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Fascists to rally at Stella Natura Festival September 20-22nd in Soda Springs, CA!
This coming September 20th-22nd, the music festival Stella Natura will be taking place in Tahoe National Forest in Northern California. This festival is a project of Adam Torruella of the Pesanta Urfolk label and distro, and it is the third year it will take place. A three day long music festival in the woods which serves as a meeting ground for people seeking to reconnect to the land and form community seems innocent enough. However when certain individuals seek to build this event on a foundation of white nationalist propaganda and promote an extremely racist agenda, it is a call to action for all who consider themselves opposed to white supremacy. The information following was compiled with the intent of exposing these individuals for who and what they are, no longer allowing them to exploit music scenes and spirituality as they seek to hide their true colors.
This coming September 20th-22nd, the music festival Stella Natura will be taking place in Tahoe National Forest in Northern California. This festival is a project of Adam Torruella of the Pesanta Urfolk label and distro, and it is the third year it will take place. A three day long music festival in the woods which serves as a meeting ground for people seeking to reconnect to the land and form community seems innocent enough. However when certain individuals seek to build this event on a foundation of white nationalist propaganda and promote an extremely racist agenda, it is a call to action for all who consider themselves opposed to white supremacy. The information following was compiled with the intent of exposing these individuals for who and what they are, no longer allowing them to exploit music scenes and spirituality as they seek to hide their true colors.
Asatru Folk Assembly (AFA) is the first listed sponsor for the festival. Asatru is a pagan spirituality focused on the revival of Norse gods and mythology, and it has unfortunately been filled with deep associations with various fascist organizations. The Southern Poverty Law Center have written a concise and highly recommended article on dubious figures within Asatru, in which they explain: “Odinism, which is closely related to Asatrú, was much favored in Nazi Germany. Its Nordic/Teutonic mythology was a bedrock belief for key Third Reich leaders, and it was an integral part of the initiation rites and cosmology of the elite Schutzstaffel (SS), which supervised Adolf Hitler's network of death camps. Decades later, Odinism also influenced George Lincoln Rockwell's American Nazi Party” (1). SPLC go on to describe how this spirituality has gained a great deal of popularity with violent white supremacists over the last few decades. The AFA was founded in the mid-1990s by Stephen McNallen out of concern that other Asatru organizations had lost focus on promoting the Asatru faith as inherently tied to the white race. At least one of AFA's leaders has ties to white supremacist organizations, claiming former standing as a state-level organizer for the SS Action Group and links to a violent neo-Nazi skinhead gang. “'I'm a white racist and proud of it," he told a reporter while posing in a Nazi uniform in 1992. ' (1)”. AFA was a sponsor of Stella Natura last year with McNallen appeared on stage to perform a ritual as a guest of the band Changes, and they remain a sponsor this year. (2)(3).
Some of McNallen's white supremacist ideologies can be seen in his theorizing on migration and border politics. In an article entitled 'Wotan vs. Tezcatlipoca: The Spiritual War for California and the Southwest', McNallen refers to the increasing Latin population of the border states of America as a “tide of cultural and demographic conquest” that white Americans must resist rather than “accept our marginalization quietly” (4). He voices that he feels the needs to “fight for my people and my culture against all odds”, and calls for white people to “stand by your kin and your culture” in states he describes as “overwhelmed with illegal immigrants”. He perceives this as a realm of spiritual war, in which Norse gods must conquer Mayan gods. He closes the article by arguing that “We must sink down roots in the soil, and insist on our right to be here... European-descended peoples, true to their ancestral ways, are here to stay. Our forebears fought and died to carve out this place in the world, and we will not give it up.”
In a 2010 piece by McNallen, entitled 'A down and dirty breakdown of the 'browning of America'', he decries the decreasing percentage of America's white population as a sign that “our political and cultural clout will evaporate to a thin wisp of what it is today”, and follows with the absurd claim that “European Americans face minority status, then marginalization, and eventually extinction” (5). He states that “Illegal immigration on the present scale is a form of conquest” an “invasion” that can be “stopped and even reversed almost at once” as it is “ being carried out by identifiable people and parties”. He lists clear political aims for his racist agenda:
“First, the border must be secured. Contrary to liberal opinion, this can be done. I will not analyze the mechanics of this task, but a brainstormed list of options would include diplomatic punishment of Mexico for its role in encouraging migration, sanctions against employers of illegal aliens to include mandatory prison time, a physical wall (built by illegal aliens from our prison system), high-tech surveillance devices, and imprisonment with hard labor for individuals violating our territorial sovereignty. Until we are willing to take these measures, we are not serious about closing the border. Second, it must be clear that no amnesty of illegal aliens, wholesale or piecemeal, in general or in particular, is acceptable. Third, all illegal aliens must be deported and denied legal entry at any time in the future. Because of the logistical complexities involved, deportation could take the form of a “phased withdrawal,” just as troops are pulled out of a war zone when a peace treaty is concluded. This mass deportation should be carried out as humanely as possible, but it absolutely must be done. Fourth, legal immigration must be reformed. We need a temporary moratorium on all immigration, followed by the dismantling of the Immigration Act of 1965 and a return to the previous system, which favored immigration from Europe.”
Brian Powell, a journalist with Media Matters, did an expose on a white nationalist conference organized by the National Policy Institute (6). The full article can be found in our sources and it is recommended to read through as it provides a good indication of the shapes this form of white nationalist fascism is currently taking. Major themes at this conference were the building of a white ethno-state through the forced migration of people of color, along with claims of white people's supposed inherent biological superiority. Upon meeting several members of the AFA during this conference, the reporter states: "...they expressed frustration with a culture and government that they feel ignores and looks down upon the interests of the white race.... They were relieved that they had finally found a place where they didn't have to 'feel out' the conversation before navigating it into the straits of white supremacy.“ In his response to the Media Matters article, Stephen McNallen merely states: "The AFA will not dictate to its members which meetings they are permitted to attend as private individuals. There are suggestions that we discipline them for the crime of being present in a room where extreme statements seem to have been made. We will not do this. There will be no exposure, no witch-hunt, no apologies, and no reprimands... men and women of European descent have exactly the same right to meet and to promote their collective interests as do any other group. To demonize them for doing this, when every other group is encouraged to do so, is to indulge in a vicious double standard. (7)".
To state that an overtly white supremacist conference which involved proposing plans for white-only ethnostates, modeled on South African apartheid, is a discussion of the "collective interests" of white people provides us with a clear perspective on what the founder of the AFA means when he discusses his vision of promoting the goals of the white race. There are no excuses offered and none should be made on his behalf. On the AFA's webpage, the second goal of the organization is stated to be "The preservation of the Peoples of the North (typified by the Scandinavian/Germanic and Celtic peoples), and the furtherance of their continued evolution... the survival and welfare of the Northern European peoples as a cultural and biological group is a religious imperative for the AFA." (8). This statement by McNallen provides a clear idea of what AFA's purpose and points of unity are intended to denote in the form of practical application sought by its founders. Anti-racists have been intervening in Stephen McNallen's spread of white nationalist propaganda since at least the 1990's, as evidenced by a rather amusing article from a Canadian Holocaust denier organization that hosted him for a lecture and were highly upset by the ARA response they received (9).
Blood Axis / Michael Moynihan
Allowing for the participation of the AFA and McNallen was not the only way in which Stella Natura has provided a platform for racists. Michael Moynihan played at Stella Natura last year with his band Blood Axis, a group well known for their use of Nazi iconography and their high standing in fascist music circles. This year he and his Blood Axis bandmate Annabell (Lee) Moynihan are appearing at the festival as 'special guests' of Ian Read's act, Fire and Ice. Moynihan is a well-known figure among anti-racists for his covert and intellectual ways of promoting fascist politics for decades. He has edited two of Italian fascist philosopher and elite Nazi academic Julius Evola's books for English-language publication, including Evola’s Men Among the Ruins: Post‐War Reflections of a Radical Traditionalist (10). In 1992, Moynihan collected and published the writings of National Socialist James Mason in the book 'SIEGE!' (11). Within these texts, Mason vehemently argues for the need for whites to gain power through armed struggle rather than political means, and applauds individuals for acts such as “Zebra Killings”(the murder of black and white 'mixed' couples). For a better idea of what this work includes, please see the enclosed chapter from Mason's book. Moynihan's aims in spreading fascist propaganda is clear in quotes of his such as: “I’m sick of people saying they’re ‘not political,’ as I think this is a cop‐out… If you’re going to espouse ‘fascist’ ideas, then I believe you have to accept some of the responsibility for their application in the real world; otherwise what is the point of espousing them in the first place?” (12).
Extract from James Masons's Siege!
One of Moynihan's present areas of focus is the editing and publishing of the journal Tyr, which collects pieces on the topics of Germanic paganism and the history of northern European peoples (13). While it does not describe itself as a fascist publication, it reproduces white nationalist and far-right discourse and publishes authors with ties to various fascist and white supremacist currents. One of the original editors and ongoing contributors of Tyr is Colin Cleary, whose political perspective is rather concisely summed up in an article in which he states: "I regard Ásatrú and White Nationalism as so inseparably bound to one another that to espouse Ásatrú while rejecting White Nationalism is to involve oneself in a fatal contradiction (fatal, really, in more than just the logical sense)... Disraeli really was right: 'Race is everything. There is no other truth.' (14)". Joshua Buckley, another editor of Tyr, is a former member of the SS of America (15). He makes a living as one-half of a notoriously shady real estate gentrification project with a long-term business partner, who he is set to inherit the business from, named Sam Dickson. Dickson is an attorney who provided legal services to the Georgia KKK for decades and who sat on the board of The Barnes Review, an academic journal focused on promoting Holocaust denial. Dickson's largest public presence in the last decade has been as a guest speaker at multiple conferences that advocate for militant white nationalism, such as the conference covered by Media Matters.
Robert Taylor is one half of the band Changes, who will be playing for their third time at Stella Natura. The Changes duo returned to the music scene in 1996 after decades of silence thanks to the encouragement and efforts of Taylor's friend Michael Moynihan, who went on to produce and release their next album (16). Robert Taylor describes himself as a “herald... one of the three founders of the [Asatru] movement” within North America, along with Steven McNallen. He describes Asatru as “a religion that is suited for Indo-Europeans because it contains and constitutes all the main features and spirit of how most of us feel inside” (17). Taylor was a founder of the Asatru Alliance along with former American Nazi party member Michael (Valgard) Murray and has a long history of allying with Stephen McNallen in pagan organizing (16). Taylor has a long history of involvement within the radical right and white separatist circles. In an interview with infamous 'national anarchist' and white supremacist political organizer Troy Southgate (39),Taylor outlines his youth involvement in “the most feared white street gang in Chicago at that time” and states that he joined as a “vehicle for fighting” because he “loved the exhilaration of combat”, and that he “never joined gangs so much for the camaraderie or as a group security thing” (16). He states that this environment “certainly brought grassroots social problems into sharp focus” and that “racial tensions flared up frequently”. He describes his participation in a white riot in which thousands of white people mobbed up against a black family that had just moved into the neighborhood he lived in. This mob chanted curses, bombarded the black family's home with bricks, tried to break down the door and then proceeded to fight with the police upon their arrival. He described the experience of being in this mob as “like a minuet movement. A dance of rage”. Taylor recounts that these riots went on for four nights, during which “dummies stuffed with rags and painted with black faces were hung from lamp posts and set ablaze in effigy” and city buses with black drivers were attacked with large chunks of concrete dropped from bridges. He claims that he's sure of the fact that the media did not report on the riots because it would have attracted “people from far and wide to join the mob and riot”. He also outlines a group he organized with other white youth that committed such disgusting acts as responding to black students being brought into a school in his neighborhood by holding a confrontational demonstration at the school which these students were being transferred from, in a black community.
Taylor speaks at length of his involvement with a 1960s right wing paramilitary organization named 'the Minutemen', in which he quickly moved through the ranks from being the principal organizer in the Chicago area to holding the position of national Director of Intelligence, and then becoming national spokesperson while also being the sole editor of their magazine. He describes the activities of the Minutemen as mainly consisting of: infiltrating leftist and communist groups in order to bring police violence against them or sabotaging their activities in other ways, identifying their members, and forming fake anti-war groups to give leftists a bad name in the press. He was a member of a special subgroup that was set up within the organization called the Defence Survival Force, which consisted of about 50-60 people trained in survival skills, killing, expropriation, explosives knowledge and special operational skills. They operated underground and rendezvoused in an organized way to meet in safe-houses and make claymore mines and pipe grenades. He outlines how this group slowly fell apart due to legal matters and how once their resources had dwindled enough and some members were facing incarceration, he used his position as national spokesperson to advise Minutemen groups across the US to organize as local militias rather than as a federation. In Taylor's own words, “The legacy of the Minutemen continues on now in various factions of the revolutionary right. We laid the groundwork, provided the basic concepts and more or less pioneered that movement. It brought a new sophistication of tactics and strategy to the Right” (18).
In 2006, Taylor defends his participation in the race riots by saying that for white working class people, “their job... their home, car and family was about all they had in the world” and that once black families began to move into neighborhoods dominated by white people, these were all threatened (17). He went on to claim that “[i]t was no secret that once blacks predominated in an area, the crime rate would soar and the streets would become dangerous to walk. (17)” Taylor espouses strong feelings about disseminating this viewpoint based on the perception that “white working class ethnics seldom have a spokesman or anyone who writes or speaks on their behalf. They are simply the dispossessed majority”. It is also very interesting to note that in this later interview, Taylor attempts to justify his participation in this riot, yet offers up no toned-down explanation of his prolonged and active organizing within the Minutemen. Taylor has gone on record stating that he sees the infamous and long-running white supremacist organization Aryan Nations and similar groups as representing “love and loyalty to one's race as opposed to geographical boundaries” (17).
Fire And Ice, one of the headliners of Stella Natura, is a band founded and fronted by Ian Read. Read is well known for his work with bands Current 93, Sol Invictis, and Death in June, whom he provided vocals for in their rendition of 'Horst Wessel Lied', the anthem of the German National Socialists on the Brown Book album (banned in Germany for supporting fascism) (19). He also played with the openly neo-nazi group Above the Ruins, whose name is derived from the writings of Evola and who contributed to the National Front's benefit album No Surrender Vol 1, alongside bands such as Screwdriver(20)(21). Read has also led militant security teams for both Holocaust denier and anti-Semite Michele Renouf and editor of far-right magazine Michael Walker (22). Michael Walker was one of the individuals who safe-housed a notorious Italian fascist, on the run from the police after having a large quantity of explosives and weapons found in his organization's office (23) (24). He was also exposed as an organizer of the Iona organization's Nazi street fighters in the 1997 article 'Rocking for Satan' by the antifascist Magazine Searchlight (22). One of Read's closest collaborators has been Tony Wakeford (Death in June, Sol Invictis, Above the Ruins), a member of the National Front who has also been a key figure within occult-fascist music (20). Wakeford's work within Above the Ruins and overt Nazism was too much for Death in June's Douglas Pierce, eventually causing Wakeford to split from the group and form Sol Invictis with Read (22). He was also heavily involved with Read in the IONA fascist group (22). Ian Read was also a member of the band While Angels Watch, which worked with British fascist advocate and organizer Troy Southgate (20).
Die Weisse Rose
Die Weisse Rose is another band slated to play at Stella Natura. This Danish band is the project of Thomas Bøjden and whichever friends he asks to join him in performances (25). These friends include people such as Gerhard Petak, the man who records his music as Allerseelen. Petak has released tribute albums to the Iron Guard, a profoundly violent Romanian fascist occultist party guilty of such horrific massacres that the Nazis had to urge them to practice restraint (10) (26). Petak celebrates and claims great influence from Evola, as well as Karl Maria Wiligut and the Ahnenerbe (the occultist wing of the Third Reich), and bases a large part of his music and imagery in direct references to the Nazi regime (10). Another of Bøjden's guest collaborators was Marco Deplano of Italian fascist band Foresta di Ferro, who have contributed songs to tribute albums for the leader of the Iron Guard (26). Bøjden has performed as a guest with Foresto di Ferro, Allerseelen and Blood Axis (27). About his collaborations with these fascist musicians, Bøjden states that they are “musicians that I truly admire and respect for their individual projects and their contribution to Die Weisse Rose" (25). Die Weisse Rose utilize sound collages, videos, and the wearing of Nazi Brownshirt uniforms in their performances, which Bøjden claims is merely for artistic purposes. Die Weisse Rose were selected by Douglas Pierce to accompany Death in June's farewell tour in 2012 and Bøjden describes Douglas Pierce as “a very wonderful and very inspiring person”, stating that Death in June had been formative in every aspect of his life for decades (25). Included is an image of Bøjden posing affectionately with Tony Wakeford.
Tony Wakeford and Thomas Bøjden
Another band on Stella Natura's 2013 lineup is Waldteufel, the project of Markus Wolff. Wolff was a founding member of Blood Axis and has collaborated with Michael Moynihan frequently (28) (10). Wolff has contributed writings on nationalist German authors and paganism to publication such as Tyr, and also helped Moynihan release English editions of Evola's works (10). He is the current staff editor and contributing artist and writer for Hex magazine, another sponsor of Stella Natura (29). Hex magazine has published works by Gerhard Petak in several issues, and promoted Allerseelen's recent West Coast tour ( 10), with Waldteufel playing a date on this tour. Hell and Dispirit, two other band appearing at Stella Natura, also played on the same tour despite agitation and information spread by the Rose City Antifa and actions against their shows by antifascists in Europe (30).
Yet another dubious act on Stella Natura's lineup for 2013 is Of the Wand and the Moon, the one-man project of Kim Larsen, which has issued a split album with Ian Read and Tony Wakeford's Sol Invictus (31). OTWATM also appeared on a compilation entitled 'Looking for Europe', which bears an iron cross on the cover and features essentially every high profile fascist or fascist sympathizer band in the neofolk scene, such as Blood Axis, Boyd Rice/ NON, Allerseelen, Changes and Death in June (32). Kim Larsen has been criticized by German antifa groups for posing for photos (33) wearing the Lebensrune, a Norse symbol that was used during the Nazi regime in place of the 'date of birth' label on paperwork. It was also the symbol of the SS Lebensborn and modern neo-Nazi organizations such as the German Heathens' Front (34). The German Heathens' Front is a racialist Asatru organization formed by a well-known neo-Nazi and is infamous for their virulent anti-Semitism and allegiance to the ideas of David Lane (35). This is not to claim that the use and revival of runes is inherently problematic, but merely that to wear a rune that has been so deeply associated with various fascist organizations without any critique or anti-fascist analysis is a heavily loaded action. In an interview with an online fanzine, Larsen names his biggest musical influences as “Death in June, but also bands as NON, Der Blutharsch, Current 93, Fire and Ice, Blood Axis etc.”, all bands that have racist tendencies and associations (36). In another interview in which he was asked the same question, he lists the same bands but adds Sol Invictus to the list (37). Larsen has also appeared as a guest in Die Weisse Rose's performances (25).
It is necessary to acknowledge that while many Asatru practitioners or fans of neofolk/industrial/black metal are well-intentioned music fans, many others involved in these scenes are actively promoting fascist ideas in order to normalize these tendencies. As outlined in Anton Shekhovstov's brilliant essay on the topic, which is highly recommended when approaching this subject,(38) this course is charted out within the post-WWII writings of Alain de Benoist and Julius Evola. These authors argued for fascists to retreat from active politics into the realm of culture until the time was right to begin recruiting for future fascist political movements. This form of 'metapolitical' fascism manifests in subcultural scenes focused on music or spirituality with their accompanying record labels, distros and spiritual organizations, as well as through networks of journals, publishing houses, conferences and think tanks. Neofolk as a musical subculture has always held an intellectual and elitist attitude that is eager to feign disassociation with more overt white supremacists, but this must be seen as what it is: part of a coherent and deliberate strategy to disseminate their unpopular ideas without risking immediate anti-fascist responses.The presence of fascists and white nationalists at Stella Natura is not an accident, but a planned infiltration; a co-opting of spirituality, heritage and music to suit their personal agenda. Opposition to this must come from within the scenes they seek to convert, and from the potential recruits they hope to gain.
Sources:
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/1998/winter/the-new-barbarians
http://moremusic.typepad.com/blog/2012/10/stella-natura-the-light-of-ancestral-fires-tahoe-national-forest-921-22-and-23.html
https://www.facebook.com/Asatru.Folk.Assembly/posts/397387126994569
http://www.runestone.org/about-asatru/articles-a-essays/150-wotan-vs-tezcatlipoca-the-spiritual-war-for-california-and-the-southwest.html
http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=8699
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2011/09/19/the-supremacy-cause-inside-the-white-nationalis/181599
http://asatruupdate.blogspot.com/2011/09/response-to-recent-defamation.html
http://www.runestone.org/about-the-afa/declaration-of-purpose.html
http://www.canadianfreespeech.com/cafe/battles-for-freedom/17-battles-for-freedom/87-anti-racist-action-attacks-cafe-meeting-in-toronto
http://www.whomakesthenazis.com/2010/12/rose-city-anti-fascists-austrian.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_%28book%29
Coogan, Kevin, “How Black is Black Metal? Michael Moynihan, Lords of Chaos and the ‘Countercultural Fascist’ Underground,” Hit List Vol. 1 No. 1 (February / March 1999), 32‐49, 45., found on http://www.whomakesthenazis.com/2010/12/rose-city-anti-fascists-austrian.html
http://www.radicaltraditionalist.com/tyr.htm
http://www.counter-currents.com/2012/10/asatru-and-the-political/
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2006/fall/how-sam-dickson-got-rich?page=0,1
http://web.archive.org/web/20040718041710re_/http://www.national-anarchist.org/articles/INTERVIEWTaylor1.htm
http://www.chroniclesofchaos.com/articles/chats/1-922_changes.aspx
http://www.stigmata.name/ch2.php
http://www.counter-currents.com/2011/10/odinns-skald/
http://www.whomakesthenazis.com/2011/03/piss-poor-poet-found-in-dustbin-of.html
http://www.whomakesthenazis.com/2010/10/rock-against-communism-roots-of-sol.html
http://www.stewarthomesociety.org/wakeford.html
http://datacide.c8.com/from-subculture-to-hegemony-transversal-strategies-of-the-new-right-in-neofolk-and-martial-industrial/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Fiore
http://santasangremagazine.wordpress.com/2012/10/28/gesamtkunstwerke-interview-with-die-weisse-rose-eng/
.http://www.discogs.com/Various-Codreanu-Eine-Erinnerung-An-Den-Kampf/master/488
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Die+Weisse+Rose
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markus_Wolff
http://hexmagazine.com/hex-folk/hex-staff/
http://rosecityantifa.weebly.com/1/post/2010/12/allerseelen-on-tour-austrian-far-right-musical-project-on-west-coast-tour-playing-support-to-northwest-heavy-metal-act.html
http://www.discogs.com/artist/%3AOf+The+Wand+%26+The+Moon%3A#t=Releases_Albums&q=&p=1
http://www.discogs.com/Various-Looking-For-Europe/master/492
http://antifaeifel.blogsport.de/images/KimLarsen.jpg
http://antifaeifel.blogsport.de/2010/08/08/mithras-festival-burg-satzvey-of-the-wand-and-the-moon-muss-stellung-beziehen/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Heidnische_Front
http://seidr.woods.ru/larsenengl.htm
http://www.rusmetal.ru/vae_solis/idiocyxii.htm
http://www.shekhovtsov.org/articles/Anton_Shekhovtsov-Apoliteic_Music.html
http://www.whomakesthenazis.com/2010/11/co-opting-counter-culture-troy.html
Asatru Folk Assembly (AFA) is the first listed sponsor for the festival. Asatru is a pagan spirituality focused on the revival of Norse gods and mythology, and it has unfortunately been filled with deep associations with various fascist organizations. The Southern Poverty Law Center have written a concise and highly recommended article on dubious figures within Asatru, in which they explain: “Odinism, which is closely related to Asatrú, was much favored in Nazi Germany. Its Nordic/Teutonic mythology was a bedrock belief for key Third Reich leaders, and it was an integral part of the initiation rites and cosmology of the elite Schutzstaffel (SS), which supervised Adolf Hitler's network of death camps. Decades later, Odinism also influenced George Lincoln Rockwell's American Nazi Party” (1). SPLC go on to describe how this spirituality has gained a great deal of popularity with violent white supremacists over the last few decades. The AFA was founded in the mid-1990s by Stephen McNallen out of concern that other Asatru organizations had lost focus on promoting the Asatru faith as inherently tied to the white race. At least one of AFA's leaders has ties to white supremacist organizations, claiming former standing as a state-level organizer for the SS Action Group and links to a violent neo-Nazi skinhead gang. “'I'm a white racist and proud of it," he told a reporter while posing in a Nazi uniform in 1992. ' (1)”. AFA was a sponsor of Stella Natura last year with McNallen appeared on stage to perform a ritual as a guest of the band Changes, and they remain a sponsor this year. (2)(3).
Some of McNallen's white supremacist ideologies can be seen in his theorizing on migration and border politics. In an article entitled 'Wotan vs. Tezcatlipoca: The Spiritual War for California and the Southwest', McNallen refers to the increasing Latin population of the border states of America as a “tide of cultural and demographic conquest” that white Americans must resist rather than “accept our marginalization quietly” (4). He voices that he feels the needs to “fight for my people and my culture against all odds”, and calls for white people to “stand by your kin and your culture” in states he describes as “overwhelmed with illegal immigrants”. He perceives this as a realm of spiritual war, in which Norse gods must conquer Mayan gods. He closes the article by arguing that “We must sink down roots in the soil, and insist on our right to be here... European-descended peoples, true to their ancestral ways, are here to stay. Our forebears fought and died to carve out this place in the world, and we will not give it up.”
In a 2010 piece by McNallen, entitled 'A down and dirty breakdown of the 'browning of America'', he decries the decreasing percentage of America's white population as a sign that “our political and cultural clout will evaporate to a thin wisp of what it is today”, and follows with the absurd claim that “European Americans face minority status, then marginalization, and eventually extinction” (5). He states that “Illegal immigration on the present scale is a form of conquest” an “invasion” that can be “stopped and even reversed almost at once” as it is “ being carried out by identifiable people and parties”. He lists clear political aims for his racist agenda:
“First, the border must be secured. Contrary to liberal opinion, this can be done. I will not analyze the mechanics of this task, but a brainstormed list of options would include diplomatic punishment of Mexico for its role in encouraging migration, sanctions against employers of illegal aliens to include mandatory prison time, a physical wall (built by illegal aliens from our prison system), high-tech surveillance devices, and imprisonment with hard labor for individuals violating our territorial sovereignty. Until we are willing to take these measures, we are not serious about closing the border. Second, it must be clear that no amnesty of illegal aliens, wholesale or piecemeal, in general or in particular, is acceptable. Third, all illegal aliens must be deported and denied legal entry at any time in the future. Because of the logistical complexities involved, deportation could take the form of a “phased withdrawal,” just as troops are pulled out of a war zone when a peace treaty is concluded. This mass deportation should be carried out as humanely as possible, but it absolutely must be done. Fourth, legal immigration must be reformed. We need a temporary moratorium on all immigration, followed by the dismantling of the Immigration Act of 1965 and a return to the previous system, which favored immigration from Europe.”
Brian Powell, a journalist with Media Matters, did an expose on a white nationalist conference organized by the National Policy Institute (6). The full article can be found in our sources and it is recommended to read through as it provides a good indication of the shapes this form of white nationalist fascism is currently taking. Major themes at this conference were the building of a white ethno-state through the forced migration of people of color, along with claims of white people's supposed inherent biological superiority. Upon meeting several members of the AFA during this conference, the reporter states: "...they expressed frustration with a culture and government that they feel ignores and looks down upon the interests of the white race.... They were relieved that they had finally found a place where they didn't have to 'feel out' the conversation before navigating it into the straits of white supremacy.“ In his response to the Media Matters article, Stephen McNallen merely states: "The AFA will not dictate to its members which meetings they are permitted to attend as private individuals. There are suggestions that we discipline them for the crime of being present in a room where extreme statements seem to have been made. We will not do this. There will be no exposure, no witch-hunt, no apologies, and no reprimands... men and women of European descent have exactly the same right to meet and to promote their collective interests as do any other group. To demonize them for doing this, when every other group is encouraged to do so, is to indulge in a vicious double standard. (7)".
To state that an overtly white supremacist conference which involved proposing plans for white-only ethnostates, modeled on South African apartheid, is a discussion of the "collective interests" of white people provides us with a clear perspective on what the founder of the AFA means when he discusses his vision of promoting the goals of the white race. There are no excuses offered and none should be made on his behalf. On the AFA's webpage, the second goal of the organization is stated to be "The preservation of the Peoples of the North (typified by the Scandinavian/Germanic and Celtic peoples), and the furtherance of their continued evolution... the survival and welfare of the Northern European peoples as a cultural and biological group is a religious imperative for the AFA." (8). This statement by McNallen provides a clear idea of what AFA's purpose and points of unity are intended to denote in the form of practical application sought by its founders. Anti-racists have been intervening in Stephen McNallen's spread of white nationalist propaganda since at least the 1990's, as evidenced by a rather amusing article from a Canadian Holocaust denier organization that hosted him for a lecture and were highly upset by the ARA response they received (9).
Blood Axis / Michael Moynihan
Allowing for the participation of the AFA and McNallen was not the only way in which Stella Natura has provided a platform for racists. Michael Moynihan played at Stella Natura last year with his band Blood Axis, a group well known for their use of Nazi iconography and their high standing in fascist music circles. This year he and his Blood Axis bandmate Annabell (Lee) Moynihan are appearing at the festival as 'special guests' of Ian Read's act, Fire and Ice. Moynihan is a well-known figure among anti-racists for his covert and intellectual ways of promoting fascist politics for decades. He has edited two of Italian fascist philosopher and elite Nazi academic Julius Evola's books for English-language publication, including Evola’s Men Among the Ruins: Post‐War Reflections of a Radical Traditionalist (10). In 1992, Moynihan collected and published the writings of National Socialist James Mason in the book 'SIEGE!' (11). Within these texts, Mason vehemently argues for the need for whites to gain power through armed struggle rather than political means, and applauds individuals for acts such as “Zebra Killings”(the murder of black and white 'mixed' couples). For a better idea of what this work includes, please see the enclosed chapter from Mason's book. Moynihan's aims in spreading fascist propaganda is clear in quotes of his such as: “I’m sick of people saying they’re ‘not political,’ as I think this is a cop‐out… If you’re going to espouse ‘fascist’ ideas, then I believe you have to accept some of the responsibility for their application in the real world; otherwise what is the point of espousing them in the first place?” (12).
Extract from James Masons's Siege!
One of Moynihan's present areas of focus is the editing and publishing of the journal Tyr, which collects pieces on the topics of Germanic paganism and the history of northern European peoples (13). While it does not describe itself as a fascist publication, it reproduces white nationalist and far-right discourse and publishes authors with ties to various fascist and white supremacist currents. One of the original editors and ongoing contributors of Tyr is Colin Cleary, whose political perspective is rather concisely summed up in an article in which he states: "I regard Ásatrú and White Nationalism as so inseparably bound to one another that to espouse Ásatrú while rejecting White Nationalism is to involve oneself in a fatal contradiction (fatal, really, in more than just the logical sense)... Disraeli really was right: 'Race is everything. There is no other truth.' (14)". Joshua Buckley, another editor of Tyr, is a former member of the SS of America (15). He makes a living as one-half of a notoriously shady real estate gentrification project with a long-term business partner, who he is set to inherit the business from, named Sam Dickson. Dickson is an attorney who provided legal services to the Georgia KKK for decades and who sat on the board of The Barnes Review, an academic journal focused on promoting Holocaust denial. Dickson's largest public presence in the last decade has been as a guest speaker at multiple conferences that advocate for militant white nationalism, such as the conference covered by Media Matters.
Robert Taylor is one half of the band Changes, who will be playing for their third time at Stella Natura. The Changes duo returned to the music scene in 1996 after decades of silence thanks to the encouragement and efforts of Taylor's friend Michael Moynihan, who went on to produce and release their next album (16). Robert Taylor describes himself as a “herald... one of the three founders of the [Asatru] movement” within North America, along with Steven McNallen. He describes Asatru as “a religion that is suited for Indo-Europeans because it contains and constitutes all the main features and spirit of how most of us feel inside” (17). Taylor was a founder of the Asatru Alliance along with former American Nazi party member Michael (Valgard) Murray and has a long history of allying with Stephen McNallen in pagan organizing (16). Taylor has a long history of involvement within the radical right and white separatist circles. In an interview with infamous 'national anarchist' and white supremacist political organizer Troy Southgate (39),Taylor outlines his youth involvement in “the most feared white street gang in Chicago at that time” and states that he joined as a “vehicle for fighting” because he “loved the exhilaration of combat”, and that he “never joined gangs so much for the camaraderie or as a group security thing” (16). He states that this environment “certainly brought grassroots social problems into sharp focus” and that “racial tensions flared up frequently”. He describes his participation in a white riot in which thousands of white people mobbed up against a black family that had just moved into the neighborhood he lived in. This mob chanted curses, bombarded the black family's home with bricks, tried to break down the door and then proceeded to fight with the police upon their arrival. He described the experience of being in this mob as “like a minuet movement. A dance of rage”. Taylor recounts that these riots went on for four nights, during which “dummies stuffed with rags and painted with black faces were hung from lamp posts and set ablaze in effigy” and city buses with black drivers were attacked with large chunks of concrete dropped from bridges. He claims that he's sure of the fact that the media did not report on the riots because it would have attracted “people from far and wide to join the mob and riot”. He also outlines a group he organized with other white youth that committed such disgusting acts as responding to black students being brought into a school in his neighborhood by holding a confrontational demonstration at the school which these students were being transferred from, in a black community.
Taylor speaks at length of his involvement with a 1960s right wing paramilitary organization named 'the Minutemen', in which he quickly moved through the ranks from being the principal organizer in the Chicago area to holding the position of national Director of Intelligence, and then becoming national spokesperson while also being the sole editor of their magazine. He describes the activities of the Minutemen as mainly consisting of: infiltrating leftist and communist groups in order to bring police violence against them or sabotaging their activities in other ways, identifying their members, and forming fake anti-war groups to give leftists a bad name in the press. He was a member of a special subgroup that was set up within the organization called the Defence Survival Force, which consisted of about 50-60 people trained in survival skills, killing, expropriation, explosives knowledge and special operational skills. They operated underground and rendezvoused in an organized way to meet in safe-houses and make claymore mines and pipe grenades. He outlines how this group slowly fell apart due to legal matters and how once their resources had dwindled enough and some members were facing incarceration, he used his position as national spokesperson to advise Minutemen groups across the US to organize as local militias rather than as a federation. In Taylor's own words, “The legacy of the Minutemen continues on now in various factions of the revolutionary right. We laid the groundwork, provided the basic concepts and more or less pioneered that movement. It brought a new sophistication of tactics and strategy to the Right” (18).
In 2006, Taylor defends his participation in the race riots by saying that for white working class people, “their job... their home, car and family was about all they had in the world” and that once black families began to move into neighborhoods dominated by white people, these were all threatened (17). He went on to claim that “[i]t was no secret that once blacks predominated in an area, the crime rate would soar and the streets would become dangerous to walk. (17)” Taylor espouses strong feelings about disseminating this viewpoint based on the perception that “white working class ethnics seldom have a spokesman or anyone who writes or speaks on their behalf. They are simply the dispossessed majority”. It is also very interesting to note that in this later interview, Taylor attempts to justify his participation in this riot, yet offers up no toned-down explanation of his prolonged and active organizing within the Minutemen. Taylor has gone on record stating that he sees the infamous and long-running white supremacist organization Aryan Nations and similar groups as representing “love and loyalty to one's race as opposed to geographical boundaries” (17).
Fire And Ice, one of the headliners of Stella Natura, is a band founded and fronted by Ian Read. Read is well known for his work with bands Current 93, Sol Invictis, and Death in June, whom he provided vocals for in their rendition of 'Horst Wessel Lied', the anthem of the German National Socialists on the Brown Book album (banned in Germany for supporting fascism) (19). He also played with the openly neo-nazi group Above the Ruins, whose name is derived from the writings of Evola and who contributed to the National Front's benefit album No Surrender Vol 1, alongside bands such as Screwdriver(20)(21). Read has also led militant security teams for both Holocaust denier and anti-Semite Michele Renouf and editor of far-right magazine Michael Walker (22). Michael Walker was one of the individuals who safe-housed a notorious Italian fascist, on the run from the police after having a large quantity of explosives and weapons found in his organization's office (23) (24). He was also exposed as an organizer of the Iona organization's Nazi street fighters in the 1997 article 'Rocking for Satan' by the antifascist Magazine Searchlight (22). One of Read's closest collaborators has been Tony Wakeford (Death in June, Sol Invictis, Above the Ruins), a member of the National Front who has also been a key figure within occult-fascist music (20). Wakeford's work within Above the Ruins and overt Nazism was too much for Death in June's Douglas Pierce, eventually causing Wakeford to split from the group and form Sol Invictis with Read (22). He was also heavily involved with Read in the IONA fascist group (22). Ian Read was also a member of the band While Angels Watch, which worked with British fascist advocate and organizer Troy Southgate (20).
Die Weisse Rose
Die Weisse Rose is another band slated to play at Stella Natura. This Danish band is the project of Thomas Bøjden and whichever friends he asks to join him in performances (25). These friends include people such as Gerhard Petak, the man who records his music as Allerseelen. Petak has released tribute albums to the Iron Guard, a profoundly violent Romanian fascist occultist party guilty of such horrific massacres that the Nazis had to urge them to practice restraint (10) (26). Petak celebrates and claims great influence from Evola, as well as Karl Maria Wiligut and the Ahnenerbe (the occultist wing of the Third Reich), and bases a large part of his music and imagery in direct references to the Nazi regime (10). Another of Bøjden's guest collaborators was Marco Deplano of Italian fascist band Foresta di Ferro, who have contributed songs to tribute albums for the leader of the Iron Guard (26). Bøjden has performed as a guest with Foresto di Ferro, Allerseelen and Blood Axis (27). About his collaborations with these fascist musicians, Bøjden states that they are “musicians that I truly admire and respect for their individual projects and their contribution to Die Weisse Rose" (25). Die Weisse Rose utilize sound collages, videos, and the wearing of Nazi Brownshirt uniforms in their performances, which Bøjden claims is merely for artistic purposes. Die Weisse Rose were selected by Douglas Pierce to accompany Death in June's farewell tour in 2012 and Bøjden describes Douglas Pierce as “a very wonderful and very inspiring person”, stating that Death in June had been formative in every aspect of his life for decades (25). Included is an image of Bøjden posing affectionately with Tony Wakeford.
Tony Wakeford and Thomas Bøjden
Another band on Stella Natura's 2013 lineup is Waldteufel, the project of Markus Wolff. Wolff was a founding member of Blood Axis and has collaborated with Michael Moynihan frequently (28) (10). Wolff has contributed writings on nationalist German authors and paganism to publication such as Tyr, and also helped Moynihan release English editions of Evola's works (10). He is the current staff editor and contributing artist and writer for Hex magazine, another sponsor of Stella Natura (29). Hex magazine has published works by Gerhard Petak in several issues, and promoted Allerseelen's recent West Coast tour ( 10), with Waldteufel playing a date on this tour. Hell and Dispirit, two other band appearing at Stella Natura, also played on the same tour despite agitation and information spread by the Rose City Antifa and actions against their shows by antifascists in Europe (30).
Yet another dubious act on Stella Natura's lineup for 2013 is Of the Wand and the Moon, the one-man project of Kim Larsen, which has issued a split album with Ian Read and Tony Wakeford's Sol Invictus (31). OTWATM also appeared on a compilation entitled 'Looking for Europe', which bears an iron cross on the cover and features essentially every high profile fascist or fascist sympathizer band in the neofolk scene, such as Blood Axis, Boyd Rice/ NON, Allerseelen, Changes and Death in June (32). Kim Larsen has been criticized by German antifa groups for posing for photos (33) wearing the Lebensrune, a Norse symbol that was used during the Nazi regime in place of the 'date of birth' label on paperwork. It was also the symbol of the SS Lebensborn and modern neo-Nazi organizations such as the German Heathens' Front (34). The German Heathens' Front is a racialist Asatru organization formed by a well-known neo-Nazi and is infamous for their virulent anti-Semitism and allegiance to the ideas of David Lane (35). This is not to claim that the use and revival of runes is inherently problematic, but merely that to wear a rune that has been so deeply associated with various fascist organizations without any critique or anti-fascist analysis is a heavily loaded action. In an interview with an online fanzine, Larsen names his biggest musical influences as “Death in June, but also bands as NON, Der Blutharsch, Current 93, Fire and Ice, Blood Axis etc.”, all bands that have racist tendencies and associations (36). In another interview in which he was asked the same question, he lists the same bands but adds Sol Invictus to the list (37). Larsen has also appeared as a guest in Die Weisse Rose's performances (25).
It is necessary to acknowledge that while many Asatru practitioners or fans of neofolk/industrial/black metal are well-intentioned music fans, many others involved in these scenes are actively promoting fascist ideas in order to normalize these tendencies. As outlined in Anton Shekhovstov's brilliant essay on the topic, which is highly recommended when approaching this subject,(38) this course is charted out within the post-WWII writings of Alain de Benoist and Julius Evola. These authors argued for fascists to retreat from active politics into the realm of culture until the time was right to begin recruiting for future fascist political movements. This form of 'metapolitical' fascism manifests in subcultural scenes focused on music or spirituality with their accompanying record labels, distros and spiritual organizations, as well as through networks of journals, publishing houses, conferences and think tanks. Neofolk as a musical subculture has always held an intellectual and elitist attitude that is eager to feign disassociation with more overt white supremacists, but this must be seen as what it is: part of a coherent and deliberate strategy to disseminate their unpopular ideas without risking immediate anti-fascist responses.The presence of fascists and white nationalists at Stella Natura is not an accident, but a planned infiltration; a co-opting of spirituality, heritage and music to suit their personal agenda. Opposition to this must come from within the scenes they seek to convert, and from the potential recruits they hope to gain.
Sources:
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/1998/winter/the-new-barbarians
http://moremusic.typepad.com/blog/2012/10/stella-natura-the-light-of-ancestral-fires-tahoe-national-forest-921-22-and-23.html
https://www.facebook.com/Asatru.Folk.Assembly/posts/397387126994569
http://www.runestone.org/about-asatru/articles-a-essays/150-wotan-vs-tezcatlipoca-the-spiritual-war-for-california-and-the-southwest.html
http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=8699
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2011/09/19/the-supremacy-cause-inside-the-white-nationalis/181599
http://asatruupdate.blogspot.com/2011/09/response-to-recent-defamation.html
http://www.runestone.org/about-the-afa/declaration-of-purpose.html
http://www.canadianfreespeech.com/cafe/battles-for-freedom/17-battles-for-freedom/87-anti-racist-action-attacks-cafe-meeting-in-toronto
http://www.whomakesthenazis.com/2010/12/rose-city-anti-fascists-austrian.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_%28book%29
Coogan, Kevin, “How Black is Black Metal? Michael Moynihan, Lords of Chaos and the ‘Countercultural Fascist’ Underground,” Hit List Vol. 1 No. 1 (February / March 1999), 32‐49, 45., found on http://www.whomakesthenazis.com/2010/12/rose-city-anti-fascists-austrian.html
http://www.radicaltraditionalist.com/tyr.htm
http://www.counter-currents.com/2012/10/asatru-and-the-political/
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2006/fall/how-sam-dickson-got-rich?page=0,1
http://web.archive.org/web/20040718041710re_/http://www.national-anarchist.org/articles/INTERVIEWTaylor1.htm
http://www.chroniclesofchaos.com/articles/chats/1-922_changes.aspx
http://www.stigmata.name/ch2.php
http://www.counter-currents.com/2011/10/odinns-skald/
http://www.whomakesthenazis.com/2011/03/piss-poor-poet-found-in-dustbin-of.html
http://www.whomakesthenazis.com/2010/10/rock-against-communism-roots-of-sol.html
http://www.stewarthomesociety.org/wakeford.html
http://datacide.c8.com/from-subculture-to-hegemony-transversal-strategies-of-the-new-right-in-neofolk-and-martial-industrial/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Fiore
http://santasangremagazine.wordpress.com/2012/10/28/gesamtkunstwerke-interview-with-die-weisse-rose-eng/
.http://www.discogs.com/Various-Codreanu-Eine-Erinnerung-An-Den-Kampf/master/488
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Die+Weisse+Rose
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markus_Wolff
http://hexmagazine.com/hex-folk/hex-staff/
http://rosecityantifa.weebly.com/1/post/2010/12/allerseelen-on-tour-austrian-far-right-musical-project-on-west-coast-tour-playing-support-to-northwest-heavy-metal-act.html
http://www.discogs.com/artist/%3AOf+The+Wand+%26+The+Moon%3A#t=Releases_Albums&q=&p=1
http://www.discogs.com/Various-Looking-For-Europe/master/492
http://antifaeifel.blogsport.de/images/KimLarsen.jpg
http://antifaeifel.blogsport.de/2010/08/08/mithras-festival-burg-satzvey-of-the-wand-and-the-moon-muss-stellung-beziehen/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Heidnische_Front
http://seidr.woods.ru/larsenengl.htm
http://www.rusmetal.ru/vae_solis/idiocyxii.htm
http://www.shekhovtsov.org/articles/Anton_Shekhovtsov-Apoliteic_Music.html
http://www.whomakesthenazis.com/2010/11/co-opting-counter-culture-troy.html
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Die Weisse Rose is a reference to "The White Rose (German: die Weiße Rose) was a non-violent, intellectual resistance group in Nazi Germany, consisting of students from the University of Munich and their philosophy professor. The group became known for an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign, lasting from June 1942 until February 1943, that called for active opposition to dictator Adolf Hitler's regime. Although the origin of the Group's name is not certain, it seems to be inspired by the verse of the Cuban poet, Jose Marti "Cultivo una rosa blanca".
This is one of many examples that could be listed as misinterpretations, mis-contextualizations, or out right incorrect assessments of what is going on with Stella Natura and many of the bands involved... As well as the Neo-Folk darkwave industrial music scene. To assert that all of these people and bands, {though some do have beliefs in line with that or once did. Tony Wakefield for example spent a short time in National front, not neo-nazi movement after his involvement in death in june and Crisis(which was a peace punk group performing at rallies for Rock Against Racism (RAR) and the Anti-Nazi League (ANL), and at Right To Work marches). He later left and recanted his involvement and support of it. He currently is in a mix race marriage.} are propagating racist fascism is a blind overview past of their artistic endeavors. This stems from the same ignorance and judgmental telescoping that bonesheaded white supremacist view these groups in, subsequently why they become attracted to the music without actually looking at what the context is or with what intent it is presented.
P.S. Using Evola as a standard to indicate that Above the Ruins is a neo nazi band shows a lack of knowledge concerning Evola's work.. He openly spoke against both Hitler and Musolini in his newsletter. Referring to them as small men. This is also reiterated in "revolt against the modern world" Stating that he held in common with fascists only as much as they held with him. HE was band from lecturing in Germany and actively monitored by the SS. The only reason he didnt disappear was because his writings on race {which were based on a spiritual concept of the idea which transcended genetic boundaries. Even stating that you could change your race in that sense} were grossly misrepresented and heavily appropriated by the eugenics community. This is not to say the he himself didnt suffer from xenophobia as well as being a sexist. It does not make him either Nazi or Fascist.
This is one of many examples that could be listed as misinterpretations, mis-contextualizations, or out right incorrect assessments of what is going on with Stella Natura and many of the bands involved... As well as the Neo-Folk darkwave industrial music scene. To assert that all of these people and bands, {though some do have beliefs in line with that or once did. Tony Wakefield for example spent a short time in National front, not neo-nazi movement after his involvement in death in june and Crisis(which was a peace punk group performing at rallies for Rock Against Racism (RAR) and the Anti-Nazi League (ANL), and at Right To Work marches). He later left and recanted his involvement and support of it. He currently is in a mix race marriage.} are propagating racist fascism is a blind overview past of their artistic endeavors. This stems from the same ignorance and judgmental telescoping that bonesheaded white supremacist view these groups in, subsequently why they become attracted to the music without actually looking at what the context is or with what intent it is presented.
P.S. Using Evola as a standard to indicate that Above the Ruins is a neo nazi band shows a lack of knowledge concerning Evola's work.. He openly spoke against both Hitler and Musolini in his newsletter. Referring to them as small men. This is also reiterated in "revolt against the modern world" Stating that he held in common with fascists only as much as they held with him. HE was band from lecturing in Germany and actively monitored by the SS. The only reason he didnt disappear was because his writings on race {which were based on a spiritual concept of the idea which transcended genetic boundaries. Even stating that you could change your race in that sense} were grossly misrepresented and heavily appropriated by the eugenics community. This is not to say the he himself didnt suffer from xenophobia as well as being a sexist. It does not make him either Nazi or Fascist.
Adam Torruella's (the sole Stella Natura organizer) statement regarding this article from the official Stella Natura Facebook page -
"Greetings, this is indeed an unfortunate article. Our official policy is not to respond to anonymous opinion pieces (unsigned editorials), and this one is particularly malicious, factually misleading (with many poor and outdated sources) and defamatory towards the reputation and name of Stella Natura.
The simple truth is that Stella Natura will never be co-opted by outside interests. I am completely in control of the event. No platform is given to any political positions either by allowing such messages on stage or by allowing confrontation among our attendees.
Most folks going to the event and those who have supported the event since 2009 know the accusations within this article are simply absurd. Stella Natura is simply a music festival, and I've tried my best to curate the top talent these underground circles have to offer.
My highest recommendation to you would be to simply ignore the notions behind this article and have a great time. There will be no one at my event trying to convert you to their agenda. Anyone causing issues in reaction to this article, or if issues do arise that this article speculates, the person(s) will be escorted off the property. The safety and wellbeing of all of our guests and artists is my number one priority.
Thank you for your concern, I assure you that you'll have a great time."
"Greetings, this is indeed an unfortunate article. Our official policy is not to respond to anonymous opinion pieces (unsigned editorials), and this one is particularly malicious, factually misleading (with many poor and outdated sources) and defamatory towards the reputation and name of Stella Natura.
The simple truth is that Stella Natura will never be co-opted by outside interests. I am completely in control of the event. No platform is given to any political positions either by allowing such messages on stage or by allowing confrontation among our attendees.
Most folks going to the event and those who have supported the event since 2009 know the accusations within this article are simply absurd. Stella Natura is simply a music festival, and I've tried my best to curate the top talent these underground circles have to offer.
My highest recommendation to you would be to simply ignore the notions behind this article and have a great time. There will be no one at my event trying to convert you to their agenda. Anyone causing issues in reaction to this article, or if issues do arise that this article speculates, the person(s) will be escorted off the property. The safety and wellbeing of all of our guests and artists is my number one priority.
Thank you for your concern, I assure you that you'll have a great time."
Adam's response is weak at best. It amounts to: "Just ignore it and give me your money, I would never let whitey get called out at MY festival for being a problematic crypto-fascist with racist politics!"
You see, it's not getting co-opted by outside interests, the interests of pseudo-spiritual Northern European pride are what Adam is all about. They lie at the core of Stella Natura, "THE LIGHT OF ANCESTRAL FIRES". Why else would he personally invite McNallen and list the AFA and Hex Magazine (with articles as banal as "crafting with swastikas") as primary sponsors for the event? Adam knows full well what he's doing here, and he has no political motivation besides white pride and this pitifully thin veil of "paganism/asatru" to hide behind.
Of course he will tell you to ignore this article. Adam is a white boy that doesn't give a fuck about people of color or anyone else that would want to participate in a music festival with heavy bands without the fascistic and problematic white power aesthetic at the forefront. Stella Natura is a safe place for white dudes and no one else as a result of these associations, no matter how many times he wants to tell you to "ignore it."
Fuck Adam. Fuck SN. Fuck the AFA. Fuck Nazi sympathy.
You see, it's not getting co-opted by outside interests, the interests of pseudo-spiritual Northern European pride are what Adam is all about. They lie at the core of Stella Natura, "THE LIGHT OF ANCESTRAL FIRES". Why else would he personally invite McNallen and list the AFA and Hex Magazine (with articles as banal as "crafting with swastikas") as primary sponsors for the event? Adam knows full well what he's doing here, and he has no political motivation besides white pride and this pitifully thin veil of "paganism/asatru" to hide behind.
Of course he will tell you to ignore this article. Adam is a white boy that doesn't give a fuck about people of color or anyone else that would want to participate in a music festival with heavy bands without the fascistic and problematic white power aesthetic at the forefront. Stella Natura is a safe place for white dudes and no one else as a result of these associations, no matter how many times he wants to tell you to "ignore it."
Fuck Adam. Fuck SN. Fuck the AFA. Fuck Nazi sympathy.
Adam's response is weak at best. It amounts to: "Just ignore it and give me your money, I would never let whitey get called out at MY festival for being a problematic crypto-fascist with racist politics!"
THAT REALLY ISN'T WHAT ADAM'S POST SAID AT ALL.
You see, it's not getting co-opted by outside interests, the interests of pseudo-spiritual Northern European pride are what Adam is all about.
"PSEUDO-SPIRITUAL"? YOU SEEM TO BE JUDGING ADAM ON THE BASIS OF HIS FAITH. ISN'T THAT DISCRIMINATION? COULD IT BE THAT BECAUSE THE ORIGINS ARE FROM NORTHERN EUROPE THAT YOU FEEL SO COMFORTABLE OPENLY BEING A HYPOCRITE AND A BIGOT IN THE SAME SENTENCE? HOW IS IT THAT YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO ATTACH A NEGATIVE CONNOTATION TO "NORTHERN EUROPEAN PRIDE"? DO YOU ALSO ATTEMPT TO ATTACH THE SAME NEGATIVE CONNOTATION TO BLACK PRIDE, BROWN PRIDE, AND GAY PRIDE?
They lie at the core of Stella Natura, "THE LIGHT OF ANCESTRAL FIRES". Why else would he personally invite McNallen and list the AFA and Hex Magazine (with articles as banal as "crafting with swastikas") as primary sponsors for the event? Adam knows full well what he's doing here, and he has no political motivation besides white pride and this pitifully thin veil of "paganism/asatru" to hide behind.
WOULD YOU QUESTION A NATIVE AMERICAN GATHERING INCLUDING A SHAMAN?WOULD YOU QUESTION YOU QUESTION A NEPALI MUSIC FESTIVAL FOR INVITING THE DALI LAMA? OR A PALESTINIAN MUSIC FEST FOR INCLUDING AN CLERIC? IF ANYTHING HAS A "PITIFULLY THIN VEIL", IT IS YOUR DISDAIN FOR WHITES ATTEMPTING TO PRESERVE OUR HERITAGE OR ADVOCATE ON OUR OWN BEHALF.
Of course he will tell you to ignore this article.
ACTUALLY I THINK ADAM SHOULD THANK THE "ANON" AUTHOR- AS COWARDLY AS "IT" (GENDER NEUTRAL)MAY BE, FOR THIS FREE COVERAGE. THE NAMELESS AUTHOR DID QUITE A GREAT JOB OF OUTLINING WHAT LOOKS TO BE A GREAT SHOW.
Adam is a white boy that doesn't give a fuck about people of color or anyone else that would want to participate in a music festival with heavy bands without the fascistic and problematic white power aesthetic at the forefront. Stella Natura is a safe place for white dudes and no one else as a result of these associations, no matter how many times he wants to tell you to "ignore it."
BY POINTING OUT ADAMS RACE YOU SOUND LIKE A PERSON WHO HAS A PROBLEM WITH HIS WHITENESS. IF RACE IS A "SOCIAL CONSTRUCT" AS SO MANY MARXIST ASSERT IT IS, THEN WHY DO YOU BRING IT UP AS IF IT IS A REAL THING? AND WITH RESPECT TO THE SAFETY OF THE ATTENDEES (WHITE OR OTHER) AND THINK ADAMS OWN WORDS FROM HIS OWN POST MAKE IT QUITE CLEAR-"The safety and well being of all of our guests and artists is my number one priority.".
Fuck Adam. Fuck SN. Fuck the AFA. Fuck Nazi sympathy.
THE F BOMBS ARE EACH VERY CLASSY.
I WILL CLOSE WITH THIS. I DO NOT KNOW ADAM. I DON'T KNOW ANY OF THE BANDS. I LIVE IN TEXAS AND I WONT BE ATTENDING THE SHOW.
I AM HOWEVER A MEMBER OF THE ASATRU FOLK ASSEMBLY AND WOULD ENCOURAGE THE TEACHINGS OF STEVE McNALLEN TO ANY INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE ABOUT ANCESTRAL FOLK WAYS OF EUROPEAN PEOPLES. MANY FINE VIDS ARE AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE.
UNLIKE THE THE ANTI WHITE AUTHOR OF THIS ARTICLE, OR OF THIS COMMENT I AM RESPONDING TO - I AM NOT AFRAID TO OWN MY STATED BELIEFS.
SINCERELY,
ERIC THOMPSON
BENTLENZ [at] GMAIL.COM
THAT REALLY ISN'T WHAT ADAM'S POST SAID AT ALL.
You see, it's not getting co-opted by outside interests, the interests of pseudo-spiritual Northern European pride are what Adam is all about.
"PSEUDO-SPIRITUAL"? YOU SEEM TO BE JUDGING ADAM ON THE BASIS OF HIS FAITH. ISN'T THAT DISCRIMINATION? COULD IT BE THAT BECAUSE THE ORIGINS ARE FROM NORTHERN EUROPE THAT YOU FEEL SO COMFORTABLE OPENLY BEING A HYPOCRITE AND A BIGOT IN THE SAME SENTENCE? HOW IS IT THAT YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO ATTACH A NEGATIVE CONNOTATION TO "NORTHERN EUROPEAN PRIDE"? DO YOU ALSO ATTEMPT TO ATTACH THE SAME NEGATIVE CONNOTATION TO BLACK PRIDE, BROWN PRIDE, AND GAY PRIDE?
They lie at the core of Stella Natura, "THE LIGHT OF ANCESTRAL FIRES". Why else would he personally invite McNallen and list the AFA and Hex Magazine (with articles as banal as "crafting with swastikas") as primary sponsors for the event? Adam knows full well what he's doing here, and he has no political motivation besides white pride and this pitifully thin veil of "paganism/asatru" to hide behind.
WOULD YOU QUESTION A NATIVE AMERICAN GATHERING INCLUDING A SHAMAN?WOULD YOU QUESTION YOU QUESTION A NEPALI MUSIC FESTIVAL FOR INVITING THE DALI LAMA? OR A PALESTINIAN MUSIC FEST FOR INCLUDING AN CLERIC? IF ANYTHING HAS A "PITIFULLY THIN VEIL", IT IS YOUR DISDAIN FOR WHITES ATTEMPTING TO PRESERVE OUR HERITAGE OR ADVOCATE ON OUR OWN BEHALF.
Of course he will tell you to ignore this article.
ACTUALLY I THINK ADAM SHOULD THANK THE "ANON" AUTHOR- AS COWARDLY AS "IT" (GENDER NEUTRAL)MAY BE, FOR THIS FREE COVERAGE. THE NAMELESS AUTHOR DID QUITE A GREAT JOB OF OUTLINING WHAT LOOKS TO BE A GREAT SHOW.
Adam is a white boy that doesn't give a fuck about people of color or anyone else that would want to participate in a music festival with heavy bands without the fascistic and problematic white power aesthetic at the forefront. Stella Natura is a safe place for white dudes and no one else as a result of these associations, no matter how many times he wants to tell you to "ignore it."
BY POINTING OUT ADAMS RACE YOU SOUND LIKE A PERSON WHO HAS A PROBLEM WITH HIS WHITENESS. IF RACE IS A "SOCIAL CONSTRUCT" AS SO MANY MARXIST ASSERT IT IS, THEN WHY DO YOU BRING IT UP AS IF IT IS A REAL THING? AND WITH RESPECT TO THE SAFETY OF THE ATTENDEES (WHITE OR OTHER) AND THINK ADAMS OWN WORDS FROM HIS OWN POST MAKE IT QUITE CLEAR-"The safety and well being of all of our guests and artists is my number one priority.".
Fuck Adam. Fuck SN. Fuck the AFA. Fuck Nazi sympathy.
THE F BOMBS ARE EACH VERY CLASSY.
I WILL CLOSE WITH THIS. I DO NOT KNOW ADAM. I DON'T KNOW ANY OF THE BANDS. I LIVE IN TEXAS AND I WONT BE ATTENDING THE SHOW.
I AM HOWEVER A MEMBER OF THE ASATRU FOLK ASSEMBLY AND WOULD ENCOURAGE THE TEACHINGS OF STEVE McNALLEN TO ANY INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE ABOUT ANCESTRAL FOLK WAYS OF EUROPEAN PEOPLES. MANY FINE VIDS ARE AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE.
UNLIKE THE THE ANTI WHITE AUTHOR OF THIS ARTICLE, OR OF THIS COMMENT I AM RESPONDING TO - I AM NOT AFRAID TO OWN MY STATED BELIEFS.
SINCERELY,
ERIC THOMPSON
BENTLENZ [at] GMAIL.COM
Adam's response is weak at best. It amounts to: "Just ignore it and give me your money, I would never let whitey get called out at MY festival for being a problematic crypto-fascist with racist politics!"
THAT REALLY ISN'T WHAT ADAM'S POST SAID AT ALL.
-Adam said "No platform is given to any political positions either by allowing such messages on stage or by allowing confrontation among our attendees." But we already know this to be false, because he allowed that bigot McNallen onstage and has the highly political (though you cowardly deny it) AFA and Hex involved in the event. What he is really saying is that he won't allow his politics to be challenged - probably because he knows they are fucked up and backwards ideologies that idealize neo-colonialism and white pride. He wants it to remain hidden behind this veil of spirituality and "tradition," not openly discussed.
You see, it's not getting co-opted by outside interests, the interests of pseudo-spiritual Northern European pride are what Adam is all about.
"PSEUDO-SPIRITUAL"? YOU SEEM TO BE JUDGING ADAM ON THE BASIS OF HIS FAITH. ISN'T THAT DISCRIMINATION? COULD IT BE THAT BECAUSE THE ORIGINS ARE FROM NORTHERN EUROPE THAT YOU FEEL SO COMFORTABLE OPENLY BEING A HYPOCRITE AND A BIGOT IN THE SAME SENTENCE? HOW IS IT THAT YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO ATTACH A NEGATIVE CONNOTATION TO "NORTHERN EUROPEAN PRIDE"? DO YOU ALSO ATTEMPT TO ATTACH THE SAME NEGATIVE CONNOTATION TO BLACK PRIDE, BROWN PRIDE, AND GAY PRIDE?
WOULD YOU QUESTION A NATIVE AMERICAN GATHERING INCLUDING A SHAMAN?WOULD YOU QUESTION YOU QUESTION A NEPALI MUSIC FESTIVAL FOR INVITING THE DALI LAMA? OR A PALESTINIAN MUSIC FEST FOR INCLUDING AN CLERIC? IF ANYTHING HAS A "PITIFULLY THIN VEIL", IT IS YOUR DISDAIN FOR WHITES ATTEMPTING TO PRESERVE OUR HERITAGE OR ADVOCATE ON OUR OWN BEHALF.
-This is where you need to realize that white hegemony has implications of domination over the groups you described. Of course there are no negative connotations for the NATIVE people of North America celebrating their traditions that have been systematically stripped from them over the course of generations of WHITE IMPOSED GENOCIDE, especially in California. You have to look at the history of domination, coercion, mass murder, and oppression of native people and black and brown peoples worldwide in order to understand why it is not acceptable to fly the flag of white pride. -
Don't you dare come on indybay and start defending white pride. You need to go back to the Stormfront forum where you came from.
Of course he will tell you to ignore this article.
ACTUALLY I THINK ADAM SHOULD THANK THE "ANON" AUTHOR- AS COWARDLY AS "IT" (GENDER NEUTRAL)MAY BE, FOR THIS FREE COVERAGE. THE NAMELESS AUTHOR DID QUITE A GREAT JOB OF OUTLINING WHAT LOOKS TO BE A GREAT SHOW.
Adam is a white boy that doesn't give a fuck about people of color or anyone else that would want to participate in a music festival with heavy bands without the fascistic and problematic white power aesthetic at the forefront. Stella Natura is a safe place for white dudes and no one else as a result of these associations, no matter how many times he wants to tell you to "ignore it."
BY POINTING OUT ADAMS RACE YOU SOUND LIKE A PERSON WHO HAS A PROBLEM WITH HIS WHITENESS. IF RACE IS A "SOCIAL CONSTRUCT" AS SO MANY MARXIST ASSERT IT IS, THEN WHY DO YOU BRING IT UP AS IF IT IS A REAL THING? AND WITH RESPECT TO THE SAFETY OF THE ATTENDEES (WHITE OR OTHER) AND THINK ADAMS OWN WORDS FROM HIS OWN POST MAKE IT QUITE CLEAR-"The safety and well being of all of our guests and artists is my number one priority.".
Race is socially constructed but very real in it's consequences. White domination is status quo, and affords privileges to white people that people of other races do not enjoy. Welcome to sociology 101.
Fuck Adam. Fuck SN. Fuck the AFA. Fuck Nazi sympathy.
THE F BOMBS ARE EACH VERY CLASSY.
I WILL CLOSE WITH THIS. I DO NOT KNOW ADAM. I DON'T KNOW ANY OF THE BANDS. I LIVE IN TEXAS AND I WONT BE ATTENDING THE SHOW.
I AM HOWEVER A MEMBER OF THE ASATRU FOLK ASSEMBLY AND WOULD ENCOURAGE THE TEACHINGS OF STEVE McNALLEN TO ANY INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE ABOUT ANCESTRAL FOLK WAYS OF EUROPEAN PEOPLES. MANY FINE VIDS ARE AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE.
Ancestral Folk Ways of European Peoples? McNallen has been lambasted for writing obviously racist articles, just like the one mentioned above about the "browning of America." I ain't havin' it compadre.
UNLIKE THE THE ANTI WHITE AUTHOR OF THIS ARTICLE, OR OF THIS COMMENT I AM RESPONDING TO - I AM NOT AFRAID TO OWN MY STATED BELIEFS.
Congratulations! Here's your cookie. Now go back to Stormfront and gtfo
THAT REALLY ISN'T WHAT ADAM'S POST SAID AT ALL.
-Adam said "No platform is given to any political positions either by allowing such messages on stage or by allowing confrontation among our attendees." But we already know this to be false, because he allowed that bigot McNallen onstage and has the highly political (though you cowardly deny it) AFA and Hex involved in the event. What he is really saying is that he won't allow his politics to be challenged - probably because he knows they are fucked up and backwards ideologies that idealize neo-colonialism and white pride. He wants it to remain hidden behind this veil of spirituality and "tradition," not openly discussed.
You see, it's not getting co-opted by outside interests, the interests of pseudo-spiritual Northern European pride are what Adam is all about.
"PSEUDO-SPIRITUAL"? YOU SEEM TO BE JUDGING ADAM ON THE BASIS OF HIS FAITH. ISN'T THAT DISCRIMINATION? COULD IT BE THAT BECAUSE THE ORIGINS ARE FROM NORTHERN EUROPE THAT YOU FEEL SO COMFORTABLE OPENLY BEING A HYPOCRITE AND A BIGOT IN THE SAME SENTENCE? HOW IS IT THAT YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO ATTACH A NEGATIVE CONNOTATION TO "NORTHERN EUROPEAN PRIDE"? DO YOU ALSO ATTEMPT TO ATTACH THE SAME NEGATIVE CONNOTATION TO BLACK PRIDE, BROWN PRIDE, AND GAY PRIDE?
WOULD YOU QUESTION A NATIVE AMERICAN GATHERING INCLUDING A SHAMAN?WOULD YOU QUESTION YOU QUESTION A NEPALI MUSIC FESTIVAL FOR INVITING THE DALI LAMA? OR A PALESTINIAN MUSIC FEST FOR INCLUDING AN CLERIC? IF ANYTHING HAS A "PITIFULLY THIN VEIL", IT IS YOUR DISDAIN FOR WHITES ATTEMPTING TO PRESERVE OUR HERITAGE OR ADVOCATE ON OUR OWN BEHALF.
-This is where you need to realize that white hegemony has implications of domination over the groups you described. Of course there are no negative connotations for the NATIVE people of North America celebrating their traditions that have been systematically stripped from them over the course of generations of WHITE IMPOSED GENOCIDE, especially in California. You have to look at the history of domination, coercion, mass murder, and oppression of native people and black and brown peoples worldwide in order to understand why it is not acceptable to fly the flag of white pride. -
Don't you dare come on indybay and start defending white pride. You need to go back to the Stormfront forum where you came from.
Of course he will tell you to ignore this article.
ACTUALLY I THINK ADAM SHOULD THANK THE "ANON" AUTHOR- AS COWARDLY AS "IT" (GENDER NEUTRAL)MAY BE, FOR THIS FREE COVERAGE. THE NAMELESS AUTHOR DID QUITE A GREAT JOB OF OUTLINING WHAT LOOKS TO BE A GREAT SHOW.
Adam is a white boy that doesn't give a fuck about people of color or anyone else that would want to participate in a music festival with heavy bands without the fascistic and problematic white power aesthetic at the forefront. Stella Natura is a safe place for white dudes and no one else as a result of these associations, no matter how many times he wants to tell you to "ignore it."
BY POINTING OUT ADAMS RACE YOU SOUND LIKE A PERSON WHO HAS A PROBLEM WITH HIS WHITENESS. IF RACE IS A "SOCIAL CONSTRUCT" AS SO MANY MARXIST ASSERT IT IS, THEN WHY DO YOU BRING IT UP AS IF IT IS A REAL THING? AND WITH RESPECT TO THE SAFETY OF THE ATTENDEES (WHITE OR OTHER) AND THINK ADAMS OWN WORDS FROM HIS OWN POST MAKE IT QUITE CLEAR-"The safety and well being of all of our guests and artists is my number one priority.".
Race is socially constructed but very real in it's consequences. White domination is status quo, and affords privileges to white people that people of other races do not enjoy. Welcome to sociology 101.
Fuck Adam. Fuck SN. Fuck the AFA. Fuck Nazi sympathy.
THE F BOMBS ARE EACH VERY CLASSY.
I WILL CLOSE WITH THIS. I DO NOT KNOW ADAM. I DON'T KNOW ANY OF THE BANDS. I LIVE IN TEXAS AND I WONT BE ATTENDING THE SHOW.
I AM HOWEVER A MEMBER OF THE ASATRU FOLK ASSEMBLY AND WOULD ENCOURAGE THE TEACHINGS OF STEVE McNALLEN TO ANY INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE ABOUT ANCESTRAL FOLK WAYS OF EUROPEAN PEOPLES. MANY FINE VIDS ARE AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE.
Ancestral Folk Ways of European Peoples? McNallen has been lambasted for writing obviously racist articles, just like the one mentioned above about the "browning of America." I ain't havin' it compadre.
UNLIKE THE THE ANTI WHITE AUTHOR OF THIS ARTICLE, OR OF THIS COMMENT I AM RESPONDING TO - I AM NOT AFRAID TO OWN MY STATED BELIEFS.
Congratulations! Here's your cookie. Now go back to Stormfront and gtfo
I am a fairly hardcore liberal non-religious person who attended Stella Natura in last year. I went mostly on the strength of the metal lineup without knowing anyone there or anything political about the AFA or bands like Blood Axis. I would not be found dead attending any sort of organized fascist, neo-nazi or racist gathering.
1 - Yes, there were certainly some questionable attendees. A few skins, a few obvious ns-types. Note the specific of attendees in previous sentence, not performers or anyone working the event (including Adam, who mostly seemed to be tearing his hair out trying to keep the event running the entire time.) I have seen more skins and questionable imagery in audiences at metal and punk shows in the Bay area.
2 - No, there was not any sort of organized or official presence of anything that could be construed as racist or fascist ideology on stage or at the fest. There was zero rhetoric spoken or fascist imagery displayed during any of the bands, including Blood Axis and Changes, who were pretty much straightforward rock/folk performances by aging musicians.
Stephen McNallen was invited on stage by Blood Axis to perform one of their songs with them, Herjafather (along with Robert Taylor and Markus Wolff). He did so and then left. I believe its on YouTube if you want to watch it.
The AFA had a booth in the vending area. There was zero proselytizing, flag waving or anything else questionable, and in fact they were much lower key than most religious or political organizations tend to be.
3 - As stated in the previous quote - "There will be no one at my event trying to convert you to their agenda. Anyone causing issues in reaction to this article, or if issues do arise that this article speculates, the person(s) will be escorted off the property. The safety and wellbeing of all of our guests and artists is my number one priority."
Regardless of Adam's personal politics or beliefs, as organizer of the event he is clearly stating here that no one is permitted to use politics to disrupt the festival, either pro or anti.
4 - If I thought there was any chance of this event being an organized platform or recruitment methodology for racists, fascists or neo-nazis, I would not be attending this year, just as I would have left last year had I found that to be the case. Yes, there were some people at the last one who I wouldn't want to break bread with, but that's true in pretty much any crowd.
5 - Also, as Adam mentioned, there's a ton of incorrect, outdated and spurious information in that article, at least about the music. Maybe its anon author should actually try talking to the people involved or referencing their numerous public statements refuting these accusations instead of using out of date/out of context statements and pictures from 20-30 years ago? People do change, y'know.
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