For many years, people in the U.K. could comfortably boast that unlike continental European countries, we didn’t have Nazis. We had a far Right, of course, but even that struggled to win seats in Parliament. The Nazi grouplets that existed here were just that — tiny, isolated bands of losers who had absolutely zero influence on the country.
Unlike France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and Austria, we didn’t have overtly racist, sometimes even Nazi, parties that managed to win significant numbers of seats in national parliaments. In some cases, those extreme right parties joined ruling coalitions with other right-wing parties.
All of that has now changed.
Protests taking place at hotels across Britain where asylum seekers have been given temporary housing show that we are now well and truly part of Europe. The Europe of Le Pen, Meloni and the AfD. All of those parties are linked historically to the mass fascist and Nazi parties that once dominated European politics. And in Britain today, we have several parties aspiring to the same roles.
The largest of our far right grouplets is “Patriotic Alternative” and a recent splinter known as the “Homeland party” has recently been in the news. Its small band of activists, together with the much larger Reform UK, has played a prominent role in organising racist protests outside of the hotels. Those protests that are now leading to the Labour government and Labour-dominated councils scurrying to find “solutions” to the problem of temporary housing for migrants.
One of those Homeland activists is Tom King, a leader of “Nuneaton Says No” and a member of the Homeland party. And King recently went on holiday during which he posted photographs of himself having a great time. King is seen standing on a mountain top and behind him is a stunning view of snow-capped peaks.
Those peaks are the Bavarian Alps. And King is proudly standing in a place called the Kehlsteinhaus (Eagle’s Nest) part of the complex built by the Nazi party as a mountain retreat for its leader, Adolf Hitler. In the nearby town of Berchtesgaden, locals have been complaining about increasing numbers of neo-Nazis showing up to pay tribute the former Führer. This is where Tom King spent a recent holiday. After a recent Guardian report, King removed the photos from his Facebook page.
We have learned — or should have learned by now — not to label our opponents as “Nazis” when we simply disagree with them. But when they actually are Nazis, as at least some of the leading figures on Britain’s growing far right clearly are, there are a few things we need to do.
First of all, we must deny platforms to the Nazis — confront them in the streets when they demonstrate and make it increasingly difficult for them to get their toxic message out.
Second, we must not compromise on our values — when they say “migrants out” we cannot reply with weasel words. We must be steadfast and firm in our commitment to being a country that welcomes migrants and rejects all forms of racism and xenophobia. Labour — in particular some of its local councils — is making an enormous mistake by acknowledging that there are genuine reasons why people might want to demonstrate outside hotels that are temporarily hosting migrants.
And finally, all the parties which are not Nazi — and this includes the Tories — must be forced to commit, as their sister parties in some European countries have done — to not forming coalitions with these parties. Not in Parliament and not in local government either. We need something like France’s “Republican Front” to ensure that the Homeland party, Patriotic Alternative and their ilk are kept far away from political power. To borrow one more phrase from the French, Britain needs a cordon sanitaire to keep the Nazis at bay.
Britain may have voted to leave Europe — and the far right played a key role in that — but as the rise of a native Nazi movement is showing, we remain very much part of the European political scene. Like our neighbours on the continent, we are prisoners of a shared history. And like them, we must find ways to ensure that small, isolated bands of Nazis do not grow into large political movements — before it is too late to stop them.
This article appears in this week’s issue of Solidarity.