Mass Mobilisation 3. The Battle for the Streets

Much traditional libertarian activism has been focused upon Academic pursuits. This is not surprising since the leaders of the Libertarian movement tended to be Academics themselves, interested in spreading libertarian propaganda through traditional academic methods i.e. publish a pamphlett, speak at a conference or issue press releases.

The NLF is not an Academic forum for genteel debate on the fine detail of nationalist and libertarian theory but rather a physical organisation one aimed at achieving political power. One key area that the National Libertarian Front will contest is what may be euphemistacly termed the Battle for the Streets.

When we refer to a battel for the streets, the NLF speaks of the use of the street demonstration as the keystone in NLF propaganda. Unlike other ideologies nationalism has developed the organising of a public meeting, holding a demonstration or a simple march through a city centre into a fine art. In a certain sense this is due to the fact that it is a strategy of last resort as nationalists and libertarians are denied access to the media. Only through the march, the demo and the party rally can the NLF pierce the media blackout and deliver its message directly to the mases.

Unfortunately such is the intolerance of our ruling class towards opposition that any recognisably nationalist demonstration will be denied its freedom of speech and association and be targeted for destruction, by far leftist groups such as UAF. These groups partly funded through tax payers money will try to use violence and intimidation to prevent these protests from taking place. The police acting upon directives from the Ruling Class will rarely be present in sufficient force to deter this from happening.

Though any nationalists should be able to organise any march that isn't violently opposed. Such dramatic tensions whipped up by the hostility of the far-left indirectly helps serves the nationalist cause, as the media will flock to a newsworthy story like moths to a flame piercing the media blackout. Invariably the media will attempt to paint the NLF in the most negative light, the NLF will still be able to reap immense propaganda value by registering in the minds of the masses that the NLF not only exists and is important enough not only to command TV and Newspaper attention but also that it stands opposed to the increasing unpopular status quo. The thus generated by such a demo will encourage some amongst the masses to actually seek out what the party really stands for and of them a few may become involved as activists in the movement.

Such a strategy of tension must be repeated, the NLF must constantly be generating newspaper headlines in the mainstream media. Any news item however distorted has great propaganda value, not least because it because it is being discussed at all which implies a level of strength and organisation that makes the prospect of NLF political victory possible.

English Defence League

In the past few months a new nationalist force has emerged and been reported by the media.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/11/english-defence-league-chaotic-alliance

Despite the best efforts of the controlled media to paint this as being directed by sinster 'neo-nazi's' from behind the scenes, the English Defence League appears to be very much a spontaneous uprising with activists drawn from the English Working Class. It's ideology is pretty threadbare and it was formed in reaction to the hatefull protests of Islamic Fundamentalists, which denigrated servicemen returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, supported terrorism and demanded that those who insulted Islam be beheaded. The English Defence League then began confrontational marches of the type that were once the monopoly of the National Front and old BNP.

From the NLF perspective what is noticeable is that they have largely proved the point that the NLF argues in regard to activism. All it took was a handfull of ordinary people with little or no resources to agree to meetup in a certain spot and march. The trouble that was stirred up by the quickly attracted the media who gave them far more publicity than they would if they had merely spent the afternoon quitely leafleting the town.

Naturally the reports are highly distorted, one should be very skeptical of the claims of violence committed by the EDL activists. It is more likely that such violence has been greatly exagerated and not the intention of the organisers, but rather committed by a football holigan element who attached themselves to the protest. The end result is, however, the same free publicity for the English Defence League in the print and TV media. Such publicity will attract more marchers and generate more lurid headlines until the movement finally implodes due to its own organisational and ideological weakness.

That said the English Defence League suffers from many weaknesses that will be its undoing. Firstly its ideology is clearly undefined being merely an expression of anti-islamism, which will I suspect lead it to being infiltrated by both agent provocers and other more ideological nationalists, who will form hostile factions which will rip the movement apart in short order. Secondly without keeping it members and supporters disciplined with a formal organisation it will attract the hooligan element who will discredit the movement and repel quality activists.