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Troy Southgate

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Troy Southgate is an author, musician and leading National-Anarchist activist based in the United Kingdom - indeed the concept of 'National-Anarchism' seems to be largely his invention.

Politics

The purple star symbol of National-Anarchism

Originally from Crystal Palace, in South London, Southgate moved to Crowborough, East Sussex in his teenage years and became an activist in the British National Front (NF) in 1984 and edited The Wealden Warrior. The organisation at that time had made a significant ideological break with the race-hatred of the 1970s and openly stated its opposition to racism and white supremacy in favour of a policy of mutual respect and separatism for all peoples. Southgate has praised the views of Black leaders such as Marcus Garvey and Louis Farrakhan. In the Autumn of 1989 he joined the International Third Position (ITP), a breakaway from the NF, and became Editor of several local ITP publications, including The Kent Crusader, Surrey Action and Eastern Legion.

He then split from the ITP in September 1992 after accusing Roberto Fiore and Derek Holland of ideological hypocrisy and swindling members out of their life savings to prop up the group's failed rural experiment in northern France. Southgate then founded the English Nationalist Movement (ENM) and during this time edited magazines like The Crusader and The English Alternative.

In 1998 he and other ENM members founded the National Revolutionary Faction, which he describes as "a hardline revolutionary organisation based on an underground cell-structure similar to that used by both the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the IRA", operating on the principle of leaderless resistance [1]. In 2001, Troy Southgate and the NRF were the subject of a Sunday Telegraph article, in which the NRF was accused of being a neo-Nazi organisation involved with animal rights related causes. [2]

It is unclear when or whether the NRF was disbanded. Southgate and other NRF associates have since been involved in the Cercle de la rose noire and its website, 'Synthesis', and were on the editorial board of the Green Anarchist journal Alternative Green for three issues.

It is claimed that "National-Anarchists seek to establish decentralised village-communities in which people can occupy their own areas in which to live according to their own principles. These areas can take on a variety of different forms, offering people a real alternative to the dogmatic and stagnant ideologies of both 'left' and 'right'. Ours is a realistic and tangible form of escapism, a network of total environments to preserve the diversity of humankind. Some of us also support racial separatism, but remain totally opposed to mindless bigotry and supremacism" (quoted on the main page of the National-Anarchist-Online egroup).

In 2000 Southgate and a close associate, Michael Lujan - a former member of America's White Order of Thule and Editor of Crossing the Abyss magazine - established the Synthesis website. This vast resource blends politics, music and the occult. Gwendolyn Toynton, Editor of Primordial Traditions, is currently deputy editor.

On January 16, 2005, Southgate and other associates launched a new vehicle, New Right, with a meeting in central London [3]. This followed an initial meeting the previous month [4]. New Right, which has much more in common with the French Nouvelle Droite than with New Right politics in the Anglo-American sense, describes itself as a "dynamic and strictly metapolitical group [that] seeks to unite the disparate strands of the British Right and get everybody pulling in the same direction" [5]. It publishes a journal, New Imperium,[6] and has held meetings as recently as March 5th, 2008, this being the fourteenth gathering of its kind.

Southgate has also written for the website of the Russian newspaper, Pravda, on the metaphysical radical work of Julius Evola [7]. Traditionalist political philosophy of the sort developed by Evola and supported by Southgate has been gaining currency amongst conservative Russian parties.

On December 5, 1988, Southgate was convicted of actual bodily harm and affray at Lewes Crown Court for an assault on a male lab technician active with the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). This happened during a clash on Brighton seafront in May 1987, nineteen months earlier. He was sentenced to eighteen months and incarcerated in Lewes and Northeye prisons, both in East Sussex, but still claims that he was defending himself from attack and was set up as a result of becoming a successful organiser for Crowborough and North Weald NF [8].

Southgate and his political ideas have been discussed in various books and publications, including The Beast Reawakens (1999) by Martin A. Lee, International Fascism: Theories, Causes and the New Consensus by Roger Griffin (2002), Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism & the Politics of Identity by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (2003), the five-volume study Fascism: Critical Concepts in Political Science (2004) by Roger Griffin & Matthew Feldman (ed.) and The Radical Right in Britain by Alan Sykes (2005). A 26-page article by Graham D. Macklin, entitled 'Co-opting the Counter-Culture: Troy Southgate and the National Revolutionary Faction', appeared in Volume 39, No. 3 of the academic journal Patterns of Prejudice (2005), and Southgate and the New Right were also discussed in an essay called The West Reborn by David J. Wingfield which appeared in The Initiate: Journal of Traditional Studies (2008), pp.17-19.

Revolution & Tradition: Collected Writings of Troy Southgate, a 330-page anthology of Southgate's work, was published in Denmark by Integral Tradition Publishing in December 2007.

Music

Troy Southgate is a vocalist, guitarist and percussionist with the mainly-Dutch quintet, H.E.R.R., who play Neoclassical music and have released several albums including 'Es Regnet Das Leben Heraus' (2004), 'The Winter of Constantinople' (2005), 'Vondel's Lucifer: First Movement' (2006) and the 'Fire & Glass: A Norwood Tragedy' EP (2007). Southgate's vocals have also featured for H.E.R.R. on the following compilation albums: 'Hopes Die In Winter' ('Hopes Die in Winter' and 'Fifteen Tokens'), 'Instruo Vestri Pro Pugna!' ('The Baron of Urga'), 'Neo-Form I' ('For a Christ-Thorn'), and 'Swarm' ('Stalingrad'). Future projects include a 7" single release of Current 93's 'For a Christ Thorn' coupled with a new song, 'Narcissus', on the b-side. Also forthcoming is 'The Twelve Caesars' album (expected 2008), based upon the work of the same name by the Roman historian, Suetonius.

Southgate is also a singer/songwriter with the German trio, Seelenlicht, two of whom are members of Kammer Sieben, and the group have released a 14-track album for the Cold Spring Records label, entitled 'Gods & Devils'. Seelenlicht are also working on a track ('Memnon, Prince of Ethiopia') for a compilation album based on lost Greek epic, the Aithiopis. Another compilation track, 'Return to Summerisle', was recorded for the Old Europa Cafe label.

In September 2007, Southgate became a full-time vocalist and member of Poland's Horologium, founded by Grzegorz Siedlecki, for whom he had previously recorded 'Faustus' (with Maria Southgate) and 'Thus I Spake' for two separate Horologium releases. This came about after Southgate was consequently asked to write and record five tracks for a forthcoming Horologium album called 'Earthbound' (expected on the Old Europa Cafe label in early 2008). The group is now working on a joint Neuropa Records collaboration with Oda Relicta from the Ukraine. Southgate and Horologium are now collaborating with the Italian project, Ouroboros, and Southgate is also recording tracks ('Pulsating Spectre' and 'Cold Room Solitude') for their side-project Desert Divinity.

He has also worked with Sweden's Survival Unit ('Awakening & Bravery'), Holland's Erich Zahn ('Acid Rain' & 'Streets of London'), the Canadian project, Sistrenatus (currently unreleased), and the German band, Sagittarius ('Ich hatt’ einen Kameraden' and 'The Song'), who will release an album entited 'Songs from the Ivory Tower' in 2008. Southgate has performed lyrics on a track called 'The Beauty of Life & Eternal War' for a forthcoming Von Thronstahl album. Future collaborations will include Ollin and Elvatorium, two Polish/American groups.

Some of Southgate's musical activities are discussed in the Hungarian book, Battlenoise: The Blows of the Martial Industrial Music, published by Mozgalom Records (2007).

Discography

  • SURVIVAL UNIT: Continuity ('Awakening & Bravery', 2005, LP, Steinklang Industries)
  • SURVIVAL UNIT: Continuity ('Awakening & Bravery', 2005, CD-R, Steinklang Industries)
  • SURVIVAL UNIT: Continuity / Deliverance From The Claws Of Their Final Grasp ('Awakening & Bravery', 2005, LP+min CD-R, Steinklang Industries)
  • HERR: The Winter of Constantinople (2005, CD-R, Cynfeirdd)
  • HERR: Carpe Noctem Festival I: Sturmgewitter Ziehn Durchs Land ('Constantinople I: Hagya Sophia'/'Requiem For Constantinople', 2005, CD, Carpe Noctem)
  • HERR: Hopes Die In Winter ('Hopes Die In Winter'/'Fifteen Tokens', 2005, CD, Beast of Prey)
  • HERR: The Winter Of Constantinople (2005, Picture-LP, Cynfeirdd)
  • HERR: The Winter Of Constantinople (2005, CD, Cold Spring)
  • HERR: Instruo Vestri Pro Pugna! ('The Baron Of Urga', 2005, 12" vinyl, Cold Spring)
  • HERR: Neither Beginning Nor End ('The Fall Of Constantinople', 2005, CD, Cynfeirdd)
  • HERR Neo-Form I ('For A Christ-Thorn', 2005, MP3 release, Neo-Form)
  • HERR: Swarm ('Stalingrad', 2006, CD, Cold Spring)
  • HERR: Vondel's Lucifer (2006, CD, Cold Spring)
  • HOROLOGIUM: Paradise Inverted ('Faustus', 2007, CD, Old Europa Cafe)
  • HOROLOGIUM: The World Is Not Enough ('Thus I Spake', 2007, CD, Neuropa Records)
  • HERR: Fire and Glass: A Norwood Tragedy (2007, MCD, Cold Spring)
  • SEELENLICHT: 13th Street: The Sound of Mystery 4 ('Demian', 2007, CD, ZYX Music)
  • SEELENLICHT: Gods & Devils (2008, CD, Cold Spring)
  • HOROLOGIUM: Zero Tolerance 022 ('The Watchers', 2008, CD, magazine sampler)
  • HERR: OEC 100 / The Old Europa Cafe ('A Newer Rome', 2008, 7 x CD boxset, Old Europa Cafe)
  • SEELENLICHT: OEC 100 / The Old Europa Cafe ('Return To Summerisle', 2008, 7 x CD boxset, Old Europa Cafe)
  • ACROSS THE RUBICON: Scontrum VIII ('A Soldier'/'Survivors', 2008, wooden CD box, War Office Propaganda)
  • HOROLOGIUM: Earthbound (2008, CD, Old Europa Cafe)
  • SAGITTARIUS: Songs from the Ivory Tower ('Ich Hatt Einen Kameraden'/'The Song', 2008, CD, Cold Spring)
  • SEELENLICHT: Sounds of Geisterwelt Nights ('The Modern Saxons', 2008, CD-R promo, Geisterwelt)
  • BONEBOUND: Interior - Obscure Sounds From The Inside ('The Bone Room', 2008, CD-R, Invisible Eye Productions)
  • BONEBOUND: Interior - Obscure Sounds From The Inside ('The Bone Room', 2008, C90 tape, Invisible Eye Productions)

ALSO EXPECTED IN 2008

  • HOROLOGIUM: 'Saint George & the Dragon' (7", Neuropa)
  • ERICH ZAHN Featuring TROY SOUTHGATE: Acid Rain ('Acid Rain'/'Streets of London', 7", Kulturkrieg)
  • HERR: The Twelve Caesars (CD, Cold Spring)
  • HERR: 'For A Christ-Thorn'/'Narcissus' (7", label to be finalised)
  • SISTRENATUS: (title and label to be finalised)
  • VON THRONSTAHL: album title unknown ('The Beauty of Life & Eternal War', CD, label unknown)
  • DESERT DIVINITY: Rusted Idols (label to be finalised)
  • OUROBOROS: Love Will Tear Us Apart (7", Invisible Eye Productions)
  • OLLIN: The Opium Trail (label to be finalised)
  • ELVATORIUM: ('Lithany To The Heart Of A Dying Whale', 'Echoes' & 'Velvet Skies', title and label to be finalised)
  • THE DAYS OF THE TRUMPET CALL: album title unknown ('End Times' & 'The Guest')
  • BONEBOUND: (title and label to be finalised)
  • THE JOY OF NATURE: ('This Floating World', title and label to be finalised)

Catholicism & Heathenism

Southgate - who, in 1997, became a History & Theology graduate at the University of Kent in Canterbury - comes from a non-religious background, although he converted to Catholicism in 1987 and was associated with the Society of St. Pius X, a traditionalist group founded by Archbishop Lefebvre which remains faithful to the Tridentine Mass which was reformed during the establishment of Vatican 2 in 1967. Southgate is now a Wodenist and has therefore been criticised by his former Catholic associates for changing his religious beliefs, although he did remain part of the Church for over ten years and it was only in 1997 that he began examining paganism and eventually drifted away from Catholicism altogether. Southgate is now a student of rune magic and a member of the English-based neopagan group, Woden's Folk, for whom he has written and researched a series of esoteric pamphlets. These include A Sussex Swan: The Wodenic Mysteries of a Small English Town, The Centre: Its Symbolic and Practical Significance, Beachy Head: The Negation of the Solar, Runic Sex Postures of the Anglo-Saxon futhorc and Runic Mysteries of the Suð Seax Wheel. During an initiation rite on the South Downs he is said to have taken the name 'Fenix', which is the Anglo-Saxon word for phoenix. On July 2, 2007, Southgate was also seen participating in a Woden's Folk demonstration in East Sussex against ITV filming a stunt for Trinny and Susannah's fashion show, Trinny & Susannah Undress, at the Long Man of Wilmington. Southgate and his associates considered this to be a desecration of an ancient English burial ground and the site was slightly damaged as a result. The programme itself was eventually aired on November 20th, 2007.

References

  1. ^ "Transcending the Beyond: from Third Position to National-Anarchism" by Troy Southgate, Pravda.ru, 17 January 2002
  2. ^ "Neo-nazis join animal rights groups" by Daniel Foggo, Sunday Telegraph, 16 June 2001
  3. ^ Interview with Wayne John Sturgeon on the NRF website, undated (website now defunct; interview available on archive.org mirror)
  4. ^ Interview with Miron Fyodorov for Kinovar magazine, undated, available on Synthesis
  5. ^ Interview with Dan Ghetu, undated, on Synthesis
  6. ^ "National-Anarchism", the main principles in question and answer format on the Folk and Faith website
  7. ^ H.E.R.R. interview with Heathen Harvest
  8. ^ H.E.R.R. interview with Neo-folk.it
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