When the Home Secretary banned the French racist Renaud Camus from travelling to the UK to speak at tomorrow’s conference of the fascist Homeland Party, Camus revealed that he had also been due to speak at the Oxford Union during May.
There was no confirmation from the Union, and this term’s events had not yet been advertised, but today Searchlight learned that the summer term beginning next week (known in Oxford as Trinity term) will see a cavalcade of far-right extremists and crude populists paraded before Oxford students.
Infamous
The Oxford Union portrays itself as a bastion of “free speech”, but in recent years this has been interpreted as an excuse for offering a platform to notorious racists and fascists, including an infamous invitation to holocaust denier David Irving and then BNP leader Nick Griffin in 2007.
Very often the motive is to attract attention for the Union’s ambitious presidents and other officers, rather than to conduct a serious discussion of important issues.
The Union allows itself to be used as part of “mainstreaming” far right extremism. A blatant example this term involves Charlie Kirk, founder of the far-right student organisation Turning Point USA.
For more than six years, Kirk has pursued the objective of building affiliate groups in the UK to influence British students. He is close to leading figures in the Trump White House, including Donald Trump Jr. and the far-right broadcaster Tucker Carlson.
Crazed extremist
In December 2018 Kirk and his colleagues launched “Turning Point UK” at an invitation-only event at London’s RAC Club, hosted by the conspiracy theorist John Mappin. Since then, Kirk’s efforts to “mainstream” far-right ideas have run into trouble.
One of his former cronies Candace Owens has become an ever more crazed extremist, and Turning Point UK became best known for organising street protests against LGBT+ activities.
TPUK has struggled to dissociate itself from Patriotic Alternative and other nazis and fascists who latched on to these street protests.
Anti-immigration obsession
On 20th May Charlie Kirk will speak at the Union in opposition to the motion “Trump has gone too far”. Very unusually, the Union is going out of its way to provide Kirk with not just one platform but two.
He will speak at a separate meeting (on his own) during the afternoon of 20th May, before the Trump debate that evening.
A fortnight later on 5th June, the Union’s apparent obsession with anti-immigration politicians continues when they play host to R.J. Hauman, a fellow at the far-right Heritage Foundation and president of a lobbying group on the Trumpian right, the National Immigration Center for Enforcement.
Hauman will oppose the motion “no one can be illegal on stolen land” and will be joined by David Seymour, a New Zealand government minister who leads his country’s main hard-right party, ACT New Zealand.
The following day an even more notorious Trumpian will address the Union. Roger Stone was given a 40-month prison sentence in 2019 after being convicted of several felonies including perjury and witness tampering.
Trump pardoned Stone in 2020 days before he was due to report to prison.
Proud Boys
Stone has been investigated by the FBI for ties to the far-right gangs known as Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who were involved in the pro-Trump insurrection that stormed the US Capitol in January 2021.
He is also well known for his ties to Putin’s intelligence services during the 2016 presidential election.
During the first week of term on 29 April, the Union will host one of Europe’s most controversial right-wing populist leaders, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, best known for serving the Kremlin line in trying to undermine European support for Ukraine.
Elon Musk’s father Errol will speak on 29 May in opposition to the motion “Africa must evict its colonial masters”. His fellow speaker is not yet identified.
The Union’s descent into attention-grabbing populism is typified by the speakers on the opposite side, who include Umar Johnson, an American “motivational speaker”, conspiracy theorist and homophobe using the name “Dr Umar”.
Defended antisemites
He is notorious for campaigning against interracial marriage, and has defended antisemites, and has been seen as today’s version of Louis Farrakhan.
The other speaker on the opposing side to Musk is Vusi Thembekwayo, a South African businessman and television celebrity best known for espousing contrarian and populist views which some have interpreted as acting as an apologist for apartheid.
In other words, the Oxford Union’s entire “debate” on Africa is framed in conservative/populist terms.
On a date yet to be confirmed, the demagogic populist president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, will be yet another controversial extremist to speak at the Oxford Union this term.
Cool dictator
Bukele has proudly proclaimed himself “the world’s coolest dictator”, and though he was elected to power his regime is generally regarded as a hybrid of democracy and authoritarianism. He has become one of Donald Trump’s closest international allies.
It’s not clear why the Oxford Union is so determined to provide multiple platforms for the far right and other pro-Trump and pro-Putin demagogues. All of its officers this term are women, and Anita Okunde is the first Union president of African heritage.
