October 22, 2013
Over the past six months, racists in both the United States and Europe have increased cooperation by participating in a number of conferences and events on both sides of the Atlantic. Many of the individuals and groups involved are academic racists. These racists belong to what is known as the extreme right in the U.S. and as the “new right” in Europe. Some of the Europeans involved in this trans-Atlantic exchange are part of the ideologically similar “Identitaire” movement. The extreme ideology of the American and European racists calls for the preservation of white European culture and promotes the idea that IQ differences are based on race.
H.L. Mencken Club
The H.L. Mencken Club is a far-right, racist organization run by Paul Gottfried out of Pennsylvania. He has presented at a number of racist gatherings in the past, including American Renaissance conferences run by white supremacist Jared Taylor. Another long-time H.L Mencken Club member is white supremacist Richard Spencer of the National Policy Institute (NPI), described below. The Traditional Britain Group, described by the anti-racist magazine Searchlight as an organization “which bridges the far right and ultra-Conservative right,” invited Gottfried and Spencer to speak at a conference in London on October 19, 2013. Spencer’s speech for the conference is titled, “Why We Need Europe.” Gottfried, who won’t be able to attend purportedly due to illness, was scheduled to give a speech on “What Makes the Right What It Is.”
On June 29, 2013, Gottfried spoke at the “Identitarian Ideas” conference in Stockholm, Sweden. The title of Gottfried’s speech was, “‘Cultural Marxism and the Frankfurt School.”
National Policy Institute
On October 25-27, 2013, the National Policy Institute (NPI), a white supremacist think-tank, is scheduled to hold a conference titled “After the Fall,” in Washington, D.C. Richard Spencer, who runs NPI out of Montana, also founded the racist online magazine Alternative Right. The NPI conference plans to feature a number of European racists including Frenchman Alain De Benoist, seen as one of the original “new right” ideologues. Another Frenchman, Roman Bernard is scheduled to co-host the conference with Spencer. Bernard is an assistant editor of Alternative Right. Piero San Giorgio of Switzerland is also scheduled to speak. San Giorgio is the author of a book that is reportedly popular with Identitarians called Survive—The Economic Collapse. Alex Kurtagic, a United Kingdom-based author is also set to speak at the conference. Kurtagic spoke at the 2011 NPI conference and is an editor of Alternative Right and regular contributor to Counter-Currents, a white supremacist online magazine and publishing house.
American John Morgan, of the far-right publishing house Arktos, is also scheduled to speak at the NPI conference. Morgan spoke in Europe, as well, at the “Identitarian Ideas” conference in Stockholm in June. His topic was “The Past, Present and Future of Arktos.” Morgan is a regular contributor to Counter-Currents.
American Freedom Party
Tom Sunic of Croatia is a board member of the U.S.-based American Freedom Party (AFP), a white supremacist political party. He spoke in late September at the national conference of the British National Party (BNP), a racist and ultranationalist fringe political party in England. Sunic’s speech was titled "The 'Balkanization' of the EU and the USA; Some Parallels with ex-Yugoslavia.” On September 15, Sunic spoke at a memorial event he described as one for “the victims of the Allied persecution in the aftermath of WWII” in the Austrian town of Ulrichsberg. According to AFP’s September 2013 newsletter, Sunic is set to start a six-month European speaking tour organized by the AFP. Sunic is also scheduled to speak at the NPI conference in Washington, D.C., in late October.
American Renaissance
On September 22, 2013, Virginia-based white supremacist Jared Taylor, the founder of the journal American Renaissance, spoke at the Property and Freedom Society conference in Bodrum, Turkey. His topic was “A Brief History of US Race Relations.” Earlier this year, Taylor hosted the annual American Renaissance conference outside of Nashville, Tennessee. The keynote speaker at the event was Fabrice Robert of the extreme French political movement, Bloc Identitaire. On April 19, 2013, Jared Taylor spoke in London at a meeting of the Bloomsbury Forum. His topic was “The Racial Transformation of America and the Political Prospects Going Forward.” The founder the Forum, Adrian Davies, defended Holocaust denier David Irving during his appeal after losing a libel case against American author Deborah Lipstadt. A few days earlier on April 13, Taylor spoke in Paris, France, at the meeting of the Geopolitics and Populations Institute. His topic for that speech was an American perspective on the question “Elections and Immigration: Can the Right Still Win?”
Building alliances
While the trend of trans-Atlantic cooperation between racists is not a new one, the calls for increases in cooperation and alliance building are increasing. American extremists often comment on the rise in extreme far-right political parties in Europe, whose ideology is nationalist, anti-immigrant and anti-European Union. In his speech at the national meeting of the white supremacist group Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC) in June 2013, Jared Taylor stated, “It’s places like France, places like Denmark places like, even like Sweden that used to be just an utter bastion of liberalism who are throwing off some of these illusions and have political parties and leaders, distinguished men and women who are saying enough – France for the French, Sweden for the Swedes, they are way ahead of us!”
Many American racists look to Europe for ideas and guidance. A younger generation of racists, headed by Matthew Heimbach and Matt Parrott formed the Traditionalist Youth Network (TYN), calling it “the first attempt to adapt the European New Right’s ideals to the American context for street action.” Some of TYN’s street actions are the same tactics used by Bloc Identitaire’s youth movement Generation Identitaire in France. At the 2013 American Renaissance conference, Fabrice Robert called for Europeans and Americans to work together, unite and be combative.
American and European racist academics are preaching their beliefs and networking with trans-Atlantic audiences that are already sympathetic to their views.