NOVANEWS
This article was published last week in the print edition, there have since been further incidents of anti-Muslim graffiti at the university which are reported on here.
By Daniel Lindley
In June of last year, a Warwick University student named Alex Davies was outed as a leader of the fledgling fascist group National Action. Slaney Street contacted the university regarding the news, here’s a summary of our email exchange with their press spokesperson Peter Dunn:
Slaney Street: I was just wondering what exactly is going on with the student referred to in the Mirror article… it would appear to me that Warwick should make some sort of a public announcement.
University of Warwick: The University has been actively examining allegations… which, if true, would be in breach of the University’s dignity at work and study policy. The student has confirmed that the substance of the allegations is true and he has asked to permanently withdraw from the University with immediate effect…
Indeed the very next day after we received this response, student media reported that Davies had left the university. The swift action taken by Warwick seems at odds with the flailing attempts by the University of Birmingham to deal with members of the same organisation carrying out attacks in and around their main campus.
Firstly though, who are National Action?
They’re a very secretive fascist group who emerged in late 2013. They’re openly Nazi and quote Adolf Hitler in their literature as an inspiration, and unusually their membership is apparently student-led. They have a particular admiration for the Greek fascist party Golden Dawn – a party whose leader is currently on trial suspected of links to several political murders – who they describe as “a perfect example of what we’d like to replicate.” Amongst National Action’s first actions was attaching a banner reading “anti-racist is a codeword for anti-white” off a bridge in Lozells last March, which they claim was up for some 45 minutes. Anonymous members of the white supremacist website discussed this action, one saying the NA members were masked because “They are university students and don’t want to be identified for obvious reasons.” So let there be no doubt that these are university students we’re talking about.
Last month several buildings at the University of Birmingham were daubed in racist graffiti including swastikas, the words ‘Islam Must Die’ and images of the Jewish Star of David being thrown in a bin. There was also similar slogans daubed on the doors of university toilets. The nearby Selly Oak Jalalabad Mosque was also vandalised in what police described as a ‘linked’ incident. National Action later released a YouTube propaganda video of their masked members committing these acts.
What has the University done about it?
Photo by Eva Momtaz
The university’s initial response some three days later was to put out a statement on their Facebook account saying “We have been saddened by the graffiti on campus over the weekend” and asking followers to send in photos of themselves enjoying life on campus. This got a mixed reaction, with some social media users expressing disdain that the university would “use this as a neo-liberal marketing ploy” and that their statement didn’t even mention the content of the graffiti. It took another six days of public criticism, a protest on campus and much berating over Twitter etc before the university eventually put out a second and then a third statement, the final one at last acknowledging that this was a racist incident.
Not all fascist students at the University of Birmingham have managed to remain anonymous. Emmerson Collier is currently studying for a BA in Political Science and describes himself as co-ordinator of the Young Patriots League, the youth wing of Britain First. Britain First was founded in 2011 by former BNP members (Collier is a former BNP activist) who felt the party needed to focus on street direct action as opposed to more ‘respectable’ electoral politics, and they’ve since been carrying out mosque invasions (their own term) on Muslim places of worship.
He also gives himself the title ‘Director of Communications’ for the National Culturists, a thinly-veiled fascist group who made headlines in Liverpool in 2013 but seem to have been inactive lately. Their Chairman Jack Buckby has addressed the Alliance of European National Movements, an alliance of European far-right parties such as Hungary’s Jobbik, which has recently organised mass-protests against ‘Jewish attempts to buy up Hungary.’ Buckby has also said of the EDL that “ideologically I am totally on their side.” UoB’s Collier has been spotted attending fascist gathering with Buckby, for instance they both attended the Traditional Britain Group’s ”Reclaiming the right” conference in 2013, along with other mostly ex-BNP members who felt the party had become too moderate. Collier is also reported by the anti-fascist publication Searchlight to have been one of the 59 attendees the founding of the new British Democratic Party, led by former National Front leader Andrew Brons and whose national committee includes the old-timer John Bean, a veteran acolyte of WWII-era Fascist Party leader Oswald Moseley who describes himself as ‘the British Joseph Goebbels.’ Nick Lowles of Hope not Hate is quoted in the New Statesman as saying “The BDP brings together all of the hardcore Holocaust deniers and racists that have walked away from the BNP over the last two to three years…”
Whether the University of Birmingham will act like Warwick University and remove this fascist leader from their institution is yet to be seen. There’s a legitimate debate to be had whether taking such action is an appropriate thing to do, on the one hand the presence of fascist students organising on campuses poses a serious danger to other students, those from oppressed groups in particular. However it’s also a real concern that allowing universities to remove students because of their ‘extremist political activities’ is a slippery slope that can later be used to justify further repressive treatment of other politically active students.
By Daniel Lindley
In June of last year, a Warwick University student named Alex Davies was outed as a leader of the fledgling fascist group National Action. Slaney Street contacted the university regarding the news, here’s a summary of our email exchange with their press spokesperson Peter Dunn:
Slaney Street: I was just wondering what exactly is going on with the student referred to in the Mirror article… it would appear to me that Warwick should make some sort of a public announcement.
University of Warwick: The University has been actively examining allegations… which, if true, would be in breach of the University’s dignity at work and study policy. The student has confirmed that the substance of the allegations is true and he has asked to permanently withdraw from the University with immediate effect…
Indeed the very next day after we received this response, student media reported that Davies had left the university. The swift action taken by Warwick seems at odds with the flailing attempts by the University of Birmingham to deal with members of the same organisation carrying out attacks in and around their main campus.
Firstly though, who are National Action?
They’re a very secretive fascist group who emerged in late 2013. They’re openly Nazi and quote Adolf Hitler in their literature as an inspiration, and unusually their membership is apparently student-led. They have a particular admiration for the Greek fascist party Golden Dawn – a party whose leader is currently on trial suspected of links to several political murders – who they describe as “a perfect example of what we’d like to replicate.” Amongst National Action’s first actions was attaching a banner reading “anti-racist is a codeword for anti-white” off a bridge in Lozells last March, which they claim was up for some 45 minutes. Anonymous members of the white supremacist website discussed this action, one saying the NA members were masked because “They are university students and don’t want to be identified for obvious reasons.” So let there be no doubt that these are university students we’re talking about.
Last month several buildings at the University of Birmingham were daubed in racist graffiti including swastikas, the words ‘Islam Must Die’ and images of the Jewish Star of David being thrown in a bin. There was also similar slogans daubed on the doors of university toilets. The nearby Selly Oak Jalalabad Mosque was also vandalised in what police described as a ‘linked’ incident. National Action later released a YouTube propaganda video of their masked members committing these acts.
What has the University done about it?
Photo by Eva Momtaz
The university’s initial response some three days later was to put out a statement on their Facebook account saying “We have been saddened by the graffiti on campus over the weekend” and asking followers to send in photos of themselves enjoying life on campus. This got a mixed reaction, with some social media users expressing disdain that the university would “use this as a neo-liberal marketing ploy” and that their statement didn’t even mention the content of the graffiti. It took another six days of public criticism, a protest on campus and much berating over Twitter etc before the university eventually put out a second and then a third statement, the final one at last acknowledging that this was a racist incident.
Not all fascist students at the University of Birmingham have managed to remain anonymous. Emmerson Collier is currently studying for a BA in Political Science and describes himself as co-ordinator of the Young Patriots League, the youth wing of Britain First. Britain First was founded in 2011 by former BNP members (Collier is a former BNP activist) who felt the party needed to focus on street direct action as opposed to more ‘respectable’ electoral politics, and they’ve since been carrying out mosque invasions (their own term) on Muslim places of worship.
He also gives himself the title ‘Director of Communications’ for the National Culturists, a thinly-veiled fascist group who made headlines in Liverpool in 2013 but seem to have been inactive lately. Their Chairman Jack Buckby has addressed the Alliance of European National Movements, an alliance of European far-right parties such as Hungary’s Jobbik, which has recently organised mass-protests against ‘Jewish attempts to buy up Hungary.’ Buckby has also said of the EDL that “ideologically I am totally on their side.” UoB’s Collier has been spotted attending fascist gathering with Buckby, for instance they both attended the Traditional Britain Group’s ”Reclaiming the right” conference in 2013, along with other mostly ex-BNP members who felt the party had become too moderate. Collier is also reported by the anti-fascist publication Searchlight to have been one of the 59 attendees the founding of the new British Democratic Party, led by former National Front leader Andrew Brons and whose national committee includes the old-timer John Bean, a veteran acolyte of WWII-era Fascist Party leader Oswald Moseley who describes himself as ‘the British Joseph Goebbels.’ Nick Lowles of Hope not Hate is quoted in the New Statesman as saying “The BDP brings together all of the hardcore Holocaust deniers and racists that have walked away from the BNP over the last two to three years…”
Whether the University of Birmingham will act like Warwick University and remove this fascist leader from their institution is yet to be seen. There’s a legitimate debate to be had whether taking such action is an appropriate thing to do, on the one hand the presence of fascist students organising on campuses poses a serious danger to other students, those from oppressed groups in particular. However it’s also a real concern that allowing universities to remove students because of their ‘extremist political activities’ is a slippery slope that can later be used to justify further repressive treatment of other politically active students.
That two students at University of Birmingham (Kelly Rogers and Simon Furse) are cu- rrently on a nine-month suspension for involvement in a peaceful protest against tui-tion fee rises illustrates the dangers in trusting university authorities with grea- ter powers. Their priority is not protecting their students from racist attacks but protecting their ‘brand’ in the higher education market.
