Sunday, 8 June 2014

The extreme right-wing organisation boasts it is 'more radical than the BNP' and is targeting students and universities in the UK to spread its message of hate









John Gladwin / Sunday Mirror
Message of hate: National Action in Liverpool

The Sunday Mirror today exposes the ugly face of a dangerous far-right group hellbent on spreading race hate across Britain.

And we can reveal anti-terror police are monitoring several members of the National Action group, which on Saturday held a demo at a city centre train station.

Our probe unmasks Hitler fanatic Benjamin Raymond as a leader of National Action – an organisation riding a tide of support for ultra right-wing parties in Europe.

In one internet post, the 25-year-old spells out his vile beliefs writing: “There are non-whites and Jews in my country who all need to be exterminated. As a teenager, Mein Kampf changed my life. I am not ashamed to say I love Hitler.”

Particularly worrying to security services, is Raymond’s and fellow leader Alex Davies’ deliberate targeting of young and vulnerable students as potential new recruits over the past year.

National Action posters have been found at a dozen UK universities.

On Saturday, Davies, 19, led the demo outside Lime Street station in Liverpool.

Supported by about 20 members grasping banners and flags, he spat: “We’re like the BNP but more radical.”

Much of his – at times incoherent – speech over a megaphone attacked globalisation and banks.

After barracking from angry members of the public, the mood darkened and a dozen police officers ordered him to stop and moved the group on.

He and the group then handed out National Action leaflets which read: “Cleanse Britain of parasites. The white man is on the march – white power.”

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Raymond and Davies are seen as dangerous fanatics who admit they are ready to use extreme means to “rid the UK of Jews and non-whites”.

Benjamin Raymond
Spreading hate: Benjamin Raymond has issued a stream of right wing rants on social media

Scotland Yard’s anti-terror squad fears the spreading of their extreme vitriol threatens to undermine national security.

One spook source admitted the pair’s actions left them “very concerned”.

And Gerry Gable, editor of anti-fascist publication Searchlight, revealed: “I worry about National Action because they have much more going for them than the BNP or National Front could ever produce, touring universities and education establishments.”

Former Labour Europe minister​ and long-time campaigner against anti-Semitism, Denis MacShane, said: “This Sunday Mirror investigation is a wake-up call to those who think anti-Semitism doesn’t exist on university campuses.”

Davies is fiercely protective of his true identity, but after weeks of exchanging emails our investigator – posing as an anti-Semitic student interested in joining up – spoke to him on Skype on Friday.

Davies told us: “I don’t want to say what I’d like to do to Jews – it’s too extreme.”

Disturbingly, he claims he is even ready to go to jail for his warped beliefs, saying: “If we can stay out of prison we will.

“But you have to consider race-hate laws. They’re quite ambiguous, so it is possible some of us would go to prison. But we’re prepared for that.”

He has also called for a return of the notorious Section 28 legislation that banned the “promotion” of homosexuality in schools.

National Action’s slick website is openly racist with anti-Semitic imagery and lengthy quotations by Adolf Hitler. Its motto is “For a Free White Britain”. The site insists on Fight Club-style rules, telling members: “You do not talk about National Action. Keeping your mouth shut is a valuable life skill.”

Benjamin Raymond
Nazi salute: Benjamin Raymond, right, next to a statue of Nelson Mandela defaced with a banana

It goes on: “To be on our side, a nationalist must be openly racist and openly anti-Semitic. There is no legitimate reason to not be a racist or an anti-Semite in 2014. The battlefield today is race.”

It adds: “Public displays of white defiance against the multi-racial society are important in galvanizing people to action.”

National Action also heaps praise on mass killer Anders Breivik, who murdered 87 people in Norway in 2011, and Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, who killed 168 people in 1995.

New recruits are carefully vetted before being accepted into the party, which has an estimated membership of about 60 nationwide.

Despite hiding behind elaborate aliases and false online identities, we found a hate-filled Facebook profile of Raymond, who lives with his parents in Bognor Regis, West Sussex.

The former double-glazing salesman, who graduated with a politics degree from Essex University last year – posted three weeks ago on starvation in Zimbabwe: “This is good news. More dead n******”.

And writing about the US court case over the shooting of innocent black youth Treyvon Martin by a neighbour in Florida, he posted excitedly: “It’s now legal to kill n******!! They are all out and armed. Shoot them on sight!”

When we spoke to Davies – whose unsuspecting family live in Swansea – his replies were sent over a server at Warwick University, where he is in his first year studying philosophy.

Last night a university spokesman pledged to investigate our findings and added: “Any such allegations are taken seriously and we will look at them.”

Davies, speaking to us from his student digs in Coventry, West Mids, said he had joined Young BNP at 16 but found it in “disarray”. He explained: “That’s why I decided to form National Action.

“We’re targeting universities regularly. That’s something the BNP never had. We’ve built something in a few months the BNP didn’t have in 20 years.”

John Gladwin / Sunday MirrorAlex Davies
Leader: Alex Davies rallies his member

National Action members try to spread their hate-filled views on far-right web forums, by putting up neo-Nazi posters and leafleting in student unions.

They recently demonstrated at Nelson Mandela’s statue in London, draped a banner with the slogan “Anti-Racist is a Codeword for Anti-White” over a bridge in Birmingham and held a placard-waving “flash mob” in Coventry.

Photos and videos are then posted online. Disturbingly, the group also told student newspaper The National Student this year would “be a reign of terror”.

Last night – after we shared the results of our investigation with the Met’s anti-terror unit – Scotland Yard said: “We cannot discuss details of individuals or organisations that may or may not be the subject of an investigation.”

Anti-extremist action group Stand For Peace boss Sam Westrop said: “Universities will struggle to get to grips effectively with these people. The Sunday Mirror should be given great credit for exposing them.”

Labour MP Ian Austin, whose adoptive father fled to Britain from Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Holocaust, contrasted National Action members with the young men who took part in the D-Day landings in 1944.

He said: “Seventy years ago, British heroes were fighting to liberate Europe from the scourge of Nazis and fascism. It’s absolutely disgusting to see young British people praise Hitler today.”

When confronted last night, Davies said: “I’m not concerned what your readers think about me. All you should know is that we aren’t going to stop.”

Raymond said: “Wicked.”

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