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Troy Southgate (born 22 July 1965) is a British
far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...
political activist and a self-described national-anarchist. He has been affiliated with far-right 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 ...
groups, such as National Front and International Third Position. He co-created the think tank New Right alongside Jonathan Bowden and is the founder and editor-in-chief of Black Front Press. Southgate's movement has been described as working to "exploit a burgeoning counter culture of industrial heavy metal music, paganism, esotericism, occultism and
Satanism Satanism refers to a group of religious, ideological, or philosophical beliefs based on Satan—particularly his worship or veneration. Because of the ties to the historical Abrahamic religious figure, Satanism—as well as other religious ...
that, it believes, holds the key to the spiritual reinvigoration of western society ready for an essentially Evolian revolt against the culturally and racially enervating forces of American global capitalism".


Far-right activism

Southgate joined the National Front in 1984 and began writing for publications such as ''National Front News'' and ''Nationalism Today''. According to ''
Searchlight A searchlight (or spotlight) is an apparatus that combines an extremely luminosity, bright source (traditionally a carbon arc lamp) with a mirrored parabolic reflector to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a part ...
'' magazine, in 1987 he joined the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX).Adam Carter, "Troy Southgate – A Timeline", ''Searchlight'', January 2012, pp. 7–8. In 1998, Southgate and other ENM members founded the National Revolutionary Faction. In 2001, Southgate and the NRF were the subject of a ''Sunday Telegraph'' article, in which the NRF was accused of being a neo-Nazi organisation infiltrating
animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have Moral patienthood, moral worth independent of their Utilitarianism, utility to humans, and that their most basic interests—such as ...
groups to spread fascism. Southgate's national-anarchist ideology has been described as an opportunistic appropriation of aspects of leftist counter-culture in the service of a racist, far-right ideology. His formulation of it was influenced by Richard Hunt a founder of Green Anarchist who had been expelled from the group for his embrace of far right views in the early 1990s to form the group Alternative Green. In the late 1990s, Hunt published a book-length expansion of his earlier pamphlet ''The Natural Society'', entitled ''To End Poverty: The Starvation of the Periphery by the Core''.ref name="Macklin"> According to scholar of fascism, Graham Macklin, ''To End Poverty'' argues
that poverty in the ‘ periphery’ is caused by western trade demands on a developing world that is starved to feed the ‘
core Core or cores may refer to: Science and technology * Core (anatomy), everything except the appendages * Core (laboratory), a highly specialized shared research resource * Core (manufacturing), used in casting and molding * Core (optical fiber ...
’. This ‘progress’ represents an extension of the taxation and wage slavery that encourages the growth of an increasingly urbanized and ‘biologically unhealthy’ population, creating poverty and crime as society hurtles towards ‘total social breakdown’. Hunt's panacea is to return to ‘the original affluent society’ of the self-sufficient hunter-gatherer living in rural communes, protected by armed militias (evoking the murderous post-apocalyptic tribalism of the ''
Mad Max ''Mad Max'' is an Australian media franchise created by George Miller and Byron Kennedy. It centres on a series of post-apocalyptic and dystopian action films. The franchise began in 1979 with '' Mad Max'', and was followed by three sequels: ...
'' trilogy) and regimented by a ‘peck order’ of ‘respect and influence’, bound by ‘kinship’, that would re-establish family values and foster a primitive communalism immune to capitalism.
''Alternative Green'' would later merge with ''Perspectives'', the journal of the Transeuropa Collective, which was formed in 1989 to discuss "European identities, autonomies and initiatives" and which emerged from the fascist National Front's "cultural" association
IONA Iona (; , sometimes simply ''Ì'') is an island in the Inner Hebrides, off the Ross of Mull on the western coast of Scotland. It is mainly known for Iona Abbey, though there are other buildings on the island. Iona Abbey was a centre of Gaeli ...
(Islands of the North Atlantic), and had been publishing Hunt's material. Southgate encountered Hunt's writings in ''Perspectives'', leading to a re-orientation of his ideas and the shaping of his idea of "Traditional Anarchy" based on decentralised communities. Southgate later noted that “to say that we have been hugely influenced by Richard Hunt’s ideas is an understatement”. According to Macklin, writing in 2006:
This exposure to
anarcho-primitivism Anarcho-primitivism is an anarchist critique of civilization that advocates a return to non-civilized ways of life through deindustrialization, abolition of the division of labor or specialization, abandonment of large-scale organization and all ...
has helped Southgate conceive of ‘
folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...
autonomy’ rather than nationalism as the only true bulwark against the further encroachment of
globalization Globalization is the process of increasing interdependence and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries worldwide. This is made possible by the reduction of barriers to international trade, th ...
... ''Alternative Green'' and its ‘overriding aversion to the Capitalist system’ was therefore an ‘ideal platform for formulating practical strategy’ to oppose capitalism. ''Alternative Green'' was soon being used by Southgate as a bridgehead to the ecological and anarchist movement in an effort to forge a ‘sincere’ alliance of ‘anti-system’ protesters from both ends of the political spectrum. To do so Southgate and others participated in the Anarchist Heretics Fair in
Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
in May 2000, which drew together several minute splinter groups from the political and cultural fringe... The furore led to Hunt's further marginalization within green anarchist circles and, despite Southgate's frequent contributions to ''Alternative Green'', his views have not permeated further within the far right. Denounced as a ‘fascist’ Hunt found his speaking engagements cancelled, and several independent bookshops refused to stock Alternative Green.
Hunt fell ill and relinquished the editorial control of ''Alternative Green'' to Southgate. After one issue under his editorship it was suspended and replaced with a new publication entitled ''Terra Firma''.


Black Front Press

Black Front Press was established in 2010 by Southgate to print his biography of
Otto Strasser Otto Johann Maximilian Strasser (also , see ß; 10 September 1897 – 27 August 1974) was a German politician and an early member of the Nazi Party. Otto Strasser, together with his brother Gregor Strasser, was a leading member of the party's ...
, and has subsequently become a publisher of historical, political, philosophical and esoteric texts.


Views

Southgate, who graduated in history and theology from the
University of Kent The University of Kent (formerly the University of Kent at Canterbury, abbreviated as UKC) is a Collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom. The university was granted its roya ...
at
Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...
in 1997, comes from a non-religious background—although he converted to
Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
in 1987 and was in that same year, according to ''
Searchlight A searchlight (or spotlight) is an apparatus that combines an extremely luminosity, bright source (traditionally a carbon arc lamp) with a mirrored parabolic reflector to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a part ...
'', associated with the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX). Southgate later joined the International Third Position (ITP), believing it to be ‘the legitimate heir to the National Revolutionary Movement in Britain’, though he eventually broke with it in 1992, accusing its membership of gross financial impropriety, hypocrisy, racial miscegenation and of practising a ‘bourgeois’ form of reactionary ultra-Catholic fascism incompatible with the ‘revolutionary’ nationalism that, he claimed, they had betrayed. According to ''Searchlight'', in 1998 Southgate was partly the subject of a smear piece by former colleagues in the ITP, in the booklet ''Satanism and its Allies – The Nationalist Movement Under Attack'', published by Final Conflict, and linking him and others that left the ITP to Satanism, with which he has never been involved. Graham D. Macklin refers to this slander as an "attack" due to leaving the "staunchly Catholic ITP" although he points out that it was only later, after the original publication of the booklet, that the ITP decided for some reason to produce an update that "singled out Southgate as a 'Satanist' and 'pro-faggot'". Southgate, to further his ideology of "revolutionary nationalism", subsequently formed the English National movement, which denounced Hitler and Mussolini as "reactionary charlatans" whilst praising fascists he felt had represented the
Third Position The Third Position is a set of neo-fascist political ideologies that were first described in Western Europe following the Second World War. Developed in the context of the Cold War, it developed its name through the claim that it represented ...
more sincerely, such as
Otto Strasser Otto Johann Maximilian Strasser (also , see ß; 10 September 1897 – 27 August 1974) was a German politician and an early member of the Nazi Party. Otto Strasser, together with his brother Gregor Strasser, was a leading member of the party's ...
, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, and
José Antonio Primo de Rivera José Antonio Primo de Rivera y Sáenz de Heredia, 1st Duke of Primo de Rivera, 3rd Marquess of Estella GE (24 April 1903 – 20 November 1936), often referred to simply as José Antonio, was a Spanish fascist politician who founded the Falan ...
. Around this time he began to justify British ethnic homogeneity, which he claimed was "not racist", by recourse to the European New Right concept of Ethnopluralism. Southgate rejected Catholicism in 1997, and gravitated towards the extreme-right interpretation of
traditionalism Traditionalism is the adherence to traditional beliefs or practices. It may also refer to: Religion * Traditional religion, a religion or belief associated with a particular ethnic group * Traditionalism (19th-century Catholicism), a 19th-cen ...
espoused by
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 ...
, particularly Evola's "spiritual racism", and synthesized this with Carl Jung's notion of the collective unconscious in order to push the idea of a "primeval Aryan psyche". The multiplicity of his influences led to his espousing an idiosyncratic form of palingenetic ultranationalism that divorced itself from the "artificial" concept of the nation-state. Southgate subsequently incorporated green-anarchism into his perspective in order to counter the 'corrosive influence of urbanism and decay', and embraced neo-pagan and heathen groups. Along with like-minded musicians, he sought to diffuse the ideals of Mithraic paganism and Nordic folk myths into music-orientated youth cultures.


Bibliography

Southgate has edited in excess of 100 books, chiefly through Black Front Press, but the following is a list of titles published under his own name. *''Tradition and Revolution: Collected Writings of Troy Southgate'' *''Hitler: The Adjournment'' *''Nazis, Fascists or Neither: Ideological Credentials of the British Far Right, 1987-94'' *''Otto Strasser: The Life and Times of a German Socialist *''Adventures in Counter-Culture: Politics, Music, Film and Literature'' *''Further Writings: Essays on Philosophy, Religion, History & Politics'' *''Behold the Hammer! Nietzsche Under Scrutiny'' *''Imperator Romanorum: Henry the Fowler, Otto the Great & the Rise of the First German Reich'' *''Intellectual Gallery: A New Collection of Writings'' *''The Bishop of Hippo: Life and Thought of Saint Augustine'' *''Runic Sex Postures of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc'' (with Zbigniew Boguslawski) *''The Tribe Abhorr'd: Hilaire Belloc and the Jews'' *''From Lightning: Corneliu Codreanu, Horia Sima and the Story of the Romanian Iron Guard'' *''Aesthetic Dawn and Other Romantic Verses'' *''Political Soldier: The Life and Death of Ernst Röhm'' *''Eagle of Saladin: The Life of Gamal Abdel Nasser'' *''Judas in Paris: The Remarkable Life of Alfred Dreyfus'' *''The World Through a Monocled Eye: A Detailed Exposition of Julius Evola's Men Among the Ruins'' *''Contra Principem: Frederick the Great and the Anti-Machiavellian Riposte'' *''The Self Unleashed: Max Stirner and the Politics of the Ego'' *''Beyond East and West: Ayatollah Khomeini & the Iranian Revolution'' *''Jewish Mysticism: From Pagan Antiquity and the Hebrew Prophets to the Kabbalistic Renaissance and Beyond'' *''Anti-Zion: A Novel'' *''Thinking Our Way to God: Romantic Philosophy and the Coming of Absolute Idealism'' *''Black Nemesis: A Critical Life of Thomas Sankara'' *''Hogwash & Balderdash: Peculiar Rhymes for Extraordinary Children'' *''Pendulum of Faith: The Lives of Douglas Hyde'' *''In Search of the Absolute: German Idealism in Light of Politics, Philosophy & Spirituality'' *''Return to Evola: A Fresh Look at Revolt Against the Modern World'' *''To Walk Among the Angels: The Mystical Life and Work of Emanuel Swedenborg'' *''Truth Dressed as a Lie: The Unmentionable Life of Arnold Spencer Leese'' *''Surviving Kali Yuga: A Contemporary Reading of René Guénon's The Crisis of the Modern World'' *''Beneath the Shade of the Lightning Tree: Georges Bataille and The Dawn of Acéphalic Man'' (with Von Sanngetall) *''The Spirit Unbound: Rudolf Steiner's Philosophy of Freedom'' *''Quest for the Numinous: The Sacred Mysticism of Rudolf Otto'' *''The Book of Emptiness: Learning from Japanese Philosophy'' *''Modernity Under the Microscope: Byung-Chul Han's Damning Critique of Contemporary Society'' *''Roots in the Sublime: Frithjof Schuon's Traditionalist Interpretation of the Great Religions'' *''Beyond the Decline: Rudolf Steiner's Visionary Critique of Oswald Spengler's Der Untergang des Abendlandes'' *''Existentialism Beyond Sartre: The Life & Ideas of Gabriel Marcel'' *''Nishitani on Nihilism: Western Philosophy through Japanese Eyes'' *''Chronicle of the Soul: History and Consciousness According to Rudolf Steiner'' *''Where the Thames Flows into the Shinano'' *''Gold Among Lead: Riding the Tiger with Julius Evola'' *''The World According to Fritz: E. F. Schumacher and the Perennial Philosophy''


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Southgate, Troy 1965 births British far-right politicians Alt-right writers Male critics of feminism Living people Politicians from London National Front (UK) politicians English fascists Alumni of the University of Kent People associated with the University of Kent English nationalists English magazine editors English autobiographers Publishers (people) from London English expatriates in Portugal British modern pagans Far-right modern pagans Neo-fascists Strasserism