Extremely strange political bedfellows

NOTE: This article was published on 23 November 2016In the past week the media have reported on the delegation of British right-wing politicians led by Nigel Farage who met US president-elect Donald Trump at his New York headquarters. Present with Trump was his head strategic adviser Steve Bannon, who controls the alt-right Breitbart news service.…

23 November 2016

Gerry Gable

reports

NOTE: This article was published on 23 November 2016

In the past week the media have reported on the delegation of British right-wing politicians led by Nigel Farage who met US president-elect Donald Trump at his New York headquarters. Present with Trump was his head strategic adviser Steve Bannon, who controls the alt-right Breitbart news service. Farage came with Raheem Kassam, Breitbart’s London editor. Kassam has enjoyed the financial backing of the British millionaire Arron Banks, who co-founded and funded the Leave.EU campaign and also gave generous support when Kassam decided to stand for the leadership of the UK Independence Party. One of Banks’s close advisers was also part of the delegation.

The perverse idea that Farage should become the British ambassador to Washington when Trump enters the White House is worrying, considering that Bannon’s closest political friend is Richard Spencer, another far-right millionaire, who after a sustained campaign by Searchlight was deported by the Hungarian government two years ago and banned for three years from entering the Schengen area.

Spencer has made several visits to Britain, which is not part of the Schengen area. In May last year the Home Office asked us to prepare a report on far-right groups in the UK and their friends abroad. As a result one of the last acts of Theresa May as Home Secretary was to issue an order banning Spencer from the UK for life.

Below are two videos posted on YouTube of a conference and dinner in New York held by Spencer’s alt-right National Policy Institute on 19 November. The Guardian managed to infiltrate the conference and its report and a further video are here. It came as no surprise that a number of overseas visitors attended the conference. One of the most interesting was Matt Tait, the young British “rich brat” who helped organise the far-right paramilitary training in 2014 that was conducted by President Vladimir Putin’s international trainer Denis Nikitin and Arkadiusz Rzepinski. Tait and Spencer are no strangers to one another as Tait was in Budapest at the point the Hungarian authorities arrested and deported Spencer.

Trump is reportedly trying to distance himself from the National Policy Institute, but one question arises. Some of the Nazis who attended the dinner after the New York conference were recorded saying they were heading back to Trump Tower after they retreated from the restaurant where they had been besieged by anti-fascists. Were they locked out by Trump security or given a warm welcome?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A09YdBLBX4

Category: International, Research and analysis

Keywords: Hungary, UKIP, USA

Professor Colin Holmes

Everyone who wants to understand contemporary racism and its historical background needs to read Searchlight.

Professor Colin Holmes

University of Sheffield

Paul Holborow

In the campaign against the National Front, Searchlight provided a rich and utterly reliable basis for much ANL propaganda – particularly with reference to the two leading NF figures, John Tyndall and Martin Webster. The appearance of Tyndall in full nazi uniform, drawn from the archives of Searchlight, was a key part of ANL propaganda, coupled with deeply damaging nazi quotes from Webster.

Paul Holborow

Founding member of the ANL and National Organiser 1977-81

Alf Dubs

Searchlight’s voice is more important than ever, and I am delighted that it will now be available to a wider audience than ever before in its new incarnation online. Searchlight has been extremely helpful over the years in exposing the far right, corruption, criminality and the murky links between organised crime and powerful interests in the UK and abroad. I wish Searchlight the very best.

Alf Dubs

Labour peer, former MP and Cabinet Minister, and Kindertransport child

Paul Nowak

The essence of trade unionism is solidarity, fairness and equality – for all workers – from all backgrounds. That’s why our fight against the far-right has always been part of our movement’s DNA. Searchlight is an incredibly important resource for trade unions and members to understand the contemporary tactics of far-right activity. Their work and intelligence gathering over the years have been incredibly insightful for the work we do, and how we fight the scourge of fascism.

Paul Nowak

TUC General Secretary

Peter Hain

British Jews have been persecuted over the centuries; British blacks since the Windrush generation of the 1950s; British Muslims, especially after the Islamist 9/11 and then 7/7 terrorist attacks in New York 2001 and London 2005. But until the last few years there has not been a simultaneous threat against all three British communities of Jewish, Black and Muslim Britons – meaning the need for Searchlight has never been greater.

Peter Hain

Labour peer, former MP and Cabinet Minster

Nick Davies

To investigate fascists takes real courage and unusual commitment. The government, police, mainstream media occasionally take a look, but in the UK only Searchlight have kept at it, relentlessly and admirably, regardless of threat or obstacle. It’s journalism that matters. A rare thing.

Nick Davies

Multi-award-winning investigative journalist and writer