Mark Collett on nationalist community politics

Editor’s introductory note: Most H&D readers will be aware that we don’t normally publish articles from the hard copy magazine on the website. In the few cases where we do, it’s usually quite a while afterwards. However, in this case I have made an exception because a large number of people have asked me to publish it online after hearing about it via PA’s social media outlets and/or the Searchlight website! So here it is. We still encourage you to buy the hard copy magazine which is still available for only £6.00 (plus postage). Email – heritageanddestiny@yahoo.com  – for details.

The following article by Mark Collett, the leader of Patriotic Alternative, appears in #121 partly in reply to the articles by Alek Yerbury in #115, Ian Freeman in #116, Kenny Smith in #118, Matt Godden #119 and Steve Frost in #120, and continues our discussion on the pros and cons of community politics and the ladder strategy. We hope to have further articles from spokesmen for other groups in future issues.

This year, Nigel Farage achieved something that no other anti-immigration candidate has ever achieved: he was elected to Parliament along with four of his Reform Party colleagues. This was unprecedented; it represented the breaching of a barrier that had never before been broken. This was a feat unmatched by the likes of Sir Oswald Mosley (after he left mainstream politics by resigning as a Labour government minister), John Tyndall or Nick Griffin. 

Now some may say that anti-immigration candidates have been elected to parliament before, indeed, Conservative MPs have crossed the floor and been re-elected for UKIP, but never before has a candidate who has not previously sat in Parliament achieved what Nigel Farage achieved, on the platform that he stood on.

This feat, whilst ground-breaking, is just one of many such achievements for Nigel Farage. Farage is also the only party leader who has taken not one, but two, outsider parties to victory in a nationwide election. UKIP won the European Election in 2014 and Farage then repeated that feat in 2019 when he led the Brexit Party to victory. 

But it doesn’t end there, Farage is also the man who is largely credited with bringing about Brexit – which is arguably the one policy change post-World War II that has gone against the liberal and progressive grain and has been supported by ethno-nationalists.

As it stands, Nigel Farage and Reform UK are in a position that no other anti-immigration political party has ever been in. Not even the BNP at its height came close to the number of votes, level of public support and elected power as Reform UK now enjoys. 

In fact, the best ever parliamentary vote enjoyed by a nationalist was achieved all the way back in 2001, when Nick Griffin stood in Oldham West and Royton and took 16.4% of the vote. Griffin failed ever to reach that height again. Even in 2010 when he stood in Barking, with a much larger and better funded campaign that was supported by numerous elected candidates and a GLA member, he managed just 14.6%: still impressive, but not as good as his result in 2001, which was achieved with a much lower profile campaign. 

Today, nationalist parties dream of merely retaining a deposit – that’s if they stand at all at parliamentary level. And as it stands, there is not one single elected nationalist councillor in the whole of the UK. Whilst certain charlatans have been peddling nonsense about great victories because nationalists have snuck onto parish and community councils, the reality is, the last time an openly ethno-nationalist party won a council by-election was in 2008, and the last time an ethno-nationalist party won a council seat at a regular round of elections was in 2010.

Since then, the anti-Islam For Britain Movement (which is now defunct) had limited success, winning a seat on Epping Forest District Council and a seat on Hartlepool District Council. What effect those victories had, if any, remains to be seen. But the fact they no longer exist speaks volumes about the difference those councillors made to the political landscape in Britain.

That may seem like a pretty long introduction to an article about community politics and how the ethno-nationalist movement should orientate itself within the UK. But it’s important to take stock of our victories and defeats before we formulate a plan. It’s also wise to observe the political landscape, taking note of any potential pitfalls, traps or obstacles in our path.

But the facts are: firstly, ethno-nationalists are the worst equipped they have ever been in terms of electioneering. This is coupled with possibly the lowest desire for electoral politics that I have ever encountered within the ethno-nationalist sphere.

Secondly, never before has there been such a sizeable blockade to success for ethno-nationalist parties (or smaller anti-immigration parties). Not to put a fine point on it, Reform UK are the 600lb gorilla in the room. This was made absolutely clear at the recent General Election. The only remotely credible results achieved by any anti-immigration or ethno-nationalist party were achieved in places where Reform failed to stand a candidate.

Even well-known anti-immigration candidates with huge social media followings and a strong local profile like Steve Laws failed to gain over 1% of the vote, taking fewer than 200 votes in total.

Finally, it would be remiss of me not to mention the fact that never before have there been so many social stigmas and personal repercussions attached to being an ethno-nationalist. My work alongside the Workers of England Union has revealed just how many people are being persecuted in the work place for merely expressing support for anti-immigration parties, let alone standing as a candidate for a party that is openly ethno-nationalist. Times have changed, for the worse, and whilst the BNP never had it easy in the 2000s, we now face a far harder mountain to climb and a far more oppressive and anti-White regime than ever before.

Bearing all this in mind, and also acknowledging the corrupt and anti-democratic, two party, first-past-the-post system we have in the UK – something I did a two hour lecture on – I believe that for the foreseeable future electoral politics, especially parliamentary politics, is a waste of time, money and resources. What’s more, the electoral route will most likely lead to demoralisation and humiliation –which will have the inevitable effect of driving away the small numbers of committed activists we have.

For years we have witnessed Parliamentary by-elections where up to half a dozen small anti-immigration parties have fought it out in order to take equally pathetic shares of the vote – all at the cost of tens of thousands of pounds of supporters’ hard-earned money. Deposits have been lost, parties that have been in existence for years have been beaten by joke candidates and campaigns have sometimes resulted in double digit votes.

What will be the outcome now? Likely even worse. Every parliamentary by-election will now be hotly contested by Reform UK, ensuring that other anti-immigration parties will be squeezed even further and we will no doubt see Count Binface (who polled more votes than the anti-Islam Britain First candidate Nick Scanlon, in this year’s London Mayoral Election) defeat several more nationalist candidates. Should we be putting ourselves up for this humiliation? Should we be spending thousands of pounds on allowing ourselves to be subject to such humiliation?

However, there is now an even worse outcome on the horizon – as Reform UK could likely win one of these by-elections, a small number of squabbling and ultimately inconsequential anti-immigration parties could cost them that victory. Imagine a situation where Reform UK takes 12,000 votes in a Parliamentary by-election, only to be beaten by Labour with 12,100 votes, as a number of tiny parties all standing on a virtually identical platform to Reform UK take around 600 votes in total. At that point, not only would these smaller parties be wasting their time and money, but they would also be helping to keep Labour in power.

At this juncture some may point out, that Reform is not an ethno-nationalist party and that they are indeed quite different to us politically, so why would we want to help them over the line and why do I believe that their vote and the ethno-nationalist is one and the same?

Ultimately, a political party is two things: firstly, what it is perceived to be by the public, and secondly what it really stands for. When it comes to elections, any ethno-nationalist party will be perceived as an ‘anti-immigration’ party: Reform UK is also perceived to be an ‘anti-immigration’ party. That means that both they and any ethno-nationalist party will draw their support from the same group of voters – those who are obviously anti-immigration, but also those who are patriotic, naturally conservative and support traditionalism.

When two parties are perceived to be standing on a similar platform, the party which is seen as larger, better funded, has a more visible presence in the media, has a greater number of elected officials and of course, has a more viable path to power, is the party that will take the lion’s share of the vote. This means that any ethno-nationalist party going up against Reform UK will always be humiliated.

But why should we allow Reform UK to advance unimpeded, when despite being perceived to be the same as us by the public, they are in fact very different? This is again a valid question, but the answer is simple: for the best part of a century British politics has been dominated by two parties and this oligarchy must be smashed, the political landscape must be levelled and the two party ‘conditioning’ that has held the wider public in its iron grasp must be broken. Reform UK are the party most likely to do this.

As such, electoral politics is something that nationalists should now withdraw from. Instead, we should refocus our efforts in areas where we can achieve success and make a real difference, in both the short, medium and long term.

There are of course a couple of small caveats to this. The first should be discussed immediately: those of us who are not known, who have a clean public image and who wish to get elected to high office should join Reform UK, help to steer that party from within and put themselves forward as Parliamentary candidates. Having a number of officials and candidates within Reform UK, and potentially having an ethno-nationalist elected to Parliament under the Reform UK banner would obviously be advantageous in a number of ways, not least in helping to bring Farage and his party closer to our positions.

At this juncture, it is worth noting that Farage has indeed moved right to such a degree that the talking points he used at the last general election, that included stopping migration and deporting illegal immigrants, were more overtly ‘nationalist’ than the talking points employed by the BNP in 2009 when Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons were elected to the European Parliament. In 2009, the BNP did make immigration an issue, but this was eclipsed by the calls for ‘British jobs for British workers’ and the main slogan on marketing material read simply: ‘people like you voting BNP’.

So, in a very real sense, a dedicated group of ethno-nationalists who have not been previously politically exposed could join Reform UK and do great things – effectively turning them into a vehicle for something better and more robust.

But saying all that, what should the majority of ethno-nationalists do? The ones who have been politically exposed and the ones who want to be part of an explicitly ethno-nationalist group. Well, the answer to that is simple: we must re-orientate our efforts in a new direction, we must do something that ethno-nationalists have never done before. We must take up an important fight that is currently not being fought, and we must adopt new tactics that allow as many people as possible to be involved in what we are doing, allowing non-public facing supporters to play a role.

In short: we must build a nationalist community that advocates for the civil rights of the indigenous people of the British Isles. And we can do this by working in numerous fields and endeavours in order to reach out to indigenous Britons in ways that Reform UK never will and we must formulate a successful strategy that will allow nationalists to have a greater influence on our society.

Let’s start by acknowledging some facts; we as nationalists are a small group, we are underfunded, we are systematically deplatformed, we are ignored by the media and we are the most oppressed and censored group in the UK. We have the entire force of the political establishment, the security services, the police, the judiciary, the media and numerous liberal, migrant and multicultural groups all trying to stop us. 

We are outnumbered and outgunned. To draw an analogy, we are like the Vietcong going up against the might of the American military – except maybe worse. As such, a full-frontal assault via conventional electoral means would be a complete waste of money and resources; it would be political suicide – and there are numerous historical examples that prove this. In fact, even before the rise of Reform UK, the electoral successes of nationalist parties are at best, a footnote in British politics.

We must find ways to advocate for our people that are cost effective, that can level the playing field and that allow us to manoeuvre into positions where we can concentrate pressure where the establishment is at its weakest.

In order to strengthen our position, grow our numbers, educate the public, drag political discourse in our direction – and of course empower our people, there is so much we can do, and here are some examples:
I will start with Patriotic Alternative, the organisation that I represent. We believe in community building first. We have built a nationwide nationalist community which has led protests around the country that have resulted in the closure of asylum seeker centres and the cancellation of drag queen story hour events. This shows how a relatively small group can make a big difference and actually protect our communities that are under threat.

Our activities represent an important part of our fight for indigenous rights, what’s more, they show we can have an immediate effect on the lives of people who face an imminent threat. Demonstrations are an important part of any struggle for civil rights.

We have amazing activists like the “English Wanderer” – he makes hot food and delivers it to the homeless and vulnerable. These acts make a real difference to the people who need it most. And it’s catching on, a group called UK Pantry is now growing its own food to help feed those in need. Another important part of our work to build a community and fight for White rights is protecting and aiding those who are most in need. Charitable work is, again, an important part of the struggle for civil rights.

The Workers of England Union provides legal advocacy; they won a landmark case for a lady who was sacked for refusing to a wear a mask during Covid. They have also protected the rights of ethno-nationalists in the workplace. I myself have assisted in several of these employment cases – the left has always been very good at this, protecting the rights and freedoms of those with whom they are politically aligned. We as nationalists have historically ignored this struggle, yet it is again, an important part of the struggle for the rights and freedoms of our people – and it’s something that makes a real and tangible difference, helping those in immediate need and setting important legal precedents.

The Woodlander Trust is a fantastic initiative that allows nationalists to pool their money in order to purchase land and property, so now we have places to meet, camp and socialise. This is a long term plan that will hopefully catch on and turn into the establishment of indigenous heartlands; places for our people. Take a moment to think what could have been achieved with the millions of pounds that parties like the BNP and NF threw into fruitless general election campaigns that never once returned a single candidate to Parliament. Imagine if that money had been used to buy up property and land.

We need social media influencers like Keith Woods; people who have spread our message and gained the ear of men like Elon Musk – this, along with pressure from us all has shifted the Overton Window, forcing other groups to adopt our talking points and taking our message mainstream. This has again borne fruit, with Elon Musk using his sizeable platform to call for our rights and freedoms during the recent tyrannical clampdown on our right to protest and use social media.

We are building an alternative media network. UNN, Red Ice and TRS all produce regular compelling broadcasting in the form of shows and podcasts. Citizen journalists like Steve Laws document what is really happening on our southern shores and bloggers like “Morgoth” write thought-provoking ideological pieces that entertain and inform. In the past, nationalists have not had an outlet for their news, views and opinions; we now have regular weekly and even daily shows. The opinions spread by these shows have helped wake up millions and have in some cases had more views than mainstream TV shows on the BBC.

All these ideas – and many more – are part of the fight for White civil rights, a fight that no one else is engaged in, and a fight that no one else will engage in, but a fight that is possibly the most important fight we can engage in.

We as ethno-nationalists are now an outsider group and we advocate for a group, the White British, who are effectively treated as second class citizens. We must expose the system for its tyrannical anti-White nature, we must expose the fact that White people are treated as the lower class in a two-tier system and we must assume the role of the plucky underdog that fights for the underclass against their oppressors. 

And not only can we do this, but more people can be involved in this fight than will ever choose to be involved in electoral politics. More people can sign a petition, more people can take part in a letter writing campaign, more people can be involved in many of the endeavours I have listed previously, and more people can be inspired by a multi-faceted approach than will ever be inspired by taking 0.5% cent in a by-election.

We must re-evaluate the way nationalism works in order to build alternative structures that allow us to break away and shield ourselves from the anti-White system. We must build our own local communities, our own media; we must buy land, acquire property; if we do engage in politics, it must be done from the bottom up, from within ethnically homogenous nationalist heartlands and it must be done through genuine community politics, where we advocate for the rights and wellbeing of our people.

I am not totally against fighting elections under an ethno-nationalist banner. However, this should only be done when it is expedient to do so – on a very small, local level and only when the conditions are right and we are not splitting the vote. But throwing millions – or even thousands – of pounds into fruitless general election campaigns has never worked, and I can cite many examples of this, as can any seasoned nationalist. 

The last few weeks has shown us the real face of modern Britain: we live in a country where White girls can be butchered, a man of Rwandan descent is arrested on suspicion of their murders and the government response is to provide more protections for ethnic minority groups, whilst simultaneously taking away the right of protest and freedom of speech of justifiably angry Britons.This presents a genuine and viable struggle for British ethno-nationalists, one that involves both a fight for civil rights, but also a drive to build a powerful ethno-centric community that can advocate robustly for the rights of our people. 

This is a new way forward, but if we are to survive in a country where we are increasingly a minority with fewer and fewer rights, we need a new way forward. Doing the same old thing again and again under a different name and with a new logo will only achieve the same disappointing results and end in the same failures we have endured for decades.Every other ethnic group has the institutions, community groups, media outlets, charities and cultural centres that I have advocated for in this article. Those other ethnic groups behave as one – largely because they are bound together by the means that I have outlined. And from that community and when acting as a community these other ethnic groups wield power.

Conversely, White Britons have become atomised individuals – a process we must reverse.
The time is short for our folk, and if we are to weather the coming storm, we must think like every other ethnic group and act with in-group preference – but in order to do that we first must bring our people together as one. Why should we as White people be any different from any other group, why should we be second class citizens, why should we have fewer rights and always be the ones who have to settle for the crumbs from the table? It’s time to dust off the cry of ‘rights for Whites’ and build the communities necessary for our ethnic survival.

Mark Collett, Leeds, West Yorkshire

Editor’s note: H&D readers wishing to find out more about PA should write to: Patriotic Alternative, P.O. Box 275, Pudsey, West Yorkshire, LS28 0FQ. Or check out their website at: www.patrioticalternative.org.uk