Generally speaking, 2017 was not a good year for the dishevelled network of Holocaust deniers and racist discussion groups that constitute the “intellectual” end of the UK far right.
The London Forum, which was already struggling to book speakers, suffered acute embarrassment in September following a yearlong infiltration by HOPE not hate researcher Patrik Hermansson.
Soon after, Forum figurehead Jez Turner was charged in connection with a speech he gave at an “anti-Shomrim” demonstration in Whitehall in 2015. Turner’s trial will commence on 16 April.
Meanwhile “Holocaust revisionist” musician Alison Chabloz is standing trial for charges relating to three “grossly offensive” songs performed at the London Forum in September 2016.
The Yorkshire Forum, run by Liam Kernaghan, has climbed down from holding six meetings in 2016 to just one in 2017.
Julie Lake’s South West Forum also held just a single successful meeting in 2017 (after having a meeting in January disrupted by antifascists and another event booked late in the year cancelled at late notice).
However, this Holocaust Memorial Day the bedraggled scene is attempting a comeback of sorts.
The South West Forum is set to return this Saturday, with an event billed to feature veteran fascist and Holocaust denier Richard Edmonds, as well Britain First’s elections officer George Whale (previously of Pegida UK and Liberty GB), who is set to talk about “how to organise an underground movement”.
Julie Lake of the National Front has resumed organisational duties.
As recently detailed by my colleague Matthew Collins, Saturday will also be marked by the second meeting organised by Boadicea Events, following its first gathering in October 2017.
Held again in Blackpool, “The Road Ahead” will feature a gamut of racists, including Stephen Frost of the British Movement and James Mac of the American nazi cult Church of the Creator.
Notably Jez Turner is due to speak, and Alison Chabloz will perform. Chabloz’s 2016 album “Songs of the Shoah” includes the tracks “Tell Me More Lies” and “(((Survivors)))”.
This weekend the London Daily Stormer “book club” is due to hold its first meeting of 2018.
Andrew Anglin, founder of the notorious nazi website Daily Stormer, has encouraged regional offline meetups across the US and Europe. While these are advertised as “book clubs”, Anglin has stated that his plan is to “build an invisible empire”.
Dozens of regional threads have been set up on the Daily Stormer forums to encourage meetups across the UK, although so far only a handful have translated into actual offline meets, including in Manchester, Swindon, South Wales and Yorkshire.
The groups, which operate autonomously, make heavy use of apps such as Discord and Signal to communicate. Events have been planned to coincide with Forum network events.
While the London group is small – the first meet in May 2017 was attended by just four people – it held roughly 10 meetups throughout the year.
Recapping 2017, an organiser using the pseudonym “Maffoo” stated that the group had “climbed mountains, ridden waves, camped, boxed “and that “Thots have been punished, niggers lynched, pakis bashed, and kikes gassed (disclaimer: hypothetically and metaphorically.)”
The meeting will take place this Sunday (28 January).
Also upcoming is the first meeting in 2018 of London-based discussion group Extremists Club, due to take place on Tuesday 30 January.
The group, founded by Turner and David Parry of the Libertarian Party UK, claims to be a discussion group for “extremist” ideas of all kinds.
While it continues to put on a variety of speakers and often discusses non-political topics, many of those attending and addressing the events are active in far-right circles, including in the Forum network.
Previous speakers at the events include Chabloz, Holocaust denier Nick Kollerstrom, and antifeminist zealot Claire Khaw.
The group has recently moved venue from Soho into a new space in Marylebone, London. Billed to speak at the Club for the first time is James McCulloch, national chair of “Identity Albion”. The group will also hear a speech on Scientology.
The event is also likely to feature a customary reading from Melissa Cordwell, who was involved in drumming up support for the Racial Volunteer Force (RVF) after the sacking of nazi cleaner Mark Atkinson from Royal Holloway University in 2016.
A Reform Party candidate fantasised about deporting “millions” of British citizens to “rid itself of the foreign plague we have been diseased with”. UPDATE: Reform…
