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Showing posts with label Fascism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fascism. Show all posts
Caoimhin O’Muraile ☭ The British establishment and governing classes with their representatives in ‘Pandoras Box’ or Parliament (my description) have a history of appeasing far right regimes around the globe.

Back in 1919 after the First World War with the defeated ‘central powers’ led by Imperial Germany a treaty was signed at the Palace of Versailles just outside Paris. This became known as the ‘Treaty of Versailles’ or the ‘Paris Peace Conference’ and it was particularly harsh on the defeated Germans almost blaming them exclusively for the carnage of WWI. The French in particular were hard on the Germans demanding huge war reparations. 

Even the US President, Woodrow Wilson, commented on the harshness insisted on by the French. Their attitude may well have had much to do with the harsh terms and reparations the Prussians insisted the French pay after France’s defeat in the Franco/Prussian War, 19th July 1870 – 28th January 1871, when the North German state inflicted huge reparations on the French along with forcing them to give up much territory. For the French it was perhaps payback time! The treaty of 1919 forced the Germans to destroy their submarine fleet, restrict their army to 100,000 men, have no Airforce or heavy artillery on the ground. These terms were humiliating to say the least and to crown it all, the Kaiser was forced to resign or abdicate. It was a bitter pill for the defeated German people to swallow and one which would come back to haunt the victorious allies two decades later.

In 1929 an economic collapse hit the capitalist world, the ‘Wall Street Crash’ and it affected Germany more than perhaps any other capitalist country. To the far-right it was music to their ears as they had been waiting for an opportunity to spout their hatred of minorities, namely the Jews in the case of Adolf Hitlers NSDAP or Nazis. Hitler had made a move earlier in 1923 in Munich in what is known as the ‘Munich Beer Hall Putsch’ which failed and cost Hitler a short term in prison. Now he and his Nazis were back campaigning on the streets fighting in brawls with the communists, which the Nazis won, and entering elections. 

In 1933 Hitlers party became the largest in the Reichstag and he wanted to be Chancellor and on 20th January 1933 President Hindenburg, despite his reservations, made him just that. Hitler then set about dismantling the hated ‘Treaty of Versailles’, introducing conscription into the army. This would make the army exceed considerably the 100,000 number stipulated in 1919. This was a clear breach of the ‘Treaty’ which the British and French could and should have acted on. They didn’t and the question is why not? Ostensibly the reason was neither of them wanted another war and neither did their respective populations but this was bollocks, an excuse. The real reason was they saw in Hitler and the Nazis a bulwark against Soviet Russia and their brand of ‘communism’. British and French businesses were trading well with the Nazi state despite their mistreatment of the Jewish population. When a tidy profit can be made then fuck the Jews or any other discriminated ethnic minority group! In 1936 Hitler chanced his arm again, this time marching into the demilitarised zone known as the ‘Rhineland’. Once again, the British and French failed to act and Hitler, understandably, began to think he could do what the hell he liked and fuck the ‘Treaty of Versailles’. And as for the allies they could go and fuck themselves!

The Nazis were now constructing, not very clandestinely, a new modern Airforce, the Luftwaffe (Air Arms) which would become, for a time, the most powerful in the world. Another breach of 1919 and another act of appeasement by those who were supposed to uphold the Versailles treaty. In 1938 the ‘Munich Crisis’ over Czechoslovakia came about. Hitler demanded the border lands of Czechoslovakia, known as the Sudetenland, be given to Germany vowing then if these were granted, he would have “no further territorial demands in Europe.” Germany had already annexed Austria into their ‘greater German Reich’ and this was done with no bloodshed and the agreement, eventually, of fascist Italian leader Benito Mussolini. Now they had carved up Czechoslovakia with British and French approval, and Czech PM Edvard Benes was not even consulted on this dismantling of his country!! 

British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, went to Munich for a ‘little chat’ with Hitler and made a second visit not long after with French Premier, Edouard Daladier. Chamberlain came back to a delirious crowd waving a ‘piece of paper’ around declaring “peace in our time”. Hitler must have been laughing his balls off!! While all this political upheaval was going on British business was still dealing with German companies and the Nazi state itself. During WWII they would continue to clandestinely trade via third countries with the Third Reich. ‘Business is bigger than war’ was the motto of many in the British business community. Once again it was worth it to the British and French leaders to avoid war and have a staunchly anti-Soviet friend.

When the Second World War was over, resulting in an allied victory due in no small part to the victories of the Soviet Red Army who had suddenly become allies with the British and French small ultra-right groups began springing up in Britian. In 1962, just seventeen years after the Nazi defeat, Colin Jordan and John Tyndal launched the openly Nazi ‘British National Socialist Movement’. This group preached anti-Semitism, anti-immigration policies and spouted pro Hitler propaganda while wearing Nazi style uniforms complete with swastika armbands. The establishment allowed this to go on, many high-ranking British establishment figures being members of this cabal. A total insult to the many brave anti-fascists who gave their lives not so much for King and Country, but to fight Nazism during the war. This is the contempt the Establishment, many of whom wear poppies at ‘Remembrance Sunday’ parades, think of those who died fighting this kind of scum. Since then, fascist groups like the National Front (NF) and British National Party (BNP) have made their presence felt on the streets of Britain. These organisations have support from some in the business classes who see them as an insurance against the far-left in Britain, just as German business saw Hitler as an insurance policy against the communists in defence of their profits and German capitalism. A picture of appeasement and accommodation can be seen dating right back to Hitler abroad and overtly Nazi groups at home on British soil.

In 1979 Margaret Thatcher and her conservatives were elected to government in Britain. Thatcher held privately many fascist views and among her personal friends numbered Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet was the far-right man in Chile who organised the overthrow of the elected left-wing government of Salvador Allende in 1973. He was a fascist in all but name and one of Thatcher’s friends. For the record Thatcher refused to accept she was no longer Prime Minister when she was ousted as the leader of the conservatives in 1990, in much the same way as Donald Trump refused to acknowledge defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 US presidential election. Fortunately, the British Conservative and Unionist Party were/are not fascist: far-right on occasions yes, fascist no. It was her own party which stopped Thatcher going all the way with her ideologies. She would, in all probability, have outlawed trade unions and strikes if she could have got away with it. When she was booted out of office in 1990 it was the moderates within the party who carried out the execution.

In 2016 the British held a referendum on whether to leave the European Union. The charge to leave and encouraging a leave the EU vote was a man named Nigel Farage. His party, the right-wing United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP,) was the most prominent of the leave camp. England voted to leave the EU, but Scotland and the Six counties voted remain. Their votes did not count, such is the make-up of the UK, just as they do not count for much if England wants something. This man, Farage, holds many fascist views and is reportedly on record as once singing a Nazi song; “gas em all, gas em all” (Irish Daily Mirror Friday 17th November P. 16) referring to Hitlers gassing of Jewish people. This vile man, who likes to promote himself as the funny man, everybody’s friend who likes a pint in his local, once “marched through a Sussex village singing Hitler Youth songs” (Ibid). While he attended the prestigious Dulwich College in South London, teachers there reportedly “tried to stop the headteacher making Farage a prefect, writing a letter in June 1981 to warn he had professed racist and fascist views” (ibid).

Now, this dangerous self-perceived funny man Farage who reportedly once boasted his initials were the “same as the National Front, NF, at the height of Britain’s far-right movement” (ibid) is taking part in a programme called: ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here’. Farage’s involvement in this ridiculous programme will involve him, and others, trying to survive in jungle conditions, a correct venue at least for this less than funny fascist. The dangerous thing about Nigel Farage is, as the referendum proved, people listen to his fascist style arguments and vote accordingly even when he is lying as was the case in the referendum over £365 million saved for the NHS which turned out to be a lie put out by him and future Conservative leader, Boris Johnson. 

Is this not how Nazi Germany started? A ridiculous looking little man with a moustache who many thought to be deranged. They were right there, sweeping to power on being ridiculous and spreading lies! Farage has played the funny man, the I’m everybody’s friend card which hides a hate filled interior blaming immigration for all Britain’s woes! Farage left the Conservatives in 1992 two years after Thatcher was booted out.  No doubt he, Pinochet, and she shared many views. He disagreed with new party leader, John Major’s policies on Europe. Farage also reportedly said “the basic principle of Enoch Powell's Rivers of Blood speech was correct, and he has aligned himself with right-wing figures from overseas like Donald Trump” (ibid).

When Farage made his less than funny remark about sharing his initials with a fascist organisation it could be argued he was still a teenager and it was just adolescent fun. Not very funny, granted, but nevertheless that case could be put. If Farage had not gone on to politically advance his views, perhaps ‘teenage fun’ may have been the end of it. It could also be argued that fascism is imbued within the ranks of the bourgeoisie, which is where Nigel Farage hails from. And this is typical of the contempt that strata of society treat the rest of us with - could this be the case? 

Away from the racist aspects of his policies other points include the privatisation of the National Health Service (NHS), reducing the BBC to a news channel only, forcing them to have advertisements to cover their costs, banning workers taking strike action by law, reducing if not outlawing trade unions to tea and biscuit clubs, and many other profiteering far-right policies.

The question must be asked, how far away from fascism and, even more frightening, Nazism, are the British establishment? If Hitler had won WWII how many adjustments would the higher echelons of British society, including the Royal Family, have had to make? Today they still tolerate fascists, even making them out to be OK guys, while calling former labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, an anti-Semite because he dared to condemn Israel's treatment of the Palestinians. If the Nazis had won the Second World War I don’t think the British establishment and industrialists would have been that much bothered - after all profits come first over and above all other considerations! Don’t they? 

Today Britain appeases fascism and fascist ideologies at home and makes friends and alliances with far-right leaders abroad. Presently the British Government so far have refused to demand a ceasefire be called by the far-right Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu in Gaza. British politicians, both in government and opposition, have backed the murderous actions of Netanyahu without question. In fairness many Labour MPs have defied party leader, Kier Starmer, and called for a ceasefire, some going as far as to resign from Labour. Britain, certainly at Establishment and government levels are continuing their appeasement of fascism, just as they always have. Perhaps they wish to keep this ideology in their arse pockets as an insurance against any popular upsurge in socialist policies and organisations particularly outside Parliament?
 
Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.

British Appeasement And Accommodation With Fascism and Nazism – Past And Present

Caoimhin O’Muraile ☭ The far-right in Britain is once again on the rise. 

Ever since the 1920s, after the rise of Mussolini in Italy 1923, there has been a presence of this evil ideology in Britain. The former intelligence and Security Head, Ormond Winter, based in Dublin Castle before 1922 went back to Britain and joined the fledgling fascist movement over there. Winter would have been ideally suited to such dictatorial ideologies and principles. 

This movement should not be mistaken with Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists (BUF) formed in 1932 by a former labour, conservative and independent MP Sir Oswald Moseley. The organisation Winter gave his allegiance to was a very mixed bag, including some former suffragettes. Other suffragettes, a majority, joined the Labour Party and even the Communist Party, but a few joined Ormond Winter and the fascists. This organisation could have been described as the forerunner to the BUF. BUF membership included the Second Duke of Westminster. After Britain and her allies, the USSR and USA chiefly, defeated the Nazis, the fascist ideology lived on, quite openly and legally despite so many good men, not forgetting the role women played in WWII, sacrificing so much fighting such evils.

During the Second World War against fascism Britain’s former King, Edward VIII, who abdicated late in 1936, sided not so clandestinely with the Third Reich. The former ‘traitor King’ as he was described in a documentary titled Britain’s Traitor King aired on channel four, the former monarch advised Hitler; “the way to beat Britain is to keep bombing her and her people”. This was the former King of the United Kingdom advising the enemy to continue bombing and this was at the time of the “Blitz”! This man was the late Queen Elizabeth II “favourite uncle”, her words not mine, a fucking Nazi!

British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, himself holding some fascist views, wanted the former King tried for treason but the establishment overruled him!! All this and the British people, certainly the English, still love the Monarchy - it beggar’s belief. Had the Axis won the war Edward VIII was to be reinstalled as Hitler’s ‘puppet King’. Fortunately for all of us that did not happen. The same ‘traitor King’ once boasted; “I have not a drop of British blood in my veins, I am one-hundred per cent German!” He even reportedly told the Fuhrer where to bomb and passed on many strategic points of interest to the enemy!

After the war Colin Jordan and his henchman, John Tyndall, formed the British National Socialists Movement (NSM) in 1962. Prior to this Jordan was invited to join the short-lived British Peoples Party, a group led by Lord Tavistock, heir to the Duke of Bedford and consisted of former BUF members. This group, the NSM, openly wore the swastika and was opposed by anti-fascists consisting of Jewish groups, communists, socialists and even some liberals. Like most of the fascist leaders Jordan was not the sharpest knife in the draw failing the entrance exams for the Fleet Air Arm and the RAF. He finished up serving in the Army Educational Corps, which may tell us a lot about the level of education received by the troops?

In 1967 Arthur Kenneth Chesterton another former BUF member formed the National Front (NF), an overtly fascist organisation which was at one time during the 1970s led by Martin Webster. The NF were opposed by the Anti-Nazi League, an organisation formed and then disbanded by the Socialist Workers Party and was huge in numbers as opponents of the NF flocked to the ANL. 

The 1980s saw the rise of the British National Party, formed in 1982 by John Tyndall and taking its name from a group of the same name from the 60s which became defunct. Many former NF members followed Tyndall into the BNP. The BNP created its defence arm, Combat 18, named after the first and eighth letter of the alphabet, AH – Adolf Hitler – and this gang were and are armed. The BNP were opposed successfully by new organisations like Red Action and Anti-Fascist Action (AFA) who ambushed the BNP and their henchmen C18 on regular occasions meeting street violence with street violence. The BNP never knew when or where AFA would turn up, London, Manchester, Birmingham disrupting their meetings and kicking the shit out of them. Always having the art of surprise on their side AFA of the time were very effective against the fascists. Tyndall was succeeded by Nick Griffin as leader of the party and he tried democratic politics coupled with the street fighting of C18 with limited success. They did make inroads on many local councils but this success did not last long as soon as their mask as democrats slipped.

In Ireland while all this was happening in Britain, we too had our share of fascist organisations, not only the Blue Shirts of Eoin O’ Duffy, the perhaps best known of these groups and one of the component parts which formed Fine Gael, but also less well-known organisations. One of these organisations was Ailtin na hAiseirghe (Architects of the Resurrection) founded in 1942 by Gearoid O’ Cuinneagain who, in 1940 founded the short lived Clann na Saoirse, which was connected to the pro-Axis organisations ‘Irish Friends of Germany’. He endorsed ‘Plan Kathleen’, a military plan for the invasion of the six counties by Nazi Germany, sanctioned in 1940 by Stephen Hayes (acting IRA Chief of Staff). 

Did the idiot Hayes not realise what he was dealing with? There can be no doubt O’Cuinneagain did, no doubt at all, but a Nazi occupied Ireland would have put the Black and Tans well into the shadows, even de Valera could see that. 

Ailtin na hAiseirghe planned for a totalitarian Irish Christian Corporate state and fortunately failed to make any significant impact on main stream politics in the 26 counties. However, the party did last for sixteen years, dissolving in 1958 and in 1945 had upwards of 2,000 members. This was out of a population in the 26 counties of around 4.29 million. Per capita that was larger than the BNP which at its height had reportedly 12,000 members in a UK population of around 67.33 million. So, not all our green fields will not allow fascist seeds to grow and the weeds to expand like bindweed in a garden. So, perhaps the title question, ‘Could the Fascist Right in Britain Spread to Ireland?’ is the wrong question. Perhaps we should be asking how do we stop what may already be here? As we see regularly the presence of the far-right in Ireland opposing asylum seekers and refugees across the 26 counties. That presence, with the potential to grow, is already in our midst.

Today in Britain more sinister fascist and openly Nazi organisations are springing up. Organisations like Britain First led by former BNP councillor Paul Golding and an even more dangerous group styling themselves; National Action. This organisation was behind the murder of Labour MP, Jo Cox, in 2016 as she campaigned for a remain vote in the referendum on EU membership. Led by Chris Lythgoe, National Action are able street fighters and are physically fit. They practice martial arts and kick boxing and are a different league to any organisation in this regard of the past. The organisation, unlike its predecessors and contemporaries recruit in the universities. They want the most agile minds as well as physically fit members and as anti-communists are eager to court the middle-class. 

Many middle-class students are pissed off with the communist and socialist led Students Union and see National Action as a credible alternative. They, National Action, aim at igniting a race war and style themselves as “White Jihadists”. They hate the Muslims and the Jihadists, a tiny minority within the Muslim population. They style themselves, with totally opposite objectives on the Jihadists of the Muslim variety along similar lines with a view to ignite the ‘white-man’s war of revenge’. They hate Jewish people and claim “Hitler was too merciful” on the Jews. One of their ploys is to infiltrate Palestinian support groups, something the far right have been doing for years, not because they support the Palestinians but simply because they hate Jews! 

A brilliant dramatized documentary; The Walk-In is presently being aired on Virgin Media One every Wednesday and Thursday 9pm and it began with the murder of Jo Cox by a member of this neo-Nazi group. National Action are a proscribed organisation, the first far right group to be have been so since WWII. This does not mean they have disappeared, no fucking way unfortunately, they have just gone underground. They do not intend, as far as I can see, to become a mass party openly operating their intentions but are far more clandestine than anything in the past. 

The British Government think or pretend to think this banning order against National Action has put the group out of business. This is, of course, bollocks. Could this group move to Ireland? Yes, given their hatred of the IRA and Irish republicanism - in fact Irish independence at all - there is no reason why they could not move over here. Not openly, of course, that would defeat the object, but just stoke up any volatile situations and leave the rest to the Irish right. The Irish right, if ever a fascist takeover is completed, will be very much second to their British masters like National Action, possibly used like the Jewish policemen in the Warsaw Ghetto before they themselves were sent to the camps!! 

In the past the Irish in Britain, or a small minority of them, have been used by right-wing groups like the NF because of the inherent racism within these elements. I have witnessed such usage many years ago on the Walworth Road. An Irishman who had a pub and hated black people for no reason, courted the NF who, for the record hated the Irish, and the fascists used him to stoke up racial hatred pretending to be his mate. Once he had outlived his usefulness a gang wearing Union Jack T. shirts and wearing masks kicked the Irish racist half to death! This was once the plan on a wider scale of the far-right in Britain to use racist elements within the Irish community to do the dirty work after which when no longer useful???

For anybody who thinks I am exaggerating, as I have a tendency to do about the level of fascist threats, I suggest you watch The Walk-In. It is compelling viewing and should not be missed by any anti-fascist groups or individuals. This crowd are more organised, more sinister and evil and better on the streets than anything in the past including the BNP of the eighties who National Action describe as “the moderate right.” One member of the group dared to say that “women and children would get hurt. He was seriously reprimanded and told:

if you go out to kill vermin, the Jew, then you don’t worry if they are young vermin or old vermin, they have to be killed. Just like rats, the Jews are vermin.

The group are anti-immigration and want all black people either culled or deported. They also highlight the murder of off duty British Soldier, Lee Rigby who was brutally killed in the street of London in 2013 - ironically the same year National Action were formed - by two black youths. One of the youths were reportedly - reports quickly supressed - known to MI5 who were hoping to use him as a double agent against ISIS. The murder of Lee Rigby is used by National Action members to make out the entire black community are murderers which is of course utter rubbish. Were MI5 aware of what was going to happen to Lee Rigby but allowed it to go ahead in order that they could recruit and turn one of the assassins to a double agent? This threat as I see it is very serious indeed and could easily gain traction among the hitherto non-fascist (which are not the same as anti-fascist) population. I sincerely hope I am wrong.

Are today’s young anti-fascists up to the job? This new group, as I have said, are a league ahead of all the past organisations, smaller but well organised and proficient street fighters. Today’s anti-fascists must be able to match them both ideologically, not too difficult, but physically which may be more problematic! I can only emphasise on people to watch The Walk-In. It is not fiction but a dramatization of events beginning with the murder the of Labour MP, Jo Cox, in 2016.

Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.

Could The Fascist Right In Britain Spread to Ireland?

Caoimhin O’Muraile ☭ As most people will be aware in recent years, Ireland, we have seen the emergence of far-right neo fascist parties. 

Recently the residents of Dublin’s East Wall district have had their quite legitimate concerns about the 26 county government's lack of consultation over the housing of 380 asylum seekers in an old ESB building hijacked by the so-called Irish Freedom Party, I understand. We covered this last week so no need to go over it again, except to say many residents are making it known that these groups, neo-Nazi variant of fascism are not welcome. The same right-wing group, understood again to be from the fascist Irish Freedom Party led by Herman Kelly are trying the same methods down in Cork. Here the residents have been quick off the mark, perhaps learning from the experiences in East Wall, and anti-fascist placards have been visible on the streets. That is a very encouraging sign. To remind people of the net result, should these organisations ever come to power I shall quote a short ode by a German Pastor, Martin Niemoller, once a supporter of Hitler who fell foul of the Nazis finishing up in a camp, which he survived. The poem is very self-explanatory: 

First, they came for the communist, and I did not speak out.
Because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out.
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out.
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out.
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me

This is the net result if these people ever get to power. They care nothing for the residents of East Wall or anywhere else for that matter, and their nameless faceless multi-millionaire backers care even less. These residents are just fodder to promote the fascists' campaigns. With the huge influx of refugees and asylum seekers coming into Ireland I am surprised it has taken them so long to react. The IFP is not the only neo-fascist party in Ireland. Just because they do not contain the word in their titles is merely a technicality. The Irish National Party led by Justin Barret recently had their Ard Fheis disrupted in county Fermanagh by anti-fascists reportedly carrying hammers. One way of dealing with these extremely violent, if they are allowed, people from spreading this Hitlerite garbage.

It is not the aim of this article to condemn or condone the use of violence when opposing racism and fascism, but just read your history books to see the most effective methods of the past. The reader can make their own mind up.

Ireland, like Britain, has had its fair share of small fascist organisations dating back to the 1930s and Eoin O’Duffy’s Blueshirts founded in 1932 and dissolved in 1935. In their ranks numbered the former Free State Minister for Finance, Ernest Blyth. When this gang was disbanded O’Duffy formed the National Corporate Party, 1935-37, a very tiny fascist party with the Greenshirts as their military wing. Both these groups were opposed on the streets by the IRA. Another perhaps less well-known openly fascist party was Ailtiri na hAiseirghe (Architects of the Resurrection) founded by Hitlerite Gearoid O’Cuinneagain. The organisation existed between 1942 and 1958. Like the Blueshirts this organisation was opposed by anti-fascists on the streets. O’Cuinneagain openly supported the Axis forces during the Emergency, or Second World War. In Britain back in 1936 Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists (BUF) were stopped by thousands of anti-fascists led primarily by Jewish and Irish groups and was made up of trade unionists, socialists, communists and even some liberals. Mosley and his gang were stopped at Cable Street in London’s East End.

Moving into the 1970s and the rise in Britain of the National Front led by openly pro-Nazi John Tyndall, a right-wing street thug who was Colin Jordan's right hand man in the 1950s (see BBC series Ridley Road for more on Jordan). As a counter to the NF the Socialist Workers Party initiated the Anti-Nazi League which grew to huge numbers. The ANL was successful in combating the NF, later to reform as the British National Party, and in 1981 the SWP decided to disband the league. This, I still believe, was not because the battle against fascism was won, but moreover because Tony Cliff and the SWP leadership could no longer control the ANL. The ANL formed at one point into “squads” which became known as “Squadism” which complemented the huge mobilisations which were not always necessary. Any response to fascism must be appropriate relative to the threat. For example, a small fascist demonstration or mobilisation would not require thousands of anti-fascists on the streets; a national mobilisation, when a “squad” could do the job more efficiently. On the other hand, a huge far-right mobilisation, such as in South London in the early eighties would require a huge anti-fascist counter attack, bringing in branches from all over Britain.

Once the ANL had been disbanded any SWP members who continued with the good work of the ANL faced expulsion from the party. Many SWP - the more aggressive elements - members were expelled and new anti-fascist left-wing groups like Red Action began for the first time to emerge and engage the Nazis on the streets. I by chance bought their paper one day in a left-wing bookshop which was called, like the organisation who printed it, Red Action. I found their reading and ideas very attractive and they advocated, what turned out to be a successful strategy at the time, confrontation on the streets and opposing fascism ideologically at any given opportunity. 

Red Action were instrumental in forming Anti-Fascist Action (AFA) which was made up of socialists of many differing hues solely to combat fascism. Former British Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, was affiliated to AFA. I just happened to be on a tube train on London’s underground and as I alighted on my tourist journey searching for ancient London landmarks, I witnessed a commotion and fighting, or chasing may have been an appropriate description. It was a Red Action initiative to clear the area of fascist paper sellers. I must admit, although I was a peaceful tourist this Red Action crowd were impressive. Their methods might be frowned upon, but they certainly had the desired effect. The SWP condemned these actions by AFA and Red Action in particular as being just “Squadists” an arm of the old ANL which they themselves organised! Ironic, because once the SWP had lost control of the ANL anybody or group using, perhaps updating a little these same tactics were condemned by the party leadership of the SWP as being the exact same “Squadists”, a strategy which less than a decade earlier they had endorsed!

According to papers which I have read and conversations I had with various anti-fascist groups the confronting fascism on the streets is a very useful and necessary action to take. It is not the only way though. Other means which compliment such aggression must also be used. Countering the fascist arguments in discussion with those who may be swayed by what appears, on the surface, to be logical arguments from the far-right when in fact they are Hitlerite policies dressed up in suits. For example, the myth that imported foreign labour forces down wages. What nonsense. Employers force down wages and use the migrant worker as a convenient excuse for doing so. The trade unions should be moving quicker to counter these red herrings by the bosses, pointing to the minimum wage in Ireland, due to be raised to 11.70 euro per hour from the New Year. The employers who pay staff below this rate, then scapegoat migrant labour as the cause, must be taken to court by the unions, highlighting them for what they are, exploiters not only of labour but also any given set of conditions. These employers should be reminded of their legal obligation to pay the minimum wage to indigenous and migrant workers. 

There are many ways and arguments to combat fascism, far too many for this blog, which street combatting is perhaps and unfortunately pivotal if history tells us anything. Such action must be accompanied by rational political counterarguments to justify the street activity. For those who do take the street violence and confrontational road, and I am neither advocating or denouncing such actions, pick you side. Red Action, I am led to understand, attacked the NF/BNP at their remembrance Sunday mobilisation. Not the main event, usually televised, as such folly would be seen as disrespectful to the fallen by the general public, but after, when the fascists held their own hypocritical scene. Remember, a lot of good men and women from across the globe stretching from China to the USSR to the USA, Britain, France, Belgium, India, Australia, New Zealand, parts of sub-Saharan Africa, Czechoslovakia and Ireland gave their lives fighting the very ideology the NF/BNP/British Movement. 

Today, Britain first, a fascist party with links to loyalist groups in the north are one of the major groups in Britain, admired by the former US President Donald Trump. What would President Franklyn D Roosevelt have made of that?

Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent 
Socialist Republican and Marxist

Opposing Racism And Fascism Past And Present

Caoimhin O’Muraile ☭ Italy recently voted in a supporter of fascist Benito Mussolini as their new Prime Minister. Giorgia Meloni was elected, winning 119 seats, and she immediately began stamping her footprint across Italian society. 

An admirer of the former fascist dictator and supporter of Vladimir Putin’s policies towards the Ukraine, she has introduced the first of what can only be described as draconian laws. The new law forbids “unlicenced raves” a crime (Irish Daily Mirror 2.11. 2022). The new law in Italy of “Invasion for Dangerous Gatherings” of more than fifty people will attract a jail sentence of up to six years and already numerous gatherings or raves have been dispersed by the police.

Where does it stop? What about football games which attract huge crowds of thousands, will they be made illegal, or attending such games unless fans come from the ruling elite? With fascism you can never tell but Meloni has made her hard-line policies of so-called law and order known to the population. Will she tolerate opposition parties? Are there enough checks and balances to stop her, like Britain under Thatcher which, for all the British parliamentary systems faults had sufficient checks and balances to stop Thatcher going as far as she wanted to? Plus, and more to the point, the British capitalist class did not yet need full fascism. Thatcher would have been the perfect ticket had the system needed such an extreme. A friend and admirer of Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet who she even helped save from justice in a Spanish court - had fascism in Britain been needed - would have served that purpose.

Will Meloni, like her idol Mussolini, make Italy a one-party state? Does the country have enough checks and balances to prevent a repeat of the Mussolini years? Italian liberal democracy is notoriously weak and unstable which are the perfect conditions for the likes of Giorgia Meloni and her policies, or will the President be strong enough to curtail the fanatic? Perhaps the more pertinent question and even more important and relevant is: does Italian capitalism need fascism? If the answer to this question is yes then checks and balances or none, Meloni will be given a free rein. Time will tell, but early signs do not look great. She is anti-immigrant which suggests a certain amount of racism will raise its head at official level in Italy and no longer perhaps be a minority of street thugs. In fact, these street fighters will no longer be of much use to the new government, they may have outlived their usefulness and be thrown into jail. All the same anti-fascists across Europe must watch events in Italy closely as well as their own countries far-right activities, that includes here in Ireland.

In France Marine Le Pen is the leader of the far-right Front National, FN, the party founded by her father Jean Marie Le Pen in 1972. Marine Le Pen is a member of the French National Assembly and has, over the years, gradually increased her support. In 2012 she was placed third in the French Presidential elections but by 2022 she pushed the incumbent, Emmanuel Macron very close, coming second. Many believe she is the French President in waiting. The FN has grown using its anti-immigrant policies over the years from being a fringe party which was no threat to become a major force in French politics. Eventually they may be the governing party and how far they would be allowed to go would - as in Britain much earlier, and recently Italy - depend on firstly the checks and balances and secondly and more importantly the needs of the French capitalist class. In the 2022 Presidential election Le Pen received 13, 288, 686 votes amounting to just over 41% of the vote. Very close, in fact from an anti-fascist view point almost too close. Thankfully in France there is a large anti-fascist opposition led chiefly, though not exclusively, by the trade union CGT.

As the memories of the atrocities committed by fascism and particularly the Nazi variant begin to fade so too does the attitudes of people. Most of the men and women who fought on the victorious allies side, the USSR, USA, Britain, Canadian, Free French, Free Poles, and Free Czechs to name a few are now dead or very old people. All we have now to remind us of the horrors of fascism are documentaries, and not very good ones at that, about the Second World War. Some historians even, reading between the lines, appear sympathetic towards fascism. They definitely overplay the achievements of fascism, for example in Germany they give Hitler credit for the Autobahns which is untrue. These great roads were in fact the idea of the last democratic Weimar Republic Government and were highjacked by the Nazis claiming them as their own. Could this forgetfulness of the Second World War be a reason the far-right, a cock-stride away from the fascist right, are on the move again? One slight nudge and these parties will show their true colours which are fascist. In Italy Meloni and her openly sympathetic to fascism party have already shown their credentials and are already bringing in draconian laws restricting civil liberties.

In Britain the fascist party, Britain First, a party respected by former US president Donald Trump is waiting in the distance. The organisation's leader is the former British National Party councillor, Paul Golding. Jada Fransen is the former deputy leader, who was once charged with assault on a Muslim woman for no other reason than she was a Muslim. Britain First campaigns primarily against the “Islamisation” and multiculturalism of Britain. It advocates the preservation of traditional British culture, in much the same way as Hitler promoted German culture before his election minority victory in 1933.

Britain First registered with the Electoral Commission in January 2014, and in February 2017 was statutorily deregulated as a political party by the same Electoral Commission, after it failed to renew its registration in time. Notable to see this deregulation of the party had nothing to do with its pro-Nazi ideology! Britain First appeal to the British (primarily English) people primarily, claiming to be putting their interests first. Obviously, they do not consider a Muslim born and bred in Coventry or a black person from Manchester as British people! What they really mean is they will put white Britain first at the expense of all minority groups, including the Irish. The party have links to the loyalist paramilitary organisations in the six-counties and regularly visit that part of Ireland.

It is very rare I agree with the British military but on the occasion of the Second World War there is no room for doubt. With the enormous help and sacrifices of the Soviet Union, the industrial might of the USA and the Canadian troops who suffered huge losses in France along with other countries' soldiers, fascism was defeated. Now, it appears, it is raising its ugly head again. For the moment it is true, they are a dot on the horizon, so too was Mussolini, Hitler, Franco, Pinochet but they came to power and were thankfully removed from that same power, with the exception of Franco who died of natural causes. 

Today we must be on our guard, particularly as capitalism lumbers from one crisis to another the ground once again becomes fertile for such organisations! Capitalism in crisis will use fascism to defend itself, in fact of all the isms the only one they cannot live with is socialism, the antithesis of capitalism and, its extreme, fascism.

Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent 
Socialist Republican and Marxist

Is Fascism Being Resurrected?

Caoimhin O’Muraile ☭ Ridley Road -  BBC Serialised Drama: Britain's Flirtation With Fascism!

Colin Jordan, played by Rory Kinnear, at a neo-Nazi rally in Trafalgar Square

The often referred to as the “swinging sixties” was a time of prosperity in Britain. The post-war political consensus, despite showing signs of strain, was still broadly speaking the acknowledged way by both major political parties, Labour and Conservative. The music scene was flourishing and the “Merseybeat” hailed a revolution in that field. For myself, born in 1960, they were great years, (Man Utd won the European Cup 1968) and everybody, as I recall were happy. I had little or no understanding of politics apart from my dad being a trade union and labour activist and my best mate in the early part of the decade, Alex, being one of the few black people on our estate. Racial hatred was foreign to me and I was unaware of a much more sinister side of the so-called “swinging sixties”. 

Behind this bed of roses, as it was seen, the rise of Neo-Nazism in Britain was on the rise. Equally the anti-fascists opposed this evil ideology with more success, despite the police generally taking the fascist side, than failures combatting fascism in the sixties.

John Colin Campbell Jordan (known simply as Colin Jordan) in 1962 formed the National Socialist Movement (NSM), an organisation based on Hitler's NSDAP, Nazi Party in Germany. This was less than twenty years after World War Two ended and Jordan, assisted by his first lieutenant, John Tyndall, operated quite legally and, to a large extent, enjoyed the protection of the law. In confrontations with anti-fascists it was those, not the Nazis, who the police targeted. What an insult to those who fought fascism between 1939 and 1945.

Recently the BBC produced a very interesting drama based on actual events, a serialised drama titled Ridley Road. It told the story of a young Jewish girl, a hairdresser, who went down to London from Manchester to escape an arranged marriage. She was looking for her former partner and stayed with relatives who were involved in the anti-fascist movement. Her former partner, Jack, a fictional character, had infiltrated Jordan's gang which Vivien, the girl, was unaware of. When she was caught up in a fracas at Trafalgar Square where anti-fascists were out preventing, successfully, Colin Jordan's anti-Semitic rally. To her astonishment and, initial disgust, Jack using a pseudo name of Peter, was on the platform waving the “union flag” defending Jordan. In reality Jack had successfully infiltrated the NSM and was passing his findings to the “62 Group”, a broad based anti-fascist organisation formed by Jewish people in 1962 to oppose the Nazis. The NSM itself was formed in 1962 on 20th April, the anniversary of Hitler's birthday. Colin Jordan saw himself in Hitler's image and was known simply as “Leader” - Fuhrer in German! 

The 62 Group was a coalition of anti-fascists who passed their finding, in the series, to an unsympathetic police force who refused to act. This was pretty close to the attitude of the British police who then, as now, hold, to a greater and lesser degree, more sympathies with the fascists than their anti-fascist opponents.

Vivien, AKA Jane in the series, joins Jack, AKA Peter, as far as Jordan knew in infiltrating the NSM. Leading US Fascist, George Lincoln Rockwell, was in close contact with Jordan and paid him visits in England. This is not fiction but, like the Trafalgar Square racist and anti-Semite rally, actually occurred. Jane (Vivien) finds much information on Jordan, his paramilitary training camp at the home of a leading aristocrat and funds from the USA raised by Rockwell. These were/are two countries, the USA and UK, who along with the USSR fought against fascism in the war allowing such organisations to operate on their streets. It begs the question, in the case of Britain and the USA, were they really fighting fascism as an ideology or just a resurgent aggressive Germany?

Britain has had many flirtations with fascist organisations dating back to the British Union of Fascists (BUF) during the 1930s to Colin Jordan's NSM in the 1960s, the National Front in the 1970s, the British National Party in the 1980s-90s along with Combat 18 (named after the first and eighth letter of the alphabet, AH, Adolf Hitler) and today in the 21st century groups like “Britain First” a party greatly admired by former US President, Donald Trump, and the English Defence League which is vehemently anti-Islam. 

The EDL's former leader, Stephen Christopher Yaxley Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson, was once the chief Political Advisor to the UKIP leader, Gerrard Batten, which should tell us something about the United Kingdom Independence Party apart from being anti EU! Dating back to the BUF and Oswald Moseley these fascist organisations have had a broad class membership ranging from the most dispossessed members of society to the aristocracy. Needless to say, the lower down the class pecking order one is the more chance of being cannon fodder, disposable in times of conflict.

Just as the BUF were stopped by anti-fascists at Cable Street, East London, in 1936 their modern inheritor have also being successfully opposed by anti-fascists, groups like Anti-Fascist Action (AFA), in more recent times. Britain’s flirtation with fascism is more popular than the establishment like to admit. Fortunately so too are the anti-fascist groups opposing them. The modern “Britain First” party has close links to North of Ireland loyalist paramilitary groups and are strong supporters of the loyalist cause. They are anti-Islam and anti-Jewish which on the surface makes no logic. In reality they believe the Middle East belongs to neither Jew or Arab (both I might add are Semite peoples) but Britain! This includes modern Israel, though this is never published as it may be a little complex for their mutton headed membership to take in all at once. Best to stick to one subject at a time before attempting anything a little more ambitious!

Fascism today and, indeed, far-right politics generally, are perhaps greater than at any time since the 1930s. Anti-fascist groups must continue opposing such organisations and never rely on the police to be impartial. As in the series, Ridley Road, an effective but highly dangerous way of combatting fascism is through infiltration. Couple this with counter demonstrations on the streets and a clear strategy begins to show in opposing the far-right. What the infiltrators do with their priceless information is very much down to the organisation doing the infiltrating. Some, as in the BBC series, may pass their findings on to Special Branch, others may use it to further infiltrate and, knowing the venues, physically disrupt fascist meetings and gatherings. Either way it is highly dangerous because, and be under no illusion, these Neo-Nazi groups are extremely violent and could kill the infiltrator if they were to be unmasked.

The BBC must be commended for this brilliant four-part dramatization of the fight against Colin Jordans Neo-Nazi NSM during the sixties. Though many characters are fictitious the events, like the failed Trafalgar Square rally which Jordan organised, are factual. The 62 Group formed to oppose the NSM did exist and did fight. Many of their members were veterans of the “Battle of Cable Street” (no pasaran - they shall not pass) of 1936 when Mosely’s “Black Shirts” were stopped in their tracks. The anti-fascist mobilisation for that series of events, culminating in the Battle of Cable Street, in the 1930s was a huge success and consisted of communists, socialists, Jewish groups, trade unionists, the Labour Party and even some liberals.

Anybody who missed the series I strongly recommend viewing at your first opportunity. It was graphically accurate, though no reference was made to Jordan's first lieutenant, John Tyndall which was perhaps its only flaw, if that is what it was. It may have been a deliberate omission. It highlights just how close we are to fascism and then, as now, it is forever present. Even as recently as Donald Trump in the USA, an admirer of the fascist “Britain First” organisation, who was arguably for his Presidency the most powerful man on earth! How close were we to fascism taking serious root? Food for thought and not very tasty!!

Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent 
Socialist Republican and Marxist

Ridley Road

Robert Mulhern with an opinion piece based on years of marketing study and practice. He writes from the personal experience of having fallen down the rabbit hole himself. 

This took ages to write.

Thankfully Zack Breslin edited it for me.  📖Buy his book📖 I have actually discovered quite a few people who have found this idea to be palpable. I will provide links at the end. 

I’ve been vocal with my friends for years about how our whole online world revolves around where we fit into a marketing funnel. The question is whose marketing funnel and why? What is a marketing funnel? Just imagine a funnel with three layers. The top, middle and bottom. broken into steps.

You are being manipulated and lied to all day every day, followed around and being moved from one stage of a marketing funnel to the next without even clocking it for the most part. Right wing propagandists know this well and are trying to turn you into a negative, pissed off Nazi. They are extremely good at picking their dream customer and have a product for each type of introduction. For example, if you are recently divorced you can be targeted (if you updated your relationship status on Facebook) and shown tonnes of negative anti-woman stuff such as “gold digger” videos and bam! you are now on the Incel Train to Nazidom. You will pick up other special items like “free speech brah” near the beginning of the journey because the other talking points pivot from this as it’s rooted in protecting hateful rhetoric. I’ve seen it tonnes and is the easiest one because it seems to be popular to hate/suspect women on YouTube. I used to believe this shit myself unfortunately.

I am going to attempt to explain it in the following long post with the intention of helping immunize you against it. I am passionate about this because it happened to me Twice. Once in 2009 when I was extremely pro-trans and anti-sharia law (aka I hated brown people because internet propaganda) and next the reverse in 2016 when I didn’t take trans people seriously and turned my back on feminism because too many “Woke” bastards started parroting bullshit that was made up by 4chan trolls destroying my faith in the cultural left. I think I’m on a third time lucky type buzz and have been as exhibitionist as fuck about my experience in the hopes that it helps encourage other people to just man up and admit they are wrong too.

A marketing funnel is broken down into three steps: Intro, Education and Advocacy. A marketing funnel mimics human relationships and for this reason the introduction is the most important. Due to the volume of social media content online, a person, brand or ideology will present itself with a shocking title to cut through the noise. For example, the wealth of antifeminist videos where they cart out Big Red, a highly annoying feminist who is a loud narcissist and vehemently dislikeable. She will be displayed in a video titled “Feminazi gets destroyed by Ben Shapiro logic” or some các. It’s very easy to hate the loudest most dislikeable feminist and this is used as a means to characterise all feminists.

They do this by artificially making her a representative of all feminists by plastering her everywhere on YouTube, with reuploads etc to make sure she gets utterly everywhere. This is because you get filled with rage when you see these privileged liberal bastards telling you what to do, immediately creating pushback: “She’s not telling me what to do” etc etc.

Once you get someone pissed off enough, they start to take all sorts of negative information in and just seem to believe it. Angry people are really easy to fill up with bullshit. This is why the right wing propagandists do everything with simple quick soundbites that any asshole can remember and parrot quickly. They use dodgy grammar too because your brain clocks the broken patterns more easily and you are more likely to remember them. This is the main problem: the left actually answers questions and in order to do that the answers are more robust and much more difficult to remember. The right gives you quick microwaved nutritionless các and that’s a factor in how their shite spreads, they can fit their vacuous bile into a headline.

Creating debate in the comments section is an insidious technique that is used very often. It is for this reason that right wingers pose deliberately vague (racially motivated) questions with their content. This is with the express intent of populating the comments section with right wing talking points using fake accounts to get the victim to the next stage in the marketing funnel: Education.

They do this using fake accounts spouting the right wing answers and talking points that they seek to embolden. They insert them into the comments in order to make each response look real and independent. Once enough sock puppet accounts comment on a post it adds confidence to the real people who then show up to agree with the sock puppet accounts. This is called social proof because it has the effect of proving that this idea is acceptable amongst the people in the comment section and is therefore a safe space to join in. The sock puppets often argue with themselves to create a discussion which eventually leads to the desired answer that the initial post posed as a question.

Once you go through the education stage of being educated by links from sock puppets and other down-the-rabbit hole conspiracy theorists who believe nothing but everything-else, you will find yourself bringing up anti-equality talking points without prompt. This further alienates you from your friends because suddenly all you are talking about is “The strange death of Europe” and shite like that. This is the same as cults where they give you the only truth that they want you to believe and stir up hatred within you so you ruminate on it and come up with your own catastrophic outcomes filling you further with fear.

A good rule of thumb is that if everything you are hearing comes from one source or two/three closely knit sources then you are probably being fed lots of bullshit. For instance, Trump says something, Tucker Carlson elaborates on it to solidify said thing, then Louder with Crowder will spout it before Shapiro will try and give you the “Lite” version. The lite version often becomes the main talking point and Shapiro can then be seen as a good little conservative. As you can see, social proof in action. The left becomes further away from the right and thus the right becomes the norm in the process, making left wing talking points seem further out at sea than they once did.

I have seen this conversion happen to six people in my life already. It’s miserable to watch as they lose all their friends and positive interactions become negative. These people wind up congregating together in the end in a big ball of misery until they either snap out of it, kill themselves from loneliness or get extreme. I’m lucky to have snapped out of it.

The advocacy stage of the marketing funnel is when the person starts to repeat this fascist horseshit themselves and advocate for it. This is insidious as normally it takes a few other mini-steps within a marketing funnel to get someone to the advocacy stage whereas in the fascist sphere it happens almost instantly after they’ve seen the introduction content because of how hateful it is. People really love being in tribes because it helps them navigate their place in society so creating an In-Group/Out-Group situation is perfect for creating fascism. The irony in this is pseudo-moderates like Tim Poole keep pointing out “tribalism” on the left. He’s not fucking wrong but he’s acting as if the right are sane even though they’re at it as well. Tim Poole, a right wing, alt-liter being seen as sane is a sign of the right wing normalisation ... because the self nominated, white privileged American college “left” took the fucking bait hook, line, and sinker, ad nauseum.

There are different types of Facebook ads/organic posts for different parts of the marketing funnel. Different types of pages and content for different parts of the funnel. For example, they’ve started to weaponise support of police in Ireland. If you disagree with the Gardaí and Drew Harris, for example, you could be painted as “Not A Patriot” by the same people vilifying the Gardaí for lockdown. This sews confusion and tries to get you to cease criticism of the neoliberal power structures and to otherise people who do, creating an in-group versus out-group dynamic predicated on confusing terms, priming you for the bait and switch down the line with the big ideology reveal party after everything has been socially proofed.

No Platforming (cancelling) works but I have misgivings about its longevity in a digital world as all the platforms are run by billionaires whose parameters are “Addiction = More misery = more cash = more money” ad infinitum.

I think cancelling helps the right acquire customers (I am thinking about it in terms of a marketing funnel because nearly all of the early stages of fascist conversions take place online which is all social media out of the gate). Cancelling in and of itself is a tremendous and Free introduction campaign for the right wing marketing funnel because it often serves to destroy someone who definitely doesn’t deserve it, thus reducing trust in the cultural left. It also obscures the real quest for truth and raises other questions like “how long can a cancellation last for, does twitter decide? What if twitter goes down, does the cancellation go away?” What if the cancellation happens on Twitter and Facebook users don’t hear about it? Are they trash for accidentally engaging? As you can see its unpractical and confusing, and there are no defined barriers. I cannot stress this enough: look at how Jordan Peterson became famous, but then look even closer to what happened next - his audience went even further right so then he started aligning himself with them in a very sly capacity as he became more and more audience-captured with the smell of money in his nose and then a feedback loop started. The only thing that stopped him was the fact that he became a huge hypocrite and has to rebrand. All of his downfall was an accident which is alarming because he was peddling nonsense and using left wing outrage to pivot from and we weren’t able to stop him. The recent cancellation of Bill Burr was very suspicious to me in that it serves only to fracture the left. My first thought was 4chan have made fake accounts again, just as they did with the 72 genders in 2016. I have no idea if they did but they might as well have.

I feel like if you want to cost right wingers more on ad spend and slow down their reach then stop responding to clearly emotional bait that was put there to get a reaction in general and let them stew. If they don’t get responses they delete their comments normally (in my experience). This deprives them of the dopamine required to motivate them further. Every time a fact checker on Facebook shows fake news sites to be fake it emboldens their audience. The old adage “Don’t encourage them” works wonders. If you leave bullies alone they pick on some other poor cunt who will eventually learn this lesson.

Cancelling is a double edged sword. You give the people in question tonnes of free attention in exchange for them fucking off for a few weeks and an in depth Facebook post apology about the usual shite that you could probably get from a template. Logan Paul’s PR people baked his post-cancellation redemption ark into his overarching media strategy and made him millions for example (and he is extremely Un-Unique). Yes, the structures of oppression have turned protest against it into a profitable commodity because of capitalism.

Of course, cancel culture is the only recourse some people have, this is the maddening thing. This is capitalism at its worst. The MeToo movement, for example, was fit for purpose and was needed to widen horizons and pass a new threshold of human decency and, of course, celebrities used their platforms to change that which is a great thing.

It’s when it became ubiquitous and rebranded as “cancel culture” that it started to reveal more problems due to where it takes place. The systems which perpetuate it are owned by billionaires at the end of the day. Disney’s commodification of diversity is troubling, for example. It’s pouring more capitalism on the capitalism problem in my opinion. I realise cancel culture itself, offline, has been around for a very very long time and calling it “cancel culture” is kinda cringe but it’s the definition everyone else uses and my entire reasoning for writing this is one of practicality. I have zero problem whatsoever with people cancelling one another, it just seems fucking stupid considering how easy it is to create agit prop using cancel culture as the evil. We keep seeing the right rail against it yet we keep falling for the bait. My argument is, simply, the cancelling happens and unless you are an actual full on rapist then you are eventually going to be forgiven and in the process of cancelling the person you might have alienated a couple of thousand potential left wing customers and sent them on the path to Nazidom. Trapt, Jordan Peterson, Ariel Pink, John Maus………list goes on. They get sent to the cancel corner and then of course they get to know their audience. They bring their audience with them but how many come back?

What exactly was the point of cancelling Lindsey Eillis? Was this an idea that a few privileged white people had to make the left look like a bunch of emotionally unhinged freaks? The left is only as good as its lowest common denominator, This act seems foolish as fuck and serves only to prove further the point I outlined above which does not make me any less anxious. I am literally writing this from the perspective of seeing reactionaries like this and abandoning the left myself, remember?

Another big problem I see is that the working class are working too hard to sit down and learn all the nuances of trans culture for example, yet the only thing they even see about trans culture is negative shit because of right wing propaganda. Working class folk aren’t aware that only 0.04% of the population on planet earth is trans and that they are not a threat, and that there’s no “Trans agenda” whatever the fuck that means.

They see cancel culture and they say “Fuckin grow up, back in my day…” yadda yadda yadda. The reason the right are able to sway these people is because instead of cancelling people who are ignorant of very niche things, the right are out helping these people and don’t write them off for being “backwards” and cordoning them off from digital society, a mechanism that makes them less willing to join digital society in the first place. The right’s eyes light up with Euro symbols and they see a large customer base.

The left seem to want a customer base who’s shit doesn’t stink right out of the gate. They have forgotten that in marketing your introduction is your most important step and if your introduction consists of calling someone trash because of something about which you have no understanding you are probably going to tell them to fuck off.

They don’t know and they are afraid. Fear is a very powerful weapon. It hurts to say this but there is a Catholic evil in Ireland and it’s being used to motivate the working woman/man as a means to make a fascist of them.

Think about it like this: religious people for the most part cordon off a large section of their reasoning and dedicate it to simple, magic, scripture based, pre-baked answers so they don’t have to think about inconvenient things like why the fuck we exist and other heavily stressful things with which people of no faith grapple daily. The cost of this specific convenience is that they follow certain rules that must be congruent with whichever state their organisation is in, if it doesn’t then forget about it. It is this reason why the fascists already target a group which wants convenient, easily digestible talking points congruent with their narrowed reality. I have zero problem shitting on religious people, they’ve been pissing me off since I was born but I had to learn to put up with them in the end and can get on with them respectfully. I will never bother to debate them for the reasons I stated above.

I saw so many feminists fighting over the abortion issue in Ireland with religious people. I am fully convinced that it would be better if they did not, The vitriol that was thrown around mirrored the pre- 2016 U.S Election. The right as a result may have possibly secretly won that campaign. They accepted that losing the first time was a part of the process, it gives them victim status, something cancerous narcissists love to use and as a result they are dominating discourse right now. Just look at how they co-opted punk in the 80s with skinheads and in 2015 they started co-opting anti-capitalist cyber punk “vaporwave” with a mirror genre “fashwave” which mimicked everything about the genre in a fascist context.

One of the first things I learned in marketing that is proven true time and time again is that people only share things that make them look good. Every share is self-interest. This creates a parameter of narcissism from the outset, contaminating the well. When I paid attention to some dogpiling on Twitter it did genuinely feel like mob rule, some people hadn’t a clue why but they joined in. Some people have killed themselves as a result. Are we really this shallow? To me it resembles online bullying with extra steps. The Gardaí in Ireland are not prepared for social media problems and pretend it’s not happening for the most part. Why are we accepting that these addictive platforms just create shitloads of problems all the time? Why are we using these horrible platforms to fuck up our fellow man?

The left’s target audience should be farmers. A group who were prominent in many of history’s most significant left wing revolutions CBD farmers are already on your side, stop worrying about them. We need to start talking to farmers in their language, accept that they are probably god fearing people.  Speak to that! Where you see “Women’s rights” they see “babies getting murdered”. There is no consolidation for that if there is an interstitial religious barrier in the middle so keep that argument out of sight. Jordan Peterson would bombard them with a word soup filled with Cultural Marxist bullshit phrases that he fucking made up. If Jordan Peterson can come up with catchy horseshit then the people on the left who are mostly defined as the creatives should certainly be able to come up with some IRL marketing copy something like “you are being robbed of this much per year and if we change that you can make more. Jesus didn’t die for you to be skint”. Farmers fuckin’ love money, tell them that they’ll get paid 100 bucks for every abortion for example.

Anyway, hope this is useful. I Do Not Claim To Know Everything. Free speech et al, destroy me in the comments if you want. I’m sure even I myself have written things that I don’t agree with in this article. This article should be taken as a reminder that people are not that different from one another. We all wake up in the morning and take a shit, surely common ground can be found. make sure to correct me if you find fault in this article. I do not want to spread bullshit in any shape or form. Peace :)

References :

Here is a young kid who pointed at marketing funnels too, which ended up spurring me on to navigate this:

My Descent into the Alt-Right Pipeline

Kill All Normies

Why We're Polarized

⏩Robert Mulhern is a musician, sound engineer, marketer, gaeilgoir, anti-capitalist and privacy enthusiast.

Avoiding The Rabbit Hole

Haaretz - Last May 28, three days after a police office killed George Floyd in Minneapolis, an angry mass of protesters stormed the headquarters of the force’s Third Precinct ...

Two days later, President Donald Trump singled out those whom he held responsible for the wave of violence and arson that swept through dozens of large cities in the country in the wake of Floyd’s killing ...

One person who is not impressed by these statements is Mark Bray, a historian at Rutgers University in New Jersey. “I think that burning down the police station in Minneapolis was a righteous thing to do,” he tells Haaretz in a phone conversation. 

It was a facility that facilitated the killing of Black people, and the police as an institution are a racist institution, so burning down their police stations is a good thing to do, to stop them from killing Black people and brutalizing poor and homeless people.

The 38-year-old professor is the person who is perhaps most identified with the activists of the radical left-wing movement antifa – short for antifascist.  

Continue reading @Haaretz.

The Historian Who Wrote The Antifa Handbook Defends Fighting Violence With Violence

From Live Science a piece that seeks to outline some core tents of fascism. By Jessie Szalay.

Fascism is a complex ideology. There are many definitions of fascism; some people describe it as a type or set of political actions, a political philosophy or a mass movement. Most definitions agree that fascism is authoritarian and promotes nationalism at all costs, but its basic characteristics are a matter of debate.

Fascism is commonly associated with German Nazi and Italian regimes that came to power after World War I, though several other countries have experienced fascist regimes or elements of them. Adolf Hitler in Germany, Benito Mussolini in Italy, Francisco Franco in Spain and Juan Perón in Argentina were well-known fascist leaders of the 20th century. [Dictator Deaths: How 13 Notorious Leaders Died]

Robert Paxton, a professor emeritus of social science at Columbia University in New York who is widely considered the father of fascism studies, defined fascism as:

a form of political practice distinctive to the 20th century that arouses popular enthusiasm by sophisticated propaganda techniques for an anti-liberal, anti-socialist, violently exclusionary, expansionist nationalist agenda.
Other definitions, Paxton said, rely too heavily on documents that Mussolini, Hitler and others produced before they came to power. Once in power, fascists did not always keep their early promises. 
 
Continue reading @ Live Science

What Is Fascism?

Laura Weinstein details the nature of her online exchanges with Irish fascists. 

It is a truth universally acknowledged that fascists don't like to be called fascists. (Apologies to Jane Austen.)

As a scholar of Irish history and politics, I never intended for any of my research and writing to be personal. I’ve published academic articles on the Armagh dirty protest and sexual assault in the journal Eire-Ireland. Although I write from a feminist perspective, the peer-review process has deemed my work to be solid, accurate interpretations of the evidence. And it should be, for all of the years I’ve spent studying Ireland: I hold an MA in Irish Politics from Queen’s University of Belfast, and a Ph.D. in Irish History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

So imagine my shock when, in response to what I believed to have been a banal tweet about my current research, Sputnik crashed down on my head in the form of hundreds — nay, thousands — of harassing, belligerent, anti-Semitic remarks from Irish people who think I have no right to comment — and no real knowledge of Ireland because I am not, myself, Irish. And I don’t pretend to be; my Twitter handle @Irish_Dr_Laura refers to my degree, not my ethnicity. Their abuse reached the feeds of American bigots, and all of a sudden, my life became about reporting racially offensive attacks on Twitter. I have had to block 213 people (and counting) for sending me hateful tweets over the course of just four days.

Here’s my original statement:


Yes, I made a joke about Gemma O’Doherty and Justin Barrett, but these figures are so preposterous that they’re the butt of many jokes on Twitter. It seems that fascists don’t like to be called fascists. And while I agree that the term is used loosely a lot of the time, these people and their followers are fascists, which I will demonstrate here (and in more detail in a later paper, which will chronicle right-wing nationalism in Ireland).

Gemma O’Doherty was once a respected investigative journalist, but she has become an Irish national joke in most circles. She has founded a political party called Anti-Corruption Ireland (ACI), and she uses her platform to rant about Muslims, the danger of 5G (which, in her words, will make the cancer rate “one-in-one” — i.e., 100% of people will have cancer), the “hoax” of climate change, and the allegedly made-up story about the dead babies at the Tuam mother-and-baby home. YouTube banned Gemma for making videos that violated the site’s rules, so she has taken to uploading her videos on her personal website. She also stages protests outside of Google’s Dublin office in the name of “free speech.”

Justin Barrett has a much longer and more sordid history as a right-wing bully. In the 1990s and early 2000s, he was a leader of Youth Defence, a group dedicated in large part to preventing abortion from being legalised in Ireland (he lost that battle in 2018). He was a vocal supporter of the 2004 Citizenship Referendum, which took away birthright citizenship for people born in Ireland. He is also a known associate of the openly fascist Italian group Forza Nueva. Today, Barrett is the head of the Irish National Party, a fascist party dedicated to — they may as well say it this way — making Ireland great again.

Throughout my diligent study of Irish history, “nationalism” has traditionally implied a desire to let the people of Ireland govern themselves and enjoy Gaelic culture (hence the GAA and Abbey Theatre, for examples). Nationalists and Republicans want the entire island of Ireland to be a single country, free from British rule. This strand of nationalism has a lengthy history that need not be delineated here in any great detail, so a few illustrative examples will have to suffice: the United Irishmen rebellion of 1798 (“the year of the French”); Robert Emmet’s rebellion a few years later; Daniel O’Connell’s repeal movement; Parnell’s more moderate Home Rule campaign; and of course the famous Easter Rising and War for Independence of the Twentieth Century. The paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland today and during the Troubles claimed to be carrying that torch.

This brand of nationalism was largely anti-imperialist and dedicated to the principles of freedom and equality. See, for example, Theobald Wolfe Tone’s famous stance on uniting “Protestant, Catholic, and dissenter.” Although I personally oppose violence, I have for many years been a vocal supporter of Irish unity.

But Gemma O’Doherty and Justin Barrett (the latter more virulent) advocate a different kind of nationalism. They claim to be the true trustees of the torch lit by Pearse, Connolly, and the other rebels, and say they are the protectors of Pearse’s proclamation of Poblacht na hÉireann. To Barrett and O’Doherty, the proclamation justifies their virulent anti-immigrant stance: they believe that when Pearse addressed the “people of Ireland,” he meant those with “Irish blood.” Though we can never really know Pearse’s intention, there is an argument that he was referring to people who live on the island of Ireland; if he had meant “people” as in “das Volk,” surely he would have capitalized People [see da Paor, L. The Easter Proclamation Of 1916 (2nd ed.)] Maybe he was referring to a Volk as in a blood-and-soil nationalism: to be Irish, one must have Irish ancestry — alas, we can’t ask him. But, as many Irish people fought in the Spanish Civil War, so I believe Pearse would have embraced my support for Irish freedom, even though I’m an American Jew.

But surely this concept, too, is problematic: How far back must one’s ancestors have come to Ireland for one to be Irish? White supremacists in the United States have repeatedly disproven the “pure blood” problem. There are many stories of white supremacists’ taking DNA tests in order to show their white genetic credentials, only to find out that — holy shit — they aren’t as white as they thought. The idea of “pure blood” in humans is absurd on its face.

So obviously Gemma and Justin Barrett are xenophobic, but why do I say they are fascist? While historians and political scientists disagree widely on characteristics of fascism, upon some qualities, there is widespread agreement:

➧ Use of fear to gain support.

➧ Identification of an “other” or “out group” to scapegoat.

➧ Deployment of violence against people who disagree with them.

➧ Reliance on emotional appeal over factual evidence; sometimes to the point of degrading the idea that there is real truth at all.

➧ Purveying the idea that it is only they, the fascists, who tell the truth in the face of government and/or media that consistently lie to and manipulate them.

➧ Appeal to bringing back a mythic past of the great nation along with extreme nationalism.

[See, for example, Albright, M. Fascism: A Warning. There are many books that deal with fascism, but this is the most accessible.]

The ACI and National Party engage in all of these tactics.

The claims of ACI and the National Party to want to reclaim Ireland for the Irish, from immigrants who are trying to “replace” the Irish or “breed” the Irish out of existence is pure fascism that deploys the language of neo-Nazis. Barrett and O’Doherty condemn abortion when practiced by Irish women, and support a pro-natalist philosophy for Irish people (as Mussolini did in Italy).

Both ACI and the National Party revile “multiculturalism,” “liberalism,” and “internationalism” as “weak.” (Are they trying to “bury the putrid corpse of liberty”?) They have identified a common “enemy” — immigrants, especially Muslim immigrants — and they stoke fear in people with the specter of being “replaced.” They long for an idyllic Irish past in which people could enjoy the “laughter of comely maidens” (per de Valera), when Irish people were all of “Irish blood” (i.e., white). They proclaim that Irish people have become weak and need to “wake up” to reality — and only they are telling the truth as the government and media — especially RTÉ — only lie.

Finally, the National Party uses violence in support of its tactics. In my particular case, violence refers to the coordinated anti-Semitic harassment on Twitter, designed to intimidate me either to quite Twitter or quit writing about Ireland. Or maybe just because they think it’s fun.

Since I’m going to save the rest of my history and analysis of fascism in Ireland for the larger research piece I’m working on, I’ll return now to the fascists on Twitter, who likely represent a significant percentage of all of the fascists in Ireland, as I have always found the country to be open and welcoming. Someone alerted Justin Barrett to my tweet about my research, and he reposted it on his personal feed — that’s how I ended up the target of innumerable anti-Semitic and otherwise personal attacks, some of which I’m quoting below.



Here are some examples of the abuse I’ve received. A small selection out of the 1,000+ tweets that have accused me and all Jews of genocide, called my “boyfriend” an ape (I’m married); and on numerous occasions, these Irish fascists have recommended that I “die”:
















In addition, people have told me that “Ireland is more than potatoes”; “Admit you’re a witch”; “Why do you hate Ireland?”; and they have itemized my allegedly “Jewish” features including a “hook nose and rat face.” They have told me that I’m not welcome in Ireland, and claim that my degrees don’t mean I know anything because only people with “Irish blood” can understand Ireland’s history. They have asked me how I would feel about Irish people immigrating to Israel? In fact, comments about Israel may be the most common trope in all of the abuse.

Reminding these people that I am American, not Israeli, has no impact. Nor do they care that I never comment on Israel or Palestine, as I don’t have enough knowledge of the issues to make intelligent remarks on the subject. To them, I’m “a Jew” because my surname is Weinstein, and that’s all that matters.

ACI and the National Party are fascist groups that peddle conspiracy theories. They frequently quote Donald Trump and make reference to “fake news” in an effort to reinforce the idea that only they tell the truth; and the truth will bring the Irish people into the streets to reject immigrants and Europe (among other things). They claim that “multiculturalism” doesn’t work, and that immigrants will “replace” “real” Irish people.

But here’s the thing: I live in New York City, which is the most diverse city in the world. I ride the subway every day, and see people of every race and ethnicity sitting together, chatting, and, yes, dating. There are so many inter-racial couples in New York City that I wouldn’t even venture to estimate a figure. So regarding the idea that the Irish will be “bred out of existence”--no one is forcing anyone to marry or have sex with a person of another race or ethnicity. People do so by choice. And, despite the fact that Gemma claims in one of her videos that the Irish people would “never” vote for abortion, that referendum passed by a large majority in 2018.

And this, I believe, is the real fear of these fascists: that the majority of Irish people really are liberal and internationalist in their mindset. The idealistic Ireland that they nostalgically yearn for — abounding with “the laughter of comely maidens,” in which abortion and same-sex marriage were illegal, and where there was no international presence — doesn’t exist.

And really, it never did.


Laura Weinstein is an independent scholar whose expertise focuses on Irish history and politics. She lives in New York City with her husband and three rescue cats.





Fascist Intimidation On Twitter

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