Kerry Raymond Bolton (born 1956) is a New Zealand

white supremacist White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine ...

and

Holocaust denier Denial of the Holocaust is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that asserts that the genocide of Jews by the Nazis is a fabrication or exaggeration. It includes making one or more of the following false claims: *Nazi Germany's "Final Solution" wa ...

, and a writer and political activist on those subjects. In 1980, Bolton co-founded the Church of Odin as the New Zealand branch of the Australian neopagan organisation, First Anglecyn Church of Odin. He is involved in several nationalist and

fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...

political groups in New Zealand.

Neopagan background

In 1980, Bolton co-founded, along with David Crawford, the Church of Odin, the New Zealand branch of the First Anglecyn Church of Odin, a pro-Nazi neopagan organisation for "whites of non-Jewish descent". Though officially a branch of the First Anglecyn Church founded by Alexander Rud Mills in Melbourne in 1936, the Church of Odin also considered Else Christensen's Mills-inspired Odinist Fellowship as a parent organisation. By 1983 Bolton had left the Church. The church creed, two newsletters, and other materials are archived at the Alexander Turnbull Library.

Political activism

Bolton has published and edited newsletters such as ''The Watcher'', ''The Flaming Sword'', ''The Heretic'', ''The Nexus'', ''Ab Aeterno'' (assistant editor) and ''Western Destiny''. He founded the national-socialist Order of the Left Hand Path (OLHP) in 1992, following a quarrel with other members of the

Temple of Set The Temple of Set (ToS) is an occult religious organization founded in 1975. A new religious movement and form of Western esotericism, the Temple espouses a religion known as Setianism, whose practitioners are called Setians. This is sometime ...

. Two years later it was renamed the ''Ordo Sinistra Vivendi'' ("Order of the Left Way"), and in the same year created the fascist Black Order. It claimed to have a network of national lodges in six European countries plus Australia and the U.S. It was intended to be an activist front promoting an "occult-fascist axis" by mobilising political groups and youth culture elements such as industrial music. Bolton created and edited the Black Order newsletter, ''The Flaming Sword'', and its successor, ''The Nexus'', a satanic-Nazi journal with special attention given to figures such as Savitri Devi,

Julius Evola Giulio Cesare Andrea "Julius" Evola (; 19 May 1898 – 11 June 1974) was an Italian far-right philosopher and writer. Evola regarded his values as Traditionalist conservatism, traditionalist, Aristocracy, aristocratic, War, martial and Empire, im ...

, and

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

, and which especially catered to the

black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with tr ...

movement. It later changed its name to ''Western Destiny''. In 1996, Bolton formed The Thelemic Society which blended rightist politics with the teachings of the English occultist

Aleister Crowley Aleister Crowley ( ; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, novelist, mountaineer, and painter. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...

and the philosophy of the German thinker

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philology, classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche bec ...

. Bolton was a co-founder of the Nationalist Workers' Party, and was briefly secretary for the New Zealand Fascist Union in 1997, in which he promoted the 'patriotic socialism' of 1930s Labour hero John A. Lee. In 2004 he was the secretary of the

New Zealand National Front The New Zealand National Front was a small white nationalist organisation in New Zealand. History First formation in 1967 Mirroring developments in the UK, a group called the National Front evolved from the New Zealand branch of the League ...

and spokesman for the New Right group. He was also involved with the New Zealand National Front but resigned because of disputes with neo-Nazi and white supremacist factions. In 2021, the

University of Otago The University of Otago () is a public university, public research university, research collegiate university based in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. Founded in 1869, Otago is New Zealand's oldest university and one of the oldest universities in ...

student magazine '' Critic Te Ārohi'' reported that Bolton is in regular contact with the white supremacist organisation Action Zealandia. He has also written articles which have been published in magazine run by the

Church of Satan The Church of Satan (CoS) is a religious organization dedicated to the religion of LaVeyan Satanism, Satanism as defined by Anton Szandor LaVey. Founded in San Francisco in 1966, by Anton LaVey, LaVey, it is considered the "oldest satanic reli ...

with the same name as the magazine he started as ''The Flaming Sword''.

Controversies

In 2008, a masters thesis written about Bolton published by the

Waikato University The University of Waikato (), established in 1964, is a public research university located in Hamilton, New Zealand. An additional campus is located in Tauranga. The university performs research in numerous disciplines such as education, socia ...

was temporarily withdrawn from the library pending investigation after Bolton complained to the vice-chancellor.Joshua Drummond
Waikato Uni pulls thesis after 'neo-Nazi Satanist' complaints
, ''In Unison'', 6 October 2008. The thesis, titled "Dreamers of the Dark: Kerry Bolton and the Order of the Left Hand Path; a Case-study of a Satanic/Neo Nazi Synthesis", dealt with the link between neo-Nazi and satanic beliefs in New Zealand. It had been passed by the university, had been reviewed by senior academics from two other universities, and had received full class honours. Dov Bing, who supervised the thesis, called it a first-class piece of work. Bolton claimed the thesis was "poorly researched" and was "a poorly contrived smear-document against a private individual, namely myself". After criticism from the Tertiary Education Union, Vice Chancellor Crawford issued a one-page letter stating that the thesis was sound because it had been externally examined by "two well qualified academics". In December 2009, Bolton filed a complaint with the

Broadcasting Standards Authority The Broadcasting Standards Authority (; abbreviated BSA) is a New Zealand Crown entity created by the Broadcasting Act 1989 to develop and uphold standards of broadcasting for radio, free-to-air and pay television. The main functions of the B ...

concerning the ''Ideas'' programme on Radio New Zealand National, which featured Marxist poet and sociologist Scott Hamilton. Hamilton had stated that Bolton was an avid "holocaust denier", had a "close relationship" with the revisionist Adelaide Institute, insinuated himself into the anti-war movement where he made anti-Semitic and "holocaust denial" statements, and exercised a bad political influence over "unwary youth". Bolton claimed that all of Hamilton's allegations were incorrect. The Broadcasting Standards Authority initially upheld Bolton's complaint on all grounds, and criticised Radio New Zealand for not having verified the accuracy of Hamilton's statements before broadcasting the programme, but reversed this decision in December 2010 and declined to uphold any of Bolton's complaints. In December 2009, Bolton complained to the Press Council against a lengthy feature article run by ''The Press'', Christchurch, "A Right Muddle" by John McCrone. Bolton stated that the article wrongly stated that Bolton was a "neo-Nazi Satanist", that he was associated with "

white power White pride and white power are expressions primarily used by white separatist, white nationalist, fascist, neo-Nazi, and white supremacist organizations in order to signal racist or racialist viewpoints. It is also a slogan used by the promi ...

" and "pseudo-fascist views", that he was the founder of New Right New Zealand, among other matters. The Press Council in a ruling dated for release as 26 March 2010, upheld parts of the complaint, determining that the article is "inaccurate and biased".

Other activities

In 2014, Bolton was involved in a campaign seeking (unsuccessfully) to save a young dog from euthanasia for allegedly nipping another dog on the hind leg in the course of play. The dog was euthanised two days early after threats on Facebook of violence against council staff members. In 2019, he appeared in court for breaching the name suppression of a sexual assault victim in 2018 on a radio show. Bolton was discharged without conviction by Porirua District Court judge Ian Mill on the condition that he pay reparation of $1500 to the victim within a month. Police prosecutor Sergeant Paul Macky said it was inconceivable that he did not know about the suppression.

Published works

* ''Thinkers of the Right: Fascism, Nationalism & Elitism Amongst the Literati'' (Luton Publications, 2002) * ''Revolution from Above'' ( Arktos Media, 2011) * ''Artists of the Right'' (

Counter-Currents Gregory Johnson (born 1971) is an American white nationalist and advocate for a white ethnostate. He is known for his role as editor-in-chief of the white nationalist imprint Counter-Currents Publishing, which he founded in 2010 with Michael Po ...

, 2012) * ''The Parihaka Cult'' (Black House Publishing, 2012) * ''Stalin: The Enduring Legacy'' (Black House Publishing, 2012) * ''Geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific'' (Black House Publishing, 2013) * ''The Psychotic Left: From Jacobin France to the Occupy Movement'' (Black House Publishing, 2013) * ''The Banking Swindle'' (Black House Publishing, 2013) * ''Babel Inc.'' (Black House Publishing, 2013) * ''Perón and Perónism'' (Black House Publishing, 2014) * ''Zionism, Islam and the West'' (Black House Publishing, 2015) * ''Religion, Mysticism and the Myth of the "Occult Reich"'' (Inconvenient History, 2015) * ''Opposing the Money Lenders: The Struggle to Abolish Interest Slavery'' (Black House Publishing, 2016) * ''The Occult and Subversive Movements: Tradition & Counter-Tradition in the Struggle for World Power'' (Black House Publishing, 2017) * ''The Decline and Fall of Civilisations'' (Black House Publishing, 2017) * ''More Artists of the Right'' (Counter-Currents, 2017) * ''Francis Parker Yockey: A Fascist Odyssey'' (Arktos Media Ltd, 2018) * ''Russia and the Fight Against Globalisation'' (Black House Publishing, 2018) * ''The Perversion of Normality: From the Marquis de Sade to Cyborgs'' (Arktos Media Ltd, 2021) * ''The Tyranny of Human Rights: From Jacobinism to the United Nations'' (Antelope Hill Publishing, 2022) * ''Generation '68: The Elite Revolution and Its Legacy'' (Antelope Hill Publishing, 2024)

References

Works cited

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bolton, Kerry 1956 births Living people 21st-century New Zealand male writers Adherents of Germanic neopaganism Alt-right writers Far-right modern pagans New Zealand National Front politicians New Zealand activists New Zealand occultists Right-wing anti-capitalism Satanism and Nazism Satanists Converts from paganism