jack Donovan who refers to himself as an “andriophile” because “gay” is “associated with effeminacy, feminism, and leftist politics.” The point here is not that there is a common acceptance of queer identities on the far right, which there is certainly not in any meaningful way, but that one point of contradiction is not enough to discredit their fascist ties. Many of these movements are perfectly willing to accept internal contradictions in the favor of pushing their agenda.

The more important argument, rather than focusing just on the band themselves, is to really look what they open a space for. If you are to find many of the more contemporary intellectual White Nationalists from organizations like Counter-Currents, Occidental Observer, Alternative Right, and American Renaissance on social media, you will find that there is a direct correlation to the band. As an article at the One People’s Project pointed out, it is much more that the band creates a comfortable meeting space for people with these racial perspectives. One former fan reflects on their experience at a show:

"Then I saw the first Call the Paramedics shirt, and then shit got even less subtle up to and including National Alliance patches and Nazi medals. This was not a crowd I wanted to be hanging out with all night. Mind you, they were a very small portion of the attendants but the fact that they were there at all was increasingly upsetting as the night went on. Most of the folks were just sort of willfully ignorant of what was around them. Just like me."

"I noticed Kevin I. Slaughter in the audience. His publishing company – Underground Amusements - publishes some of the works of Jack Donovan an anti-feminist, anti-gay, anti-equality author. There was a couple next to me that was chanting out any line they found adequately racist and kept yelling for a song called “Enemy Within” that I’d never heard before (I looked the lyrics up when I got home and was not surprised what I found. Ugh.)."

"When I got outside, it was all pretty much laid bare. The folks who had been asked to cover or remove offensive symbols re-revealed them (the extremely anti-racist staff of the venue was extremely vigilant in their enforcement of this standard inside the club and anyone was who did not comply was told they had to leave – outside the club they had no say) and it was at this point that I just said “Fuck this” and walked home feeling like a sucker that had played a part in something that was really disrespectful and shameful."

If we give the excuses ourselves as to why this kind of thing should be allowed in our communities then we create the space for the development of a fascist movement that will grow before it can be confronted. The best organizing disallows the violence before it even takes shape, and we need to know that without a strong form of resistance then this discontent and collapse in our country can easily become the kind of reactionary wave that we never previously believed would be present.


Big thanks to NYC Anti-Fa who provided many of the quotes by Pearce.

Files

LONG KNIVES.pdf (1.17 MB)

Comments

JohnNada

9 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by JohnNada on November 14, 2014

There are two primary problems that a fascist movement can create when entering a community.

1. Extreme violence towards members of communities that oppose them. This means the targeting of minorities, Jews, LGBTQ folks, and others for violence.
2. Entry into existing movements to push them in a fascist direction, whether on the right or the left.

It's interesting because that is precisely what makes you a fascist.

This is actually what happened and that you don't want people to know :

https://www.facebook.com/dyami.clement/posts/10203193046814832

For anyone who is interested in how the protest went at the Death in June show, here’s a brief summary:

The show was attended by an eclectic crowd as usual, ranging from goths to hippies, with people from all walks of life—many black, gay, Hispanic, Jewish—certainly not neo-nazis. The protesters, a crowd of twenty to thirty so called “anti-fascists”, yelled crude obscenities at the line as they were waiting for doors to open, singling out the minorities above the rest for their apparent “betrayal” of their cause. The majority of them wore masks and black hoodies, and many were armed with wooden rods and some with knives. Not twenty minutes after doors the antifa became violent, assaulting Alhambra’s security and show-goers, even grabbing a random person from the line and throwing them in front of a moving car. The security officers took countless punches to the face and body as they protected the line from the out-of-control assailants. Had the police arrived any later, people would have undoubtedly been seriously injured. One girl, no more than 5’ and 100 pounds, was punched in the face by a masked man when she expressed the absurdity that she was a German Jew being assaulted by “anti-nazis”. We asked her to speak to the police, and as approached she them the protesters yelled disgustingly misogynistic slurs at her, including one man yelling “I hope your pussy’s tighter than your mouth!” Very fucking classy.

The violence was eventually quelled after a few more outbursts. No arrests were made. Inside the theater, the show was enjoyed by a mellow and respectful crowd who were only there for the music.

Great job, Rose City Antifa. Way to propagate hate and violence in a community already struggling with rampant racism and social injustice. You remain the most despicable and clueless group of wanna-be activists this city has ever regurgitated into society.

From another FB user :

Here’s a more detailed scoop.

The almost entirely white Anti-Fa chapter had convinced one young Muslim to believe their assumptions about the band and he talked two of his friends into joining him. These individuals stood on the side and mostly watched and filmed as Anti-Fa put on a show for them.

As a group they threatened numerous people, claimed they’d find them later and repeatedly yelled “let’s fight” at anyone who spoke up or LAUGHED while FIFTEEN Police Officers stood by and between alongside bouncers from the theater. There was no chance of any huge brawl or direct action as they call it. As you can see in the video the Muslim gentleman posted, one Antifa member tries to run up and gets blocked immediately. It was all very theatrical… confrontation and spectacle with zero threat of actual violence outside the original fight that brought the law. With Oregon’s Measure 11 in place since 1994 due to repeated gang violence up North and Northeast and drunken brawls downtown, whoever did that faces MANDATORY 5-7 years in prison for 1st or 2nd degree assault. At least in prison they’ll succeed in meeting actual racists.

At one point an African American friend was called an Uncle Tom and a faggot from that direction repeatedly. Still trying to wrap my head around that one. That little slip up and the psychotic delivery of their anger made them look like repressed, self hating brats. Their collective temper tantrum seemed unfocused and grasping for straws. They repeatedly delete any post they don’t agree with off their Facebook page and require approval on website comments. They welcome zero opposing viewpoint. They have the only acceptable opinion and they we’re there to shove it down throats, not discuss it’s basis.

It’s a shame that art, when mysterious and provocative goes unexplained by the artist in soul-sucking detail that people will always resort to the worst. They will literally cut pieces out of 100 stories to create one mindless collage and say it’s the law. People are terrified to leave anything open to interpretation and will proudly believe lies because they're too afraid to believe nothing.

bastarx

9 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by bastarx on November 13, 2014

Ban Nazi trolls.

JohnNada

9 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by JohnNada on November 14, 2014

Next. I won't even bother reading the diarrhea in-between, but :

In an article by John Eden at Who Makes the Nazis, he re-asserted Pearce’s public affiliation for violent White Nationalist actions. “It has been widely corroborated that Pearce dedicated a song from the stage to the ‘White Wolves’ – a neo-Nazi grouping who had initially claimed responsibility for these atrocities.

Yes, widely corroborated by John Eden, and John Eden, and also by John Eden. It is strange to see that this accusation about Copeland's bombings didn't actually exist before it was posted who that WMTN website. There's no other source, besides the usual anti-websites copy'n'pasting from WMTN. And WMTN doesn't provide any evidence for their claim. Why? Because that actually NEVER happened.

In much the same spirit, a valedictory message was posted to the Di6 Yahoo group forum immediately following Anders Breivik’s Utoya massacre, and mainland bombing.”

Same as above. Come on... Hey, you could also say Douglas Pearce eats Serbian babies at breakfast! Douglas Pearce is responsible for chemtrails! ....

Pearce has also shown open support for genocidal Croatian nationalists,

As I asked on your FB page, but since you delete any comments that doesn't please your ego, it's no longer there.... please provide evidence for your accusation of him donating money to Croatian Fascists.

«To name the Bolnicki Klinicki in Zagreb, Croatia as a "fascist hospital" because I donated US$30,000 of my own money to buy medical equipment for the only place in the area that provided any care whatsoever to amputees turns my stomach at their ignorance, let alone the proud arrogance of self rightousness.» Douglas P.

«When I was in Croatia during the war in 1992 I had photos of Serbian war atrocities committed not far from the Croat capital Zagreb and I once thought of the idea of publishing as an LP/CD sleeve photos of these bodies of Croats that Chetnick Serbs had committed barbaric acts of savagery to before murdering them. But, I decided against that and instead used photos of wounded inside a hospital on the cover of the "Something Is Coming" album. This was really out of respect and honour to those who had died and any surviving family and friends. Those photos were too disgusting, too degrading, too everything bad and subhuman! Instead I sent them to the then British Foreign Minister Sir Douglas Hurd to show him what really was going on in that part of modern Europe. He wrote a letter back to me basically saying that it was none of Britain's business to get involved in this bloodbath and that I should keep my nose out of these affairs.That was a bit unsettling but it couldn't stop me from donating medical aid worth over 20,000 GBPs of my own money to the Bolnicki Klinicki hospital in Croatia which helped soldiers and civilians, Croat and Serb alike. I went there many times during the conflict to make sure the medical equipment was safely getting through to the hospital and checked that everyone was being treated fairly there. Although the Serb patients were kept understandably in another area of the hospital, their families were allowed to be with them and they were looked after well. However, even that act has been distorted by the same kind of people who are attempting to ban the works of DIJ by saying that the money went to a hospital run by a Croatian organisation that committed war crimes! That truly is a very sad and despicable lie and makes their 'cause' appear a truly evil and hollow one. » Douglas P.

Easy to verify :
http://www.kbc-zagreb.hr/
ASK. THEM.

and continues to take inspiration from the neo-fascist National Bolshevist movement that is popular amongst the most violent skinhead gangs in Russia.

And that one is a novelty. Those same that beat up people for being gay? REALLY?

Fozzie

9 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Fozzie on November 13, 2014

FWIW John Eden did not write the text which this article suggests he did. I imagine it was another contributor to the Who Makes The Nazis site.

Fozzie

9 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Fozzie on November 13, 2014

Also I do remember some discussion about Pearce making comments onstage like that around the time of the Copeland nail bombings. Obviously it is impossible to verify this with any certainty without a recording of the gig in question.(Which I assume was May 6th 1999, The Garage, London judging by an online gigography).

akai

9 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by akai on November 13, 2014

I find this a good article, although I admit I am not up on some of the people you mention and cannot assess.

What you are describing, the various shades of fascism related to folk culture, counterculture, paganism - this is nothing new. And even many of Evola's ideas have their roots in older writings, especially on the specificity of culture. All of this is interesting and worth pointing out, but even more so it is always worth debunking the arguments, in whatever form it appears.

When the "anti-globalist" movement spread in Europe, there appeared a lot of room for spreading such ideas through complaining about the threat of globalization on local cultures, which then spread to the threat of multiculturalism, the threat of race-mixing, etc. etc. Fascists of different sorts were able to smuggle their ideas into the "left" by simply making their arguments less overt.

In Eastern Europe, there has been quite serious mixing of authoritarian communism and fascism, various red-brown coalitions. Over the last 20 year, quite a number of so-called radical leftists and anarchists have gone this way and surely antifascists around the world can learn from these histories.

Most recently there is also a problem with cooperation and national ideology. The split of Autonomous Action in Russia is a good example and is probably in part due to the fact that many were soft on national ideas, even though they consider themselves antifascists. Concentrating only on violent nazi street hooligan types, all sorts of justifications for ethnic ideas which were common with ethno-fascists were made. The result is a nationalist, homophobic wing, perhaps still relating itself with anarchism.

In Poland this problem also has a long history but had died down until recent incidents. A number of members of supposedly anarchosyndicalist group Workers' Initiative have appeared recently in public with fascists. The totalitarian part of the Warsaw group, which also comprises Komsomol members, have appeared on demonstrations with Falanga and supported the demonstration on Nov. 11. Some of them where thrown off the anti-fascist march in Warsaw, others not daring to appear. Another of the authoritarian leftist part is running in elections. First there were 3 events together with national anarchists, then we find out that in they are running a fascist from the organization Niklot in elections with them. The lack of any real reaction from those people also guarantees that this will not be the last time we see things like this.

All this should be studied, to see how these people can infiltrate movements and be allowed to stay there.

Eviction Free Zone

9 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Eviction Free Zone on November 13, 2014

Please ignore the Death in June fans that are spreading mistruths about an Anti-Fa action in Portland. I had no affiliation with this action or this show and the article is in reference to Death In June more broadly, as well as the intellectual fascist movement in which it is correlated. Many people from the Anti-Fa action have shared video and accounts of the event, and there are blatant lies about the event that DI6 supporters will continue to spread. There were straight up Nazis at the show, and they can't keep hiding behind their irony. I will never understand why people will bend over backwards to defend people who dress as Nazis on stage.

Don't let people distract from what the real issue here is: we need to develop an Anti-Fa movement that can better respond to the changing face of fascism in the U.S. Does anyone have any ideas about that?

akai

9 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by akai on November 14, 2014

Yes. First of all, you need a few people to study not only the history of fascist ideas, but the New Right, National Bolsheviks, autonomists and other movements in Europe to see what kind of arguments these people use and to overturn all of them. You might want to talk to more people in Europe, who have been seing this for a few decades for clues about what tactics they use.

Second, the role of culture and artists need to be discussed, especially the role of subcultures.

Antifascist movements cannot be built on subcultures but need to have a wider social base. In any case, by building social movements which will center around internationalist ideas, you can have more influence. One of the main focuses of all these fascist groups are against immigration, influences of immigrants, etc. and mythology of the volk, so you can concentrate on making politics against this too.

That said, I don't know much about some specifics in the US.

And of course the readers here understood about the apologist trolls that came here to make a fuss and I hope nobody is distracted.

Marx-Trek

9 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Marx-Trek on November 15, 2014

One suggestion would be to close ranks and to organize politically with people who are actually some leftists and not associate, politically and organizationally at least, with people who are simply just "radical". I think that the American "anarchist" and wider "autonomist" political scene is lacking when it comes to drawing political distinctions and actively criticizing reactionary and questionable ideologies/theories that remain within the larger political group.

Also, for most people, I think this is more of sub-cultural or music scene attachment issue more so than a political one. If people are unwilling to deal with fascism or fascistic tendencies because it appears and represents itself in different garb and sub-cultural ques, that says something about the people around you, their weak political convictions, and a strange political view based on non-political conclusions (meaning that some "comrades" base their political conclusions or anti-fascism on other things than political theory, such as sub-cultural markings or genre).

I think some comparisons can be made here.

Remember fascist and nazi movements adapted themselves and took on the skinhead (an apolitical sub-culture) look prior to looking like WWII reenactors, black metal nerds, and steampunk outdoorsmen. http://i.ytimg.com/vi/yg6JRzDsd1o/maxresdefault.jpg

The obvious one: http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/behold/2013/10/Skinheads/AKrause_01.jpg.CROP.original-original.jpg

European nazis and fascists and the casuals or just plain casual look (and so did parts of the antifa movement).

EDL causals: http://hatenothope.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/antifabriz.jpg

Antifa: http://www.uriasposten.net/pics/RevFront140913.jpg (or the adidas left fashion sense: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_NmqfYlK0_7A/SPQIGz1aUPI/AAAAAAAAAC0/mixRB5BTJTY/s1600/21.gif)

Swedish nazis took on the outdoorsmen hiking look make it some kind of public outward neutral, yet physically engaging look. https://www.nordfront.se/bilder/artiklar/080809_skane1.jpg

German national autonomous nazi/fascist movements have adapted the black bloc/anarchist look. Italian fascists are now squatting and looking like "anarchist street militants".

German: http://images12.knack.be/images/resized/400/027/859/820/2/500_0_KEEP_RATIO_SHRINK_CENTER_FFFFFF/image/Betoging-in-Brugge-van-16-februari.jpg

Italian: http://openrevolt16.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/casapoundroseinbocca.gif and https://libcom.org/files/images/library/ansa142507302910133219_big4[1].jpg

German nationalists the look like antifa even: http://logr.org/leerostfriesland/files/2011/05/Parisbloc.jpg

Russian straight edge nationalists and white nationalists have taken on both the straight edge look and black bloc german nationalist look. http://hungeree.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/reuters_russia_nationalists_04Nov12-975x778.jpg

There are networks of decentralized autonomous nationalists that look like football hooligans and/or are football hooligans. http://www.sydsvenskan.se/Images/media_copied/2010/05/01/ART-5-hbg2_447869a.jpg and http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Srsy5SU5A4o/Tv7sq7IKMdI/AAAAAAAAAE0/oa5OlJTE6Uk/s1600/imgres-1.jpeg

EDL: http://www1.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/English+Defence+League+Demonstration+Bristol+bymXnOYzocEl.jpg

Fascist parties with street activists that look like politicians and "regular people". http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_wAf_9sKAzU8/S_G2mtJWZaI/AAAAAAAAATY/V1ZMPOAv168/s1600/marknad.JPG and http://sverigesradio.se/sida/images/83/2417614_599_185.jpg?preset=article-auto-height

And then there are the emerging ex-eco-anarchist now eco-proto-fascists who seem to still have "anarchist" benefactors.

Remember, its the politics not the aesthetic that is at issue and what is actually in need of challenge/confrontation/critique. It is intellectually and politically cheap to simply allow terms and fashion be a major factor in deciding who is and who is not a fascist or reactionary. The views and conclusions be it political, social, cultural, or economical determines one's political affiliation not dress. Also, many of these subcultures have developed strong countercurrents against fascist/nazi inflitration and use of an entire subculture for political reasons.

A response to neofolk fascism and the eco-fascist tendencies: https://candlesandtorches.com/

At the end of the day, if people or "fellow radicals" are unwilling to make and draw political lines that is a political problem within an organization or grouping of political people.

At the end of the day people are either political and want to engage in antifascist work or they are not all that politically interested. Perhaps adventurism or subculture was the draw instead political motivations and aspirations. So the strongest and most effective action i could suggest would be to cut political ties with people who choose subculture over politics.

akai

9 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by akai on November 15, 2014

Yeah, this is good and it is very good to point out the weaknesses of some scenes that refuse to make political distinctions.

I think that some mainly subcultural scenes, based on friendships and under the dogma of not being too "specific" are getting in trouble with this, at least around where I live. Now we see how some cliques are busy covering up their friends' incursions into fascistic circles or cooperation with them. In this year's anti-fascist march it was interesting how one guy was not allowed to speak because of this, but some house collective were supporting this guy, who was in elections with a fascist leader. This kind of hypocrisy happens when politics are not clear and not really the main thing.

I think this is not really an American thing. It happens in a lot of places where people try to make a loose "scene" based on as wide a politics as possible. In such a situation, strange ideas can be smuggled in all the time. The same in some militant subcultures where the main thing is love for guns and sort of street fighting stuff. I see that, at least locally, these subcultures get open to authoritarian communist or fascistic influences.

akai

9 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by akai on November 15, 2014

Another comment (just after reading the scandalous pages of the Polish Komsomol). It would help to also identify the points where people are ideologically deficient and and where fascists and others could potentially find "common points".

The slime of the Polish communist party write in a very positive way about how they participated in the demo of the Falanga against imperialism on Nov. 11 in Krakow. They write that what they did was against all those who defend Washington, Brussels and Tel Aviv - the latter supposedly also an "occupier" of Poland, showing the anti-semitic side of this organization. The apparently see it as important to be together against imperialism, because otherwise the "nation" will not be able to fight in its own country, for its own interests.

Right here, you can see a very typical point which has brought reds and browns together in E. Europe. So any decent internationalist class analysis can show how these people are reducing relations under capitalism to be equated with national capital interests... which really is missing the point.

Then there is the other question about how people relate to facts like this - when people are known to go on demonstrations organized by fascists. You know, the main people promoting this stuff are also members of a pseudo-syndicalist organization in Poland and when these assholes were getting kicked out of the anti-fascist march on Nov. 8 in Warsaw, we can all see on the film who is defending them and we see it in the post-march public discussions. So we have to question how it is that people who consider themselves anti-fascists wind up in the same organization as these scumbags ...

In the situation described by the author, we see how people can start to defend this band because of subculture. In our situation, we see people defending this guided by a dogmatic "anti-sectarianism" which has filled organizations and loose scenes with fascist friendly Stalinists, fans of Kim Il Sung and whatever shit has floated to the service of the so-called left.

So political clarity has to come before all else.

freemind

9 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by freemind on November 16, 2014

There's a DIJ fan who works as a ticket guard at Leicester train station.He looks pathetic in his skullcap,blanket canister and Wehrmacht jacket.A fetich and a victim all in one.

Marx-Trek

9 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Marx-Trek on November 16, 2014

I think that studying political history, specifically fascist history, would also prove helpful. I think that European Antifa platform points of unity, which also exist in the US, but the US comrades could perhaps expand their activities onto those other points of unity (left-socialist; class; antihomphobia; feminism; etc..) What I mean is perhaps as a group/organization get out there more as an organized group pertaining to other issues included in the platform.

Reddebrek

9 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Reddebrek on November 17, 2014

I think this is a pretty good piece and I find it amusing that these DIJ fans reactions ended up proving a few of its points. I have a few criticisms though.

Marxists often define fascism as the more reactionary sector of capital, but this misses its most key elements. Fascism as a state philosophy is almost universally anti-capitalist because capitalism creates too much multiculturalism and does not put the welfare of a homogenous racial or cultural group first.

Sorry but I really think this is mistaken. I think the error here is you've assumed a homogeneous Capitalism. To date there has never been a Fascist movement that managed to take state power without heavy support and assistance from Heavy Industry, other sections of capital like light industry were less supportive and even hostile but steel eating capital has always had a close relationship with large Fascist movements.

Your assertion that Capitalism is multicultural is also quite dubious, terms like Fordist Capitalism, Taylorist economics, and Macdonaldization are all common terms that describe Capitalism's homogenising effects. One of the most common cultural arguments against economic globalisation is that it leads to the death of cultural diversity by standardising all products and business culture.

This is a major argument of both Right wing and Fascist groups in defining their "anti-Capitalism". Many of these same groups advocate militarised industry and indeed classic Fascist economics (the corporate state) was about using the state or the Fascist party as a objective third party in disputes between Labour and Capital.

The fundamental core of fascism is the belief in the essential nature of hierarchy.

Agreed, but then why would they have a problem with Capitalism then? Capitalism is not only hierarchical but unlike Feudalism it allows some "exceptional" individuals to rise up the hierarchy thus proving their superiority other the rest stuck on the lower rungs. Fascist hierarchies aren't static outside of racial/cultural categories, they're quite open to rises and falls since they believe position proves inherent superiority/inferiority.

While it does often take on authoritarianism, and the idea of authority whether in a macro level through “furor” type leadership

I think you mean Fuhrer, since furore means uproar.

It is important to differentiate fascist intellectual movements and political organizing from fascist gang culture. The main reason for this is not ideological, but tactical.

I don't fully disagree with this but I do think this is a bit too far, my reading on Fascistic movements shows that while the two sides you mention prefer to be publicly separate they're usually quite open to private connections. The British National Front had extensive links to the extreme right wing of the Conservative party and traditionalist empire lovers crowd, at least until those connections became well known. The Front National in France did try to work openly with French skin head gangs for awhile, though bad publicity and internal fractures broke it down. And in America Lyndon Larouche and his group seemed to have links with everyone from the Reagan Administration to the John Birch Society.

And on the other side I've noticed a lot of these street fighting outfits spokesmen are keen to quote or cite the extremist academics in order to appear more legitimate and shield themselves from accusations of extremism and racism. just something to keep in mind.

Other than that I think this is pretty solid and I do have a few suggestions for regarding:

Don't let people distract from what the real issue here is: we need to develop an Anti-Fa movement that can better respond to the changing face of fascism in the U.S. Does anyone have any ideas about that?

I think a good source would be to look up the antics of Larouche and whatever his group is called nowadays. In particular this book as it not only details how a leftist (though pretty authoritarian and cultish) group went all the way into hard line genocidal the Jews control everything Fascism, whilst maintaining for years a leftist image, then ditching that image for a sort of New right look all the while building up an impressive contact list from street gangs to Dictators and using some very clever and subtle (and some very blunt) catchphrases and imagery to push his agenda.

For DIJ and other artistic subcultures I think the book Intellectuals and the Masses would be a useful reference even though its mostly about British creative types from the early 20th Century. The book details and explains how many of them fell in with reactionary and extreme Authoritarian ideas including Fascism and Eugenics. But also neo-paganism and I think you'll find quite a few similar arguments to today's far right groups. I was quite surprised while reading it.

Oh and it might be worth tracking down biographies on Ernst Rohm if only to bury the absurd "Gays can't be Nazi's" argument. Other then that I think the other suggestions should cover most of the ground. And I guess he could also serve as quick primer on why not every Fash is the same.

Eviction Free Zone

9 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Eviction Free Zone on November 18, 2014

I appreciate that comments you make, but I think it is actually important to note the difference between their idealized version of themselves and their reality.

So in terms of capitalism, we clearly, and I think rightly, see it as an innately hierarchical system. They, on the other hand, see it either as not clearly stratified enough or not correctly stratified. While capitalism creates hierarchy, they want to clearly enforce hierarchy without even the myth of mobility. Likewise, they tend to have ideas about race, gender, ability, etc., that they want to stratify in line with.

When it comes to multiculturalism, I think that is essentially in line with a homogenous monoculture. Matt Parrot from the Traditionalist Youth Network wrote an article(which I cannot find right this second) where he essentially outlined that he believed the bourgeois classes were responsible for dividing nations since it is not the interest of the capitalist class to differentiate and discriminate between buyers and sellers. What this does is somewhat destroy these original tribal allegiances, it also uses them to divide workers. What they argue for instead is for people to consciously and willingly accept enforced inequality and the abolition of democracy. Capitalism really does not fit into this because it has a chaotic nature to it that is not always directly controlled by the state. To use the state as an interest of "racial" or "national" groups they would have to subsume all forms of hierarchy into the parameters of the state. Basically this means the inequality needs to not just be implicit in the economics, but literally enforced from the top. The point here is basically that they have a mythological revolutionary idea that takes them beyond capitalism, and they oppose it for the exact opposite reasons that most revolutionaries on the left and post-left do.

Eviction Free Zone

9 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Eviction Free Zone on November 18, 2014

Just to add one thing that you mentioned that I missed the first time looking at your comment.

I think the point about the support of industrial leaders is an important one, but it is not necessarily one that directs it towards the kind of capitalism we are talking about. Many of those same business leaders often see themselves as the new aristocracy and see fascist movements as supporting their believed superiority. At the same time, those business leaders are the same ones that often push fascist movements away from the full realization of their economic vision. The best example of this is the Night of Long Knives, where the Strasserite faction of the SS were purged. This was the strong anti-capitalist and esoteric contingent, and were the elements within the party that the more business connected fascists were intent on eliminating.

It is also worth noting that the fascists of today have considered the failure of fascism during the interwar period and are trying to do things superficially differently. Part of this is a more explicit anti-capitalism, as well as a focus on decentralization and forms of control that are different than the conventional nation state.

Eviction Free Zone

9 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Eviction Free Zone on November 18, 2014

A great report back on the confrontation between Rose City Anti-Fa in Portland, Oregon and the Death in June crowd was posted at Earth First! The article is also a great look at fascism in hipsterdom, and has a lot of great ideas.

http://earthfirstjournal.org/newswire/2014/11/14/reportback-fighting-the-trojan-horse-of-hipster-fascism-in-portland/

Marx-Trek

9 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Marx-Trek on November 20, 2014

Red,

I agree with your points generally but for some reason that is now slipping my mind, I wanted to point out that fascist movements will use whatever ideological reasons, cultural reasons, social reasons, and economic reasons to justify their views. Fascist movements and fascism/Nazism have often been viewed as and a non-ideology ideology. You can trace the history and trajectory of fascism, especially Nazism, as movement/development/and trajectory to power as a social force that will take up ideas and brutally suppress the very same ideas it just momentarily upheld along the way to consolidating "power". The Nazis entertained many seemingly contradictory views during its assent and then liquidated those very groups and people within those groups. Nazis actually allowed all anti-communist social forces to remain as it pushed more and more right and along the way it would secure support to only later liquidate. Nazis allowed, entertained, glorified, and in the end liquidated any and all ideologies, views, and counter social movements that had previously been allied or part of the fascist/nazi movement.

Here too, if some hipster doofuses will allow the assent of a new fascist movement...nothing guarantees they will not be discarded later.

vapidness

9 years 3 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by vapidness on November 30, 2014

I don't have anything to add to the analysis here, but was sent a link to some DIJ merch recently by Soleilmoon and found it objectionable.
http://www.soleilmoon.com/
£60 for a watch with an SS deathshead on it. Find DIJ fan comments supposedly critiquing capitalism ironic now.

Eviction Free Zone

9 years 3 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Eviction Free Zone on December 7, 2014

I think it should be said that things like "capitalism," "socialism," "anti-capitalism," are all terms that, when used by Fascists, are intending simply to be in opposition to whatever they think the dominant institutions that are allowing multiculturalism. So there is nothing particularly unique about their economics or governmental systems, and there are varying degrees of political totalitarianism across their different manifestations. It is right to say that they will use all kinds of ideologies to justify their views, but they do have views at their core. The main point here is that they want to create systems that actually enforce inequality, rather than to simply allow it. Capitalism creates an anarchic force that develops inequality, they want to literally plan out and enforce the kind of inequality that fits within their own psuedo-science or religious fanaticism.

destroy capital

8 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by destroy capital on April 30, 2015

Formatted this text into a readable/printable pdf here:

https://subversionpress.wordpress.com/2015/04/17/a-movement-of-long-knives/

Eviction Free Zone

8 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Eviction Free Zone on May 14, 2015

Thanks for doing that!