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Blood & Honour

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This article is about the Neo-Nazi group. For the 1982 television drama, see Blood and Honor: Youth Under Hitler.
Official logo

Blood & Honour is a neo-Nazi music promotion network and political group founded in the United Kingdom in 1987. Founded by Ian Stuart Donaldson and Nicky Crane, it is composed of white nationalists and has links to Combat 18. The group organizes white power concerts by Rock Against Communism (RAC) bands and distributes a magazine of the same name.[1]

There are official divisions in several countries.[1] In the United States, two rival groups claim the name: Blood and Honour Council USA and Blood and Honour America Division.[2] Blood & Honour is banned in several countries. Germany outlawed it in 2000,[3] Spain in 2011,[4] and Russia in 2012.[5]

Blood & Honour took its name from the motto of the Hitler Youth, Blut und Ehre, and a song of the same name by the white power band Skrewdriver. Sometimes the code 28 is used to represent Blood & Honour, derived from the second and eighth letters of the Latin alphabet, B and H. Though different national chapters of Blood & Honour use different nationalist symbols based on their location, common symbolic traits include the usage of a modernised Blackletter script, colours of the Nazi German flag, and other Nazi symbolism, including the Totenkopf death's head insignia of the SS-Totenkopfverbände and concentration camp units[6] and AWB-style triskele.[7]

History

The roots of Blood & Honour go back to 1977 in the United Kingdom, when the white nationalist National Front (NF) founded the Rock Against Communism (RAC) movement in response to the Anti-Nazi League's Rock Against Racism campaign. By 1980, a new version of Skrewdriver—by then a white power skinhead band—relaunched the RAC movement. Ian Stuart Donaldson, Skrewdriver's singer, was a founder of Blood & Honour and one of its prominent leaders until his death in 1993. With the aid of the NF, the White Noise Club (WNC) organised concerts under the RAC name, and the RAC movement grew throughout 1983 and 1984.

In 1986, the NF split into two factions, and around this time, it was discovered that the WNC had been defrauding bands and concert-goers. Several bands left the WNC, including Skrewdriver, No Remorse, Sudden Impact and Brutal Attack. Donaldson decided to break away from the WNC and organise concerts for the NF, so he founded Blood & Honour. By June 1987, with the help of other white power bands, Blood & Honour was launched, along with a magazine of the same name.[8] A concert was held in Morden, Surrey, to commemorate this launch on 5 September, with Skrewdriver, Brutal Attack, Sudden Impact and No Remorse playing to a crowd of 500, including French, Italian and German supporters.[9][10]

By the end of 1988, Blood & Honour magazine was a quarterly that had grown from eight to 16 pages after a few issues. The magazine included concert reports, band interviews, readers' letters, RAC record charts and a column called "White Whispers". A mail-order service called Skrewdriver Services soon formed within its pages, selling items such as white power albums, T-shirts and flags; Loyalist music tapes; and Swastika pendants.[9]

The back page of Blood & Honour Issue Number 13 advertised a Skrewdriver concert in London on 12 September 1992. Posters and fliers were posted around the country, advertising the concert and listing a redirection point as Waterloo Rail Station. The night before the concert, Donaldson was attacked in a Burton pub. The next day, police closed down Waterloo Station and the tube station, preventing many people from reaching the redirection point. Hundreds more Blood & Honour supporters who had journeyed from abroad were turned back at ports in Folkestone and Dover. The Blood & Honour supporters clashed with anti-fascist protesters. Missiles such as bricks and champagne bottles taken from bins outside of South Bank restaurants were used during the ensuing riot. Battles ensued for about two hours until the police separated the two groups, and the concert proceeded in the function hall of the Yorkshire Grey pub in Eltham, South-East London. The incident got international media coverage and became known as the "Battle of Waterloo".[10][11]

In 1992, the newly formed Midlands division organised the annual Blood & Honour White Xmas concert. On 19 December, over 400 supporters gathered at a working men's club in Mansfield to watch No Remorse, Razors Edge and Skrewdriver perform. In 1993, the East Midlands division planned to stage an outdoor festival on 31 July. Donaldson was arrested and served with an injunction order not to perform at the concert. The venue was blockaded by the police, who seized amplifiers and confiscated sound equipment. It was the biggest Police operation in the area since the Miners strikes in the early 1980s [12]

Later that year, the East Midlands division organised a concert for 25 September. Three nights before the concert, Donaldson and a few friends were travelling in a car that spun out of control into a ditch. Donaldson and another passenger died, and other passengers had minor wounds. The following day, 100 Skrewdriver supporters travelled to the Blood & Honour social in the Midlands, unaware of the deaths.

Each year, on or near the anniversary of Donaldson's death, a large memorial concert is held. In 2008, a concert in Redhill, Somerset attracted widespread BBC, radio and newspaper coverage.[13][14][15] The memorial concert to mark the 20th anniversary of the death of Ian Stuart Donaldson reportedly was the biggest associated gig in the UK with between 1,000 and 1,200 people attending.[16][17] On the 23rd anniversary of the death of founder, Ian Stuart Donaldson, the annual memorial gig once again attracted international television and media coverage.[18][19][20][21]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "When the Storm Breaks!". Blood & Honour. Archived from the original on 25 June 2013. Retrieved 28 June 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ "Intelligence Files: Blood & Honour". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 28 June 2013.
  3. ^ "Germany bans neo-Nazi group". BBC News. 14 September 2000.
  4. ^ "El Supremo ordena a la organización neonazi 'Blood and Honour' que se disuelva" (in Spanish). Público.es. 8 June 2006.
  5. ^ "Russian Supreme Court Bans Blood & Honour". Ria Novosti. 29 May 2012.
  6. ^ "Hate On Display: Neo-Nazi Skull and Crossbones". Anti-Defamation League. Archived from the original on 21 January 2013. Retrieved 28 June 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ "Hate On Display: Triskele". Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved 28 June 2013.
  8. ^ "The soundtrack of neo-fascism: youth and music in the National Front". Patterns of Prejudice. 47 (4–5): 458–482. doi:10.1080/0031322X.2013.842289. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  9. ^ a b Skrewdriver Rockumentary 1977 to 1993 - From Punk to Patriotism. Midgard Records (Sweden). 2000.
  10. ^ a b "Diamond In The Dust". Skrewdriver.net. Retrieved 28 June 2013.
  11. ^ Reilly, Joe (April–May 1999). "It Woz AFA Wot Done It!". Red Action. 3 (6). Archived from the original on 12 May 2008.
  12. ^ "Skrewdriver - Rockumentary 1977-1993". Discogs. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  13. ^ "Family flee 'neo-Nazi' rally". BBC News. 23 September 2008.
  14. ^ "Probe into 800-strong Nazi event". BBC News. 23 September 2008.
  15. ^ Coles, John (25 September 2008). "Village invaded by 800 Nazi thugs". The Sun.
  16. ^ Lowles, Nick (22 September 2013). "Huge gig, few Brits". HOPE not hate. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
  17. ^ "Ian Stuart Donaldson and a legacy of hate". Channel 4. 24 September 2013. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
  18. ^ Brown, Raymond (6 October 2016). "Hundreds attend Blood and Honour neo-Nazi rally in Cambridgeshire". Cambridge-news.co.uk. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  19. ^ "Police let neo-Nazis hold rally in small village 'because they thought it was for charity'". Metro.co.uk. 7 October 2016. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  20. ^ Chidzoy, Sally (6 October 2016). "'Charity' neo-Nazi rally not opposed". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  21. ^ "Neo-nazi rally took place as police thought it was a 'charity event'". Independent.co.uk. 7 October 2016. Retrieved 12 December 2017.

Further reading

  • Lowles, Nick; Silver, Steve (eds.) (1998). White Noise: Inside the International Nazi Skinhead Scene. London. ISBN 0-9522038-3-9.
  • London, Paul. Nazi Rock Star: A Biography of Ian Stuart.
  • Marshall, George (1990). Spirit of '69: A Skinhead Bible. Dunoon, Scotland: ST Publishing. ISBN 1-898927-10-3.
  • Marshall, George (1996). Skinhead Nation. S.T. Publishing. ISBN 978-1-898927-45-7.
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