Into a World of Hate: A Journey Among the Extreme Right

320 Pages·2004·1.16 MB·English

by  Nick Ryan

Into a World of
HATE
CRITICAL ACCLAIM FOR INTO A WORLD OF HATE
‘A terrifying book that provokes nightmares, and makes me
fear for the future of our civilised society . . . should appear in
the bookcases of every politician in the land’
Daily Mail
‘Ryan’s reportage is powerful, cutting-edge . . . highly
descriptive and fast-flowing, as heart-stopping as any Tom
Clancythriller . . . essential’
London Jewish News
‘Gives the reader a better understanding of a dangerous
development on the political scene and makes for
uncomfortable, even frightening, reading’
The Literary Review
‘The overall picture of hatred on our streets is vivid’
The Mirror
‘A disturbing read’
The Observer
‘Deliciously vicious opening . . . fascinating’
The[London]Times
‘Fascinating material – Nick Ryan is a very brave man . . .
great stuff’
Hari Kunzru, author of The Impressionistand Whitbread Prize
nominee
‘As relevant to our time as Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia . . .
first-rate reportage’
Ethan Casey, editor-in-chief of BlueEar.com
Into a World of
HATE
A Journey Among the Extreme Right
Nick Ryan
NEW YORK AND LONDON
Published in 2004 by
Routledge
29 West 35th Street
New York, NY 10001
www.routledge-ny.com
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group.
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
Copyright © 2003 by Nick Ryan
This edition of the UK original title Homelandis published by arrangement
with Mainstream Publishing Co Ltd, 7 Albany Street, Edinburgh EH1 3UG.
www.mainstreampublishing.com
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be printed or utilized in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or any other
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ryan, Nick, 1968–
Into a world of hate : a journey among the extreme right / Nick Ryan.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-415-94922-X (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Right-wing extremists. 2. White supremacy movements. 3. Hate groups.
4. Racism. I. Title.
HN49.R33R93 2004
322.4′2′094--dc22
2003028072
ISBN 0-203-99799-9 Master e-book ISBN
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements 7
Prologue 9
ONE Homeland 11
TWO Hunting the Beast 31
THREE Acceptable and Electable 51
FOUR Thirteen Days 69
FIVE Green and Unpleasant Land 85
SIX Outsiders 100
SEVEN The Messenger 109
EIGHT The Call 128
NINE Independence Day 144
TEN Peace Lines 163
ELEVEN New Jerusalem 169
TWELVE Among the Dead Men 188
THIRTEEN Smiling South 206
FOURTEEN The Church 218
FIFTEEN Conquer We Must 232
SIXTEEN England, My England 243
SEVENTEEN Freedom 248
EIGHTEEN Comrades 268
NINETEEN New Reich 291
Epilogue 309
Glossary 312
Index 314

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My special thanks to Nick Lowles, author of White RiotandMr Evil, and to
my editor Ethan Casey of the global journalism community BlueEar.com
(www.blueear.com), without whom this book would not have been
possible.
Also to Graeme Atkinson and the rest of the staff at Searchlight
(www.searchlightmagazine.com), and to the network of ‘friends’: Rolf,
Rasmus, Wim, Tammy, Erik Jensen of Demos(www.demos.dk), Stieg Larsson
ofExpo(www.expo.se), Karl Pfeifer, Heribert Schiedel and the Documentary
Archive of the Austrian Resistance (www.doew.at), Jimmy and APABIZ
(www.apabiz.de), Marc Spruyt, Dr Cas Mudde, Thomas Grumke of the
Center for Democratic Culture, Lenny Zeskind, Devin Burghart and Justin
Massa of the Center for New Community (www.newcomm.org), Heidi
Beirich and Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center
(www.splcenter.org), David Goldman of Hatewatch (www.hatewatch.org),
my agent Robert Kirby at PFD and anyone else I may have forgotten to
mention.
I’m grateful to everyone who was interviewed, whether we agreed or not,
and I hope they can understand my motives and aspirations.
And finally to my partner, whose support has seen me through some
dark days.
7

PROLOGUE
NOVEMBER 2001
Julie (not her real name) is British, through and through. Her father came
here decades ago, from Jamaica. Her mother is English. So she’s British. Not
in the Midlands, though. There, she’s a half-caste. Mixed race. Mulatto.
‘Nigger’ to her neighbours, and those who thrust National Front (NF)
hate mail through her door. ‘Black cunt’ to the kids pushing lighted paper
and matches into the window of her two-year-old daughter’s bedroom.
She won’t crack in front of me. And I don’t tell her that the current NF
leadership have offered to meet with me. But she does care, when it comes
to her kids. ‘No one’s going to ’urt my kids. No one.’ She’s had bricks
through the windows, eggs thrown against the walls. Been called a ‘black
bastard’ by mothers of other kids when she collects her boy from school,
and then seen her boy and girl called ‘little black bastards’ by those same
women. ‘I’ll put ’em six feet under if that little black fucker comes near me!’
screams one mum. A mother, not a tattooed neo-nazi.
I’m reminded of the scenes at the Holy Cross Primary school in Northern
Ireland, when Catholic children have to endure a wall of hatred and need
police protection to walk through a Protestant estate. The sheer hate and
fear rippling through the faces truly terrify me, because I’ve been and seen
places where this can lead.
‘I even had a bloke come up to me on a bus,’ Julie says, ‘who said he was
going to rape me. That was after they’d already tried to run me down on a
motorbike.’
‘I just hate those people now,’ she says, not even looking me in the eye.
‘What else can you say about them? About a whole place – my entire estate
– when this goes on? With me kids crying all the time, getting beaten up.
When even a little white girl can come up to me, at me own door, and call
me a ‘black bastard’. Where do you think she learns that, eh?’
9