LUAF and David Kerr

Lancaster Unity scrapes the barrel by publishing comments designed to have a go at Ulster Nation editor and Solidarity EC member David Kerr' The anonymous poster does their best to smear David Kerr with the 'racist' tag. Here's the case for the prosecution followed by that of the defence...

Under David Kerr's leadership the Ulster Third Way is affiliated to the US-based Council of Conservative Citizens.

This is not true. U3W is not affiliated to the CofCC in any way. In response to an invitation Kerr did indeed address a meeting of the CofCC in 1997 in his capacity as Chairman of the now defunct Ulster Independence Movement. His acceptance of a speaking engagement should not be taken as an endorsement of everything in the CofCC's political platform. As for the verdict of the bunch of gougers styling themselves the Southern Poverty Law Center and the hysterical Ant-Defamation League: their allegations are not to be taken seriously. Against all evidence, the SPLC defames the 'neo-Confederate' League of the South' as a racist hate group. The League of the South and groups such as the Southern Party of Georgia are nothing of the kind and David Kerr is proud to stand alongside them in defence of common values.

Under David Kerr the Nation website carries links to the League of the South and the 'nazi BNP's fake cover groups such as Solidarity and Civil Liberty.'

David Kerr does not believe that the BNP is now a 'nazi' party and he believes strongly in the cause of Civil Liberty and free trade unions. Lancaster Unity's commentator doesn't seem to have noticed that the links page clearly carries a disclaimer to the effect that 'Apart from the Third Way sites, the presence of a link on this page should not be taken to imply any organisational link with the organisations or individuals behind those sites. A link is not a full endorsement of all or any of the political, historical or ideological positions taken by the publishers of such sites.' Some sites are useful for readers looking for good background on history and politics; Slugger O'Toole, N I Elections and Newshound. Some are good new sources for anti-war activists; antiwar.com and Americans Against World Empire. Some are good at exposing the risks of an all-powerful surveillance State; Privacy International and Civil Liberty. Lancaster Unity's narrow focus distorts the truth.

As for Solidarity being a 'front' for the BNP no matter how many times they repeat it this still will not be true!

Further, the Ulster Third Way website praises the racist and fascist book The Eleventh Hour by John Tyndall, the convicted neo-nazi terrorist and founder of the BNP 'In thoroughly recommending this book to all those looking for alternative political thinking'.

This really is a piece of dishonest distortion. Firstly this is a guest review written by the veteran British nationalist John Bean and is solely Mr Bean's opinion of the book. The Ulster Nation website has always encouraged debate and the exchange of ideas. A disclaimer on every page makes it clear that the views expressed in signed articles and reviews are solely those of the author. Mr Bean’s view of Tyndall's book is quite different from that of David Kerr. Mr Bean had his own criticisms too. The partial sentence quoted above concludes, 'I would make just two minor criticisms.' They are 'a certain amount of repetition' and 'he does use three words where he could get away with two.' Lancaster Unity's selective quotation by wresting the first part of this sentence from its context and the implied attribution of these opinions to David Kerr are without justification.

David Kerr has reviewed quite a few political books from the left field of the political spectrum. He thoroughly recommended Paul Foot's Who Framed Colin Wallace? to all Third Way supporters and also praised Mark Steel's Reasons to be Cheerful as an honest book. By Lancaster Unity's reckoning this 'links' Kerr with the Socialist Workers Party.

Digging deep in the archives of the Ulster Nation site, the Lancaster UAF correspondent has dug up an article written in January 1995 by David Kerr. At the time the ANC government of Nelson Mandela had been in power for a few months and there was a lot of apprehension about. Most people will admit to having been surprised by how well the ANC government did under Mandela after assuming power in 1994. This was by no means obvious at the time despite Lancaster Unity's 20-20 hindsight. Mandela's organisation did use terrorist methods against its enemies and - at times - innocent civilians. The ANC denied the right of the nations of Southern Africa to their own states. Similar strictures in the former and led to major conflict. It was not unreasonable to fear that something similar could have happened in 1995. Mugabe's was the malign template. Happily things never got quite that bad – so far – but it is far from being the paradise of rose-tinted leftist dreams.

Dagging about in the mid-nineties, the UAF correspondent digs up a 1996 article Living Alternatives – neither racism nor 'multiculturalism' to have another crack at Kerr. Where the critic falls down is that this discussion piece was not written by Kerr at all. It was written by another Third Way activist using the pen name 'John Jenkins'.

This article was written twelve years ago when racial attacks were indeed virtually unheard of but when organisations like NICEM were trying to justify their funding by exaggerating the severity and extent of such attacks. In the last four or five years there has been a genuine increase in such attacks: although even now the rate of such attacks is low in comparison to sectarian attacks across the religious divide. The idea was to argue for a 'living alternative' to outright racism and trendy multiculturalism. For 1996 this was quite groundbreaking as crude biological racism had still quite a strong following in nationalist circles at the time. Ultimately the Lancaster Unity correspondent is trying to force Ulster Third Way into a mould for which it is unsuitable.

Same old fascism. Same old racism – doesn't matter whether it's the BNP or Patrick Harrington and his Third Way, it's all the same.

Well, no. Lancaster Unity's definition of both fascism and racism is very elastic. Third Way is not the same as the BNP. The 2008 BNP is not the same as the 1982 BNP. Just as they elide fascism and nazism they like to portray all expressions of nationalist thinking as all the same. it's totally untrue, of course and as shown above, they will twist any article through selective quotation, perfect hindsight, projection of ideas and attitudes to explain what Third Way 'really' means. Opposition to mass migration does not mean opposition to non-whites. In fact the Third Way is open to members from all ethnic and faith backgrounds. It has clearly stated that it aims for a harmonious, multi-cultural society.