Backdoor Broadcasting Company

Event Date: 22 and 23 September 2011
Sunley Management Centre
Park Campus,
University of Northampton

Radicalism and New Media Group presents:

 Populist Racism In Britain and Europe since 1945

KEYNOTING:

• Professor Aristotle Kallis,
• Dr Hans-Georg Betz

Additional analysis:

• Professor Nigel Copsey,
• Dr Gavin Schaffer,
• Dr Jane Callaghan,
• The Think Project,
• Searchlight
• and  others

Following in tradition established by the Radical-ism and New Media research group, this two-day conference will bring together scholars, practitioners and third sector professionals either working on innovative research, or front line engagement with, the causes, nature and effect of populist racism in Britain and Europe.

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MAJOR THEMES COVERED:

 Topics to be discussed by practitioners and academics will include:

• The relationship between populist racism and violent extremism;
• The latest developments with the BNP, EDL and European far-right movements;
• Analysis of how the mass media represents populist racism;
• State responses to forms of populist racism;
• Factors that create ‘fertile conditions’ for popu-list racism to develop;
• The role of the new media.

ENCOURAGING NEW APPROACHES

As well as talks from experts, up-and-coming researchers, and professional perspectives, there will be networking opportunities for informal engagement with these themes, to encourage new approaches to tackling populist racism.

 Programme:

22 September 2011

Welcome and Opening Keynote:

Hans-Georg Betz, ‘Populism, Nativism and Contemporary Radical Right-Wing Ideology’
Due to technical failure we cannot provide you with the audio recording of this talk. However, we will attempt to bring you this sometiome in the near future.

Parallel panels I:

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Panel 1a: Northern Europe

Daunis Auers, ‘Mapping Populist Racism in the Baltic States’
[AUDIO HERE]

Simon Oja, ‘From Skinheads and Shouting to Suits and Debating’
[AUDIO HERE]

Kristina Boreus, ‘Right-Wing Populism and Discursive Discrimination in Austria, Denmark and Sweden’
[AUDIO HERE]

Panel 1a discussion .

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Panel 1b: Populist Racism and Lone Wolf Terrorism in Europe

Matthew Feldman, ‘Comparative Lone Wolf Terrorism’
[AUDIO HERE]

Paul Jackson, ‘Lone Wolf Terrorism and Right-Wing Extremism’
Rafael Pantucci, ‘How Xenophobic Are Lone Wolf Islamists?’

Due to technical failure we cannot provide you with the audio recording of these talks. However, we will attempt to bring you this sometiome in the near future.

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Parallel Panels II

Panel 2a: Eastern Europe

Alina Polyakova, ‘Civil Society and Right-Wing Politics: Explaining the Rightís Success and Failure in Central Eastern Europe’
[AUDIO HERE]

Parikrama Gupta, ‘Racism in Russia: Not a Problem for the Russian State’
[AUDIO HERE]

Andreas Umland, ‘Zhirinovskii as a Fascist: Palingenetic Ultra-Nationalism in Documents of the Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia in the early 1990s’
[AUDIO HERE]

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Panel 2b: Populist Racism against Roma and Sinti travellers

Zbigniew Wojcik and Lukasz Gazda, ‘Roma: NOT Hard to Reach Community’
[AUDIO HERE]

John Coxhead, ‘Roma: Deconstructing Populist Xenophobia’
[AUDIO HERE]

Gabriela Augustynowicz-Casey, ‘The Roma: The Need of a New Language of Social Communication‘
[AUDIO HERE]

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Parallel Panels III

Panel 3a: Western Europe

Brigitte Beauzamy, ‘The Role of the Radical Right in the Politicization of Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia’
[AUDIO HERE]
Aurelien Mondon, ‘Nicolas Sarkozyís Legitimisation of the Front National’
[AUDIO HERE]

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Panel 3b: The Psychological Dimension of Populist Racism

Jane Callaghan, ‘There’s Something Happening Here: Visual Images of the EDL and BNP’
[AUDIO HERE]

Paul Crofts, “Us” and “Them” in Defining the “Other”. A Case Study on Framing Muslims and Islamaphobia and Racism from Kettering’
[AUDIO HERE]

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Panel 4 ‘Representing ‘Otherness’

Darya Malyutina, ‘From Racism to Cosmopolitan Sociability: Perceptions of ëOthersí in the Conditions of Superdiversity by Russian-speaking Migrants in London’
[AUDIO HERE]

Trev Preston, ‘Boots, Braces and Blogs: Representations of Right-Wing Extremism in Britain’
[AUDIO HERE]

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23 September 2011

Opening Welcome

Prof. Nick Petford, Vice-Chancellor, University of Northampton .

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Keynote

Aristotle Kallis, ‘The “Contagion” Dynamic of the Far-Right’
[AUDIO HERE]

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Launch of RNM Groupís report on the English Defence League

Dr Paul Jackson and Dr Mark Pitchford .

(download PDF)

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Panel 1 by Practitioners

The Think Project: Geraint Whittaker, Laura Lake and Rocio Cifuentes
talk:

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Panel 2 by Practitioners

Searchlight: ‘The Post War Impact of Julius Evola on British Politics and Beyond’

Alfio Bernabei, ‘The Mind of Julius Evola: Between Fascism and Mysticism’
[AUDIO HERE]

Gerry Gable, ‘The Devil’s Disciples: From Fiore to Griffin’
[AUDIO HERE]

Sonia Gable, ‘Are Griffin’s Appeals for Race and Civil War Helping Britain’s Far Right?’
[AUDIO HERE]

Searchlight Panel discussion .

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Book (and Series) Launch

Far-right.com, first in “Mapping the Far Right” series, eds. Paul Jackson and Gerry Gable
book available HERE:
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Academic Panel

Gavin Schaffer, ‘The Vision of a Nation: Making Multiculturalism on British Television 1960-1980′
[AUDIO HERE]

Nigel Copsey, ‘Au Revoir to “Sacred Cows”? The Nouvelle Droite’s Impact on Britain’s Far Right’
[AUDIO HERE]

Anton Shekhovtsov, ‘Far-Right Music in Britain’
[AUDIO HERE]

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Final Panel discussion .

Concluding Round table discussion

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selected photos from the conference:

East Midlands Community Contact Unit: ‘Experiences of a Regional Intervention Unit in Addressing Violent Extremism’

The substantive difference between Community Cohesion work and the Prevent Agenda is the concept of challenge.  A large part of the roll out of ‘Prevent’ has concentrated on ensuring that staff working across many organisations are aware of the issues surrounding vulnerability and know who to refer any concerns to.  However, for those in charge of  managing and effecting change of these cases through intervention work within this arena, the basic questions of who?, when? and how? have been a difficult and sensitive reality.   By drawing on their experiences of process development and work with real life cases, the East Midlands Community Contact Unit share their expertise in managing and commissioning interventionists within this highly important area of work.

PLAY

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questions:

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<== main conference page

The nature and historical permutations of neo-Nazism are under investigation in this presentation.  More specifically, the international dimension to so-called ‘Universal Nazism’ reveals a particularly close kinship between extreme right-wing movements in Britain and the United States.  Most visibly, a number of small organisations – following the Patterns of Prejudice’s exploration of recent ‘right-wing groupuscules’ – have turned to the  internet to propagate their views; other activists have gone further still in embracing paramilitarism and, in some cases, terrorism. In considering an example of the latter, this presentation provides a case study of what may be called ‘broadband terrorism’: the correspondence of neo-Nazi groupuscule moving from online activism to terrorist activity.

This presentation analyses the political dynamics of the English Defence League. Highlighting that the EDL holds several characteristics that distinguish it from Britain’s tradition of largely anti-Semitic far-right ideologies, it draws on the ideas of Hans George Betz. In particular, it uses Betz’ concept of nativism to highlight that the EDL’s ideology can be placed in a newer trend of far-right populism, typified by Gert Wilders and other contemporary European far-right populist ideologues and movements. The EDL combines this broad ideology with the structure of a social movement lacking a clear programmatic vision for change, and so focuses on direct action campaigns that often lead to public disorder.

Gerry Gable – Confronting Right-Wing Extremism in a Western Democracy

In this keynote lecture, Gerry Gable offers a personal reflection on his work with Searchlight. His talk shows how, since 1964, Gable has developed a range of approaches to gathering intelligence on the Far Right. Cases discussed include historical examples, such as Searchlight’s dealings with Colin Jordan, to contemporary themes, for example revealing fundamental problems with the British National Party’s accounting practise. Finally, Gable also reflects on the positive, and not so positive, relationships that Searchlight has developed over the years with Britain’s various intelligence bodies.

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talk:

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questions:

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Searchlight Magazine website