British People Fear Fascism Is Spreading across the World in Wake of Donald Trump Victory, Poll Finds

THE INDEPENDENT: Exclusive: study shows half of Britons believe fascist views are on the rise in the US, UK and Europe

A deep-seated fear of the rise of global fascism has taken hold of the British public in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory, Brexit and the spectre of the far-right in mainland Europe, an exclusive survey for The Independent has revealed. » | Joe Watts, Political Editor | Saturday, Deceember 31, 2016

Billy Briggs –The Far Right Is On the March Again: The Rise of Fascism in Austria
MAILOnline: In Austria's recent general election, nearly 30 per cent of voters backed extremist right-wing parties. Live visits the birthplace of Hitler to investigate how Fascism is once again threatening to erupt across Europe.

Former Waffen SS officer and unrepentant Nazi Herbert Schweiger. Photo courtesy of the Mail Online
Beneath a leaden sky the solemn, black-clad crowd moves slowly towards a modest grey headstone. At one end 
of the grave, a flame casts light on the black lettering that is engraved on the marble. At the other end, an elderly soldier bends down to place flowers before standing to salute.

From all over Austria, people are here to pay their respects to their fallen hero. But the solemnity of the occasion is cut with tension. Beyond the crowd of about 300, armed police are in attendance. They keep a respectful distance but the rasping bark of Alsatians hidden in vans provides an eerie soundtrack as the crowd congregates in mist and light rain.

We’ve been warned that despite a heavy police presence journalists have often been attacked at these meetings. If trouble does come then the mob look ready to fight. There are bull-necked stewards and young men who swagger aggressively.

This is a neo-Nazi gathering and in the crowd are some of Austria’s most hard-faced fascists. Among them is Gottfried Kussel, a notorious thug who was the showman of Austria’s far-right movement in the Eighties and Nineties until he was imprisoned for eight years for promoting Nazi ideology.

Today he cuts a Don Corleone figure as he stands defiantly at the graveside. His neo-Nazi acolytes make sure no one comes near him and our photographer is unceremoniously barged out of his way.

Ominous-looking men with scars across their faces whisper to each other and shake hands. These are members of Austria’s Burschenschaften, an arcane, secretive organisation best known for its fascination with fencing, an initiation ceremony that includes a duel in which the opponents cut each other’s faces, and for its strong links to the far right.

Incredibly, standing shoulder to shoulder with these hard-line Nazi sympathisers are well known Austrian politicians. At the graveside, a speech is made by Lutz Weinzinger, a leading member of Austria’s Freedom Party (FPO)[sic], who pays tribute to the fallen. 

This is a gathering in memory of an Austrian-born Nazi fighter pilot, who during WWII shot down 258 planes, 255 of them Russian. Such was Major Walter Nowotny’s standing at the time of his death in 1944 that the Nazi Party awarded him a grave of honour in Vienna’s largest cemetery, close to the musical legends Mozart, Brahms and Strauss.

But in 2005 that honour was revoked and his body moved to lie in an area of public graves. The decision infuriated the far right and made their annual pilgrimage an even greater event.

Today, the anniversary of Nowotny’s death, also coincides with Kristallnacht, the ‘night of broken glass’ in 1938 when 92 people were murdered and thousands attacked across Germany as stormtroopers set upon Jews in an outpouring of Nazi violence.

Some 70 years on from that infamous pogrom, the world faces a similar financial crisis to the one that precipitated the rise of Hitler and, in chilling echoes of Thirties Europe, support for far-right groups is exploding. Hitler’s birthplace has become the focus for neo-Nazis across the world.

And so I [Billy Briggs] have come to Austria to investigate how Fascism and extremism are moving, unchecked, into the forefront of its society. >>> Billy Briggs | Saturday, March 14, 2009

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Ed Balls: Minister Fears Rise of Fascism Amid Economic Gloom
Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
The economic crisis could spark a resurgence in the Far Right, a close ally of Gordon Brown has suggested.

Ed Balls, the Children's and Schools Secretary, said the downturn was likely to be the most serious for 100 years, and his comments appeared to raise the prospect of a return to the Far Right politics of the 1930s and the rise of Facism.

His warning, in a speech to activists at the weekend, came after a trade union baron warned that far right parties were trying to hijack the campaign for "British jobs for British workers".

The row over foreign workers has gathered momentum in recent weeks and Mr Balls seemed to suggest the recession could trigger a return to the Far Right politics that prospered in the Great Depression of the 1930s.

He told Labour's Yorkshire conference: "The economy is going to define our politics in this region and in Britain in the next year, the next five years, the next 10 and even the next 15 years.

"I think that this is a financial crisis more extreme and more serious than that of the 1930s and we all remember how the politics of that era were shaped by the economy."

The remarks are significant because Mr Balls was a key adviser to Mr Brown during his decade at the Treasury as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Mr Balls said that he believed this to be "the most serious global recession for over 100 years".

He said: "We now are seeing the realities of globalisation, though at a speed, pace and ferocity which none of us have seen before. The reality is that this is becoming the most serious global recession for, I'm sure, over 100 years as it will turn out."

Last week Derek Simpson, the general secretary of Unite, gave warning that far right elements were hijacking a campaign against foreign firms bringing in non-British workers.

He said: "We are deeply concerned that other organisations like the BNP are latching onto the movement for their own racist agenda." >>> By Christopher Hope, Whitehall Editor | Tuesday, February 10, 2009

THE INDEPENDENT: 'This Is the Worst Recession for Over 100 Years'

Ed Balls, the PM's closest ally, warns that downturn is ferocious and says impact will last 15 years

Britain is facing its worst financial crisis for more than a century, surpassing even the Great Depression of the 1930s, one of Gordon Brown's most senior ministers and confidants has admitted.

In an extraordinary admission about the severity of the economic downturn, Ed Balls even predicted that its effects would still be felt 15 years from now. The Schools Secretary's comments carry added weight because he is a former chief economic adviser to the Treasury and regarded as one of the Prime Ministers's closest allies.

Mr Balls said yesterday: "The reality is that this is becoming the most serious global recession for, I'm sure, over 100 years, as it will turn out."

He warned that events worldwide were moving at a "speed, pace and ferocity which none of us have seen before" and banks were losing cash on a "scale that nobody believed possible".

The minister stunned his audience at a Labour conference in Yorkshire by forecasting that times could be tougher than in the depression of the 1930s, when male unemployment in some cities reached 70 per cent. He also appeared to hint that the recession could play into the hands of the far right. >>> By Nigel Morris, Deputy Political Editor, and Sean O'Grady, Economics Editor | Tuesday, February 10, 2009

BNP: And What Does the ‘Far-right’ Have to Say about the Financial Crisis?


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