Fascists on campus: ‘Far-right’ Nietzsche Club banned by UCLU

A shady UCL society promoting the work of “traditional” philosophers associated with the far-right has been banned under anti-fascist union policy for two years.

A motion submitted to the Union Council in March slammed the UCL Nietzsche Club for its promotion of “racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-Marxist and anti-worker” philosophy, and resolved that the group’s ultimate aim was to promote fascism and racism on campus.

The group takes its name from German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche

The union has resolved to prevent the group from organising and meeting on campus in an extension of policy aimed at stamping out fascism and racism passed in the aftermath of the murder of Lee Rigby last year.

The Nietzsche Club, who originally positioned themselves as ‘Tradition UCL’ and were not affiliated to the union, had courted controversy with a provocative poster campaign bemoaning “political correctness”, and equality as a “false god”.

The group’s posters caused controversy on campus

The motion was initially returned to its proposer, Samuel Bayliss, for want of further evidence on the club’s exact political nature.

Despite concerns that there was insufficient tangible evidence to prove that the club and its members were fascist and racist organisation, the group’s open affinity for controversial political thought, and concerns that it might have been operating as part of “the wider fascist movement” convinced Council that the group ought to be banned.

It was ruled that there was no “meaningful distinction” between the ideology of the group’s favourite philosophers and that of fascism, leaving the already mysterious group facing an uncertain future.

While it remains to be seen whether the motion’s commitment to unite the struggle against fascism “under the programme of a socialist transformation of society” will be fulfilled, the uncompromising approach to the Nietzsche Club is the latest effort by the union to exclude and nullify the threat of individuals and organisations who are seen to threaten safety of discussion among the student body.

Full text of the UCL Council Motion to Fight Fascism can be found here: http://uclu.org/sites/uclu.org/files/policies/up1343.pdf