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Swansea man recruited for neo-Nazi splinter group after National Action ban, trial told

22 Apr 2022 3 minute read
Founder of banned terrorist organisation National Action Alex Davies arrives at Winchester Crown Court. Picture by Andrew Matthews / PA Wire.

The co-founder of a neo-Nazi group helped recruit members to a “continuity” group after it became the first fascist organisation to be banned since the Second World War, a court has heard.

Alex Davies, 27, from Swansea, is on trial accused of being a member of the proscribed organisation National Action (NA), after it was banned on December 16, 2016.

Barnaby Jameson QC, prosecuting, has told the trial at Winchester Crown Court that the UK Government banned the group after it “terrorised” towns across the country with its call for an “all-out race war”.

The move was also made after the group “celebrated” the murder of MP Jo Cox in June 2016.

Members of the group had amassed an arsenal of weapons and would dress as paramilitaries for demonstrations which would feature antisemitic speeches and call for “traitors to be gassed”, Mr Jameson said.

Following the ban, Davies set up “continuity” group NS131, which stood for National Socialist Anti-Capitalist Action and which itself was later banned by the Government, Mr Jameson said.

The court heard that in January 2017, Davies was involved in organising the off-shoot organisation, which was initially proposed to be called Southern Activist Network but which later was named NS131.

The jury was told group members used encrypted message services such as Wire secure messenger, Telegram and Tutanota secure email to communicate with each other.

On April 3, 2017, the defendant sent a message on Wire where he talks about recruiting members and he states: “Yorkshire seems like a great place for us. Like really we should be recruiting like mad.”

On April 12, he posted a message on Wire stating: “I’m a little bit paranoid too. Seeing as I’m a known person, trying to use insecure methods to reach people is risky.”

Then on April 17, Davies sent another message to someone named Michael from the Southampton area of Hampshire inquiring about joining the group.

Michael wrote: “I heard that you are setting up an activist group in the south West.”

Davies replied: “Alright mate, yes we’ve got something going in the south west.”

He added: “We’re an informal group that has no specific name. I’ll explain more about how we’re structured when we meet. We have a revolutionary Nationalist Socialist ideology.”

‘Need to be smart’

To another potential member, Davies wrote: “The way I see it, our people need to be able to ‘swim’ among the general population without trouble.

“We need to be inside the institutions so that we can be in a position to influence things, and obviously you wont last long if you’re too blatant about being a Nazi.

“It’s what Adolf did. When at a formal meeting – smart wear. When on the street – SA wear. Except nowadays it’s suit and tie at the meeting and on the street it’s Stone Island and Fred Perry.

“I get that entirely. We need to be smart but ready to use well-directed boots and fists, if need be. No pacifist movement is going to go anywhere.”

He added: “One criticism I would have with what we were doing with NA is that it was all provocative stuff, which is great for getting the papers but little more than that. Little in the way of actually building our support or organising our people into communities that can resist the multiracial onslaught.”

Davies denies membership of a proscribed organisation between December 17, 2016, and September 27, 2017 and the trial continues.


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