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Transnational Networking on the Far Right: The Case of Britain and Germany

2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 36; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/01402382.2013.742756

1743-9655

Graham Macklin,

German legal, social, and political studies

Abstract This article examines an aspect of transnational activity that is often neglected, namely the transnational activism of the far right. It uses a case study of the British National Party (BNP) and the Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (NPD – German National Democratic Party) in order to explore how its leaders and activists share ideas and information, policy and praxis, and how this is employed in the development of a strategic ‘master frame’ that they believe will allow them to overcome the limits of purely national activity in a globalised world. It explores the evolution of the links between the two parties, their nature and indeed the limits of such transnational activism upon national ‘frames’ in order to present a historical overview of the diffusion of ideology and strategy within the contemporary European far right. Notes 1 Daily Telegraph, 16 September 1990. 2 Roeder illegally entered Britain in August 1979, meeting with John Tyndall, the NF chairman, see, Searchlight, no. 51, September 1979. 3 Spearhead, no. 231, May 1988 and Spearhead, no. 237, November 1988. Whilst Roeder was incarcerated Spearhead, no. 248, October 1989 offered for sale copies of his ‘just published’ essays, To the Moral Apostles of our Time. 4 Spearhead, no. 254, April 1990. 5 Spearhead, no. 259, September 1990; emphasis original. 6 Spearhead, no. 260, October 1990. 7 British Nationalist, no. 105, November 1990, and Spearhead, no. 261, November 1990. Philipp had organised a speaking tour for British Holocaust denier David Irving prior to his being banned from the country, see Irving (2000: 262). 8 Spearhead, no. 242, May 1989 and Racial Loyalty, no. 47, February 1989. Teutonic Unity was distributed in Britain through a ‘British Circle of Friends’ led by Bruno Clifton, an adherent of the Church of the Creator (COTC), an organisation that propagated the racist religion of ‘Creativity’. When Teutonic Unity ceased publication in January 1994 Clifton advised subscribers to read Facts and Figures, an occasional English-language newsletter distributed by Colonel Alexi Erlanger, a former SS officer and Roeder’s ‘representative’ in the United States. 9 DVD, From the Archive: BNP Annual Rally 1994 (MDE: London, 2007). During his imprisonment Deckert’s supporters were kept apprised of his position through The Deckert-Dispatch, the English-language ‘voice of Günter Deckert Freedom-Committee’. 10 Spearhead, no. 372, February 2000. 11 The Mail on Sunday, 9 April 2006. 12 The Rune, no. 10, 1995. Earlier editions of The Rune offered for sale ‘national socialist postcards’, facsimiles of Waffen-SS recruitment posters and videos of Nazi propaganda films including ‘Triumph of the Will’ and ‘The Eternal Jew’. The front-page of issue three when the journal was still the organ of Croydon BNP rather than Griffin’s personal mouthpiece was entitled ‘Rudolf Hess Remembered’ praising him as ‘the martyr of our age!’ 13 The Rune, no. 12, 1996 and Spearhead, no. 360, August 1996. 14 The Rune, no. 8, n.d. 15 http://www.germarrudolf.com/private/Flight.html (accessed 4 January 2010). During this period Rudolf continued to disseminate Holocaust denial through his journal Vierteljahreshefte für freie Geschichtsforschung (Quarterly Journal for Independent Historical Research) as well as publishing a string of similarly themed books by himself and others under the imprint of ‘Castle Hill Publishers’ operating from Hastings, England, to avoid further prosecution in Germany. He was eventually deported from the US to Germany in 2005 to serve the sentence handed down to him 10 years previously. 16 Identity, no. 8, April 2001, and http://www.spearhead.com/0102-ib.html (accessed 4 January 2010). Lee Barnes, the BNP legal officer, dismissed Germany’s Holocaust denial laws as ‘total bollocks’, concluding that ‘the true heirs of the Nazis are not the NPD, the neo-Nazis of today are the so called “democratic” parties of the left and right in power in Germany that have criminalised free speech in Germany just as the Nazis and Communists did’. See http://leejohnbarnes.blogspot.com/2009/05/holocaust-denial-new-witchery.html (accessed 4 January 2010). 17 Nick Griffin to Richard Edmonds, 12 March 2001. The letter can be seen at http://northwestnationalists.blogspot.com/2007/05/griffin-tried-to-have-richard-edmonds.html 18 http://thecst.org.uk/blog/?p=1257 (accessed 7 July 2011). Edmonds had previously taken part in a demonstration in support of Zündel organised by the small Nazi grouplet, the British Peoples Party (BPP) on 11 August 2007, see http://bpp.org.uk/zundelday.html (accessed 7 July 2011). 19 Heritage and Destiny, no. 8, May/June 2001 and Heritage and Destiny, no. 10, Winter 2003, which reported on the progress of the attempt to ban the NPD concluding: ‘British Nationalists beware, what is going on in Germany today, could be happening in Britain tomorrow’. 20 http://www.americabnp.net/ (accessed 15 August 2001). On 22 April 2000 Nick Griffin addressed an AF-BNP meeting. Roy Armstrong, an NPD member living in Louisiana was also on the platform. He had driven to the meeting with former Klansman, David Duke, see, Heritage and Destiny, no. 4, Summer 2000. 21 Identity, no. 50, December 2004. 22 Final Call, no. 19, Spring 1998. 23 Identity, no. 17, March 2002. 24 Griffin was accompanied by his bodyguard Joe Owens, who later recalled that ‘we stayed in Germany for several days, and had a very pleasant time there. Our German brothers were the perfect hosts, and it was a trip I shall remember for a long time. I accompanied Griffin on other occasions, too numerous to mention…’ (Owens 2007: 259). 25 http://www.bnp.org.uk/activities/2002_aug1.htm (accessed 2 August 2002). 26 http://www.bnp.org.uk/activities/2002_aug1.htm (accessed 2 August 2002). 27 .http://www.bnp.org.uk/links.html (accessed 2 August 2002). Local NPD groups continue to link to the BNP website: http://www.npd-essen.de/verweise.htm (accessed 4 January 2010). 28 http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/news/article/216/Griffin-billed-to-speak-at-German-nazi-rally (accessed 4 January 2010). 29 http://www.deutsche-stimme.de/Sites/Pressefest2003.html (accessed 12 August 2003). 30 http://www.deutsche-stimme.de/Ausgaben2004/Sites/Pressefest2004.html (accessed 13 August 2004). 31 http://www.bloodandhonourcentral.co.uk/interviews/nemesis.html (accessed 4 January 2010). 32 http://www.deutsche-stimme.de/Ausgaben2006/Sites/Pressefest.html (accessed 4 August 2006). 33 http://northwestnationalists.blogspot.com (accessed 17 August 2007). 34 Identity, no. 41, February 2004. 35 http://www.stormfront.org/forum/sitemap/index.php/t-203852.html (accessed 4 January 2010). 36 The Times, 9 May 2005. 37 http://www.deutsche-stimme.com/Ausgaben2005/Sites/06-05-Griffin.html (accessed 20 August 2005). 38 Identity, no. 66, May 2006. 39 http://www.deutsche-stimme.de/Ausgaben2006/Sites/07-06-Kongress.html (accessed 4 January 2007). 40 http://www.bnp.org.uk/news_detail.php?newsId=1139 (accessed 20 September 2006). 41 One BNP member commented: ‘It was after attending the RED WHITE & BLUE in 04 and seeing so many people the worst for drink that I become involed [sic] in the NPD. All drink and cigarettes are forbidden on marches.’ See http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=189434 (accessed 4 January 2010). 42 Spearhead, no. 263, January 1991, advertised the march that year advising readers to obtain details from Nationale Liste in Hamburg. However, an advert in Spearhead, no. 270, August 1991, reminded readers journeying to Wundsiedel that ‘the Swastika and SS runes are illegal in Germany, as also are NA and ANS ties’. Spearhead, no. 274, December 1991, subsequently featured an advert for the official video of the march, which depicted ‘BNP activists in action with fellow European nationalists’. John Peacock, the Leicestershire BNP organiser led the BNP contingent that year. The following weekend he attended the Diksmuide festival in Belgium, another major event in the far right calendar. In 1993 Peacock again led a BNP group to the march, which that year took place in the town of Fulda, Searchlight, no. 196, October 1991, and Searchlight, no. 220, October 1993. 43 http://finalconflictblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/b-responds-rock-against-griffinism.html (accessed 4 January 2010). British fascists had campaigned for Hess’ release since as early as 1954 when The Britons, an anti-Semitic publishing house produced Rudolf Hess: Prisoner of Peace written by his wife and son. The BNP had campaigned for his release almost from its inception. In 1986 a picture of Hess graced the cover of Spearhead, no. 213, July 1986, with the title ‘Hess: Prisoner of Vengeance’. This was accompanied by an article penned by veteran national socialist Colin Jordan proclaiming Hess to be the victim of ‘Jewish’ revenge who ‘made more sacrifices for world peace than the rest of mankind put together … No-one deserves the Nobel Peace Prize more than this man’. 44 http://logr.org/antikriegstag/2008/08/08/neuer-redner-ein-aktivist-der-rvf-aus-schottland/ (accessed 4 January 2010). 45 http://www.bpp.org.uk/wnforum.html (accessed 4 January 2010) 46 http://www.bpp.org.uk/roeder.html (accessed 4 January 2010) 47 https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/10/486630.html (accessed 4 January 2012). 48 http://www.jn-nds.de/aktionen_politik.htm (accessed 20 January 2002), and Identity, no. 14, October 2001. 49 Searchlight, no. 328, October 2002. The Guardian, 1 May 2002 subsequently interviewed Collett in the presence of ‘his friend Andreas from Hamburg’. 50 Identity, no. 80, July 2007. 51 Identity, no. 50, December 2004. 52 Identity, no. 80, July 2007. 53 http://www.europeannationalfront.org/?p=45 (accessed 1 March 2007). The English arm of the ENF was England First, whose journal, Final Conflict, no. 19, Spring 1998, interviewed Udo Voigt, who noted the ‘convergence’ of the NPD, particularly its youth group, the JN, with the ‘Third Way’ promoted by the ITP beyond capitalism and communism. ‘We must, therefore, enrich the political culture of our organisations through mutual visits, and exchanges of thoughts and ideas about current ideological developments. The NPD looks forward greatly to this task.’ 54 The social networking tool Twitter provides superficial evidence of this contact. 55 http://bnpideas.com/?p=895 (accessed 19 July 2011). 56 .http://youth.bnp.org.uk (accessed 21 May 2009). 57 http://nd.se/ndu/v/European-Youth-Conference-2009_94.aspx (accessed 4 January 2010). 58 http://bnp.org.uk/2009/02/bnp-youth-wing-attends-european-youth-conference/ (accessed 4 January 2010). 59 http://bnp.org.uk/2009/02/european-youth-forge-alliance-at-international-conference-in-sweden/ (accessed 4 January 2010). 60 Searchlight, no. 405, March 2009. 61 The Times, 31 March 2009. 62 http://youth.bnp.org.uk/archives/240 (accessed 4 January 2010). 63 http://nazi-leaks.net/steiner.html (accessed 28 December 2011). 64 http://www.bnp.org.uk/news/british-national-party’s-young-adults-wing-“will-be-forefront-campaign-against-islamic-child-gr (accessed 25 February 2011). 65 http://www.fn-jena.de/fdv-ticker/ (accessed 4 January 2010). 66 http://www.f-d-v.de/ (accessed 4 January 2010). 67 DVD, Nazi Hate Rock: A Donal McIntyre Investigation (Demand Media, 2009). 68 http://lancasteruaf.blogspot.com/2009/06/east-midlands-bnp-officer-on-nazi-night.html (accessed 4 January 2010). The website contains photographs of two other Broxtowe BNP activists Sieg Heiling alongside the lead singer of Whitelaw who was a member of the overtly national socialist British Movement (BM). 69 Daily Telegraph, 5 May 2002, and Daily Telegraph, 26 October 2003. http://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/4415452.BNP_candidate_says_he_ll_sue_anti_fascist_campaigners_for_libel/ (accessed 4 January 2010) shows that Beaumont threatened libel proceedings against the anti-fascist group Searchlight in order to prevent the story from being repeated by the local press during his candidacy in 2009. The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) had previously rejected complaints by Beaumont’s wife – a Metropolitan Police officer – regarding the use of ‘subterfuge’ by Daily Telegraph reporters to obtain the story. The PCC rejected her complaint, adjudicating that the story was in the ‘public interest’. 70 http://bnp.org.uk/2009/11/north-east-essex-bnp-raises-100-for-poppy-day-with-table-top (accessed 4 January 2010).