Counter-Currents on the Run!
Over the last several months the Circle Ansuz Bay Area Leidang has been working to push Counter-Currents Publishing out of the Bay Area. We’ve hit them on three occasions so far, raising public awareness of their presence and ideas.
We have recently learned, care of an anonymous tip and a recent update on their site, Counter-Currents is claiming they moved to San Diego, California!
We have followed up to confirm they are operating at the location they claim to be at and the building staff said there is no tenant named Counter-Currents on the site. They also stated there is no tenant listed for the suite they claim to be in.
Based on this information we have one of three possible interpretations of the evidence. The first is Counter-Currents is operating under a false name at the address they claim to be at. The second is they are in San Diego and claiming to be at the address listed to throw off pursuit. The third is they never left the Bay Area and claim to be in San Diego to hide.
No matter what one thing is clear: they are hiding and on the run!
Like all neo-fascists they fear exposure and confrontation more than anything else. They do not care who gets caught in the crossfire as long as they are able to continue their racist, fascist organizing undisturbed & unchallenged.
Below is the contact information for Counter-Currents’ alleged new location and their two main operators Greg Johnson and Michael Polignano. We ask all members of the public in San Diego & the Bay Area to be on the lookout for these two men and anyone they associate with. We also ask you call State Street Offices and tell them who Counter-Currents is.
State Street Offices
info@statestreetoffices.com
(619)516-8100
Michael Polignano
Greg Johnson
NO COMPROMISE, NO SURRENDER!
David Parry: Neo-Fascist!
David William Parry is a man on the rise in the London Heathen community. Parry has made a name for himself as a Heathen Priest of Nerthus, a poet, and a playwright. Most well-known for organizing the London Thing in 2012 which was attended and blessed by Freya Aswynn, Parry is growing increasingly active and visible. By all appearances he is a man who should be welcomed. He is educated, an artist, and runs a play company. Only on further examination does the real David Parry come to light.
Our investigation into David Parry began following the discovery of several essays and publications on the Counter-Currents site which claim Paganism is an inherently racialist belief system. This prompted us to dig in to the ties between individual Pagans and Heathens with the neo-fascist movement. While we were aware of Parry thanks to his efforts in organizing the London Thing we were very surprised when we found this video posted on the Counter-Currents page, which was also posted on the London New Right YouTube channel, where Parry gave a talk followed by question and answer on Odinism at the 42nd London New Right Forum, a regular event organized by known neo-fascist Troy Southgate. Southgate is one of the founders of a sect of neo-fascism known as National Anarchism. The so-called National Anarchists claim to be anarchists while espousing overtly fascist ideas like racialist segregation and ethnic purity, forcefully appropriating anarchist and libertarian socialist symbols and slogans to camouflage and promote their cause. Their actions are very much like how the Nazi Party of Germany and the Fascist Party of Italy appropriated the symbolism of their cultures’ past and the neo-Nazi movement in the 70s and 80s appropriated the working class skinhead subculture.
During his talk Parry makes a number of statements which were, to us, extremely alarming to hear coming from any person. In his talk he argues the modern revival of Heathenry is a potent weapon for opposing corporate globalization, claiming repeatedly that anarcho-primitivism and Heathenry are virtually one and the same. By returning to the “natural” religion of the people of England, says Parry, it is possible for great political change to take place. To support his argument he makes several claims which are, put bluntly, patently untrue, starting with his assertion that the Salem Witch Trials were a reaction by Puritan clergy against the threat of resurgent Heathenry. He continues by making numerous claims about Heathen practice, including his assertion that recent legislation in Ecuador and Bolivia (enshrining the rights of nature in their constitutions) is Heathen, that “to a certain extent these divisions (between Pagan traditions) are meaningless,” while simultaneously arguing “I have this ridiculously old-fashioned belief that divisions are important, that there is something beneath the division”, and then invokes the classical four Hermetic elements in claiming Heathenry is “a religion of living earth, conscious air, breathing fire, and liquid water”, and finally saying Heathenry “can’t point to a scripture”, so “therefore we can’t appeal to tradition”.
These claims, while demonstrably and laughably false in many places, were only the tip of the iceberg. During the question and answer section, in response to a question on race, Parry said, “on a biological level, on a genetic level there are only five races known of,” that, “even science is beginning to admit there are other types of human being, hobbits are now an official theory,” and finally, “race is absolutely vital for an understanding of who you are, what you are, and where you are going”. These statements made in support of scientific racism, very much in line with the rhetoric, ideas, and arguments made by organizations like Counter-Currents Publishing and the American Freedom Party, raised several bright red flags for us. The discovery of this video prompted us to do further digging into the man who claimed he spoke for the Heathen community thanks to having been “initiated by Freya Aswynn a couple of weeks ago,” and his adoption “by Asatru, Vanatru, Odinists, and Wotanists”. What we found only served to crystallize our fear that David Parry is a neo-fascist.
We started by looking into his Facebook page. During our research into his publicly visible posts we were stunned to find screamingly racist, anti-semitic examples like sharing this video:
(Video is available on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA7Ymki71fM&feature=share)
Or this:
Or his status as the admin of the overtly racist Facebook page Allthing:
And there’s always this lovely gem, Pan-Aryanism, from his Likes page:
Not to mention the page Unity Through Nobility which he recently Liked:
Which has a quote from Adolf Hitler in its banner and links itself to aryanism.net!
We were, quite simply, shocked to see he would be so overt on his own Facebook page, especially considering this post of his:
Which prompted us to do some further digging. It turns out that David Parry has attended other neo-fascist events, though not always as a speaker. In June of 2012 Parry worked the table for New Right publisher Arktos Media at the infamous Iona Forum, a venue known for its overt support of holocaust denial, neo-fascism, and neo-Nazi ideas.
Parry’s ties to far right neo-fascist politics are of concern to Heathens on both sides of the pond. His participation in far Right politics mirrors actions by some prominent American Heathens. Both Steve McNallen and Edred Thorsson have published essays in the “radical traditionalist” journal Tyr. Valguard Murry has participated in racialist organizations including Else Christensen’s racialist Odinist Fellowship which claimed a synthesis of Heathenry and white nationalism. Freya Aswynn, who initiated Parry as a Priest of Nerthus at the London Thing, has given unfortunate interviews as well. Such associations with racialists, neo-fascists, and neo-Nazis at the least lends all of these people unwarranted credibility and at worst suggests outright collusion. Even assuming such actions are completely innocent, it creates the appearance that Heathery openly supports, if not at least tolerates, racialist ideologies.
These ties are only part of our concerns and objections to Parry. Not only is he openly associating Heathenry with a racialist, fascist agenda, he is blatantly misrepresenting it in the process. Whether invoking the four classical elements of Hermetic mysticism, asserting there are no real differences between the major Pagan practices, or his attempts to claim that the actions of the Bolivian and Ecuadorian governments are somehow “Heathen”, these are not the worst distortions he commits. Most Heathen groups, contrary to Parry’s claims, have a deep respect for tradition and the surviving Heathen lore. The most crucial element of the lore is the sagas of Scandinavia, the most famous and central of which are the Poetic and Prose Eddas. While they are not treated as infallible holy writ in the same fashion as the Bible or the Koran, it would be equally inaccurate to claim Heathens “can’t point to scripture” and “can’t appeal to tradition.” The free intermixing of different practices, false claims regarding basic facts, and claims of Heathenry being the ancestral religion of all English people regardless of England’s diverse heritage and history are laughably hypocritical in light of his denunciation of “puritanical universalist globalism”. Of course such claims are not surprising coming from a man who claims his “own critique of anarchism as a movement is also one of its blessings,” and that he is on Monsanto’s hit list.
Furthermore, Parry’s attempts to politicize Heathenry by claiming it is practically the same as his interpretation of anarcho-primitivism and his assertions that Heathenry has tremendous political potential are truly disturbing to say the least. While some have accused Circle Ansuz of doing the same thing, from where we stand any attempts to turn Heathenry into a platform for a specific political ideology runs contrary to our principles as Heathens and anarchists. As Heathens we understand the beliefs, ideas, and perspectives of the ancients were developed in a specific time and place which predates all modern political ideology by several centuries. Claiming Heathenry is inherently liberal, conservative, or any other modern ideology diminishes what Heathenry is. As anarchists we hold that in the world there are no sources, people, or ideas which can lay claim to absolute, uncontested, perfect truth. Dogma and declarations of absolute knowledge are just as contrary to our ideas as fire is the opposite of ice. We do not claim to have all the right answers or that Heathenry is inherently anarchist anymore than it is inherently capitalist, communist, or fascist. We present our perspective as an answer to life’s many challenges, unlike Parry who claims anarcho-primitivism and Heathenry are one and the same. While Parry claims his way is the right way, we reply in the words of Errico Malatesta: “We anarchists do not want to emancipate the people; we want the people to emancipate themselves”.
EMERGENCY MOBILIZATION IN SACRAMENTO, CA NOON SATURDAY!
CONFRONT FASCIST, WHITE NATIONALIST, ANTI-IMMIGRATION RALLY
The “Free America Rally” is being coordinated nationally by the American Freedom Party (formerly/AKA the American Third Position Party), a White Nationalist organization with an American breed of fascist populism.
They claim immigrants are invaders seeking to overthrow the U.S. by occupation.
They say that “America is defined by its European-derived population.” Essentially that America is only of and for Whites.
Give them no platform for their racist bigotry. Drown their message in anti-fascist, anti-racist action!
Solidarity is the only way to overcome racist division. Stand in unity with all immigrants!
Saturday, February 23rd 12:00 Noon Near West Steps of the Capitol Building, 1320 10th Street, Sacramento, CA
PRESS RELEASE: White Supremacist Book Distributor Operating in the Sunset District, San Francisco, CA
Since June 11th, 2010 Counter-Currents Publishing has been operating in secret in the Sunset District under the management of Greg Johnson and Michael Polignano. Their objective, in their words is, “to destroy the cultural hegemony of multiculturalism and anti-white racism and to replace them with the cultural hegemony of white pride, white self-assertion, and White Nationalism.” They argue there are inherent differences between people based on their race, believe that whites are inherently superior to other racial groups, and believe American Jews are responsible for anti-white propaganda. Their distributed works include the writings of infamous fascist, Nazi, and New Right authors such as Julius Evola, Alain de Benoist, Kevin MacDonald, and Nazi spy Savitri Devi.
Upon discovering their existence and operation in San Francisco we, the operatives of Circle Ansuz and our friends and allies, have worked to raise awareness of their existence, their racist ideology, and mobilize pressure to shut down their organization. Allowing their organizing and promotional efforts to proceed unhindered and unopposed would only lead to further racially motivated violence in our city and the Bay Area. On October 30th we began our campaign against Counter-Currents Publishing.
For Circle Ansuz their promotion of authors and books which claim Pagan and Heathen spirituality are racially-based is among the most personal of their crimes. As Heathens we believe any claims of racial basis to spirituality are nothing more than a bald-faced attempt to pervert our practices into a front for fascist, racist propaganda. Such claims run counter to the moral and ethical foundations of modern Heathen and Pagan spirituality.
On December 17th, nine days after our action on the white supremacists’ martyrs’ day, Counter-Currents announced the first of many moving sales. If they continue to operate anywhere in the San Francisco Bay Area they will be found, exposed, and opposed wherever they run or however they hide. We call upon all the people of the Bay Area to join us in non-violent opposition to organized racism in our communities. As long as those people continue to operate unhindered people will suffer the consequences of their hatred.
Tribalism, Romanticism, and Anarchism
Many may wonder why is there so much love for an archaic, tribal past in Circle Ansuz. For an antifascist group it would seem counter-intuitive for us to engage in similar activities, particularly the glorification of a distant past, as the fascists we oppose. Such groups are notorious for their romanticization, politicization, and mangling of history to serve their purposes. In Circle Ansuz we draw inspiration from the past but that is where any similarity stops. Our perspectives on tribal societies and romanticism are coming from a very different place than that which is used by fascist, reactionary, and conservative groups.
In groups which whip up a romanticized vision of the past the main reason they do so is because they want to return to that time and place. Images of an older, simpler, idealized time run rampant in modern political discourse. Whether its American nostalgia for a sanitized vision of the 1950s, British ultraconservatives yearning for the glory days of the Empire, or Russian ultranationalists hearkening back to the Tsars the use of a fabricated past is a common tactic for justifying the actions of a whole host of political factions, fascists being one of the worst offenders in this regard. These narratives all share in common a rose-tinted vision of a past time that never really existed as depicted by their proponents. They sweep aside facts in favor of ideologically-induced phantasms constructed specifically to entice people to join them in abandoning their reason in favor of a false narrative. When used to seduce people into supporting fascist ideas the romanticizing of the past can be very powerful and dangerous.
Our view of tribalism is far more nuanced. While we argue there are values, ideas, and practices of the tribal period of the Germanic peoples which are worth emulating we understand the difference between reconstruction and resurrection. For all the facets of Germanic society we praise; most notably the Thing assemblies, communal defense and law enforcement, their relatively egalitarian attitudes, and worker control of their labor, we understand the society they lived in emerged in a specific time and place to face specific challenges. We also understand this society is far from ideal. Women, while treated with far more respect than the societies influenced by the Roman Empire and medieval Christianity, were not by modern feminist standards genuine equals. All of these societies exploited the labor of slaves; in fact the bulk of the wealth from the height of the Viking Age came not from plunder but from the sale of slaves taken in raids. For all the positives of Thing governance brutal, nasty blood feuds were also a major feature of Germanic life.
Considering all these negatives why should we consider this time, culture, and period to be such a vital inspiration to our ideas? It is because in spite of these flaws there are fundamental elements of the tribal period which present a powerful critique of society. In the modern discourse regarding the Germanics, as it is with all other tribal societies, it is generally assumed that life was nasty, brutish, and short. Taking a cue from the 17th century philosopher Thomas Hobbes and more modern social Darwinists most assume life in such “primitive” societies was defined by constant violence and savage warfare. Many assume such cultures existed in a “barbaric” state of eternal war of all against all. These assumptions are the foundations of the modern reasoning that all institutional power depends on the monopoly on the use of force and coercion to maintain itself.
Running up against this narrative are new facts regarding tribal life in the Germanic period and from the world over. A new consensus is developing where tribal societies were anything but the ruthlessly brutish places depicted in the popular narrative. As the Thing assemblies, the use of outlawry as the worst punishment, and other practices demonstrate the foundation of order and stability in these societies was not based on force or the fear of force but through consent, mutual aid, discourse, and discussion. This pattern repeats itself the world over, whether you are discussing the indigenous tribes of the Americas, Africa, or the Asian steppe. By holding up these tribal societies and their attitudes as a mirror to modern society a powerful critique emerges. If it is possible for society to be based on consensus and mutual aid in a time that is assumed by most to have been an age of violence and bloodshed then perhaps our modern ideas of what is necessary to build a nurturing, prosperous, and free society should be re-examined.
After all, there are many modern practices and innovations which the ancients would find just as abhorrent as we find slavery and human sacrifice. The ancients did not invent concentration camps, weapons of mass destruction, or anything comparable to the soullessness of corporate economics. They would likely find our acceptance of homelessness as a consequence of economic destitution and our lack of concern for our fellow community members to be inexcusable and uncivilized just as they would recoil from the needless, excessive waste of our consumerist economy. They would most certainly walk away in disgust at the ease of which people will discard dearly-held principles the moment they become an obstacle or inconvenience to the pursuit of personal advancement. If there are major aspects of our society which our allegedly savage ancestors would have cursed as inhuman then what does that say about us?
Anti-racist Activists Picketing Counter-Currents Publishing
PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE PUBLICATION
ANTIRACIST ACTIVISTS PICKET COUNTER-CURRENTS PUBLISHING
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8th, 11:30AM
December 8, 2012 – Antiracist activists, organized by Circle Ansuz operatives, are picketing at 19th and Lincoln Way to protest Counter-Currents Publishing, a white supremacist book distributor based in the Sunset District. We are protesting their distribution of racist neo-Nazi propaganda in San Francisco and the greater Bay Area. Their choice to operate undercover out of the Sunset District, one of the most culturally diverse neighborhoods in the city, is further insult to injury.
We repeat the October 30th call for Counter-Currents publishing to shut down and leave the area immediately. Several people have already been attacked in the city by racist thugs. The people of the Sunset have the right to live free from racist, segregationist, and genocidal ideologies and the individuals who advocate for and work to implement them. We call on the people of San Francisco to join our non-violent picket today at 11:30AM with signs and banners at 19th Avenue and Lincoln Way.
Together we can defeat racism in our community.
Frequently Asked Questions: A Short Guide to Circle Ansuz
So you folks are spiritual anarchists? Isn’t opposition to religion a major tenet of anarchism, as best expressed by the popular slogan, “No Gods, No Masters”?
The slogan “no gods, no masters” is a widely used anarchist, feminist, and labor slogan. Its English language origin comes from a pamphlet handed out by the Industrial Workers of the World during the 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike. It was in reference to local institutionalized religious leaders, who were allied with local business owners, asking their congregations to break the strike and go back work. The main criticisms of religion by many anarchists have always been aimed at institutionalized, hierarchical religious organizations which encourage fear of other religious and spiritual beliefs, ideas, and their practitioners and act in support of the entrenched elites in society.
It is our assertion that historic Heathenry, meaning the spiritual practices of our pre-Christian Germanic ancestors, has more in common with anarchist social arrangements than any other modern political philosophy. Our ancestors once lived in a holistic world where religious belief, as typically conceived of in Christian dominated cultures, was synonymous with law, social organization, and communal belief. The decentralized, horizontal, autonomous, and democratically organized groups of people practicing indigenous spiritual folkways are nothing like large, vertical, hierarchical religious organizations. While their society was not an ideal anarchist paradise (as shown by their ownership of slaves and the near-monopoly held by males on political power) the positive, self-empowering, community-strengthening ideas which formed the foundation of their way of life are an enduring source of inspiration for us. These central elements hold truth, meaning, and purpose which are just as valid today as they were a thousand years ago. Above all else we believe spiritual people can be revolutionaries and have their part to play in the great struggle for a better common world.
Why are you so hung up on spirituality? Hasn’t it always been a source of oppression and superstition?
As one of the most ancient and enduring methods of expression in human history, with archaeological evidence of its existence going back to the rise of modern homo sapiens, we believe spirituality is a vital part of our humanity. In the eons before the rise of organized States spiritual practices in the ancient tribal societies were the purview of the whole of the tribe. While there were elders, healers, seers and other respected specialists they did not have dogmatic power to dictate beliefs and ideas to others. The cosmologies they believed in were the result of hundreds, even thousands of years of oral tradition, cultural evolution, and folk wisdom refined by the experiences and needs of the tribes.
On a very superficial level these stories served to explain natural phenomena in a way people could understand it within the worldview of the times. What much modern analysis of ancient spirituality ignores is the greater depth to these stories. They did more than explain the world’s functions. They served to carry on the ideas, ethics, expectations, beliefs, culture, and collected knowledge of the group to the next generation. Unlike modern, institutionalized religion these beliefs did not reside in a building people visited once a week for obligatory services. They permeated every aspect of their daily lives, serving as a guide for every aspect of life. Through the tales of gods, heroes, and animistic spirits people explored every aspect of life through metaphor, symbol, and story.
The institutionalization of spirituality has taken a vital element of our human experience away from us. It has turned what once had beauty, meaning, and truth into a crude club used to oppress the masses through division, self-denial, and patriarchal dogma, for the purposes of centralized social control. Liberating our spirituality from these institutions by returning the power of belief to the people is a vital step in breaking free from the social structures that oppress us collectively. We argue reviving and practicing the pre-Christian folk religions of the world is one of many ways to achieve this goal.
What makes Heathenry so different from other religions?
Heathenry is one of the many currents of the modern Pagan revival. It is inspired by the indigenous folkway of the ancient Iron Age peoples of Northern Europe known as the Germanics: the ancestors of many modern Scandinavians, Germans, English, Afrikaners, Dutch, and many other nations and cultures. While modern Heathenry is inspired by the practices of those peoples, it is not limited to their descendants alone. Heathenry accepts any person who is willing to learn and live by its ideas regardless of ethnicity or national origin(1). Those who claim otherwise are a small, highly vocal minority at best.
Heathenry, like other Pagan practices ancient and modern, has no religious dogma, is highly decentralized, highly localized and has no specialized religious hierarchy dictating personal belief. With no religious hierarchy to demand resources and impose social control the adherents were and are free to define their spirituality by what was beneficial for them in the here and now. Heathenry, as a revival of the ancient folkway of the Germanics, is about more than just the supernatural and mythological aspects of their culture. Unlike institutionalized religions, in Heathenry the way ordinary people lived their lives and grappled with the great challenges of living is just as important as those ideas. As a result there is a broad spectrum of opinions regarding the importance of the supernatural in Heathenry. There are Heathens that believe our collective mythologies are ethical tales and the gods are characters who embody cultural archetypes and ideas. On the other end of the spectrum are those who believe they have daily interactions with the gods and landvættir (animistic nature spirits). Heathenry is a spectrum united by common ethics, mythology, sources, customs, and shared cultural practices.
One of the aspects, as anarchists, we are most drawn to in Heathenry are the popular assemblies of the Germanic peoples. In the pre-Christian age these peoples lived in tribes where, in some places and in some times, every free person, regardless of gender or sex, had equal right to speak, petition, and vote in popular assemblies known as Dings and Things. These assemblies were a major aspect of our ancestor’s lives. They existed to give every community member a voice and to maintain the peace for the sake of the whole community. Breaches of the peace and injuries were resolved by the Things by mandating restitution for the injured based, in part, on labor lost as a consequence of the action. Sometimes conflicts before the Things were resolved by formal, personal combat as an alternative to wasteful, vicious “blood feuds” in which entire families would slaughter one another in a never-ending cycle of retribution and vengeance. Community members who consistently disturbed the collective peace for their own individual ends, rather than face prison time, were typically exiled and forced into outlawry to seek a new life in another tribe or alone. Every member of the tribe participated in keeping the peace.
These assemblies show up in the mythic poetry of northern Europe, known as the Eddas. In the great creation story outlined in the Völuspá the gods resolve the details of the creation of the Earth, known as Miðgarðr, by holding council. The closest they have to a Chief god, Óðinn, is much more a first among equals who frequently does his own dirty work. Óðinn stands in stark contrast to the typical modern religions that have an infallible god-king. The flaws shown in all the gods by their mistakes, scars, shortcomings, and failings makes them much more relatable than a distant, perfect lord.
But most importantly, we are Heathens. We are anarchists. It is only natural for those of common mind to gather and take action when presented with the problems of society at large. Some of us might even go as far as saying that the spinners of fate, the Norns, decided this long ago.
Aren’t indigenous religions supposed to be the property of the descendants of the practitioners? Doesn’t universalism, accepting all peoples, dilute indigenous spirituality?
A false dichotomy was set up between so called “folkish” and “universalist” Heathens. Folkish are those who think that genetic and racial origins have spiritual connotations, while the universalists focus on Heathenry as a more cultural force, accepting nearly any interpretation and practitioner. We assert that this is a false dichotomy and the real split in Heathenry is one between racists and non-racists. Regardless of the semantics and posturing, we have consistently found this divide is far greater than any other in our community.
Every time a form of indigenous spirituality was destroyed it was as a direct result of acts of cultural imperialism by the supporters of other, top-down hierarchical religions who sought to expand their influence by forcing the conversion of others and through cultural appropriation. By co-opting and suppressing indigenous spirituality, these institutionalized religions, or those seeking to make a profit from the “exotic” otherness of unfamiliar cultures, succeeded in destroying the spiritual practices of ancient peoples.
I’ve heard Heathens and Pagans are all a bunch of Luddites who hate technology, science, and modern medicine.
We obviously don’t hate technology. If we did we wouldn’t be using the Internet to post this FAQ! On a more serious note there is nothing in Heathenry which puts our folkway at odds with science. Our lore teaches us of the importance of using our wisdom, wits, and skills to improve our lives and the health of our communities. Science, like spirituality, is one of many ways to understand the world. While some of the products of modern science have proven harmful to humanity we do not believe the fault is with the scientific process or its discoveries but how those findings are used.
We believe groups which seek to isolate themselves from society and escape into technophobic enclaves are ultimately doing themselves the most harm. Cutting oneself off from the greater part of humanity and engaging in self-imposed isolation has never been a genuine, practical answer to the problems that face us. Removing yourself from the world does not remove you from the troubles of the world. All it does is ensure dogmatism, irrelevance, and the slow slide into stagnation and self-destruction.
Isn’t that all stuff used by racists to justify their white power trip?
There are a lot of racist organizations who promote or tolerate a racialized form of Heathenry. These modern organizations are not the first who have worked hard to co-opt these ideas for their own twisted ends. With the rise of nationalism in the mid-19th century many groups turned to their culture’s pre-Christian past for ideas and inspiration. Some used it to justify imperialism, oppression, fascism, and racial superiority. Others(2) turned to our tribal past as an example of how people could live free of oppressive State and social conditions in peaceful cooperation. When the Nazis rose to power in Germany most of these organizations; leftist, centrist, and rightist alike, were purged. Hitler himself was openly disdainful of mysticism of any sort(3), barely tolerating it as an eccentricity on the part of his chief enforcer Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler and his henchmen in the SS. Any who conduct research into the warped world that is Nazi occultism will swiftly find it has little, if anything, in common with Heathen practices, methods, or ideas beyond a handful of stolen trappings.
In Heathenry, through our actions, we wish to revive the ancient spiritual practice, ethics and worldview of our ancestors by reconstructing the mindset of the ancients in a modern context. Circle Ansuz believes by applying modern science, philosophical ideas, and radical theory in conjunction with ancient methods, traditions, and worldviews we can better understand and solve modern problems. Racism, as shown by modern historical and anthropological research, has no scientific or spiritual basis(4). Some try citing certain sagas, like the Rigsthula, to claim they are “descendants of Gods” to justify their racialism. This view is based on very narrow, superficial interpretations of the texts which does not consider other factors or motivations behind their composition. There is no evidence to suggest the ancient pre-Christian Germanic societies practiced any kind of racial discrimination, supremacy, or segregation.(5) Our ancestors did have a concept of separateness that was in no way based on race, but rather on one being “inside” or “outside” of the community. You were a community or family member or you were an outsider, regardless of what you looked like or your ethnicity. The Germanics were far-wandering traders and explorers who were very familiar with the world and its peoples. They had extensive trade networks going as far south as North Africa, Iraq, and the Indian subcontinent and as far East as Siberia, and as far West as the Americas (as they would later be known). Those who argue this lack of racism was due to lack of contact can only make this claim by ignoring all facts to the contrary.
Do you think only white people can be racist?
No. Some accuse us of “hating white people” because we focus on confronting white racists. They claim our lack of opposition to Black Power and Chicano Pride means we think only whites can be racist. We understand there is a world of difference between the racism espoused by groups like Wotansvolk, Blood & Honor, the Order, and the National Socialist Movement and the Black Power and Chicano Pride movements. Black Power is all about liberating a community which has been socially, legally, and economically oppressed and exploited for several hundred years. Chicano Liberation comes from the same current. These movements, if anything, have far more in common ideologically with the Gay Liberation movement, the decolonization movement, and the Women’s Liberation movement than they do with hate groups.
That said, we are opposed to all groups which espouse any form of racial supremacy or segregation. Organizations like the New Black Panther Party and the Nation of Islam are just as worthy of condemnation as the Ku Klux Klan, the NSM, and any group which adheres to 14/88. Any group demanding segregation or supremacy is committed to the same, basic ideal of denying their fellow human beings their essential humanity.
There are many reasons for our focus on white hate groups. First, there are a lot more of them. They are regularly doing harm to innocent people. Their actions inflame race-based tension and encourage the growth of other hate groups like the New Black Panthers and the NOI. Such deeds destroy the peace and safety of communities while encouraging the perpetuation and growth of the vicious cycle of hate and retribution. Second, they are doing this while claiming it is justified by the traditions and spirituality of the ancient northern Europeans. When a skinhead wearing a Thor’s Hammer breaks someones head over the pavement or a radical traditionalist justifies their words of dehumanization by invoking Odin their actions are held against our greater community. They steal the trappings, pervert the lore, and bring condemnation and shame on the Folk. For these reasons we consider them to be the greater of the evils. As Heathens we believe one should not shy away from difficult tasks if they are necessary for the sake of frith and Folk. As Heathens and anarchists we feel their co-optation is an attack on our Folk that must be answered. The cruelty, oppression, and tyranny those groups advocate is condemned in the lore and by the cultures we honor with our deeds.
You’re just a bunch of self-hating anti-white liberals!
This particular mantra is a very popular one among racist skinheads, white power hate groups, and other such organizations as a retort to any who oppose them. It is what is known as the “Bob Whitaker mantra”, and is used by white racists to explain how they are not actually racist and anyone who opposes them are the real racists. In the words of one neo-Nazi:“racism is code word for anti-White; anti-racism is code for White genocide. Our people are the ones who truly believe in diversity: our enemies want to destroy diversity through racial integration”.(6)
For very obvious reasons this claim is loaded with factual and logical flaws. We are opposed to all groups who use race as a criteria for discrimination, persecution, and oppression. Racism, as a social construct, is a tool of oppression used by the powerful to divide the people based on superficial characteristics like skin color, making it easier for them to rule unopposed. Perpetuating racism ensures this powerful tool of elite control continues, making it easier for the handful who prey on all of the people to continue their pillaging unnoticed and unopposed. Those who wallow in hatred of others, regardless of which group they blindly hate, are unknowing pawns of the system they claim to rail against.
Furthermore, we as Heathens feel that making racism a major element of our practice is contrary to what Heathenry is about. At the core of Heathenry is the central importance of reconstructing the mindset of the pre-Christian Germanic peoples in a modern context. This is done using written sources and archaeological evidence from the pre-Christian period to understand the society of the ancients as best as possible. Racism as we know it today did not exist in pre-Christian Europe. The word “race” itself did not enter the English language until the 16th century at the earliest. The first laws in Western history to grant specific privileges to groups based on physical ethnicity first developed in the wake of an uprising by poor white indentured servants and blacks slaves in Virginia. These laws were passed with the explicit purpose of dividing the poor and the indigenous tribes of Virginia along ethnic lines. By dividing and pitting these groups against one another the early plantation aristocrats secured their control over the country. Similar laws were instituted by the European powers participating in the colonization of Africa, Asia, and the Americas to prevent any settlers, soldiers, and administrators from sympathizing with the natives(7). This system’s impact has continued into present day thanks to the income inequalities caused by the depredations of slavery, colonialism, and imperialism.
Based on the facts regarding the origins of race and racism we believe including it in any Heathen practice is contrary to the core principles of Heathenry. It is ahistorical, contradicts the behavior of the ancients and the gods who are shown to freely adopt and intermarry with other cultures, and is contrary to the meritocratic principles at the heart of Heathenry. Perpetuating an ideology which was used to oppress, enslave, and divide is contrary to the Heathen ideals of frith and freedom.
As for the last element: we’re anarchists, not liberals. Unlike liberals, we are opposed to any top-down state-like entity which seeks to impose itself on the people. If you want to know more, we highly recommend Alexander Berkman’s What is Anarchism?, available free online at http://libcom.org/library/what-is-anarchism-alexander-berkman.
So aren’t you really just a bunch of whites trying to play at being indigenous?
Not at all. We are exploring new ideas of indigenism. What does it mean to be the descendants of colonizers? Of immigrants? Of people who are historically “from another land”? How do we stand in solidarity with others? These are questions we wish to answer as we develop our form of anarchism. We believe there is a radical history to White decolonization that is only now being realized. The reality is that racism was invented by the ruling class as a wedge to divide the people from each other and strengthen the elites’ position in society. We believe to defeat white supremacy and racialism we must organize within our own communities while reaching out to allies outside. None can be free as long as any of us are in chains. By standing in solidarity with all who are harmed by this artificial social construct we can better understand, dismantle, and abolish the power of white privilege in society and try to repair the damage it has done to oppressed and oppressor alike. We are forging a new path, exploring the edges of our ideas, and are adding to the greater milieu of anarchist and Heathen thought.
Are you saying anarchism is the one, true political philosophy for all Heathens?
Of course not! We recognize the political philosophies of the modern day are ones which developed to address the problems of the here and now. The conditions the ancient Germanics lived in, while a source of inspiration and guidance for us, did not directly give rise to modern corporatism, liberal democracy, anarchism, or authoritarianism. We believe by interpreting Heathenry through an anarchist lens we can gain a better understanding of our past, the society of our ancestors, and attain new insights for how we can apply such practices in a modern context while addressing the problems and challenges of the modern day. We believe, in fact, the only political philosophies which are at odds with Heathenry and ancient Germanic society are those which demand absolute obedience to a single, established authority. To become that new authority would be contrary to everything we stand for as anarchists.
That said, while we do not believe in forcing any “one true way” on any community we will not compromise, moderate, or negotiate on our direct action opposition to fascist, neo-Nazi, and other authoritarian groups. We believe, as Heathens and anarchists, that problems must be solved by confronting them at their source and defeating them. Just as Odin and his brothers rose against the great giant to free their people from stagnation and oppression we believe it is our duty to stand against these enemies of our Folk by whatever means are most effective for defeating their efforts and removing their influence from our community.
1) Gardell, Mattias – “Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism” 2003 p.163
2) George L. Mosse, The Crisis of German Ideology: Intellectual Origins of the Third Reich (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson) 1966
3) http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Adolf_hitler#1938
4) http://www.aaanet.org/stmts/racepp.htm
5) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1narr3.html
6) http://indianaantifa.wordpress.com/2012/11/15/meet-an-alleged-tinley-park-victim-jeffrey-burns/
7) Banton, Michael (1977) (paperback). The idea of race. Boulder: Westview Press.
