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 >>

Slimelight Campaign

Now that the protest outside the Sol/6 Comm gig is over, it's time to ask precisely what was achieved. According to supporters of the bands the campaign was a failure because the gig went ahead. It's true that the immediate aim was to get Slimelight management to cancel the event and, since the management didn't budge, you could say that LMHR failed in it's main objective - but that is to look at things from a short-term point of view and to ignore the bigger picture.

I'd expected only a small band of committed anti-racist activists to turn up to leaflet on Saturday, but they were considerably outnumbered by non-aligned people wanting to join the protest. There was even a contingent from the Unitarian Church - hardly the 'antifa thugs' the band's supporters had promised the fans would be there to intimidate them. Throughout the course of the evening a total of about 70-80 people took part in leafleting outside the club, with a maximum of around 50 people present at its peak.

The original plan had been to leaflet only earlier in the evening (to make the point that the event was aimed at convincing users of the club generally and not at confronting those going to the gig specifically), and only at the nearby tube station (Angel). But as people turned up in such large numbers it was considered safe enough to move immediately outside the club. Contrary to the accusations made online that the point was to physically confront the fans, that was never the intention, as had been made plain throughout the campaign.  The idea was only to put it to club-goers that Slimelight was prepared to host events by people with known connections to (various exotic flavours of) racism and fascism, and that they should put pressure on the management by expressing their opposition. In that, the leafleting was certainly successful.

A huge number of leaflets were handed out to members of the public and to people attending Slimelight, and a number of club-goers took extra leaflets to distribute inside the club. The response from most fans was overwhelmingly positive - as might be expected, given that most users of Slimelight are anti-racist and anti-fascist.

There were a definite - though small - group of people who were there because they actively welcomed the presence of Sol Invictus at the club, and were hostile to the protesters (not too vocally hostile, though, as they were so obviously outnumbered). There was another definite minority who were really glad to see something being done at last to address the issues of racism and fascism in the culture generally. Some attendees spoke to the protesters at length, proudly describing themselves as anti-fascists, and a small number even refused to go in to the concert as a result of the protest. Then there were people who could not understand the protest, and argued with the protesters about Sol and the bands, or just wanted to be loyal to the venue, etc. Some of these people couldn't be persuaded, but many could, and a lot of useful discussions and arguments were had without even a hint of intimidation on either side. I hope that those fans who were convinced about the need to take responsibility for what happens in their own clubs find a way to extend the discussions that were had on the night and take them to even more people. In any case, to all of those who were willing to debate and discuss the problem - thanks. It was good to meet you.

To me, simply starting a debate around the issue among the fans is success enough. But you can add to that the fact that at almost the exact point at which this blog published an article about Andrew King's racist and pro-fascist comments in an interview with Michael Moynihan's journal Tyr, King, who was supposed to be performing with Sol that night, was 'mysteriously' dropped from the band. I think it's clear that King was dropped (or resigned - accounts differ) because his presence embarrassed those who had been claiming that the musicians and groups involved had no ongoing relationship to the far right.

About the Online Debate

One aspect of the online discussion of the protest that struck me was how many people seemed interested only in provoking and heightening confrontation. At it's worst this included people posting details of individuals online on various blogs. This seemed to be some kind of deliberate strategy (several of the relevant comments were simultaneously posted to different sites), and not necessarily initiated by partisans in the debate. A number of people submitted comments to this blog naming individuals they thought were 'behind' the blog or the LMHR campaign (actually two entirely separate things, since this blog's contributors took different positions regarding the protest) in order to exacerbate hostility to them. At least one comment submitted provided what was claimed to be the address of one of the musicians involved in the concert. All of these comments were blocked by the blog's administrators. As it is vital to prevent - let's call them - 'certain interested parties' from stoking up confrontation (in order to justify their own intervention?), we're going to be more active in future in blocking anything inflammatory, or any directly personal attacks, on the blog.

Weather Warning: Shower of Shit expected over Islington

Guest Post by James Cavanagh

[Since this was posted various other groups started to campaign for the cancellation of the gig. I have commented on those campaigns in a subsequent post-AS]

On 25th June this year a concert will be held at a venue in north London by bands long associated with fascism and the far-right. The Slimelight in Islington is famous for its goth, darkwave, industrial, martial and electro-clash events and has built up an international reputation. People travel from around the world to London with the expressed intention of joining and visiting the membership only club.

The bands playing on 25th June are Sol Invictus, 6 Comm, Joy of Life and Freya Aswynn. It is well-known that Sol Invictus leader Tony Wakeford is an ex-member of the National Front, was a founder-member of fascist bands Death in June and Above the Ruins and continues to move in fascist circles, as this concert demonstrates. Andrew King, long-time collaborator with Wakeford and member of Sol Invictus, recently recorded a virulently racist version of David E. Williams' song 'Wotan Rains on a Plutocrat Parade' under the name Second Amendment with its lyrics; "monkey men... banging on the bongo drum, I'll pick them off one by one... you can kill the Aryan body but you can't kill the Aryan soul", and featuring sample declaring Hitler as the second coming.

Patrick Leagas aka Patrick O'Kill of 6 Comm was also a founder-member of Death in June and responsible for their use of Nazi imagery which he carried over from his previous band Runners From 84. He also made music with and shared a flat with hardcore neo-Nazi Gary Smith from No Remorse. (Smith also played in Wakeford's Above the Ruins, who donated a track to National Front benefit album "No Surrender Volume 1").

6 Comm

The concert is a celebration of Leagas' last appearance with 6 Comm. He has a new project called 'Schrage Musik', which refers to a type of fixed machine gun used by the Luftwaffe on Messerschmitt fighters in the second world war. (In other words a bit more Nazi fetishism).

Gary Cary of Joy of Life has also collaborated with Death in June and While Angels Watch and has been produced by Douglas Pearce (DIJ). The band employ an abstracted swastika-like logo.

Joy of Life logo

Dev from While Angels Watch has worked with H.E.R.R. (renowned fascist Troy Southgate's band), and collaborated with Joseph Klumb from Nazi band Von Thronsathl in Sagittarius alongside members of Allerseen and Troy Southgate. The band also appeared on the "With Friends like These" compilation put together by Tony Wakeford and released on his label Tursa in collaboration with the Kaparte label. The compilation includes contributions from Hitlerist and Nazi occultist Richard Moult and Italian fascist band Rose Rovine e Amanti, amongst others.

Freya Asswynn has worked with Leagas on many occasions, as well as with Les Joyaux De La Princesse, a French far-right band desrcibed as having "an increasingly crystallized, extreme right-wing ideology” by Christoph Frangeli in Datacide. She has a reputation for being aggressively racist, and was directly involved with a racist campaign against Black opera singer Willard White, organised by far-right magazine Scorpion in 1989. Here she is in an interview with right wing nutjob William B. Fox on the overtly racist, far-right America First Books website, indulging in a bit of racist musing:

"My immediate impression, what struck me immediately, is that the streets are so clean. Some parts of the subway are dirty, but the streets themselves are so much cleaner than in London. I also was pleasantly surprised to see a substantial amount of white people in New York. I didn't expect that. I expected New York to be pretty well dark."

The DJs for the event, working under the name of DJ Patientfront, are in fact Stefan Schwanke and Taro Torsay of Ironflame, who have released an industrial/neofolk compilation called Statement 1961 featuring tracks by fascist bands like Von Thronstahl, Grey Wolves, and Der Blutharsch.

The concert was organised by the mysterious Gaya Donadio, an Italian promoter (Hinoeuma the Malediction) and power electronics artist working under the name ANTIchildLEAGUE. She has worked with Suttcliffe Jugend, Genocide Organ, Kirlian Camera, Allerseelen and many others in a similar vein. She is also the woman behind Hagshadow Distribution who promote a lot of these bands. She is certainly one of the most prominent and active figures in the fascist power electronics and neofolk scenes. This comment in an interview with Vita Ignis: Corpus Lignum gives a clue to where she is coming from:


"I saw a documentary about a very orthodox sect of Jews; each of the women having nine children because they want to take over the planet. The same scenario happens with other cultures around the globe." 

She appears to be suffering from that typical fascist affliction - anti-semitic paranoia.

The Slimelight, which is owned and directed by someone called Bernadette Murphy, has serious form when it comes to putting on fascist and neo-Nazi bands, and the underground music press has covered the subject on previous occasions. An article about a gig by American fascist bands Luftwaffe and Non (Boyd Rice) on 31st October 2007 titled 'Fascist Concerts at Slimelight, London' was posted by Mute on 30th October 2007, the day before the gig was due to take place. Indymedia published the same article a few days later on 11th November. The article flagged up the "cultural war of position" being prosecuted by these bands and the wider milieu, taking their cues from the political tactics of Italian fascists in the 80s and 90s. It also threw light upon Rice's well-documented history as a neo-Nazi, Social Darwinist and violent misogynist.

Boyd Rice

The article hit a raw nerve with regulars at club nights at Slimelight and fans of the neofolk scene, and the thread of comments on the article as it appeared in Mute took up three pages and included responses from Patrick Leagas (6Comm) and Lloyd James (Naevus, Sol Invictus), both claiming that these bands had nothing to do with fascism or neo-Nazism. But no explanation is given by either of them as to why bands that play with Nazi imagery, and promote Evolian and Nouvelle Droite Eurocentric politics are not themselves fascist. When someone comments that Albin Julius from Der Blutarsch had publicly expressed support for Jorge Haider (he was close friends with Haider incidentally) and therefore can be legitimately described as a fascist apologist, Lloyd James' retort is "I have met and corresponded with Albin Julius on numerous occasions and never have I heard him display or utter anything that might conflict with my Socialist Libertarian principles." Albin's band Der Blutarsch were banned from playing in Tel Aviv for their use of overtly Nazi imagery (the Sig rune, the stylised "S" in the SS insignia, and the Iron Cross have both served as logos for the band.) Israeli MP, Yossi Sarid, explained the reason for the ban like this to the Jerusalem Post: "It is clear why Der Blutharsch wants to perform in Israel. They want to be legitimate, have an 'Israeli passport' and then become persona grata everywhere else. Against their critics, they can then say 'Who are you to call us fascists? The survivors of the Holocaust invited us.'"

However the main response the article provoked was a torrent of abuse directed against novelist, artist and anti-fascist activist Stewart Home, who has written at great length about the latent and overt fascism of the scene, despite the fact that he did not write the article. Home simply passed it on to Mute (he wrote for them from time to time) from another source. His well-argued defense of the article in the comments threads produced an eruption of inarticulate fury from fans defending the bands. Many of the comments are from people who apparently spend their lives denying the fascist element in neofolk, power electronics and industrial music on various sites across the web.
One person who attacks Home in a particularly stupid and ill-informed way calls herself SnoW.White. She blames Home for the fact that she was unfortunately attacked at the concert, apparently by anti-fascist activists. Unable to grasp the fact that Home had not written the article and was not present at the gig, she blames him for labeling the concert a fascist event and thus indirectly encouraging anti-fascists to attend the gig, thereby causing her to be assaulted.

SnoW.White

SnoW.White makes regular appearances on neofolk/industrial-related websites, as she does on the Slimelight forum in one thread defending someone who turned up at the club dressed as Hitler.  I make mention of this person because she is pretty typical of a lot of the fans of the scene in that she dresses up like a fascist, defends bands that promote fascism, and makes music herself about which she is sensitive enough to add her familiar disclaimer:

"*DISCLAIMER*
SnoW.Wwhite music is intended for entertainment purposes only. SnowW.Wwhite does not advocate any type of government, not even the most or least appealing ones. No ethnic, racial or other minority has been hurt, harmed, maimed or killed in the process of music making. ODDR!"

The concert has already caused anti-fascists to raise objections on Facebook, to Islington Council and elsewhere.The usual feeble denials will probably be made by the musicians involved. And if they can't be bothered you can be sure that armies of neofolk fans will there to defend them on the website barricades, in between getting their jollies listening to their heroes intone dreary visions for a fascist Europe. Anti-fascists everywhere should be making their objections loudly, with the certain knowledge that these closet fascists, despite their endless denials, are liars.