The Steadfast Trust loses the plot

The saga of the Steadfast Trust continues...

The organisation was deregistered by the Charity Commission early last year, although it may well have died even without this occurring. One of its supporters, Darren Clarke, has said as much on Facebook:

Still, it seems that somebody involved with the Steadfast Trust is willing to keep at it, and the website has been given a recent overhaul. Oddly, the charity's official Facebook page still hasn't been updated since April 2015, with bewildered bigots leaving comments asking what has happened. This suggests that the organisation has undergone a change in management, and whoever is running the shop now does not have access to the Facebook page.


Bizarre rantings

Whatever else can beside about the original Steadfast Trust, the articles on its website were at least competently written. The same cannot beside of the new version: the writing here can be charitably described as green ink.

Here is how the site summarises the Steadfast Trust's 2015 woes: with a slideshow of World War II photos.

The site's second news report carries on in a similar vein. It begins with conspiracy theory:

This time around, the Steadfast Trust's opponents are directly compared to Nazis:

Seems a bit rich from an organisation that has previously associated with known neo-Nazi groups.

This gallery also contains a picture showing a policeman chasing a group of naked preadolescent boys. How the Steadfast Trust could feel that a photograph of naked children would be an appropriate thing to post is beyond me, and I have taken the liberty of censoring it:

In another slideshow, the new Steadfast Trust offers a distinctly pro-Christian slant - something which was not noticeable with the previous version of the charity. The site still acknowledges that practitioners of "English paganism" make up a significant portion of the Steadfast Trust's support base, however:

The new Steadfast appears also to be pushing an Atlanticist line. Here, it claims that the pilgrims who settled in America "did so because they want[ed] to live in England as a state of being":

Whoever put these slideshows together has certainly been busy. Too bad they didn't take the time to actually make their arguments coherent. I mean, look at this stuff:

Outside of slideshows, the site is also home to this unreadably garbled rant about race relations in contemporary Britain:

AND finally in pursuit of the old British State and Empire policy of DIVIDE ET IMPERA:- 

(a) That phrase “Black British” may be officially treated by institutions of the UK state including the Charity Commission as referring to an ethnic group that is to be afforded all the rights and privileges in law accorded to people of an ethnic or nation group.  This is to be so even though the UK State, including acting by the Commission for Equality and Human Rights, officially recognises the phrase “Black British” to  be referring to skin colour group – a group formed of people having a black skin colour whilst in the possession of British citizenship. 

(b). That persons who are mixed or multi in origin must stay in the mixed or multi census group in which they can be put according to skin colour and/or race mix and as such  cannot be members, let alone 100% members, of any other ethnic or nation group on the census form. 

(c) That brown and yellow people are to be preferentially treated by never labelling them as such. 

And these are just some of the God awful legal implications of the Charity Commission decision to remove The Steadfast Trust from the Charity Register. 

We know – yes this really is an “you what?” moment  and it begs the questions -” Is it meant to produce schizophrenia?”.  Was it meant to put a poison pill into inter communal relations?.   Was the purpose to wipe out of existence the indigenous communities of the UK  by the stroke of a civil servant’s pen.  Well you decide the answer to all these questions!. 

The burden of having all this garbage sorted out has fallen on The Steadfast Trust; an organisation that has an income of less than £10,000 a year – that is below the level of which an individual is considered wealthy enough to pay taxation.  The burden has fallen on an organisation, The Steadfast Trust, that has been intentional vilified in the public domain as being extremist far right, racist, national socialist (Nazi), white nationalist, etc etc etc.

To top off the weirdness, the Steadfast Trust has adopted the Broadway number "The Impossible Dream" as its theme song.


A Change of Location

Significantly, the organisation appears to have relocated its office during the last year. The earlier version of the Steadfast Trust website gave an Macclesfield-based address, while the new one claims to be located in Stratford-upon-Avon. Furthermore, I looked up the Whois information on the site and found that the provided address for the registrant is in Bury; I do not remember this being the case beforehand.

I looked up the Bury address and found that it belongs to a company called SVM Consultants, which was formed on April 2015. This is a very obscure company with almost no Internet presence. CheckCompany lists its officers as being Stephen and Valerie Morris, but beyond that the only relevant information I could find about it is that it is credited with running a Wordpress blog called England In My Heart:

For reasons of privacy, I blocked out part of the address to be on the safe side.

From here, we can find out exactly who is behind SVM by looking at the comments on the blog's "about" page:

Stephen Morris is a Bury-based English Democrat who stood in the 2015 election. I have not previously come across his name in connection with the Steadfast Trust, but given that its website is registered to his business address, it seems safe to say that he is involved with the current version of the organisation.

But whoever is in charge right now, there is a blatantly obvious flaw with how the Steadfast Trust is now presenting itself: nothing it says makes a lick of sense. It cannot hope to attract supporters with this kind of foaming-at-the-mouth gibberish, and so this development looks less like a revival and more like a last gasp.

Englisc Resistance

I decided to make a post about a racist Facebook page called Englisc Resistance, partly because I've seen a degree of misinformation about it being spread in antifascist circles. During the course of my research, however, the page closed down - although you can see an archive of it here. The Englisc nationalist movement can notch up yet another casualty...

As far as I can tell, the first significant mention of Englisc Resistance in an antifascist context is in this Vice article from September 12 2014, which briefly namechecks it as one of multiple "small but likeminded ethnic English groups".

Three days later Vice.com published an article by a different author, about a protest that was attended by members of far-right groups; "From the flags, it looked like it included the National Front (NF) and someone from the Englisc Resistance (that is the correct spelling)", states the article. This comment is illustrated with a photo showing the flags referred to:

This is where things have started to become distorted. The author appears to be working on the assumption that the symbol on the left-hand flag, showing a white dragon, a stylised swastika/fylfot and the slogan "Englisc - We Fear No Foe", is associated specifically with Englisc Resistance. This is presumably because both use the antiquated spelling "Englisc".

What the author seems unaware of is that Englisc Resistance is one part of a larger movement which also includes the Anglo-Saxon Foundation, the Steadfast Trust and other groups. Multiple people within this movement - which I have termed Englisc nationalism - have used the logo in question; for example, the Anglo-Saxon Foundation member Wodensson has it as his forum avatar:

I've also noticed a variation of the symbol, with St. George's Cross instead of a swastika, being used by some of the slightly less extreme nationalist groups:

A few months after the Vice.com articles went up, the Bristol Antifascists blog ran a list of various far-right groups. Influenced by Vice's work, this list includes Englisc Resistance in relation to the "Fear No Foe' swastika logo:

The description beneath the photo actually fits Englisc nationalism as a whole - the blog is confusing Englisc Resistance with the wider movement to which it belongs. The reference to burning crosses in forests is clearly derived from the first Vice article, which covers an unspecified nationalist group engaging in this activity but gives no indication that Englisc Resistance was responsible.

The following month, Brighton Antifascists published a list of far-right symbols which identifies the "Fear No Foe" swastika as the logo of Englisc Resistance:

 

I believe the man in this photograph to be Piers Mellor, who briefly appeared in the Exposure: Charities Behaving Badly talking about his involvement in the BNP, British Movement and National Front. Here is Mellor's response to the above snippet:

To give Mellor his due, I believe that he's entirely right in this tweet.

Having - hopefully - cleared up some misconceptions about Englisc Resistance, let's take a look at exactly what the people behind this now-defunct Facebook page stand for...
To start with, ER engaged in the tried-and-true Englisc nationalist practice of referring to non-white people as "orcs" and gloating over their deaths:

Despite being ostensibly focused on England r ather than the southern USA, the page showed a strange fascination with the Confederate flag. The first of these images is my favourite, making a nonsensical relation between the losing side of the American Civil War and the Anglo-Saxon festival of Eostre:

There are flags which Englisc Resistance was less keen on, however - such as the rainbow flag of gay rights:

In this post, Englisc Resistance republished an antisemitic cartoon from Der Sturmer:

In July the group posted a set of photos from a military exhibition; I did some digging and found that these images come from the War and Peace Revival in Kent. Predictably, English Resistance focused on the Nazi exhibits:

Englisc Resistance also appreciated this display of Ku Klux Klan memorabilia:

Who was behind Englisc Resistance? Well, the page was rather secretive on this front. Just look at the crudely scrawled-out faces in these photographs:

(Incidentally, the last of these images is from a Woden's Folk event at Avebury - more photos from the occasion can be seen in this video)

I couldn't help but notice that all three photos appear to show the same person. Each time the subject shares a similar build and, in two of them, even wears the same coat. So who is this mystery man?

Well, looking closely at the second image, I spotted something awfully familiar about that half-shaved haircut. He reminded me of Darren Clarke, one of the Steadfast Trust supporters seen in the Exposure: Charities Behaving Badly documentary. Here's a comparison:

I then compared the other two photos of the Englisc Resistance mystery man with one of Darren Clarke, taken at a March for England event:

Yup. I think we have our man.

Who is Darren Clarke? Well, when I first mentioned him on this blog, he was just another racist in the Englisc nationalist movement. He then went on to become the secretary of the Ipswich English Community Group. Not long afterwards he became an unlikely TV star when he turned up in the undercover footage seen in the Exposure documentary. I later demonstrated that Clarke was almost certainly the author of the book White Wyrm Rising: A Journey into Modern English Nationalism; in the same post, I provided strong evidence that Clarke is also the identity of the Stormfront member "Atrociter".

There is further evidence tying Clarke to Englisc Resistance. He was a regular poster in the page's comments section; here he is, showing his support for the Confederate flag:

Like many in the Englisc nationalist movement, Clarke likes to paint himself as an ordinary Englishman. But how many ordinary Englishmen feel such a passionate commitment to the cause of the Confederate States? How many would literally fly the flag for a neo-Nazi cult, as Clarke appears to be doing in the photo of the Woden's Folk gathering?

I will be keeping an eye out for Englisc Resistance in case it turns up again in a different form...

White Wyrm Rising - who is Edmund Dee?

In my previous post I talked about the book White Wyrm Rising: A Journey into Modern English Nationalism, which was published by Anglo-Saxon Books via its imprint Athelney.

The book is credited to "Edmund Dee", but something about this seemed fishy. I have written at length about the nationalist circle which the writer belongs to, and yet I had never come across anyone named Edmund Dee until this book was published. What's more, the author shows a fascination for King Edmund - the overlap in names seemed a little too big of a coincidence to me. So, I concluded that "Edmund Dee" is most likely a pseudonym.

So who is the author of the book?

As I noted in my first post about Anglo-Saxon Books/Athelney, a Google search on the title "White Wyrm Rising" prior to the book's publication turned up two relevant hits. One was a posting by an Anglo-Saxon Foundation member named Edmundy:

And for those of you who haven't twigged yet: Edmundy. Edmund Dee. It doesn't exactly take a Holmes to realise that Edmundy might be plugging his own book here.

Darren Clarke, as pictured in the East Anglian Daily Times.

As I demonstrated here, "Edmundy" is actually Darren Clarke, secretary of the Ipswich English Community Group and one of the more memorable people to appear in Exposure's segment about the Steadfast Trust. If you require further proof that Darren Clarke is the true identity of Edmund Dee, then here are a few more connections...

In this excerpt from White Wyrm Rising, Edmund Dee expresses an interest in metal detection and shows familiarity with Father Bryan Houghton's 1970 book Edmund, King and Martyr:

Compare this with Darren "Edmundy" Clarke, who expresses an interest in metal detection...

...And shows familiarity with Father Bryan Houghton's 1970 book Edmund, King and Martyr:

Next, Edmund Dee recounts how, alongside four locals, he helped to deliver a survey questionnaire on behalf of the Leicester English Community Group:

This photo, uploaded by the LECG, would appear to show the deliverers in question... and the group includes Darren Clarke:




While discussing his involvement with the 2012 March for England event in Brighton, Edmund describes how he and his neo-Nazi pal Steed carried a banner advertising an "English community website" with a slogan saying that the government is the enemy of the English people:

Take a look at this video of the march. At about 8:15 in, we can see what is almost certainly the banner in question, held by three men. And the man on the right is clearly Darren Clarke:

As we can see, the evidence overwhelmingly indicates that Edmund Dee is Darren "Edmundy" Clarke.

In the interests of balance, I should mention that there is also a point in the book where Edmund Dee mentions "Edmundy" in the third person:

But then, if Clarke were writing the book under a pseudonym, he would obviously be trying to hide his identity. Isn't it quite possible, then, that he would refer to himself in the third person so as to throw people off?

If Edmund Dee is Darren Clarke, then we are left with one last question of identity...

The final question: who is Atrociter?

As noted, Edmundy/Clarke was one of two people who I found had posted about White Wyrm Rising prior to its publication; the other was a Stormfront member who calls himself Atrociter (FSTDT has an archive of this person's more remarkable postings):




We now have a pretty good idea of how Edmundy/Clarke came across the book while it was still unpublished, as he appears to have written it. But how did Atrociter come across White Wyrm Rising?

We could theorise that he learnt about the book from Edmundy's post, which was made four days previously. But if we compare the two posts we can see that Atrociter went into rather more detail about the book - almost as though he was privy to the writing process.

So is it possible that Atrociter, too, is Darren Clarke?

Let's look at the evidence. Atrociter says that he lives on the Suffolk border - a description which fits Sudbury resident Clarke:

Edmund Dee relates how he attended a demonstration at the Tower of London on 27 January 2014:

This demonstration was also attended by Atrociter:

This is particularly significant when we consider the small scale of the demo:

"Wodensson, Nes, Edmundy, 3 Sons and the other woken Englishmen", apparently. (Clarke/Edmundy can be seen on the left, holding a flagpole)

Atrociter likes to refer to non-white people as "orcs" - a habit that is common at the ASF but rare at Stormfront:

This habit is shared by Darren Clarke:

Meanwhile, Atrociter and Clarke/Edmundy have the same taste in bumper stickers:

Edmund is concerned about media portrayals of interracial marriage, particularly in advertising:

(And as an aside, Darren Clarke's Facebook likes include "White Girls Who Date White Guys"):

Meanwhile, Atrociter shows a similar concern about interracial relationships in adverts:

Edmundy refers to London as a "lost city":



And Atrociter uses the same turn of phrase to identify Peterborough:

Atrociter also shares Clarke's fondness for St. Edmund and has posted about him at Stormfront a number of times (And is that an Eadmund silver penny in his avatar? I'm reminded of Darren Clarke's interest in metal detection...)

This last post is particularly interesting. As well as plugging White Wyrm Rising again, Atrociter mentions Woden's Folk - which he refers to as "Wodensfolc".

I'm not sure why he used this unorthodox spelling, but out of curiosity, I did a search on it:

Out of six hits, four refer to some kind of video game, while one is the Atrociter post above. The remainder is an Anglo-Saxon Foundation posting which was made by...

...Darren "Edmundy" Clarke.

It's also worth mentioning that Atrociter is a fan of Englisc Gateway, the website which hosts the Anglo-Saxon Foundation:

As a final tidbit, look at this excerpt from Edmund Dee's account of the life of King Edmund:

Coincidence, or...?

Is Atrociter actually Darren Clarke? Let's recap:

• Both knew about White Wyrm Rising and its contents before the book was published;
• Both live on the Suffolk border;
• Both are supporters of Englisc-Gateway;
• Both attended a small-scale demonstration at the Tower of London on 27 January 2014;
• Both own bumper stickers saying "What's so 'great' about Britain? I'm English!" and "St Edmund - True Patron Saint of England";
• Both refer to Woden's Folk as "Wodensfolc", a spelling apparently used by no-one else on the Internet.

And that's on top of the overlapping traits that are common amongst Englisc nationalists - celebrating St Edmund's Day, referring to non-white people as "orcs", complaining about portrayals of interracial marriages in the media and so forth.

Anglo-Saxon Books purports to be a respectable publisher. If it has released a propaganda book written by a Stormfront member - and the evidence certainly indicates that it has - then that is a very serious thing indeed.