by Robert Edwards
Published in European Action No 18, September/October 2008
A reader sends me a copy of part of a newsletter from the miniscule Dagenham-based neo-nazi group, the League of St George. This two men and a dog outfit are imposters, using the slogan ‘Europe a Nation’ in a complete distortion of Oswald Mosley’s grand vision.
Europe a Nation, as most readers of this paper know, means the complete integration of Europe as a single political and economic force. There is nothing equivocal about that. ... and definitely no compromise.
However, the League of St George Führer idol worshippers have latched onto news of a recent press conference in Vienna convened by an alliance of extreme nationalist parties including representatives from Austria’s Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, the Vlaams Belang from Belgium, Jean Marie Le Pen’s Front National and the obscure Ataka party from Bulgaria. All of them are Euro-sceptic to the core. Heinz-Christian Strache of the FPÖ declared, “We call on patriots of all European countries to unite behind our banner, only together can we solve our problems”. These problems, incidentally, concern Muslims and immigration but little else.
Groupings within the European Parliament regularly form themselves into working blocs with titles that imply solidarity but all these groups are nothing more than very loose confederations of separate parties. The recent call for ‘solidarity’ is nothing but a substitute for the failed ‘Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty’ group (ITS). It failed because it was extreme nationalist to a man (and woman) and therefore basically hostile to a truly united Europe. The constituent parties had few other things in common. A spat between Alessandra Mussolini MEP and the Romanian Partidul Romania More finished it off.
The parties involved in the latest call for solidarity on ‘certain issues’ come from the same stable and are as far away from Mosley’s idea of Europe a Nation as UKIP is from the present-day European Union.
Incidentally, the ‘Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty’ group set up a few years ago in order to qualify for a big EU cash handout was composed of ... wait for it ... Front National of France, the Flemish Vlaams Belang, Austrian Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, Alterniva Sociale and Movimento Sociale Flamma Tricolore — the same people, more or less. (See Letters Page of EA, No 10, May/June 2007). That group also included UKIP renegade, Ashley Mote MEP.
The League of St George has twisted it all to imply that a ‘patriotic European political party’ is about to be launched and compares it to the Conference of Venice in 1962 which launched the National Party of Europe. It is nothing of the sort. The LSG neo-nazis have never understood the true meaning of Europe a Nation and use it as an occasional slogan for the bringing together of far-right reactionary nationalist groups that have a long record of saying, “No to Europe”. Islamophobia is their only common thread, as with the League.
Europe a Nation will never be built by the far-right because Mosley’s concept transcended both left and right in today’s politics. Essentially, it means an extension of patriotism, beyond the old nation-states ... which these far-right groups are incapable of embracing.
The League of St George ‘Aryan supermen’ like to call themselves fascists which displays a complete ignorance of Mosley’s position after 1945. When he first declared ‘Europe a Nation’ in 1948 he made it clear that he had gone beyond both fascism and the old-style democracy to a new synthesis based on full European unity. For that reason, anyone who promotes ‘fascism’ is going against the post-war idea and the essence of it, Europe a Nation. We are post-fascist in every sense of the term.
Only European Action, with its promotion of the idea for a National Party of Europe, remains true to the cause for which many of us fought. We can do without these imposters who were never with us and these ten narrow nationalist groups within Europe because ten pygmies do not a giant make.
2 comments:
Europe a Nation will never be built by the far-right because Mosley’s concept transcended both left and right in today’s politics. Essentially, it means an extension of patriotism, beyond the old nation-states ... which these far-right groups are incapable of embracing
Spot on.E.U.escapades are unfortunately providing all sorts of grist for the mill of these puny patriots.What sort of reforms can correct this?
Interesting article. I never thought I would say this but you are a little hard on these Neo-Nazis (at least for the wrong reasons). I am sure it is all very exiting for this ‘two men and a dog’ operation to suit itself up and meet up with other groups as pointlessly futile as themselves. I know these insignificant near criminal types dared to compare this meeting to the conference of Venice (though I am not sure the conference of Venice achieved that much more, it is more an insult that they compare themselves with the political calibre of their ‘predecessors’ perhaps?). I have always been a little confused as to why on earth this party (‘The league of St. George’ along from all sorts of other horrid groups) is featured on the Oswald Mosley website, it does him a great disservice. I was a little concerned that your only problem with this group was that it did not conform to the post war Mosley movement as if to suggest the BUF had anything in common with the bankrupt ideology of National Socialism or White nationalism (justified through neo-Marxist identity politic no less!). I also fail to see how ‘Europe a nation’ is a static idea too, certain developments in the last 15 years call for a rethink in my opinion. It is a little strange to think that European socialism was in OM’s mind anything other than an attempt to campaign on what was at the time the very real possibility of a united Europe in political environment hostile to his brand of pre war fascism. It is also worth pointing out that the Ataka party are infinitely larger than the league of St. George, it seems unfair to call them obscure simply on virtue that they are Bulgarian. Otherwise a good article I am glad you put these scoundrels in their place.
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