Right exodus

Why are the far-right creating isolated settlements for white people?

In early August, the British newspaper The Times published a major article about the right-wing movement Woodlanders, which is raising money to build villages where only white people can live. American far-right groups and German Reichsbürger are also planning similar settlements, while in South Africa such a ‘whites-only’ town has existed for decades. What does this new trend indicate, and how serious are the activists’ intentions?

In the quiet of British woods

As The Times discovered, the Woodlanders movement is led by Simon Birkett, known to the British police as a member of several radical groupings. He belongs to that part of the right wing — not only in the British Isles, but also in Europe and the USA — which, after the COVID-19 pandemic, became disillusioned with the possibility of achieving their goals through political struggle and chose the path of escapism, withdrawing from existing society into closed worlds ‘only for their own’. In the view of Birkett and his like-minded people, who have already raised more than two hundred thousand of the million pounds declared for collection, the far-right should build an alternative society and isolate it from the decaying state. 
Ironically, just when Birkett and his ilk turned to escapism, the positions of the far right in Britain began to improve. In the local elections held on May 1st of this year, candidates from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, an implacable fighter against immigration, won more seats than any of their rivals.
The main grievance of the ‘woodlanders’ against the existing political system is the dominance of migrants. The constant growth in their numbers — just last year, 431,000 foreigners crossed the British border with the intention of staying in the country permanently — provokes a rejection among nationalists and makes them think about the forced separation of native islanders and newcomers. In the old days, such ideas could have resulted in ethnic violence and the creation of ghettos for Britain’s guests, but today radicals are supported by a minuscule part of the population, and the law has long been against them. Therefore, Birkett and company are going to retreat into reservations themselves.

The idea of creating a completely isolated ‘whites-only’ settlement in modern political and social conditions provokes considerable scepticism. One way or another, communities will have to interact with the outside world and representatives of the authorities, which already contradicts the concept of building an ‘alternative society’.

Shadows of the past 

The concept of territories inhabited only by representatives of the Caucasoid race is not new and goes back to the concept of a white ethnostate popular among Western racists, within which representatives of other races were destined to be strictly isolated, expelled or even destroyed. Vivid examples of this approach were the Third Reich and apartheid-era South Africa.
However, inhumane fabrications that one race not only surpasses the rest, but is also free to do whatever it wants with foreigners, have not led to anything good. The end of Hitler’s empire is well known to everyone, the apartheid regime in South Africa collapsed, leaving a heavy legacy, and the consequences of racial segregation in the United States have not been eradicated to this day.
The thing is, within ultra-right circles, the aforementioned experiments are — due to a misinterpretation of historical and social trends — considered successful, albeit with reservations. Therefore, the second half of the last century and the beginning of the current one have been characterised by the formation of closed ultra-right communities. Due to limited resources and a lack of broad public support, these communities sought to build a white ethnostate in places removed from the authorities’ gaze.
Most often, such groups slowly stewed in their own juices, experiencing schisms and the exodus of disillusioned adherents. Yet, it also happened that they began to pose a serious threat if an active leader was at the helm and there were enough daredevils among his comrades. The history of The Order, which terrorised the East Coast of the USA in 1983–1984 by robbing cash-in-transit couriers and murdering left-wing activists, is a vivid confirmation of this.

The main concern of the authors of the aforementioned article in The Times is that the radicals, while not formally breaking the law by buying land for their settlements, raise the question of what they will ultimately do with it.

Escapism is coming into fashion

The trend of consciously abandoning political struggle in favour of exodus can be seen not only among the British right, but also among their like-minded individuals throughout the Western world. Thus, in Arkansas, USA, a settlement of the far-right group Return to the Land has existed for over half a year. Forty members of the community bought about 150 acres of land, built roads, dug wells, erected houses, a church and a school, declaring that only people of ‘European origin with traditional views’ are welcome in this location. Tim Griffin, Attorney General of Arkansas, as well as members of the Anti-Defamation League, are concerned about what is happening, but the members of the community are behaving calmly and planning expansion.
Members of the Reichsbürger movement in Germany are doing something similar. Germans who consider themselves citizens of the Second Reich (which existed from 1871 to 1918) refuse to recognise the authorities currently in power in Germany, and declare purchased land and real estate as ‘national territory’, using it for a variety of needs — from organising maternity homes to growing organic produce.
However, in recent years, the Reichsbürgers have had a hard time: members of groupings belonging to this movement were accused by Berlin of preparing attacks on government officials, and in December 2022, at least 25 people were implicated in a murky story involving the alleged preparation of a coup d’état in Germany. This has attracted close attention to the ‘citizens of the Reich’ from the security services, which could not but affect their activity.

The creation of ‘whites-only’ settlements is another sign of the failure of the West’s migration policy and the growing influence of radical ideas. However, we should not expect the movement to become massive.

After all, the majority of the population in Europe and the United States wants solutions to the accumulated problems, and not flight from them into the woods, which explains the growing popularity of right-wing parties, such as Reform UK in Britain and Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Germany.

FACT

One of the few large, fully-fledged ‘whites-only’ enclaves in the world is Orania, South Africa. The town was founded in the late 1990s by Afrikaners — descendants of white colonisers who ruled South Africa until the fall of the apartheid regime. As of 2023, Orania had a population of 2,874. The town has its own self-government, flag, schools and vocational college. The main economic activity is agriculture. Only white Afrikaners who speak Afrikaans, have no criminal record and share the community’s values can obtain permission to live and work there.

LAW

At the global level, the main document aimed at combating racism is the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which came into force on January 4th, 1969. The document defines the concept of racial discrimination, condemns racial segregation and apartheid, and prohibits racial propaganda. Countries that have ratified the convention are obliged to provide protection against racial discrimination and to conduct educational work. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination monitors compliance with the convention.

By Anton Popov