Photo: Sian Elvin; Photo adaptation by Ann Yip

Fascist group distributing posters around campus

Stickers from the fascist youth group National Action were found around campus last week.

Students alerted the Warwick Anti-Racism Society after finding the stickers in the ground floor library toilets and on lamp posts outside Tocil and the Humanities building.

The group is a small, clandestine organisation of students, committed to far-right activism and are currently recruiting white males between the age of 15 and 29.

Their previous stunts have included banner drops in Birmingham and a flash demo in Coventry against halal meat, which they contend is “not fit for human consumption”.

Their website includes a detailed program aimed at appealing to “generation hate…. desensitised, brutalised, and completely irreverent of their parents’ values”.

It berates, amongst other things, ‘cultural Marxism’, liberal politics, and so-called moderate nation- alists who don’t openly identify as racist. The articles also con- tain highly anti-Semitic senti- ments and various racial slurs.

The group’s presence on campus – whether in the form of stickers or indeed members – has ignited fears amongst the student, and especially its many ethnic minorities.

A third-year History and Spanish student who wished to remain anonymous said: “I am appalled that such a group is being allowed to advertise itself on campus, I am all for freedom of speech, however when this infringes upon the liberties and the comfort of a large section of the student body, I think it is unacceptable and offensive.”

So far no-one has been caught distributing National Action’s material and at this point there is little that the Students’ Union can do, despite evident violation of the Equal Opportunities by-law and incitement of racial hatred.

Rumours have been circulating that suggest members of the group may in fact be connected to the University; in reality the nature of the group is still shrouded in mystery.

Various students have however decided to make a stand, and a coalition of Warwick’s many liberation societies will hold an anti-fascist demo in the coming weeks.

Another student stressed the need for cooperation and counter-action.

She said: “Incidences like this make clear we need to have more of a dialogue on race and racism at Warwick. Societies need to work together to combat such negative, dangerous attitudes.

“Hopefully through a collaborative, sustained approach, we can remove this group from campus – no matter how big or small their influence might be at Warwick – and make it a safe space for ethnic-minority students.”

Comments (12)

  • Stephen Cowley

    Do the campus authorities not support free speech for the radical right?

    • Freedom of speech =/= hate speech. This is inciting racial hatred, among other things. Students have the right to be on campus without fear of attack from literal Neo-Nazis.

      • Stephen Cowley

        I agree that students have the right to be on campus without fear of attack, but they also have a right to an education, which involves the ability to express their opinions freely and to hear the views of others, including those whom they may have an irrational fear of. I’m not sure what you mean by “=/=”, but it seems that you wish to deny freedom of speech to students by passing the right to judge whether it is “hate speech” to some unnamed third party. This must greatly reduce the value of students’ educational experience, particularly in liberal arts, where freedom of expression is a critical condition of learning of any real value.

        • in what way is the fear irrational? The group that are advertising are a group who want to remove all ethnic minorities from Britain. It isn’t irrational for an ethnic minority to fear them.

          The argument about education also doesn’t work. Students are taught about fascism, and about different political viewpoints, and are free to hold whichever viewpoint they want. This group doesn’t seek to educate, they are an activist group, hoping to achieve a Britain that only accommodates ‘British’ people, which to them excludes anyone who isn’t white. These groups hold demonstrations with the aim of spreading hate against non-white people in Britain.

          Also just on the free speech =/= hate speech question, firstly =/= means ‘is not equal to’. Secondly, the University supports free speech but the University does not support hate speech. The group in question falls under the heading of hate speech. Not as judged by any random third party, but as decided by the law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech_laws_in_the_United_Kingdom). If you don’t like the law, then your issue lies with powers much greater than the University of Warwick, and should be aired in a place much more influential than the comment thread of a student newspaper.

          • zack harbinger

            It was hatred that brought those ethnic minorities into Britain in the first place. Hatred for the traditional values of the White British by the liberal elites, the impetus behind these elites’ self-righteous, self-hating, pretentious, hypocritical, greedy, treacherous worldview being organized Europhobic, jewish supremacist infiltration and subversion. The only hatred that is tolerated is anti-white hatred. That’s not only protected speech, but is promoted from the top down in today’s society.

  • Ruth Roberton

    That photo is ridiculous. How did it take 2 people to do that?

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