Justin Barrett gets a hand from UCD's L&H to organise

dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Tuesday October 12, 2004 17:00 by Joe

Far right nut case Justin Barrett is to speak in UCD tomorrow night as a guest of the L&H debating society. Yet even the Sunday Times describes " his intellectual influences as ... thinkers whose economic corporatism and racial separation concepts are central to the ideology of the International Third Position fascist network" [Sunday Times - 18th May 2003]

Barrett is even too much for anti-migrant nut Aine Ni Chonaill (also speaking) who on hearing of his plan to set up his own party said "Barrett was associated with the Catholic right and clearly had a wider agenda than just immigration." According to the Irish Times (17th May 2002) that wider agenda includes the deportation of Irish protestants as the "only solution" for northern Ireland, otherwise predicting that "Ireland may well lament in blood". He also "claimed that parliamentary government was "foreign" to Irish people and unsuited to their needs"

His book also reveals the traditional far right hatred of the left when he claims ""The refugee advocates are, almost to a man and woman, the abortion advocates, the contraception advocates, the Europhiles, the anti-Catholic bigots. In other words the whole rotten cabal of the left." [Irish News - 20th May 2003] This is partly a reference to the time of the X-Case when anti-choice bigots attacked pro-choice demonstrations with hurleys. A "Irish Sunday Mirror investigation found that links between Barrett's Youth Defence group and the European far right have existed for years" [Sunday Mirror (Irish Edition)- 29th September 2002]

The same article reveals that "One of Youth Defence's founders shared a flat with the lead singer of the Nazi rock band Celtic Dawn in the early 1990s. During this period, members of Youth Defence also contributed articles to the National Front/International Third Position magazine Candour. " And that "Youth Defence's relationship with the European extreme right has also been cemented by the visit of a group of Forza Nuova students, to Ireland last year to 'study' with Youth Defence."

According to the Sunday mirror "The Forza Nuova party has a membership which like to wear fascist uniforms and give Nazi-style salutes. The shadowy multi-millionaire former terrorist Roberto Fiore leads it. Fiore only returned to Italy in 1997, having fled to London in 1980 after the Bologna railway station bombing which claimed the lives of 85 people. He ran the Armed Revolutionary Nuclei organisation, two of whose members were found guilty of the bombing.

"Barrett shared a platform with Fiore at a rally of flag-waving Italian fascists at the Hotel Miramar on July 21st 2001 in the Italian city of Civitanova. At the rally, Barrett and Mario Di Giovanni, Youth Defence's representative in Italy, and their fascist colleagues voiced their support for Catholic fundamentalist revolution ...Two of the group's members were found guilty of bombing a left-wing paper in 2001"

Barretts links with the European far right were first (rather cynically) brought to light during the second Nice referendum. Back then he pretended to be unaware that the meetings he had attended were neo-Nazi ones. But the Irish Times got hold of the video of the Passau rally at which "40 people were arrested due to violent activity and the meeting was in a hall built by the Nazis for SS rallies. Also present at the event were representatives of the Spanish fascists, Forza Nuova and Irish-based Derek Holland, leader of the English Third Position. "

The Irish Times report (11th October 2002) describes how "The conference opens with a fanfare as a group of brown-shirted men walk through the hall bearing the red, white and black NPD party flag" and how "Anti-semitic speeches are peppered with quotes from Adolf Hitler. There are claims that "Germany was the biggest victim of the second World War". Hundreds of skinheads give standing ovations to elderly Nazis."

One of the youth organisers of the NPD (which the German authorities say has "Nazi characteristics") rather dimmly spoke to the Irish Times enabling them to reveal that Barrett "has a long-standing relationship with the party's youth organisation, the Young National Democrats (JN), a recruiting ground for the NPD. Mr Sascha Rossmüller, leader of JN, said he had been in contact with Mr Barrett "for several years". Youth Defence "shares many important interests" with the JN and is "an important part of our international network", said Mr Rossmüller.

"Other organisations in the network include the National Front in Britain and Italy's extremist group, Forza Nuova" "According to its own documents, the [JN] group models itself "singularly and solely on the Wehrmacht and the soldiers of the Waffen-SS"."

Obviously the students of the L&H decided it was a great prank to give Barrett a platform to organise from. This despite the fact that Ireland is seeing a wave of physical attacks on migrants and that racist pranks in UCD student papers have been followed by racist attacks there.

Barrett has openly admitted to the Irish News he wants to build to set up a ""national opposition group" against immigration" [20th May 2003]. The policies he has sketched out in ‘The National Way Forward’ are the same as those of fascist groups elsewhere and it shown above he "has a long-standing relationship" with at least some of those groups. And on fascist web sites like Stormfront his UCD engagement has already generated excited discussion amongst self declared Barrett fans.

I understand that UCD students and workers are discussing what to do tomorrow in opposition to Barrett. They would surely welcome solidarity from anyone outside the campus. So if you reckon giving Barrett a platform to organise from is mistake why not join them tomorrow night. The No 10 bus runs from the North Circular through the City Centre to UCD It's terminus is about 5 minutes walk from where this meeting is to take place. The meeting is due to start at 7pm Weds 13 Oct, be sure to arrive a good bit earlier so you can make your voice heard.

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The media reports referenced in this article are archived on the Irish Anti Fascist Action web site to be found at http://www.geocities.com/irishafa/