London Forum (far-right group)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
London Forum | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2011 |
| Split from | New Right (UK) |
| Ideology | Far-right |
| Part of a series on |
| Far-right politics in the United Kingdom |
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The London Forum is a loose organisation of far-right individuals based in London but with regional headquarters across the United Kingdom. Emerging in 2011 out of a split within the British far-right, meetings were regularly held by the organisation. These have been met with significant protests by anti-fascist activists and have been infiltrated by journalists, most notably a 2015 investigation of the group by The Mail on Sunday with the help of Searchlight, an anti-fascist magazine that focuses on the British far-right.
The group has brought together neo-Nazis, Holocaust deniers, anti-Semites, former British National Party and National Front activists and the founder of a proscribed terrorist organisation, National Action. Anti-fascist groups such as Hope not Hate have included the group in their research on British far-right politics. The group was described as white supremacist by Jonathan Arkush, the vice-president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, in 2015. The London group has not met regularly since 2017, but regional branches of the organisation were still meeting as of 2018.
The London Forum emerged in 2011[1] as a split from the New Right, a series of far-right meetings in London that took place in the first decade of the 2000s. It describes itself as "the home of the UK alt-right".[2] Searchlight, a magazine that focuses on the British far-right, says the group bridges "the fascist and Tory right".[3] In 2015, the vice-president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Jonathan Arkush, described the group as white supremacist.[4]
Stead Steadman – described as the organiser of the London Forum by Hope not Hate[5] – told The Independent that while the group is not "credally defined", it opposes "globalism, cultural and non-cultural Marxism" and supports "white ethnicity and its civilisation, liberty of expression, and religious tradition".[6] The group has told BBC News: "The London Forum comprises a range of people who care about their country and its demographic future and who wish to register their disagreement with the nigh ubiquitous enforced agenda of multiracialism and multiculturalism that threatens to destroy our identity irreversibly."[7] Hope not Hate says the group's "ideological fluidity" allows the hosting of "speakers from across the British and international far-right. Because of this, it has links to almost every active far-right organisation in the UK, as well as many across Europe and North America".[1] The group's events have brought together neo-Nazis, Holocaust deniers, alt-right students, anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists and former British National Party activists.[2] The group says "Zionism, the role of Israel in international affairs and the influence of the Jewish Diaspora upon culture and politics" are "legitimate subjects for discussion".[6]
Vice UK has described the group as "one of the organising hubs" for the far-right in Britain today.[2] Jeremy Bedford Turner (a self-described fascist also known by the nickname Jez) is described by Hope not Hate as one of its leading figureheads.[1] He is also a member of the Friends of Oswald Mosley group.[8] Regarding the organisation, he said that the far-right "aimed for the soccer hooligans, for elements who weren't really into intellectual thinking. I realised this was a mistake ... There was a definite need for a leadership cadre, for a new intelligentsia, for a new mass media".[2] In July 2015, Turner made an anti-Semitic speech featuring blood libel accusations against Jews. This was reported to the police by the Community Security Trust (CST) advocacy group.[8] Following a judicial review brought to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) from the Campaign Against Antisemitism, Turner was arrested in May 2018 for incitement to racial hatred.[9]
In February 2017, Hope not Hate said in a report that the London Forum was expanding rapidly and helping the alt-right to become globalised.[10] However, following a year-long exposé on the far-right by researcher Patrik Hermansson and legal difficulties faced by the group later that year, the London branch did not hold events since May 2017, although regional branches have continued.[1]
