After a very considerable hiatus, the parapolitical magazine Notes from the Borderland is back. Issue 12 is out now, and covers an eclectic range of issues. The magazine is available in bookshops like Housmans in Kings Cross and stores stocked by Central distribution, and also via the Magazine Heaven chain.
The front cover shows the disastrous National Action rally in 2015, where the far-right's finest ended up hiding in the left luggage facility at Liverpool Lime Street station, besieged by anti-fascists and surrounded by rather nervous looking coppers. Larry O'Hara and Dave Hughes question the state response to far-right terrorism in recent years, not least when it is a phenomenon so significantly dwarfed by its jihadist rivals. A significant player in the trials involving neo-Nazis has been academic Matthew Feldman - O'Hara dissects just how low the bar may be when it comes to academic 'expertise' in some of these cases. The sorry collapse of CARR - the Centre for the Analysis of the Radical Right - an organisation Feldman founded, features as a perhaps classic example of the ability of some of those on the left of politics (as they would see themselves) to eat their own. The questions this debacle raises illustrate that even within an academia where it has the pitch to itself, the left's iconoclasm ensures that it is more interested in smashing up, than building institutions.
NFB is perhaps the only parapolitical magazine in the UK now appearing in print form. Old rival Lobster moved to online only many years ago, and if there are any new kids on the block (Declassified UK perhaps?) they have been born and will no doubt only ever breathe and toddle online. I think that's a shame - I don't believe the human brain can read detail or theory online for a significant amount of time. Its pleasing therefore to see Verona Silenda pick up her stiletto and wield it in the direction of artificial intelligence and the threat technology poses to both our politics and our personal freedoms. Technology of course, makes hypocrites of us all, and it was a delight to be reminded once more of Steve Booth's old cartoon, on page 50 about the primitivist CD-Rom.
One book I don't have from my days in the Anarchist movement is the Anarchist Cookbook. Heidi Svenson covers recent terrorism trials involving this text, and some of the curious specimens caught up in them - none more so than Mr Logic lookalike Oliver Bel. I have contributed a short piece on the environmental movement and its giddy approach to fascism, which it seems to see virtually everywhere, but most certainly in the production of the fossil fuels that we, for now at least, cannot do without. Comments on my article are welcome.
In general terms the magazine, while detailed, sustains a humourous tone, is well produced and is perhaps best read in chunks. As Brian Clough once said of televised football - you don't want Sunday roast every day of the week. Notes from the Borderland is a roast dinner, not a sandwich at your desk. As with any roast however, some parts are perhaps better than others. If there is a rubbery carrot served it is Dave Hughes's article 'It isn't just them.' This is almost teenage in its naiveté about pro-Palestinian marches, and the wider Gaza conflict. Contrary to Mr Hughes's rose tinted spectacles, the reason the arrest rate at these marches is 'lower than Glastonbury' is because the authorities (including the very spooks NFB is supposedly watching) have treated them as a safety valve, broadly allowing extreme behaviour, threats and support for terrorism to occur on the streets, rather than force it underground. Indeed the point is made by Neil Basu, former head of counter-terrorism policing and Sir Keir Starmer's newest buddy, that the marches are important for that very reason. Bear in mind though, that those people calling for jihad here or anywhere else are not your friend........
And there's more. There is also an NFB special issue on the 1999 London nail bombings, an outrage for which we have just seen the twenty-fifth anniversary. Details of that publication and where to order it, are here.
Dave would be thrilled to being compared to a teenager! Seriously, Basu may well claim the marches are seen as a 'safety valve' but the fact is, peaceful discontent with the UK's support for genocide in Gaza is so widespread PC Plod has had little choice other than to stand by and do nothing.
Two further points.
1) I accept there is so much content in the magazine not everything could be mentioned, but I would draw readers attention to the fascinating data comparing prosecutions for (alleged) continuity NA membership and that (zero) for Al Muhajiroun membership.
2) Finally, it is worth pointing out that both new publications (and much more besides) are available directly from us at https://borderland.co.uk
If this issue sizzles (which it does!) the next will be a towering inferno (for some...)
Posted by: Larry O'Hara | May 12, 2024 at 05:32 PM