…Nazism promotes a ludicrous personality cult of the ‘leader’…“We want to see the decentralization of political, cultural and economic power to the lowest possible level… Nazism, in total opposition, seeks…
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by Paul Cudenec, who reads the articlehereTroy Southgate (1965-)is someone whose name I have been hearing, on and off, for thirty-odd years now, particularly at the time when my political path crossed with that of the late Richard Hunt, who was being shunted out of the anarchist scene at the same time that I was wandering into it.Southgate was one of the “far right” nationalists who took an interest in Hunt’s green anarchist philosophy – he contributed to his reviewAlternative Greenand ended up editing it.He got in touch with me after I published my August 2026articleabout Hunt’s thinking, [1] pointing out his friendship with the neglected thinker and suggesting that today his and my outlooks are closer than one might have imagined.I have to admit that I have been long been put off by Southgate’s use of the term “national-anarchism” – he founded the National-Anarchist Movement in the UK.For me the term is an oxymoron, national identities (rather than tribal or communal ones) having been manufactured to encourage emotional attachment to the “national” states – always anarchists’ enemies – which were, in fact, the first phase of the centuries-long programme of global centralisation.But I learned from anaudio interviewof Southgate (pictured) by Luke Dodson and Adam Ormes that there was a pragmatic reason behind this label – as a convert to anarchism, thanks to Hunt, he wanted to bring other nationalists along with him. It was a bridge between two different ideological positions. [2]Although I believe that rooted and cohesive communities are the best defence against predatory centralisation, and recognise the value of kinship ties, I am a bit wary of the position on racial separatism adopted by Southgate’s group, despite the fact that it is by no means racist, purist or dogmatic.TheNational-Anarchist Manifestostates: “The ‘national’ component of the term National-Anarchism centres on the fact that some of us are racial separatists. Needless to say, whilst we wish to form Anarchist communities that are ethnically organic we also oppose negative and counter-productive attitudes that encourage racial hatred or mindless violence…“The National-Anarchist Movement (N-AM) is not a racial separatist organisationper seand neither do we believe that it is essential for everyone to accept this principle. We adhere to the principle of ‘live and let live’ and, if people wish to establish multi-racial communities whilst retaining the ‘National-Anarchist’ label, then they should be permitted to do so.“In other words, we believe that supporters of both mono-racialism and mixed tribal communities can work together for the wider promulgation of National-Anarchism in general. The most important thing of all, however, is for each of our communities to be established with a unifying vision; be it racial, cultural or spiritual. Separatism for some, mixed tribes for others”. [3]I would suggest that if the “national” component refers to racial separatism and yet you do not have to be a racial separatist to be a national-anarchist, then perhaps the name is not a good fit for the ideology!Moreover, if the idea is simply for people to be free to gather in communities with a certain unifying affinity, under the supposition that ethnic identity might be that affinity for some, why even bother toname“racial separatism” as a possibility? Why not just leave it at the “live and let live” principle and allow human nature to take its course when the time comes for people to seek out their tribe?The notion that folk should be free to form a communitywith whomsoever they wish(includingon an ethnic basis) is already embraced by anarchism as a whole – by authentic anarchism, in any case – so that awkward “national-” prefix could then safely be ditched!Southgate seems to have been picked out as a particular bogeyman by the system and has aprofileonWikipediain which we are told that “he has been affiliated with far-right and fascist groups, such as National Front and International Third Position…“In 1998, Southgate and other ENM [English Nationalist Movement] members founded the National Revolutionary Faction. In 2001, Southgate and the NRF were the subject of aSunday Telegrapharticle, in which the NRF was accused of being a neo-Nazi organisation infiltrating animal rights groups to spread fascism”. [4]But is hereallya “fascist” or a “neo-nazi”? How on earth could you be that at the same time as being an anarchist?Southgate has assured me that heis not and has never beena fascist or a nazi and I have now been able to read some context for this affirmation in his well-documented bookNazis, Fascists or Neither? Ideological Credentials of the British Far Right, 1987-1994.For anybody of a certain age and sensibility, the words “National Front” (NF) will no doubt send a shudder of horror down your spine – in the 1970s and early 1980s they were Enemy Number One for anyone vaguely on the left, to be followed in that role by the British National Party (BNP), the English Defence League (EDL) and now, I suppose, Patriot Platform (PP).But Southgate says that the National Front he joined in the mid-1980s had kicked out actual nazis like John Tyndall (later leader of the BNP) and was nothing like the anti-immigrant (and particuarly anti-Muslim and pro-zionist) street gangs we have seen in recent years.He writes that at the end of 1986, the NF “discarded its old image and matured into a serious revolutionary organisation”. [5]“The NF started to employ a new catch phrase, ‘participation not representation’, [6] a slogan that had been borrowed directly from the pages of Muammar al-Qathafi’sThe Green Book. [7]“Qathafi – or Gaddafi, as his name is often spelt in the West – is the Libyan thinker responsible for the Third Universal Theory, which rejects both Capitalism and Communism. The NF, by this time a ‘third positionist’ [8] organisation – neither Capitalism nor Communism – were advocating that all power, wealth, and arms be placed into the hands of the people – another principle which had been originally formulated by Colonel Qathafi.“In fact the Libyan spokesman was to become a regular figurehead for the NF, and its publications were saturated with articles concerning Libyan-related issues, as well as advertisements forThe Green Book“. [9]Southgate explains that while fascism and nazism were both “constitutional”, coming to power by the ballot box, the NF at that time “was not constitutional in any sense of the word”. [10]He insists: “The reactionary politics of Nazism and Fascism played no part in its revolutionary programme, and, as the NF itself said on more than one occasion: ‘There is no Parliamentary road to the National Revolution!'” [11]In the economic sphere, since the start of the 1980s the party had been promoting the distributism originally introduced by the well-known Catholic writers G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc [12] – “and even began to use E.F. Schumacher’s famous 1973 maxim, ‘Small is Beautiful'”. [13]Schumacher (pictured) isone ofmy organic radical inspirations, [14] so I was interested to see that Southgate has written a book about him, which I will be reviewing. The very title ofThe World According to Fritz: E.F. Schumacher and the Perennial Philosophyappeals to me – see, for instance, my 2012 article ‘Rediscovering Anarcho-Perennialism‘. [15]Southgate continues: “The NF was already renowned for being an anti-Marxist organisation, but whereas the German NSDAP and their Italian cousins ignored Capitalism to a large extent – at least after they had come to power – or else replaced it with something fairly similar, the NF became defiantly anti-Capitalist”. [16]I should point out, I suppose, that we are here talking about “capitalism” as generally understood by European radicals, which some prefer to call “croney capitalism”. I personally have now stopped using the word, because of the confusion it creates.Southgate says that the NF featured regular articles criticising Thatcherite economics and “the greed, corruption and destruction upon which the system is based”. [17]The NF even attacked zionism from an anti-imperialist (rather than anti-Jewish) perspective, with its journalNationalism Todaydeclaring in 1987: “The nature of Zionism is clearly imperialistic and, therefore, morally deplorable, and any such act of territorial expansion by expelling the indigenous people must be opposed”. [18]It added: “The accusation of being ‘anti-Jewish’ is one that has frequently been hurled at the National Front, particularly because of our support for Arab organisations and the Arab world. Our response to this accusation is that we are not anti-Jewish, but anti-Zionist, and it is on this basis that we support the freedom of Palestine in their struggle to retain their homeland”. [19]Southgate writes: “This examination has found that the terms ‘Nazi’ and ‘Fascist’ – commonly applied to the NF by its opponents – are decidedly inaccurate when seeking to describe this movement after 1987. Indeed, whenever it referred directly to both Nazism and Fascism themselves, the NF took a decidedly anti-Nazi and anti-Fascist line”. [20]A 1988 issue ofNF Newscarried an article entitled ‘Zionism = Nazism’, which explained: “Zionism, with its belief in the master race and the value of violence, is a mirror image of the Nazism which gave it such a boost. Back in the last war, Zionist fanatics actually worked with Nazi authorities to liquidate decent Jews who opposed their lunatic scheme to steal another people’s country”. [21]And the next issue of the broadsheet featured an article with the heading ‘Nazi Scum’. This stated: “Nazism calls for the abolition even of the semblance of democracy which exists today. The National Front seeks to promote individual and community self-determination. Nazism promotes a ludicrous personality cult of the ‘leader’…“We want to see the decentralization of political, cultural and economic power to the lowest possible level… Nazism, in total opposition, seeks to centralize power, wealth and arms in the hands of the State. Just like its Fascist twin and its Communist mirror image, Nazism is a statist creed”. [22]I will skip over Southgate’s accounts of groups with which he was not involved, such as the breakaway “Flag” faction of the NF (imperialist and racialist, but not nazi, in his opinion) [23] and the “fairly liberal” Third Way which emerged from a further split – this group even later called itself the National Liberal Party. [24]He clearly had great hopes for the rival splinter, the International Third Position (ITP), which “frequently called for a ‘National Revolution to destroy existing systems of Capitalism, Communism, and Zionism’, [25] urging people to ‘Tear down the British State'”. [26]His book describes how the ITP’sEastern Legionannounced that a “survivalist club” had been established in Bury St Edmund’s to “recruit young people in the hope that a group of hardcore militants will arise, a set of dedicated activists who have the sole intention of dismantling the cities and returning to the land”. [27]He comments: “The ITP gave the distinct impression that it was a proto-insurrectionist movement, althoughThe White Eagle[in Wales] was careful to make an important distinction between extra-parliamentary groups like the Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (MAC or Movement for the Defence of Wales) – ‘freedom fighters in the truest sense, as they believed in a Free Wales and fought for it by blowing up water pipelines, tax offices, etc’ – and the Irish Republican Army (IRA), whom it described as ‘terrorists with no morality whatsoever. They are degenerates masquerading as Nationalists'”. [28]The ITP was firmly anti-imperialist and anti-globalist in its literature. What was apparently its main English publication,The Kent Crusader, wrote: “World events are clearly being motivated in a concise, deliberate manner, and a more identifiable monster has come into being… ‘The New World Order’… The Superpowers are the enemies of the people, and in order to be truly independent and self-governing, the chains of slavery must be broken once and for all…“As Europe becomes centralised within the powerful Brussels dictatorship, the signs for the ‘New World Order’ are all there. First they will capture Europe, and then they will seek to implement their world government”. [29]It seems that some activists had accurately identified what I today term ZIM, the zio-imperialist mafia. The ITP’sNorthern Risingpointed out that zionist power “rests on a global network of influence in the spheres of finance, commerce and media”, stressing that the “Zionist Empire is built on lies, and therefore its most potent enemy is simple truth”. [30]However, Southgate and his fellow anti-imperialist national revolutionaries were left disappointed – the ITP “had sunk beneath the stagnant waters of neo-Fascism after 1992”. [31]He puts most of the blame for this on the ITP’s Roberto Fiore (pictured), who was on the run from Italy on suspicion of terrorism and who went on, in 1997, to found the neo-fascistForza Nuovaparty with his accomplice Massimo Morsello, which hestillleads today.“The ITP leadership’s claims that it was continuing to pursue a Revolutionary Nationalist agenda were fraudulent and the pair were making serious efforts to convert the group into an old-style Fascist organisation. Fiore’s father had also been an active Fascist in pre-war Italy”. [32]I would add that there are also allegations that Fiore was some kind of intelligence asset [33] – that would not in the least surprise me, given what I havelearnedabout Italian neo-fascism. [34]Southgate says that after a group broke away from the ITP (to form the English Nationalist Movement, ENM) in protest at this “steady drift towards Fascism”, [35] the ITP “descended into a confused mishmash of neo-Nazi skinheads and bourgeois Catholics. Moreover, the group’s real beliefs were wholeheartedly confirmed in an Autumn 1993 merchandise list when it advertised packs of stickers bearing the slogan: ‘We’re not “Politically Correct”, We’re “Fascist”‘. [36] At least, they had finally decided to come clean”. [37]His evident distaste for Fiore’s fascism was amplified by the way in which the Italian duo were raking in vast amounts of money in a London accommodation business which in 1993 was compared by theSunday Timesto “Peter Rachman (pictured), the 1950s property shark who used extortion to run an empire of slum houses”. [38]He comments: “The real crux of the matter was that the ITP’s clandestine business practices were entirely Capitalistic, and, therefore, in contradiction with economic principles”. [39]From 1992 to 1994 Southgate was part of the ENM, which had separated itself from Fiore and the ITP. “Unlike the other Nationalist groups around at the time, the ENM was genuinely committed to revolution, and its publications were direct and to the point: ‘it can be seen that the British State is clearly operating outside the parameters ascribed to it, and is therefore a legitimate target for opposition. Simply because of the way in which the State has acted and is continuing to act, the ENM is forced into the position of declaring total and fundamental opposition to it'”. [40]The ENM also told its supporters: “It is time to mobilise against our enemies, who are the very adversaries of all that is Good and Just. It is no use tinkering with the present System – that will not achieve anything. Only a national revolution will overthrow the New World Order, and only a national revolution can free our land from the yoke of totalitarianism”. [41]“Once our economic ideology has been given a fair hearing it will be seen that the Left-wing have nothing to offer workers except Capitalism under a different name and that WE are the revolution”. [42]“Capitalism is responsible for destroying the English peasantry and in forcing millions of our folk from the land, as the Industrial Revolution created a new era of wage-slavery during the eighteenth century”. [43]The ENM was influenced partly by the Strasserism named after dissident national socialists Otto and Gregor Strasser (“German Socialism”, in Southgate’s terms), but it condemned Adolf Hitler for his “allegiance to Capitalism and Big Business”. [44]Southgate stresses that ENM activists described themselves as “firm anti-imperialists” [45] and that “their ideas also stood in total opposition to Nazism and Fascism, proposing not only decentralisation on a national basis, but on a local level too”. [46]Anyone opposed to nazism, fascism and imperialism must necessarily also be opposed to zionism, and such was the case with the ENM.The author explains that while attacking the Israeli state for its “policy of systematic extermination” [47] towards the Palestinians and viewing “the Zionist creed as an enemy to be vanquished”, [48] the ENM also deplored what it described as the “titanic proportions” [49] of zionist influence at home.It stated: “Anti-Zionism has nothing to do with the persecution of the Jews, indeed, we are concerned that the Jews themselves are not only slaughtering the Palestinians, but that they exert a dangerous stranglehold upon the affairs of our own nation.“For anyone unconvinced that Zionism presents a security risk for England, then look back to when Robert Maxwell (pictured with daughter Ghislaine) was exposed as an Israeli agent. His true allegiance was shown publicly, when he was buried in Jerusalem”. [50]My regular readers will be familiar with the concept of the “binary bounce“, in which opposition to one of ZIM’s monstrous manufactured movements is used to push people into the other half of its either/or trap. [51]Southgate detects something of this kind in the media publicity and controversy surrounding Tyndall’s BNP in the early 1990s.He notes: “One paradoxical factor is that the Left also contributed to the sudden rise of the BNP… the British Left had used its opposition to the Far Right as a convenient means of boosting its flagging support after the collapse of Soviet Communism in 1989. To the likes of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) – recruiting under the name of the Anti-Nazi League – the BNP was an absolute godsend”. [52]The author also remarks that “for many people across the Left-Right spectrum the Industrial Revolution remained a symbol of Capitalist tyranny and exploitation. Not so for the BNP. Whilst the Party was an anti-Marxist organisation, it not only tolerated Capialism but was clearly quasi-Capitalist; a factor which has always been common among the more reactionary sections of the Far Right”. [53]When we consider the Marxist emphasis on industrial “progress”, the monopoly behind the binarity becomes even more apparent.Southgate concludes the book proper with an astute quote from anti-fascist researcher Larry O’Hara: “In the shadows the secret state hopes to benefit from both far Left and far Right fighting each other rather than taking on the state”. [54]The Appendix brings us back to the point in the ENM’s history at which I began this piece: “Links were forged withGreen Anarchistfounder Richard Hunt (pictured) and hisAlternative Greenmagazine”. [55]“In 1998 the ENM changed its name to the National Revolutionary Faction, adopted a cell-structure similar to the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and soon began calling for armed stuggle against the British State.“By 2000, on the other hand, NRF had completely evolved into an Anarchist organisation and decided to suspend the activities of the NRF… As a result, the NRF became known as the National-Anarchists”. [56]As I said, I have some issues with the “national-anarchist” concept, but to be honest there is much in itsManifestowith which I am in complete agreement.At the very least there isa space betweenSouthgate’s version of anarchism and mine which could provide an ideological rallying point for theNew Resistance[57] which we have to hope will emerge in this hour of great need.I was pleased to see, for instance, that the National-Anarchist Movement (N-AM) takes a strong line against the malevolent entity I call ZIM.It states in itsManifesto: “National-Anarchists do not ‘hate’ ordinary Jews and neither do we wish to undermine them as a people with their own unique religious and cultural identity, but what we will not tolerate, however, is the ongoing enslavement of our people by a minority of vampiric parasites intent on carving up the world’s resources in an attempt to create a single, global market.“We believe that the way to combat Zionism is to continue to expose the hypocrisy of those who, on the one hand, use the Nazi ‘holocaust’ to evoke sympathy, and, on the other, brutally repress the long-suffering Palestinians in their own land. Zionism is an enemy of all peoples and must be vanquished”. [58]The cornerstone of ZIM’s success is also condemned: “By lending money at exorbitant rates of interest, the modern usurers, loan sharks and creditors have tightened their vice-like grip around the throats of our national economies…“The usurers also manipulate entire governments by shackling them to the national debt. This is incurred by those countries which have borrowed money to go to war or prop up their flagging economies, but it has to be repaid through rising taxation and this leads, inevitably, to a decline in public services and affects the poorest people in society”. [59]TheManifestofurther declares: “Parliamentary democracy is a sham; the system itself is rotten to the core… Our vision, in a nutshell, is one of small village-communities in which people occupy their own space in which to live in accordance with their own principles”.“Real Anarchism has nothing to do with decay and degeneration, or with mindless violence and terror, it can actually provide a real and tangible alternative to the ongoing decline of Western civilisation.“Indeed, natural order is the most organic form of social organisation on the planet, because it allows man to live in the way that nature itself intended. Not as wild animals or in blind ignorance, because man finds himself in possession of a superior intelligence, but certainly as far as satisfying our most basic needs, instincts and desires are concerned.“Laws and systems seek to enslave us, but within a more natural and conducive setting we can fulfil our true destinies and rediscover that long-forgotten bond with the environment”. [60]And the tone of theManifestohas all of the feistiness traditionally associated with anarchism but which is so pitifully lacking in too many of its woked-up, marxed-down and sold-out contemporary manifestations.“Our goal must be to fight. Always to fight. If we are fighting, then we are winning. If we put down the sword, then we have already lost. This fight demands loyalty and it demands commitment. If we are not prepared to give our blood, sweat and tears then we will achieve nothing. There will be no advance and no victory. Nothing is more certain”. [61][1] Paul Cudenec, ‘Centuries of theft: the starvation of the periphery by the core’,https://winteroak.org.uk/2026/08/10/centuries-of-theft-the-starvation-of-the-periphery-by-the-core/[2]flintandsteel.substack.com/p/dodcast-64-troy-southgate-and-adam[3]National-Anarchist Movement (N-AM) Manifesto,https://troysouthgate.substack.com/p/national-anarchist-movement-n-am[4]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Southgate[5] Troy Southgate,Nazis, Fascists or Neither? Ideological Credentials of the British Far Right, 1987-1994(Portugal: Black Front Press, 2025. First published by Wermod & Wermod Publishing Group, 2010), p. 32. All subsequent page references are to this work.[6] ‘People not Parliament’,National Front News(NF National Directorate, 1987), Issue 90, p. 5, cit. p. 44.[7] Muammar al-Qathafi,The Green Book(Tripoli, Libya: Public Establishment for Printing, Advertising and Distribution, 1987), p. 7, cit. p. 44.[8] Derek Holland, ‘The Suffering of Terza Posizione’,Nationalism Today(NT Press, 1987), Issue 40, p. 15, cit. p. 44.[9] p. 44.[10] p. 45.[11] ‘Movement Aims to Contact Black Community’,National Front News(NF National Directorate, 1989), Issue 119, p. 4, cit. p. 45.[12] p. 46.[13] ‘Burning Books’ inNational Front News(NF National Directorate, 1988), Issue 100, p. 10, cit. p. 46.[14]https://orgrad.wordpress.com/a-z-of-thinkers/ernst-friedrich-schumacher/[15] Paul Cudenec, ‘Rediscovering Anarcho-Perennialism’,https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/paul-cudenec-rediscovering-anarcho-perennialism[16] p. 46.[17] ‘Thatcherism: Cause and Cure’,Nationalism Today(NT Press, 1987), Issue 41, p. 12, cit. p. 46.[18] ‘Freedom Will Come’,Nationalism Today(NT Press, 1987), Issue 42, p. 10, cit. p. 49.[19] Ibid.[20] p. 50.[21] ‘Zionism = Nazism’,NF News(NF National Directorate 1988) Issue 101, p. 3, cit. pp. 50-51.[22] ‘Nazi Scum’,NF News(NF National Directorate 1988), Issue 102, p. 6, cit. p. 51.[23] p. 65.[24] p. 119.[25] ‘Political Group Urges National Revolution’, inKent MessengerTunbridge Wells edition, January 17 1991, cit. p. 81.[26] ‘Race and Reason’,Northern Rising(Northern Rising, 1992), Issue 3, p. 9, cit. p. 81.[27] ‘Smash the Cities’,Eastern Legion(Kent Third Position, 1991), Issue 1, p. 3, cit. p. 80.[28] ‘Terrorism – The Facts’,The White Eagle(Welsh Distributist Movement, 1991), Issue 4, p. 8, cit. p. 81.[29] ‘England… Sunk and Disorderly?’,The Kent Crusader(Kent ITP, 1992) Issue 5, p. 4 cit. p. 85.[30] ‘Intifada Worldwide’,Northern Rising(Northern Rising, 1992), Issue 3, p. 4., cit. p. 88.[31] p. 82.[32] p. 78.[33]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Fiore[34] Paul Cudenec, ‘The strategy of terror’,https://winteroak.org.uk/2026/06/15/the-strategy-of-terror/[35] p. 92.[36]Final Conflict Merchandise(ITP, 1993), p. 7.[37] pp. 79-80.[38] Richard Palmer, ‘Neo-Fascists Run Rachman Racket’,Sunday Times, May 30 1993, cit. p. 84.[39] p. 84.[40] ENM, ‘The Subversive State’,The Crusader(The Rising Press, 1993), Issue 2, p. 10, cit. p. 94.[41] ‘A National Revolution’,An Introduction to the English Nationalist Movement(The Rising Press, 1992), p. 5, cit. p. 94.[42] ‘The Not So Hidden Agenda’,The Crusader(The Rising Press, 1993), Issue 2, p. 5, cit. p. 95.[43] ‘Why an English Nationalist Movement?’, Friends of the ENM,Winter 1993 Newsletter(The Rising Press, 1993), p. 3, cit. p. 95.[44] ‘Revolution vs Reaction’,The Crusader(The Rising Press, 1993), Issue 2, p. 9, cit. p. 95.[45] ‘A Family of Nations’,An Introduction to the English Nationalist Movement, p. 2, cit. p. 96.[46]The Authority of the English People in Post-Revolutionary Society(The Rising Press, 1994), cit. p. 96.[47] ‘Palestine, Zionism and the Jews’,The Crusader(The Rising Press, 1993), Issue 2, p. 7, cit. p. 96.[48] Ibid.[49] ‘Zionism and World Manipulation’,An Introduction to the English Nationalist Movement, p. 4, cit. p. 96.[50] ‘Zionism and World Manipulation’, cit. p. 97.[51] Paul Cudenec, ‘The old binary bounce routine’,https://winteroak.org.uk/2025/06/13/the-old-binary-bounce-routine/[52] p. 105.[53] p. 107.[54] Larry O’Hara,At War With the Truth(Mina Enterprises, 1993), p. 17, cit. p. 117.[55] p. 119.[56] p. 120.[57] Paul Cudenec,Welcome to the New Resistance! The fog of lies has lifted and the enemy is finally in plain sight,https://winteroak.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/wttnronline.pdf[58]National-Anarchist Movement (N-AM) Manifesto,troysouthgate.substack.com/p/national-anarchist-movement-n-am[59] Ibid.[60] Ibid.[61] Ibid.
