We need to affirm that “the English” are not an indigenous culture and diasporic folk are not colonisers

Being unfit to travel, I watched as the spectacle of British white supremacism unfolded on my computer and phone. My revolt and horror led to spreading information and challenging this ideology as best I can. In one instance, I found white supremacist ideology spreading into anti-colonial conversations.

I shared online Freedom’s report on counter-protesters in Bristol, and a saddening conversation occurred. One individual I am in contact with in the USA, a green anarchist who is seemingly clueless about the British Isles, voiced support for the white supremacists, with some confused notion that these are indigenous people fighting against Muslim colonial invaders. This included an alarming amount of Islamaphobic rhetoric going with their claims. It seemed to follow the argument used by people like Andrew Tate, who has described migrants as “invaders” and stated that “people who are natively born to a land have a right to that land”.

Now while this individual only represents themselves, I feel the need to raise attention to the two misconceptions that make this thinkable.

The first is that England has an indigenous culture, and that the British are an indigenous people. England is entirely the product of colonialism and a colonial force throughout history. The Celtic cultures of these isles were themselves not the first human cultures. Roman, Saxon, Norse, Norman, Jewish and Protestant settlement — all came before any modern influx of population under capitalism. England is a place one can only become indigenous to.

The second misconception that diasporic folk, exiles, refugees, as invaders are colonialists. To flee from war, global warming or anything else pertaining to Leviathan’s violent impacts – this is life preservation, not empire. In my book Revolting I have written about my belief that surviving this mass extinction event will involve co-existing with strangers, ecological and cultural exiles, and diasporic folk. I repeat that here, with the affirmation that surviving white supremacism involves forms of practice that encourage partnership and life together.

I have also recently written about why the destruction of white supremacist ideology requires the destruction of three of its foundational concepts: separatism, the great chain of being, and the myth of control. Considering that white supremacism can conceivably be mistaken for anti-colonialism, it seems that the notion of separatism, despite being ecologically meaningless, is still somehow part of some green anarchists’ thinking.

Yes, these are islands in the North Sea. But that geographical distance from the continent and ecological differentiation does not render us separate. To value some above others in some great chain, due to words on paper granting citizenship to some, is to hold greater respect for words and writing than for the embodied presence of living beings. Events like global warming and the recent pandemic seem to be enough to render the myth of control meaningless.

I recently saw a video of the folk punk band Nasty Fishmonger at a counter-racist street rally, with folks all around them singing in rebellion against white supremacy. Perhaps this is what decolonisation and becoming-indigenous upon these might look like? Decolonising England and the British Isles has nothing to do with white supremacism. Here like in Palestine, decolonisation is about the machine, not the population.

~ Julian Langer

Photo: Oliver Dixon CC BY-SA 2.0