Blood & Honour

Blood & Honour is a neo-Nazi music promotion network and right-wing extremist political group founded in the United Kingdom by Ian Stuart Donaldson and Nicky Crane in 1987. It is composed of White Nationalists and has links to Combat 18.

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

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Sometimes the code 28 is used to represent Blood & Honour, derived from the second and eighth letters of the Latin alphabet, B and H, and the group uses Nazi symbolism. Its official website self-describes as a "musical based resistance network" and dubs its "global confederacy of freedom fighters" Brotherhood 28.

In the UK, the group used to organise White power concerts by Rock Against Communism (RAC) bands. It publishes a magazine called Blood and Honour. There are official divisions in several countries, including two rival groups in the United States. It is banned in several countries, including Germany, Spain, Russia, and Canada.

History

Blood & Honour was established in 1987 by Skrewdriver frontman Ian Stuart Donaldson, supported by Nicky Crane[1] and the bands No Remorse, Brutal Attack, Sudden Impact, and Squadron.[2] These bands were previously affiliated with the White Noise Club, a subsidiary organisation of the National Front responsible for organising Rock Against Communism concerts, operating the White Noise Records label, and publishing a zine called White Noise.[3]

Tensions between Donaldson and the leadership of the White Noise Club developed in 1987, as Donaldson felt that the White Noise Club was siphoning money out of the Rock Against Communism scene to use for the National Front's political campaigns.[4] Donaldson's Skrewdriver officially split from the White Noise Club in May of 1987, and several other bands within the scene followed.[5]

Blood & Honour was launched as an alternative to the White Noise Club in July of 1987, with the appearance of the first edition of Blood & Honour magazine. Copies were sent free of charge to members of the White Noise Club (Donaldson used contacts within the National Front to obtain their mailing list),[6] together with a note by Donaldson denouncing the White Noise Club as a "corrupt rip-off".[4] A concert to "launch" Blood & Honour was held at the St Helier Arms on the 5th of September, 1987, featuring performances from Skrewdriver, No Remorse, Brutal Attack, and Sudden Impact.[7]

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.[8]

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".[9][10]

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.[11]

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.[12][13] The memorial concert to mark the 20th anniversary of the death of Donaldson reportedly was the biggest associated gig in the UK with between 1,000 and 1,200 people attending.[14][15] On the 23rd anniversary of the death of founder, Ian Stuart Donaldson, the annual memorial gig once again attracted international television and media coverage.[16][17][18][19]

Blood & Honour remains active in the UK but has contracted since its heyday in the 1980s and 1990s; researchers Matthew Worley and Nigel Copsey suggest that its membership is now “comprised mainly of heavily-tattooed men in their fifties reliving their “glory days” at occasional gigs in back-room pubs”.[20] As of 2019, the organisation organises up to fifteen concerts a year in the UK.[21]

Description and symbolism

The group is composed of White Nationalists and has links to Combat 18.[22] Its official website self-describes as a "musical based resistance network" and dubs its "global confederacy of freedom fighters" Brotherhood 28.[23]

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.[24]

International groups

There are official divisions in several countries.[22] In the United States, two rival groups claim the name: Blood and Honour Council USA and Blood and Honour America Division.[25]

Blood & Honour is banned in several countries. Blood & Honour Germany was outlawed in Germany in 2000,[26] Spain in 2011,[27] and Russia in 2012.[21] In 2019, the government of Canada placed Blood & Honour on its list of designated terrorist groups.[28]

In 1999, some Blood & Honour groups published support on their official websites for the Malexander murders in Sweden.

Blood & Honour Australia & the Southern Cross Hammerskins have been organising the annual Ian Donaldson Memorial concert in Melbourne since 1994. Reports by the media that the concert in 2019 was cancelled at the last minute were false, as it went ahead as it does each year without incident.[29][30][31][32]

See also

References
  1. Dyck, Kirsten (2016). Reichsrock: The International Web of White-Power and Neo-Nazi Hate Music. Rutgers University Press. p. 19. ISBN 9780813574738.
  2. Raposo, Ana; Bestley, Russ (1 November 2020). "Designing fascism: The evolution of a neo-Nazi punk aesthetic". Punk & Post-Punk. 9 (3): 467–498. doi:10.1386/punk_00039_1. ISSN 2044-1983.
  3. Shaffer, Ryan (2017), Music, Youth and International Links in Post-War British Fascism, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 117–118, ISBN 978-3-319-59667-9, retrieved 22 October 2023
  4. Forbes, Robert; Stampton, Eddie (2015). The White Nationalist Skinhead Movement: UK & USA, 1979 - 1993. Feral House. p. 250. ISBN 9781627310246.
  5. Forbes and Stampton, The White Nationalist Skinhead Movement, p. 252, 245.
  6. Shaffer, Music, Youth and International Links in Post-War British Fascism, p. 126.
  7. Forbes and Stampton, The White Nationalist Skinhead Movement, p. 257.
  8. Skrewdriver Rockumentary 1977 to 1993 - From Punk to Patriotism. Midgard Records (Sweden). 2000.
  9. "Diamond In The Dust". Skrewdriver.net. Archived from the original on 27 April 2009. Retrieved 28 June 2013.
  10. Reilly, Joe (April–May 1999). "It Woz AFA Wot Done It!". Red Action. 3 (6). Archived from the original on 12 May 2008.
  11. "Skrewdriver - Rockumentary 1977-1993". Discogs. Archived from the original on 24 April 2019. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  12. "Family flee 'neo-Nazi' rally". BBC News. 23 September 2008. Archived from the original on 26 September 2008. Retrieved 25 September 2008.
  13. "Probe into 800-strong Nazi event". BBC News. 23 September 2008. Archived from the original on 26 September 2008. Retrieved 25 September 2008.
  14. Lowles, Nick (22 September 2013). "Huge gig, few Brits". HOPE not hate. Archived from the original on 8 July 2014. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
  15. "Ian Stuart Donaldson and a legacy of hate". Channel 4. 24 September 2013. Archived from the original on 11 July 2014. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
  16. Brown, Raymond (6 October 2016). "Hundreds attend Blood and Honour neo-Nazi rally in Cambridgeshire". Cambridge-news.co.uk. Archived from the original on 8 October 2016. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  17. "Police let neo-Nazis hold rally in small village 'because they thought it was for charity'". Metro. 7 October 2016. Archived from the original on 10 April 2019. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  18. Chidzoy, Sally (6 October 2016). "'Charity' neo-Nazi rally not opposed". BBC News. Archived from the original on 16 July 2019. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  19. "Neo-nazi rally took place as police thought it was a 'charity event'". The Independent. 7 October 2016. Archived from the original on 17 May 2020. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  20. Worley, Matthew; Copsey, Nigel (1 June 2016). "White Youth: the Far Right, Punk and British Youth Culture, 1977-87". JOMEC Journal. 0 (9): 27. doi:10.18573/j.2016.10041. ISSN 2049-2340.
  21. Keatinge, Tom; Keen, Florence; Izenman, Kayla (23 February 2019). "Fundraising for Right-Wing Extremist Movements: How They Raise Funds and How to Counter It". The RUSI Journal. 164 (2): 18. doi:10.1080/03071847.2019.1621479. ISSN 0307-1847.
  22. "When the Storm Breaks!". Blood & Honour. Archived from the original on 25 June 2013. Retrieved 28 June 2013.
  23. "[Home]". Blood & Honour. 2 April 1988. Archived from the original on 29 August 2019. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
  24. "Hate On Display: Neo-Nazi Skull and Crossbones". Anti-Defamation League. Archived from the original on 21 January 2013. Retrieved 28 June 2013.
  25. "Intelligence Files: Blood & Honour". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on 23 July 2013. Retrieved 28 June 2013.
  26. "Germany bans neo-Nazi group". BBC News. 14 September 2000. Archived from the original on 8 September 2012. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
  27. "El Supremo ordena a la organización neonazi 'Blood and Honour' que se disuelva" (in Spanish). Público.es. 8 June 2006. Archived from the original on 13 January 2012. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
  28. "About the listing process". www.publicsafety.gc.ca. 21 December 2018. Archived from the original on 5 October 2016. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  29. "ISD19". Archived from the original on 17 September 2021. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
  30. "White supremacist concert in Melbourne cannot be stopped, Premier says". ABC News. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 8 October 2019. Archived from the original on 8 March 2021. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
  31. "Melbourne's neo-Nazi festival stopped, Jewish leader says". 7NEWS.com.au. 16 October 2019. Archived from the original on 15 April 2021. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
  32. Skinheads, Southern Cross Hammer (28 April 2011). "Southern Cross Hammerskins". ABC News. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 26 November 2022. Retrieved 1 April 2021.

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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