The ‘under the radar’ theory

Mark Wilson gives his perspective on sideshows and time-wasting in the nationalist movement.

You may not be familiar with the idea of operating “under the radar” in a political sense. I first heard it a few years ago from a lady who was the national leader of a party I was a member of. I had suggested to her that we needed to produce a magazine to keep our members informed, that we should update our website a lot more, and that, in my opinion, we needed to generally do more, like put out more leaflets, have some demonstrations, etc.

I was gob-smacked to say the least when she answered in her usual patronising manner that I had a lot to learn and that I did not understand. She told me that we should not do any of the things that I had suggested as it would cause unwanted attention from the media and the government.

She said that she had this “under the radar theory”, that if we kept our heads down and did not attract any attention, then all of the good people of Australia would hear about us by word of mouth and they would join the party, and then we could stand candidates at the federal election – all this so that our enemies would not see us coming and we could “sneak in” and win power this way.

To be honest, I felt sick at hearing our “leader” spout so much nonsense and I realised that the party was doomed, being run as it was by a matriarch with little idea of how modern political organisations should operate.

Soon after, I left and joined the Australian Protectionist Party. APP proceeded to do all the things that the matriarch would not do, and more as well.

However, before we go on, let us take a look back over the last few years and see how the matriarch’s plan went: her organisation has been deregistered as a political party (because she failed to stand candidates), it has no activities in any states, no meetings, no demonstrations, no socials, nothing; it has no publications, no newspaper, no magazine, nothing. You could say that her “under the radar theory” has been a total success, as the matriarch’s party has had no publicity in the last couple of  years at all and as a result is no longer in the real fight; no word of mouth mass recruitment ever happened, the party is over.

A political party must be a part of the struggle; not to be the “be all and end all”, but to be an important part of the movement, a very visible part, that can take the heat, that will not run away and hide when the media or government attack us.

A political party must operate publicly so as to gain publicity and spread the word, to encourage others to join the fight.

As for the goal of anonymity, or operating “under the radar”, something these people forget is that it is not up to you whether you are going to be public or not; it is up to our enemies, and, believe me, the minute our enemies think a particular group is a threat, then the spotlight will be turned on it, and if that group doesn’t have anyone who is prepared to defend it publicly, they have no choice but to run for the hills.

Having a public party, with leaders or spokesmen willing and able to deal with the media and speak publicly, is an essential part of the arsenal of the nationalist movement.

The phrase “under the radar” may have only been coined recently (as a tactic for a political organisation), but this type of person has been around for a long time, both in Australia and overseas. In fact, the first one I ever met was in the British National Party in London 20 years ago, his name was Neville and he was big on talk, he could talk your ears off, telling you where you were going wrong, what you should be doing, what his ideas were, etc. However, he did not want any of his neighbours to know he was active with the BNP, he would not leaflet anywhere close to where he lived, and he would not sell papers in the street with us, but he was always there for a beer afterwards (he never missed that); the truth is that Neville just did not have the backbone for the fight.

Neville-types are often the ones who believe that they have found a short-cut to power, one that doesn’t involve a “boring” political party and all the associated hard work; they generally think that they are more intelligent than lowly party members, they love giving free advice, like “you guys should do this or that” (usually meaning that someone other than themselves should do the work). They like to think of themselves as “ideas men”; they believe that others can do the hard work in the public arena, whilst everything they do is “safe”, attracting no attention to themselves – yet they so often have a tendency to belittle and nit-pick those brave men and women who are prepared to stick their necks out and publicly defend our people.

Some Nevilles like to play at being “hard core”, because it makes them feel like they are flirting with danger and that they are “hard men”, when at the same time they know that they really are safe, as they are hiding from public view. They may even hang around with extremist groups, which means that they can avoid real responsibilities and hard work, as – since extremist groups attract so few people – they therefore never have to worry about dealing with hundreds of members and enquiries, media statements and public speaking, etc.

Because of their flirtation with extremist subjects, most Nevilles are not prepared to defend their group publicly, so once the spotlight is turned on them they then run and hide, which makes them look like they are up to no good in the eyes of the public. Yet, despite the fact that these “hard men” Nevilles run from the media themselves, they love to attack those doing the hard yards in the real world, whether to attack them as “moderates” or whatever.

Metaphorically speaking, whilst the normal nationalists are marching in real fight, the “hard men” are hiding in dark alleys, throwing stones and spitting as the real workers go forward – because the Nevilles would rather let their nation die than let non-extremists win the fight for them.

If anyone recognises themselves as a Neville in this article, don’t get mad at me; instead, have a good hard look at what you know needs to be done; don’t put others off from getting behind APP and supporting those of us who want to be very much above the radar. Instead, how about you get out from “under the radar” and do some realistic work to attract the public into the movement, to create a large enough movement that can achieve real outcomes in the real world (as nationalists have done in Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, etc.).

Forget the “under the radar” nonsense. Don’t be a Neville, be an asset to the cause.