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This is a preview of an

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episode from our new Patreon only

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show Skeleton Key. It's

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focused on the real threat of contemporary

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far right militancy all over

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the world. To listen

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to this series go to patreon.com/Popular

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Front, sign up, go to the

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collections tab and you'll see it

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there, Skeleton Key, all episodes are

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there. People

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will have forgotten what is national action

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or in a country where they didn't

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get much attention. But for

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a while it was a very serious threat. So

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much so that it was one of the

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first groups that the British government designated a

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terror organisation for a very long time. So

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I think let's just do a timeline

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and go back to the start,

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but explain what national action became.

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What was it? Well, national action

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was set up just over 10 years ago in

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2013. The

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two main co-founders at

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the beginning were guys called Ben

1:03

Raymond and Alex Davis. Ben

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Raymond at the time was a

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recent graduate, politics graduate, and

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he then was working in a series of

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jobs including double glazing salesmen, helping

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claimants in a job centre and other

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things. He was

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active online, including on Iron

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March Forum. He

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was kind of someone who

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was integrating memes, other things. He was

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very kind of prolific online. He

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ended up in touch with Alex Davis

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from Wales. Alex Davis had been a

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member of the British National

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Party. The

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British National Party now is basically

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seen as a complete irrelevance. A

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certain point a few years ago, it was actually getting a lot

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of support in elections,

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particularly European elections. And

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it was seen as a threat and a

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real issue because it's a far right party

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and it has had and had a good time. a lot of people

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in it who've had a long involvement

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in fascism, near Nazism. Including the leader,

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Nick Griffin. Nick Griffin. And

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so Alex Davis had been a member of that.

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And what sort of united Raymond

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and Davis and then led to

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them, others joining, was they took

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the view that, you know, the BNP

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had, was a moderate

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far-right party, was trying to appeal

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to the general public, really. And

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it had been ultimately rejected and failed

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and it wasn't really working. And

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they were like, obviously, they were over 10 years

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on now, but at the time they were both,

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you know, much younger. Alex Davis was still

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at university. Ben

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Raymond had just recently left university. And

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they viewed BNP and others and other

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sort of far-right groups in Britain, like

2:46

if you think of the National Front.

2:49

It's really like old men's parties.

2:52

And these are groups,

2:54

they were parties that were seeking

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votes that stand in elections, you

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know, campaigning, other things. So they

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wanted to create like a base

3:03

here, a youth movement,

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a youth group, that would sort

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of represent them, that wouldn't be full of

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old men meeting in the back of pubs. And

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they also viewed it as that

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they needed to be like unashamedly

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neo-Nazi and racist. Like there's

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no hiding it to

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get votes, no denying that they

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admired Hitler and that they admired the

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Nazi era. Where, you know, if you've

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got parties often on the far right

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that are seeking votes, even if

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they've got people within them who

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might have that inclination or history,

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there's often the denial of that because

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it's as unpopular. So they

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were very much, we need to be totally

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open about this, let's just say it. And

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so it starts, you know, online. Ben Raymond's

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very active on Iron March and,

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you know, it really

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starts as an online thing and then

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grows from there. It

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grows. It's only

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just over three years from when it's

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founded to when it was banned as

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a terrorist group. And they

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kind of took the view that

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they would try and if they could be

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totally unashamed with Nazi and extreme, that they

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would get a lot of attention. And

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they were kind of right because they did get a lot of

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attention. Because if you're kind of

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outrageous and you're boast about being a

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Nazi and Hitler and me, there

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was quite a lot of press attention

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on it. Not really necessarily

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investigative attention. Just attention about

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how outrageous this was. So they would do

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publicity stunts, do

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turn up, do demonstrations, very

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racist demonstrations, do

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banner drops, posters.

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And they were kind of using social media

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as well. And so they got,

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they were in the press, they had a

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Miss Hitler competition for female members, which got

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a lot of attention. I actually, I

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met Alex Davies

5:01

in 2013, just as they'd

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started out. I

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just started working at Vice and basically they were

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like, right, we want a good story on like,

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far right youth movements. And I was like, well, I've

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been keeping track of this one group. And

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I remember showing one of the editors there and

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he was just like, what is this? Because

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it was now it's completely, you

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wouldn't blink twice, but they did

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kind of spawn this new style

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of like young, hip

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kind of, I mean, for one of a

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better word, like hip style fascism. They were

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really like away from the whole like jack

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boot stuff. And I actually emailed

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them and was like, look, I want to write a

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piece, but I want to like meet you people to

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see like, what is this legit

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sort of thing? What is this about? And

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I remember meeting Ben

5:49

Davies and I remember this was,

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this was when he was still

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like kind of this overweight

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lad wearing tweed. He then

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went on to like, who's waiting was more into the kind of

6:02

Nazi aesthetic, but he was very much like Professor

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Look back then, even though he was about the

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same age as me. I would have been 23

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at the time. And anyway, I met

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him. I went up to Birmingham, met him in this pub,

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and he was literally saying, our

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plan is basically to kind of steal the

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anti-fire aesthetic, which back then was still

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cool. It was very underground, not the

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kind of new wave of anti-fire, like

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no offense to anybody, but it doesn't

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really look cool anymore. But the old

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school shit, and they basically were like, yeah,

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we're gonna take the whole black block, we're

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gonna take the aesthetics of it, and

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just flip it and kind of make

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our own version, but with neo-nartism. I

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remember thinking like, this is super weird.

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In the end, I like that. That

6:48

was a preview from our Patreon

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only show, Skeleton Key. If you wanna

6:52

hear the rest of it and get

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see where to find it. patreon.com/in

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