Secession - you know it makes sense

Good ideas are a mainstay of this new initiative: All Nations Party

Similar to the equally refreshing New Resistance manifesto (see links)

Must try harder

Okay, I'm a bit slow off the mark with this, and maybe I shouldn't comment on something so trivial. But I just can't let a post on the News Biscuit satirical news site go without comment. So Eastleigh apparently " isn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, in Wessex at all.". Hmm-if that's the case why is it a few miles down the road from Wessex's long time capital Winchester? So where is Eastleigh if not Wessex? Certainly not in the Kingdom of the South Saxons- it's firmly in Hampshire.

Poor old Wessex. When people are not denying it's existence completely, they're lopping chunks out of it left, right and centre. One thing's for sure though: Wessex as a cultural entity is decidedly on the up. It's name is cropping up more and more in all spheres.

Whilst I'm having a moan this  news got up my nose. So 'whites' should have more babies. Why do we need to play the numbers game? Smaller nations have more of a sense of themselves don't they? There's not many nationalists on the ground in any case, so will a breeding programme make any difference? Besides, where are all these babies going to live when they grow up? Do you love your country so much that want to see it covered in concrete? The UK has changed - there is no going back. Preserve your nation but forget about being top dog. Constitutional nationalism has had it's day.   Maybe it is time to adopt radical National Anarchist strategies...It's better than banging your head against that brick wall.

Cast adrift the Great Wen

News that that the 'King of the World' himself, Boris Johnson,  is seeking tax raising and other powers for London (you know - the Great Wen  - that cist that gobbled up bits of Middlesex, Kent and Essex)  keeps English devolution on the political agenda. The Northern England devolution referendums were lost (good!) because they were set on the government's terms, did not take into account genuine regional identities, and ultimately would only have became just another layer of government. Cities (we're stuck with 'em) have largely forged their own identities and economies. So it is logical they should seek home rule. Like regional assemblies, city folk have, in the main, rejected elected mayors because they have no real power. Give local communities that power and they will snap 'em up!

Some nationalists ( I call them 'state-nationalists') reject regionalism because they see regionalists as doing the globalisers' dirty work for them - eroding national identity. I don't follow the logic. Genuine regionalists do not kow-tow to state agendas; they desire real political and economic power to be devolved to the regional level. Many regionalists (and certainly all National Anarchists) seek to take political power away from both the state and multi-state agencies to local communities. Real regionalists have no quarral with radical nationalists. They recognise nations as organic entities - historic peoples bound together through history, culture and other common ties - but they also realise that their common futures depend on 'smaller' cultural, political and economic units - within a wider national unity.The more power and identity is devolved, the harder it is for the neo-liberals and globalisers to get their way.

National Anarchists should recognise that millions of people today live in cities and that they will therefore identify with them. Many in modern cities have developed city farms and urban agricultural modes of self-sufficiency. Good! Local identities - old and new - should be championed by National Anarchists. But to those who really adhere to the National Anarchist vision (and there are not that many) Berrocscir's Banner says: esacape to the country!

A merry day!

May Day greetings to all radical nationalists and anti-globalists. As Mother Nature steps up a gear, it's worth remembering that today is a remarkable day  - it stretches back through humanity's folk memories and intertwines through our histories and cultures.  So greetings and all good wishes to all peoples and tribes of the world. May Day is our day. We mark and celebrate it differently and all through our glorious diversity.

It's interesting and comforting to know that May Day throughout the world has resisted corporate commodification. It remains a spontaneous and joyous celebration of all the folk of the planet and the multinationals and globalisers are unable to capture May Day and sell it back to us. Long may that remain so!

May Day is of and for all of us. It manifests itself and evolves organically through folklores and we express it depending on our own particular historic ritual.

HAPPY MAY DAY!

Revolution from above?

Nice one Eric. Fresh from relaxing the flag flying laws, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles wants to rejuvenate our historic shires. I certainly approve of the language he uses, but it seems a bit rich considering it was the Tories who meddled with them in the first place. But I welcome the sentiment. I know National Anarchists shouldn't look to politicians to take the lead with cultural revival, but we can't be dogmatic - every little helps. Maybe this will start a spiral of devolution from the cultural sphere to the economic and political. Then from the authentic shires to the Hundreds and parishes. One can hope, eh?

Over the last few years I've noticed an irritating trend in adolescent graffiti i.e. marking their territory with postcodes. Well those codes have only been around for fifty years - our shires, villages and towns for a thousand plus. Surely a better foundation for expressions of loyalty?

Staying with the Motherland

Last month's Falkland Islander's sovereignty referendum promoted a debate on Peter Lavelle's  CrossTalk on RT. I remember one guest - a chap from the Guardian - stressed that the result was invalid because the Islanders did not constitute a nation and as a consequence had no right to self-determination. As a National Anarchist I'm of the opinion that not only nations have this right - all social groups do too: religious groups, sub-nations, city dwellers, villagers, sub-cultural groups, neo- tribes, gays - whatever.  But this aside, are not the Falklanders a nation? A closely knit community with a common ancestry and Motherland? If they are not a nation themselves in the strictest sense then they are an outpost of one. Settlers who have developed into a sub-tribe with an identity of their own. Over generations they have worked hard and created a life and economy of their own. If they cannot decide their own destiny, who can?

As a  National Anarchist I would have preferred the Falkland Islanders to have declared independence, but that's obviously not up to me. They made the decision to stay bound to the UK, and I in the Motherland respect and accept them for that.

A slogan for our times...
Following on from the post on William Cobbett last month, writing in 1821 the great man said: "We want great alteration, but we want nothing new." Something many National Anarchists would today concur with? As a lover of tradition, hearth and home, I do.

Howay man! Get on that ballot!

What with the Wessex Regionalists leading the way, it'll be nice to see other English regionalists and autonomists following suit. The upcoming South Shields by-election (polling day probably 2 May) provides a good opportunity for a Northumbrian candidate to enter the electoral fray. Northumbrian advocates keep threatening to establish a Northumbrian Party and a while back it looked on the cards - now it seems off again. What about some firebrand Northumbrian activist standing as an independent on a Northumbrian regionalist/independence ticket? A candidate with Northumbrian pride on the agenda could light that touch paper! Sometimes history just needs a nudge!

Northumbria is an English region with a huge sense of identity, culturally, linguistically. There's a big potential for a movement there along the lines of Wessex, East Anglia and Kernow - authentic regionalism based in roots and pride. This blog is a good starting point for all things Northumbrian.

Peter Porcupine makes two fifty

Whilst I was dipping into Richard Ingrams' The Life and Adventures of William Cobbett over the weekend it occurred to me that this month marks the 250th anniversary of the great man's birth. I have always been intrigued by Cobbett ever since my school history lessons, and I've always been ashamed I don't know more about him. At school I remember thinking that here was a man with a vision of England that appealed to me more than one of workers' soviets and red flags flying from imposing factories, but gradually I pushed Bill to the back of my mind and down the Leftist path I trod.  
What Cobbett would make of National Anarchism and similar currents it is impossible to say, but we National Anarchists and other radical nationalists surely share much of his views, even if his world and ours are so different. Cobbett's patriotic radicalism is not so different from our own nor his love of his people, but not what was happening to them. His dislike of increasing industrialism and urbanisation is one I believe most National Anarchists concur with too. His advocacy of the cottage economy and self-sufficiency, together his opposition to 'big' capitalism in favour of the small producer and tradesman can certainly be aligned with the distributist ideas that came after him and still influences radical nationalism today.

Cobbett's 250th birthday is a good excuse to revisit his ideas have them inspire national radicals today.

 

On This Day

Today is Lady Day and apart from the religious significance, it is one of the quarter days of old England. For those National Anarchists who base their tribalism on common origins and collective heritage (and I accept some choose not to) our folk calendars provide timely reminders of our identity. As Ray Davies sang - Thank you for the days.