Oderint dum Metuant
(Let them Hate as long as they Fear)
A History of the Blood & Honour Movement
Shaky Foundations
Rock Against Communism made its 1977 debut under the guiding hand of
the Britain’s National Front. The concert was planned in reaction to the
1976 Rock Against Racism concert organized by photographer Red Saunders
and hosted by Britain’s Anti-Nazi League - a belligerent communist gang
founded by the Socialist Workers Party. Rock against Communism debuted
with success achieving the party’s goal of advertising and raising
awareness for the National Front and their political agendas.
Unfortunately without a strong musical corner stone the project quickly
faded from public view as the National Front moved on to other projects.
It wouldn’t be until two years later that Ian Stuart would attempt to
revive Rock Against Communism. 1979 was a year struggle for the National
Front, under a constant barrage of harassment from England’s red
menace. Neo-Liberals such as Margaret Thatcher of the “revitalized”
Conservative party would continue to defame the group in the media while
Britain’s Anti-Nazi League headed a barrage of physical attacks against
the NF and other perceived fascists. One of such occurrences is
commonly referred to as the Battle of Lewisham - riots kicked off when
an awareness march held by the National front was attacked by communist
and anti-fascist organizers. During the riot 270 policemen and 70
supporters of the NF were injured by the armed thugs. Similar activities
have been linked to so-called “anti-fascist” groups throughout history.
One such attack which is particularly commemorated is the murder of NF
supporter Albert Mariner. The old-age pensioner was headed off by
anti-fascists while walking to a National Front election meeting.
Mariner was then smashed in the head by a cinder block that had been
thrown by the group. Police refused to investigate the incident which
caused Mariner’s death.
Musician Ian Stuart first got involved with the National Front in
1979 through their Blackpool branch after London playing bans and police
pressure on venues forced Skrewdriver to disband. With Skrewdriver gone
Ian was left to focus his attention on Britain’s ideological struggle
with the National Front. When Ian Stuart revived Skrewdriver in 1982 to
take on center stage of the famous 100 club it would act as a saving
grace and second wind for England’s Nationalist movement. The band would
take the stage of their triumphant return dressed wholly in black,
bright red braces framing union jack patches that were stitched to the
group’s backs. With the raising of his hand Ian would announce the title
of his next song - Tomorrow Belongs to Me. At the time no one could
have foreseen how accurate that statement would become.
Blood and Honour Skins
On December 11 1985, shortly after the recording of the Blood and
Honour LP Ian Stuart and friend Des Clarke were attacked in the street
by members of an African gang who had taken up issues with Ian’s choice
of politics.
"Ian and I were sentenced to prison
for twelve months. Ian's "crime" was defending himself from attack by a
group of blacks who presumably didn't like his hairstyle. Needless to
say the police, in their wisdom, refrained from prosecuting the blacks
who instigated the attack"
- Joe Pearce, Skrewdriver: The First Ten Years, 1987
It wouldn’t be until Ian’s release from prison 12 months later that
the LP would be performed live. The release of Blood and Honour would
become one of the largest and best received albums of Skrewdriver’s
career, sending shockwaves through the skinhead subculture. People
calling themselves “Blood and Honour Skinheads” began to saturate the
English underground, quickly overshadowing the Last Resort subgroup of
the skinhead cult. Two years later in 1987, Skrewdriver would launch the
infamous
White Rider LP, the album title and art depicting a
member of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) on horseback. The album’s release would
cause a backlash and controversy within the already largely unpopular
BNP. In an attempt to keep their party in the running for the coming
elections, the BNP confronted Ian threatening to drop him and
Skrewdriver if they did not tone down their musical content. The new
policy of the BNP would prohibit bands from making any reference to
“niggers” or the black immigration problem in Britain, as well as
forbidding the straight armed “Sieg Heil” salute. This would prove to be
the last straw in the already rocky relationship between Ian and the
British Nationalist Party. The result of the censorship would bring
Skrewdriver along with such bands as No Remorse, The Blackshirts,
Chingford Attack, Skullhead and Razors Edge announced their decision to
leave the BNP and White Noise Records in favour of starting their own
organization- Blood and Honour. To correspond with the launch of Blood
and Honour, the group put out their own magazine titled Blood and Honour
– the Independent Voice of Rock against Communism. The magazine was a
huge hit publishing articles on bands, culture and politics in Europe.
The magazine boasted the organization as being completely independent of
political parties and run by people involved in the music scene. With
the support of the skinhead movement behind them, Blood and Honour
exploded onto the scene with revolutionary force and a certain future
gaining drastically in popularity both on the Island and the European
main land. Germany was particularly supportive of the group, boasting a
huge Skrewdriver fan base both in the west and the newly liberated east.
In 1991 the loyalty of the fans would be put to the test when the band
was arrested in relation to a stabbing. The arrests would prompt over
300 German skinheads to attack the police station where Skrewdriver band
members were being held. Following the attack on the Cottbus Police
station Ian would return to Britain and begin work on his album,
Freedom for the Cottbus Six.
Freedom at What Price?
1991 also saw the birth of some more aggressive forms of activism,
most notably with the founding of the infamous Combat 18 - a group
created by a racial activist from the Chelsea Head-Hunters, a UK
football firm known for their violent tendencies and various security
elements from the National Front. In March of 1992 Combat 18 began
publishing Red Watch Magazine, an exposé on communist and anti-fascist
activists throughout the United Kingdom, publishing photos, names and
addresses with the slogan,
oderint dum metuant translating to
“Let them hate, as long as they Fear”. Only 3 months after the release
of Redwatch, Gerry Gable’s Searchlight magazine released an article
accusing C18 organizer Harold Covington of being a double agent in
attempts to depict Combat 18 as a police run organization to limit its
growth and cause dissention within the group.
Despite attempts from Searchlight at discrediting Combat 18, Ian and
other activists continued to vocally support C18, encouraging the group
to continue being active. By 1992’s “Battle of Waterloo” an estimated
300 supporters of Combat 18 were in regular attendance at Blood and
Honour Events. Combat 18 would later be officially recognized as the
armed wing of the Blood and Honour movement. Combat 18 became publically
recognized for their role in the Blood and Honour movement by Ian who
voiced his momentous support of the group during a concert in Derbyshire
England only short months before his death. On September 24 1993, Ian
Stuart was pronounced dead in hospital after his car spun out on a
Derbyshire road. The accident, while considered suspicious by the
investigating police force, was never proven as being foul play and no
charges were ever laid. The accident took the lives of both Ian and his
friend Stephen Flint (commonly known as “Boo”) leaving only Robert
Sherlock who was driving the vehicle that night, to tell the tale.
Shove the Dove
1995 broke the silence of mourning like a gun shot when Combat 18
again entered into the lime light for planning and instigating a riot at
a football match on Lansdowne Road, Dublin. The February 15th game
between England and the Irish Republic was disrupted when riots broke
out injuring well over 70 people and again making it clear to the world
that Blood and Honour held no sympathies for scum like the IRA. The
riots ended when the Irish Armed Forces escorting all English attendees
from the stadium to the Dublin border. 1997 proved to be a year of great
potential and great disappointment when a letter bombing campaign
targeting left wing activists and celebrities in interracial
relationships was uncovered making international headlines. Former
Olympic swimmer, Sharon Davies; heavyweight boxer, Frank Bruno and left
wing newspaper The Morning Star were all made targets rather than
victims of this campaign when modified VHS tapes rigged to explode were
shipped to their homes and the homes of their immediate families. This
failed attack was more than made up for only two years later when on
April 30th 1999 when David Copeland (a member of the Combat 18 splinter
group “The White Wolves”) planted nail bombs in England’s Gay, black and
Bangladeshi communities. The attacks killed three and seriously injured
129 people.
This Little Piggy
in 1998 the British MI5 launched a two year campaign against Combat
18 raiding dozens of houses across the United Kingdom. The offensive
kicked off shortly after the conviction of disgraced ex-member Charlie
Sargent. Sargent was convicted and sentenced for the 1997 murder of
family man Chris Castle. During the attack Sargent and crony Martin
Cross stabbed Castle in the back in an attempt to put Sargent back in
good standing with the Blood and Honour movement. Sargent claimed that
Castle - a good standing member of the Blood and Honour movement - had
gone to his home to steal cash and tools and was stabbed during an
attempted robbery. It was later uncovered that Castle had gone to
Sargent’s home to return tools left behind after a flooring job, and to
collect money owed to the organization. The money was to be gifted to
Cross’s family for help with the burial of Martin’s father. The MI5
operation finally ended neck and neck with the 20th century marking a
close to a series of brutal police raids and turning the page of the New
Year on to a better but far from ideal chapter for the movement. For
Blood and Honour/C18 the much celebrated Y2K would be scarred by court
and legal battles as numerous members and associates of the Blood and
Honour movement were dragged across the docket and through the mud. The
year 2000 also saw the banning of Blood and Honour in Germany following
the bombing of a Dusseldorf train platform which resulted in the serious
injury of 10 foreigners, six of which were of Jewish origins. With all
the legal troubles surrounding the Blood and Honour movement certain
members had grown weary of Combat 18’s involvement in the Blood and
Honour movement and what benefits the group was bringing to the table.
In a short amount of time questions from those few turned to outright
dissent as attempts to separate Blood and Honour from Combat 18 grew
bolder.
“The piss-artists of the
dishonourable roadshow left the true Blood & Honour because they
couldn’t take the pressure that follows with real political activism,
and they saw no quick road to fame and fortune among political soldiers
and streetfighters. For them the scene was in fact just that, a scene to
play on (in both senses) and a safe place to gain quick but cheap
fame.”
-Max Hammer Blood & Honour Scandinavia. Oct. 22nd 2004
It wasn’t long before the rumours were traced back that their source
and the small section of trouble makers officially withdrew their
memberships from Blood and Honour in an attempt to avoid any
confrontation that could rise from their grade-school antics.
Power for Profit
The gossip queens quickly went out to garner support for themselves.
Hipkins and Sweany along with a handful of musicians got to organizing a
small concert under the banner of “Rock Against Communism”. The concert
was unimpressive when compared to many of the shows Blood and Honour
had come to be associated with, however marked a rather important turn
in the history of the Blood and Honour movement. With a police induced
silence still lingering over their former comrades at Blood and
Honour/C18, the revived Rock Against Communism announced that it would
be carrying on the legacy of Ian Stuart as the new Blood and Honour- a
Blood and Honour void of Combat 18’s brand of activism.
“If it weren’t for the music, Blood and Honour wouldn’t exist. If you don’t have the music and bands, what’s the point?”
-Avalon (B&D band), Televised Interview
The “new” Blood and Honour - commonly referred to as Blood and
Dishonour by those knowledgeable enough to make the distinction, is an
unfortunate twist to the Blood and Honour legacy and a disgrace to the
memory of Ian Stuart. The ranks of B&D are characterized by the lax
standards and cowardice of the founding body - the gossip queens. While
legitimate activists do exist within the B&D membership, they are
rare and often outshined by those poofs who (as quoted above) are only
in it for a sense of belonging, or for a chance at the stardom
associated with the fast growing nationalist music scene. Another
shining example from the Blood and Dishonour ilk can be found in Chile,
South America where a gaggle of Indians now proudly flies the name and
banner of the Blood and Honour movement. It’s really not surprising that
a sect referring to itself solely as “the musical resistance” could
have sunk so far below their origins, though perhaps the continued
mishaps like those stated above will cause the genuine activists
interested in getting involved to think twice before allowing themselves
to be swept away by the glamour and complacency of the rockin’
revolution.
After the Fire
From law suit to national bans, the Blood and Honour movement has
faced and fought heavy government opposition, adapting to overcome the
increasingly oppressive policies in Europe and her former colonies. Now
largely operating autonomously, Blood and Honour Divisions around the
world have come a long way from the days of skinhead firms and football
hooligans to create a consistent and sustainable structure that will
help our people and our movement flourish as a united front. Blood and
Honour’s Canadian divisions gained their permission to fly the banner
late in the summer of 2010 from Blood and Honour USA. The project took
nearly two years to establish properly but was well worth the wait as it
provided the opportunity and experience necessary to create a division
worthy of the name and legacy of Ian’s Blood and Honour movement.
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