Neofolk or Neovolk? One's Personal Take on a Death in June Concert in Baltimore

Death in June, Baltimore 2013

"This is my personal account. It is not scholarly and does not represent the particular ideology of any specific group. It’s my best attempt at being honest about a really crappy situation I put myself in and it’s mostly meant for people that I don't think were deliberately doing anything to hurt anyone. Nonetheless, I think everyone who went to this event should look deeply at the decision they made and whether or not they would ever want to make it again."

Read the full article here >>

Queers to shut down Death In June in San Francisco on September 13th / DIJ exposed by queer anti-fascist

Due to a technical snafu we have only just been able to publish this iece today, the day f the protests - we publish it anyway because it is an excellent article and may be of use to anyone who wants to protest at future DiJ gigs

Bay Area Antifa alert!

An anti-fascist queer bloc has been called to protest and shut down the Third Position fascist band 'Death In June' concert on Friday, September 13th - 9 pm @ the Mezzanine in San Francisco. While there is a queer bloc all anti-fascists are invited but if you are a straight person please do not dominate the protest. As you can read below Douglas Pearce is a gay fascist so it is best if queer folks are on the front. Any homophobic remarks made by anyone in our presence with be dealt with accordingly.
Please contact the Mezzanine to demand they cancel they show or we will shut it down ourselves:

444 Jessie St (between Mint St & 6th St)
San Francisco, CA 94103
Neighborhoods: Union Square

info@mezzaninesf.com
415-625-8880
https://www.facebook.com/mezzanineSF

To get to the Mezzanine by public transport: Bart, Bus or Muni to Powell Street Stop (5th and Market). Walk down 5th toward Mission and take a right into Mint Plaza (near Chez Papa + 54 Mint) Continue down Jessie St. and the venue is on your right.

Why do we oppose Death In June?

Racist, Euro-centric, and Fascist statements made by Douglas Pearce.

1. The European Colonization of Australia
\
When asked Do you see Australia inescapably as an outpost of European colonialism? Douglas stated:
"As Dutch, British and French explorers literally put this Great Southern Land on the map it would be ridiculous to say that modern day Australia is anything other than a grand - and successful - outpost of Euro-colonialism and, more specifically Anglo-Celt British colonialism. It's a fact of life like the Euro-colonization of the Americas etc. If it was an outpost of, let's say, Iranian or Zimbabwean colonialism would so many people still be so desperately trying to get into Australia by any means necessary, legal or otherwise? It's doubtful. Thank the Gods for Euro-colonialism!" - Douglas Pearce ¹

2. Genocide

Q: How do you imagine these scents of genocide, what’s this “perfume”? What does it evoke to you, in real? What brings men to do that?

A: "I also say in the same song that “you can’t smell experience like that”! But, if genocide smells of anything it’s probably Nostalgia. Once men catch a whiff of that most will chase after it." - Douglas Pearce ²

3. Xenophobia

Q: Looking back and making some kind of the symbolic conclusion to the end of epoch, what are your present anxieties and prophesies about the future?

A: "IT'S HARD NOT TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT THE "END TIME" AS WE RACE TOWARDS THE END OF THE MILLENNIUM. I DO THINK ABOUT IT AND I DO WONDER IF ALL THE PROPHECIES FROM ALL THE DIFFERENT RELIGIONS IN THE WORLD WILL COME TRUE OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS/YEARS. I EVEN SOMETIMES WONDER HOW PROPHETIC SOME OF MY WORDS COULD BE. I FEEL THAT 'PURITY OF INTENT' SHOULD ALWAYS DICTATE ART OF WORTH - IN ALL ITS FORMS. I'M VERY CAREFUL WITH THE WORDS I CHOOSE. "EUROPA HAS BURNED AND WILL BURN AGAIN" BECAME ONLY TOO TRUE. UNFORTUNATELY!

THE WORLD SEEMS TO BE SO FULL OF SO MANY DANGERS THAT IT'S HARD TO SINGLE ANY PARTICULAR ONES OUT. CERTAINLY THE MOST OBVIOUS THAT SPRING TO MIND ARE THE GROWTHS IN ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISM AND OUT OF CONTROL BREEDING. EVEN IN EUROPA, WITH ZERO POPULATION GROWTH IN MANY COUNTRIES, THOSE WHO ARE DOING THE BREEDING APPEAR TO ME, AND I THINK MANY OTHERS, TO BE OF DUBIOUS CHARACTER. THEY FUCK, THEY HAVE KIDS AND THAT IS ALL THEY DO! I DON'T BELIEVE THAT IS ENOUGH!! I DON'T THINK I NEED TO TELL ANY RUSSIAN ABOUT ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISM. I ALWAYS BACKED THE FORMER U.S.S.R IN AFGHANISTAN AND FEEL THE WEST, BY BACKING THE WRONG SIDE IN THAT WAR HAS STILL YET TO PAY THE FULL PRICE OF THAT MISTAKE. I'VE NEVER AGREED WITH THE PHILOSOPHY THAT IF HE IS MY ENEMY'S ENEMY HE MUST BE MY FRIEND. THAT TRULY IS NAIVE. AUSTRALIA IS NOW EXPERIENCING THE CONSEQUENCES OF SUCH NAIVETY WITH INDONESIA. BY THE TIME YOU GET THIS WE COULD BE AT WAR WITH THEM. TRADITIONAL ENEMIES WERE NEVER FRIENDS!" - Douglas Pearce

Q: Some years ago you've left your motherland, claiming that England to your mind "isn't the best place for the spiritual development" in Europe because of the present degradation of the country and the nation. Can you comment these words?

A: "AS I'VE SAID IN A PREVIOUS QUESTION I TRULY FEEL THAT ENGLAND, AND PROBABLY TO A LESSER EXTENT, MAINLAND EUROPA, HAS SEVERE STOCK PROBLEMS. THAT, AS FAR AS I CAN SEE HAS ONLY GOT WORSE. THOSE WHO SHOULDN'T BE ABLE TO BREED ARE DOING SO WITH SUCH FREQUENCY THAT THE UK IS BEING OVER POPULATED BY MORONS WITH NOTHING TO DO EXCEPT HARASS THE REST OF THE POPULATION. THERE IS NO OTHER PLACE FOR THEM. BRITAIN AS AN INDUSTRIAL POWER IS A THING OF YESTERYEAR. LARGE POOLS OF MANUAL, UNSKILLED LABOURERS ARE NO LONGER REQUIRED. HOWEVER, THE OLD HABITS LINGER ON. MONEY IS STILL GIVEN TO THOSE WHO BREED. THE MORE KIDS YOU HAVE THE MORE MONEY YOU GET. THIS IS TOTALLY UNREAL. IN A COUNTRY THAT NOW GAINS ITS INCOME FROM THE ARTS, HIGH TECHNOLOGY AND TOURISM THERE ARE FEW PLACES FOR THOSE CAPABLE OF ONLY PUSHING A BROOM IN FRONT OF THEM.

BRITAIN IMPORTED MILLIONS OF UNSKILLED LABOURERS FROM THE COLONIES FOR THAT KIND OF WORK AND LOOK WHAT A HUGE SUCCESS THAT WAS! THE HATRED IS BARELY RESTRAINED INTO THE OCCASSIONAL RIOT. I DON'T LIKE BEING IN A PLACE WITH SUCH AN ATMOSPHERE. EVEN GERMANY, THE FORMER RICHEST COUNTRY IN WESTERN EUROPA SEEMS TO BE TANGIBLY FALLING TO BITS. IT IS NO LONGER AS CLEAN AND AS WELL ORGANISED AS I REMEMBER FROM, SAY, 10 YEARS AGO. IT HAS BEEN FLOODED BY THOSE WHO WANT BUT, WITH LITTLE TO GIVE! THE WEST'S LIBERALISM WILL BE ITS DEATH." - Douglas Pearce ³

4. "Euro-centric Racialism"

Q: In interviews you've expressed Eurocentrism. How do you feel about fans that are Eurocentric/Racialist?

A: "Depending upon their ' version ' of Eurocentric Racialism, then 9 times out of 10 I feel very comfortable with it. This is how it's supposed to be. I would like to think that the Klu Klux Klan version isn't included in this. Eurocentrics goes beyond reactionary Christian, political militias. I believe in seizing the end of time, not being a passive part of it. " - Douglas Pearce ⁴

Q: Don't you think your vision concerning the history of Europe (which in your opinion is the best one) is nevertheless a European opinion? I'm not talking about the americans who have no past and who probably have no more future but about the Chinese, for example, who were in the past a very powerful nation...

A: "Yes, I am totally Euro-centric. I'm not overly concerned with the past but, I do care about the present and the future. European culture, morals, ethics, whatever, are under attack from all sides these days. Even, most dangerous of all, from within Europe. Whilst we have room for regret about some of the mistakes of the past (and of the present) regarding our treatment of the earth and some of it's peoples/wildlife, there is also plenty to be content about. I'm tired of being made to feel guilty about the sins of the world. Europe has contributed a MASSIVE amount to the world on ALL fronts. We will regret the day when we let that position slip from our hands and fade from our memory." - Douglas Pearce ⁵

5. National Socialism

Q: WHY HAVE YOU TAKEN SUCH AN INTEREST IN NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMANY? DO YOU, FOR INSTANCE, QUESTION YOURSELF WHETHER YOU WOULD HAVE JOINED THE RANKS OR NOT?

A: "Yes, naturally. It's been an overriding interest since I was very, very young. My parents used to be quite angry about the morbid fascination I had as a child for this part of history. In the end, though, they actually gave up on it because I was so sincere in my interest. It wasn't just a passing dalliance but an actual obsession and I seem to be quite knowledgeable in that area. Outside of that, what are the reasons for my interest? I think, overridingly, that one of the main reasons is that you can still communicate with people who have taken part in these events. You just don't have to read books or see films about them, these people are very much alive today." - Douglas Pearce ⁶

6. The fascist symbol the "Totenkopf"

Q: Throughout the period of Death In June you have employed strong imagery - what is the significance of symbolism such as the Totenkopf, most commonly associated with extreme right-wing philosophy, to you?

A: "The Totenkopf is used all over Europe as a sign of total commitment, so I've never really had any problems with it. When I thought of Death In June it was really the be all and end all of my life - it still is - so that's why I chose to use that symbol, plus the fact that the simple symbolism reads easy. The Totenkopf for Death, and the six for the sixth month - June. I've always been interested, intrigued...and I suppose obsessive with symbols in so many ways and that particular one is a perfect representation. " - Douglas Pearce ⁷

Douglas P. being gay is not an excuse to promote racist or fascist ideas. One of the founders of fascism was openly homosexual.

While many claim that his work is clearly shock value because Douglas P. is gay, I am queer and recognize his aesthetic to be aligned with that of the SA who was lead by a gay fascist named Ernst Rohm. ⁸

Gay historian Frank Rector wrote "Although it was clear the Nazi party viewed homosexuals negatively, as was evident from the destruction of Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute of Sexual Science in Berlin, “some gays [in the SS] may have been reconciled by the knowledge that Hitler’s right hand man, Ernst Rohm, was a homosexual," ⁸

"projected a social order in which homosexuality would be regarded as a human behaviour pattern of high repute... He flaunted his homosexuality in public and insisted his cronies do the same. He believed straight people weren't as adept at bullying and aggression as homosexuals, so homosexuality was given a high premium in the SA." ⁸

Gay columnist Johann Hari writes "Rohm often referred to the ancient Greek tradition of sending gay solider couples into battle, because they were believed to be the most ferocious fighters. The famous pass of Thermopylae, for example was held by 300 soldiers - who consisted of 150 gay couples. In its early years, the SA - Hitler and Rohm's underground army - was seen as predominantly gay. Rohm assigned prominent posts to his lovers, making Edmund Heines his deputy and Karl Ernst the SA commander in Berlin. The organisation would sometimes meet in gay bars. The gay art historian Christian Isermayer said in an interview, 'I got to know people in the SA. They used to throw riotous parties even in 1933... I once attended one. It was quite well-behaved but thoroughly gay. But then, in those days, the SA was 'ultra-gay.' " ⁹

The SA was one of the most violent fascist groups during World War II. In this 2011 interview Douglas Pearce acknowledges his interest in gay fascist Ernst Rohm:

INTERVIEWER: "I recently saw the Danish movie "Brotherhood". The Plot is that Lars has to leave the army after accusations of having made a pass at some of his men. Disillusioned he joins a Neo-Nazi movement, even though they practice gay-bashing. He and his peer Jimmy become embroiled in a secret love affair. Moving from hostility through grudging admiration to friendship and finally passion. Events take a darker turn when their relationship is uncovered. What's your opinion about Brotherhood/Homosexuality in the SA and how can be (if can be) mixed Nazism and Homosexuality?"

Douglas Pearce: "I’ve heard about the ‘Brotherhood’ film you mention but haven’t seen it. I do intend to get a copy of it on DVD soon. I’d be better placed to answer that question regarding that film after that. However, regarding being Gay in the S.A. the early Nazi movement and brotherhood etc. then at this late stage of the game with few, if any, surviving members that were involved in any of that at the time we can only surmise or read books and wonder. And, it is a big wonder! A truly fascinating question as to what was, and what might have been. However, it’s an impossible question to answer with any accuracy. The only thing I can say is that nearly 20 years ago I did have a conversation with a then member of the SS who later became in the war a very high ranking member of the Waffen SS and was around in those early days in 1930s Germany and he said that during the Night Of The Long Knives the question of homosexuality was never brought up. They weren’t sure exactly what was happening when they were told to be on alert at the end of June, 1934 and that they expected an attempt on Hitler’s life from elements in the Storm Troops (S.A.) The Gay angle appeared only after the purge of Ernst Roehm and his comrades as some sort of extra excuse made up by Goering and Goebbels as to why such a purge was necessary. About a year later homosexuality then also became officially illegal in Germany which up until then had no specific laws against being Gay. That was unlike Britain or the USA which had outlawed homosexuality for decades and where it was still punishable by imprisonment and sometimes death. Hitler doesn’t have seemed to have made any direct comments, or even be concerned, about any of his close comrades being Gay and, in fact, there are strong rumours that when he was a struggling artist in Vienna he did spend time being a male prostitute to help pay his bills etc. Being Gay and being aligned to the Nazi Party certainly didn’t become apparently mutually exclusive until the change of laws in 1935." [10]

Crisis from 'left' to right wing

"I think Crisis (Well Doug and me) saw Crisis as way of imbuing or infiltrating a distinct ideological strain of left wing politics into punk." - Tony Wakeford [11]

"At the start of the eighties, Tony and I were involved in radical left politics and beneath it history students. In search of a political view for the future we came across National Bolshevism which is closely connected with the SA hierarchy. People like Gregor Strasser and Ernst Röhm who were later known as 'second revolutionaries' attracted our attention." - Douglas Pearce

1. http://www.deathinjune.org/wiki/index.php/Interview:2011-NegativeGuestList
2. http://www.deathinjune.org/wiki/index.php/Interview:2010-Obskure1
3. www.deathinjune.org/wiki/index.php/Interview:1999-Achtung_Baby
4. http://www.deathinjune.org/wiki/index.php/Interview:1998-Scapegoat
5. http://www.deathinjune.org/wiki/index.php/Interview:1996-Descent
6. http://www.deathinjune.org/wiki/index.php/Interview:1994-Per_Nostrom
7. www.deathinjune.org/wiki/index.php/Interview:1996-Judas_Kiss
8. excerpt from - Nazi Extermination of Homosexuals by Frank Rector (New York 1981)
9. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-strange-strange-story_b_136697.html
10. http://www.deathinjune.org/wiki/index.php/Interview:2011-Pride-CulturaGay
11. http://www.deathinjune.org/wiki/index.php/Interview:200

Death in June will be playing at eight locations across the United States. Please contact the venues, tell your community, and organize non-violent direct action if necessary.

Death in June Tour Dates and Venue Information

• THURS. 12TH SEPT. THE VEX LOS ANGELES CA.
• FRI. 13TH SEPT. MEZZANINE SAN FRANCISCO CA.
• SAT. 14TH SEPT. INFEST AUSTIN TX.
• MON. 16TH SEPT. REGGIES CHICAGO IL.
• TUES. 17TH SEPT. RESPECTABLE STREET COCONUT CREEK/WEST PALM BEACH FL.
• FRI. 20TH SEPT. THE BELL HOUSE BROOKLYN NY.
• SAT. 21ST SEPT. OLD TOWN HALL SALEM MASS.
• SUN. 22ND SEPT. THE OTTOBAR BALTIMORE MD.

Further Reading

• Death in June - a Nazi band?
• Ex-Crisis member Tony Wakeford
• A great site exposing Third Positionist bands, Who Makes the Nazis?

Anon: Fascists Rally at Stella Natura Festival

Guest post by a concerned group of antifascists who are lovers of black metal and Nature

This coming September 20th-22nd, the music festival Stella Natura will be taking place in Tahoe National Forest in Northern California. This festival is a project of Adam Torruella of the Pesanta Urfolk label and distro, and it is the third year it will take place. A three day long music festival in the woods which serves as a meeting ground for people seeking to reconnect to the land and form community seems innocent enough. However when certain individuals seek to build this event on a foundation of white nationalist propaganda and promote an extremely racist agenda, it is a call to action for all who consider themselves opposed to white supremacy. The information following was compiled with the intent of exposing these individuals for who and what they are, no longer allowing them to exploit music scenes and spirituality as they seek to hide their true colors.

Asatru Folk Assembly (AFA) is the first listed sponsor for the festival. Asatru is a pagan spirituality focused on the revival of Norse gods and mythology, and it has unfortunately been filled with deep associations with various fascist organizations. The Southern Poverty Law Center have written a concise and highly recommended article on dubious figures within Asatru, in which they explain: “Odinism, which is closely related to Asatrú, was much favored in Nazi Germany. Its Nordic/Teutonic mythology was a bedrock belief for key Third Reich leaders, and it was an integral part of the initiation rites and cosmology of the elite Schutzstaffel (SS), which supervised Adolf Hitler's network of death camps. Decades later, Odinism also influenced George Lincoln Rockwell's American Nazi Party” (1). SPLC go on to describe how this spirituality has gained a great deal of popularity with violent white supremacists over the last few decades. The AFA was founded in the mid-1990s by Stephen McNallen out of concern that other Asatru organizations had lost focus on promoting the Asatru faith as inherently tied to the white race. At least one of AFA's leaders has ties to white supremacist organizations, claiming former standing as a state-level organizer for the SS Action Group and links to a violent neo-Nazi skinhead gang. “'I'm a white racist and proud of it," he told a reporter while posing in a Nazi uniform in 1992. ' (1)”. AFA was a sponsor of Stella Natura last year with McNallen appeared on stage to perform a ritual as a guest of the band Changes, and they remain a sponsor this year. (2)(3).

Some of McNallen's white supremacist ideologies can be seen in his theorizing on migration and border politics. In an article entitled 'Wotan vs. Tezcatlipoca: The Spiritual War for California and the Southwest', McNallen refers to the increasing Latin population of the border states of America as a “tide of cultural and demographic conquest” that white Americans must resist rather than “accept our marginalization quietly” (4). He voices that he feels the needs to “fight for my people and my culture against all odds”, and calls for white people to “stand by your kin and your culture” in states he describes as “overwhelmed with illegal immigrants”. He perceives this as a realm of spiritual war, in which Norse gods must conquer Mayan gods. He closes the article by arguing that “We must sink down roots in the soil, and insist on our right to be here... European-descended peoples, true to their ancestral ways, are here to stay. Our forebears fought and died to carve out this place in the world, and we will not give it up.”

In a 2010 piece by McNallen, entitled 'A down and dirty breakdown of the 'browning of America'', he decries the decreasing percentage of America's white population as a sign that “our political and cultural clout will evaporate to a thin wisp of what it is today”, and follows with the absurd claim that “European Americans face minority status, then marginalization, and eventually extinction” (5). He states that “Illegal immigration on the present scale is a form of conquest” an “invasion” that can be “stopped and even reversed almost at once” as it is “ being carried out by identifiable people and parties”. He lists clear political aims for his racist agenda:

“First, the border must be secured. Contrary to liberal opinion, this can be done. I will not analyze the mechanics of this task, but a brainstormed list of options would include diplomatic punishment of Mexico for its role in encouraging migration, sanctions against employers of illegal aliens to include mandatory prison time, a physical wall (built by illegal aliens from our prison system), high-tech surveillance devices, and imprisonment with hard labor for individuals violating our territorial sovereignty. Until we are willing to take these measures, we are not serious about closing the border. Second, it must be clear that no amnesty of illegal aliens, wholesale or piecemeal, in general or in particular, is acceptable. Third, all illegal aliens must be deported and denied legal entry at any time in the future. Because of the logistical complexities involved, deportation could take the form of a “phased withdrawal,” just as troops are pulled out of a war zone when a peace treaty is concluded. This mass deportation should be carried out as humanely as possible, but it absolutely must be done. Fourth, legal immigration must be reformed. We need a temporary moratorium on all immigration, followed by the dismantling of the Immigration Act of 1965 and a return to the previous system, which favored immigration from Europe.”

Brian Powell, a journalist with Media Matters, did an expose on a white nationalist conference organized by the National Policy Institute (6). The full article can be found in our sources and it is recommended to read through as it provides a good indication of the shapes this form of white nationalist fascism is currently taking. Major themes at this conference were the building of a white ethno-state through the forced migration of people of color, along with claims of white people's supposed inherent biological superiority. Upon meeting several members of the AFA during this conference, the reporter states: "...they expressed frustration with a culture and government that they feel ignores and looks down upon the interests of the white race.... They were relieved that they had finally found a place where they didn't have to 'feel out' the conversation before navigating it into the straits of white supremacy.“ In his response to the Media Matters article, Stephen McNallen merely states: "The AFA will not dictate to its members which meetings they are permitted to attend as private individuals. There are suggestions that we discipline them for the crime of being present in a room where extreme statements seem to have been made. We will not do this. There will be no exposure, no witch-hunt, no apologies, and no reprimands... men and women of European descent have exactly the same right to meet and to promote their collective interests as do any other group. To demonize them for doing this, when every other group is encouraged to do so, is to indulge in a vicious double standard. (7)".

To state that an overtly white supremacist conference which involved proposing plans for white-only ethnostates, modeled on South African apartheid, is a discussion of the "collective interests" of white people provides us with a clear perspective on what the founder of the AFA means when he discusses his vision of promoting the goals of the white race. There are no excuses offered and none should be made on his behalf. On the AFA's webpage, the second goal of the organization is stated to be "The preservation of the Peoples of the North (typified by the Scandinavian/Germanic and Celtic peoples), and the furtherance of their continued evolution... the survival and welfare of the Northern European peoples as a cultural and biological group is a religious imperative for the AFA." (8). This statement by McNallen provides a clear idea of what AFA's purpose and points of unity are intended to denote in the form of practical application sought by its founders. Anti-racists have been intervening in Stephen McNallen's spread of white nationalist propaganda since at least the 1990's, as evidenced by a rather amusing article from a Canadian Holocaust denier organization that hosted him for a lecture and were highly upset by the ARA response they received (9). 

Blood Axis / Michael Moynihan

Allowing for the participation of the AFA and McNallen was not the only way in which Stella Natura has provided a platform for racists. Michael Moynihan played at Stella Natura last year with his band Blood Axis, a group well known for their use of Nazi iconography and their high standing in fascist music circles. This year he and his Blood Axis bandmate Annabell (Lee) Moynihan are appearing at the festival as 'special guests' of Ian Read's act, Fire and Ice. Moynihan is a well-known figure among anti-racists for his covert and intellectual ways of promoting fascist politics for decades. He has edited two of Italian fascist philosopher and elite Nazi academic Julius Evola's books for English-language publication, including Evola’s Men Among the Ruins: Post‐War Reflections of a Radical Traditionalist (10). In 1992, Moynihan collected and published the writings of National Socialist James Mason in the book 'SIEGE!' (11). Within these texts, Mason vehemently argues for the need for whites to gain power through armed struggle rather than political means, and applauds individuals for acts such as “Zebra Killings”(the murder of black and white 'mixed' couples). For a better idea of what this work includes, please see the enclosed chapter from Mason's book. Moynihan's aims in spreading fascist propaganda is clear in quotes of his such as: “I’m sick of people saying they’re ‘not political,’ as I think this is a cop‐out… If you’re going to espouse ‘fascist’ ideas, then I believe you have to accept some of the responsibility for their application in the real world; otherwise what is the point of espousing them in the first place?” (12).

Extract from James Masons's Siege!

One of Moynihan's present areas of focus is the editing and publishing of the journal Tyr, which collects pieces on the topics of Germanic paganism and the history of northern European peoples (13). While it does not describe itself as a fascist publication, it reproduces white nationalist and far-right discourse and publishes authors with ties to various fascist and white supremacist currents. One of the original editors and ongoing contributors of Tyr is Colin Cleary, whose political perspective is rather concisely summed up in an article in which he states: "I regard Ásatrú and White Nationalism as so inseparably bound to one another that to espouse Ásatrú while rejecting White Nationalism is to involve oneself in a fatal contradiction (fatal, really, in more than just the logical sense)... Disraeli really was right: 'Race is everything. There is no other truth.' (14)". Joshua Buckley, another editor of Tyr, is a former member of the SS of America (15). He makes a living as one-half of a notoriously shady real estate gentrification project with a long-term business partner, who he is set to inherit the business from, named Sam Dickson. Dickson is an attorney who provided legal services to the Georgia KKK for decades and who sat on the board of The Barnes Review, an academic journal focused on promoting Holocaust denial. Dickson's largest public presence in the last decade has been as a guest speaker at multiple conferences that advocate for militant white nationalism, such as the conference covered by Media Matters.

Robert Taylor is one half of the band Changes, who will be playing for their third time at Stella Natura. The Changes duo returned to the music scene in 1996 after decades of silence thanks to the encouragement and efforts of Taylor's friend Michael Moynihan, who went on to produce and release their next album (16). Robert Taylor describes himself as a “herald... one of the three founders of the [Asatru] movement” within North America, along with Steven McNallen. He describes Asatru as “a religion that is suited for Indo-Europeans because it contains and constitutes all the main features and spirit of how most of us feel inside” (17). Taylor was a founder of the Asatru Alliance along with former American Nazi party member Michael (Valgard) Murray and has a long history of allying with Stephen McNallen in pagan organizing (16). Taylor has a long history of involvement within the radical right and white separatist circles. In an interview with infamous 'national anarchist' and white supremacist political organizer Troy Southgate (39),Taylor outlines his youth involvement in “the most feared white street gang in Chicago at that time” and states that he joined as a “vehicle for fighting” because he “loved the exhilaration of combat”, and that he “never joined gangs so much for the camaraderie or as a group security thing” (16). He states that this environment “certainly brought grassroots social problems into sharp focus” and that “racial tensions flared up frequently”. He describes his participation in a white riot in which thousands of white people mobbed up against a black family that had just moved into the neighborhood he lived in. This mob chanted curses, bombarded the black family's home with bricks, tried to break down the door and then proceeded to fight with the police upon their arrival. He described the experience of being in this mob as “like a minuet movement. A dance of rage”. Taylor recounts that these riots went on for four nights, during which “dummies stuffed with rags and painted with black faces were hung from lamp posts and set ablaze in effigy” and city buses with black drivers were attacked with large chunks of concrete dropped from bridges. He claims that he's sure of the fact that the media did not report on the riots because it would have attracted “people from far and wide to join the mob and riot”. He also outlines a group he organized with other white youth that committed such disgusting acts as responding to black students being brought into a school in his neighborhood by holding a confrontational demonstration at the school which these students were being transferred from, in a black community.

Taylor speaks at length of his involvement with a 1960s right wing paramilitary organization named 'the Minutemen', in which he quickly moved through the ranks from being the principal organizer in the Chicago area to holding the position of national Director of Intelligence, and then becoming national spokesperson while also being the sole editor of their magazine. He describes the activities of the Minutemen as mainly consisting of: infiltrating leftist and communist groups in order to bring police violence against them or sabotaging their activities in other ways, identifying their members, and forming fake anti-war groups to give leftists a bad name in the press. He was a member of a special subgroup that was set up within the organization called the Defence Survival Force, which consisted of about 50-60 people trained in survival skills, killing, expropriation, explosives knowledge and special operational skills. They operated underground and rendezvoused in an organized way to meet in safe-houses and make claymore mines and pipe grenades. He outlines how this group slowly fell apart due to legal matters and how once their resources had dwindled enough and some members were facing incarceration, he used his position as national spokesperson to advise Minutemen groups across the US to organize as local militias rather than as a federation. In Taylor's own words, “The legacy of the Minutemen continues on now in various factions of the revolutionary right. We laid the groundwork, provided the basic concepts and more or less pioneered that movement. It brought a new sophistication of tactics and strategy to the Right” (18).

In 2006, Taylor defends his participation in the race riots by saying that for white working class people, “their job... their home, car and family was about all they had in the world” and that once black families began to move into neighborhoods dominated by white people, these were all threatened (17). He went on to claim that “[i]t was no secret that once blacks predominated in an area, the crime rate would soar and the streets would become dangerous to walk. (17)” Taylor espouses strong feelings about disseminating this viewpoint based on the perception that “white working class ethnics seldom have a spokesman or anyone who writes or speaks on their behalf. They are simply the dispossessed majority”. It is also very interesting to note that in this later interview, Taylor attempts to justify his participation in this riot, yet offers up no toned-down explanation of his prolonged and active organizing within the Minutemen. Taylor has gone on record stating that he sees the infamous and long-running white supremacist organization Aryan Nations and similar groups as representing “love and loyalty to one's race as opposed to geographical boundaries” (17).

Fire And Ice, one of the headliners of Stella Natura, is a band founded and fronted by Ian Read. Read is well known for his work with bands Current 93, Sol Invictis, and Death in June, whom he provided vocals for in their rendition of 'Horst Wessel Lied', the anthem of the German National Socialists on the Brown Book album (banned in Germany for supporting fascism) (19). He also played with the openly neo-nazi group Above the Ruins, whose name is derived from the writings of Evola and who contributed to the National Front's benefit album No Surrender Vol 1, alongside bands such as Screwdriver(20)(21). Read has also led militant security teams for both Holocaust denier and anti-Semite Michele Renouf and editor of far-right magazine Michael Walker (22). Michael Walker was one of the individuals who safe-housed a notorious Italian fascist, on the run from the police after having a large quantity of explosives and weapons found in his organization's office (23) (24). He was also exposed as an organizer of the Iona organization's Nazi street fighters in the 1997 article 'Rocking for Satan' by the antifascist Magazine Searchlight (22). One of Read's closest collaborators has been Tony Wakeford (Death in June, Sol Invictis, Above the Ruins), a member of the National Front who has also been a key figure within occult-fascist music (20). Wakeford's work within Above the Ruins and overt Nazism was too much for Death in June's Douglas Pierce, eventually causing Wakeford to split from the group and form Sol Invictis with Read (22). He was also heavily involved with Read in the IONA fascist group (22). Ian Read was also a member of the band While Angels Watch, which worked with British fascist advocate and organizer Troy Southgate (20).

Die Weisse Rose

Die Weisse Rose is another band slated to play at Stella Natura. This Danish band is the project of Thomas Bøjden and whichever friends he asks to join him in performances (25). These friends include people such as Gerhard Petak, the man who records his music as Allerseelen. Petak has released tribute albums to the Iron Guard, a profoundly violent Romanian fascist occultist party guilty of such horrific massacres that the Nazis had to urge them to practice restraint (10) (26). Petak celebrates and claims great influence from Evola, as well as Karl Maria Wiligut and the Ahnenerbe (the occultist wing of the Third Reich), and bases a large part of his music and imagery in direct references to the Nazi regime (10). Another of Bøjden's guest collaborators was Marco Deplano of Italian fascist band Foresta di Ferro, who have contributed songs to tribute albums for the leader of the Iron Guard (26). Bøjden has performed as a guest with Foresto di Ferro, Allerseelen and Blood Axis (27). About his collaborations with these fascist musicians, Bøjden states that they are “musicians that I truly admire and respect for their individual projects and their contribution to Die Weisse Rose" (25). Die Weisse Rose utilize sound collages, videos, and the wearing of Nazi Brownshirt uniforms in their performances, which Bøjden claims is merely for artistic purposes. Die Weisse Rose were selected by Douglas Pierce to accompany Death in June's farewell tour in 2012 and Bøjden describes Douglas Pierce as “a very wonderful and very inspiring person”, stating that Death in June had been formative in every aspect of his life for decades (25). Included is an image of Bøjden posing affectionately with Tony Wakeford.

Tony Wakeford and Thomas Bøjden

Another band on Stella Natura's 2013 lineup is Waldteufel, the project of Markus Wolff. Wolff was a founding member of Blood Axis and has collaborated with Michael Moynihan frequently (28) (10). Wolff has contributed writings on nationalist German authors and paganism to publication such as Tyr, and also helped Moynihan release English editions of Evola's works (10). He is the current staff editor and contributing artist and writer for Hex magazine, another sponsor of Stella Natura (29). Hex magazine has published works by Gerhard Petak in several issues, and promoted Allerseelen's recent West Coast tour ( 10), with Waldteufel playing a date on this tour. Hell and Dispirit, two other band appearing at Stella Natura, also played on the same tour despite agitation and information spread by the Rose City Antifa and actions against their shows by antifascists in Europe (30).

Yet another dubious act on Stella Natura's lineup for 2013 is Of the Wand and the Moon, the one-man project of Kim Larsen, which has issued a split album with Ian Read and Tony Wakeford's Sol Invictus (31). OTWATM also appeared on a compilation entitled 'Looking for Europe', which bears an iron cross on the cover and features essentially every high profile fascist or fascist sympathizer band in the neofolk scene, such as Blood Axis, Boyd Rice/ NON, Allerseelen, Changes and Death in June (32). Kim Larsen has been criticized by German antifa groups for posing for photos (33) wearing the Lebensrune, a Norse symbol that was used during the Nazi regime in place of the 'date of birth' label on paperwork. It was also the symbol of the SS Lebensborn and modern neo-Nazi organizations such as the German Heathens' Front (34). The German Heathens' Front is a racialist Asatru organization formed by a well-known neo-Nazi and is infamous for their virulent anti-Semitism and allegiance to the ideas of David Lane (35). This is not to claim that the use and revival of runes is inherently problematic, but merely that to wear a rune that has been so deeply associated with various fascist organizations without any critique or anti-fascist analysis is a heavily loaded action. In an interview with an online fanzine, Larsen names his biggest musical influences as “Death in June, but also bands as NON, Der Blutharsch, Current 93, Fire and Ice, Blood Axis etc.”, all bands that have racist tendencies and associations (36). In another interview in which he was asked the same question, he lists the same bands but adds Sol Invictus to the list (37). Larsen has also appeared as a guest in Die Weisse Rose's performances (25).

It is necessary to acknowledge that while many Asatru practitioners or fans of neofolk/industrial/black metal are well-intentioned music fans, many others involved in these scenes are actively promoting fascist ideas in order to normalize these tendencies. As outlined in Anton Shekhovstov's brilliant essay on the topic, which is highly recommended when approaching this subject,(38) this course is charted out within the post-WWII writings of Alain de Benoist and Julius Evola. These authors argued for fascists to retreat from active politics into the realm of culture until the time was right to begin recruiting for future fascist political movements. This form of 'metapolitical' fascism manifests in subcultural scenes focused on music or spirituality with their accompanying record labels, distros and spiritual organizations, as well as through networks of journals, publishing houses, conferences and think tanks. Neofolk as a musical subculture has always held an intellectual and elitist attitude that is eager to feign disassociation with more overt white supremacists, but this must be seen as what it is: part of a coherent and deliberate strategy to disseminate their unpopular ideas without risking immediate anti-fascist responses.The presence of fascists and white nationalists at Stella Natura is not an accident, but a planned infiltration; a co-opting of spirituality, heritage and music to suit their personal agenda. Opposition to this must come from within the scenes they seek to convert, and from the potential recruits they hope to gain.

Sources:

1. http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/1998/winter/the-new-barbarians
2. http://moremusic.typepad.com/blog/2012/10/stella-natura-the-light-of-ancestral-fires-tahoe-national-forest-921-22-and-23.html
3. https://www.facebook.com/Asatru.Folk.Assembly/posts/397387126994569
4. http://www.runestone.org/about-asatru/articles-a-essays/150-wotan-vs-tezcatlipoca-the-spiritual-war-for-california-and-the-southwest.html
5. http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=8699
6. http://mediamatters.org/blog/2011/09/19/the-supremacy-cause-inside-the-white-nationalis/181599
7. http://asatruupdate.blogspot.com/2011/09/response-to-recent-defamation.html
8. http://www.runestone.org/about-the-afa/declaration-of-purpose.html
9. http://www.canadianfreespeech.com/cafe/battles-for-freedom/17-battles-for-freedom/87-anti-racist-action-attacks-cafe-meeting-in-toronto
10. http://www.whomakesthenazis.com/2010/12/rose-city-anti-fascists-austrian.html
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_%28book%29
12. Coogan, Kevin, “How Black is Black Metal? Michael Moynihan, Lords of Chaos and the ‘Countercultural Fascist’ Underground,” Hit List Vol. 1 No. 1 (February / March 1999), 32‐49, 45., found on http://www.whomakesthenazis.com/2010/12/rose-city-anti-fascists-austrian.html
13. http://www.radicaltraditionalist.com/tyr.htm
14. http://www.counter-currents.com/2012/10/asatru-and-the-political/
15. http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2006/fall/how-sam-dickson-got-rich?page=0,1
16. http://web.archive.org/web/20040718041710re_/www.national-anarchist.org/articles/INTERVIEWTaylor1.htm
17. http://www.chroniclesofchaos.com/articles/chats/1-922_changes.aspx
18. http://www.stigmata.name/ch2.php
19. http://www.counter-currents.com/2011/10/odinns-skald/
20. http://www.whomakesthenazis.com/2011/03/piss-poor-poet-found-in-dustbin-of.html
21. http://www.whomakesthenazis.com/2010/10/rock-against-communism-roots-of-sol.html
22. http://www.stewarthomesociety.org/wakeford.html 
23. http://datacide.c8.com/from-subculture-to-hegemony-transversal-strategies-of-the-new-right-in-neofolk-and-martial-industrial/
24. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Fiore
25. http://santasangremagazine.wordpress.com/2012/10/28/gesamtkunstwerke-interview-with-die-weisse-rose-eng/
26. .http://www.discogs.com/Various-Codreanu-Eine-Erinnerung-An-Den-Kampf/master/488
27. http://www.discogs.com/artist/Die+Weisse+Rose
28. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markus_Wolff
29. http://hexmagazine.com/hex-folk/hex-staff/
30. http://rosecityantifa.weebly.com/1/post/2010/12/allerseelen-on-tour-austrian-far-right-musical-project-on-west-coast-tour-playing-support-to-northwest-heavy-metal-act.html
31. http://www.discogs.com/artist/%3AOf+The+Wand+%26+The+Moon%3A#t=Releases_Albums&q=&p=1
32. http://www.discogs.com/Various-Looking-For-Europe/master/492
33. http://antifaeifel.blogsport.de/images/KimLarsen.jpg
34. http://antifaeifel.blogsport.de/2010/08/08/mithras-festival-burg-satzvey-of-the-wand-and-the-moon-muss-stellung-beziehen/
35. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Heidnische_Front
36. http://seidr.woods.ru/larsenengl.htm
37. http://www.rusmetal.ru/vae_solis/idiocyxii.htm
38. http://www.shekhovtsov.org/articles/Anton_Shekhovtsov-Apoliteic_Music.html
39. http://www.whomakesthenazis.com/2010/11/co-opting-counter-culture-troy.html 

Noise in Opposition

Noise In Opposition is a compilation of 24 artists from across the globe opposed to fascism, misogyny and prejudice. Noise In Opposition totals nearly 3 hours of music across 31 tracks by people including Hacker Farm, Libbe Matz Gang, Elizabeth Veldon and The Implicit Order.

The Noise In Opposition project was triggered by Elizabeth Veldon’s statement that she would never make harsh noise again after receiving threats against her, and those close to her, for the crime of being a feminist in a male-dominated genre. This was the catalyst, but the problem is one that has been poisoning the noise and extreme electronics scenes for a long,long time: the tolerance of misogyny, fascism and prejudice – either as a genuine belief or a cheap, lazy aesthetic. It’s time for the opposition to make our voices heard. It was gratifyingly easy to get people involved – almost everyone asked was genuinely enthused by the idea and suggested other people who would be interested.

Sounds veer wildly across all sorts of experimental electronic styles, with angry noise junk crunching into austerely minimal drones and being drowned out by cracked beats.

In order to spread the word as far as possible, Noise In Opposition is available as a free download or low-price data DVD+R with an A4 insert.

Tracklisting

1. (o)†hers - Family 2013 04:23
2. Anastasia Vronski - 4 FaZe 03:30
3. Ars Sonor - World Without 05:04
4. Broken Tiny - Isms 06:51
5. Colon Three - Tired Of Your Shit 05:06
6. Concrete/Field - Fascist Cult Of War 07:18
7. Elizabeth Veldon - An Agnostic Praise For Dappled Things (A Response To Stupidity And Hate) 15:47
8. Grove Of Whispers - The Beauty Of Bread Made Me Laugh 09:03
9. Hacker Farm - Payday Loans 03:47
10. Jack Chuter - Justification 05:21
11. Kamikaze Deadboy - Cette Machine Sert A Tuer Tous Les Fascistes 10:40
12. Kanellos - Fourteen Ways To Kill A Blackshirt 01:26
13. Kanellos - They Make A Desert And Call It Peace 05:09
14. Knifedoutofexistence - Outcasts 04:48
15. Libbe Matz Gang - Congratulations, You Have Just Met The Famous BSSR Nazikillers 00:26
16. Libbe Matz Gang - Radio City Dragnet 01:19
17. Libbe Matz Gang - Amore Represso 02:46
18. Libbe Matz Gang - Black Cat 02:14
19. Libbe Matz Gang - Class War 01:32
20. Libbe Matz Gang - Total Despair (Colindale) 01:46
21. Luke Lund - Victimblamer/Honorkiller 11:09
22. M Nomized - Fight Against 05:44
23. :M:1:9: vs Broken Tiny - Opposed 08:20
24. Peesix - Bigot See, Bigot Do 06:00
25. Richard Sanderson - Just A Few Steps More 03:18
26. Scutopus - On Demand, Without Apology 04:57
27. Scutopus - The Game Is Rigged 04:25
28. Ship Canal - A Harrowing Explosion Of Unplanned Honesty Ruptures The Veil Of Daytime Television 05:35
29. The DDN - Sealions Return (Live) 05:04
30. The Implicit Order - Double Standard (A Pertinent Subject) 04:25
31. The Non-Compliant Airmen - Nobody Asks For It 09:54

Noise in Opposition site >>
Noise in Opposition download >>

American Psychos: Fascist Hippies coming to Town

Guest post by Jack Dash

Stop Press #2: The venue, The Green Note, made the following statement: "We at Green Note are committed to running our venue in a way consistent with our beliefs and world view. This article was recently brought to our attention, and while its accuracy has been disputed by the organisers, we at Green Note reserve the right to err on the side of caution in the name of our venue, the hard work of our staff, and our place in the community. While we had no prior knowledge of the history or politics of this band, if there is any truth to the extreme political views held by the members of Changes, these run in contrast to our beliefs and we felt unable to go ahead with this show." Risa / The Green Note, 2013-08-08

Stop Press #1: The venue, The Green Note, have now pulled the concert. Keep your eyes open for any attempt by the promoters to move to a new venue. 2013-07-19

nb. This article has been edited to change the incorrect attribution of a couple of quotes. This mistake has no bearing on the accuracy or argument of the post as a whole. 2013-07-23

"None of this had any real connection to integration or peace between races. Integration did not occur -- flight of the whites occurred. It was no secret that once blacks predominated in an area, the crime rate would soar and the streets would become dangerous to walk." Robert N. Taylor - Chronicles of Chaos, 2006

Booked to appear at a small venue called the Green Note in Camden, London on September 6th 2013 is a shadowy American folk duo known as Changes. Cousins Robert N. Taylor and Nicholas Tesluk started playing together in coffee houses of their native Chicago in the dusk of the 60s,in an America redolent with the bad vibes of the Manson Family's 'Acid Fascism' and as the hippy dream turned bum trip.

Taylor and Tesluk have a history of fascist involvement stretching back to the very early 60s, originating in their membership of the Chicago chapter of the Minutemen around 60-61, a vigilante militia group founded to combat what they saw as the communist threat to America. Here is Taylor in an interview with the fascist neofolk/industrial music magazine Stigmata in 2005 talking about the organisation and his significant role in it:

"Minutemen drew from the full scope of those on the right. From "Barry Goldwater" type conservatives, Objectivists and libertarians, anti-communists,constitutionalists, Christian Identity, neo-Fascists, Nazis, gun-owner advocates, etc.."

"My involvement in the Minutemen was considerable. I became a member of the newly formed organization at about 14 years old. I first was a member, then became the principle organizer and leader in the Chicago area. Then I became a member of the Executive council of ten as the director of intelligence. By the time I was 24 years old I was the editor of the organization's publication, On Target as well as the national spokesman for the group. My involvement lasted through most of the years of the organization's existence."

"What made On Target uniquely different from other anti-communist or right-wing publications was that in addition to articles and commentary on various current issues, it also contained names, addresses and phone numbers of its assumed communist and liberal enemies. Often literal dossiers on such people were featured. Combine the slogan, cross-hair masthead, and such detailed information on perceived enemies, and the potential threat was implied, without ever being actually stated."

"We have studied your Communist smirch, Mao, Che, Bhukarin. We have learned our lessons well and have added a few homegrown Yankee tricks of our own. Before you start your next smear campaign, before you murder again, before you railroad another patriot into a mental institution...better think it over. See the old man at the corner where you buy your paper? He may have a silencer equipped pistol under his coat. That extra fountain pen in the pocket of your insurance salesman that calls on you might be a cyanide-gas gun. What about your milkman? Arsenic works slow but sure. Your auto mechanic may stay up nights studying booby-traps. These patriots are not going to let you take their freedom away from them. They have learned the silent knife, the strangler's chord, the target rifle that hits sparrows at 200 yards. Only their leaders restrain them. Traitors beware! Even now the cross-hairs are on the back of your necks..."

The publicity for this upcoming tour makes reference to Italian facist philosopher Julius Evola, describing the evening as "An intimate evening of music for aristocrats of the soul" and calling the tour the 'Ride the Tiger World Tour', both taken from the title of one of Evola's books, Ride the Tiger: A Survival Manual for the Aristocrats of the Soul (published in 1961). Evola's fascism was esoteric and Brahminical, and although he had close ties with Mussolini and the Nazi Party in the 30s and 40s, he considered both to have failed the cause of fascism because they were too proletarian in ideology and structure. At the bottom of the poster is printed 'Kali Yuga' (the Age of Vice), a pointed reference to current era of the Hindu calender constantly referenced by fascists like Evola and esoteric Nazi Savitri Devi as a prophecy of the decline of world into decadence, reliance on technology, and descent into materialism and greed, as predicted in the Mahabharata Hindu scriptures written around 400 BC, and a favourite touchstone for post-Nazi fascism because of its place ancient Aryan history and its narrative of decline, a constant refrain of fascism. In the past Changes also toured under the banner 'Men Among The Ruins', the title of another of Evola's books.

The band were rediscovered by Michael Moynihan of Blood Axis notoriety in 1996, who then produced and released their next album on his Storm label alongside other far-right acts like Allerseen and David E. Williams. They quickly became revered in the scene as the progenitors of neofolk.

Austrian label HauRuck! started by comedy neofolk Stormtrooper Albin Julius rereleased Fire of Life in both LP and CD form in 2001, before releasing a new full length Changes album, Orphan In The Storm.

In 2005 they released an untitled CD with British fascist folk musician Andrew King (Sol Invictus, Brown Sierra) on the Portuguese Terra Fria label. King was recently sacked from another neofolk band Sol Invictus (a band with its own seriously fascist history) because he recorded a song by David E Williams called 'Wotan Rains On A Plutocrat's Parade', in which he amended the lyrics to make the song unambiguously racist and Nazi.

The event is obviously being promoted quietly so as to avoid the unwanted attention of anti-fascist organisations like Searchlight and Antifa. For example Michael Moynihan is referred to as "a friend" and not by name in the biography on the venue's site, presumably because of his own involvement in far-right politics. No mention of their history in the Minutemen is made , and they are presented as a straight-forward folk act. Tesluk talked about the unwanted attention of antifa protesters in the same Stigmata interview quoted above:

"As for the actual antifas congregated a block away, Douglas, of Death In June, walked over to confront them and they all faded away and acted like he was the invisible man. I passed them at least three times and they wouldn't even look in my direction. No one there was afraid of those punks."

The concert, featuring Death in June, a famous British fascist neofolk band, in Changes' hometown of Chicago, was cancelled in the end because the Jewish venue owner became aware of the bands' political affiliations.

Unlike many contemporary neofolk groups Changes seem relatively comfortable talking about their far-right politics, and specifically how with Moynihan's help they reached a young neofolk audience that includes plenty of radical traditionalists, Asatru practitioners, esoteric fascists, neo-Nazis and Third Positionists who are the natural audience for Changes' Eurocentric fascism:

"In the early to mid '70s the audiences were alright, but I doubt that most of them knew what our music was all about. The folk music scene was pervaded with leftists at that time, both as performers and as audiences. That has radically changed. It was as if Changes had to wait over thirty years to find the real audience it had been seeking all those years." Robert N. Taylor - Chronicles of Chaos, 2006

At the time of writing the tour will also include in concerts in Lithuania, Germany, Moscow and Hungary, Italy, Denmark, Austria, and Greece.

Green Note venue >>

Ben McPartland: Burzum's Varg Vikernes Arrested in PAris Terror Investigation

Originally published in 'Breivik-linked neo-Nazi held in Paris terror probe' in The Local

French police arrested a notorious Norwegian neo-Nazi living in central France on Tuesday morning over fears he was plotting a massacre similar to that carried out by terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, according to a report by French radio RTL.

Anders Breivik (left) / Oslo. Kristian Vikernes (right)
Photo: Junge/AFP/Rustem Agadamov

Kristian Vikernes, nicknamed 'Wolf' (or Varg in Norwegian) who is reportedly a sympathizer of Breivik was detained by anti-terrorist officers from France’s specialist DCRI unit on Tuesday morning at his farm in the rural Corrèze region in central France.

According to reports in the media, French intelligence services acted out of fears he could have been about to carry out a massacre, like the one committed by Breivik in Norway two years ago, when he killed 77 people in a bombing and mass shooting.

Later on Tuesday France's Interior Ministry said Vikernes was detained because he was "likely to carry out a major terrorist attack".

"He was a potential threat to society, as evidenced by the violence of his remarks, notably those intercepted on the internet," the ministry added in a statement.

The initial probe, opened a month ago by anti-terrorism authorities in Paris has labelled Vikernes -- who investigators say wrote antisemitic and xenophobic messages online -- as 'dangerous', a police source told AFP.

Police acted after his French wife, the mother of his three children recently purchased four rifles. The wife has a license to own guns and is a member of a local shooting club but police feared the weapons had been bought for a far more sinister reason. The 25-year-old wife, named in French media as Marie Cachet, was also detained by police.

"That was at the origin of the investigation ... There were several suspicions that made the services fear he could possibly carry out a violent act," a source at the prosecutors office told Reuters news agency.

According to AFP officers seized several weapons at their home on Tuesday, including four 22 Caliber Long Rifles. Vikernes could be held in custody for the next 96 hours, as is allowed under French anti-terror laws.

Vikernes - a convicted murderer

According to news website Le Point, Vikernes settled in France after serving part of a 21-year prison sentence in Norway for stabbing a friend in the 90s.

As a prominent part of Norway’s black metal scene at the time, Vikernes, who recorded music under the moniker ‘Burzum’, was also involved in burning down at least three Christian churches in the country.

Since moving to France, he has continued to write about the purported demise of European culture, attributing the decline to immigrant communities and supposed Jewish conspiracies.

In a blog entry published on Saturday, the neo-Nazi blamed a fatal train crash near Paris the previous day on 'non-European scum' and made claims that 'immigrant youths' had thrown stones at emergency services personnel, while robbing from victims of the crash.

He then claimed the fact that no media outlet in France had reported any incident of this type on a Jewish conspiracy between the French government and media.

In concluding, an angry Vikernes wrote: “I am so angry, and I have been the whole day, and I just don’t understand why Europe doesn’t revolt against this… It must stop; we must take actions to end this. Before it is too late.”

The neo-Nazi's links to Breivik are unclear other than the fact it is believed Breivik sent him a 1,500-page 'manifesto' entitled 2083: A European Declaration of Independence, that was attributed to the terrorist and contained details of the preparation for his attacks.

However, in a post on his blog Vikernes heavily criticised Breivik for killing innocent Norwegians. Nevertheless French police were clearly concerned that there was a link between the two.

Breivik was sentenced to a minimum of 21 years in prison in August 2012 for the mass killings after court in Norway found him sane. His sentenced can be prolonged at a later date if he is still deemed a danger to society.

Breivik insisted the killings were necessary to stop the 'Islamisation' of Norway.

Ben McPartland, The Local                               

Joseph Beuys: Book Accuses Beuys of Close Ties to Nazis

From Der Spiegel, May 17 2013
Read the full article >>

For decades, Joseph Beuys has been exalted as a heroic icon of postwar avant-garde German art. But a new biography accuses him of having been a serial liar who never completely emancipated himself from the views of Nazism and a bizarre cult.

Joseph Beuys spent his entire life dying, his widow once said. In January 1986, his heart did in fact stop beating. Urns with his ashes were committed to the depths of the North Sea. Since then, he has been regularly resurrected -- as a myth, a heroic figure, a saint of contemporary art history and an innovator, even on the political scene. During the nearly 30 years since his death, he has become larger than life and, ultimately, sacrosanct: a German icon.
Beuys, born in 1921 in the western German town of Krefeld, is viewed by many as the only genuine avant-gardist of the postwar era because he was a provocateur, someone who irreversibly shattered the limits of what was customary. He created a new type of art with honey pumps and wedges of fat, made works out of rust, tree bark and clumps of earth, and created a world of images in brown and gray. What's more, he staged performances in which he conversed with hares or dissected their corpses with knives, events in which he smashed a piano to bits or rolled himself up in felt to become a living mummy. Beuys was the Düsseldorf professor of art who, in the wake of his many protests and subsequent summary dismissal, had to be escorted by police from the academy.
Everyone had an opinion on Beuys. It was thanks to him that people started talking about art in the 1970s -- although they were usually simply outraged. He planted 7,000 oak trees in the western German town of Kassel, which was one of several controversial art projects that divided the entire country, and he made use of every opportunity to intensify rejection of himself and his work. For example, Beuys maintained that the Berlin Wall was too low, writing that it would have better proportions with an extra five centimeters (two inches) in height. Today, that sounds funny.
At the time, people ridiculed him and his work, but the sound of their laughter inevitably also echoed their fears of nonconformity. Those who like him admired him for precisely this reason.

Uncovering the Man Behind the Myth

The author of a new Beuys biography, Hans Peter Riegel, has set out to uncover the man behind the myth. In Riegel's view, Beuys was neither a deranged artist nor an innocent genius, but rather a fairly reactionary and dangerous figure.
....

Translated from the German by Paul Cohen


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James Cavanagh: Death in June Coming to Electrowerkz

Once again fascist-dabbling neofolk group Death In June are on tour in Europe, stopping off in London for their only live appearance in the UK on 15th December 2012 at Electrowerkz in Angel. 




Doug Pearce

Using a band name derived from June 30, 1934, the 'Night of Long Knives', Hitler's murderous response to the National Bolshevik faction in the Nazi party led by Ernst Roehm and Gregor Strasser, Death In June, long-term project of Douglas Pearce, are back to promote a new album and to mark 30 years since their debut release.

Pearce's long history of far-right agit-prop has garnered him notoriety over three decades, and caused his concerts to be cancelled across the world; in Norway, Switzerland and Germany in Europe and in Chicago, Seattle and Portland in the US. Last year the band played Camden Underworld, prompting Love Music, Hate Racism to call, unsuccessfully, for the gig to be cancelled.

In May 1999, a few days after BNP member David Copeland nail-bombed Brixton and Brick Lane markets and The Admiral Duncan pub in Soho, Death In June played The Garage in Islington (with fellow Nazi-admirers NON and Der Blutharsch). Copeland killed 3 people and injured 129. It has been widely corroborated that Pearce dedicated a song from the stage to the 'White Wolves' – a neo-Nazi grouping who had initially claimed responsibility for these atrocities. In much the same spirit, a valedictory message was posted to the Di6 Yahoo group forum immediately following Anders Breivik's Utoya massacre, and mainland bombing.

This year Pearce has chosen to play Electrowerkz, a venue that has often promoted fascist acts in the past, both in the Slimelight Club and in its main auditorium. Last year Slimelight hosted a concert featuring Sol Invictus, 6 Comm, Joy of Life and Freya Aswynn, acts that have fascist history, members with a fascist past or who have collaborated with fascist music projects. Tony Wakeford of Sol Invictus and Patrick Leagas aka Patrick O‘Kill of 6 Comm were both founding members of Death In June with Douglas Pearce, before going on to found their own bands, most notably in the case of Wakeford who founded Above the Ruins, a band that under his leadership donated a track to National Front benefit album No Surrender, Volume 1, alongside tracks by other overtly Nazi bands like Skrewdriver and Brutal Attack.

The event was written about in a guest post on WMTN, and was subsequently taken up by LMHR, an Islington councillor, the Unitarian Church, Unite Against Fascism and many independent protesters angry at the venue's decision to put on acts that promote fascism. Islington South Labour MP and Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry made this comment in the Islington Gazzette at the time;

"It’s a shame and a disgrace that these peddlers of poison are playing in Islington. We have a proud history of tolerance in this borough”.

The local press picked up on the campaign as did several prominent anti-fascist websites.

In the end a peaceful gathering of 70-80 people turned out on the night at Slimelight to protest. This largely took the form of discussion and leafleting.

NON / Boyd Rice

As long ago as September 2004 the Slimelight hosted a bill of far-right neofolk bands; Foresta Di Ferro, Ostara and Spiritual Front. Foresta Di Ferro and Spiritual Front appeared on a tribute album to the Romanian ultra-Fascist Corneliu Zelea Codreanu alongside the likes of Von Thronstahl, Dernière Volonté and Blood Axis. Codreanu was a Romanian anti-semitic fascist terrorist and leader of the notoriously vicious Iron Guard, also known as the The Legion of the Archangel Michael, active in the inter-war period. His antisemitism was so extreme that even the Nazis kept their distance from him. Ostara is the project of Richard Leviathan, who names among his influences in an interview in Heathen Harvest - Death in June, Boyd Rice, Changes, Blood Axis and Ain Soph, all pro-fascist bands. Leviathan also worked with Douglas Pearce on a project called Kapo. Ostara have been banned from playing for their far-right politics in Nuremberg and in the Netherlands.

In June 2005 Italian fascists Ain Soph played at the venue.

In 2006 a junior member of the Slimelight online forum called Tier posted about anti-semitic band Grand Belial's Key being booked to play the venue in February of that year. He comments; "Grand Belial's Key is a black metal band whose views border on National Socialist. One release of the band is named 'Judeobeast Assassination". He goes on to quote the band in interview expressing violent anti-semitism, their lyrics in the same vein, and mentions that various band members are in other racist far-right bands. A senior forum member CIW responds like this; "Well, fortunately for UK, this is a country where one can say what one believes, not in my country, where you get serious problems with it, just because it can't cope with its past... so, let em play, by forbidding stuff you just get what they want..." Another senior member Ecclecticbb makes this response; "It is not clear to me that Tier wants us to react against this event... I don't give a shit (not sorry) about it!"

In late 2007 Indymedia UK published an article about a concert at Slimelight in October of that year featuring NON, industrial/noise project of Boyd Rice, writing;

"The Slimelight event was headlined by Boyd Rice in his NON guise. An individual with a long and malicious history of fascist provocation and the focus of Anti-Nazi attention worldwide, it is particularly alarming that Boyd Rice, an acknowledged Social Darwinist and member of the neo-Nazi American Front organisation, has actually been given the all clear to enter the UK and perform in London as NON next week."

Non were supported by another fascist band called Luftwaffe.

In November of the same year promoters of far-right neofolk and Industrial music Hinoeuma The Malediction hosted an event at Slimelight that included Austrian fascists Der Blutharsch, Sutcliffe Jugend who contributed to a compilation cassette called White Power that had a swastika on the cover, alongside other groups closely associated with the fascist element of the neofolk scene.

In March 2009 Nachtmahr played the venue, a band criticised from the stage this year at the Kinetic Festival in Montreal for "the use of misogynist and racist tropes in (the) band’s music and publicity materials."

A quick look at set lists for DJ Blackdeath, resident Slimelight DJ for the past fourteen years, typically reads like a who's who of far-right neofolk, power electronics and black metal; Death in June, Burzum (aka Varg Vikernes - "the main person to have brought Nazism into the black metal scene", according to Wikipedia), Forseti, Sol Invictus, NON, Dernière Volonté, and Deutsch Nepal. DJ Blackdeath is also a Cold Spring record label DJ. Cold Spring have ultra-fascists Von Thronstahl on their books, along with H.E.R.R. and Seelenlicht, two musical projects involving racial seperatist Troy Southgate.

And now Death in June is booked to play the venue. That Death In June is a pro-fascist band has been disputed by some, but not by many of the band's most ardent fans. This very positive review of DIJ's latest album posted on Counter Currents Publishing by Greg Johnson describes the band's politics and influence like this:

"Death in June’s combination of acoustic folk and industrial sound collages, as well as its use of images and themes related to Nazi Germany and European fascism in general, have had an immense influence on the development of what is called 'neo-folk' and 'martial-industrial' music, which is the core of a world-wide youth subculture, characterized by racial consciousness, far Right politics, and inclinations toward neo-paganism and esoteric spirituality, including Esoteric Hitlerism, Traditionalism, and Aleister Crowley. Neo-folk and martial-industrial fans overlap significantly with the Goth scene and West Coast White Nationalism."

Neo Nazi music promotion network Blood and Honour published this description of the band on their website

"Two men take to the stage dressed in SS pea pattern smocks and start to pound a military beat on kettle drums draped in Totenkopf banners....and so twenty five years ago my musical world was turned upside down. That was Death in June (named after the night of the long knives) the band that kicked it all off. A rash of bands has followed including Above The Ruins (who were promoted by the National Front youth paper Bulldog) and Der Blutharsch. Images used of SS soldiers; runes and even the Horst Wessell sung on an LP clearly mark many of these bands as travelers (sic) of the right. "I think the black sun is the flag of the European Nations in mourning. It is blue, silver and gold. It is the true banner of a united Europe and it flies above us now." (Doug P) Modern bands in this genre continue this thrust of marshal (sic) music onwards and the history of fascist and national socialist movements to the attention of more and more."

Aside from the nazi imagery and lyrical references, Pearce is generally ellusive on the subject of fascism, but occasionally he makes a statement (in this case on the subject of protests by anti-fascists to his music) that reveals where he stands politically;

"I think censorship is essentially 'Communistic' and left wing. Censorship was one of the first things that happened in Russia after the Revolution in 1917 and continued until it fell to bits decades later. The way I understand it is that, to paraphrase Mussolini, the Fascists are the real anarchists for they truly did do exactly what they wanted. Libertarianism and Fascism are bedfellows no matter how some people might find that repugnant."

Of the Something Is Coming album, the proceeds of which were donated to the Bolnichi Clinic in Zagreb, Croatia during the Balkan conflict, Pearce has said "This was not purely a humanitarian gesture. It was a cultural one. A socio-Euro political one." The inference here is clear, despite the characteristic coyness; a diffidence which extends to the endlessly recycled back catalogue items listed for sale on the official Death In June website. "We STRONGLY recommend that all those living in Germany wishing to order 'BROWN BOOK' (Achtung!) UeBER DO NOT (!!) order direct from NER as random Customs checks do exist between the U.K. and the mainland of Europa... Talk to any of the million zillion illegal immigrants that now wander lonely as a black cloud through Europa's streets forlorn..... Those not living in little red angel's po-faced, goody 2 shoes Germany are also free to take advantage of these internet mail order firms...." he advises. The album in question, 1987's Brown Book contains a version of the SA anthem 'Horst-Wessel-Lied', and has therefore been totally banned for sale or distribution by the German authorities. In 2005, the album 'Rose Clouds Of Holocaust' was banned for sale to minors due to its questionable lyrical content.

Elsewhere, he has been keen to flaunt his personal association with veteran Nazis. From the Di6 blog:

"There was some discussion recently as to whether or not '18' (eg. Adolf Hitler) survived the battle for Berlin. As a close personal friend of someone whose last battles, in WWII at least, were in the Villa Goebbels, the Tiergarten and the Fuehrer Bunker itself ( which was evidently absolutely beautiful and filled with statues, paintings etc.) he maintains that during the chaos and confusion at the end it was ALWAYS possible to get out. As he, in fact, did himself. During rest periods within the Bunker he saw '18' go past him outside to have a look around several times and a double could have come back as his replacement – at anytime! During the last organised breakouts my friend was momentarily captured by Bolshevik troops who luckily became distracted by the bigger 'catch' of a Party Leader, the contents of the Party Leader's briefcase and his subsequent, on the spot, execution. This horrible incident, however, provided my friend and 2 of his kameraden the opportunity to escape and make their way West out of the city. He was later arrested at a railway station by British troops who had taken a keen interest in the design of his trousers(and later discovered blood group tattoo!) On 20th April, 1989 I remember well him saying to me that "if he wasn't dead then, he should be by now."

So Slimelight has long hosted fascist and pro-fascist musicians, and the club itself has long acted as a spiritual home for neofolk, black metal, industrial, martial, power electronics and other related genres. Genres that have a persistent strand of fascism running through them (I emphasise; a strand - the genres themselves are not political in this way). Despite protests over the years it continues to host fascist bands, and Pearce is more than aware of the reception which is likely to greet his own appearances. Of his 30th Anniversary live schedule, he stated that "we are trying to make performances as accessible geographically as possible. And we trust we 'let the right ones in'. Please remember that some performance locations will be kept secret until the last moment for very good reasons. Not everyone out there in internetland and elsewhere has our best interests at heart. Far from it! (.......) Careless talk can be the difference between a show happening - or attracting 'problems' for scurrilous reasons at the last moment - which could lead to cancellation."

Belarusian officials consider Death In June to be “British neo-fascists of international fame” who “openly promote Third Reich ideas”, and banned their Minsk concert which was timed to commemorate Germany's assault on Russia in 1941. It seems that Tidal Concerts and Electrowerkz have no such qualms.

Postscript 2012-11-19 

Facebook page for the Demonstration Against Death in June Concert in Wien >>