Robert Edwards Interview

Interview with Blood and Honour magazine (published in B&H issue no 41)

B&H Question: Mr Edwards, what is European Action and what exactly motivates you?

Answer: European Action is the title of both our bi-monthly newspaper and an informal association of those who remain loyal to the ideas and policies of Sir Oswald Mosley. By his policies, I mean his post-war thinking on European unity which he proclaimed as 'Europe a Nation' way back in 1948. European Action has several supporters who were members of Mosley's Union Movement, including myself. It was the inspiring leadership of Mosley that motivates us today, along with our belief that he was right on so many issues. We also believe his ideas were well before their time, particularly the economic arguments in relation to the international banking system. Mosley predicted the problems we are faced with today. That is why we carry on the struggle that began in our youth. It is far from over.

B&H Question: You were once jailed for drawing the cartoon strips for a comic called The Stormer. Can you explain the circumstances that brought this about?

Answer: It was way back in 1981 when I drafted the cartoons. In retrospect, it was more of an experiment in bad taste than anything else. I suppose I would now be considered the Russell Brand of the cartooning pen. I was given a twelve months prison sentence at Snaresbrook Crown Court in East London and I served just over nine months. I remember the wording of the original summons - “material likely to incite racial hatred ...”. There was never any evidence that these comics actually incited anyone to harm or injure others but I do admit the cartoons were a bit over the top. I tend to avoid depicting Jews or black people in caricature. The risks are too great and sitting in a prison cell is a complete waste of time. Martyrdom is often short-lived in the memory of others, besides.
As a cartoonist, I do find myself severely restricted. There have been many more examples of cartoons causing serious controversy since then. I am sure they will not be the last.

B&H Question: When did you first get involved in politics?

Answer: My father was a Welsh miner and a communist, so I was brought up in a highly charged political household. My father admired the Soviet Union and especially so since he served in the Royal Navy on the Arctic Convoys to Russia. As a lad I began to form an admiration for Hitler's Germany and this tended to cause a rift between us which went on for years. At the best of times it was a controlled rivalry. I learned very quickly that communists do not engage in debate nor tolerate anything that challenges their political mission. But my regard for Hitler's Germany evolved into something more British after reading The Fascists in Britain by Colin Cross. I was still a schoolboy.
After leaving school, I joined the Army at 17 and, on my way home on leave, I stopped in Victoria, London, and found myself at 302 Vauxhall Bridge Road ... the European Bookshop and the offices of Mosley's Union Movement. It was a fateful event that changed the course of my life. My political apprenticeship was to begin from that point in my life.

B&H Question: What aspect of Mosley's ideas inspired you most? Was it anything like the pre-war British Union of Fascists, for example?

Answer: After reading The Fascists in Britain, it was understandably easy to associate Mosley with the fascism of the 1930s and to assume that he remain an unreconstructed Blackshirt. After reading Union Movement literature in the comfort of a barrack room I found a wealth of advanced thinking that transcended the fascism of the Thirties. To me, Mosley was a forward-looking genius with answers to everything. I was given a paperback book called Mosley-Right or Wrong? containing over 300 questions and answers on a plethora of subjects. I had never read anything so brilliant. It was a blueprint for the reconstruction of Britain and Europe spelled out in the most easily read style. I still have that first copy after all these years ... kept together with tape and a strong elastic band. Europe, Faith and Plan was another great Mosley book and I quickly became a National European believing strongly in the necessity of complete European unification with common government and an economy that would be self-sufficient. Mosley explained that he had gone beyond both fascism and the old-style democracy to a new synthesis which he described as 'European Socialism'.

B&H Question: Why exactly did Mosley go beyond the fascism of the British Union of Fascists? Can you explain how fascism had become out-dated and unnecessary after all the struggle and sacrifices that he and many thousands of his pre-war supporters had endured, including being imprisoned without charge or trial under Defence Regulation 18B?

Answer: There were two main reasons. Firstly, there was the fact that Britain had lost its Empire as a consequence of the Second World War. The British Empire had been the means whereby the BUF's Empire Insulation Policy could create the mechanism for insulating the British worker from under-cutting by unfair international trading that used overseas cheap labour from countries outside the Empire. We had all the overseas resources and access to important minerals, for example. The British Empire could easily have been self-sufficient and our workers protected.
Britain, alone and without Empire, could not possibly compete against cheap sweated labour from the East, as it can not do so today. We have lost our major means of manufacturing production. That makes us vulnerable and dependent on others. And so Mosley revised his thinking.
The second reason was the resolve that Europeans should never fight each other again and European unification would be the means of preventing further wars. Mosley always claimed that he had no blood on his hands from the 'Brothers' War', as he termed it, being interned in 1940 for his campaign for a negotiated peace. He had fought in the First World War in trench and in the air and had seen the senseless slaughter of much of his generation. He was resolved that this should not occur again. Certain interests were intent on war with Germany and so the inevitable happened with appalling consequences for all of Europe which was then carved up between the Americans and the Russians. What lessons do we learn from this? As Mosley said, “The worst were ever united and the best were ever divided”. He called for an extension of patriotism ... to regard Europe a Nation as our country and to fight for its liberation

B&H Question: What is the position of European Action on the subject of race? Are you, for example, white supremacists? I ask this because many still regard Mosley as a racist.

Answer: That is a complete distortion of the facts and possibly something that holds us back in the public eye. Mosley rejected the idea that some races were above other races and that they should be there to be exploited. We had all been victims of international finance, as we remain so today. Races are neither superior nor inferior to each other ... they are different. That was his fundamental position on the subject. He was the first to openly campaign against coloured mass immigration in the early 1950s because he could see it for what it really was. A British government had reneged on a deal with the West Indies, preferring to trade with Batista's Cuba, with the result that its sugar industry collapsed at home. A further consequence was mass unemployment there. A British Nationality Act then opened the flood-gates to what became a large pool of cheap coloured labour with many West Indians willing to do menial jobs for low wages. It was always dictated by 'the markets' and the interests of international finance. The result is a bogus 'multiculturalism', as if it were something desired and perfectly natural. We had all been the victims of powerful forces motivated solely by profit. We should always look at the larger picture that way and not be so quick to attack non-white people simply for being pawns in the same game.

B&H Question: You say that you support the idea of a National Party of Europe. What is the origin of this idea and how do you propose to bring it about? For example, there is a European National Front and there have been attempts to form nationalist blocs in the European Parliament. How are you so different?

Answer: We are different on important fundamental points. In 1962, Mosley attended the Conference of Venice set up to bring together leaders of political parties that would agree on common action by pooling their resources into a single political party for ALL Europeans. Included were the British, German, Italian and Belgian delegates. They all agreed to use the title NATIONAL PARTY OF EUROPE and to eventually drop their separate national titles. It was not just a confederation of European patriots but much more. It was a recognition that Europe should be one with a single, unitary party to campaign to this end.
News of this reverberated throughout the Continent and one of Mosley's National Party of Europe meetings was savagely attacked in Trafalgar Square in 1962 by a coalition of communist and Jewish organisations. These attacks continued in other towns and cities of Britain with the collusion of Government, the police often failing to keep order.
The result was disastrous for Mosley's movement as the conspiracy of the Establishment press along with Mosley's enemies turned it against Mosley, claiming that his presence alone incited this violence. He called off his campaign.
Only Mosley and the Belgian, Jean Thiriart, remained true to the European idea while the Germans and Italians reverted to their separate nationalistic positions in their separate enclaves. Yes, it failed but the real achievement had been that these separate parties had come together in the first place in order to sign an agreement that, to my mind, still stands today as a manifesto for a revival in the future.
With all respects to these gentlemen but the European National Front is an umbrella grouping in intent. It is not a single unitary force but, rather, a collection of separate nationalistic parties that find a common thread in parts of their ideology. They can still go their separate ways if they consider their own national interests above European solidarity. This has occurred when blocs are formed in the European Parliament and then they fall apart because one group does not like another group. They are trying to resuscitate this today but many of the same groups are involved and nationalist rivalry will always rear its head. As Mosley said, “Twenty pygmies can not make a giant”. And, of course, marriages of convenience rarely hold together for long.
We are different because we transcend the old nation-states and do not cling so much to the past. We are for one Europe, for one people and one system for the benefit of all.
How do we achieve this? It is hard work but we need to educate and inspire with a revolutionary idea. That is where our paper, European Action, comes into the equation. It is the flagship of the idea, carrying it out to those who are open-minded enough to grasp the significance of the Mosley message.
But mark my words before anyone should think we want to submerge us all into a common, grey morass. We want to preserve the great diversity of the European people, their culture and traditions, and not imitate America with its 'melting pot', leading to a coffee-coloured nation. Our call for unification has a major purpose and that is to find strength in union, pooling our sovereignties in order to create a single, powerful sovereignty that can stand alone without fear of anything. Within this, we can organise and give all Europeans what they want, which is the freedom to conduct their own affairs free of the vagaries of international trade and the exploitative nature of international finance.
It is a message worthy of the best revolutionaries. We began long ago and so we continue today, drawing in new blood and fresh minds that can grasp the importance of Mosley's message.
We say, “Britain first in Europe a nation” ... the idea that we do not lose sight of the land from whence we came, as we go forward together into that great extension of patriotism – Europe, the coming new force in the world.

B&H Question: What is your position regarding the Holocaust of European Jewry and laws in some European countries that criminalise any criticism or revision of the accepted version of events? Do you believe that there was a German policy for exterminating European Jewry?

Answer: This comes under the category of war crimes and atrocities which still go on today. I would first argue that the Holocaust was not something unique in history and that there have been many holocausts throughout history equally worthy of our sympathy and attention. The Zionists push this too far with the result that this claim of 'uniqueness' only offends other peoples and racial groups that have also suffered horrific genocide. For example, the Palestinians have suffered terribly for more than half a century, being murdered by the Zionists on a daily basis. They pick on children, the frail and the weak. The Gaza Strip is virtually a concentration camp with the Zionist IDF behaving like sadistic camp guards. They torture and harass Palestinians on a level that is undoubtedly inhumane to the extreme.
And yet we are bombarded with Holocaust material on screen and on the airwaves. Yes, we know all about it, so why keep reminding us to the point that many are sick and tired of it all? The Zionists would like the entire world to feel guilt but the point is, we in Britain had nothing to do with it. It is a German issue which the German people should deal with and sort out. Their government makes the laws that incarcerate citizens for questioning the Holocaust. This is persecution for a thought crime which is something totally unacceptable in a free society. The answer would be to remove the politicians who make these laws and replace them with German patriots who care about their own people.
Which brings us to Holocaust Day. They should change the name to 'Day of All Holocausts in Human History'. That would receive my sympathy without hesitation. But I would rather focus on the terrible things happening today.
Mosley said, “Let all things be discussed and truth prevail”. That should be the criterion on which people approach the subject of the Holocaust. I am not an expert on the subject so I can not answer your last question. That is a matter for accredited historians with open minds, along with forensic scientists and other experts. They should be free to carry out investigations wherever they choose.
I would not use the subject as a political issue at all. I would simply object to laws in some countries that criminalise opinion simply because it does not conform. This is something they attributed to the Hitler era. What does that say about the Zionists and their acolytes?
I do not want to sound like an echo of Basil Fawlty with, “Don't mention the war”, but Europe still needs to heal the wounds of past conflicts. Reconciliation requires that we Europeans treat each other with equal respect and the memory of the Second World War should be balanced with a recognition of the decency and honour of the German soldier during that time. Having said that, I feel that any memory of the Holocaust belongs exclusively to the memorial at Yad Vashem in Israel where those who wish go for a visit can do so.

B&H Questions: What do you call yourselves in the context of your political struggle? How are you different to other patriotic groups?

Answer: We are National Europeans and our creed is European Socialism. Both terms were created by Oswald Mosley when leader of Union Movement. The term 'National European' came to the fore during the negotiations for establishing the National Party of Europe in the early 1960s. It should not be confused with 'European nationalists', which is sometimes used to describe the various petty nationalists within Europe.
The National European regards Europe as his nation just as a British person regards himself British, whether he be English, Scots or Welsh. He is no less an Englishman for that. National Europeans have long subscribed to the slogan, 'Britain First in Europe a Nation', which speaks for itself.
The days have long gone when patriotism meant sticking to the past and the status quo. It was long used as an alibi for sending the ordinary man to war and slaughter for a cause that was not his own. It is currently being used to send our soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan in a quarrel that has more to do with stealing the mineral resources of other people, namely oil. The Americans even instituted a Patriot Act, used to persecute their own people.
In my view, patriotism entails doing the best for your own people. 'Of one's fathers' is the meaning of the original Greek word (patrios) for patriotism and so one would say that it concerns the people as a family going back in time. It has nothing to do with oligarchies, aristocracies or the privileged few. It is the ordinary people as a family bound in common blood that is the basis of patriotic sentiment.
We also say this of Europe as a great family bound in blood ... the blood of the European peoples. It was too often spilled but now it will be preserved in a metaphorical sense, in kinship and in brotherhood. This is the meaning of the extension of patriotism in Mosley's concept of Europe a Nation.

Copyright© Robert Edwards 2009
For more details write to: European Action, PO Box 415, Ramsgate, Kent CT11 9WW www.europeanaction.com