Berrocscir's Banner

Progress

2012-01-26T09:52:00.000-08:00

Did the Libyan NTC read ol' Berrocscir's post yesterday and take heed?! So perhaps Bani Walid becoming a city state (which, incidentally, is what the English Radical Alliance propose for Liverpool ) is not so much wishful thinking. The Malian government meanwhile, despite continued fighting, seem willing to negotiate with the Tuareg National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad - ceasefire permitting. Over in Myanmar (Burma) a peace deal between the regime the Karen National Union will hopefully see gains for the Karen cause.

Will 2012 be a year of gains for national liberation? This is what we must have if we are to break the globalist grip. States must wither, but they cannot through proletarian revolution. Only through a process of decentralisation may we march toward something resembling the National Anarchist way.

This extract from the Wessex Regionalists blog yesterday illustrates one English Road to Tribalism:

Nationalism means an England no less badly governed than it already is as part of the UK. London would remain dominant, regional differences would continue to go unacknowledged. Those differences matter at a profound cultural level, though the case for regionalism would be no less real even if they did not exist. Firstly, it is simply inefficient to refer decisions to London when they could be made much closer to home. Secondly, decisions made in London ‘in the overall public interest’ are not effectively informed by the perspective of those who live elsewhere and so in practice always reinforce London’s dominance. And thirdly, as we move into the post-oil age, the argument for smaller political units built around clusters of regional-scale infrastructure will be at least as compelling as ancient cultural loyalties.
Those loyalties are not about to disappear. There’ll always be an England, but it will have a different meaning and role once it has to share the limelight with Wessex, Mercia and the like. It will have to, because the sane, humane, ecological England we need is one that respects and values its regions even more than itself – just as regions in turn need to treasure their counties, cities, boroughs and so on. It’s the only England worth having, the only England that deserves to emerge triumphant from the forthcoming cultural and political struggle. In truth, it’s not about England, and never has been. It’s about whose England. And who gets to choose between the paths.

The staff here at Berrocscir Towers hope these honourable regionalists use the term 'Nationalism' in the civic sense and in terms of a political nation-state - not in the ethnic sense. They can think what they like about who is English, no skin off our nose, but as to their ideas on cultural and political regional devolution - your Editor couldn't have put it better.

The fog of war

2012-01-25T10:10:00.000-08:00

What is happening in Libya? Reports that Pro-Gaddafi fighters have taken control of Bani Walid and that some Gaddafite 'Green Resistance' continues in Gharyan, Assabia, Sabha and even Tripoli and Bengazi seem unfounded - no official confirmation is forthcoming.

Unlike some radical nationalist voices, Berrocscir's Banner has no love for Gaddafi the man, brute, tyrant. But his Green Book and Third Universal Theory have their merits: anti-globalist, decentralist, with aspects of corporatism and distributism - all encompassed within a radical arab-nationalist framework. If their are truly forces in Libya still loyal to the ideals of the Jamahiriya, then they should form a political party/movement to take their ideas to the masses. Of course the NTC may well pass laws a la denazification...

But what DOES seem apparent is that the NTC is facing growing opposition from the militias along tribal lines. The trouble in Bani Walid seems to centre of the local Warfalla tribe. What's the NTC's problem? What's wrong with letting Bani Walid runs it's own affairs as a city state, guided by the Warfalla - at least until free and fair elections.

The Berbers too, are not happy. What we need to see is the NTC to continue tentative talks with all the tribes including the Tuaregs and move toward a loose Libyan federation along tribal lines. Or is that not in the puppet master's interests?

Raise a glass to the Ploughman's Poet
Couldn't let this dispatch go without sending greeting to all Scots and those of Scottish descent on this Burn's Night - Have a good one!

Linktastic!
The links section on here has just had some additions. Go and have a look won't you.

All the tribes must flower

2012-01-20T12:57:00.000-08:00

As Libya threatens to fall to warlordism, the Tuareg - a nomadic Berber people in North Africa - under the flag of the newly formed National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad , have been fighting and falling for that most logical (and spiritual) of human dignities: self-determination and autonomy along tribal lines. Their demand? Independence from and autonomy in northern Mali. It is a duty for National Anarchists to highlight and support their struggle - as indeed we should encourage all national liberation movements. A free Tuareg federation across the north of Africa fits within the National Anarchist worldview. The Left Anarchists dogmatically reject national liberation, placing - as they do - class above blood. Leave them in their corners. Social class can play a pivotal role within social movements and National Anarchists should always side with the toilers of all humanity against the robber barons of globalism. But history shows the tribal instinct is far greater that soulless textbook logic. The Marxoid obsession in trying homogenise humanity into worker-citizens of the world is understandably alienating.The answer is not to fight the tribal urge but to go with it! Vive le difference!

Mali, as with all states, should crumble - not from internationalist revolution but from national liberation. We move further toward a National Anarchist society by by ethno-secession - on the cards in Mali and Libya and, hey even the UK and US given time! National Anarchists should encourage the drive to national liberation - but we are human! Spread our message so that it appeals to reason - not a drop of blood need ever be spilt!

On, on, you noblest dissidents!

2011-12-24T08:26:00.000-08:00

At Yule and at the start of Christmastide Berrocscir's Banner sends warm wishes and greetings to all dissidents everywhere. All the staff here at Berrocscir Towers hope that 2012 will be a year of marked progress for the National Anarchist, radical nationalist and Autonomous Nationalist milieu in particular - and also for the anti-globalist movements, nationalist, regionalist and secessionist groups in general.

The National Anarchist vision of maximum autonomy implies simple living and technological regression. This is because it is both impossible to maintain this state otherwise, and also because safeguarding tribal and cultural identity is best carried out in a setting self-reliance and a rejection of the global system where spare parts have to be shipped in from all corners of the Earth. Living in the city with all its multiculturalism means too much temptation! On the road to our ideals of localised rural power, we must be prepared to give up our creature comforts! The necessity of simple living for any National Anarchist future puts its advocates in the same camp as green anarchist thought and we NAs have much to learn from it and radical environmental living generally.

So as well as hopes for the continued growth of the National Anarchist meme and the AutoNat scene, we should encourage all the current discussion in the nationalist community around the Pioneer Little Europe idea. Networking and planning is evident - it'll be truly magnificent to see some practical example taking shape in the coming 12 months!

The boss here at HQ hopes to see a growth in English regionalism: The Wessex Regionalists have been quite active again in recent times and Mebyon Kernow are pretty much household names! But we need to see real movement elsewhere: There is the Mercian Party out there - let's hope they stay true. But we need similar groups - what ever happened to Kentfolc and the Sussex Party? And we need initiatives in East Anglia and Northumbria - there's no lack of regional pride in those there parts - and there MUST be the will in Yorkshire! Up in Scotland we have the Borders Party who boast two councillors to their name. Regionalists elsewhere can learn a thing or two from them. The Regionalist Front of Dumnonia have been mentioned here before - it'll be nice to see some movement on their part. Hey, a great area for growth is at county/shire level. County consciousness has never been so strong. Of course, all this need not mean that national ethnic and cultural unity and identity need suffer. What we're talking about is political devolution from the regions down to the parish, the village, the hamlet and homestead.

We can all do our bit in the war against the global system: reduce, reuse, recycle. Spend less. Support economic secession. Build local economies, grow food, brew beer (better still cider!) Pool resources, swap and barter.

DOWN WITH THE GLOBALISERS!
VICTORY TO THE DECENTRALISTS!
ON, ON, YOU NOBLEST DISSIDENTS!*

(with acknowledgements to the Bard)

Merry Christmas!

Jaw jaw...

2011-11-13T11:49:00.000-08:00

If the rumour mill is correct and elements within the English Defence League were looking to have a pop at the Occupy London encampment at St Paul's this week, it is a tad irksome. They really should have gone along there and had a chat. After all, the EDL and the anti-Capitalist protesters have more in common than what they might care to admit. It was Capitalism which facilitated the mass immigration we have witnessed over the last few decades. So it is Capitalism that is the root cause of the erosion of English culture, values and way of life that the EDL claim to defend.

Berrocscir's Banner is ambivalent toward the EDL. From a radical nationalist perspective they are far from perfect, but their best elements are worth engaging with. Maybe it is naive to think a rapprochement between the EDL and the anti-Capitalist current is possible, but both the St Paul's encampment and the EDL are voices for the underdog. The common aims of both groups involve opposition to the neo-liberal, neocon globalised economy. Okay, the anti-Capitalist protesters may have a vocal, hardcore Leftist element within the ranks, but in reality they are a diverse lot - look at how the St Paul's protesters fell silent with the rest of the country on Thursday beneath their specially commissioned Poppy banner - can you see your average red rabble going in for that?

The 21st Century demands an end to polarised politics where 'Left' and 'Right' are at each others throats as if on autopilot. The new champions of the Underdog need to acknowledge that plurality is essential. We need tactical unity against our common enemy. Let's swallow our pride - lay off each other.

On all fronts

2011-11-11T09:37:00.000-08:00

Your editor believes a little clarification is in order regarding points made in the post here from October 30th. Yes - working towards intentional communities* whether with land acquired for the purpose or by targeting existing localities, should remain a prime goal for radical nationalists in the 21st Century. However, radical nationalist communities should not become an end in themselves. Of course, their gates should shut out the liberal, globalist and multicultural world, but they should not become isolated and adrift from the wider nationalist community and indeed those they would seek to influence. National Anarchist or radical nationalist communities will need support networks on the 'outside' to provide solidarity, aid and public relations duties. At first a degree of anonymity will be needed, but once securely established, successful communities could be held up as beacons of tribalism to the wider world. Look how Orania is championed by Afrikaner activists.

A European equivalent is a long way off, but even so activists in North America and the UK are channeling efforts into the PLE idea. Obviously the biggest stumbling block here is numbers - we don't have them. This is where the present situation comes in. We need the populist Euro-nationalist parties to encourage the tribal instinct in people and to make new nationalists, by participating in the mainstream. We also need a vibrant autonomous scene in nationalism which offers a counter-cultural alternative lifestyle through community work, mutual aid, events etc. Resistance to the liberal and neocon elites is needed on all fronts.

*For the record Berrocscir's Banner supports all intentional community and alternative lifestyle projects regardless of whether they are along nationalist, communist, religious or hippy lines or whatever.

Little victories
Yours truly has always been one for style, and nowadays I believe I do so without supporting the New World Order. I get all my clothing from charity shops, car boot sales and Jumble sales .Latest purchases include: two good quality and rather fetching shirts for £1 and 50p respectively. A great pair of casual combat trousers for 50p and a nice quality pair of denim jeans for the princley sum of 20p - and no, I didn't haggle!

While waiting for the revolution, the second hand market is the place to be for revolutionaries! And it's not just the second hand stuff - go out and support your local alternative economies.

Bright ideas
Social and economic secession begins at home. I've recently invested in a couple of wind-up lanterns. They perform a treat. Perfect for reading, writing and going to the lavatory by. A little lifestyle change goes a long way.

Eyes in the storm

2011-10-30T06:12:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow there will be seven billion of us on Earth. Most predictions are saying this is nothing compared to what is in store in the next fifty years. Certainly over the last century we have witnessed a stark acceleration due to the 'benefits' of the modern age. All nationalists should concern themselves with the population bomb. The technological, global system which has exacerbated this stands in stark contrast to our vision of national agrarian simplicity. Okay, I am sat here communicating to the world due to the global system, but John Zerzan said something along the lines of They attack the means by which we spread the message, but not the message itself - something like that...

One school of thought is that population will continue to rise sharply in the 'developing' world, while it will level out or decline in 'developed' countries. Even so, the 70 million predicted for the UK by 2027 is scary when we consider that even IF the developing world climbs out of its insecurities and manages to develop economies similar to the west like in China and India, levels seeking to emigrate to Europe and North America will continue to rise - The core attracts the periphery. More concrete, less green, less indigenous identity.

Berrocscir's Banner remains sceptical that social change along radical nationalist lines will ever sweep the globe (oh to be proved wrong). So in the absence of national revolution, one get out clause for radical nationalists is giving serious consideration to the practicalities and possibilities of securing land and living as independently as we can off of it, in cooperation with others of like mind in networks. Some place where we can educate our children and mind our own business. The Amish manage it, so who says radical nationalists cannot? We need the Pioneer Little Europe, Asia and Africa as eyes in the storm of the New World Order. In a post national revolutionary scenario there will be banditry and external aggression which will need to be resisted, but if we are to begin building national (or any other) intentional communities in the next few decades we need to duck under the radar and winch up the bridge.

Lighten up, comrades
Like anyone, your editor likes a good laugh as anyone who knows me will tell you. Now as a National Anarchist I take my politics very seriously, but its important not to lose our sense of humour about our beliefs. I remember a far Left paper, when complaining about the lack of mirth in revolutionary politics, used to rightly say "we must be able to take the p*** out of ourselves." National Anarchists should be no different. Hey - maybe we can use this old video of that 80s classic Safety Dance by Men Without Hats in our propaganda? Dig those medieval vibes, man. Watching it back, it pretty much sums up my vision of the National Anarchist utopia. Enjoy!

Fake nationalists

2011-10-25T11:12:00.000-07:00

So 111 admirable MPs last night backed the view that the British peoples have the right to a say on the future of their sovereignty and identity and rightly voted for the the motion calling for a referendum on the UK's position in the European Union. Interesting that there were no MPs from the Scottish National Party or Plaid Cymru on that list. Out of the UK but not out of Europe? Where's the logic there? It's like the galley slave getting rid of the drummer but keeping his master.

Anyway, who knows - maybe in a hundred years after we eventually do get out - maybe some enlightened parliament will pass the Intentional Communities Act and we can have our tribal villages!

SMASH ALL POLITICAL DOGMAS!
Well, it's been a while since anything strident was posted here...The Green Liberal Party of Switzerland, a centre-ground Green party and refreshing alternative to the dominant liberal-Left Global Greens, now has 12 seats since Sunday's Swiss Federal elections - up from 3 in 2007. Green ideas should not be the preserve of the Left.

The regionalist and isolationist Ticino League doubled their seats to 2, with their 19,000 votes a hike of nearly 6,000 on last time around. Also the regionalist Geneva Citizen's Movement picked up their first seat in the Federal Assembly.

Carry On Camping!
This blog supports the wave of 'Occupy' protests around the world. Yes, the global system is not going to collapse by pitching up a tent (although if you've been watching the Russia Today coverage you will be forgiven for thinking it is about to) but the actions will no doubt inspire a whole new generation of anti-global activists - some of whom - sooner or later may evolve into seasoned radical nationalists and tomorrow's National Anarchist pioneers...possibly... At the very least it might make more people start asking questions. Long live the anti-globalist movement!

Nostalgia is our weapon

2011-10-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

The French sociologist Michel Maffesoli has presented us with the notion that modern man (having evolved as a tribal animal) increasing reverts to type. In modern industrial society he asserts a tribal identity of his choosing. We see this all the time: cultural,social, racial, local - village, town, shire and regional identities through to the myriad of sub-cultural 'neo-tribes'. Those with a tribal identity, however it is manifested, are certain out there among all the cosmopolitan Citizens of the World. A good thing too when considering mass society has no organic roots and no 'badge'.

Marxists and others have attempted to graft a class identity onto the masses but, apart from the odd flair-up of class friction, any allegiance to an economic identity is transient. The founding principle of National Anarchism - Tribalism - certainly has wide and deep appeal. Maffesoli is right to point out that in modern mass society nostalgia is a powerful force. Nostalgia then, should play a major role in National Anarchist propaganda - to paraphrase Trotsky, "Nostalgia is a weapon in the hands of the National Anarchists!"

Berrocscir's Banner tries to steer a non-sectarian course and accepts the limitations of what can and cannot be achieved by radical nationalists at present. However we all need at times to tum to our ideals: In working toward our imagined autonomous communities, National Anarchists should consider attempting to implement a consensus within the radical nationalist scene of aiming for the simple life - autonomous communities won't really be so if they rely on mass technological society for all their spare parts. Of course, neighbouring tribal communities or networks can work in solidarity alongside one another in terms of trade, barter, skills sharing and aid, even if their internal affairs differ. The rule of thumb is to keep reliance on the global system to a minimum. Simple living may be tough, but it points to a life of great social solidarity, meaning, worthiness, contentment and honour.

National Anarchists are aware that all human societies involve conflict of varying degrees and we must concede that our vision of the future will be no different. But despite the possibility of barbarity and warlordism in our post-modern Brave Old World, National Anarchist communities will not have the conquering drive which has led to the present globalist society. Obviously we will have to defend what we have built, but National Anarchism is an insular philosophy and for good reason - look where the opposite has led us!

How communities choose to structure themselves internally is up to them - and for the record, Berrocscir's Banner prefers a sort of corporistic, meritocratic elitism. I'd rather have an appointed group of Wise Men in charge of different social/economic fields than some chancer who talks a good talk, but once elected or crowned is totally detrimental...

National Anarchists also need to accept that any tribal community above 500 will need some form of state as this is the point where society becomes anonymous...but small states are better than large. The line here at Berrocscir Towers is that the Anarchism in National Anarchism, at least for the foreseeable future, means any social network that has seceded from the global political/economic New World Order. National Anarchists should support any move in this direction from whatever quarter. Pluralism is central to our worldview.

But is it art?

2011-10-02T12:11:00.000-07:00

I was gladdened this week to read in my local press that primary school kids in this neck of the woods were marking Michaelmas. I cannot recall as a kid myself, in in the 1970s and 80s, ever so doing (although I can vividly remember Harvest Festival) So maybe there's a bit of cultural revival going on - which can never be a bad thing! Talking of Michaelmas, I didn't know until very recently that the said fair in the English standard Scarborough Fair lasted from Assumption Day in mid-August right up to Michaelmas at September's end - So it was some old gathering! It was a market rather than providing entertainment, but much sport was had, no doubt. Here's a clip below of a very able version of the classic song by ol' Sarah Brightman. I want to share it also for the wonderful paintings by Robert Duncan featured therein. I've always admired Realism in the arts, including the socialist and soviet varieties, but Duncan's work betrays what I would want to call nationalist realism (no heavy industry or working up the top of pylons here!) Idyllic, bucolic representations of some radical nationalist promised land - at least from a northern European perspective. Myths they may be, but are myths based on some long forgotten fact? And without myths surely a people suffer impoverishment.

WHERE'S THE OUTCRY FOR NORTH KOSOVO?

What's going on in north Kosovo? This is region with a Serb majority. Surely it's time, given the realities of the situation, that it should secede and rejoin Serbia, or become an autonomous region in itself? SELF DETERMINATION FOR ALL PEOPLES!

Hard truths and the Brave Old World

2011-09-25T08:48:00.000-07:00

After I lost my faith in Anarcho-Marxism/Internationalism (and my concurrent flirtations with Left-nationalism) around a decade ago, I became, for a while, attracted to civic nationalism. It seemed reasonable enough and a sensible compromise in the reality of modern Britain. But by about seven years ago I had identified fully with ethno-nationalism in general and with National Anarchism as an ideal. Why? Using the English example, why should other ethno-cultural groups be expected to give up their own identities? The civic argument makes sense when thinking in terms of a cohesive nation-state, but an independent England wouldn't be able to turn the clock back in terms of immigrant communities. As the folks at England Devolve! say:

Integration by assimilation may work below some critical inflow threshold; above that threshold it is a recipe for the mutual destruction of cultures - and, in a market economy, for descent into C-ca C-la culture. Why should not a second or third generation Bangladeshi honour their roots, their great radical poets like Tagore, just as Anglian immigrants fifteen hundred years ago honoured their old England, recited the epic of Beowulf round their fires?

Which is the greater good - ethnopluralism or the cultural imperialism of civic nationalists? I find National Anarchism so appealing because it has room for every way of life, National Anarchists respect and value every ethnicity and culture as unique and equally worthy. We also acknowledge that if those who prefer to live in multi-ethnic and multicultural communities, well, then they can do so. While ethno-tribalists would see this as a great pity because it would mean that unique cultures and ethnicities will slowly fade, we do not dictate. In turn we demand that no one dictate to us. Ethnopluralists deeply value racial/ethnic/cultural distinctiveness and we wish our children to look like us and our ancestors. What our children then ultimately do is up to them...

Another reason why National Anarchism makes sense, at least in regard to England, is that the concept of some re-established nation state is a nonsense. Realistically, England will never again be the exclusive home to the indigenous. There's no prospect of large scale repatriation. Most BNP types accept this. Even if mass immigration was stopped tomorrow our cities and larger towns will remain multi-ethnic and then of course we will still have the problem of Amercana and global culture to deal with! Of course, one of the cornerstones of nationalism is to each tribe a homeland. But sticking heads in the sand and demanding an all white Britain is a nonstarter. In the reality of modern Britain we need to downsize in terms of space, and besides, we ethno-nationalists will probably remain a minority! Present realities actually offer English National Anarchists and radical nationalists with an opportunity: to call for our cities to become the territories of the multi-culturalists and/or immigrant communities - and for rural areas to become redoubts for the indigenous, areas ripe for us to concentrate our attentions and to plan our projects.

Despite large sections of Britons seemingly happy to mix, we do see tribalism in action already: self-segregation in our cities and the 'white flight' phenomenon. Work toward national revolution in terms of outside the current system - as a rearguard action. We cannot seek to topple Leviathan. Begin the long, hard task of building our Brave Old Worlds - ethno-British community building out in the sticks* - a world of self-reliance, economic secession and increasing autonomy.

*rural areas

News from Denmark

2011-09-18T09:20:00.000-07:00

Thursday's elections in Denmark were disappointing if, like me, you wish all strains of ethno-tribalist modus operandi well. In a high turnout, the national conservative and populist Danish Peoples Party fell back from 14% of the vote in 2007 to twelve - down 43,000 votes to 436,000 and dropping 3 seats to 22 in the Folketing. Not knowing the ins and outs of the mainstream political scene in Denmark, your Editor assumes this dip in fortunes is down to either a) the rough and tumble of bourgeois political life - how did DPP elected representatives perform in public office and were voters punishing them for supporting the coalition? Or b) a possible Breivik effect. Not wishing to belittle the appalling loss of human life, like others I feared that horrible day in July would result in a backlash against nationalism across Europe. And of course the trouble with taking the electoral path is that you sometimes win and find that you cannot legislate your programme and as a consequence let your voters down - Electoralism for nationalists should be about getting results where you can, but first and foremost it is to bang the drum and get the nationalist alternative out there.

The Socialist Peoples Party, affiliated to the left-liberal Global Greens also lost ground dropping from 13% four years ago to nine. Big winners were the Red-Green Alliance - made up of several hard-left Marxist/Trotskyite groups. Their share lept from 75,000 (2% and four seats) to 237,000 (6.7% and twelve). Along with trying to get in with the Muslim diaspora, the Left across Europe have pretty much successfully grabbed control of the Green movement. Despite some notible exceptions the Left have exercised dominance over the Green label and brand since the late 1980s. But the Green movements that sprang up in the 60s and 70s had no such afflictions. Instead of reflecting cultural Marxist agendas, Green ideas were just that - Green: Regionalist, localist, ecological and promoted simple living and technology. In fact the pioneers of the Green movement and their ideas had far more in common with radical nationalist thinking than the left: ruralism, agrarianism and small scale economies...

Back to Denmark: We Ethno-Tribalists should always take stock of how the Euronationalist mainstream do. The nationalist vote indicates how many among our folk approve of ethnocentric sentiment. In turn, what percentage of nationalist voters will approve of our radical nationalist worldview? Where should we concentrate our work? How many potential fellow travellers are there? How many potential National Anarchist pioneers are out there? Should we concentrate on areas where the nationalist vote is highest? Surely we need numbers before we can progress?

Of course, as elsewhere the parties of neo-liberalism and Globalism came out on top, surprise surprise. Why is this? One obvious conclusion is that the majority are quite satisfied with the Status Quo. They like cosmopolitanism, multiculturalism, liberal values. Okay, if that's the case leave them to it. Should we National Anarchists and radical nationalists aim to drop out? Work toward getting away from their Tower of Babel and establish radical nationalist lifestyles, preferably on our own land where we can practice what we preach? If yes, no doubt sometimes we'll be in for a raw and tough old time of it, but we will be together and we could live our ideals.

Getting the word out

2011-09-11T12:39:00.000-07:00

Two new blogs to add to the Banner's links section:

Firstly, the World National Anarchist Alliance blog, despite its seemingly rather grandiose title, looks like one to watch. The author writes convincingly of the potential for National Anarchist ideas to accommodate and encompass folk from all political backgrounds and none in the hope of creating a truly pluralist movement that can work toward a Tribalist vision. WNAA rightly highlights that one of National Anarchism's main selling points is it's live and let live philosophy - in contrast to the monolithic 'Our way or no way' stance of the reactionary Left and Right. The blog advocates reaching out to the wider anarchist scene to state the Tribalist case - an alliance building strategy not dissimilar to the arguments your author has previously made here and here .

My background is in the Left, but I imagine the right is no different - Most people that identify strongly with any given movement or ideology are not easily open to anything new because they have have found their 'comfort zone' - The majority of the Left (and I include the 'class struggle' anarchists and libertarian communists here) won't be interested in and no doubt hostile to National Anarchist arguments for pluralism over ideological conformity - but it is right that we should always extend the olive branch to individuals and tendencies not tainted by dogma or anti-fascist blood lust.

Secondly, Alternative Anarchy - Attack the System UK is the welcome new UK arm of the prolific Attack the System network of blogs from the US. Having such a pedigree ATS-UK looks a fine prospect. Let both WNAA and ATS-UK prosper!

For a new tribal Libya

2011-09-04T09:09:00.000-07:00

Generally speaking, the Arab Spring has been pretty much social democratic in nature. This despite sections of the Left trying, as they always do, to give the uprisings more a shade of red than they should. What is clear, however, is that any nationalist element is minimal.

It is interesting then, that despite this lack of national zeal, your editor (ever the nerdy Vexillologist) spotted the Berber flag proudly aloft on a news report as the NTC/NLA swept into Tripoli last month. In March I wrote of my hopes for the break up of Libya into the the historic regions of Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Fezzan. A slim possibility maybe - I remember harbouring a similar desire for a swift secession of a Kurdish state in northern Iraq after the fall of Saddam. Berrocscir's Banner supports the Arab peoples in fighting for their own destinies and admires their great sense of ethnic self-awareness, identity and national pride. But that lone Berber flag fluttering in Martyr's Square is perhaps a herald that the Berber peoples can and will assert their own identities in the new Libya. While not, strictly speaking, a distinct ethnic group as such, the Berbers are a loose meta-ethnic family of indigenous North African tribes bound together with cultural and linguistic ties. The Maghreb has been their home for longer than the Arab migrations of the seventh century.

No decent person wishes to see more bloodshed in Libya, but let's hope that the fall of the Brother Leader will lead to a authentic tribalist and regionalist renaissance in his former Jamahiriya.

RIGHT ON!

Okay, although we really need to move away from the Left/Right way of seeing things, the Alternative Right site is a worthy addition to the links section here. Hopefully it will prove a useful resource as it certainly has many parallels with the BB worldview. All we need now is an Alternative Left! It'll be great if Left dissidents can get a hub to spread their ideas. Most National Communists are getting there - going against the God of Internationalism. Lets have more of it, even though staff at Berrocscir Towers have a sneaking suspicion that some of them still wouldn't think anything of shooting Kulaks, any bourgeois who wanted to make a bob or two on market day or the odd distributist network!

For the nation - not the state

2011-08-28T08:23:00.000-07:00

Your editor freely admits that the political outlook of this blog has been in a state of continuous development these past four years. Despite mainly consisting of light-hearted observations in the early days, it was always the intention to develop Berrocscir's Banner into a clarion for radical nationalism and from fairly early on I decided to throw its lot in with a broadly National Anarchist viewpoint. Looking back over past posts, its clear that contradictions have occurred along the way. I make no apology for this - my own outlook has developed and I regard this as healthy. I've never claimed to have all the answers and remain an opponent of dogma and stone tablets. However, for reasons of clarity (and because I now think I've reached a train of thought worthy enough to constitute a 'Party line' as it were!) I'll now attempt clear things up:

I cannot predict the future, and while realising that the course of history can take surprising and sometimes abrupt turns, it's doubtful that a majority (or large minority) will ever get around to out-and-out national revolution. We are unlikely to see any great nationalist upheavals. Therefore we must take a pragmatic approach to working toward a world resembling our ideals.We must encourage trends toward political decentralisation - the natural friend of the Tribalist worldview. Let's use the example of the English: Support all calls for withdrawal from the European Union from whatever quarter. If ever we get out go for English independence. Once gained join the cries of the regionalists (Wessex, Northumbrian, whatever) or maybe even county based autonomy (we are witnessing a growing county identity from Devon to Lincolnshire) This devolution may continue down to town and village level (forget the conurbations and cities, they don't fit the radical nationalist equation) Gradual devolution through political evolution may actually fit in with our revolutionary ideals.

I do and will always believe in the ethno-cultural unity of the English. We are a nation fixed together through our common bonds and origins. But I do not believe in the political unity of the English. Let the English people thrive and fly their flag of the Cross of St George and the White Dragon! But better still let them also fly the Wessex Wyvern, Cross of St Alban, Oswald's banner and St Edmund's too! Let them also fly the flags of the Shires, so obviously beloved from Sussex to Yorkshire...but let the state wither. Political devolution and a new regional/local sovereignty need not damage a united English ethno-identity and common kinship. Or for that matter our close ethno-cultural ties with our British cousins the Scots, Welsh and Irish. The English may choose to confederate their localities in regions and regions into the wider English realm in national solidarity - but let us work toward the sovereignty of the grassroots. It's the best way to go against the enemies of the tribes - globalism and cosmopolitanism.

Fight for our ideals using all channels - electorally when it suits, culturally, socially, economically and practically. This last area can involve the PLE idea. PLEs (of course there's nothing to stop Pioneer Little Africas and Asias!) are a move toward intentional mono-ethno-cultural communities and the concept is gaining ground within nationalist circles. If these take off their pioneers will literally be building a new world within the shell of the old.

EDITOR'S NOTE
On the 4th anniversary of Berrocscir's Banner may I thank my handful of followers and the sites that have linked to this blog. And for the concern raised by a couple of readers when I took the *%!"^$@ thing down for a bit recently when self-doubt got the better of me. I find interest in this blog enormously flattering, despite my continual worrying that it comes over as appaullingly pompous - you don't think it's pompous...do you?

Group hug

2011-08-14T09:42:00.000-07:00

Browsing Keith Preston's Attack the System blog recently (see links) your Editor found this article interesting. It's surprising to see that National Anarchism is considered so noteworthy by such a high ranking politician! It is not as if NA ideas are, shall we say, anything like mainstream at present...and from an organisational standpoint NA has taken a couple of knocks of late too.

Here at Berrocscir Towers, the opinion is that National Anarchism is being confused here with the Autonomous Nationalist groups in Germany. AN is an eclectic mix of several nationalist currents who have come together around a youthful, 'street-level' subcultural image, largely mimicking the Left in tactics and presentation. Sure, some within the AN movement may be influenced by NA ideas, but not on the same level as, say, Strasserism. Still, there is obviously a lot of overlap and if the state name checks National Anarchism, then okay. NA and Autonomous Nationalism both seek radical national rebirth - ideological exclusivity is not on the agenda.

Parish pump politics

2011-08-05T08:05:00.000-07:00

This was the England that Soldiers fought for in those world wars: they may have come from factories and offices, yet they did not fight for Manchester or Birmingham, but for the likes of Chipping Campden and Lavenham .

Roy Strong, Visions of England, (Bodley Head, 2011)

It's been argued here before, and it's worth stressing again, that the Nationalist spirit is primarily concerned with rural living. Industry and urban life gave rise to those fair weather friends Capitalism and Marxism. These two hatched liberalism, imperialism and the latter day horrors of multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism and globalism. It's because of all this that modern Nationalist theory has retreated back to the agrarian vision - the countryside, market town, village, farm and homestead. Knowing that our forefathers built them, it may be painful admitting that our cities and towns are essentially lost to us. But the bigger picture means that Nationalists need to make a tactical withdrawal to the countryside. Besides, one thing on our side is that the rural idyll still commands great popular appeal.

Nationalism is the only real antidote to globalism and National Anarchism is anti-globalism taken to its logical conclusion. National Anarchism defines localism and parish pump politics as sovereign. This post from Berrocscir's Banner last year, linked to Richard Hunt's The Natural Society - a work which National Anarchists should find useful. It is a good primer for the National Anarchist ideal of federated autonomous villages. Far-fetched? Maybe. But if you can't look to the stars, you might as well shop at Tescos.

Away from the 9 to 5 this week, for Lammas, I paid a pilgrimage of sorts to West Kennet Long Barrow, where the earthly remains of 46 of our collective neolithic ancestors were laid. As the tractors in the field to the south sailed in a sea of gold, bringing in the first fruits, I picked an ear of wheat - for the soil - and a poppy - for blood. I placed them at the entrance to the tomb. Our task as tribalists is to enrich the eternal flame of blood and soil. Of course, not all of us can up sticks and march off to a Pioneer Little Europe, but we can at least evangelise the ideal and adopt aspects of the PLE in our everyday lives.

A load of old ballots

2011-06-12T12:00:00.000-07:00

National Anarchists don't go a bunch on democracy, at least in it's modern sense. As advocates of extreme localism we believe in small scale organic meritocracy. As Troy Southgate writes in Meritocracy: The Rule of the Elite:

ACCORDING to The Concise Oxford Dictionary, meritocracy is defined as “government by persons selected according to merit”. In other words, meritocracy may be described as a system in which only those most suited to the task of leadership have a recognised authority. However, unlike the present democratic system this particular method of authority is not enshrined in the contractual laws of mankind but in the irrevocable laws of nature.
By seeking to obscure the inherent differences between individuals, groups and races through a systematic programme of ‘egalitarianism’ and the inordinate championing of the weak, democracy itself represents a highly detrimental threat to the normal and healthy development of people throughout the world. Furthermore, it is nothing other than the disorderly rule of the common mob and is a major hindrance to the abilities of the most able. In the real world, people are fundamentally different and have natural stations in life. Although liberalism is chiefly responsible for attempting to force the most able members of society to live, work and study side by side with those of a lesser ability and lower horizons, Capitalism is also an impediment to the natural order of humankind through the imposition of its parasitical class structure. So whilst on the one hand we are told to accept that the most anti-social elements are our brothers and sisters, on the other many of us are unable to rise to our natural level due to the greed and repression of the pseudo-aristocratic ruling class. In an attempt to decipher the complex nature of our personalities, some have argued that human development is shaped purely by the manner and the environment in which we are raised, contesting that - given the opportunity of an ‘identical’ upbringing - the road sweeper is capable of rising to the intellectual level of the scientist or the philosopher. Whilst this may be true in some cases, especially given the more favourable educational advantages conferred on the sons and daughters of the ruling Establishment, it remains a fact that individual human development is overwhelmingly determined by genetics. This is the single most important biological characteristic of any human being and, whilst the Nature vs. Nurture debate is sure to rage on for many years to come, when all is said and done individual ability has far more to do with racial origins than social circumstances. That said, under Capitalism a parasitical minority is permitted to prosper at the expense of those whom - in a more natural society - would be in charge of their own destinies and not held subject to the professional moneylenders by the paid mercenaries of the police and armed services. So whilst the Left seeks to obscure the healthy spirit of natural human endeavour and confine us all to the lowest possible level, the Right seeks to prevent us from becoming a threat to the bacterial gangsters who, through force of arms, reserve the highest echelons for themselves.

That said, in these post-ideological times, it would be wrong to ignore constitutional politics completely. Of course, if you are a tribalist, well - nine times out of ten you're on a hiding to nothing in the elections game. But, as Berrocscir's Banner has argued before, elections are the one time when everyone is, to some degree, engaged with politics. Radical nationalism can only move forward with pioneers and those driven and inspired by ideals, but elections are times when we can perhaps spark the wider folk into action - and sometimes elections can spring nice surprises.

Berrocscir's Banner has always strongly supported regionalist movements - because they reflect the local, tribal identities that are the result of the development of natural human societies. So in a country with a strong tradition of regional identity, last month's regional and local elections in Spain returned strong showings for regional parties. In Asturia the regionalist Asturian Forum (FAC) won a majority of seats with nearly 30% of the popular vote. In Navarre the Navarrese People's Union (UPN) topped the poll with 42% of the vote - although to muddy the waters, it should also be mentioned that in the San Sebastian and Gipuzkoa districts the Basque Nationalist (and separatist) PNV and Bildu parties were dominant (Basques claim Navarre as their own!). However, from a tribalist perspective all this is encouraging - it means that out there in the great scheme of things sizable sections of the masses display a regional and local identity - despite all the one worldism.

Crossing over to last week's Portuguese elections and we see the Third Positionist National Renovator Party go onwards and upwards - their vote climbing to 17k from 12k from 2009 and 9k in 2005. This is admittedly a small share while Europe stands at the abyss. But it shows that the message is getting through. Authentic nationalism is not falling backwards in this part of the world. As long as we remember (and probably the PNR will tell you) national revolution will not come through the ballot box.

As an aside, in Portugal, the Earth Party (a green party affiliated to the non-Left/PC World Ecological Parties) saw their vote jump to 23k from 12k last time around - despite the electoral dominance of the Leftist Ecologist Party. As this blog has argued, it is vital that tribalists wrestle green ideas away from the Left and liberal elites.

Over in ol' Blighty there is, unfortunately, within the English nationalist milieu, a strong anti-regionalist current. Many English nationalists confuse regionalism with separatism - or even worse those horrid EU zones! While National Anarchists believe there is nothing wrong with separatism if there is popular will behind it, we recognise that regionalism is merely the expression of a more localised identity WITHIN a national one. English regionalism is no threat to the concept of the English nation. English nationalists cannot deny the very real regional identities which exist among the English. We are not 'English' alone - we are Yorkshire English, Geordie English, Scouse English, Devon, Kentish, East Anglian English and so on. If English Nationalists seek to deny this, then frankly it makes them neo-imperialists. Regionalism and Nationalism should be mutually compatible - on the same side against globalism and cosmopolitanism.

If odd is bad...

2011-05-29T11:39:00.000-07:00

Your Editor is not a huge fan of the UK Independence Party for a number of reasons (rejecting Parliamentary Democracy) being one. Then again I have voted UKIP on a number of occasions when I've had to, and I note their vote as a barometer of the national mood. I jettisoned dogmatism a fair few years back now and vote whenever the establishment grant me that right, usually for anti-establishment parties - and for the most part, UKIP fall into that camp. Okay, their 'civic' nationalism is a standing joke, but I believe they are rebellious enough to warrant my vote as a kick in the balls to the global/cosmo/liberal elite...

Besides, I also find UKIP leader Nigel Farage entertaining so always tune into the Idiot Box when I know he's been granted a shout. Take a look, however, at this clip from a recent edition of the BBC's Politics Show: About 4 mins and 10 seconds in Suzanne Moore remarked, when referring to the English Fens that it (or places like it) were 'a very odd place'...Okay, well what strikes one as 'odd' is up to the individual and oddity is in the eye of the beholder. But the cynic in me says that Suzanne (yes, I could be barking up the wrong tree) is referring to areas of England that are 'hidiously white' - as Greg Dyke once said - mono-cultural, Tribal, English. Would she consider Southall, Brixton, Brighton, Leicecster or Mannigham 'odd'. I'd wager no - descriptions like 'diverse' and 'vibrant' spring to mind. Would she refer to Lahore and Dhaka as 'odd'?

Let's go a scrumpin'!
Especially for this blog's loyal Monachist readers today is Oak Apple Day - another welcome addition to tribal English identity and playing it's part in giving a nation a sense of itself. Of course, many a pub owes its name to the story. I happened to use up a few idle minutes in the Royal Oak at Lechlade, Gloucestershire, one day this week, pausing briefly before I crossed the threshold, to look up at the sign. There was Charlie grinning down at the hapless Cromwellian rascals beneath...

Tribal vibes

2011-05-14T10:35:00.000-07:00

I'm so bourgeois I've been listening to BBC Radio 4 for twenty years or so. This bastion of Middle England or hotbed of Marxism, depending on your point of view or mood, broadcasts some gems that have long been favourites of your editor. One such is Something Understood which I hear regularly early on a Sunday morning (hey, use the time the capitalist pigs let you and don't have one too many the night before!) Anyway a couple of weeks back one particular edition had me reaching for the volume control on my solar-powered radio. It played a song by the enchanting Anne Briggs...one that I thought I hadn't heard before, although I must have done as I've have it on an anthology of Anne's that I have owned for a decade.

I mention this because all the garbage that's marketed as talent these days is not a patch on Go Your Way, so played on the aforementioned programme. I think there's a lot to Carl Jung's theory of collective unconsciousness. They say converts are the most zealous (!) and me as a born-again Nationalist think that my long held love of (for want of a better term) British folk music is, in part, an identity thing. There's some great tunes all over the world with many different origins and influences - I value it all as a symbol of human diversity (I'm WOMAD through and through - any old codgers out there remember the Bhundu Boys?!) ...but I always did come home to my roots music. Anne Briggs sang a mixture of the 'old songs' and a few of her own compositions, of which Go Your Way is one. The fact that this song is from the Twentieth century yet sounds so old, so British Isles, is possibly evidence of some tribal meme at work here...Ah, who knows, but here it is, hope you get it:

ELECTION NEWS
Being a proud advocate of Third Position political-economic theories, Berrocscir's Banner has noted that on their first time out the Distributist English Radical Alliance (see Links section) gained a not disgraceful 145 votes in a ward in Torbay last week. Keep that Distributist flame alive, bravo!

The English Peoples Party (see this post) also gave a good account of themselves in Leicester.

The Greens have some good ideas among the insane, and they must be doing something right as they clocked up 25 gains, 54 holds and 11 losses. This equals a net gain of 14 councillors. The Greens now have 130 councillors on 43 councils. They gained 9 seats from the Tories, 8 from the LibDems and 7 from Labour. They have to be doing something right. I wish a certain nationalist party could boast the same...

The Land Party gained a few votes in Scotland, and despite their declared internationalism, Do I detect a little bit of Blood and Soil philosophy and anti-industrialism in them? Maybe something National Anarchists shouldn't have much issue with. Possibly ones to watch?

Rise again!

2011-05-02T08:59:00.000-07:00

Belated May Day greetings to all National Anarchists, other Revolutionary Nationalists and the wider anti-globalist current. May Day is OURS - the folk. It doesn't belong to any particular ideology, movement or socio-economic group, and, without denying the validity of all the great social struggles since the rise of industrialism and before, May Day and the collective consciousness it represents was around a long time before those anarchists in Chicago.

In England, at least, those who would deny English identity have sneered at our folk tradition. It's all an invention apparently. A concoction of Victorian nostalgia. Of course, there's a modicum of truth to this. What we are talking about here is the English folk revival of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. There's nothing wrong with revivals. The Irish, Scottish and Welsh had them in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Strangely, the anti-English seem perfectly at ease with this. "Morris dance is all made up" our detractors say. Except that a mob of Morris Men actually popped in to say "Hello" to Cecil Sharp when at his mate's house in 1899, and in doing so sparked his valued promotion of the activity. Englishmen had been prancing about like that since the fifteenth century - all Cecil did was help fan the flames.

Others have contended that folk song was all popularised for commercial gain through Broadsides by latter day Simon Cowells. Yes, these sold like hotcakes from the sixteenth century onwards, but there is no evidence of songs being written expressly for commercial gain. They already existed, sung heartily in one locality, then sold for a penny later, further afield. Mass communication has got a lot to answer for. Look through the sleeve notes of your average folk CD (I've got a fair few of 'em - there comes a time in a man's life when his ears just aren't up to the gentle ditties of the likes of Dead Kennedys and Subhumans) Folkies love doing their homework: variants of many an English tune can be traced back 300 or 400 years, sometimes more. Even when the anti-English can justly claim "That song's only nineteenth century!" Okay, four or five generations not good enough?! We've just had a Royal Wedding. Berrocscir's Banner notes that the monarchy is a divisive subject not least within Nationalist circles. Putting that to one side, your editor's eyebrows were raised when even the conservative press were crowing: "All this pomp and ceremony is only down to the Victorians, you know!" I say again - Four, five, six generations not good enough?!

Marxists and others have also suggested that folk song has been manipulated into fitting some twee bourgeois ideal. Now, I like a good rebel song as much as the next man. There are a few in my collection with very subversive, rebellious social commentary (I still think Chumbawamba's English Rebel Songs was one of the best slices of vinyl they ever did) These songs obviously reveal the real social injustices of the day. But most folk songs are filled with gossipy subjects like love, lust, infidelity, murder and loss. Drunkeness, the working day, family crises, dashing heroes and rotten villains - usual everyday stuff like that. The stuff folk want to hear. These things can't be subverted to suit a point of view, they just are. They are common human experiences that cannot be politicised.

Maybe it is because folk custom is by nature nationalistic and tribal, that the Left have, over the last fifty years, embraced it in order to claim it as their own. The Communist Party even had Centre 42, its own folk club and cultural centre. Why all this interest in something as insular and backward as English identity? But then the Left have always been good at dressing things up as something they are not.

Cultural revivals are exactly that - they resuscitate rather than invent. Look at the English folk tradition and you'll find that there was always something there, even if it lingered, however faintly, in folk memory before being taken up enthusiastically once more. Revivals are a reaction to rapid social change: In the past a reaction to Industrialism and more recently in opposition to multiculturalism and globalism. As far as National Anarchists are concerned both causes are good reason enough.

A growing nostalgia has been with us in England since the Victorian era. Look at the enduring appeal of suburban mock-Tudor houses. The very fact that popular architecture (despite the ghastly modernist interregnum of the 60s and 70s!) and clothing often hark back to earlier styles implies a folkish yearning for identity and tribe. Revival is a product of an instinctive anti-global urge, a rearguard action in the national collective consciousness. It is a folkish phenomenon kick-started in the community, organic and from the bottom-up. Corporate interests only get involved when such activity crosses their radar.

May Day and it's invigoration in recent years, is one such example of English cultural revival. Newly revived, our task now is to cement and preserve it.

Nepotism...naturally

2011-04-10T08:44:00.000-07:00

SIR - As a result of the government's drive to stamp out nepotism, will my local Butcher have to change his sign to to "Joe Bloggs and no son of mine"?

- Seen in the Daily Telegraph, 8th April 2011

Our Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, published a document last week: Opening doors: Breaking Barriers. A strategy for social mobility. He aims to build a society "...in which success is based on what you know, not who you know". Okay apart from a niggling doubt about how Cleggy actually defines 'success', I confess I find this aspiration at best naive, at worst sinister.

Nepotism and inheritance are as old as human settlement. No government can legislate against this urge. A Scientist would probably argue that this was a genetic trait - looking after our own, so they would both look after us and prosper from our help, so that they would then pass their genes on...

Nepotism is part of organic social networking and this is the way we act - it is part of tribal behaviour. Nepotism leads to greater social stability, collective identity and solidarity. I'd rather have a society based on strong kinship bonds than one engineered by officialdom. Nepotism tends to keep things localised with a human face. It leads to greater allegiance and trust - any social or economic enterprise is less likely to fail if you don't want to let your own kin down. There can't be many of us that can say they have never benefited from Uncle Bob, Sister Liz, neigbour Margaret or Mick down the pub.

Clegg's latest crusade will probably be soon forgotten - but IF it succeeds in some way it will only be to the detriment of the folk. It is yet another aspect of the egalitarian agenda which, when it succeeds, only erodes and fragments the nation, whittling away at a natural tribalistic form of self-organisation.

Was is and will be

2011-03-20T12:44:00.000-07:00

Permit me, dear reader, a philosophical few moments...Your editor is at present, for the first time in several years, observing Lent. What am I giving up? Well, you know - a few of the things I like too much. Let me explain that I'm not of the Christian faith, but I am religious in the sense that I believe in the divine universe, that the divine caused the universe to be and that it is present within it. That is to say that I cannot go along with the notion that everything came from nothing. I believe that everything had its origin due to something beyond the human mind and comprehension. Obviously, I cannot prove this, so I suppose you could call my belief a 'faith'. Logically therefore, that 'something' I mentioned is a divine power or powers - 'God' or 'Gods' if you will. So because, ultimately, I exist because of the divine - I have a need, an urge to revere, thank and acknowledge Him/Her/Them/It and to realise I can never fully understand its nature or purpose. Lent is a time when I'm reminded to strive to keep the divine at the front of my mind. I confess I don't know if the divine loves or cares for me - the Gods may have concerns or they may not, but as the creator of the universe and the life force I revere the divine regardless. The world is filled with pain, suffering and evil - nature is red in tooth and claw, but the universe is also full of beauty, compassion, love and bounty. Of course the great faiths of the world have always tried to explain why this is, but - good and bad - I accept the Natural Order as it is, that it is bigger than me, I am part of it, and that it has overriding power.

Like the fast of Ramadan, Lent is a time of abstinence and self-denial. By observing Lent I try to put all material trifles and life's other follies to one side, out of mind for a time, and concentrate my mind on the Creator/s. But what does Lent and what it involves have to do with me as a National Anarchist and Tribalist? Okay, so I believe in divine creation, but shouldn't Lent be exclusively for Christians who believe Christ as God made flesh? I have a lot of sympathy with this view. However I'm choosing to observe Lent not only to get closer to the life-bringer - Apart from recognising spirituality as integral to the human mind, as a National Anarchist I believe that the struggle for national revolution/renewal/rebirth and that of Tribalism is a spiritual struggle as well as a socio-political one. Of course, National Anarchism does not follow any particular religious creed nor religion per se, but part of my spirituality (in tandem with my National Anarchist belief) is ancestor worship - a reverence for the dead. I observe Lent also because Christianity has been intertwined in my nation's story and heritage for 1500 years. Generations of my forefathers observed Lent, and by observing it too I remember them, feel closer to them, part of them. I'm observing Lent partly for the same reason that I wear a Mjolnir pendant around my neck to remember the kinship, blood ties and mental bond with my North European ancestors and cultures. I'm here because of them. Through Lent I not only praise 'God' as I perceive Him, but also my national heritage and identity. We had pancakes in our house on Shrove Tuesday and as I ate (they were delicious) I meditated quietly on the Tudors - for it was they who came up with the idea to use up all the dairy products, before going without.

In addition, although I try to lead a non-materialistic lifestyle in line with my National Anarchist beliefs, I concede that luxuries abound. The self-denial that Lent requires is also a reminder to me to strive further to reject consumerism and materialism - concepts central to National Anarchism.

I also regard partaking in Lent as a recognition of the wonderful wheel of the year. My cultural heritage and all others have beautiful ritual years that help make the world a rich pageant indeed in the face of the McWorld and monocultural sameness. Lent and its associations are part of the English cultural year and our rich national calendar. A calendar which is a huge factor in our shared national identity, consciousness and folk memory.

Talking of the wheel of the year, I write at the ancient Germanic festival of Oestre - celebrated in my ancestral homelands in reverence of Spring - and at the Spring Equinox - an important marker of the year in so many other cultures which go to provide the world with its beautiful and rich diversity in the face of modernity. Everywhere I've looked this week I've seen the life force making her triumphant comeback! I don't need reality TV - reality itself is miles better! At this time of year the promise and power of nature, of the divine, is everywhere. The National Anarchist and Tribalist worldview should never leave out the awesome power of Mother Nature and the Natural Order.

A tribal alternative to the Jamahiriya?

2011-03-18T10:41:00.000-07:00

Without wishing to be premature...Al-Qadhafi's State of the Masses, in all honesty, looks like it will leave the world stage sooner rather than later. With the current situation in mind this article caught my eye earlier this week which I accessed from a link on the excellent National Anarchist (ish) blog Attack The System .

Like a lot of African and Arab states, Libya owes its existence to 20th Century Western imperialism. Modern Libya is made up of three distinct regions: Fezzan in the South West with the Tuareg and Tobou ethnic groups being strongly represented there. Cyrenaicia lies in the East with Tripolitania in the North West. These have their predominantly Arab-Berber populations. Tripolitania was itself briefly independent a century ago, before falling to the Italian yoke.

Libyan society is still structured along strong tribal fault lines. Is it to much to hope for the future emergence of ethno-tribal homelands in the this part of the Maghreb? Tribal homelands that will forge their own destiny free from despots of all hues? Too much to ask?

FAREWELL TO A TRIBALIST PIONEER
Berrocscir's Banner notes the passing of Carel Boshoff - the great Afrikaner patriot and founder of the Orania intentional community in South Africa. When I first heard about Orania, it was at a time when I had just began identifying with National Anarchism and remember it filled my heart with admiration and joy. The enduring success of Orania has parallels with the National Anarchist ideal and although it does not fit our vision entirely it can inspire us in pursuit of it.

The extended family

2011-03-06T12:49:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday's 'yes' vote in the Welsh referendum suggests two possible trends that can be welcomed by National Anarchists and other radical/revolutionary nationalists.

You may or may not know that the Welsh were asked if they wanted further devolution of powers to the Welsh National Assembly (which has functioned since 1999) Hitherto the Assembly could only pass laws for Wales if they had been approved by by the UK parliament in London. The Welsh people were asked if they wanted the Assembly to be given the power to pass laws directly (without first seeking approval from London) over things like agriculture, education, health, housing, local government, fishing, forestry, culture, the Welsh language, water supply and social welfare - run of the mill stuff like that! ....The Welsh said 'yes'. The turnout was 35% (not that low a figure for this sort of thing) 517, 000 (63%) said 'yes', and a not insignificant 297, 000 (36%) said 'no'. This is not an astounding endorsement of devolved power, but then the Welsh only narrowly voted for having their own Assembly in the first place back in 1997. What this shows is that minorities - pioneers - make history. They take the lead and the masses follow. Relatively small numbers of people have changed the course of history by taking the lead - this is the human condition - and the masses (usually) follow. The great mass of people do not constitute the 'engine of history' as the Marxists would have us believe.

The 'yes' vote was strongest in the rural North West and West - areas where the Welsh language and therefore Welsh national identity, is strongest - and also in the valleys to the south where there has always been a healthy tradition of rebelliousness. The only region to return a narrow 'no' vote was Monmouthshire, an area where Welsh speakers do not top 12% and where English heritage and blood (one would have thought) must have played their part.

So what were those two trends of interest, mentioned earlier, of interest to National Anarchists? Firstly the 'yes' vote represents some form of appetite for political devolution, not much of a one, granted -the Welsh still cannot raise their own taxes - and it is nowhere near the the scale of decentralisation envisaged by National Anarchists: devolved power down to the village, parish or district level...But it is a start. It's important to be pragmatic in this day and age! The 'yes' vote also shows that the Welsh as an ancient nation are still hearty of spirit and consciousness. This is something to be applauded in this most cosmopolitan of epochs.

Secondly this referendum indicates that although the Welsh are very much a proud and unique people, the vote suggests that many still regard themselves (rightly) as part of a wider, extended family of British nations: i.e. the English, Scots, Welsh, Ulster-Scots, Irish, Cornish and Manx - peoples intertwined through hundreds of years of close cultural and blood ties. Although this truth may irritate the more resolute of Welsh nationalists, currently only 15% of the Welsh want full independence - could this be due to the close bonds of the British family of nations? A wider collective Britishness?

Speaking for myself as a National Anarchist, your editor would dearly love to see free and independent Welsh, English and Scottish nations alongside an independent Ulster and yes, Cornwall and Mann should their peoples want it. But this has to be within a framework of mutual respect and recognition of a shared, meta-tribal kinship throughout our Islands.

One task for UK based National Anarchists is to encourage this fashion for bourgeois political devolution as a springboard for the maximum tribal and localised autonomy which is at the heart of our programme.

Leaving cults behind

2011-02-12T07:56:00.000-08:00

I've just finished reading Troy Southgate's Nazis, Fascists or Neither? (Ideological Credentials of the British Far Right, 1987-1994) and I would recommend it to all radical nationalists, particularly if, like me, they have a nerdish curiosity for political trainspotting...ahem.

Southgate, of course, remains one of the leading lights of National Anarchism, and while I don't for a minute liken myself to the man in terms of his obvious intellect, political achievements and activism, Troy's political evolution is similar to my own albeit from a very different trajectory.

Southgate's latest book is an academic study of the several nationalist groups operating in the UK at the time and does much to discredit the "NARTZII!" AND "FASHISSST!" accusations of their Leftist and liberal opponents. While he acknowledges that elements of National Socialism and Italian Fascism were evident in a couple of groups active at the time, Southgate concludes that, for the most part, the nationalist movement at that time displayed a radical, revolutionary anti-capitalism to put the Marxists and Left-Anarchos in the shade.

When I was younger and wore my 'Anti-Fascism' on my sleeve, I remember having a dirty little secret: admiration for some of 'the Fash'. "Actually" I'd admit to myself, "a lot of what they say is alright." I particularly liked their anti-Industrialism and love of tradition. But due to my strong identification with proletarian internationalism (I had been drawn to Leftism purely by chance) and loyalty to the socialist cause, I still preferred to judge tribalist schools of thought as 'race hate' and dismissed them obediently as the attack dogs of capitalism. How I reached that conclusion, I now confess was due to a gang mentality: Our lot against them.

If anything, however, most on the left, as proud internationalists, are in real terms siding with the global capitalist elites. The world belongs to the capitalists and by pushing their 'no borders' mantra and supporting unbridled immigration (which only harms workers everywhere) the left are making life easier for the globalists: making the whole world their market place and in doing so increasing the cosmopolitan hegemony.

George Orwell once wrote: In all countries, the poor are more national than the rich. This means the rich have no country, rather than the workers - to turn a Leftist slogan on its head. Internationalism is a bourgeois ideology, which emerged with the age of Empire and when international markets eclipsed localism and organic economies. One could argue that the development of modern nationalism was in direct reaction not only to industrialism (when the peoples of Europe were dragged from the land and their folk roots) but also to the Empire builders, the new capitalist class and the rise of global trade, rather than a bourgeois reaction to halt the tide of proletarian solidarity.

The cult of Anti-Fascism, however, had a keen grip on me for a good while. I used to make a nuisance of myself removing nationalist stickers and posters which often had clear anti-capitalist messages. But the us and them view kept winning for a while. My gradual conversion to National Anarchism was partly due to my eventual admission that oil and water don't mix, good fences make for good neighbours and that cosmopolitanism and multiculturalism only destroyed identity and culture (two concepts which I had long held dear and had managed to reconcile with my Leftist worldview through those Marxist concessions of Left-Nationalism and National Liberation) A latent love of my people and our heritage, and studying 'the fash' to the point of going native ( ! ) were also factors which bought me to National Anarchism.

Southgate's latest work will hopefully provide useful arguments against the dogmatists and it offers a welcome investigation into the revolutionary nationalist movement, hitherto mostly overlooked, and I look forward to a similar academic study of the modern National Anarchist phenomenon in due course.

South Sudan - a herald for tomorrow?

2011-01-23T09:57:00.000-08:00

Although the final results from the recent referendum are not due until next month, it looks almost certain that South Sudan will separate from the north. Why should National Anarchists care? Why is the creation of a new state such positive news? Well, apart from anything else, from a tribalist perspective, South Sudanese independence is perfectly logical. While the new southern state will be far from mono-ethnic - there are many ethnic groups in the region - the majority of the population are ethnically and culturally 'meta-African' in the wider sense - part of a wider kinship in the same way that one can speak of a broader European identity. This meta-African ethnicity is distinct from the Arab north of the country. Sudan's borders were carved out by British imperialism for its own convenience with no regard or sensitivity toward indigenous cultures or tribes. It was this that formed the basis for the eventual decades of civil war, primarily over the South Sudanese oilfields.

South Sudan is also a distinct bio-region, and it's peoples understand it and are able to manage it better without the centralised and alien northern regime. Of course, South Sudan will encounter many problems in the short term, but secession is a process - a first step on the road to the truly tribal society. A step toward fully devolved, decentralised and localised ethnic communities envisaged in the National Anarchist ideal.

National Anarchists recognise that the national revolution will not happen overnight. We are pragmatists, welcoming moves that are counter to the globalised trend. South Sudan is just one of them. National Anarchists support and encourage ethnic, cultural and economic secession wherever and however it is manifest. The birth of South Sudan is positive in that it is another example of how supranational states fail while more greater ethnocentric states are more cohesive and therefore happier. Maybe too, the South Sudanese diaspora can begin to go home.

Regarding this subject the writings of Leopold Kohr , especially The Breakdown of Nations, will be a useful addition to any National Anarchist bookshelf.

ARE YOU LOCAL?!

More good news: While far too many village pubs and shops have, due to those lovely global market forces, closed in the UK over recent years, some communities are organising to keep their amenities and identities strong. There are now 251 community owned stores throughout the country - that's up from just 33 in 1991. This goes a long way to proving that British rural communities don't need lectures from the Tories about any 'big society'!

The village community and rural way of life are integral to the National Anarchist worldview, so it is pleasing to see community empowerment at this level getting more resilient to the global machine while maintaining their distinct identities to boot.

The plight of the UK village in the 21st century is brilliantly illustrated in Richard Askwith's The Lost Village, for those interested.

Down with this sort of thing

2011-01-07T10:13:00.000-08:00

News just in that on the 26th March the Trades Union Congress and their Left hangers on are going to do what they do best - mobilise a big demo in London with all the usual suspects and march round and round...no doubt this will involve a few old mates slinking off to the pub and possibly a few masked kids running amok...All against the spending cuts.

Not very imaginative. The do itself will have a name: March for the Alternative: Jobs, Growth, Justice. Okay, 'Justice' - well a bit vague, no one's against 'justice' are they? 'Growth'? Well, where has this got us? Sure it's made a lot of us comfortably numb, but growth leads us to the consumerist zeitgeist, and it has ripped us asunder from our tribal roots. No, I'm not marching for growth. 'Jobs'? Right, well I'm a 9 to 5 sort, I admit it. I 've never been able to kick the habit, I do a lot of unpaid overtime too... But to be honest, I always preferred the old Green Anarchist slogan from the 90s: Stuff Your Jobs - We Want Land. Much better than the Right to Work mantra of the Left -that's just like asking for more and more capitalism. I know people have got to feed their families, but I always thought Green Anarchist had the better vision. No, I think I'll give this one a miss.

Desperate gestures

2011-01-02T08:03:00.000-08:00

Dust off those flares and wide collars, and don that old brown leather jacket with the wide lapels - Leftist anarchists have been blowing things up on the continent once more. Wow, golly gosh! While no doubt many on the left would recognise the folly of such actions, the most radical of the radical have rediscovered something even more futile to indulge in than smashing up McDonalds, setting light to wheelie bins, throwing things at the cops and getting water cannoned. These comrades have taken tokenism and gesture politics up a gear...

You can't bomb your way to a new society. You can't take on the the most sophisticated and professional security and intelligence networks ever seen, backed up as they are with unparallelled resources and the most powerful of state structures all working for the most powerful of empires in history - the Neo-Con World Order. What the bombs in Italy and Greece ultimately reveal is a latent frustration on the part of the perpetrators to the continuing failure of Leftist anarchism to break out of the ghetto. Of course National Anarchism is also on the fringes, but we at least recognise the stupidity of such irrational propaganda by deed.

Yes, there's still a place for political, electoral and civil agitation, and it would be a mistake for National Anarchists and their allies to ignore spreading propaganda and engaging with the wider anti-capitalist and nationalist currents, and indeed society at large. But the real alternative is not the radical chic, rioting and insurrectionary play acting of the Left-anarchists. Nor is it the General Strike and fabled workers' control. Many on the Left will dismiss the National Anarchist modus operandi as 'lifestylism', but in the face of the global machine, the only real alternative is to opt out (in as much as is practical) Radical Nationalists and Tribalists need to live as independently as we can and aim toward the village communities of the National Anarchist ideal. Why should National Anarchists prefer the village model? Because we recognise that the Industrial revolution and urbanisation has numbed our collective national folk memories and eroded our tribal instinct. We can't turn back the clock, but by embracing and slowly building a lifestyle compatible with rural living we can reinvigorate this folk-centred worldview.

Sure, if you are a Leftist, internationalist, PC cosmopolitan build your own alternatives, but just leave us free to build ours.

As National Anarchists we need to start living as free from the globalised structures as possible: Grow your own food, look into sorting out your own water-supply and getting off the grid. Get as self-sufficient as you can and get clued up on survivalist techniques and traditional crafts. This is real empowerment and far more revolutionary than a letter bomb.

A steady state society

2010-12-26T08:40:00.000-08:00

The human brain evidently evolved to commit itself emotionally only to a small piece of geography, a limited band of kinsman, and two or three generations into the future

-Edward O. Wilson, The Future of Life

Berrocscir calling...Berrocscir calling...

First off, Yuletide greetings to National Anarchists everywhere - both those in the networks and the lone wolves. May your work for the NA cause bear fruit in 2011.

I also extend the hand of friendship in solidarity to the autonomous nationalists, particularly the UK based comrades, and I hope the coming year will be one of progress for your movement. It is also my wish that the years ahead will see much co-operation between ANs and NAs.

Another hope for next year is the advancement of the UK based Pioneer Little Europe project. News recently reached Berrocscir Towers (well, okay, via yours truly lurking around a popular nationalist Internet forum... well, we all do it!) that a group of nationalist activists from different backgrounds have held camps over the past year to prepare for a PLE in the north of England. A US import, the idea of the PLE is to establish intentional nationalist communities living and working as independently as possible from the New World Order. Apparently land up north has already been acquired toward this goal. A very exciting prospect and one that all radical nationalists should monitor.

I've added a couple of sites to the links section (left hand column): Firstly the very commendable Third Way Think Tank and secondly the equally useful Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy. Certainly, steady state economies are something most anti-globalists would agree are desirable, but radical nationalists can take this concept a step further, extending it to include society and culture at large. Globalism, multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism - these are causing society to fracture, suffer identity crises and to lose the moral compass. Without common purpose societies themselves become unsustainable. We need steady states socially and culturally as well as economically.

Mountain folk must decide

2010-11-28T10:02:00.000-08:00

The current Sino-Indian military standoff in the far North East Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh shows how two aspiring empires can both be wrong.

The peoples of that region, their identities, destinies and wealth are not to be fought over by two emerging neo-imperialisms. Beijing cannot play the victim: Arunachal's neighbour is Tibet, not China. India should recognise that its borders have their origins in the Raj.

Arunachal Pradesh (meaning land of the dawn lit mountains) is home to two dozen animist tribes, nearly as many Buddhist ones, and also a handful of Hindu ethnic groups. All are distinct from one another as they are as worthy as each other. They can determine their own futures both independently from each other and certainly from macro-ethnic, multicultural supra-states.

Although, at least, India's internal geopolitical system does include several semi-autonomous regions, the list does not include Aranachal Pradesh. Its peoples do not deserve Indian troops swarming over their lands.

Huge political entities like India are creaking under their own contradictions. The Kashmiri story is one of many. In China it is the same. National Anarchists and radical nationalists recognise that societies work best when they are a cohesive, organic whole...That is, when they are TRIBAL. Multicultural, multi-ethnic societies lack common identities, aims and aspirations. With many different voices shouting for themselves multicultural societies lack a moral compass and stagger forward with no common goal.

As both India and China grow into neo-liberal global super powers, so their respective artificial supra-nationalisms will emerge. This can only threaten swathes of diverse and beautiful human cultures, within a wider global new world order.

National Anarchist arguments are needed nowhere more in 2010 than in Arunachal Pradesh.

A very English experiment

2010-11-15T09:17:00.000-08:00

Further to this blog's post of the 19th September , the English Unity Committee has quickly morphed into the English People's Party which will be officially launched this coming Saturday ( St Edmund's Day )

The EPP is an attempt to forge (tactical?) unity between ethno and so-called 'civic' nationalists in order to pursue shared common goals...

Now if you take some dictionary definition, 'civic-nationalism' would involve the state as some sort of rallying point. This is to make the ever-popular misassumption that the nation has something to do with the state. Of course National Anarchists and their Tribalist allies interpret 'civic' nationalism as an extension of cultural Marxism. It has been a semi-conscious internationalist rearguard action from the the time of the New Left and its subsequent antecedents, which has been partially successful in tackling the Tribalist instinct and ethnic loyalty.

That said, there are liberals around who genuinely wish to see an independent England, both from the UK and the EU. For this reason those ethno-nationalists involved in the EPP project should be applauded. The principal of unity in diversity is one Berrocscir's Banner wholeheartedly promotes.

The reality of English independence from the UK and the EU would be an incredible victory for all tendencies opposed to the global New World Order. It remains to be seen how the EPP 'experiment' will develop. Berrocscir's Banner is in no way proud to push a 'glass half empty' view about any new initiative, but in this case it remains guarded: the liberal-fascist urge is an obstinate one (you see, they really do believe in what they are doing) However, if the EPP endures it will prove that the 'unity in diversity' tactic can indeed work. Often, for National Anarchists and our allies in these dark times, it's a case of softly, softly catchy monkey.

If nothing else the EPP project at least hints at a bit of soul searching by some within the civic camp...We'll see

Diversity is strength

2010-11-07T09:58:00.000-08:00

The real advantage of the National Anarchist worldview is that it overlaps and is compatible with so many other anti-capitalist tendencies. It has similarities with strains of nationalism, socialism, national liberation, the Third Position, the regionalists and localists, the distributionists and advocates of Social Credit, the agrarians and back-to-the-land types, the deep ecologists and greens. Yet National Anarchism does not seek to dominate the anti-globalist movement. National Anarchists recognise that unity in diversity is the key when looking to challenge the New World Order. National Anarchists do not seek to coerce others. Is it not a little fanciful to expect the multi-culturalists and dyed-in-the wool liberals to throw in the towel? If people want to live in multi-cultural communities, leave them to it. It would be a waste of time trying to convince the socially liberal of the tribalist message (at least as a movement - National Anarchists might have more luck on an individual basis!) And although liberal/red-fascism is rife within the leftist mindset - well, two wrongs don't make a right.

By the same token, it is unlikely and undesirable that National Anarchists will ever come to dominate the nationalist/tribalist wing of the anti-capitalist/globalist movement. National Anarchism is anti-totalitarian and recognises that diverse movements are the product of the diverse world we seek to preserve.

Following on from this, National Anarchism has the potential to become a guiding principal of influence over the nationalist and tribalist milieu, and certainly National Anarchists can work alongside and within all anti-globalist currents - if they will have us. We need a plurality - it is essential if we want progress and results. Ideological purity is a luxury we cannot afford - diversity is strength.

Expanding on this theme Berrocscir's Banner believes National Anarchism is close to the autonomous nationalist movement - there are several similarities despite the latter's statism. Both share anti-imperialist and anti-consumerist principals and both are interested in building intentional communities and/or counter-cultural networks which can facilitate an independent tribalist lifestyle in line with our ideals. And with regard to the European diaspora, National Anarchists might also find common ground with the Metal/industrial music sub-culture. Directing NA propaganda at this youth movement may prove fruitful: It is naturally tribalistic, 99.9% European and it is big on the history, identity, heritage and symbolism of our collective ancestry.

And, in Europe at least, National Anarchists should look to the countryside as a fertile area for growth. The village and the market town are generally more socially conservative and traditionalist. Their people tend to have a stronger sense of identity and place than urbanites, and have a greater tribalist instinct, self-reliance, independence and autonomy. Rural populations tend to be predominately mono-ethnic and mono-cultural, while the cities are increasingly the preserve of multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism and are generally socially liberal. There is more promise in National Anarchism finding a positive audience in rural areas than in the metropolis.

Cut consumerism!

2010-10-10T09:33:00.000-07:00

In the UK next week the details of the new government's public spending cuts will be announced, no doubt to much uproar from everyone from the hard-left to the centre-right. But what should be the National Anarchist response? We should understand the anger: many, including the most vulnerable will suffer through no fault of their own. But the latest economic crisis presents National Anarchists and other radical nationalists with an opportunity. The real problem is not the fat cats, but the UNPARALLELLED CONSUMERISM that afflicts those of us residing in the so-called 'advanced' capitalist countries.
Okay - we can't turn the clock back or wave a magic wand to usher forth some golden pastoral age. But what we can do is develop (or borrow!) anti-industrial/technological/consumerist critiques and incorporate them into our tribalist message and propaganda. National Anarchists and our allies can also do what the Left anarchists and Marxists show reluctance to: expose the welfare state as the servile state (with thanks to Hilaire Belloc) One which creates dependence and obedience. Leftists often claim that the public sector was hard won by the struggles of working people. Not really. Social welfare was created through the new social democratic elite, partly out of genuine altruism, partly out of social engineering.

National Anarchists can also point out that present crash is due in large part to GLOBALISATION and we should argue for protectionism, self-sufficiency and economic and social autarky in line with our tribalist worldview. Radical nationalists in general can also promote a positive alternative - one that encourages genuine social solidarity that can rest easily within the tribalist case: We can argue for self-organisation within our local communities based on the Friendly Societies of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A time when people planned their own welfare and took responsibility for themselves. Our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents lived in stronger socially cohesive communities with a stronger sense of identity and solidarity as a consequence of this independence. Another nationalist strategy can also be to promote and support the voluntary sector - The Tories' Big Society idea should really be the preserve of us radical nationalists! The trouble is, decades of being looked after from 'cradle to grave' has made the idea of self-help and self-reliance look scary to many people. All we can do is work in our respective tribes to encourage the rejection of consumerism and reliance on the state. This can help in its own small way towards the cultural rebirth necessary for eventual National Revolution - the long term goal of all shades of radical nationalist.

The plough over all

2010-10-04T10:13:00.000-07:00

Despite big gains for both the pro-globalisation centre-left and centre-right in Saturday's Latvian parliamentary elections, the Latvian Farmers' Union (as part of an electoral pact with the Latvian Greens) made some progress, gaining 22 seats - up six from the last ballot in 2006, or 19% of the vote. The LFU (Latvijas Zemnieku savienība) has an ideology and programme based on Agrarianism in particular its Nordic variant.

The agrarian philosophy is something that National Anarchist and other radical nationalist/tribalist currents can learn a great deal from. The rural ideal, since the 1960s, has gained a growing popular appeal in the West, as people increasingly see the urban way of life as not all what it is cracked up to be. All political movements need something positive to espouse and the radical nationalist current, I believe, can only benefit from embracing an Agrarian shade. After all, what is a tribe without the land? The progress of the LFU in Latvia should be welcomed by all sincere anti-globalists - and well done to the Latvian Greens for their co-operation. If only other Green Parties were as non-dogmatic.

National-Anarchist Movement launched

2010-10-03T09:52:00.000-07:00

The UK Based National-Anarchist Movement was launched a couple of weeks back. Its proposed structure and modus operandi appear similar to the National Revolutionary Faction which was active for a while around a decade ago, and was highly influential on your editor. NRF writings played a big part in weening me away from left-anarcho, internationalist mindsets and were a significant factor in my eventual conversion to National Anarchism and allied currents.

Berrocscir's Banner wishes the N-AM all the very best. I have the upmost admiration for those comrades who go out in the world and actively promote NA and work on projects to make its message a reality. I remain sceptical that the N-AM will grow into something resembling a mass movement (This blog remains an advocate of spreading NA propaganda and ideas through the wider nationalist, Green and anti-capitalist scenes in the UK for the foreseeable future) But NOTHING will bring a smile to this old cynic's face more than if the N-AM grows and spreads its influence. Look at what the Bay Area National Anarchists (see links) have achieved in the States in such a short space of time. Here's hoping the founders of N-AM make the same kind of waves in the UK

Alliance building is essential

2010-09-19T08:14:00.000-07:00

The formation of the English Unity Committee is a chance for common ground for 'ethnic' and 'civic' nationalists to work together around shared core principles. Eddy Butler was right to say thee is no nationalism except ethno-nationalism - it's a phrase that should not exist. All that 'civic' nationalism represents is an extension of cultural Marxism. It is the result of a process whereby Leftists in the establishment, through their 'long march through the institutions' try to reinvent patriotic and tribalist sentiments within a liberal mindset. Of course, 'civic' nationalism is nonsense. If I in my white skin moved to Delhi to work, paid taxes to the Indian state and adopted an Indian lifestyle and even 'felt' Indian - would the natives see me as so? Would they 'eck! Biology plays a part.

However the EUC is an opportunity for radical nationalists and tribalists to work with others to bring the break down of the UK state and EU a little bit closer. This is something National Anarchists could welcome for good reason: the break down of political units makes the global elite's job that little bit harder. More and more states having some degree of control over their own destinies helps set up more obstacles to the globalist project. Obviously National Anarchists advocate ever smaller political units - possibly autonomous communities, federations of regions - that kind of thing. But in the meantime an independent England is in all radical nationalists' interest - as well as hopefully triggering an English cultural rebirth! If we have common goals with others who we might have huge differences with, we should always try to put them aside if together we can get somewhere worthwhile and it's in our short/medium/long-term interests. That is why all shades of radical nationalists should support the green movement. Apart from our shared environmentalism we also share an opposition to materialism, consumerism, capitalism. We can excuse their love affair with left-liberalism if and when their actions help our cause. The National Anarchist approach to alliance building is well worth reading here.

HEARTS OF FIRE, LAND OF ICE
Swedes go to the polls today and watching Russia Today this morning ol' Berrocscir saw a report predicting 7% support for the nationalist Swedish Democrats, a figure which will give them 26 seats in the Riksdag. The political establishment will refuse to work with them, but hopefully a good show from the SDs will prompt a favourable shift in Swedish politics. Good luck to the SDs and the smaller National Democrats! Hopefully Saga, the lovely Swedish nationalist singer, will have something to sing about tomorrow!

Blood over water

2010-09-15T10:24:00.000-07:00

Back when the world was young, a favourite maxim of yours truly was class war, not race war - but these days I'm not overly interested in either. Even so, the old 'class or race' chestnut continues to rage between the 'Left' and 'Right', but is it just another red herring?

Of course, some radical nationalists argue for both: The autonomous nationalists, inspired by the Strasserites, advocate national revolution based on the working class. Radical nationalists and tribalists should undoubtedly support the autonomous nationalists for their dynamism and as allies against globalism and for tribal identity against cosmopolitanism. But won't future battles be drawn less along class lines but increasingly along those of tribal identity? Certainly, class is a major factor in society, but the trend in the UK and elsewhere is towards a diminishing political role for the working class.

The Left (and some nationalists) have a tendency to canonise the working class as the chosen people, an indestructible force. But nowadays, at least in the post-industrial west - the working class has become blurred and suffers from identity crises, its self-consciousness vague, transient and abstract. Class solidarity is fleeting, momentarily flaring up now and then like bush fires through history, before soon burning out. If class stands on shifting sands in a state of flux, then race, ethnicity, heritage, culture, tradition and folk myth surely stand on more solid foundations. These are organic features that have been around a lot longer - much better cornerstones to rely on in the face of global capitalism. These concepts stir up genuine loyalties in people, leaving class as an academic afterthought.

The 'working class' in the 'advanced' western democracies look increasingly unlikely to make a comeback - they are, in a general sense, just too darn well off to care. Bloated by affluenza, all their potential rebelliousness has been neutered by consumerism. Sure, in the UK the imminent public spending cuts will result in mini skirmishes, cries of disdain, marching up and down and increased paper sales! But they'll be no shift in the prevailing political culture - the neo-liberal agenda will continue.

Global capitalism has damaged national identity at the expense of an ever-growing bland cosmopolitanism. But ask a sample of heads where they are within the class system and there will be a lot more chin rubbing than if you asked them to comment on their racial/ethnic/national identity. Feelings of tribal loyalty and patriotism naturally hit a common nerve in people, not because they suffer from a false consciousness, duped and divided by the ruling class into accepting bourgeois attitudes and thereby ensure the smooth running of the bosses set up. These feelings occur naturally in all human beings because we ARE DIFFERENT. We feel closer to those that look and sound and act like ourselves. Most of us prefer to associate with, play and procreate with, our own kind - our own tribes. Tribes tend to self-segregate from those who don't share common traits. This is not 'good' or 'bad' its just how things are.

Capitalism will not leave the stage through the class struggle and the dawn of communism - those of us who are fed up with it stand more of a chance of damaging it by developing the Third Way and a new corporatist and/or distributist order. These models encourage a common national interest (an organic, genuine national interest - not the Daily Mail variety!) in place of the sectional, antagonistic and fractious interests that dominate capitalist economies and societies. A rocky road it will be - history doesn't do smooth transitions! Still, tribalists and radical nationalists can promote Third Way economic models as their success will result in a unified, single, genuine national solidarity - meritocratic and socially just. It will render the class war (and the class system) redundant. Truly national economies will not try to suffocate the competitive urge as Marxism et al does. Rather it will will keep it in check while nurturing national rebirth.

What are the real battle lines today? They are nationalism versus internationalism, cosmopolitanism versus tribalism. The real rebels are those who fight for national identity against the global village. For radical nationalists, socialism means social cohesion, national solidarity. Why this folkish socialism? Because the Left's promotion of international class solidarity is ludicrous! Human beings are not defined by economics alone. For the Left, man is reduced to Homo Economicus - a blank sheet to draw on. But human beings are a lot more complicated. The only factor uniting the world proletariat is their (relative) economic position, but so much more divides them and this need not be a problem. Common ancestry, custom, culture, roots and heritage - these make up the real social glue in human societies and bind them together in tribes. They transcend class boundaries and are cemented in time and place. The human sense of place is as old as the hills (even the Communist regimes understood this) Against the class model it wins every time. It's blood over water.

Because our common tribal origins stretch back into unrecorded time, our history effects us all. A nation has a shared heritage influencing all social strata. History is not partisan - it overlaps and it molds a people organically out of their ancestral lands. The English for example, are just as much products of the crusades, Magna Carta and the break with Rome as they are by 1381, the Levellers, Diggers and Chartists. So yes comrades, in a meaningful sense an English dustman does have more in common with ALL of his ethnic kin, than he does with a road sweeper in Soweto (and vice versa). Of course, in capitalist society there is no national interest - the class system with all its vested interests, dictates otherwise. But a post-capitalist world with just bland cultural sameness? No thanks.

We don't need class warriors - we need pioneers for tribalism and the Third Way, whatever their social background. These pioneers won't try to smash the system head on - they will fail if they do. They will stand a chance of succeeding if they turn their backs on it and create alternatives outside of it.

Every little helps...

2010-08-29T06:29:00.000-07:00

Berrocscir's Banner notes the passing of Hope Bourne, a remarkable lady who lived off £100 a year. Hope's way of life can teach radical nationalists a thing or two about how to get on with minimal interference from the global, consumerist mega-machine.

As a cowering nine-to-five drone, your editor does at least try to fight back in little ways as should every tribalist stuck in the rat race. Those of us without the time or space for an allotment or homestead-like arrangement can always look to the next best thing. We can look into the possibility of buying fresh, organic produce from friends, neighbours and colleagues. I keep badgering a colleague of mine who keeps hens to sell me half a dozen eggs a week - he keeps forgetting, but hopefully he'll get in the habit one day! Us radical nationalists can also support our local farmers markets instead of the supermarkets. By adopting simple practices like these we can cut out the middle man, and go some way to help create distributist economies and begin keeping our money within our communities and selective tribes. Even doing what I do - buying all your clothing from car boot sales and charity shops, make you that little bit more independent of the system (I draw the line at underwear, I get these from market traders!) You can pick up some great gear too - I recently nabbed a fine Crombie overcoat for a tenner at the local car boot...

I always take a packed lunch and a flask to work - even gestures like this mean less money going to the corporations and chains. All these examples are little victories for us tribalists in a troubled world. I'm also aiming to buy nothing for one day a week. As they say: Every little helps.

GIVE PEACE A CHANCE
The links section on this 'ere weblog has been revamped and includes the wikipedia article on National Anarchism. As someone who is happy with the label I have no real real problem with it apart from the passage As a prelude to a racial civil war... in the intro. Now, I'm not so naive to deny that the road to a National Anarchist nirvana will not involve a bit of a bumpy ride, shall we say. But what is being suggested here? Race riots, racial attacks and pogroms? Ethnic cleansing? The Turner Diaries? No, call me a peacenik, but none of that grabs me. Anyway, National Anarchism for me is more of an aspiration and a philosophy than a concrete political programme. For me it is the ideal of stateless, technologically indifferent or regressive, mono-cultural/ethnic communities. In addition, I have no moral objection to social hierarchy per se - provided it is meritocratic, imbued with a sense of justice, and works for the common good of the folk community. So I'm only an anarchist in the sense that my ideals do not involve state structures. I'm not into equality for equality's sake like leftist/workerist anarchists. Furthermore, while I'm NA at heart I reserve the right to support statist ideologies like Corporatism, or give the nod to other radical nationalist political movements that seek to weild state power.

Seriously challenging the globalist elites when aiming for a tribalist world will be no picnic, but a collective tribalist/radical nationalist/National Anarchist voice must present a positive message and talk of racial war certainly isn't one.

SUDAN SET TO SPLIT?
Talking of state structures, the people of christian Southern Sudan will gt the right to vote in a referendum on whether to secede from the Muslim north. Radical nationalists should hope they go for it. The breaking up of states along cultural lines is a small but significant step towards tribalist hegemony.

Sing as we go

2010-08-16T08:54:00.000-07:00

Okay, I admit it - I'm weak. For several years I've entertained a whimsical fancy to "Get rid of the telly" and thereby live free of the system's anaesthetic bile...but I haven't - yet. Trouble is every time I get the 'telly-free' urge, the BBC go and surpass themselves. This time, as well as the excellent Normans, we are now treated to Secret Britain on Sunday nights, which looks set to be well worth sitting down for. Last night's debut included a piece about sunken lanes - English icons if ever there were such things. If strolling down one of these in high summer fails to connect an Englishman to his folkish past, he might as well pack up and move to Morocco.

What really brought a warm smile to your editor's face however, was the piece on Ed and Will - two inexhaustible walkers who sing (with the listener's permission!) lovely old English folk duets (with great harmonies!) Last night's footage included some great footage of the lads entertaining some unsuspecting souls at a bus stop. I don't know how they earn a living but hat's of to 'em both. The obvious passion these lads have for the songs and their performance is the living embodiment of the folk tradition. The way they spoke with reverence about our collective folkish past and our ancestors could warm any tribalist's heart.

Now these boys may or may not view and interpret the world in the same mould as this 'ere blog but BRAVO Ed and Will - you share a love of place, at least, with Berrocscir's Banner.

Catch the show here. The sunken lanes are 28 mins in and Ed and Will follow at 38 mins. Enjoy!

The Sun shines bright in Leintwardine

2010-08-10T09:22:00.000-07:00

Our regular reader may remember the post from last year regarding The Sun pub at Leintwardine, Herefordshire. Back then the pub's future looked uncertain following the passing of Flossie Lane, the landlady of 74 years.

Okay, Berrocscir's Banner won't be winning any awards for breaking headlines, but your editor was delighted to receive the belated news that this gem of an English 'parlour pub' faces a secure future after villagers got together to run it as a going concern ( Hey, this is the Big Society, folks!)

If only all our boozers could boast authentic folk identities like The Sun. Best wishes to the new proprietors/licensees - please just avoid SkySports, Karaoke and Thai menus!

The BBC also ran the story and the pub's own site is here.

A mixed bag

2010-06-14T08:35:00.000-07:00

On the back of Geert Wilder's nationalist Dutch Freedom Party on the verge of government last week, surely it can only be a matter of time before the artificial Belgian state falls into history and the Flemish and Walloons can follow their destinies into their ethnic homelands. In yesteday's Belgian parliamentary elections the New Flemish Alliance (Niew-Vlaams Alliante) - a centre-right 'civic-nationalist' grouping became the largest party, grabbing 27 seats.

However, if the end result is and autonomous Flanders and Wallonia or a Greater Netherlands (as some Flems want) and a Wallonian union with France, it will be a Pyrrhic victory for secessionists, decentralists and autonomists if these fledgling homelands remain shackled to the EU!

It was a bad night for the ethno-nationalist (that is true nationalism) Vlaams Belang seeing its parliamentary representation down to 12 seats from 17 with 500,000 votes down from 800,000. However the VB's record displays a certain bouncebackability!

Over in Slovakia on Saturday the nationalist Slovak National Party had it a bit tough in the elections to the country's National Council. It lost 11 seats to end up with nine, with a vote of 128,000. Meanwhile, the Most-Hid party, which seeks to represent the interests of Slovkia's half a million strong, mainly southern based Hungarian minority (the result of early 20th century carve ups) accrued 205,000 votes, eclipsing a long established rival Hungarian grouping. For this they were rewarded with 14 seats.

Although Most-Hid do not seek union with the Hungarian Motherland, or full secession from Slovkia - this strong showing points the way for greater autonomy in the future for this ethnic group. Maybe in the not too distant future a movement for full Hungarian sovereignty will develop in this part of the world.

ETHNIC HOMELANDS ARE KEY TO PEACE
Tribalists do no want to see ethnic violence anywhere at any time. But as tribalism is based on natural human instinct and is ingrained in all peoples, it is sometimes manifested as red in tooth and claw. The current ethnic strife in Kyrgyzstan, which has resulted in tragedy for both the Kyrgys and the Uzbek minority, can only ultimately be rectified by autonomy and self-determination for the Uzbeks. As the Uzbeks are based mainly in the south, one remedy could be found in semi-autonomy here leading to (if popular will is behind it) eventual union with neighbouring Uzbekistan. Good fences make for good neighbours.

New Dumnonia Rising?

2010-06-06T08:01:00.000-07:00

It might turn out to be a phantom organisation confined to the web, but if it proves an active entity, then the newly formed Regionalist Front of Dumnonia will be worth watching.

A couple of concerns though: Is there actually room for a Dumnonian identity? Cornish self-awareness is light years ahead - it's doubtful Cornish nationalists/regionalists feel the need for closer alignment with their Devonian neighbours. There is also a growing Wessex consciousness which lays claim to the Dumnonian north. And certainly in recent years we have witnessed a nascent 'modern' Devonian identity, not least with the popularity of the new Flag of Devon. Do Devon folk feel part of a greater regional identity (other than a vague 'West Country' consciousness) or are they comfortable with their own shire? Probably the latter.

Has a Dumnonian consciousness lingered on? Probably not. While Berrocscir's Banner is all in favour of cultural revival, it must be based on something tangible. Is not a Dumnonian identity a step too far? The concept of Dumnonia feels like a left over from the romantic 18th and 19th century love affair with all things Celtic and the Celtic revivalism which swept Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Certainly, many place names in Devon have Brythonic roots, but so do others elsewhere. Berkshire's (Berrocscir) name is Celtic in origin - does that make it not English?

RFoD's claim of a high proportion of Brythonic DNA in the region may be so, but DNA alone does not an identity make. Language, custom, art, folklore and collective consciousness - where is the Dumnonian variety? In Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories novels, our hero Uhtred sometimes refers to the 'old people' who built the hill forts and henges, a long gone tribe. Dumnonia belongs to them, and although modern tribalists should honour and revere them deeply, their world is passed. Should not advocates of regionalism seek to safeguard the cultures that are alive in collective folk consciousness, memory and myth? These are worth fighting for, not the ashes of old.

Dumnonian/Brythonic DNA is alive and widespread - something to be grateful for, but the old Kingdom's heart has disappeared.

All this said, if a new popular appeal for a regional identity based on the Dumnonian brand does take hold, then all regionalists and lovers of true diversity should accept and celebrate it. The 'new' Dumnonians, although somewhat contrived, would constitute at least, a neo-tribe, proudly defying the internationalist tide. If RFoD works toward this then who are others to argue?

CHEESE ON TURF
It was heartwarming to see the English defy the bureaucrats and continue to assert their sense of fun, custom and identity, by going ahead with the Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling at Cooper's Hill, despite the health & safety fascists, last week. This Whitsuntide tradition will not be risk-assessed!

Apply the breaks

2010-05-18T07:54:00.000-07:00

Frederick Engels once wrote that human beings are a revolutionary species. He had a point. Clearly, we have travelled a long way in the last 10,000 years or so. Marxism is very good at interpreting history - obviously something clicked to trigger the neolithic revolution. We were happily hunting and gathering for hundreds of thousands of years, then, in the space of 10,000 we've gone to the moon. Things have been speeding up: we were stone age farmers for approx. 8,000 years, then master smiths for a couple of thousand. For a mere 1,000 years we were Lord and Serf, and, for no more than 300 years, we've been something like bourgeois and proletarian.

There is a pattern here - things are developing rapidly, becoming unstable, unsustainable, and something has got to give. Over the next century food and water supplies will pose a huge problem and we cannot rely on technology to save the day. Indeed, technology is part of the problem. The growth of technology has facilitated the growth of consumerism and the rootlessness that goes with it. Modern consumerism is suffocating the human spirit - natural tribal and national instincts are fading into an almost forgotten background. The much praised 'global village', made possible by technological 'advance', coupled with the triumph of materialism has been partly responsible for modern man's current identity crisis. It has helped in moving him away from his family of folk and locale, toward the false identity of class or whatever the current one-world fancy.

We need to apply the brakes. But how?

Radical tribalists, anti-globalists and nationalists should champion and nurture movements and trends which advocate a regressive steady state and the simple life, for which there is certainly a growing popular appeal. Strategies to work toward this should come through working within political parties, green consumer groups, the slow food movement, co-ops and self-help groups, tribal initiatives within our communities and back-to-the-land projects. We should not seek to overthrow anything, dream on. When the crash does happen (no empires are eternal) the alternatives, the networks, the projects, the neo-tribes should already be in place. All the work of those who could see it coming.

For tribal self-determination

2010-05-03T07:06:00.000-07:00

This blog offers its guarded support to ALL regionalist movements near and far. This is because political devolution and decentralisation are part of the process towards a post-global world where national, regional and local identities can once again claim their rightful place as the authentic, true expressions of humanity - in stark opposition to the soulless, lifeless, clone, consumerist, cosmopolitan and artificial mindset that is so evident today.

A worringing trend, however, is increasingly driving regionalist movements in Europe and beyond: It is one with a decidedly Leftist* one-world hue. Born out of the Marxist takeover of national liberation and anti-imperialist movements, Leftism crept into nationalist thought in the post-war years. Just as the 'right' has sometimes been accused of stealing socialist clothing, the Left attempts to subvert conflicting ideology when unable to successfully discredit it with standard internationalism. This has resulted in the phenomenon of Left-nationalism which played a part in the rise of the Scottish National Party, Plaid Cymru and Sinn Fein (now firmly on the reformist wing of the Left, these group were not always so) Left- nationalism has extended further afield from the Basques to Kurdish nationalism. In the UK the normalisation of Left-nationalism has led in turn to the emergence and acceptance of Left-regionalism. This is evident from the phony EU zones and regional development agencies (granted from on high by the elites) through to the social liberalism of groups like Mebyon Kernow and the Wessex Regionalists. These espouse legitimate demands for regional identity, economies and politics, yet remain wedded to a liberal europhilia and PC civic identities, instead of organic, historic ethno ones.

In the UK, regionalism from the kind advocated by the Greens to Mebyon Kernow is dominated by the Leftist creed. But a space exists for a more conservative and tribal regionalism. As has been argued here before, the resistance to globalism must be a diverse and pluralistic one - In Cornwall/Kernow at this week's General Election we will see a consevative regionalist Cornish Democrats candidate. MK may or may not be concerned, but what are General Elections for if not some gratuitous vote splitting?! Newly registered, who knows if the CornishDems will go the distance? Despite their forelock-tugging monarchism, at least they dare to promote their Brythonic ethnic identity and are against the EU that MK are so enamoured with. We'll see...
Regionalist movements are essential to the tribalist opposition, but only if they genuinely stand on their own two feet and do not let themselves become mere auxiliaries to mass ideologies.

*Berrocscir's Banner differentiates between 'Leftism' and socialism.

The Green Corporate State?

2010-04-25T07:23:00.000-07:00

An article in the current issue of Green World, the Green Party's official mag - Time for Economic Democracy - caught your editor's attention recently. Without wishing to cast aspersions, and recognising that the Greens would dispute it, Berrocscir couldn't help thinking that a significant corporatist strain is evident within current Green economic thought.

Corporatist ideas were a major ingredient in fascist Italy and were a cornerstone of the British Union of Fascists (Alexander Raven Thomson, a chief BUF philosopher and one time Communist, penned The Coming Corporate State in 1938)

Anyway the following passage from the Green World article was telling:

...the boards of all public and private enterprises with 50 or more employees to establish equal representation and joint control between management and elected staff representatives. Under an independent chairperson acceptable to both sides, these boards will have full access to all corporate information and the final say over all corporate decisions, including investment, technology, staffing, wages, pensions and so on. This system of co-determination would produce a major extension in workplace democracy. It would shift the balance of economic power; constraining the remit of capital and expanding the influence of employees.

This sounds pretty corporatist to me.

Of course the great mass of Green Party members would distance themselves from any similarity between themselves and the fascism of yesteryear, but the point must be made that, in practice, the 'Left' and 'Right' can often overlap and ending this false divide is central to a new anti-globalism for the 21st century. Those who would banish the current world set-up are often not so different.

A grubby utopia

2010-03-27T05:41:00.000-07:00

Back in the early 90s a fresh faced Berrocscir picked up a copy of Richard Hunt's 1976 primer The Natural Society - A basis for Green Anarchism. It had a lasting effect...Hunt's economic and social theories should be of interest to National Anarchists and other radical nationalists. His writings certainly played no small part in moving your editor away from Leftism/Internationalism/mass economies. The mag that he later edited, Alternative Green, help me on the road to the the tribalistic nationalism I now espouse.

Unfortunately, ahem, I misplaced my copy years ago, but I discovered recently that some kind soul has scanned a copy here. Obviously, Hunt's material throws up more questions than answers, but his theories at least point to the kind of life where tribalism can flower.

An interview with Richard Hunt is available here and more stuff can be found on the NA Synthesis site.

THE CIDER REVOLUTION!
In case no one's noticed we have a General Election coming up. For political nerds like your editor, elections are a time to be on the look out for whoever creeps out of the woodwork. As a passionate advocate of regionalism, and as a proud Wessexman, Berrocscir is positively delighted that the Wessex Regionalists are intending to stand a candidate, possibly in David Cameron's Witney seat. What with the Chancellor's recent attack on cider drinkers, lets hope they manage more than the 83 votes they picked up in Dorset South last time around!

From the gut - not a book

2010-02-21T08:03:00.000-08:00

National Communism was the belief that emerged after World War II and held that the so-called workers or socialist states of Eastern Europe and elsewhere should follow a distinct national road to socialism - not an alien model imported from outside (ie the USSR). This was in order that the ruling Communist elites would thereby gain legitimacy in the eyes of the people they governed. Respective Communist parties played up pre-existing national identities, heroes, histories and myths in order to satisfy the people's natural anti-Imperialism, tribalism and cultural identity. For example, in the GDR the Communist Party made great play of glorifying Richard Wagner and Frederick the Great.

The experience of National Communism is very telling - Marxists soon found that they could not suppress the national and tribal spirit (just as they also found they could not suppress man's natural inclination towards spirituality) so they had to make concessions. Marxist elites have never managed to wipe these tendencies out. They recognised how powerful, ingrained and hard wired they were. No government anywhere has had to appease a Marxist spirit - it doesn't exist, it is an academic venture. Sure, all over the world for hundreds and hundreds of years the elites have had to deal with various prevailing manifestations of justice from below, but Leftism is an artificial phenomenon that has continually had to adapt to fit human realities. One major concession is the leftist championing of national liberation/self determination. By acknowledging the urge for national sovereignty, Internationalists have had to acknowledge tribal differences.

In Britain the National Communist current is currently present with the Left's celebration of the native Levellers, Diggers, Chartists, Peasant's Revolt and so on. It is also present within the 'official' Communist Party of Britain. The CPB's programme The British Road to Socialism outlines the necessity of a distinct native road to Socialism, due to how institutions of state and the economy have developed and evolved with a national character, different from other countries. Why is this? Because the people of the home nations made them - through their own uniqueness.

Some Leftists still willfully disregard national destinies as reactionary distractions, or even deny their existence - but they do so at their peril. By denying human truths they will remain in isolation.

In 1990 Billy Bragg (whom Berrocscir's Banner considers a talented lyricist and musician) rewrote the lyrics to The Internationale, the famous Leftist hymn.
One line was

In our world poisoned by exploitation, those who have taken, now they must give
And end the vanity of nations - we've but one Earth on which to live

This displays perfectly the arrogance of Internationalism. Blood ties, kinship and the reality of cultural difference are not vanity. What IS vanity is textbook academic theory imposing its will on the varied peoples of the world and seeking to deny them diversity. Maybe these days Billy won't be so condemning now that he's gone all patriotic in a liberal kind of way - there's nothing shameful in changing your mind, ol' Berrocscir here should know!

Nationalism as we understand it today is a 19th century construct. But it's organic foundations - tribal loyalty, identity, social bonds, kinship and cultural realities - these go back into the mists of time. They are a stronger basis for human relationships than some old fellow sat in the British Library.

Open for business - the EIP

2010-02-15T09:15:00.000-08:00

From the ashes of the civic-nationalist Free England Party, the website of the newly relaunched English Independence Party went live yesterday. It owes its existence to those in the leadership of the FEP who converted to an ethnic English Nationalism (although they only appear to have a strictly cultural definition of ethnicity)

They have Tony Linsell of the Steadfast Trust on board and have two General Election candidates lined up so far. Will they stay the course? That's up to them.

The population tragedy

2010-01-24T05:53:00.000-08:00

The population time bomb is the elephant in the room. Go and look at a world population graph for this past millennium - it's chilling. Anti-globalists including nationalists should be addressing it. Your editor is no expert in the field of demography, but it is clear that the current rate of population growth is unsustainable. Rising populations in the 'undeveloped' world will trigger higher and higher levels of immigration to the West putting more and more pressure on their infrastructures, their transport systems, schools and services. It will mean more roads, housing, concrete, alienation.

While Berrocscir's Banner acknowledges that some cities in the past have produced strong, cohesive communities, starting in the medieval period and continuing until the mid 20th century, today urban sprawls have become evil, un-natural places full of unfulfilled, unhappy people. This may sound over the top, but the argument that man loses his innate spirituality in an urban environment where he can no longer see the horizon is a strong one. People are NOT mere cogs in the machine - the consumers and producers that both capitalism and communism wishes them to be. But the urban environment is the ideal place to mold them into robots that will have to contend with overcrowding and psychological hammering.

We can't go on developing, building, building, urbanising and burying our beautiful lands under tarmac. Nationalists of all shades should champion the rural ideal. It was close to the natural world where national and regional identity, belonging, kinship and community evolved. It is in the rural setting where it has the best chance to flourish today. Folk-community building has the greatest chance in a rural setting, preferably where people can occupy meaningful work in economies they have some say in.

The land and the green fields make a nation, not the high rise. The 19th century utopian socialists around William Morris had a slogan - 'The plough is a better backbone than the factory' - and they were right.

UKRAINE RIPE FOR SECESSION
Following on from last week's post it looks like neo-liberalism and the globalist agenda have won the day in the Ukrainian presidential elections. Viktor Yanukovych topped the poll, winning out over Yulia Tymoshenko. Although Yanokovych is the slightly less pro-New World Order of the two, being as he is slightly more pro-Kremlin (with the Kremlin being slightly less under the global jackboot than other 'democracies') the results are not good for genuine anti-globalists. The nationalist vote wasn't what it should have been: Oleh Tyahnybok, candidate for the nationalist All-Ukrainian Union - 'Freedom', picked up 352,000 votes (1.4%) while the national conservative Yuriy Kostenko for the Ukrainian Peoples Party only managed 54,000.

Also of note was the vote for the pro-Russian Communist Party of Ukraine fell by half a million from 2004 to 800,000. The CPU is to all intents and purposes a National Communist formation so their loss of votes suggest a decline in Ukrainian national sentiment...More on National Communism in a later post.

Looking at the demographics of the poll is telling.Yanokovych did best in the ethnically Russian east of the country with Tymoshenko dominating in the ethnically Ukrainian west. Tyahnybok's hard line Ukrainian nationalist vote was highest in the far west. Berrocscir's Banner's tenner is on the Ukraine to be the most likely state to devolve along ethnic lines in the years ahead.

KEEPIN' IT TRIBAL
It is welcoming to see the English National Resistance in their New Year statement outline their intent to concentrate on community work. Whilst street based stuff is what defines the Autonomous Nationalist creed, and with ENR stating they will not be moving entirely away from 'outreach' and PR activity, it's great to see independently-minded activists adopting a vital tribalist approach.

Talking of the Auto-Nat scene, the Irish based Folk Advance is a welcome addition to the milieu.

Anarchy in the Ukraine

2010-01-17T08:32:00.000-08:00

Ukrainians go to the polls today in the first round of their Presidential elections with the run-off being scheduled for 7th February. Voters have 18 candidates to choose from, but, unfortunately the two front runners are Yulia Tymoshenko and Viktor Yanukovych - both essentially pro-NATO, EU and US - both therefore willing servants of the ever omnipresent global new world order. The best, then, that can come out of this is a respectable showing from the nationalist candidates from the Ukrainian Peoples Party and the All-Ukrainian Union. Well, we shall see this week.

There is still a significant degree of friction between the majority ethnic Ukrainian population (77% and mainly in the west of the country) and ethnic Russians (18% and mainly in the east) A long term solution would be the gradual secession of the Russians into their own autonomous eastern state - a first small step towards the kind of devolved, decentralised ethnic homelands envisaged by National Anarchists.

AMERICAN MILITIAS BOUNCE BACK
Berrocscir's Banner notes with interest this Daily Telegraph article from last month which reports a resurgence of the patriot militia movement in the United States. Ultimately, if the militias want to defend and safeguard their values then they have no interest in maintaining what the USA has become and now represents. They should work towards secession - either for their own states alone, or with others in smaller confederations. These secessionist states could readopt the constitution and the values of the American Revolution that today's militias hold dear. American patriots should work to break down the the US empire, they will not stop being Americans with the death of the USA.

The secessionist movement in the States is more widespread than you might think. The Middlebury Institute is a good place to start for the curious.

COMING UP
A look at the elephant in the room - the world population tragedy.
The joys of the Farmer's Market phenomenon

Narcissism begins at home

2010-01-10T08:01:00.000-08:00

To start the year, here's potted biography of your editor. I was meaning to put it on my profile but it turns out it's too long...so it'll have to be a post. It's a brief explanation of my political evolution.

I started out on the Anarchist/Libertarian Communist scene and was particularly inspired by Syndicalism. By the early 2000s a minority on the Left began to question immigration and multiculturalism and I followed the ensuing net-based debates with interest. This acted as a catalyst for me to start questioning my own Leftist worldview of internationalism and cultural Marxism. I began reading nationalist material on the web, particularly the stuff by the now defunct UK-based National Revolutionary Faction and essays by David Michael which influenced me greatly towards my gradual conversion to National Anarchism.

I began reading up on other strains of nationalism which reassured me that being a nationalist need not conflict with my anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism and anti-globalism (principals which I continue to hold to this day) I was angry with myself for embracing the leftist stereotype which paints nationalism as reactionary, but we live and learn!

I started Berrocscir's Banner intending it to be a commentary on the political fringe, but later took the decision to make it a blog with a specific National Anarchist outlook and to champion other anti-globalist movements from across the political spectrum while also supporting other tribalist tendencies similar to National Anarchism.

IS MY TEAM PLOUGHING?
I wonder if the deceased subject of A.E. Houseman's poem from A Shropshire Lad would have perhaps been familiar with Plough Monday, which this year falls tomorrow. Berrocscir's Banner says "hat's off" to the cultural revivalists that still celebrate this important day in the folk calendar, thus helping to maintain an English identity in the face of bland, synthetic and rootless modernism. Those interested can read up on Plough Monday and its associations here

Quote of the month
Never make equal what is unequal - Nietzsche

Merry Christmas - and a Rockin' Yule!

2009-12-21T07:46:00.001-08:00

First off, Berrocscir's Banner sends all Yuletide greetings to National Anarchists, Tribalists, Greens and EarthFirst!ers, anti-globalists, Seditionists, Secessionists, Third Positionists, patriots, Paleoconservatives, Traditionalists, anti-capitalists, Autonomous Nationalists, anti-Imperialists, folkish socialists and revolutionary nationalists everywhere! May your dreams come closer in 2010!

2009 has witnessed the nascent National Anarchist milieu gain a small but significant foothold. National Anarchism as an organised force could have easily fizzled out and it hasn't. National Anarchists have made real progress in Australia and North America, not least with the inspiring work of the Bay Area National Anarchists. Our Australian and American friends have demonstrated that NA is more than a philosophy or theory - its ideas have a solid practical basis too. While all National Anarchists should continue to spread propaganda, real practical projects and initiatives that demonstrate workable alternatives to the globalist agenda are worth their weight in gold. So hats off to the Aussies and Yanks! Can the Europeans catch up in the coming new year?

Another development in the past year has been the emergence of Autonomous Nationalism in England with the arrival of the English National Resistance. They seem to have had their up and downs already, with, apparently, most of their southern cadre leaving a while back, but despite this ENR seems to have stabilised recently and hopefully they can become a permanent fixture on the nationalist scene - and that also goes for their former colleagues who apparently are sticking with the Autonomous Nationalist approach.

Is AN too 'european' to work in England, where the political culture is so different from the continent, where the Auton Nat scene is a relatively large phenomenon? Well, Berrocscir's Banner says possibly not. In Australia (part of the anglosphere) this year, we've seen the Nationalist Alternative, who take a decidedly auton approach, established. There's certainly a niche market of disaffected English working class youth that AN groups could appeal to. Besides, it's not like foreign imports have not gained a mass following in the past - Marxism, anyone? This blog hopes that the fledgling, homegrown Autonomous nationalists stick to and develop their anti-capitalist, anti-Imperialist outlook while continuing their opposition to materialism/consumerism and what passes for 'culture' that is foisted on our young people these days. Lets hope ANs can concentrate on spreading these values in their propaganda and 'good works' (i.e strengthening their communities) Maybe in time groups like ENR can provide an alternative youth culture, maybe through music. It's vital that they don't get sucked into a fruitless war with the left, this would be a tragic distraction.

Lastly, it's important not to forget that the 'system' has triumphed. We are not going to defeat it, certainly not by charging at it head on. We will weaken the global empire by strengthening and building our own communities and alternatives. We will begin to demoralise the global elites when we find ways of encouraging our people to ignore them and live without them as much as possible and to live increasingly by their own values not theirs. We need to encourage self-reliance and self-sufficiency in our respective tribes and in doing so we show our masters that we don't need them as much as they might think.

So warm Winter Solstice greetings (it's OUR festival - let's keep that way!)to regular and occasional readers. Thank you for reading this blog. Your author is conscious of appearing amateurish, although never claiming to be some ideological titan or intellectual sage. I hope the arguments here make sense to you, cheers!

ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES
The demise of the Free England Party (see the two posts below) has led to some ex-members who have converted to ethno-nationalism to relaunch the English Independence Party, so BB says good luck to them. The England First Party meanwhile, claim they have picked up a couple of ex-Feppers...there's me thinking that those scenes in the Life Of Brian were meant to be ribbing the Left!

Free England no more

2009-12-10T09:05:00.001-08:00

What do I know, eh? There's me getting all excited at the prospect of the Free England Party taking up an ethno-nationalist stance, while remaining blissfully unaware of rapidly changing developments. The FEP shut up shop earlier this week, possibly as a direct consequence of the recent civic/ethno feud that flared up in mid-November. Civics will no doubt scoff at this, but I'm convinced that their brand of 'constitutional patriotism' is incompatible with the nationalist movement - that is one based on Tribalism. The two cannot co-exist and claim to fight for the same things. One follows the liberal agenda, the other does not.

I've always believed that globalism can and should be challenged on all political terrains: namely electorally with 'conventional' political parties, through to pressure and propaganda groups. Within Trade Unions and on to 'street' activist networks. Although political parties are not my thing, I realise their real value if they espouse and stick to an authentic anti-globalist message.

I wish those who tried to steer the Free England Party down the true nationalist route all the best and I sincerely hope they carry on the fight for their tribe in ways they see fit.

Free England Party to go ethno?

2009-11-29T05:40:00.001-08:00

The small and hitherto civic-nationalist Free England Party are to vote on a proposal to adopt ethno-nationalism as party policy at their AGM on 12th December. Supporters of the proposal within the party (which splintered from the English Democrats in February last year) define their nationalism as one which focuses on identity and culture and National Anarchists would certainly welcome any switch. What is it with 'civics' who choose to ignore kinship bonds, folk community, common ancestry and descent? Don't these truths count for nothing? Aren't they deserving of respect? The civics of the FEP appear to be walking before the vote has been taken, thereby leaving the ethnos to rubber stamp the proposal (of course, all this info has been sourced to Internet based tittle-tattle, and we shall have to wait and see)

While a new ethno based FEP will hardly be an earth shattering event and get the neocon establishment quaking in their boots, the fact that a small group of patriots seem prepared to jettison a residual liberalism in favour of a tribalist outlook that is necessary if the globalist agenda is to be challenged, is to be welcomed. It is encouraging that the FEP have at least been doing a bit of soul searching! Now if the the currently civic-nationalist English Radical Alliance (with their distributist economics that will hold favour with many National Anarchists) could go down the ethno path - that really would be something.

A while back your author was prepared to give civic-nationalism the benefit of the doubt - "Better than nothing" I thought. But now I conclude that it is just an extension of Left-liberalism which has infected nationalist thought, a way for Cultural Marxists to neuter tribalist instinct and water it down until it means absolutely nothing. Nationalism is about allegiance to one's tribe NOT the state - an artificial apparatus which today is increasingly under the cosh of One Worldism.

The civics say that ethno-nationalism will set us on a dangerous path towards ethnic conflict. National Anarchists, at least, have no interest in that. We want all ethnic groups and cultures to flourish independently. We don't desire conflict - if you want to see conflict just look to the imperialism of the elites. If you want conflict just look at the effects of multiculturalism in the West and societies at unease with themselves. Solutions could rest in the points made on class in the previous post on here. The working class stand the best chance of abolishing the class system not by forlornly trying to overthrow it, but by ignoring it and establishing small scale alternatives based on decentralist economic networks as a starting point. When everyone becomes a producer and has a real stake in the economy, rather than remaining a slave to it - that's when the class war fizzles out. Mass society causes war, not tribalism. So just as overcoming class divisions lies not in overthrow but in decentralism, the same goes for ethnic strife. Ethnic strife is the result of mass centralised society and economy, when ethnic groups end up living on top of one another. Decentralise and its the first step to a tribal world. We will have our ethnic homelands when we break down the global empires - daunting, but true.

Yours truly is sick to death of the phony war between 'left' and 'right' which still rages on much to the delight of our neocon masters. National Anarchists recognise that the world's diverse peoples are tribalistic (look how ethnic groups tend to self-segregate when they get the chance) and that good fences make for good neighbours. Of course, the daunting task for National Anarchists and their fellow travellers is to develop strategies as a first step on the road to the world we envisage, and this, to put it mildly, will not be easy.

Give 'em an airing

2009-11-21T06:31:00.000-08:00

As a National Anarchist, your author supports workers anywhere on the globe engaged in struggle with the bosses and when strikes can be fought and won that's great. National Anarchists and nationalists generally should back workers who fight globalisation, casualisation, privatisation, cuts in pay and 'modernisation' (which means erosion of conditions and greater job insecurity) If nationalists are not anti-capitalists they run the risk of siding with reaction. At least in my book.

However, just as capitalism has failed most of humanity, so has socialism. Both form two sides of the same coin. International Marxian socialism is a fable - it is totally alien to the spirit of Man. To buy and sell is to be human. There can be no return to some paleolithic primitive communism - there are too many people these days. We are too far down the road.

So in the absence of any meaningful workers' 'movement' in the UK in 2009, workplace disputes are usually on a hiding to nothing if they are led by the demands of the left. The current Royal Mail dispute is a case in point. Yes, most people don't want what the capitalists have in mind for the future of our postal service, but calls for worker control are just lazy rhetoric. Tub thumping by Marxists and the odd left-anarcho won't save anything.

Class IS important. Along with race, ethnicity and culture it is one of the major fault lines in human society. But that doesn't mean that open class warfare is the solution.
Call me a class collaborator - fine, you can shoot me come the glorious day, but the toilers and producers, at least in the 'developed' world, should look to alternatives to the promised land the left routinely trumpets but never delivers. The class war will be won not when the workers form soviets and smash class rule, they will still be imprisoned by a mass, centralised society. It will be won when they build alternatives to both capitalism and Marxian socialism - Corporatist economies, guilds and co-operatives, Social Credit, Distributist set-ups. These models will lead to the end of the class war - not when the working class triumphs over the ruling class, but when all decide to be producers and have a personal stake in the economy. Forget egalitarian economics - they are incompatible with the human condition. But the 'Third Way' ideas mentioned above can end exploitation - you get out what you put in. Decentralisation of the economy and industry is the starting point.

Of course the models mentioned above are not new, but they have by and large been forgotten. Someone on the British Democracy Forum said recently that these ideals should be dusted down and 'given an airing'. Too true. Corporatism, Distributism, co-ops and guilds are not perfect but they can at the very least be used as guides to finding alternatives to both capitalism and socialism. The wider revolutionary nationalist milieu should not ditch their ideals, but they should avoid merely making propaganda for their national utopia. They should take action to make positive steps towards it, whilst bringing real benefits to their respective tribes in the short to medium term. Taking practical steps to bring about mini-schemes based on the ideas outlined above should be near the top of any National Anarchist's agenda. Revolutionary nationalists within trade unions should argue for corporatist solutions to industrial fistycuffs, most workers will see the logic in it more than Marxist fairy tales.

National Anarchists, revolutionary nationalists and Third Positionists should not focus on economics alone. It's no good transforming the economy, if from a cultural perspective the masses in the western democracies remain wedded to consumerism. Ultimately we need a national rebirth - culturally, socially, politically and economically.

A NEW ERA
Berrocscir's Banner notes that the English Radical Alliance are recommending Alternative Green - a great little magazine that is overlooked by the revolutionary nationalist milieu. It's under rated and really should have it's own website.

Breaking down the empires

2009-11-01T05:57:00.000-08:00

Alfred found learning dead and he restored it
Education neglected and he revived it
The laws powerless and he gave them force
The Church debased and he raised it
The land ravaged by a fearful enemy from which he delivered it
Alfred's name will live as long as mankind shall respect the past

The word indigenous is currently the big no-no according to our liberal elites, so your author was heartened to see this news item on the Cross of St George English nationalist forum last week. The reality of the Wessex Wyvern fluttering over an historic English city bought much cheer to old Berrocscir here! That King Alfred, one of England's national heroes, was commemorated like this makes a welcome change from the usual spectacle of rainbow flags (is sexual orientation to be publicly 'celebrated'? There's me thinking it was a personal matter. What about those who are indifferent to certain bedroom habits, or those - within certain constraints - hostile to them?) or that EU rag that is becoming increasingly ubiquitous, let loose upon the masses. In the 21st century the Wessex Wyvern also represents a a crucial link to the past and an authentic regionalism based on a common history, dialect and culture. One that stands in stark contrast to the artificial, meaningless Euro regions foisted on us from Whitehall at Brussels' bidding.

The region is the first building block to a tribal identity. As Edmund Burke said

To be attached to the subdivision, to love the little platoon we belong to in society, is the first principle (the germ as it were) of public affections

Human society needs to break down the empires and begin the journey of returning to its organic, tribal roots. The starting point for this is the region.

Wheel of the year
I write on All Saints Day and we are well into my favourite time of the year. This started at the Autumn Equinox and takes in Michaelmas (September 29th) when amongst other things, goose is traditionally eaten in order to secure a prosperous year ahead.

November (called 'blood month' by the Anglo-Saxons, the time when animals went to slaughter) has a very English feel to it. After All Hallows Eve (at the time of writing, yesterday) we have Guy Fawkes Night and Remembrance Day approaching. Thankfully, they remain higher up in the in the national consciousness than the UN Day for This or That.

The enemy is the same

2009-10-11T07:19:00.000-07:00

So the conference season is over for another year and did the Greens in Brighton debate immigration? No. All we got was this:

At the Green Party's conference in Hove tomorrow (Sat 5th September), Jean Lambert, London's Green MEP since 1999, will lead a strategy discussion about shaping a Green Party response to the far right -- now that it has won seats in the UK at the local, regional and European levels.

The session will draw on this year's experience of fighting the BNP - for example, in the North West England Euro-constituency, where the Green Party's Peter Cranie led a determined effort to stop the BNP leader from winning a seat in the European Parliament.

Peter Cranie said today, "Our Euro-campaign in the North West came agonisingly close to defeating Nick Griffin. We lost by just 0.3% of the poll. That's 5 000 votes out of an electorate of over 5 million. Now North West England is stuck with a racist MEP for five years. We need to make totally certain that, in 2014, we replace him with a Green."

Jean Lambert commented, "We'll be looking at how a lack of political activity in a community can allow the far right to win. We'll be aiming to clarify what Greens can do to limit the advance of the far right in politics at all levels."

Now, I know it is in the Greens' DNA to espouse 'official' anti-racism and anti-fascism, and of course every political party has the right to contest elections and get their people elected over rival parties. However, with their knee-jerk hysteria, what the Greens are effectively doing is letting our political and economic elites (the neocons, the neo-liberals and the globalisers) off the hook.

You may say I'm a dreamer - guilty as charged. But it does irk me that the Greens (and others) are insistent on keeping their blinkers on. Our rulers can handle their opponents kept straight jacketed in their respective ideological boxes. Of course, the Greens could have taken a step back and examined the bigger picture. They could have looked at Nick Griffin the anti-globalist, Nick Griffin who opposes EU excesses, Nick Griffin who speaks out against multinational corporations, Nick Griffin who's party literally wishes to keep its pleasant land green. The Greens could have fired their venom on the big three parties and worked to get rid of THEIR MEPs in the North West next time around. Sectarian attitudes won't disappear over night, but it is the duty of all sincere anti-globalists to fight it.
We face a common enemy. The enemy is the same - Horst Mahler.

Bucking the trend

2009-10-03T04:41:00.000-07:00

Two national elections in Germany and Portugal last week were of note because of the relative success of the Left. June's European Union elections witnessed the steady progress of the nationalist right, so we do indeed live in interesting times. This blog has always advocated that the anti-globalist milieu should adopt a pluralistic and pragmatic approach - turning groups and individuals away because they're not 'on message' is a road to nowhere. If the so-called 'Left' (an old fashioned term) truly opposes the global elites, multinational corporations and one-worldism then they should be supported. Likewise for the 'Right'. But if either camp clearly sides with our political, economic and cultural elites then they should be opposed.

In Germany the Marxist Die Linke ('The Left') overtook the once mighty Greens with 11% of the vote and 4.7M constituency votes to the Greens' 3.9M - although the Green vote itself was up 4% to 9.2%. The nationalist NPD vote held up on 768k. Interestingly the Ecological Democratic Party (which is made up of more conservative minded Greens not subscribing to the left-liberal shibboleths of open borders, 'human rights', feminism etc) grabbed 105 thousand votes, thereby proving that there is a market for a Green politics which is not the preserve of the cultural Marxists.

In Portugal the Trotskyite Left Bloc did well taking just under 11% of the vote and just ahead of the 'official' Communist/Green alliance. The small Third Positionist National Renewal Party (PNR) held steady on 11,614 votes - nothing grand but the fact that their vote held up should have given heart to these sincere anti-globalists.

You have to be an optimist in this game and these results show that although voters express it very differently, there is a substantial section of the public who are obviously dissatisfied with the current set up of 'Neo-liberalism/Neo-Conservatism like it or lump it'. But despite their shared opposition to global capitalism there is still a wide gulf between the nationalists and internationalists. The challenge for those who have had enough of the dogmas and bigotry from all quarters, is to forge a new politics, to bridge the gap and create a culture of self-determination within the anti-globalist movement and replacing the current dictatorship of one or other macro-ideology. The days of 'Our Way or No Way' have long passed their sell-by date.

If you believe in an ideology, you don't own it - it owns you

Those Greeks show the way

2009-09-20T07:24:00.000-07:00

A snap General election has been called in Greece for October 4th. This blog notes that a small party - Ecologists Greece (not to be confused with the larger Ecologists Greens) have entered into what seems an electoral pact with the Third Positionist/nationalist/anti-globalisation Popular Orthodox Rally (who currently have 10 seats in the Greek parliament) with Ecologists Green leader Konstantinos Papanikolas running on a Popular Orthodox Rally ticket.

Now your editor doesn't know all the ins and outs of the political platform of Ecologists Greece, although the Broad Left site lists them as being on the left and as having worked with another left-wing group in Greece(DIKKI) in the past. Not knowing the lingo - it's all Greek to me - I can't verify this from their website, but I'm guessing that Papanikolas's party are at least sympathetic to nationalism otherwise why aren't they part of the left-liberal Ecologists Greens? So the fact that they exist in itself is a positive thing, showing that Green politics is not totally in the grip of the cultural Marxist agenda. And the fact that they are willing to work with the P.O.R - a radical nationalist grouping - proves that anti-globalists can overcome ideological barriers in the fight for a world of sovereign peoples.

Berrocscir's Banner wishes the EGr/POR alliance every success at the polls and hopes that the pact is long lasting. It's just this kind of syncretic approach that's so needed in the opposition to neo-liberalism and globalisation.

COMING UP...
The knee-jerk 'anti-fascism' of the Green Party of England & Wales.

Here be dragons

2009-08-31T04:04:00.000-07:00

The White Dragon flag of the ethnic English has been gaining in popularity among some English nationalists in recent years, with several groups, including the autonomist English National Resistance , adopting it. However, it's a bit controversial this one, it has to be said. While some have enthusiastically taken it to their hearts, other positively foam at the mouth at the mention of it. The latter claim there is extremely tenuous evidence for the authenticity of the emblem. Only Nennius and Geoffrey of Monmouth vaguely mention it in passing.

The sadly off-line English Dragon site was very thoroughly researched and proposed the theory that the White Dragon is synonymous with the Golden Wyvern of Wessex and Berrocscir's Banner doesn't refute this view. Wessex was the only Anglo-Saxon territory to remain unconquered, gaining the title The Cradle of England. It would appear reasonable then, that the Wessex Wyvern extended its brief to the whole of England during the 10th Century. It is mentioned twice in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (at the Battle of Burford in AD 752 and again at the Battle of Ashingdon in 1016) and it is also depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry.

What the anti-dragon camp fail to recognise is that just because something has little basis in actual fact does not prevent it from entering a collective national identity. Myths and semi-myths are scattered throughout England's history. The White Dragon may be convoluted, but why should that prevent it from use as a badge for today's English patriots? Robin Hood and the story about Alfred burning the cakes may or may not be truthful. Harold's arrow and Edith Swanneck finding his birthmark could all be rubbish. Did Pope Gregory really comment on the angelic looks of the English slave children? We don't know for sure and never will, yet it has passed into English history and has helped to define a nation.

The point is that badges and totems represent what people want them to represent. Those English Nationalists that fly the White Dragon are claiming it as their own. Its authenticity may be dubious to say the least, but its appeal gives it meaning today.

A few years ago the Marxist-Leninist Weekly Worker, when commenting on the rise of English nationalism, rejected the resurgence of the Cross of St George on the grounds that it was a Royalist emblem - YES, THEN,when it was bought back from the Holy Land! Three hundred years ago it lost a battle with the Union flag, and today the English commons see the CoSG as truly theirs. It has become a symbol almost of defiance and has changed its meaning. In 1381 the 'Mad Multitude' of the Peasant's Revolt flew the CoSG along with the Royal Standard, according to some to display their ultimate loyalty to the crown - But this is to do with the medieval mindset more than anything else: after all, the King was appointed by the Almighty, was he not? But could it be that the insurrectionists of 1381 carried both flags to signify the unity of the crown and the commons - the Cross of St George representing the latter? It's possible that in the 14th century the English commons were taking the CoSG as their own and in the process changing its meaning. Let 10,000 flags fly - including the White Dragon. There's nothing to stop the 21st century English commons adopting it. Look at the widespread popularity of the new-ish county flags - do they have a pedigree spanning a thousand years? No, yet the English have taken them up. When it comes to the identity of a a people, myths are just as powerful as reality.

CHOKING ON THE SPLINTERS
Civic nationalism isn't this blog's bag, but that doesn't mean that those of us with a more tribalistic interpretation of nationalism should shun the civics entirely. If civic nationalists play their part in opposition to internationalism and globalism, they are worthy allies in the fight.

A new splinter group has emerged from the ranks of English civic nationalism: the English Radical Alliance - a breakaway from the 18 month old Free England Party, who themselves split from the numerically much larger English Democrats. What's interesting about the ERA is their promotion of Distributism (a 'Third Way' economic system in contrast to both Capitalism and Communism, favoured by some National Anarchists, other nationalists and others still) and their highlighting of the importance of the English radical tradition - something too often overlooked by English nationalists of all hues.

Berrocscir's Banner will monitor the progress of these new English Radicals with interest and in the hope that they will become a welcome force in the anti-globalist milieu.

Nature's bounty

2009-08-20T05:23:00.000-07:00

A week's respite from wage labour encouraged me this morning to go out Blackberrying. It's food for free, organic, and most importantly, it gave me a sense - less of being a consumer and more of being human. I got in touch with my pagan side, meditating as I picked, on our hunter-gatherer ancestors and attuning myself to nature's never ending cycle.

For National Anarchists, their fellow travellers and others, human beings are more than the passive consumers they have become under capitalism, more than the robotic producers that Marxism would wish them to be. We are also spiritual beings - something our tribal ancestors understood well enough. Out Blackberrying this morning was good for my soul. Too often we forget the wheel of the year, and as I ambled home I remembered it is Harvest time here in Northern Europe, vital to everyone if we acknowledge the fact or not. And out and about yesterday, I took in the berries and fruits and the seas of wheat in my corner of England...The neat reassuring hay bails, the Horn of Plenty...

So my particular morning's bounty will shortly be going under the pastry and I'll utter a little prayer as it journeys to my belly. Comrades, join the revolution and go Blackberrying! But remember to do what I did and leave some for the birds and other animals, human and non-human. If we lose our part in the wheel of the year, we cease to be truly human. And then the globalisers really will have won.

Forthcoming attractions
Next up - my thoughts on the White Dragon flag of the English and why the controversy surrounding it shouldn't really matter. Mmmmmm....great.

In at the deep end

2009-08-17T06:31:00.000-07:00

In a letter published in the current edition of Green World (the official Green Party mag) two Stafford-based members propose the formation of a Green Party Deep Ecology group "with a view to the informing of party policy". If something concrete (no pun intended!) comes out of this it can only strengthen Green politics. The 21st Century should be defined by a new syncretic politics with an open-minded pluralistic approach to ideologies, and one that jettisons the rigid dogma that stained the previous one.

The Green Party of England & Wales remains very much a left-liberal formation in character, but things can change. Currently within the Party there is quite a high profile debate raging about the merits (or not) of nuclear energy. So if Greens are big enough to debate this issue, what is stopping them from debating immigration/migration? Can you think of anything more un-green than this? Now, a Tribalist faction within the Green Party - that really would be something. After all, Nationalism is a lot more greener than Internationalism...And no, all you Red Greens, any future Tribalist platform won't be proposing an invasion of Poland!

YOUR EDITOR WRITES...
Berrocscir's Banner has been a bit quieter than I would like recently. But being off work for a week means that a couple of items will be appearing here hopefully by the end of the month...Watch this space.

Double standards?

2009-08-09T08:02:00.000-07:00

I'm a folkie myself - I love the genre. You can't stop me having a sing-song after I've had a few. But aren't this lot being a tad hypocritical? I can understand artists being a bit upset with political parties gaining financially from their songs. But the whole English folk genre is Left leaning - it goes with the territory. Would they moan about Attila the Stockbroker? I didn't hear a peep from anyone when Chumbawamba played the Cambridge Folk Festival a few years back.

I've got a copy of the Morning Star's benefit folky CD and very good it is too - music has always been political and always will be.

The quote about English folk music 'belonging' to everyone is fair enough if purely from personal taste - if you dig something, groove to it. But what, deep down, would Jamaicans think if I called reggae "my own"?

Anyway - isn't the clue in the name - FOLK music? If it 'belongs' to every person on the planet, then we should stop calling it by that name...or am I being sinister?

10,000 flags will fly

2009-07-11T09:17:00.000-07:00

From a distance the violence in East Turkestan (home to the Uighur ethnic group) seems to be the end result of a deliberate policy of ethnic/cultural cleansing. For decades the Communist authorities have been encouraging and engineering the resettlement of ethnic Han (the dominant ethnic group in China) into the region - in 1949 the Han made up 6% of the population, today it's 40%.

This map above is a fair picture of what the region should look like...

The age of multi-ethnic empires and supranational states began to crumble twenty years ago with the Soviet experience, and just as the USSR and its vassals left the world stage, the imperialist Peoples' Republic must go the same way. The 20th Century was defined by macro-ideologies that saw identity, culture and tradition as hurdles to be overcome. As the anti-human idea of Marxism flounders and the 'alternative' of global capitalism continues to do its worst, the old ideas associated with the localist mindset of identity, culture, tradition and self reliance, are well placed to fill the vacuum and begin to replace shallow One Worldism with the the positive ideal of vibrant ethnic communities, independent of, yet mutually respectful of one another.
CCP IMPERIALISTS OUT OF EAST TURKESTAN!
FOR A WORLD OF 10,000 FLAGS!
AUTONOMY NOW FOR THE UIGHURS AND ALL ETHNIC GROUPS!

Adieu to Old England?

2009-06-25T09:36:00.000-07:00

As if the world had ended when I had been young
My sorrows I'd never had known
When Flossie Lane passed away earlier this month a little piece of Old England left with her. Miss Lane had run the Sun Inn at Leintwardine on the Hereford/Shropshire border for 74 years. The Sun is one of only a handful of Parlour pubs left in England, although its future looks uncertain now that Miss Lane is gone. Parlour pubs are hostelries with no bar or till and the beer is poured from the barrel in the kitchen or other room and taken through to the customer out front.

Your author remembers fondly as a teenager visiting such an establishment - the Dun Cow at Northmoor, Oxfordshire (now gone) - and can recall the near intoxicating effect not so much of its beer, but of its identity, heritage and history. Parlour pubs and the characters that run and use them are part and parcel of the English collective folk memory and our shared national story. In a world of transience and flux, Miss Lane and her life represent place, purpose, roots and certainty. RIP Flossie.

WHEEL OF THE YEAR
They let him stand till the long Midsummer
Till he looked both pale and wan
We reached Midsummer's Day yesterday, still marked across Northern Europe by bonfires. It was also the Feast of St John the Baptist and also one of the Quarter Days - when hands were hired and debts were paid. Our national calendar, like so much else that was ours, is being buried under rootless modernity. The more we let this happen the more we become like synthetic ghosts in the plastic world promoted and beloved of our old friends those 'Citizens of the World'. How to fight back? ...Just remember

MEOW!
Those inspirational British Wildcats have been at it again and Berrocscir's Banner still backs them to the hilt - no ifs, no buts, as should all opponents of neoliberalism and globalisation. It's heartening to see the Union leadership being forced into action by the rank & file and hopefully a more tribalistic strain of worker empowerment can come out of this in stark contrast to the culturally Marxist formations most English workers are offered

It's good to talk

2009-05-18T08:49:00.000-07:00

The Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee) - you gotta love it - have always gained this author's respect due to their consistent work promoting Left unity and their non-sectarian Weekly Worker (see links)

But a story in this week's edition demonstrates our comrades have a way to go before their idea of alliance building is extended to anti-globalists who don't go in for dead Russians.

They condemn the Socialist Party (ex-Militant) activist who has been scandalously publicising the No2EU electoral bloc on social networking site pages of a nationalist ilk. Shock horror...

Berrocscir's Banner says good on the man. This is precisely what is needed to forge a new politics capable of challenging the neo-liberal globalised order. Let's have more of it. No2EU demonstrates the tentative steps elements of the Left and Trade Unions are taking towards the position that migration benefits capitalism and that alone. Some nationalists this comrade is trying to reach want to renationalise the railways, stop post office privatisation, protect jobs. It seems common sense to make common cause. Or just co-operatng on points of common interest. All anti-capitalists and anti-globalists should be thinking of breaking down those dogmatic barriers. To continue to scrape along in moribund ideological purity is simply not an option for anti-globalist activists. As Blaise Pascal said A man does not show his greatness by being at one extremity, but rather by touching both at once.
HERE'S TO THE GRAND ALLIANCE!

Fair play to the Tharu

2009-05-04T09:59:00.000-07:00

National Anarchists, ethno-nationalists and everyone of an anti-globalist persuasion should support the Tharu ethnic group in Nepal in their struggle for more autonomy. Although now off, in the wake of talks with the Nepalese Maoist government, the Tharu orchestrated a 'Banda' - a General Strike which almost cut off Kathmandu last week.

A basic principal of National Anarchism is the demand for sovereignty for all ethnic groups, their languages and cultures. This blog will always support causes such as the Tharu's current struggle. Details of the General Strike are here.

News has just broke that the Maoist Prime Minister in Nepal has resigned due to internal tensions in the ruling coalition (mainly made up of different Marxist factions) The Maoists have recently been talking to the Americans...anti-globalists should reserve judgement for now, but over the next period we will see if the Nepalese Maoists deserve their anti-imperialist label or not.

National Anarchist strategies

2009-04-23T06:55:00.000-07:00

It is encouraging that National Anarchist groups are springing up in greater numbers across the globe and that activists are turning ideas into practical action. But our tendency is still in it's infancy, so here's some suggestions to help the growth of National Anarchism over the next few years:

1) PROPAGANDA
All activists with access to a computer can spread our ideas through the net. Set up your own website and save the content of others so that if they go down you can put them back up.

Then there's the staple stuff like stickering, flyposting and leafleting.

Propaganda can take three main forms:

i) The 'hardcore', street level stuff that can appeal to the young and militant. I see no reason why younger NA activists can't mirror the Black Bloc when appropriate to do so and where the political culture justifies it.

ii) The more subtle stuff to reach out to the non-politicised. Liberal ideas are often only skin deep and can be easily challenged by reasoning.

iii) The stuff aimed at existing political groups and tendencies.
Although I personally believe NA ideas will get a more positive reception from the orthodox nationalist groups, the 'autonomous' nationalist milieu, Third Positionists etc, some effort should still be carefully aimed at sections of the Left, using an approach and language that can appeal to them (anti-globalism, anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism) Some National Anarchists come from a Leftist background, including Yours Truly! Also it is possible that sections of the Green/environmentalist movement could be receptive to NA ideas.

I don't think NAs can ever afford to just go it alone - We need allies, mutual respect, understanding and a pluralistic approach to everything we do. We should never really aim to convert other groups en masse - that kind of thing doesn't happen in the real world.

2) LIAISON WITH OTHER GROUPS
This can take both formal and informal approaches. As a start this can just be publicising groups that you wish well. I've been spreading the word about the new autonomous nationalist English National Resistance youth group, for example. I have my differences with some of their positions, but I certainly think their hearts are in the right place!

3) NETWORKING
Laying the groundwork for the establishment of real NA inspired communities in the future on economic, cultural and social levels. As a first step just by joining the myriad of already existing grassroots organisations - not to take over them, but because many of them are worthy of NA support. Of course this does not mean we should not set up our own given the opportunity: Allotments - growing your own food and sharing it among ourselves and our community is a revolutionary act, as is brewing our own beer! Setting up local currencies, co-ops, food and clothing banks, self-help groups, Friendly Societies, credit unions - all with an National-Anarchist ethos.

NA activists should look into the possibility of moving to the same areas where practical - with all of the above in mind. Find other comrades work and accommodation. All of this can present National Anarchism as a practical alternative and if planned carefully, can drastically reduce our reliance on capitalism and the state.

Unions go Tribalist?!

2009-03-30T08:43:00.000-07:00

It is a tendency of the far-left in Britain to suffer from a vastly inflated sense of their own importance and influence. In recent years this has been best illustrated by the cyclical slap-dash, 'leave it 'till the last minute' approach to electioneering.

However, despite displaying these familiar traits, RMT trade union leader Bob Crow's latest No2EU - Yes to Democracy initiative, which will field candidates in the upcoming European elections, at least contains a modicum of common sense. A small Rubicon (for the modern left) has been crossed - Crow's formation has come out against migrant labour (shock, horror). Supported by the 'National Communist' Communist Party of Britain (the Morning Star lot) No2EU displays a nationalism and protectionism rarely seen on the left nowadays. Opposing what it terms social dumping shows a veneer of the labour 'movement' is breaking free of the abstract 'No Borders' mantra beloved of the Trots and anarcho-left.

Cap'n Bob intends to wind up the grouping following the June 4th Euro poll, which is just as well as they won't exactly set the political scene alight. But maybe this nod to Tribalism will linger on within sections of the Trade Union rank & file (because you could wager the grassroots action that started at Lindsey oil Refinery in February inspired the No2EU social dumping policy) As we saw from the British Wildcats, nationalism & protectionism can strike a chord with ordinary workers. If this is sustained maybe the penny will start to drop for the cultural Marxist union barons.

No doubt Crow will feel the wrath of the uber-liberals over this move, but he must be given credit for putting a dent in the shibboleth of "Internationalism regardless of the consequences!!"

New English 'Autonomous Nationalist' youth group formed

2009-03-21T05:10:00.000-07:00

A new English 'Autonomous Nationalist' youth group has sprung up in a similar mold as the Autonome Nationalisten and Kameradschaften in Germany. They do state however, possibly in recognition of differences in the political cultures of England and Germany, that they will not be going in for the AN style Black Bloc tactic, which shows a logical maturity.

The group - English National Resistance (Young-Radical-Nationalist) display a healthy, level-headed, non-sectarian piecemeal approach to other nationalist groups, along with an exuberance and 'street' identity that remind this author of his younger days in the left-anarchist scene. I wish I had the beliefs I have now back then, but life is a learning curve.

Youth groups with a radical chic are always needed as the more 'grown up', traditional party building, is not the best advert to attract young blood to any cause.

Refreshingly, English National Resistance aim to avoid the dead end of the depressingly familiar spectacle of confrontation with anti-fascists. This is a very welcome attitude that will help get anti-capitalism and anti-globalism out of the ghetto and present a positive alternative.

Some of the websites and groups ENR link to are not this blog's cup of tea, but then some of the links this blog lists don't get my ringing endorsement either!

ENR display a clear anti-capitalist outlook so the potential for co-operation with National Anarchist groups and individuals would appear good. Berrocscir's Banner will follow ENR's progress with interest, not least in the hope that greater numbers of English youth turn against consumerism, rootless celeb culture and liberalism

Dogmatism is soooo last century

2009-03-09T04:57:00.000-07:00

This author advocates the breaking down of the Left/Right divide and replacing it with a new pluralistic anti-capitalist/anti-globalist tendency. One which recognises that internationalism and cosmopolitanism are artificial, superfluous, abstract and academic. One that instead promotes the natural tribalism inherent in all the world's peoples. One which understands that real diversity means different cultures best flourish independently of each other rather than among each other, and certainly one that defends this diversity against cultural Marxism, consumerism and the monoculture which has developed out of the global market. Tribalism is natural - it has defined humanity for 99% of its existence.

If you describe yourself as an anti-capitalist/anti-globalist, then sectarianism and ideological purity have to go - they only lead to isolation and irrelevance.

National Anarchists too, should be on guard against traditional anarcho-dogmas: we cannot ignore elections. Elections will not vanish anytime soon. We should concede that elections today are one of the few times most people engage with politics (even for the millions who don't vote, they still engage)So National Anarchists should back those electoral forces who's ideas are closest to our own. It won't hurt if National Anarchists called for a vote for candidates who, at least on paper, oppose capitalism/globalism (even if they are as liberal as your average Sociology Lecturer!) And National Anarchist propaganda should encourage alliance building via electoral blocs.

NA activists should encourage the left to take a long hard look at itself. The New Left in the 1960s killed off the real socialist movement in the 1960s (the 68ers have much to answer for) Why is the left vote so derisory? Is it because the working class suffer from 'false consciousness'? Or is it because they reject internationalism and multiculturalism as the paper tigers they are? It would be a start if the left got back to its roots - defending the worker against the boss class and ending its obsession with PC fascism.

RED AND BLACK!
Berrocscir's Banner notes that Russia's National Bolsheviks have recently started sporting a black version of their flag while on their garish demos. Is this a nod to National Anarchism? Are they considering ditching their statism and macro-nationalism? It would certainly be step closer to orthodox NA thought!! In any case, if Limonov's National Bolshevik Party can co-operate with liberals and Leninists as part of the anti-Putin The Other Russia umbrella group, they can work with National Anarchists - Here's to the Grand Alliance.

On the pop in Market North Town

2009-02-22T06:04:00.000-08:00

BERROCSCIR'S TRAVEL DIARY
I recently spent a nice day out in Chipping Norton, a fine market town in North West Oxfordshire, just on the edge of the Cotswolds. It's name is Anglo-Saxon meaning Market North Town. As a National Anarchist, its the sort of place that appeals to my own personal interpretation of the ideology. For me National Anarchism implies rural living - and traditional English market towns are I think,the biggest settlements where National Anarchist communities could work. Urban life does not usually imply happiness and large cities tend to smother human nature and spirit. I know other National Anarchists may disagree and if they can make urban based National Autonomous Zones work, then great. For me though I'd tend to go for the homestead, hamlet, village or market town. Here we are closer to nature, we are closer to our ethnic and cultural heritage and identity. We become more like our ancestors, closer to our folk roots and less defined by the state (citizen = city dweller, remember) And with land of our own we can begin to ween ourselves off the globalised economy. We become human beings again, not consumers.

Anyway, Chippy, as locals call it, seemed the sort of place at ease with itself. It was apparent that lots of people knew each other (none of that alienating anonymity you get in cities) and apart from a Somerfields and a Smiths, the place positively oozed its own identity. Needless to say I paid a visit to one or two pubs - well, four in fact - all of which were above average in this pub goer's book (praise indeed, as I have high standards) My personal favourite was the Red Lion (can you get more English than that?)The tiny pub was pleasingly cosy due to a roaring log fire - which, what with it being taters outside, was most welcome. The ale was from Hook Norton Brewery just down the road, a fact alone which was enough to warm this anti-globalist's heart!

A commanding early Victorian Town Hall dominates the market square, where I was pleased to discover an old stone from a long gone cross and pillar from an earlier building had been preserved by the local history group. Local history and civic societies act as guardians of our identities and are worth their weight in gold. National Anarchists should support their work.

The parish church of St Mary the Virgin was largish for the settlement it served, probably partly because it was built on the proceeds of the wool trade of the middle ages. I was not, alas, as keen on it as I was with St Andrew's at Shrivenham in Berkshire when I visited it just before Christmas. It had generations of the same families laying in rest there. How many families in today's industrial-technological complex can claim roots as strong as that? Capitalism causes identity crises, that's a fact!

What I had really come to see in Chippy, however, was the nearby Norman Castle. Only the earthworks of the defences and ramparts remain. If I had just stumbled across it I would have said it was Iron Age. Still, it was impressive: the outer ditch would at least clear your average semi at its height.

What vexed me, however, was that the site was all on private land and could only be viewed from the lane. Furthermore, there was nothing denoting what it was. No plaque with description, no notice, nothing. The castle should ideally be bought by the National Trust with access where appropriate, and have some stone with description or similar. This is English heritage so consequently part of the fabric of a folk, a footnote in the story of a people. But who cares about such reactionary trifles when February is LGBT History Month, eh?

Greens feel the pinch?

2009-02-14T03:56:00.000-08:00

According to their National Elections Officers, the Green Party of England and Wales only currently have 165 confirmed candidates for the next UK General Election, whenever it may be. I know they have a lot on their plate this year - making sure their two MEPs get re-elected, plus hopefully gaining a new one somewhere - probably Rupert Read in the Eastern region. Plus defending and maybe gaining seats at the County and Unitary polls. Also a lot of fire-power will be channelled into their three target constituencies. Despite all this, however, the media will pounce on them if they fail to improve on the 202 seats they fought at the last GE in 2005. I expect this is due to lack of dosh rather than enthusiasm. They need closer to 300 to look credible, not a spent force. The Lab/Lib/Con cabal have already nicked their Green New Deal too, but the Greens should expect this - it part of party politics. The BNP found this out. C'mon Greens, dig deep. Blackmail your mates to come up with a few hundred quid to get a paper candidate, you don't want the BNP outpolling you. Remember Sian Berry's war-cry to get all parliamentary seats covered, it can be done.

Actually, I expect the BNP not to field all that many candidates at the GE, maybe enough to get a broadcast - but most of the money and feet will go into places like Barking where they could actually win.

THE SWISS MISS
It was a case of two steps forward, unfortunately one back, I'm afraid, for all of the disparate forces of anti-globalism, National Anarchists, regionalists and traditionalists last week, when the Swiss seemingly went against their usually healthy tribalist and isolationist instincts. The Swiss, always a nation I have held up as some sort of tribal utopia (anti-EU, anti-NATO, decentralised political life) have just voted to let more EU foreign labour in.

THE WRONG ANSWER. A Swiss Peoples Party spokesman said the yes vote was down to 'propaganda'. Somehow I think he's right. It makes you want to fingerwag the Swiss and tell them to have another poll so they get it right this time. I suppose we all (and I know I am) are fickle when we get in that polling booth. But how can the Swiss vote for the anti-immigrant SVP, then vote to let in all the migrants? Is it because they thought "well, we could do with them for a while, they'll all go back next year, they'll do the work our underclass are too idle to do"? Maybe. But they should know, the English thought that about the Poles and now they have their own shops!

Support the British Wildcats!

2009-02-07T06:41:00.000-08:00

All anti-globalists should have supported last week's wildcat strikes against the European Union, multinationals and foreign labour. Check out the website of those inspirational British Wildcats!

They have bought to the public's attention the real cost that 'free' trade and globalisation have on local communities and their right to their own identity. We have not seen secondary action in England on this scale for decades, and although it is primarily an economic struggle, it is heartening to see workers acting on a national basis.

Are we witnessing the birth of a grassroots campaign that heralds the beginning of a new nationalistic workers' movement that is free from the straightjacket of Union led cultural Marxism? A folk-based socialism? We must not hold our breath, but perhaps the British Wildcats will become the trailblazers of something better to come: economies that can be self reliant, localised and worker led. No longer under the heel of reckless, rudderless internationalism and neo-liberalism.

Of course, as any leftist will tell you, there is no such thing as 'the national interest' - the conflicting and antagonistic nature of class society is testament to that. But this doesn't mean the alternative must always be a textbook, uniform proletarian one-worldism. That is academic mumbo-jumbo. Certainly, workers from different cultures and nations can and should unite on points of common interest. But to suggest they all morph into a homogeneous, monocultural mass is superfluous, artificial and frankly callous. The World's working class were created by capitalism, but their different identities are lot more than merely economic, their physical and cultural DNA goes back a lot further. All social change should be a natural process - i.e. tribal in essence, politically, economically, socially, culturally and spiritually - this is the human condition.

The Brit left was split this week in it's response to the strikes. The SWP and a couple of smaller Trot groups predictably foamed at the mouth. However, to their credit, the Morning Star's Communist Party of Britain (who have always been 'National Communist') the Weekly Worker's Communist Party of Great Britain and the Socialist Party (ex-Militant)who had a member on one of the strike committees, all gave their customary 'critical support' This is to be applauded. National Anarchists and other serious anti-globalists should always try to reach out to the more receptive and non-sectarian leftists.

The Weekly Worker, in my opinion the only left paper worth reading, described some aspects of the strike as 'chauvinist'. Well, yes - it's called being human, part of our condition even after the prevailing liberalism in the West since World War II. By denying people's natural identity the leftists side with the Globalisers, complicit in the latter's de facto cultural-cleansing and new-imperialism. This is not only true of the hard Marxist left, but also of the liberal-Left - in positions of power in increasing numbers.

So, the strikes were about jobs, but they also revealed the sleeping giant of tribalist instinct. A tribalism that can provide a positive input into anti-globalism. You can change your socio-economic position (or have it changed for you)but you can't change your genes. Why are the left so scared of this?! They support National Liberation movements, but deny tribalism to the 'emancipated'.

So, it's a victory of sorts to the Wildcats. They stood up to the globalist agenda and won a compromise - something the English are very good at! Good luck to them all...Nationalist Worker, anyone?

Don't let the Black Bloc turn black and blue

2009-01-24T02:30:00.000-08:00

The relatively recent German phenomenon of the Autonome Nationalisten (Autonomous Nationalists)appear to be influencing other nationalists elsewhere, particularly Russia. Also, according to Searchlight, there's now a group in England using the name Free Nationalists, who I assume are similar. Leftists would say this is just a ruse for nazism, but this would be over-generalising. Although despite their name, some groups appear to be allied to political parties like the NPD and there is probably an overlap in membership.

AN politics seem a little too statist and frankly National Socialist for my tastes, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say they are sincere and genuine anti-globalists and anti-capitalists. Certainly they are not as ideologically rigid as the orthodox far-right. This should mean non-sectarians from all anti-globalist camps should look to cooperate and learn from them whenever the opportunities arise. Particularly, for the fledgling National Anarchist current, dialogue with a view to building alliances and comradely relations with the Autonome Nationalisten and their equivalents, would seem a better use of their time than going to the Marxists (who it could be argued are imperialistic) and left-anarchists. Sectarians there undoubtedly are within the AN milieu, but they can't be as venomous and as blinkered as many leftists (OK, OK, I'm an embittered ex-leftie!)I'm not suggesting that ALL leftists are incapable of working with anti-globalists from other camps. What I am suggesting is an end to ideological purity as all that tends to bring is isolation and lack of influence. what unites the Reds, Greens, Blacks and Browns is their common anti-capitalism and anti-globalism. I don't see any textbook utopia coming round the corner any time soon - Unite with other anti-globalists (even if you think the finer details of their politics stink to high heaven! This is why I support and wishy-washy Green Party!)You'll damage the common enemy so much more that way.

Indeed, the Autonome Nationalisten most notably have adopted the tactics of the left-anarchist Black Bloc, the hard element of those periodic anti-globalist demos, much to the latter's disdain, adopting the dress, tactics, slogans and confrontational attitude of this youth orientated current. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, although you wouldn't think it judging by the reaction of the left-anarchists - as if THEY hold the copyright on political identity and symbolism! In Australia, the vanguard of National Anarchism, NA activists have also adopted Black Bloc techniques.

National Anarchists, however, should aim to avoid slagging matches and rucks. If the Autonomen Nationalisten prove they are only interested in goading the leftists, NAs must not be tempted to join in (although, of course they have the right to defend themselves)The wider anti-globalist movement must never become a big battleground for petty ideology. It must remain pluralistic, able to withstand attempts by dogmatists to capture it, or descend into an arena for warring factions to act out their ultimately self-defeating fistycuffs.

National Anarchists should view the Black Bloc as genuine anti-globalists worthy of respect, and should try to engage with their less sectarian elements. A thankless task, maybe, but well worth it if only a fraction respond positively or benignly. Also National Anarchists should be careful not to become ghettoised like the far-left and far-right. Big, noisy, angry demos have their place (and NAs, ANs and other non-Marxist socialists, need not always tail end the Black Bloc, stay out of the way if things look ugly - E's not worth it!!) But NAs must not put all their eggs in one basket. Do National Anarchists want their ideas to be confined to a scene or sub-culture, or do they want to reach out to a larger audience? To their credit National Anarchists in Australia are involved in sustainable living and self-sufficiency projects - good practical ways of combating the consumer mindset. It's examples like this, as well as kickass demos, that can have a lasting impact in the fight for a post-capitalist world.

Blood is thicker than water - head for the hills

2009-01-17T04:17:00.000-08:00

I'm really in two minds about pan-nationalism and civic-nationalism. On the one hand they are usually anti-globalist in nature and should be encouraged purely for the this reason, on the other they are clearly oxymorons.

Let's look at pan-nationalism (stuff like Black-nationalism, White-nationalism, European-nationalism) Clearly, they are based on identity (a good thing) and stand against bland mid-atlanticist monocultural neo-liberalism. But they show an almost imperialistic tendency to ride roughshod over existing cultures, languages, customs etc:
I am White, not English, Polish, French or I am Black, not Hutu, Swahili, or Akai In short their identities are artificial and academic, not natural, organic and historic like ethno-identities.

Small is better - I'm not European, there's no such thing as a European - only Czechs, Slovenians, Welsh and Danish. Europe a Nation? No thanks, Europe has always been too culturally diverse to constitute an authentic nation. The Northern European peoples are too distinct from the romance countries of France, Spain, Italy or Greece. I'm a Northerner - I have more in common with a Swede or the Dutch than with an Aragonese or a Maltese.

As a decentralist I'm interested in breaking things down, going BEYOND 19th and 20th century definitions of nationality in favour of a new regionalism - the smaller the area you take your identity from the harder it is for the globalisers to swallow you up -We've seen this grow over 300 years: You're not English, you're British...You're not British, You're European...You're not European, you're a citizen of the world... It doesn't mean anything, its just the way that our betters have stripped people of their identities, pretending we're all the same and making us buy the same clothes, food, and baubles.

On to civic-nationalism: Now one positive aspect to this current is that it provides a temporary stop-gap against the worst excesses of multiculturalism (witness Labour's 'Britishness' campaign in the wake of 7/7) It seems 'reasonable' and moderate - i.e. it appeals to most people. But civic-nationalism is fascistic - it tells people to assimilate and forget about their ethnicity culture or at least keep it behind the net curtains, no one should be denied who they are. But what happens to ethnic minorities if we just leave them to it? We get ghettoisation and ethno-enclaves. You've only got to look at Northern Ireland to see where this leads. I can't see a suitable solution to this. In our European homelands should nationalists leave their cities to the minorities and liberals and relocate to the rural idyll? Increasingly it seems the best option.

...In fact it's a gas!

2009-01-05T08:43:00.000-08:00

I'm going to allow myself a bit of New Year silliness - I'm not usually one to heap praise on tyrants, (I leave that to the far-left & far-right)But you gotta hand it to Putin. He must take credit for being the current darling of anti-globalism. Now, that last sentence may be terribly rash, but Putin's certainly messing things up for the Neo-cons and neo-liberals that seek to get us eating from their hand. What's the best way to stand up to uncle Sam and his running dogs? Deny them fuel. Neighbours getting to pally with the EU & NATO? Remind them of where they get it.

Instances like this highlight the forlorn inadequacies of a globalised super-system. Will it reign forever? I'm not like these silly trots lately who have taken to going round telling everyone who'll listen (which isn't that many) of the imminent collapse of capitalism. Even I'm not that foolish. But this past week we've perhaps seen that the Global Empire is a lot more fragile than we sometimes think.

Wheel of the Year
I keep forgetting to write at length on the passing year, but for now don't forget Plough Monday next week (12th Jan) Our traditional year has been under attack from American cultural imperialism these past eons - Ritual, custom and folklore can reinvigorate a nation - don't let modern consumerism bury your identity. Study our cultures, so that we ultimately save them. For English traditions check out Prof Ronald Hutton's Stations of the Sun, even if it is somewhat academic.

Will Tribalism be the big thing in 2009?

2008-12-27T05:14:00.000-08:00

Lets face it, Yule is always a time when we look to the New Year with just a bit of hope in our hearts that a new day will dawn. For a while now, I've nailed my flag to the mast of National Anarchism...while remaining pragmatic. We must realise Broad Frontism is absolutely essential in the fight against globalisation, the state of siege that is multiculuralism, and the nightmare of bland Atlanticist monoculturalism. I'm hoping that National Anarchism can begin going under a different handle, a less formal, technical one. For some time I've preferred Tribalism. It is a word that is instantly recognisable and will appeal to the blood, so to speak. Most people are driven by their gut feelings and Tribalism is full of them.

Some US National Anarchists have produced this What is Tribalism? flier which uses my preferred buzzword. Let's hope it sets the standard and National Anarchists from all over adopt this positive tag in the years to come.

VICTORY TO THE NEW TRIBALISTS!

...AND FINALLY
Well, this blog's survived '08. I have plans for expansion in '09 with more theory, photos, links and reports. I'm hoping to kick off the New Year with a look at the split between English Ethno-nationalism and it's Civic counterpart. Something to look forward to?

Pioneering National Anarchist essays

2008-12-06T04:11:00.000-08:00

I was frustrated recently to discover that I'd lost copies of articles I'd saved from the now off-line National-Anarchist Campaign website, last seen in 2006. Several essays on there from David Michael had a big influence on this author and the political outlook and worldview of this here blog. So you can imagine my joy when I retrieved them from the brilliant Internet Archive, which saves sites for posterity.

Dr Michael penned several essays on National Anarchist strategy, theory and practice, which all free-thinking anti-globalists and anti-capitalists can learn from. Here are the links:

'Unity in Diversity' - A look at alliance building between different anti-globalist camps and dealing with sectarianism

'On Strategy' - which details how National Anarchists should work

'On the importance of saying 'they've won' - A good article on what we can and can't achieve

'A new land, a new life, a new hope' - a look at intentional communities, past and present, and the lessons for anti-globalists

An article responding to criticisms of National Anarchism

Other stuff is accessible here

Dr Michael did get into squabbles with other National Anarchists, which is inevitable, but ultimately uninteresting. Certainly many National Anarchists disagree among each other on many things, and although these articles match my definitions of National Anarchism, I have no problem with other National Anarchist factions. To me National Anarchism goes beyond ethno-communities without hierarchy or the state. To me its more live & let live. I might disapprove of the way other people live, but its pointless condemning them - let them form into their own communities. I'll live in mine and we'll keep out of each other's way. Simple!

A lot of National Anarchists may oppose hierarchy, that's fine, a lot of hierarchy is oppressive. But some communities might like it, find that it works for them and argue that it benefits their community...and that's fine too. My National Anarchism comes from my natural tribalism and ethno-instinct, not so much from anarchism as an ideology, even though I cut my teeth in that tradition.

A question of ownership

2008-12-01T05:05:00.000-08:00

The Green Party of England & Wales rightly did not make a song and dance last week when it emerged that two names on the leaked BNP membership list were ex-Green Party members. There was just a short discrete statement on their website about people with racist and anti-Semitic views not being welcome in the Party. Fair enough, it sits easy with this author who also happens to be non-racist and not anti-Semitic. But how do the GPEW explain the fact that the BNP has Jewish members, one, if I remember correctly, was or is a sitting councillor?

The very word racist has lazy, knee-jerk overtones to it. The BNP say rather than racists, they are racial realists, which is another thing entirely. Basically it's the view that when different races live amongst one another what results is usually social conflict or mistrust, so it's separatism rather than supremacy.

If anyone thinks that hopping from the Greens to the BNP is strange, well, yes it is - but not because Green ideas are the sole intellectual property of the Left. One of the aforementioned ex-Greens has said he thought the BNP had better environmental policies. No one tendency has sole property rights over Greenism. It is a classic example of an ideology that transcends the pigeon-holes of left and right. The GPEW is liberal-Left because it has added liberal-left policies onto its Green philosophy - not because Green philosophy is liberal-left.

A few years ago there was a big to-do in the anarchist scene about 'eco-fascism' - Those dirty fash jumping the bandwagon! - But nationalists have just as much right to claim the Green label - it's not the preserve of the Guardianistas - it is a train of thought based on environmentalism, devolved power and sustainable communities and economies together with an anti-consumerism. It's that and that alone, none of the Leftist add ons. It just as easily doesn't pander to the right's traditional cornerstones particularly, either.

The two ex-greens who defected to the BNP didn't cross that wide a divide, anyway. Remember Norman Tebbit describing the BNP as Socialists? He wasn't that far off the mark. We need to stop pigeon-holing politics and start looking to what works. Green ideas should belong to all anti-globalists and anti-capitalists, no matter what variety.

THE NORTHERN REALM STANDS UP
Greenlanders are now recognised as a separate people under international law and their Kalaallisut language is to gain official status. Although it stops short of full independence, last week's referendum saw Greenland's 57,000 populace gain much greater autonomy from the Danish yoke. On a 71% turnout, 75% voted for change. Greenlanders will now have a greater share of oil revenues plus control over police, courts, coastguard and some foreign affairs.

As a supporter of separatism, secession and decentralisation this author wishes the people of Greenland well and has this message of solidarity: Go out and thrive and prove to the world that small nations can look after themselves.

The Greenland experience is a peaceful story. Not so, sadly, for Kashmir where the on going elections have been met with bloodshed. The Kashmiri separatists are boycotting the poll due the their assertion that the ballot gives India more control over their land. Of course there are historical reasons why Kashmir differs from Greenland, but it's a grim reminder that national liberation is all too often bittersweet.

MINORITY REPORT
Two council by-elections on 11th December see the return of two minnows. The National Front in Hillingdon, where, for what it's worth, they seem to be carving out an enclave. While up in North Ayrshire Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Party is raising the Red Flag. Don't expect a political earthquake, but the SLP contest is in a former mining area, so maybe the King if Coal can inspire a higher that usual vote for the, basically phantom, SLP.

PS...
I've not submitted a Wheel of the Year column for far too long. I'll try and serve up a bumper look at the ol twirling year next time, folks!

The phony war

2008-11-22T05:55:00.000-08:00

Who will benefit from this week's BNP membership list leak? Anti-fascists? Rival nationalists? Rebel members? No, those that benefit are the globalisers and the liberal elite. Those responsible for the leak may be anti-Griffin modernisers, the Tyndallite old guard, leftist infiltrators or spooks, but it doesn't really matter - divide and conquer is the name of the game. This latest example of the BNP hitting the headlines (and they more than most will recognise that any publicity is good publicity) highlights the need for a redefining of politics away from the tired Left/Right paradigm and towards the new battleground of pro and anti-globalist camps. Genuine anti-globalists should jettison the Left/Right straightjacket - it only serves the interests of our common enemies.

The 'fascist'/'anti-fascist' divide descended into trench warfare a long, long time ago which neither side can win. There is a hideous way in which dogma consumes each side, so much so that the left and right charicature each other to the extent that each side's perception of the other is rarely a fair representation. The right see anti-fascists as ZOG's bootboys, and the left see the right as the hired thugs of the bosses. So it is two gargantuan myths that sustain this standoff - the left won't rest until the world proletarian revolution has wiped world history away, and the right won't be happy until the world resembles the plot of The Turner Diaries. This will get us nowhere.

Both the left and right are made up of reactionary and radical elements. We've had a century of them knocking lumps out of each other, we're long due a makeover. Pick out the best bits from each, mold it into something better, then throw it in the face of the elites. You might be an internationalist and see no borders - fine, but that does not mean the patriot is your biggest enemy - let him love his flag, he's no neo-imperialist turning the planet into Starbucks, is he?

The National Anarchist perspective on the left/right divide is one I agree with: If far-leftists fight against the globalisers, neo-liberals and neo-imperialists then they are worthy of support. When they side with the globalist agenda, support multiculturalism and left-liberalism they should be opposed. The same goes for the so-called far-right: If nationalists defend their people against unrestrained capitalism and global markets, they should be encouraged. If they side with the elites and reaction they become the enemy.

The war between the left and right is a trap, a vicious circle...and we need to look for an end game. In order to challenge the (vast) power of the globalisers, it is down to those who would deny them imposing their certainties on the world to place ALLIANCE BUILDING between different anti-globalist camps at the top of the agenda. This isn't to suggest that we form a pristine new movement of the Third Way that we can all join - it aint gonna happen. But it is up to the non-sectarians from all camps (themselves a considerable minority) to work towards co-ordination and new approaches. The mainstream anti-capitalist/anti-imperialist factions would benefit from the social nationalists, while the energy and organisational prowess of the left-anarchists can teach the traditional nationalist groups a thing or two about avoiding stupor.

Now, before anyone starts, we know that 90% of leftists and rightists will snarl and spit feathers at this suggestion. So what? Leave them to rot. We have to concentrate on the 10% that are non-dogmatic, more independent of mind, the free-thinkers who are open to new ideas, receptive to debate and who won't start ranting and raving. Look at what we have in common - in the case of the 'left' and 'right' it's more than the blinkered would let on.

Unity in 2012

2008-11-08T06:24:00.000-08:00

Ralph Nader didn't become the 44th President of the United States, but he did get 677,285 votes - third place. Not as much as the triumphant 2.8 million he got in 2000 but then the Greens had backed him. They didn't back him this time, preferring to see the GPUS candidate, ex-Democrat Cynthia McKinney get 146,281. Mckinney only managed to get on the ballot in 32 states, whereas Nader reached the dizzying heights of 46.

The Nader camp raised 4M dollars and overall ran a much more professional campaign. We must have unity in four years time between the Nader coalition, the Greens and (if they don't scare off the average American too much) the flotsam and jetsam of the far-left - the SPUSA, SWP and the Party of Socialism & Liberation all ran their own presidential candidates - they should all have got behind Nader in my book. I'm not suggesting they should all kiss Ralph's feet, but the radical movement in the states would benefit from one single figurehead.

Bob Barr for the Libertarian Party took nearly half a million votes across 45 out of 51 states. Now, it might be a tall order for the Libertarian Party to seek common cause with America's strongish paleo-conservative milieu, although I can't see why the newly formed, Ayn Rand worshipping, Objectivist Party can't come to some agreement with the LPUS in 2012.

What I'd really like to see in four years time is a united campaign from the Constitution Party (who's Chuck Baldwin picked up 180,000 votes this time) and the Reform Party, thereby uniting America's Old Right. Maybe Sarah Palin, could be persuaded to stand if she falls from grace in Republican circles...or Ron Paul...why not? They'd get more than Pat Buchanan did in 2000. A strong protectionist candidate in 2012 could once again show average Americans that self-sufficiency in the economy is no bad thing.

As a little footnote to my thoughts on America here - I don't get over on Stormfront much at all, you'll be relieved to know, but I bet the place is going mental at the moment, no, not so much because of Barak's skin pigmentation, but who he's just picked as his Chief of Staff - no not because of Rahm Emanuel's Jewish ethnicity (shock horror) but because his dad was a member of the Irgun, a militant zionist militia in Palestine...I can hear the aryan warriors spitting feathers as I write.

KIWI GREENS FILL THEIR BOOTS
The Greens are now the third largest party in New Zealand with 8 seats (up 2 from 2005)with 6.43% of the popular vote. Although it was a bad night for the other anti-globalist forces - New Zealand First was wiped out. The far-left did badly: The SWP front Residents Action Movement got 405 and the less sectarian/born out-of-a-unity-project Workers Party got 824. For a party which claims 770 members, this isn't good.

SAD PLIGHT OF THE SCOTTISH LEFT
Up in Glenrothes the fortunes of the once mighty Scottish left were just as derisory as their kiwi comrades. Solidarity picked up 87 votes, which is awful and the Scottish Socialist Party managed 212, although their apparent attempts to appeal to the Green vote are encouraging. For UKIP, who have never really bothered north of the border to beat a woman representing Tommy Sheridan's party (still a very popular man up there)speaks volumes about the poverty of the old left.

Propaganda or projects?

2008-10-31T03:12:00.000-07:00

As I've mentioned here before, the small but vocal National Anarchist milieu is a good example of an anti-globalist current who's syncretic nature can appeal to potentially large numbers of people. But feet must be kept firmly on the ground. National Anarchists will achieve more if they present their politics as a philosophy and guiding set of principles for people to aim at, rather than taking on the ominous task of attempting to create a 'movement' in the traditional sense with drums, banners and loudhailers. National Anarchists have had some success in places attracting cadre from the various youth cultures, which although not wrong in itself does present the danger of National Anarchism creating its own sub-cultural ghetto - something that has befallen the leftist anarchists.

To widen their appeal National Anarchists could look toward creating Neo-tribalist projects where like-minded people can create informal networks promoting kinship and cultural bonds, as well as bartering systems, mutual aid and welfare systems and Friendly Societies each with a National Anarchist ethos.

While good ol' rabble rousing and agitation have their place, National Anarchism can gain ground by adopting a DIY attitude, with activists encouraging autonomy, self-sufficiency and local identity, either through their own example or by joining existing projects - Look how Freecycle schemes are a great success now.

Some National Anarchists including Dr David Michael advocate creating isolated intentional communities in remote areas, but although such ambitions are laudable and should be practically looked into, they only attract the pioneers and true believers of National Anarchism. This 'Head for the Hills' approach is very difficult to implement and can put off the more luke-warm of supporters. So creating 'halfway houses' like neo-tribalist initiatives can keep many of the less committed on board whilst providing a worthwhile alternative to consumerism and reliance on state and capitalism. The Afrikaner community of Orania in the Northern Cape is good example of an self-aware ethno-cultural community living semi-autonomously - inspiration enough for National Anarchists.

MINORITY REPORT
The National Liberal Party have a snazzy new website and seem to have demoted their Third Way label to a think tank. Rather ambitiously, they hope to stand 10 candidates at the next General Election against europhiles like Chris Huhne and Nick Clegg. Electoral politics can be a depressing old game and the field is increasingly crowded these days, but this blog wishes the NLP all the best in its new found vigour.

Next Thursday's Glenrothes by-election will see the now familiar sight of the once strong(ish)Scottish left going head to head - the SSP and Tommy Sheridan's Solidarity will both be trying to out-radicalise each other, but why no Green candidate? The party is the biggest of the minnows north of the border - at least in terms of representation. Surely finding a spare 500 quid can't be that difficult with The Greens raking it in from their two MSPs?

Don't hold your breath or anything, but the Convention of the Left is holding a recall conference on Nov. 29th, following on from September's inaugural gathering, which (by the standards of recent Left unity projects) went quite well. Can the Left prove this old fascist wrong and reorganise itself into something worthwhile? Well...

Yeah, dude, no borders! (wtf?)

2008-10-19T06:56:00.000-07:00

I choose my words carefully here - it is a real tragedy that the liberal-left took control of the Green Party of England and Wales in the early 90s. Of course, proud liberals in the party would say there was no coup d'tat, it was all carried out in the nicest possible way, democratic to the last. Me, I suspect it was a case of prevailing cultural Marxism. The Greens hated the Thatcherites, so they got into bed with whoever felt the same. That's how they've ended up in this leftist cul-de-sac.

During the 70s and 80s the party's economic policies were influenced by Distributism and Social Credit, ideas which still influence many Greens today, but why the current social-liberalism? Why the utterly barmy immigration policies?

The party is still strong on the economy, quite rightly declaring its reasoned critiques of rampant, unsustainable growth and the GP's emphasis on local grassroots decision making, self-sufficient, sustainable communities and economies can sit easily with any self-respecting anti-globalist...

So why, oh why does the GPEW have to spoil all this with its daft, cruel and dangerous policies on immigration and multi-culturalism? The consequences of these processes fly in the face of the Green vision, of small communities at ease with themselves. The Greens actually hit the nail on the head when it comes to immigration: Their Manifesto for a Sustainable Society states:

The Green Party's long term global vision is of an international economic order where the relationship between regions is non-exploitative, each region is as self-reliant and economically self- sufficient as practicable and the quality of life (social, political, environmental, cultural and economic) is such that there is less urge to migrate. Logically, in order to move away from the current level of immigration controls, we must create a fairer world.
MG101 The existing economic order and colonialism have both been major causes of migration through direct and indirect violence, disruption of traditional economies, the use of migrants as cheap labour, uneven patterns of development and global division of labour.

MG102 We are aware that, in the 21st century, there is likely to be mass migration of people escaping from the consequences of global warming, environmental degradation, resource shortage and population increase.

Quite true, we have to build a post-global, decentralised world, if we want people to stay where they are. But, as far as the Greens are concerned, in the meantime, its C'mon Over to My Place, an open door. How on earth is this sustainable? Transient, rootless communities are hardly green. Public services, schools, hospitals and housing are all put under increasing pressure through immigration - a society hardly at ease with itself.

As a young leftist our stock-in-trade take on immigration was The Capitalists can move capital, goods and materials around the globe at the touch of a key - if it's OK for the money, it's OK for the workforce. But this isn't good enough. A bank balance doesn't need a roof, its kids don't need a classroom, its spouse doesn't need the local clinic. It need not worry about sticking out a mile because of it's language, dress, custom or religion. The stock in trade Green reaction to this is: Yeah, well there's billions and billions of quid the government could set aside for immigration - look at what they spend in Iraq! ...It aint gonna happen though is it. The Greens, unfortunately, suffer from that condition all too common on the left: wishful thinking. We've got to stop pigeon-holing ourselves into little ideological straightjacket's. A curse on definitions.

The understandable friction caused when different cultures are thrust upon one another, is all too often left to fester away causing social strife and resentment,ill-will and general unhappiness. The Greens want a love-in, the best way to ensure this is to have mono-cultural communities. The disaster of multiculturalism hardly lies easily with the the Green vision of happy, stable communities. Communities are happiest when they have a sense of self, belonging, shared identity and a common cultural bond. UK 2008?! Even the most flowery optimist must say 'no'. Greens - drop the liberal baggage, it doesn't make sense - and I promise not to scream Nazis! if you do.

If the Green movement took up REAL cultural diversity (i.e. when different cultures are left to develop independently of each other)it could forge lasting alliances with other anti-globalist currents. The Greens urgently need to debate immigration and its silly 'NO BORDERS' posturing, this political posing is counter-productive, contradictory, harmful and ultimately serves the interests of the globalisers. The danger is that any process of dialogue may result in a damaging split - and I'm not out to split the Green movement - but...ALLIANCE BUILDING BETWEEN DIFFERENT ANTI-GLOBALIST CURRENTS IS OUR BEST CHANCE - NO REPEAT OF THE LAST 100 YEARS OF IDEOLOGICAL WARFARE...please.

The credit crunch shows glaringly that their is no alternative to capitalism. This is because the traditional factions of left and right are redundant. All the disparate forces opposed to the way the world is run in 2008 need to fuse, unite, throw all their worldviews in the pot, mix them all up and fight together.

MINORITY REPORT
The English Democrats South West organiser Mike Blundell managed to get 93 votes in a local election in Bristol last week. You've got to take the rough with the smooth and generally speaking English Nationalist votes over the past couple of years have been comparable with what the old Socialist Alliance were getting a decade ago. Fear not though, proud patriots. English nationalism has a far bigger reserve pool than trotskyite transitional demands. Stick on in there, chaps.

One of the reasons I was so pro-leadership in the recent Green Party of England and Wales leadership debate is the media attention I thought having a leader would gain the party. So, this week we had a big story where Climate Change and Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband, announces a commitment to increase the cut in emissions from 60% to 80% by 2050 - GREAT! But where was Caroline Lucas? The BBC got a quote from a bloke from Friends of the Earth, so why not the UK's premier Green? PR dept needs an overhaul, I reckon. The Prime Minister's Speech to the party faithful in Manchester last month mentioned the British National Party. If a veritable minnow like Mr Griffin's outfit can get a mention from her Majesty's first minister, the Greens should be at least second paragraph when it comes to a climate change story.

FROM OUR FOREIGN DESK
Well, they may have lost their sole defector MP but the Canadian Green Party didn't do too badly in last week's Canadian general election. 940,000 votes and 6.8% of the national vote share (up 2.3%) The Quebec secessionists gained and are in a relatively strong position. The Western and other secessionists, however, along with the Anti-globalist Canadian Action Party, bombed.

WHEEL OF THE YEAR
Ahhh....now you're talking. This is my favourite time of year. Round my way, we had our first frost a couple of weeks ago - always a good seasonal marker. This is the time when I see streetlights switching off as I amble to work in the morning mist.

One thing I have noticed this Autumn, however, is the distinct lack of poppies...Where Have All the Poppies Gone... Have a safe dark quarter, dear reader, and a Happy Samhain for the 31st. Blessed Be!

The Sound of Music

2008-09-29T06:29:00.000-07:00

Well, your average South German nationalist could be forgiven for doing Julie Andrews impressions today...Another continental election, I can't keep up.

The Austrian legislative elections yesterday were good news for the nationalist FPO and it's breakaway, the BZO, together getting nearly 30% of the vote. Austrian (ie South German) voters still gave the nod to the neo-liberal parties of the centre-left & centre-right, however. They came out on top, but they will have do some backroom arm-twisting to form a government. But nearly a third of the electorate showed their disapproval of the EU and the islamification of their country.

In addition the Austrian Greens (dispite their usual lovey-dovey multiculturalism) held their own, and at least they're euroskeptic. I just hope the silly so-and-sos don't come to the centre-left/centre-right's aid and prop-up their pro-globalist administration. As things stand the results look like this:

Social Democrats (centre-left) - 29.7% (58 seats)
People's Party - 25.6% (centre-right) (50 seats)
Freedom Party - 18% (35 seats)
Alliance for Austria's Future - 11% (21 seats)
Greens - 9.8% (19 seats)
Other parties - 5.8%
Source: Austrian Interior Ministry

I've always had to admire a politician who doesn't care what he says and the FPO's Heinz-Christian Strache is no exception! Get a load o' this from today's Times:

Speaking at his final election rally in Vienna’s working-class district of Favoriten on Friday, he said that people were scared to see women in burkas running around "like female Ninjas"

An FPO colleague of Strache is quoted in the Guardian thus:

while another of his party leaders reminisced about the days when the kiosks on Vienna's squares sold sausage and wiener schnitzel, rather than "the kebab joints selling falafel and couscous, or whatever you call that stuff"

I know, I know...I'm gonna have to go on a diversity and inclusivity course (all at the taxpayers expense, probably) but I did laugh...

EVERY ENGLISH ROSE HAS IT'S THORN
The civic-nationalist Free England Party gained a disappointing 81 votes (6%) in Stevenage's Pin Green council by-election last Thursday, down somewhat from previous outings. Oh well, the path to salvation was never a smooth one. The Banner's message of solidarity to FEP candidate Richard Aitkins is a quote from that great filum Michael Collins:

Eamonn De Valera (Alan Rickman, soothingly): Wait, Michael, wait...
Mick Collins (Liam Neeson, impatiently): Till when?!
Eamonn (knowingly):...The next time...

Scottish Greens to debate Fuhrerprinzip?

2008-09-18T09:35:00.000-07:00

Robin Harper, co-convener of the Scottish Greens has stood down from the post and has called for the party to adopt a similar leadership structure to their colleagues south of the border. They have about a year to debate the issues before next year's conference where they can put it to the vote. By next summer, the benefits (or not) of the new Lucas/Ramsay leadership team should be apparent and Scottish greens can see if its for them or not, by then. Having a face with whom the public can identify with positive green ideals may even go someway to clawing back the five MSPs the Scottish Greens lost in 2007.

Talking of the Greens,they are defending a seat in Formley & Wortley ward in Leeds, with polling taking place as I write this. They are defending a huge majority of around 1500. But what caught my eye about this contest was the Alliance for green Socialism are also standing, like they did in the same ward last year. They got a derisory vote last time which they will no doubt get today. But their existence still proves the sectarianism on the left. The AGS has it origins in Labour Party 'usual suspects' and CPB hangers on. But as far as i know their is no dialogue between them and the much larger GPEW. Looking at the positions of both the AGS and GPEW Green Left faction, I can see no obvious hurdles to dialogue. At the very least the AGS could agree not to stand against Green Left candidates, and for the Green Left's part - if they can work with small Trotskyite organisations like Socialist Resistance, they can work with AGS. Surely it's not being entirely Utopian to call for all Greens, when it comes to the electoral front, to strike as a fist?

Over on the english nationalist front Berrocscir's Banner is hoping for a good showing from the Free England Party's Richard Aitkins who is standing in the Hertfordshire Pin Green ward next Thursday, whilst hoping for a similar outcome for the English Democrat's Mike Blundell who is standing in a Bristol ward on October 9th.

Kiwis go to polls
New Zealand's General Election goes ahead in November and there are a handful of broadly anti-globalist formations throwing their hats into the ring.

Firstly, although monarchism is more popular here than with the Aussies, NZ's Republicans are hopefully going to show that the Kiwi nation can easily hold her own without the patronage of some elderly aristocrat 12,000 miles away. Although their returns last time around were meagre, a bigger republican vote in November, whilst highlighting the legacy of colonialism (proto-globalism) will indicate the people's appetite for self-sufficiently, independence and identity, something this blog always encourages.

The main left-wing grouping standing seem to be the recently formed Residents Action Movement Although kow-towing to the multi-cultural agenda and bending over backwards to Islam, the RAM can be applauded for their localist and decenralist policies and for their strong anti-corporate/anti-capitalist stance.

Also worthy of note are the Democrats for Social Credit who are standing in several seats. Any party keeping the flame of Social Credit burning is OK by this blog.

NZ's parliament also has seats set aside for the Maoris. Something entirely justifiable to safeguard this ancient, noble and distinct culture.

Turn, Turn, Turn - A Wheel of the Year special
It's been nearly a year since Berrocscir's Banner began the occasional Wheel of the Year column. Your's truly is no hardcore Wiccan or in-yer-face pagan, but just a soul who wants to pay homage to the eternal cycle of life and death and how it is manifested here on our beautiful planet. So the Wheel entries on here are a simple way for your author to keep in step with the rhythms of the year, and, for me, a way of keeping in with the lifeforce and our ancestors who built our nations and cultures thus making us who we are.

Last Monday night (15th) I gazed up at the full Harvest Moon (complete with a fine halo through the thin cloud cover)and contemplated this time of year: A time of harvest, reaping what we sow, sharing the spoils at this time of fruits. I remembered that Autumn is a time of maturity (which comes before decline). For a couple of minutes at these markers throughout the year, I can remind myself that I'm part of the infinite, Divine universe. I came from it and shall go back to it. Although, even as long as I breathe, I am ever connected to it. I am it. In all its uncharted majesty and awe.

As a child I used to love school Harvest Festivals, my eyes growing before nature's glorious bounty before me in the Assembly Hall. After assembly we'll take our horn of plenty round to the old people's bungalow's nearby and distribute our prize to them whilst singing We Plough the Fields and Scatter...

This fond memory is part of a larger folk-memory, vital to all peoples if they are to maintain their uniqueness, their identity, themselves.

Recently I've gazed at windfalls on the path on the way to work. A glance at the apple - a symbol of Autumn in England - on a drab, grey morning, is an incantation, a little prayer. Not to anyone in particular, but just to existence itself. A weekend bus journey passing ripe cornfields...having a full moon illuminate my journey back home after missing my stop - these are my altars.

I started Wheel of the Year last October 7th with Michaelmas, and, well the wheel turns indeed, here we are coming up to Michaelmas again.

In the Social calendar,the stuff Mother Nature has taken a back seat with, the English year has just taken in the wonderful Last Night of the Proms, so that means Guy Fawkes Night is on the horizon (its Bonfires borrowed from a much earlier time than the seventeenth century) and Remembrance Sunday...until then, Blessed Be!

O Canaduh!

2008-09-09T08:39:00.000-07:00

Above: The separatist flag of Western Canada

There's a federal election coming up on 14th October in Canada. Berrocscir's Banner will watch with interest the performances of the Canadian Greens (who last month picked up their first MP - a liberal defector). It's doubtful if they can gain seats this time despite their countrywide poll of 4.5% in 2006. Anti-globalists should also be cheering on the Canadian Action Party. Although they are unlikely to grab seats, the Left-Nationalist CAP are anti-globalist, anti-free trade, anti-NAFTA, so more power to their elbow. Their origins are in the Social Credit movement, once an influential force in Canada.

How Canada's thriving separatist and secessionist groupings fair in this year's poll, will also be of note. The The Quebec secessionists must be one of the most powerful in the world. Whilst there are a number of active Quebec nationalist groups in existence, it was the Bloc Quebecois who polled 1.4 million votes (42% of the whole Quebec poll) in 2006. In the 1995 referendum the figure voting to secede was 49%, so there's a real possibility we will witness a Free Quebec in the not too distant future. If this happens maybe it will kick start a domino effect on the rest of Canada which is ripe for dissolution. As well as the First Nations managing to keep a political voice today, there is also the emerging Western Separatist movement. This movement's main political force seems to be the fledgling Western Block Party. Although their 2006 vote was derisory, the WBP, who seek secession for British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, could be on to a winner if their patience can hold. The Western territories have a different vibe from the rest of Canada. It is the ethnic homeland of the descendants of Germanic/Nordic settlers with their distinct traditions. It's people don't want the french language enforced on them and it has different traditions and heritage to the peoples of the First Nations. There are other Western separatist groups who unfortunately seem to relate to the WBP with some antagonism, but hopefully we can witness an improvement on the 2006 vote.

Other separatists exist in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, although whether they will stand and how well they fair if they do, is a moot point. Newfoundland in particular has a rich, distinct culture due to the many settlers it attracted from Wessex in the 1800s, so it at least has some identity to go on, should secessionist groups take hold elsewhere in Canada.

Now, there are some numpties who want to hop into bed with Uncle Sam, but, in Canada's case, hopefully the pendulum of history is going the other way.

FROM SMALL ACORNS ETC
A little bit of merger-mania to report this week. In a move which may cause their erstwhile colleagues in the English Democrats a cursory glance in their direction, the Free England Party have managed to poach Chris Nickerson, the (sole?) man behind the English Independence Party To all intents and purposes the EIP is Nickerson's personal brand name, but despite this, the fact that Nickerson agreed to take on the seemingly ceremonial role of FEP President at an NEC meeting on Saturday, is a small victory for English nationalism. Nickerson had been mocked by other activists for his own wilful isolation, so its good to see the FEP extending the olive branch. The EIP has been noted in English Nationalist circles for its robust immigration policy. Is this something we will see the FEP, as good civic-nationalists looking over?

Secession, secession, sucession

2008-09-06T06:46:00.000-07:00

Republican US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has been courting controversy this week presiding over who must be the most embarrassed young couple on the planet. For Berrocscir's Banner, however, the real scandal was the revelation that Palin's husband, Todd, was a paid up member of the 13,000 strong Alaskan Independence Party as recently as 2002! Oh, the shame of it!!

This is all to the good, a free bit of publicity for the Alaskan secessionists, and indeed, the secessionist movement worldwide. Secessionists in the US seem to be on something of a periodic upturn, so this widespread media coverage is to be welcomed.

Talking of the US Presidential election, a footnote to this year's campaign is the welcome, no honestly, the welcome news that the Workers World Party , one of several Marxist-Leninist-Trotskyist groupscules in the States, is officially backing Cynthia McKinney, the Presidential hopeful for the Green Party .

Apart from the Wobblies I know very little about the Left in the US, and don't know if the WWP consists of half a dozen academics plus a token Blue Collar OR the massed ranks for the proletariat (...although I know what I'd put a tenner on)But this step the WWP has taken is encouraging. It shows the Left coming out of their ideological hidey-holes. The WWP has obviously studied green politics and had a little internal debate over it. The time was when small trot groups wished disease on other tendencies, so this small example is a step up from glorious isolation and impotent ideological purity.

At the present time, the best hope for alliances between disparate anti-globalist forces seems to be of the Red/Green hue. There is a strong socialist current within the Green movement which is a positive thing. Working together, talking together is the only way anti-globalists can make concrete gains.

ELECTION FEVER!
It's not often you see the left get one over on the BNP these days, but that's exactly what happened on Thursday in the Barrow Borough Council Newbarns ward by-election. In a Tory hold the Barrow-based Socialist Peoples Party beat the BNP 155 votes to 104 and just 12 votes behind the runner-up Labour candidate. It might be a local issue the picked up on, respected local activists taking on local case work and the bread and butter stuff, but the SPP, in pipping 'the fash', actually only succeeded in splitting the anti-globalist, socialist vote. The BNP are just as socialistic as the SSP, albeit of a different hue. We could argue over the finer points, but divided the globalists will always win out.

BREAKING NEWS
Caroline Lucas is the first ever elected leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, taking a cool 90% of the vote. Good on loser Ashley Gunstock for preventing a straightforward coronation. Plucky little Adrian Ramsay was elected Caroline's deputy. The job now is to make this leadership team get well and truly on the media's radar and most importantly, to go out and WIN SEATS.

Year Zero

2008-08-26T08:37:00.000-07:00

So, the UK economy has hit zero growth. All anti-capitalists of all hues should be dancing in the ailes over this. Zero growth SHOULD mean sustainability. Zero growth SHOULD mean a stable and self-sufficient population. It used to be said that the Green Party supported zero growth. I didn't see it mentioned specifically in the Economy section of their Manifesto for a Sustainable Society , but reading through their policy, one can see it is is compatible with zero growth. However, within the framework of capitalism, zero growth is bad news for the peasants. Zero growth is only positive if from a decentralised and bottom up economy. Is 2008 the beginning of such a vision? Are we looking at a new year Zero?

OH, THERE HE IS!
Last week I lamented the fact that Richard Hunt, the radical economic theorist, didn't seem to have his ideas (valuable to people looking for alternatives to globalism) up online. No sooner had I posted than I stumbled across this interview conducted by leading National Anarchist Troy Southgate and published on the now defunct Terra Firma N-A site. Other articles from Mr Hunt can be found via his Wikipedia entry

THE SHINING PATH TO NIKE AND STARBUCKS?
Nepal now has a Maoist Prime Minister. The Nepalese Maoists don't seem too bothered with PR going on the historic events associated with the Maoist creed, but it will be interesting to see how the new regime interacts (or not)with the new world order/neo-liberals and neo-cons. Hamas, it seems, have managed to stay fiercely independent of Uncle Sam despite them becoming world players. Will the Maoists remain defiant in the face of world economic hegemony? They say they want good relations with their neighbours. Will India, close by, with its large capitalist economy prove too tempting for the Maoists to resist?

NO MURDER, NOT FOR NOTHING!
It would seem the world's press are having a job getting into South Ossetia.
Reports are sketchy and rumours of South Ossetian death squads murdering Georgians are rife.

If there is blood letting, then I despair. Can we really ever hope to have ethnic homelands without the Grim Reaper? It is a question that needs answering. Is self-determination worth it if misery ensues?

WHOLE LOTTA ENGLISH
Leona Lewis is a beautiful girl, but Greensleeves and Jerusalem are ENGLISH tunes. They don't belong to the British (whoever they are!)

A Green genius

2008-08-18T08:45:00.000-07:00

Some people never get enough credit and former editor of Alternative Green, Richard Hunt, is one of them.

I only ever saw a few editions of Alternative Green back in the early 90s. But leafing through them had a profound influence on me, who, at the time, was every inch a leftist, and played a part in developing the politics espoused on here.

Hunt had launched AG in 1991 after being kicked off the editorial board of Green Anarchist. Back then GA was pretty much leftist, aligning itself with the more workerist anarchist groups. It was only later that GA set out a primitivist line.

Hunt was dismissed because of an editorial he wrote declaring his support for British troops in the build up to the first Gulf War. The reason Hunt gave was one of kinship and 'My country, right or wrong' Now, I won't go as far as to support troops engaged in such an imperialist endeavour, but Hunt's arguments struck a chord with me.

There was a real to do within anarchist circles with Hunt being a accused of racism. His response was to launch AG and push for the same autonomous village society that GA had, but with ones based on ending the left/right divide. AG was particularly hot when discussing the failures of both Left & Right and opening up a debate on nationalism in relation to the Green movement.

Hunt's essay 'The Natural Society', first published in 1976, would be particularly useful to today's anti-globalist activists, but it doesn't seem available online. Further, Hunt's theory of 'revolution on the periphery' will make good reading for today's National Anarchists. The basics of this theory being that the destruction of modern society will not start in the West as it is too bloated and decadent, and we must therefore look to revolution in the Third World, so as to start the system fraying at the edges...Hunt used the Roman Empire as a model.

Hunt's work really should be widely available. It's a shame that Alternative Green, which is still being published as far as I know, hasn't got a website. To fill the void then, if any National Anarchist group or similar has access to Hunt's articles or anything else that appeared in AG by other writers, then getting them online would be a great idea.

It's the economy, Stupid
The ongoing crisis in Georgia shows us that the New World order isn't 100% complete. The old 20th century battle lines have never totally disappeared, and their reemergence in the Georgian scenario, begs the question of if we are witnessing a return to Cold War stability. The answer of course, is no. Despite losing its empire, Russia is still able to flex its political muscle, due in part to its legacy of the Soviet era - a strong nationalistic streak running through Russian society, coupled with military supremacy, and the desire to look strong in the face of the old enemy, NATO.

But it is in the the economic sphere where Russia, like everywhere else, is under the jackboot of globalism and the neocon agenda. How many American firms now have a stake in Mother Russia? Will the Kremlin be booting these capitalist dogs off of its soil over America's latest finger wagging over Georgia? No. The world's elites are not going to kick Russia off the G8, either. That's too much market at risk.

Globalist projects like the UN, NATO, EU, NAFTA and WTO all involve the political and the economic. The globalisers have the latter pretty much sewn up, but you can bet your bottom dollar they're working on the former, and it seems to be coming on nicely.

Self-determination for all peoples

2008-08-11T02:42:00.000-07:00

A big geopolitical battle is underway in that most problematic of regions, the Caucasus. I don't know much about South Ossetia, in fact until this week I'd never heard of it.

This blog advocates secession as a way of breaking down the empires and as a way to a decentralised and diverse world. Ossetians are an ethnic group in the own right with their own language and culture, but their wish to join the Russian Federation must be respected. It is also important to remember that 30% South Ossetia's population is Georgian. We don't want a repeat of the Bosnian scenario. The people of Abkahazia too, are flexing their muscle. Both they and the Ossetians seem close to the Russians, and some Georgian commentators are saying the Kremlin intends to gain back all the old territories of the USSR - that old imperialist monster! However, it seems Abkhazia is more independently minded that Ossetia. If full secession is not possible as it will lead to war, death, rape, misery - then semi-autonomy for ethnic minorities in Georgia is the way forward. It's something that could happen in a united Ireland, semi-autonomy for the Protestants or 'British-Irish' as the CPGB (PCC) would have it. There are countless other states where ethnic minorities have their own political parties and representation in government. Ethnic Italians have their own voice in Switzerland, ethnic Germans in Romania have theirs. Serbs in Slovenia have theirs - where these exist we do not hear about ethnic cleansing.

In Moldova, Transnistria, which is mainly populated by ethnic Russians, is an autonomous region, although it sadly cost a thousand lives in the battles of 1992.

Can this sort of thing happen in the UK with Leicester and Bradford? Well...no. Ethnic homelands can only happen within existing states if the population share a meta-ethnicity and where cultures are not too different.

This blog will follow the Georgian crisis with concern and interest in the possible remedies.

In the meantime:
NO TO RUSSIAN IMPERIALISM
NO TO GEORGIAN AGGRESSION
SELF-DETERMINATION FOR ALL PEOPLES!

Queen Caroline

2008-08-06T09:09:00.000-07:00

Well, this rubbishy little blog won't win any awards for punditry. Out of the names touted here last week regarding the Green Party's Leadership election coming up in September, only Caroline Lucas has thrown her hat in the ring. Quite frankly, as the UK's most recognisable Green (after David Icke) things would have been slightly awry if she hadn't. She's going up against perennial candidate and ex - 'The Bill' actor Ashley Gunstock, who, bless 'im, never does spectacularly, so it looks like Lucus is home and dry.

There was only one taker for Deputy Leader - young Adrian Ramsay, leader of the 13-strong Green opposition on Norwich City Council. He certainly looks the part, our Adrian. He rivals David Miliband in the 'Young politician on the make' stakes. The irony is that he will only be able to take on the new role if Lucas wins, due to the Greens illogical gender balance rules.

MINORITY REPORT - Titbits from the Outer-limits
I've long admired the Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee) Their paper, the Weekly Worker, is just about the only place where you can read up on the true, miserable state of the UK Left. I like their stance on Northern Ireland: United Ireland, but with semi-autonomous homelands for the 'British-Irish' Protestants centred on Antrim. But the comrades are still rabbiting on about how the British state must be maintained so that workers have the maximum unity to take on the British ruling class and should organise into one single Communist Party of the UK. Now, this is all fine and dandy if taken from some Marxian, scientific logic. But reality check: The British ruling class have been superseded by the globalised system. It is this one-world system that is the true enemy of the world's toilers. Better for anti-globalisation activists to call for the break-up of an artificial, multinational state like the UK. An independent Scotland, Wales and England are far better as a first practical step to challenging the status quo. Secession is the key to breaking down the almighty proto-world system. There are 189 states on the planet, but there are hundreds of ethnic groups and nationalities. If these started flexing their collective muscle, then the globalisers should start worrying.

Nationalism or Regionalism?

2008-08-04T05:34:00.000-07:00

According to the European Union, there is no England. There's only 9 regions carved out of her with no consideration to local cultural or historical markers. These phony Euro zones have given regionalism a bad name, not least within English nationalist circles. Berrocscir's Banner is for the continuing unity of England on political, ethnic and cultural levels. However, regional autonomy can happily co-exist with national unity. Authentic regionalism is not artificial and merely for administrative purposes like the grey and rootless Euro Zones.

Some English regionalists such as the Wessex Regionalists and the Mercia Movement want devolution and sometimes independence (!) for the old sub-kingdoms of the old Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy . Now, there should be an historical element to regionalism and a revivalist renaissance of the Heptarchy, no harm in that, but to all intents and purposes hasn't the Heptarchy fallen out of folk memory? The Heptarchy is certainly part of what defines the English and is part of their rich heritage and history, but does it mean much to the English today? No, the Heptarchy has been demoted to the history books, a process which started with the Norman Conquest and cemented with the 1707 Act of Union which bought about that most strange of all nationalisms - British. This might be a tad harsh, but real regional pride these days is manifested in county/shire pride. Yorkshiremen hold the White Rose close to their bosom, the Norfolk are very self-aware and down in Somerset, well they know who they are. Returning political power back down to the Shires can help re-enforce this sense of place. Adopting a Swiss style Canton system, giving real powers to local government, will encourage decentralisation and self -reliance, thus eroding the globalisation of everyday life. English nationalists might argue this will inevitably lead to the break-up of England. Quite possibly, but a growth in regional identity might actually reignite English identity by overtaking the 'global village' mentality and vague internationalism which has got its claws into large swathes of the social strata. England has been united since the tenth century, so that's long enough to actually mean something, but if transcending the global order means taking devolution to its natural conclusion and the concept of England passing into history, then so be it. England will always be in my heart, but that doesn't justify its existence.

MINORITY REPORT - Titbits from the Outer-Limits

The Passing of a Great Helmsman
Such are the fortunes of Veritas these days that I rarely check its website. So I was unaware that Patrick Eston, the chap who had the unenviable task of picking up the pieces after Kilroy's departure, had himself jacked it in a while back. It really should be game over for Veritas, who presently still seem determined to stick with it. For a week or so after the party's launch, it really looked like something was happening, but Veritas, through their own making, have made themselves figures of fun from all quarters.But the membership however, remain sincere people. Maybe some of their old adversaries in UKIP should let bygones be bygones for the good of their cause and welcome them back.

Keith pips Derek
Meanwhile, over at the Green Party, Brighton councillor Keith Taylor, a centrist, has beaten arch-leftie Derek Wall into third place on Green party's Euro-list for the South East region. Is this a sign of dissatisfaction in the ranks of the party of the tyranny of the Reds or has this blogger got a fertile imagination and its simply down to Keith being a good councillor and activist? Probably the latter. The former's a nice thought, though!

Greens get going

2008-07-28T09:26:00.000-07:00

Nominations close this Thursday for those hopefuls who are after the top job/s (leader/deputy leader/co-leaders) in the Green Party of England & Wales.

Last November Green Party members wisely voted to scrap the impotent posts of male & female principal speakers in favour of real leadership - just the sort of vanguard necessary to take green ideas forward. The new leader/s will have voting powers on the party's Executive. Having someone at the top will give the public a face to identify with ('That's that Green bloke'...'Oh, she's the Green woman') There's talk of adopting co-leaders, but what's the point of that? It will show voters that the Green's just can't shed that hippy image.

Having a SOLE leader will get more media attention. Look at Nigel Farage, the UKIP boss, he's never off the box and pops up on Radio 2 like clockwork - The media can only understand formal leadership.

As of today the candidates are not clear, but it's likely to be Caroline Lucas, Sian Berry, Darren Johnson and possibly Jenny Jones (the only name here that actively campaigned to retain the status quo) In terms of media savvyness it can only be Caroline. She will be a good, uniting influence between the leftists and the centrists. A victory for Berry, as a supporter of the influential Green Left faction, might lead to the portrayal of the Greens as hard left. Now, the Greens can certainly mop up the Labour vote and they've just started doing well in traditional Labour areas, but Berry at the helm could lead to a media backlash against the party, prompting a hemorrhaging of support in the suburbs.

It would be a mistake for the Greens to present themselves as an explicitly left-wing party. Green thought encompasses the entire political spectrum, a fine example of how politics must transcend left & right - Something that is desperately needed in the fight against the neocons, neolibs and their global empire building. So while there is much that is commendable about the manifestations of the Green Left, they must not be allowed to capture the soul of the Green Party. Berrocscir's Banner calls for a renaissance of the rightist and nationalist Greens, but not in preparation of civil war. A strong rightist tendency will help the Party to present itself as a pluralistic alternative to the black & white of left & right.

The result of the leadership ballot will be announced at Party Conference in September, when incidentally, one Ken Livingstone will be guest of honour. Whoever ends up the Daddy (or Momma)the Green Party looks to be taking its electoral work very seriously. Greens rightly know that standing in the maximum possible number of local seats translates into Green votes at national and EU level. The party has enough members and healthy enough infrastructure to stand anywhere, anytime. Smaller parties need to be selective, but the Greens have reached the critical mass - every seat must be contested. Interesting then that we're getting rumours that the Greens two MEPs are in danger of losing in next year's Euro poll...Well, I don't know - the Party managed to retain its two Greater London Assembly members back in May, despite some fierce competition. It really would be a blow to lose the Euro reps.
So, despite all the doom and gloom on the EU front, the Greens seem confident of picking up an MP or three come the General Election(if there's one before year end then sorry Greens - no chance, but if we've got another two years, then maybe!)This blog, deep down, thinks this is a bit of a tall order, but looking at the maths in the Green's target seats of Brighton Pavilion and Norwich South, well, they could just do it...couldn't they? Check out the Greens for Parliament site for all the details. Funny then, that all this ambition is not matched on the seat-tally. The Greens say they've got 140 candidates confirmed and hope for 300. They really need to listen to Sian Berry's call at last year's conference to work for a full slate. If they can work towards this achievable goal then the Greens really would have come of age.

MINORITY REPORT
We hear that the Libertarian Party continued to be a bit sloppy with the old paper work, not getting it in on time for Glasgow East. They did this in Henley. Will they go for the hat trick?

The Free England Party seem to be less rabid when it comes to Cornish types than other English Nationalists. They appear to be ready for dialogue if the Cornish nationalist movement reaches tipping point. This recognition that you can't force nationality on anyone who doesn't want it, is to be welcomed.

Where next for National Anarchism?

2008-07-26T04:08:00.000-07:00

First, lets get things into perspective: National Anarchism is not a mass movement, nor is it likely to be for the foreseeable future. A few years ago there were literally a handful of voices in the wilderness, who today have been joined by a handful more. A quick Google search reveals a noticeable growth in National-Anarchist ideas, but, outside the fringes, it remains an unknown current.

National Anarchism, with its promotion of identity politics, pluralism and decentralism, is potentially able to command public sympathy: scratch Joe Public and you will find ideas compatible with it - Most people possess a natural inclination to 'the tribe'. They want to live and let live and they want more control over their lives...But we live in a post-ideological era where isms are wasms. Here lies the rub - National Anarchism, like any movement starting from scratch, needs pioneers. Hardcore political activists with the skills, resources and determination to move things forward. While it would be a mistake to discard the hoi polloi completely, today's National Anarchists would be wise to target the free-thinking minorities from within already established political camps. National Anarchism can appeal to the less dogmatic from the ranks of the Greens, Reds and anarchos from the left and the Third Positionists, New Right, Paleoconservatives and nationalists from the right. For the immediate future, this is where National Anarchists need to concentrate their work - to engage with the already politicised. This author's political teeth were cut on the anarchist/libertarian communist scene, yet I now accept the once alien concepts of nationality and tradition, ethnicity and culture, into my worldview. National Anarchist ideas can appeal to the distributists, social crediters, the Guild Socialists and co-operatists. It can attract the ruralists, the squatters and back-to-the-landers. The regionalists and the separatists. Now, some are already out there doing all this communicating to other activists with fairly limited success. But if nine blinkered fools call you rude names, the tenth might be won over or at least come to properly understand N-A principles.

A real debate needs to start within National Anarchist circles about how we bring about a new politics for the twenty first century. The globalised world is all powerful so its opponents need to co-operate as a first step to even begin to think about challenging it. National-Anarchism is just the kind of puralistic, universal tendency that can accommodate all anti-globalist camps...

...There's just one problem with the branding: The name National Anarchism is fine for the politicised rump, but it positively reeks of the twentieth century. It's too much like the National Socialist bogeyman. A new description is needed for public consumption - any ideas?

In the meantime, anti-globalists who are serious about their politics (and not just play acting) should be looking to aim all their fire-power (meagre though this might be) fairly and squarely at the globalised system and not each other - that's just soooo last century! To all dogmatists out there I say 'just let go'.

MINORITY REPORT
Well, if the Scottish Green Party candidate had beaten the two Marxist candidates, here in Red Clydeside aka Glasgow East - now THAT would've been the political earthquake. As it was, The SGP's Eileen Duke failed to overtake either the Scottish Socialist Party or Solidarity rep. Looking at the result - SSP 555/Sol 512/Green 232 - shows the decline of the the once formidable Scottish left, bucking the UK left's fortunes and reaching a high water mark of seven MSPs in 2003. To be fair the left vote in Glasgow East in last Thursday's by-election, actually held up from 2005 when the sole SSP candidate took over 1000 votes. But at by-elections everybody goes a bit nuts and votes for an outsider. Going on this result, I can't see any light at the end of the tunnel.

Time for a bit of DIY
Far from it be that I stick up for government, but an article I read in the Daily Telegraph on Tuesday had me fuming. There are calls for the government to fund cultural activities for schoolkids. Well, if we had nurtured our culture, looked after it instead of being seduced by americana since the fifties, our culture wouldn't need resuscitating by public money. I'm all for anything that helps a cultural rebirth in England. But it's our own fault, not the state's, that we find ourselves in this cutural desert.

Run for your lives! It's the Union for the Mediterranean!!
I literally grimaced when I heard news of this. Sigh..one step closer to the New World Order...
The Grand Alliance will increase immigration and dilute cultures. But hey, millions more people will be able to express their liberty by buying more stuff, consuming more crap. Hail the free market...fair play to Gaddafi for snubbing it!

WHEEL OF THE YEAR
The Wheel turns indeed! I can't believe we have reached Lammas already! Lammas is usually observed around August the first and dates from the time of our Anglo-Saxon forefather's harvest time. A vital time of the year for them and still for us today!

The highs & lows of Merrie England

2008-07-11T09:01:00.000-07:00

As I walked out one fine Summer's morning
For to view the fields and to take the air
- Banks of Sweet Primroses (Traditional)

One Summer's day in the month of June
Bonny Bunch of Roses (Traditional)

I was reminded of these lines when, a couple of weeks back, I took a day
out from wage slavery to travel to the Berkshire town of Wantage (contrary
to popular belief, Wantage is not in Oxfordshire - Berkshire's boundaries were set
over a thousand years ago, it will take more than a Whitehall mandarin to change them)

Birthplace of Alfred the Great and boasting a fine Church, Wantage
is bearing up in the face of globalisation. So, it does have it's
multinationals and chains, but it still retains it's independent small
businesses, including the fine Wessex flour mill. The town's splendid
Vale & Downland Museum regularly hold exhibitions outlining the
area's rich social, cultural and rural heritage, and locals seem to
have a healthy sense of identity and place.

Lying at the foot of the Berkshire Downs (recently rebranded, in a rare nod to
authentic regionalism, The North Wessex Downs, by some body of authority or other)
Wantage is the major settlement in a long line of them that grew out of the
spring line at the foot of the escarpment - to it's west are sprinkled,
almost at regular intervals, a line of villages stretching to the Wiltshire
border. On this particular day, I took in the first three.

I don't want to knock the well-travelled - I understand the Wanderlust
many possess even if I don't. But, a day out around Wantageshire reaffirmed
my gut instinct that this England is hard to top. I like to think that
this is a naturally occurring tribalism that can be applied to all peoples,
a feeling of place and belonging. In The Everlasting Man GK Chesterton wrote:

There are two ways of getting home, and one of them is to stay there.
The other is to walk round the whole world till we come back to the same
place.

Old Mont Abbott, the Oxfordshire carter and shepherd at Enstone, said:

I've scratched old England on the back, and her's gived me wealth untold...
Our Enstone, our Oxfordsheer, this England, take a lot of beating

I walked out of Wantage's west end for half an hour before reaching East Challow.
A linear village, it's main road slopes down in a curve, off the high
ground that commanded views that reminded me of Old Mont's observation
above. The village had a pub and, much to my annoyance my watch said it
was noon - another seven hours till opening. This tragedy resolved me
to carry on. A footpath sign saying 'WEST CHALLOW 1' ordered me to follow
the route past the old unused Wiltshire & Berkshire Canal.

Into West Challow,a clustered village with no pub, but an impressive
multiple signpost on a miniature raised Green - surely an English icon.
West Challow's church was quainter than it's sister village's, but I was
thirsty. I passed a low, single-storied building which appeared to have some
communal function, but although obviously a lovely place to live, I
left West Challow with that empty feeling of knowing it had become a
dormitory. A hundred years the place would have bussled on a day like this
- not now.

Onwards and (literally) upwards for another mile, and I reached Childrey.
This village got it's name from the Anglo-Saxon for 'Spring Stream' and
seemed in good health. A recently renovated village pond, shop (the PO
closed a few week's previous to my visit) and a fine pub.

A large, rather imposing building, dating from 1830, The Hatchet (a free house)
is a Grade II listed building and has a proper old door, dark slate roof and white washed
walls. It had, to me, the familiar sight of the now defunct Morland Brewery's ceramic built
into the brickwork...You guessed it - the place was shut. I resigned myself to mere
temperate refreshment and called at the shop for exactly that. Luckily for me, the place
was a veritable Offy! I would have preferred to have walked out with a couple of bottles
of Childrey home brew, but I had to content myself with a can of Stella (so much for
Mr 'I hate globalism', eh?)I sank the Stella sat by the pond, which I conceed is a tad
uncouth, but as far as I know I wasn't breaking any by-laws and wasn't hurting anybody.
Fifteen years ago I would have revelled in public drinking, this day I was furtively discreet!

Over the road the Master Thatcher's were just finishing off a job and I
hoped that some young guns would come and fill their boots when the
time came. The Stella gone, I reluctantly thought about the return
journey without gusto. My luck, however, was in: one of those
subsidised/community minibuses came trundling around the corner.

Getting back to the teeming citadel of Wantage, I vowed that I would
see the interior of public house that day and selected The Lamb. Just
down the road from the flour mill, from the outside this pub looked
the ticket: Thatched, low, small windows fromthe days of odd taxes...inside
the place was hideous. They've killed it, ripped out it's guts and soul.
You know the thing: MTV blaring out, mass produced furniture that made the
place look like an IKEA shop floor, G**** K***, general ponciness. A
seventeenth century pub with all its collective memory - WIPED!
I'm not advocating that everything be preserved in aspic, I'm saying
that change should be natural and gradual, over the years. An extension
added, new lick o' paint, no rush. This is fine by me, what I object to
is the wholesale gutting of a place by the big chains to match their vision
of the ideal clientele.
Still at least it kept it's name. I even don't mind pub names changing.
After the Battle of Waterloo a lot of pubs changed their name to the
Duke of Wellington, pubs used to adopt the name of new nobility, or
local occurance - this is living history. What I can't stand is the puerile
'Slug &Lettuce' type names...so, a day of mixed emotions, then. Rant over.

MINORITY REPORT

Ol' David Davis's seat, eh! In yesterday's by-election the Greens chalked up their first second place (Shan Oakes received 1,758 votes/7.3%)But what really gratified me was the English Democrats not far behind (ex-UKIPer Joanne Robinson bagged 1,714 votes) After some dismal results of late, I'm really pleased for them. Yes I know they benefitted from the exceptional circumstances, no UKIP candidate etc, but for the EDs keeping their 500 quid must be satisfying as I expect all the mentions on the Today Programme and Radio 2 that they've been getting today is. I would have thought the NF's Tess Culnane would have got more than the 544 votes she did.

Glasgow East by-election
I know the Left like nothing more than to knock lumps out of each other but according to the Daily Record, the Solidarity candidate has been going round saying that the Scottish Socialist Party candidate had been at the same school as her. The Solidarity candidate claims to have been a rebelious Mod while the SSP rep was the authoritarian Prefect. You can't make these up, can you?

England's Parliamentary Party
The EPP's Paul Gilbert claimed 78 votes in Stafford Common ward, Stafford BC yesterday. It's hard to judge if this is respectable or not. Mr Gilbert may be relatively inactive, in which case this is a fair showing. If, however, he is well-known in the area as a community figure and he put a lot of work in for this, then it's not.

Third Way backed Independent wins in Havering

2008-07-04T08:41:00.000-07:00

A few posts ago I hinted that the BNP had a chance of taking the South Hornchurch ward in the London Borough of Havering. Well, they came second. The real news is that an Independent candidate, Michael Burton, was the victor. The significance to this is that the National Liberal Party - Third Way, a grouping with its roots in Third Positionism, had publicly endorsed Burton as their preferred choice. I'm assuming NLP cadre were out actively campaigning, but I hope they themselves will confirm this on their site soon. Harrington, Williamson and co must be cockahoop. I had wondered why the NLP didn't stand, now I see why.

Incidentally,this was another night to forget for the English Democrats, who scraped 28 votes. The EDs really need to look at strategy.

English Democrats bomb in Henley

2008-06-27T10:00:00.000-07:00

The big news from yesterday's Henley by-election is that the Greens and the BNP beat Labour. I'll shed no tears for Brown's man, but what struck me was the abysmal 157 votes that the English Democrats' Derek Allpass picked up. A lot of the gossip emanating from English nationalists is that people are not bothered by the union, the national question, independence, or English parliament, but by all the bread & butter stuff that concerns us all. This is very true. So English nationalists need to start thinking about how to address doorstep, parish pump politics without discarding their patriotic goals. Those not interested in the long haul or think there is some quick fix just around the corner, might as well pack it in now.

Talking of by-elections, we are to be treated to no less than 26 candidates in the 10th July Haltemprice and Howden poll, David Davis's seat. Among them are such delights as David Icke, the New Party (on a rare electoral outing)and Tess Culnane of the NF who must be hoping for second place in light of their high poll in the London GLA elections last month, with no BNP (they back Davis on 42 days)they must fancy their chances. The English Democrats must be hoping to improve on their Henley figure.

Mad dogs and Englishmen...

2008-06-23T07:36:00.000-07:00

I see that one of the waifs & strays of English nationalism, Parish Cllr Paul Gilbert, of the phantom England's Parliamentary Party is standing in a local by-election for Stafford Common ward on July 10th. I suppose it's part of being English that we get mavericks like this going it alone, and I wish him well, but if patriot political activists were really serious about their identity they'd throw their lot in with either the EDP or FEP. Still, having the word 'England' on the ballot parer is something I suppose.

The Greens are going up against David Davies in what must be the most bizarre contest in years, as a sort of left-liberal alternative. A big gamble - head office must be hoping for second place, but it could all backfire if the electorate become enamoured of a beauty queen or a loony.