So as followers of this blog will note, we have stayed closely to the more fringe elements of white nationalism and the far right. This means looking towards various Third Positionist movements, National Anarchism, racial paganism, and, of course, neo-folk and related musical genres. We would never claim that the entire genre is fascist in nature, really only a small subset of bands are in the grand scheme of things, but they have been influential in the aesthetics, lyrical content, and style of the movement.
The harbringer of this turn is the seminal neo-folk band, Death in June. People will note them for their extensive use of Nazi and fascist imagery, which people try to claim is either ironic, non-racial pagan, shock value, or some other apologetic notion. Douglas Pearce, the masked front man of DiJ, has repeatedly countered this view with his open racist comments, support for Third Positionist/Strasserite National Socialism, and his racialized Nordic Odinism. This is a point that has been outlined in many, many places before, so instead of retreading the evidence for the band’s racist positions and connections, we will simply post a reading list below with links to articles that expand on this. DoJ makes up a racialist undercurrent of bands that all intertwine, including Sol Invictus, Blood Axis, Boyd Rice, and many other neo-folk, martial industrial, pagan metal, and black metal bands.
DiJ and its cohorts are destructive parasites on music culture, where they have infected goth and industrial musical subculture with nationalist notions. Pearce has continued, and will continue when confronted, to hide behind the fact that he is an open gay man and has worked in Jews, but this is only a complexity that is built on a much more deeply running idea of racial folkish nationalism. Even though he may not share every aspect of victimizing fascist ideologies, he certainly pairs the Might is Right, racial separatism, and cult of violence that makes up the genocidal nationalist project. More importantly, he creates a space for a “rainbow” assortment of those on the far right, and almost none of their concerts pass without participation from local white nationalists, skinheads, neo-Nazis, Odinists, Men’s Rights Activists, and others on the racist “Alternative Right.” Plainly put: Death in June is a “hip” meet-up point for those who want to dethrone equality and democracy and institute a brutal hierarchical order built on racial, gender, and sexual divisions. Whether the followers use fancy terms like “anarcho-Monarchist” or “Dark Enlightenment,” they share the same philosophical trend that makes up our direct opposition.
Death in June is heading out on tour for the end of November and all of December. Antifa has seen some of their biggest successes in shutting down Death in June events, which can sometimes be the largest white power event in a city all year. The “no platform” principle of Antifa organizing is incredibly important here, where the first organizing strategy can be to pressure the venue to cancel the show. Most venues do not even know who they are offering the space to, and certainly do not want to invite the kind of conflict or characters that are insured at a DiJ show. If they double down, as they have in many instances, then this means confronting the event as it is happening and doing what is possible to stop DiJ from having a space to operate. In these instances, we can draw heavily from the community, to have a groundswell that is not going to tolerate old-fashioned racist ideas under the guise of hipster irony and nature worship. DiJ actions have been especially successful from the participation of anti-racist pagans and music fans who are tired of being associated with a vile racist undercurrent.
They will also be touring with a band Spiritual Front, which is more up front about their white nationalism than even Death in June.
Below, we are listing all of the Death in June concert dates and location, including the venues. You can choose the venue link or the Facebook to get the phone number and email, both of which are good for contact. It is also a good idea to try posting messages on the venue’s Facebook page, but expect DiJ fans to begin insulting you. Locally, groups should begin to organize counter actions, as well and having “call ins” in coordinating blasts to show the venues that the community will not tolerate this kind of racialist music in their city.
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| Death in June Reading List | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Below are articles that outline Death in June’s nationalist politics and fascist connections. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Anti-Fascist News 
I’m curious how the authors feel about the ideology of Current 93? I agree that Death in June is not welcome in my neighborhood venues but have just recently started to learn about the links between Death in June & David Tibet of Current 93.
I’m just honestly interested in hearing the author’s viewpoint. Thank you.
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So this is actually a complicated question, but a really good one. I am actually a huge fan of neo-folk music in general, which is why this far-right influence is something that keeps coming up in situations that seem non-political. Current 93 seems to have an issue mainly with the company they keep rather than sharing the far-right political sympathies. Generally, Tibet seems much more concerned with writing poems about death and the end of the world more than any kind of nationalism. What he does share with the other bands are things like interests in heathenism, religion in general, the occult, romanticism, nature, etc., all of these things can easily shift towards a non-racist direction.
I generally feel uneasy letting the “politics of contagion” take place where simple associations between David Tibet and people like Pierce and Boyd Rice paint him as a fascist. I think he likely tows the line that many in these neo-folk circles do, which is that the fascist references are just provocative and part of an iconoclastic artistic process. We certainly disagree with him about this, but his poor judgement is not the same as maintaining those kinds of politics or creating a space for open fascist influences.
Of course, if some evidence comes forward, we would change our tune.
This is actually a larger and, in some ways, a more philosophical question about how far an artist can go away from your values before they stop getting a pass. We do not have clear answers on this, and I am actually working on a larger article that looks right at this question. With Death in June and Sol Invictus, the barometer we think is good is that they represent and advocate for an actual fascist politic, which is different than simply being problematic or even just having interpersonal racist ideas. In that way, counter-organizing DIJ is a way of actually confronting the political movements that utilize the neo-folk scene as a mobilization ground.
So, this may have been kind of a long answer to your question, but Current 93, and many, many other neo-folk bands, seem to basically “ride in the same car” as Nazis, but do not actually share those neo-fascist ideas. We really, really hope that they never prove us wrong on that. 🙂
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Current 93 are more closely linked with bands like Psychic TV, Coil and Nurse with Wound than any right-wing groups. They’ve collaborated with Bjork and Steve Ignorant of Crass, who I seriously doubt would collaborate with anyone racist or nationalist. I’m an anarchist pagan/heathen and bands like DiJ piss me off, but I love Current 93.
also check out Rome for a neofolk/industrial band who are explicitly anarchist and anti-fascist.
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We would agree that Current 93 is not really associated with the fascist side, but they have done 15 collaborations with Pierce from DiJ and some with Boyd Rice.
Thanks for the music suggestion as well! We are seriously always on the hunt for anti-racist neofolk bands.
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Current 93 have distanced themselves from Death In june and are inherently Christian and apocolyptic. Nothing to do with Nazism. Quite the opposite. Current 93 warn about fascism if anything.
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First off I know more than likely you will dismiss me as a neo nazi hag (when in fact I am not even white) but I find it really unfair how some people feel like they have the right to stop other people’s freedom of speech. I have been a fan of Death in June for two years now and have been a fan of sort of extreme/fringe music a lot longer and would like to point out that most fans don’t agree with the ideology behind it. I myself just like the sound and some of the imagery. I do not think a band needs to be politically correct to sound good. My point being is that while you have the right to dislike Neofolk and say what ever you want about it, you shouldn’t have the right to shut down concerts and such. If you don’t like it, don’t listen to it.
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We won’t dismiss you as a Nazi since you aren’t one(as far as we know). We absolutely will delete the comments from Nazis, we are not interested in providing their ideas a forum.
When it comes to extreme music, we actually do have sympathy with your position. The editors of AFN actually all have some bands they like that have some problematic elements. The difference with DiJ is that they actually seek to organize a fascist movement and provide a safe cultural space for white nationalists. In this way, it really is not the music itself that is the problem, it is them as a subcultural force. By targeting Death in June, organizers have the ability to help build an anti-racist movement that uses the “no platform” principle against active fascist organizers. There are a number of neo-folk bands who, while having problematic associations at times, are not open Third Positionists who advocate for those ideas as a political movement, and we are not calling for boycotts of them.
As for “have the right” to do it, we have the right to organize inside of the community about anything we please. We are not advocating state intervention or prosecution for hate speech, but we absolutely support a community coming together and deciding that they do not want Nazi’s advocating for those politics in their town.
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Thanks for writing this and elaborating in the comments. I’m a huge fan of neo-folk music in general, but I have always been a little worried and bummed about the racist/neo-nazi connections. The information here fills in a lot of gaps for me.
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We are also pretty big neo-folk fans, which is why this is always so troubling. We are working on a great big list of anti-racist, anti-fascist neo-folk/post-industrial/pagan folk/black metal/etc. bands, which we think could be a good first step towards building an anti-fascist neo-folk scene.
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Except Douglas is the only member of Di6 really. His aim was never for white supremacy. If that’s what you got out of Di6 you’re not a very intelligent person. Art isn’t always meant to be nice and pretty.
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I’m want that antifa-neofolk list too! I like anarchist politics, esoterism and neo-folk music. Here is an interview with David Tibet (1985) where he shows his vision on politics.
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I want that antifa-neofolk list too! I like anarchist politics, esoterism and neo-folk music. Here is an interview with David Tibet (1985) where he shows his vision on politics: http://jetfraer.net/Current93/Pri/artitude.html
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Please provide non biased proof that dij have a “nazi” agenda. Your writing only makes a claim but fails to prove or provide evidence.
Thank you kindly
-a fellow anarchist
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Yes, please provide proof that DIJ is “nazi”. Satire is indeed very different from the real thing. In fact, if someone is satirizing nazi propaganda it ultimately posits that they are in opposition to it.
Here is some proof that they are not Nazi as you claim:
“Pearce formed Death in June in 1981 in England, along with Patrick Leagas and Tony Wakeford. Pearce and Wakeford had been members of the political punk band Crisis, which formed in 1977. Crisis had gained a substantial following in the UK punk subculture. Crisis performed at rallies for The Right to Work, Rock Against Racism, and the Anti-Nazi League.”-Wikipedia
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“Death in June is a nazi band
Thought they don’t necessarily identify as nazis, nor do they explicitly use the imagery for fascist deliverence, and DP has stated outright that he does not identity as a nazi (whilst providing some counter evidence to that claim), and the fans by in large don’t identify as nazis, I still think they are a nazi band and nothing you can say or do will stop me from thinking this.
QED”
Cool article, FYI Boyd Rice is the fashy one. He aided in isolating original DiJ members. His side project NON is really good, check it out!
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