Bay Area Antifa alert!
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
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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
- http://www.deathinjune.org/wiki/index.php/Interview:2011-NegativeGuestList
- http://www.deathinjune.org/wiki/index.php/Interview:2010-Obskure1
- www.deathinjune.org/wiki/index.php/Interview:1999-Achtung_Baby
- http://www.deathinjune.org/wiki/index.php/Interview:1998-Scapegoat
- http://www.deathinjune.org/wiki/index.php/Interview:1996-Descent
- http://www.deathinjune.org/wiki/index.php/Interview:1994-Per_Nostrom
- www.deathinjune.org/wiki/index.php/Interview:1996-Judas_Kiss
- excerpt from - Nazi Extermination of Homosexuals by Frank Rector (New York 1981)
- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-strange-strange-story_b_136697.html
- http://www.deathinjune.org/wiki/index.php/Interview:2011-Pride-CulturaGay
- 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?
Look I respect your right to protest. I don't like a metal barrier slammed into my chest when I was standing in line to see a concert.I am not a racist nor a homophobic.I happen to suffer from chronic back pain to begin with.The short stout guy with the thermal green and brown coat owes me a personal apology.Yes because he may have done more damage to my back because I am going to have a MRI this coming week to see if there is more damage.
ReplyDeleteThe vast majority of gay men are anti-fascist, but there are gay fascists out there. Nicky Crane a notorious Organiser of the Neo-Nazi, British Movement (BM) and Security for the Neo-Nazi band Skrewdriver was homosexual, as was Martin Webster, the former leader of the National Front (NF), and Alf Flockhart, a right hand man of Sir Oswald Mosley's post-war, neo-fascist Union Movement (UM).
ReplyDeleteI was at the SFO gig last night. Is this what passes for a "protest" these days? No wonder the cops are so brutal in the USA - I would have pepper-sprayed you too. A handful of black bandanna-wearing punks come up the street and start attacking people standing in line to see a folk band?
ReplyDeleteGet fucking real.
You guys are not helping. The world is NOT being improved by your actions. Using threats, concealment, intimidation and violence against regular people going to see a band is completely fucked, especially while trying to maintain a moral high ground (one which, I don't think I need to say, you DO NOT HAVE).
I understand the need to belong, but those who find their identity by opposing enemies that don't exist are DELUDED.
The title of your blog site doesn't make any sense: "Who makes the nazis?".....surely Nazism and Fascism are primarily influenced in their growth by economic reasons. Desperate people looking for answers in simplistic and jingoistic ideas. In this essence your blog should really be called "What makes the Nazis?" and maybe go on to help expose the malignant activities of various multinational corporations...instead of a minute handful of (quite often bad) folk musicians, many of whom are not racists, fascists or anything else. In conclusion: Weird blog, created by weird people...who I'm beginning to suspect are actually Fascist provocateurs perhaps????
ReplyDeleteGordon College Cancels Concert Featuring Controversial Folk Band
ReplyDeletehttp://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/09/13/salem-police-to-beef-up-patrols-for-concert-featuring-controversial-folk-band/
http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20130915105314985
ReplyDeletethe result....
Viz: "Last night at 9 PM sharp 20 anti-fascists marched to the Mezzanine to disrupt the Death in June show. Several people waiting in line were wearing fascist uniforms and flashing fascist tattoos at the Anfifas. The Mezzanine hired an all black security team who when told they were doing security for a fascist band decidec to step aside. At least 10 people wearing fascist uniforms and sporting fascist tattoos were beaten. Also the barricades of the Mezzanine were thrown into their fans and at thier windows. The security team stood aside and watched as the venue was vandalized and all anti-fascists escaped before the cops came. Some anti-fascists that didn't get rowdy decided to stay behind and infiltrate the show. It was also reported that Vice Magazine showed up to document the conflict."
ReplyDeleteSomeone called Greg Johnson wrote this in Counter Currents after attending the DIJ concert at Mezzanine in San Francisco. And he likes the band.
ReplyDelete"Douglas Pearce is, of course, something of a National Socialist, and he has declared his views openly in his interviews and somewhat obliquely in his songs. I wondered what percentage of the San Francisco audience was aware of his sympathies. I think the percentage is quite high, if only due to the consciousness-raising efforts of the “anti-fa” anarchists who chronically harass Death in June.
I also wonder what percentage of the audience in San Francisco actually sympathize with National Socialism or White Nationalism more broadly. Judging from close semiotic readings of physiognomies, hairstyles, clothing, tattoos, accessories, Nazi uniforms, and Sieg Heiling, I would say there were a few."
http://www.counter-currents.com/2013/09/death-in-june-in-san-francisco/
James Cavanagh
"Some anti-fascists that didn't get rowdy decided to stay behind and infiltrate the show." So, did they pay entrance fee, and did they enjoy the show?
ReplyDeletePhotos from the event: where are all the bad guys??? Looks like a typical goth concert. http://vexarts.com/death-in-june-at-the-vex/
ReplyDeleteIt was probably quite possible to go to the concentration camps and film happy smiling nazis going about their work - quite easy to not photograph the piles of bodies....anyway - what are you looking for - a pointing-hand signpost saying 'bad guy is here'? Idiot - wake up.
ReplyDeleteA typical goth concert? Just a handful of flamboyant goths there, but lots more cropped hair and combats, plus one music loving patron in what appears to be an SS tunic at the bottom left of image ten.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that's the Counter Currents correspondent?
Huh? Those photos would suggest the DIJ show was an eclectic smattering of underground concertgoers from all walks of life, scenes and ethnicities....
ReplyDeleteLeaving aside the sheer folly of attempting to divine someone's character or political persuasion by looking at their photograph, the ratio of 'goths' to 'traditionalists' in any given audience is a silly side issue – although, as at least one blog commentator has remarked, Pearce has been assiduously peddling his nazi gerontiphilia schtick to a jaded 'hipster' contingent for some time now.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that he doesn't spout his elitist xenophobia from the stage is neither here nor there; the recent interviews have provided a more than adequate forum for this rhetoric, and any shred of ambiguity he may once have clung to has now been swept away. Likewise, the absence of obvious 'stiff right arm' activity amongst a hip LA crowd hardly negates the metafascist nature of Pearce's grand obsession.
Thanks to the unguarded tone of these recent pronouncements, his efforts to imbue one of the darkest chapters in history with an undeserved veneer of romantic nobility, whilst normalising and drawing the sting from that which should forever be aberrant and abhorrent, are plain for all to see. These dilettantes are his perfect audience, privileged and bloated out with cultural ephemera, but vaguely malcontent and hungry for novelty and taboo. They dutifully line up to defend Pearce's 'art', but remain oddly silent when the paranoid resentments and prejudices which have shaped it are dragged into plain sight. For as long as he maintains the illusion of his seemingly divided self, they will flock to the altar of mock-profundity.
The last of Hitler's bunker guards died recently, and physical links to the horrors of the European conflagration are fading fast. Pearce and his cohort have been fashioning an alternate reality for thirty years – a hazy dream world in which moral absolutism is turned inside out, ideals trump human imperatives and true 'the pity of war' lies only in its pitting of 'brother against brother'. He's achieved, by an irrational, aesthetic appeal to the cultured and imperious vanity in us all, what a thousand tub-thumping populists on the far right have failed at, with their sops to the common man. His new-found fanboys should beware.... the garden path leads to Dachau.
An eclectic smattering of underground concertgoers? There are a few non-whites, but damn few considering the location of the gig, and the question of whether that was likely to matter or not.
ReplyDeleteAnd, at the risk of being told I'm as confused about left and right as most of the comments here, I'd like to point out that the guy with the SS flashes on his collar is actually at the bottom right of image 10.
Anyway, anonymous - so fucking what? if you read what NYCANTIFA have written - probably the most succinct distillation of all thats bad about DIJ - that is what counts - not so much the audience - in fact - the audience are not the point of any protest - the band is. If the innocent, the knowing but stupid and finally the nazi creeps turn up it is only the latter that need be additionally noted and given a hard time - the point is - the audience puts money in the pocket of a fascist - whether they mean to or not. The venue - if it is told of the facts and does not respond correctly needs to explain itself as well - if it in any way sides with the band then it too should be treated in future as a collaborator and pursued in any legal way possible to make it lose custom - unless they state and prove publicly that they made a mistake or were over a barrel in terms of contract - the same goes for ticket agents, PA hire if outsourced, Security etc.
ReplyDeleteLets get a few facts straight here, Douglas Pearce is much closer to a New RIght ideology than many on this scene apart from people like Von Thronstahal and Troy Southgate who's National Anarchism is an ideological twist that maintains the racism element but cloaks it in a `respect' for traditional cultures of all hues. Pearce though is not a standard bearer for any organisation but his views would chime with the French New Right to some extent. It is also clear that a large part of his audience don't fit this bill and a small minority do. So straight forward opposition and attempts to ban these events dont work. What does work is a debate within the scene and attempts to pull people away from the National Bolshevik or New right positions. This blog has some impact on that but on the whole is just perpetuating an antipathy to its position because of its dumb tactics. It is also worth noting that Karl Blake, who is one of the key inspirations for this site was a member, on and off, with Sol Invictus for 20 years until 2007 when he `saw the light'. Now of course he pillories anyone who disagrees with him for being stupid, niave, dumb and `collaborators!'. Pity he can't recognise that by his own criteria he would have been all those things during the 20 year invovlement with this scene. If he couldn't see the problems with it and played along with it for all that time then maybe he could have the humility to see that others might be in the same position. Ironically it seems that his big bogeyman - Tony Wakeford has moved a long way from the New Right position to one of fairly mundane Conservatism. Blake and many on this site are obsessed with this scene making it something more than it actually is. Its influence politically is small and fairly incosequential and because it has other ideas wrapped up in it, it can mean many different things to its audience. This blog needs to get this shit in perspective and think more creatively about how to engage with this scene or attack more important targets. If Blake, Home, the AAM and others are so fired up about this then why don't they turn up at these gigs and protest? So far they talk but don't put themselves in the front line.
ReplyDeleteLets get a few facts straight here, Douglas Pearce is much closer to a New RIght ideology than many on this scene apart from people like Von Thronstahal and Troy Southgate who's National Anarchism is an ideological twist that maintains the racism element but cloaks it in a `respect' for traditional cultures of all hues. Pearce though is not a standard bearer for any organisation but his views would chime with the French New Right to some extent. It is also clear that a large part of his audience don't fit this bill and a small minority do. So straight forward opposition and attempts to ban these events dont work. What does work is a debate within the scene and attempts to pull people away from the National Bolshevik or New right positions. This blog has some impact on that but on the whole is just perpetuating an antipathy to its position because of its dumb tactics. It is also worth noting that Karl Blake, who is one of the key inspirations for this site was a member, on and off, with Sol Invictus for 20 years until 2007 when he `saw the light'. Now of course he pillories anyone who disagrees with him for being stupid, niave, dumb and `collaborators!'. Pity he can't recognise that by his own criteria he would have been all those things during the 20 year invovlement with this scene. If he couldn't see the problems with it and played along with it for all that time then maybe he could have the humility to see that others might be in the same position. Ironically it seems that his big bogeyman - Tony Wakeford has moved a long way from the New Right position to one of fairly mundane Conservatism. Blake and many on this site are obsessed with this scene making it something more than it actually is. Its influence politically is small and fairly incosequential and because it has other ideas wrapped up in it, it can mean many different things to its audience. This blog needs to get this shit in perspective and think more creatively about how to engage with this scene or attack more important targets.
ReplyDeleteAnon - I don't see why we have to choose between 'engaging with this scene or [attacking] more important targets'. I mean, it's possible to do both. Sometimes priorities clash (the recent Changes gig was the night before the EDL tried to march in Tower Hamlets and I think most people rightly spent their time worrying more about the latter than the former). It's maybe necessary to prioritise things properly, but not necessary to choose to do one or the other. The reason I got involved with this issue is not because I rate it highest in the list of important political campaigns but because I was becoming aware how few people in the post-industrial / neo-folk etc., scenes had much detailed experience of anti-racist work and the arguments around it, so it seemed to me that the site could be a useful resource to those *within the scene* who wanted to do something about racism, nascent fascism, etc. That's different from arguing that everyone, whatever their interests, ought to down tools and worry about Death in June instead. In other words, these groups are a primarily problem for the music scenes they take part in, not necessarily headline issues for the wider antifascist movement.
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous 20th September:
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that Karl Blake is the only person from this scene who has had the cojones to come out and attack it for its tolerance of various strands of fascism. Absolutely all the others who are mentioned in this blog have either stayed totally silent on the subject or come out with denials that have no credibility. It cannot be an easy position to take, especially (as you mention) given his long membership of Sol Invictus; a lonely place I imagine. He has done this publicly despite it probably losing him some fans. I hope it gains him some too.
As for the tactics of the blog I believe it is one of the very few places where honest debate on the subject is happening and opinions from all sides are posited.
The tenor of your post - don't bother, it's not worth it - is a familiar one, and just another good reason for WMTN to continue making a noise.
James Cavanagh
"It was probably quite possible to go to the concentration camps and film happy smiling nazis going about their work - quite easy to not photograph the piles of bodies.."
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say that I've expected such comments. Do you really like to compare a DIJ gig with a concentration camp????? And others, are you really sure you got it right when comparing Douglas P with Ernst Roehm????? That's Holocaust and Nazi relativism.
I've just posted the link as indeed not only the band but also the concert-goers are under suspicion here on this blog.
I love that DIJ has seen such strong opposition this time, to the point that concertgoers might have got the point that wearing your flat out nazi uniform in public might earn you a public beating! I've been amazed that people even today try to deny the content of the DIJ output, where nazi symbolism has been his single obsession for his entire career. How was I in denial in the early 90's? I can't imagine now how I was so stupid. Surely had I ever seen protests I might have realized this were not the inoccuous flirting with naughty stuff that fans try to say it is.. Karl set me straight on it in the late 90s, but I still can't see the stuff today and understand how I could have rationalized it ever!
ReplyDeleteGlop
"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.” Doug Pearce.
ReplyDeleteIt's is not a matter of comparing Pearce to Roehm, more a case of pointing out Pearce's own account of his interests and influences.
James Cavanagh
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James Cavanagh (20th Sept) states that Karl Blake is the only neo-folk artist amongst those mentioned in the article to denounce fascism. It would be worth pointing out, however, that Rome, probably the most commercially successful artist in the genre, is resolutely leftist and anti-fascist. I gather from comments on their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/romeproject) that their gig in London on 14th September was disrupted by fascists - does anyone know anything about this?
ReplyDeleteM.
Anonymous 3rd Oct 2013 13.23.00 - claims that Blake is the only neo-folk artist amongst those mentioned in the article is obviously wrong by both Cavanagh and anyone who repeats it - given that Blake cannot be properly be described as a Neo - Folk artist - someone who played for neo-folk artists would be more proper - as his own music was a million miles from that genre and did not garner much popularity with the Neofolk audience. But that is nit-picking. I would be interested to see what disruption by fascists the artist known under the title Rome has suffered - all i could find was some reference to "EDL types" drunkenly getting into a fight at his London concert recently.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I see Jerome Reuter [of Rome] doesn't walk it like he talks it - he may say he is anti-fascist - but if he keeps company of fascists then this is questionable - and if he talks up the music of fascists like Death In June without any critique at the same time of their politics then he is complicit in the promotion of fascism - here is a few lines from an interview I found
"Jerome Reuter: I can’t really say until I am done with the work… I originated in the genre of neofolk but I’ve never liked being associated with it too much and I’ve always combined that style with other genres…so in a way I don’t give a toss about genres and expectations. I just do whatever I want to do, whatever I like. Just like my friend Kim from OTWATM" - 'Kim' is Kim Larsen from 'Of The Wand And The Moon' - here - from the blog "queers to shut down Death In June" elsewhere on WMTN - "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. 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 . Kim Larsen has been criticized by German antifa groups for posing for photos 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. 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. 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. In another interview in which he was asked the same question, he lists the same bands but adds Sol Invictus to the list. Larsen has also appeared as a guest in Die Weisse Rose's performances."
Has anyone heard about this list of all the fascist neofolk and their associates that is supposed to be coming out on the net soon? naming names and who they are connected to?
ReplyDeleteNo, but it sounds like the Links section from the old Naevus website (the biggest collection of post-war neo-nazis since the Brown Book)
ReplyDeleteMany bands of the neo folk scene are right wing,traditionalists,monarchists,eurocentrics,etc...but they are NOT fascists.The right is not only fascism,and you are obsessed without reason.
ReplyDeleteAnon 6th October: I am curious are you are referring to the British band Naevus or German band Naevus? I can't find any links to far right organisations from the British one and the German one seems to have splitted up now.
ReplyDeleteError in your article. The 300 Spartans weren't homosexuals. You are thinking of the Theban sacred band.
ReplyDeleteArt exists outside of artist (I am happy to watch Mad Max regardless of Mel Gibson's politics). Death in June's music is amazing, and I'm not sure the interviews you've posted are any more socially suspect than your attempts to censor artists and terrorize their fans. Luckily, DIJ has a long and illustrious career so you don't seem to be very good at either.
ReplyDeleteSo because a band has opinions you don't agree with, they aren't allowed to play music or really do anything at all in public? Nice to see that the left-wingers believe in free expression of thoughts.
ReplyDeleteDear friends: as I like DIJ music, and somehow its lyrics and aesthetics, but I reject fascism and its propaganda, I wonder if we could listen to dark folk from bands who do not support fascism, i.e. Gae Bolg, who openly reject fascism and make such good music.
ReplyDeleteDo you know other bands in this way?
Many thanks