Hate group supporters active on campus

A fascist group has carried out activities at the University of Warwick among other West Midlands universities.

National Action, a self-proclaimed racial hate group active around the University, Coventry and the West Midlands, has recently staged two local protests.

National Action supporters disrupted a Warwick Anti-Sexism Society (WASS) protest at the University on January 15. The WASS protest focused on a speaker event that featured King’s College London professor Alex Callinicos, a left-wing researcher criticised by campaigners for being a rape apologist.

National Action supporters gate-crashed the protest against Mr Callinicos, focusing on the far-left nature of the SWP and declaring on their website: “Marxist off Campus!”

National Action also staged a flash demo in Coventry city centre on February 1, holding banners that read “National Action – national and socialist”.

The group protested against Frangos restaurant, who National Action claimed to be deceiving customers by serving halal meat, which they considered “unfit for human consumption by British people”.

National Action have held several protests in Birmingham including draping banners over bridges that read: “Anti-racist is a Codeword for Anti-White”.

Far-right activism on UK campuses is rare, but National Action are aiming to develop a youth following. In their ‘Strategy and Promotion’ guide it is stated: “The youth have finally found a true friend in the spectre of National Socialism.”

Sam Westrop, director of Stand for Peace, told the Coventry Observer: “The emergence of National Action, its undisguised racism and declared alignment with fascist movements in Greece and elsewhere, is an alarming development.

“There have been very few instances of far-right activism on university campuses but that seems to be changing.”

The Boar recently reported that National Action leaflets were distributed around the Warwick campus.

National Action declared on its blog that it wants to “replicate” the infrastructure – though “not their ideas, slogans, meanders, etc.” – of the Greek Golden Dawn Party, a group that has previously been accused of murders.