Update: X-posted @ Harry’s place.
A short while ago my blog was the subject of a complaint. As a result, I have had to temporarily remove one image. The image is of a man named Arthur Kemp. In the image — a photo — Kemp is sitting down and there is a Nazi symbol in the background. To the best of my knowledge, the image appears on (a) few other sites. Prominent examples include:
Edmund Standing, The BNP: Not very British, January 3, 2010 | [img]
Harry’s place, Arthur Kemp: BNP Reichsminister des Auswärtigen, October 25, 2009 | [img]
A former South African policeman, Kemp (1962–) left South Africa for England in 1996, joining the British National Party. According to Heidi Beirich, in 2004 he began work for the BNP and “is well respected by the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party of Germany”. Having previously conducted ideological training for party members (2007), in early 2009 Kemp became responsible for selling merch for the BNP (via ‘Excalibur’), then from late 2010 administered the BNP website (a role he had undertaken previously, along with being spokesperson on ‘foreign affairs’). In March 2011 he left the party under acrimonious circumstances. You can read a fuller profile on Kemp on the SPLC site: Heidi Beirich, Dangerous Liaison, Intelligence Report, Winter 2007, No.128.
Apart from his activism on behalf of the BNP and his authorship of several crackpot treatises on race, history and politics, Kemp is probably best known for his involvement in the trial of the murderers of Chris Hani. Hugh Muir and Matthew Taylor, White supremacist aids BNP, The Guardian, June 10, 2004:
Mr Kemp was one of a number of far-right activists arrested after Hani’s murder. He was later released without charge, but Clive Derby-Lewis, to whose wife Mr Kemp was said to have supplied a list of names and addresses, including Hani’s, was one of two men sentenced to death. He was said to have organised the shooting.
The Polish-born Janusz Walus, who was convicted of shooting Hani, was found to have material drawn from Mr Kemp’s list in his flat. Their death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment.
At the murder trial Mr Kemp admitted producing the list but denied having knowingly supplied a “hitlist”.
From 1989 until 1992 Mr Kemp worked for Die Patriot, the newspaper of the extremist South African Conservative party. According to the anti-fascist organisation Searchlight, he has spoken at Nazi meetings in Germany and written for the magazine Nation und Europa, which was founded by a former SS officer.
Most recently, Kemp has been denounced by former wife Karen on a now-deleted blog (and elsewhere by his son), while winning favour with the Australian Protectionist Party, which in May 2010 featured a video of one of Kemp’s “excellent” speeches on its site. Otherwise, with Ostara Publications Kemp is keeping busy (re-)publishing racy tracts, including seminal works by Arthur de Gobineau (1816–1882), Madison Grant (1865–1937), Lothrop Stoddard (1883–1950) and of course The Great Man himself. Inter alia, Nell Irvin Painter provides a really useful overview of such literature in The History of White People (WW Norton, 2010; see also the work of Theodore W Allen).
As for the BNP, it appears to be in serious political and financial decline. It may survive the current crisis or give way to some other party, of which several have formed in the few years since Gri££in and Brons won seats in the European Parliament.
Ah yes, the BNP. There was a good talk on them by Martin Smith of the UK SWP, on their politics and relation to other far right movements in history, see here http://wearemany.org/a/2010/06/rise-of-right-in-europe. He himself is lovingly described as a ‘trade unionist’ and ‘violent UAF thug’ by BNP prop-agenda, and has received numerous death threats, including by one man in a mask on youtube, if I remember correctly. Haven’t heard too much about dem recently though. The basis for their support still exists, but as you say, they may not be the medium for its expression if they are in decline- maybe UKIP will gain from it. But as abhorrent is UKIP is to me, they don’t seem to show as much sympathy for fascism as the BNP does. How are our local fascists doing, btw? Whatever the sentiments of the Australian population, they don’t seem to show up much in demonstrations, at least not as anything like even a minor force. Unlike the far left, which seems to have a bigger presence in public demonstrations, but has of yet nothing like even a mass minority of the population on its side- that belongs to the Greens at this moment in left politics, it seems.
Slightly dated account by Smith… the BNP has been in all-sorts since 2009, losing Brons and the vast majority of its councillors, leaving perhaps 10 or so (of a possible 20,000 plus) — tho’ many of his obs re the far right remain true of Europe as a whole (ie, right-wing populism is resurgent in some countries/regions). Within UK, UKIP is one of a number of minor parties contending for right-wing support; other major-minors include the British Freedom Party and the English Democrats.
Re Australia, ON more or less died with the loss of its last MP (Rosa Lee Long), while I took a brief look at AF and APP last week. Aside from these happy few, the CEC is off in its own orbit, tho’ the LaRouchites have the largest income and by a very wide margin (in excess of $1.8 million FY2010/11) while the EDL’s bastard offspring in the ADL was basically still-born. There’s a general absence of political combat in Australia, and the only real polarisation is wealth. This may, in time, produce a reaction, but speculation over Australian exceptionalism is best left for another occasion…
I agree about the political combat point, but still, I think I can feel something coming. Australia won’t be able to (relatively) insulate itself from the economic crisis or from the fluctuations of global capital for too much longer. Exceptionalism can only last as long as the international situation does not degenerate further (esp as regards trading relationships with US/China- China’s had some pretty severe internal strife in recent years, workers’ struggles, as well as the gender time bomb where men will drastically outnumber women in large parts of the country, which already exists in many places and will no doubt provoke a social crisis, (see progressive radio show https://www.progressive.org/mara_hvistendahl_interview_audio.html) politically, environmentally, economically- and every indication looks like that’s going to continue. I don’t expect to see any severe domestic crisis too soon that will mobilise a significant sector of the population (despite, as you say, a considerable polarisation of wealth, millions of people only just getting by, increasing corporate profits) or any special growth in the confidence of a principled left, but who knows, I may be wrong. The Baiada picket line and community/worker mobilisation seemed to hint that a potential increase in militancy may be possible. Also, you really must gaze upon the God awfulness of Gina Rinehart’s poem.
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/rinehart-cops-flak-for-poem-20120217-1tf2i.html
It’s not quite in the same theme of “arise, ye workers from your slumbers” but I imagine it makes hearts aflutter in the business community. Observe:
Our Future
The globe is sadly groaning with debt, poverty and strife
And billions now are pleading to enjoy a better life
Their hope lies with resources buried deep within the earth
And the enterprise and capital which give each project worth
Is our future threatened with massive debts run up by political hacks
Who dig themselves out by unleashing rampant tax
The end result is sending Australian investment, growth and jobs offshore
This type of direction is harmful to our core
Some envious unthinking people have been conned
To think prosperity is created by waving a magic wand
Through such unfortunate ignorance, too much abuse is hurled
Against miners, workers and related industries who strive to build the world
Develop North Australia, embrace multiculturalism and welcome short term foreign workers to our shores
To benefit from the export of our minerals and ores
The world’s poor need our resources: do not leave them to their fate
Our nation needs special economic zones and wiser government, before it is too late
A few things.
1. The only thing we can say for sure is coming is O’, Death. Otherwise, crisis of one sort or another would appear to be endemic to capitalism. (The current Crisis has certainly given a fillip to Marxist accounts of political economy and crisis theory.) Despite its apparent implications for social stability (the reproduction of capitalist social relations) crisis can also be highly productive, and in the end functional. In this respect, Crisis is a bit like War. I mean, there’s plenty of disco about whether or not The United States won The War in Afghanistan, but when it comes to mass murder there’s always winners and losers, it’s just that their (geographical, economic, ethnic, financial, gendered, national, political, racial and social) location tends to vary a good deal.
Depends what you mean by crisis, too.
The Real Question is: How much longer can a rapacious system of exploitation and inequality persist in the face of ecological collapse? Bill Rodgers wrote:
“Certain human cultures have been waging war against the Earth for millennia. I chose to fight on the side of bears, mountain lions, skunks, bats, saguaros, cliff rose and all things wild. I am just the most recent casualty in that war. But tonight I have made a jail break—I am returning home, to the Earth, to the place of my origins. Bill, 12/21/05 (the winter solstice.)”
Or; Why I Would Have Been Happier As An Accountant.
It may be that the (human) species is already doomed, and will join the very long and growing-at-a-seemingly-exponential-rate list of species (and populations) it has already hurried off the stage. Again, who knows? Certainly, whatever I think, say or do makes zero difference to History.
(Oh, and when I refer to the absence of political combat, I mean particular forms of conflict which have the tendency to overcome or seriously ameliorate entrenched systems of domination and exploitation. That is, on the one hand, there are power dynamics, and radical contest is required in order to subvert and potentially overcome or re-shape them in ways most conducive to notions of ‘equality’ or ‘democracy’ or ‘justice’; the political conflicts which do take place, on the other hand, almost invariably fail to challenge or actually reinforce fundamental features of contemporary Australian society. And ah, I’ll also leave to one side questions regarding precisely what constitutes The Political and the relationship b/w it and Everyday Life.)
2. By exceptionalism I mean… yeah. The Capitalist Patriarchal Death Machine requires fuel, Australia is a big fat pit of minerals, and China and India are big fat markets. Anyway, there was some disco on this Question on Larvatus Prodeo a while ago prompted by the Occupy thing. And as for China…
And yeah, Gina.
Genius.
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