Blanke Bevrydingsbeweging

The White Liberation Movement (Afrikaans: Blanke Bevrydingsbeweging; abbreviated BBB) was a small but notorious South African neo-Nazi organisation which became infamous after being banned under the Apartheid regime, the first right-wing organisation to be so banned. It regarded itself as the most far-right organisation in South Africa.[1]

White Liberation Movement

Blanke Bevrydingsbeweging
AbbreviationBBB
LeaderJohan Schabort
Founded1 June 1985 (1985-06-01)
DissolvedNovember 1988 (1988-11) (banned)
HeadquartersPretoria, South Africa
IdeologyWhite nationalism
Afrikaner nationalism
Neo-Nazism
Anti-semitism
Political positionFar-right
ReligionChurch of the Creator

History

The organisation was formed in June 1985 by Professor Johan Schabort.[2][3] It started as the support organisation for Schabort's Blanke Party (White Party), which existed only in name.[4] In June 1987 the BBB went public and sought to recruit members,[5] aiming at both Afrikaners and British whites.

Its honorary leader was Theuns Stoffberg, a former member of the Greyshirts. Another notable member was Keith Conroy,[6] an Englishman who would later become Kommandant of the AWB's 'Iron Guard'.[7]

Activities

In August 1987 Schabort attended and spoke at a commemorative service for Rudolf Hess organised by the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB).[8] The BBB would organise inflammatory meeting and marches. The BBB sought to link with international right-wing organisations.[9]

The BBB ran a "blatantly racist"[9] bilingual magazine Kommando: Stem van die Blankedom/Kommando: Voice of the White Race published by Alan Harvey. Harvey was deputy leader of the South Natal branch[6] (its leader was Peter Smith); Harvey had previously published and edited the South African Patriot magazine in Durban, under the "Patriotic Press" imprint.[6] This magazine carried advertisements of several far right organisations around the world, including David Duke’s the National Association for the Advancement of White People, National Vanguard magazine issued by the National Alliance, Instauration magazine, the British cultural magazine Heritage and Destiny, the National Front’s Nationalism Today (to which Harvey contributed both under his own name and under the pseudonym "John Humphries"), and NF News.[6] Harvey contributed to the BBB’s publication under his own name.[10]

Ban

The BBB was banned, and restrictions were placed on the political activities of Schabort in November 1988, in reaction to the massacre of black people in Pretoria by Barend Strydom.[11] This was the first time such restrictions had been placed on a right wing organisation.[12] In banning the group Adriaan Vlok, the Law and Order Minister, said that the group were "right-wing, fanatical extremists who favour violence to carry racism to its extreme".[13]

In December 1988 Schabort re-launched the BBB as the Blanke Nasionale Beweging (White National Movement) under the nominal leadership of Wynand de Beer; however as its activities were clearly the same as the BBB it was banned in the beginning of 1989.

The government lifted the ban on the BBB in February 1990.[14][15]

Schabort officially disbanded the BBB and the Blanke Party in 1990 and joined the Conservative Party.[16] Some members of the BBB like Keith Conroy would go on to support the Afrikaner Volksfront.

Later events

A few members, led by Jean Pierre du Plessis, sought to continue the BBB, with the BBB as the political wing to which would be added an underground organisation called the National Socialist Partisans (NSP). Schabort chose not to become involved.[17] Du Plessis continued to form the NSP as a cell ; its flag was "basically white with a red cross and a swastika".[18] NSP members were arrested in 1991 for the murder of three black people at Louis Trichardt.

Following a bombing of a taxi rank in Germiston on 26 April 1994 which killed ten people it was claimed in the press that the BBB were responsible; Schabort denied the BBB was responsible[19]

Ideology

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission described the BBB's ideology as "refined nazism".[20] Schabort himself described the organisation as "openly racist".[2] It was white supremacist and against race mixing. The BBB regarded blacks as 'mud people' or 'mud race'.[9] The BBB sought the 'repatriation' (expulsion) of blacks from South Africa, "by violence if necessary".[2] It was openly anti-semitic, regarding Jews as existing between white and blacks, and denied the Holocaust.[21] The BBB was against democracy and sought a new economic order.

The AWB criticised the BBB for being anti-Christian and atheistic; the BBB's tendency was towards the Church of the Creator. The BBB used the odal rune as its symbol.[22]

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References
  1. Kemp, Arthur Victory Or Violence - The Story of the AWB of South Africa Ostara Publications (2008) p111
  2. Zille, Helen, The Right Wing in South African Politics in Berger, Peter L. and Godesell, Bobby (editors) A Future South Africa: visions, strategies and realities Human and Rouseau (1988) p61
  3. HOOFSTUK IV, NEO-NAZISME IN SUID-AFRIKA: MIMETIESE FASCISME, 1970-1995, p. 157 "Die Ideologiese Grondslae En Ontwikkeling Van Die Blanke Fascistiese Bewegings In Suid-Afrika, 1945- 1995," (The ideological foundations and development of white fascist movements in South Africa, 1945-1999) M.A. Thesis University of Pretoria (1999) Visser, Myda Marista p. 156
  4. Kemp, Arthur Victory Or Violence - The Story of the AWB of South Africa Ostara Publications (2008) p96
  5. Kotzé, H. & Greyling, A., Political Organisations in South Africa A-Z Tafelberg Publishers (1994) p111
  6. HOOFSTUK IV, NEO-NAZISME IN SUID-AFRIKA: MIMETIESE FASCISME, 1970-1995, p. 157 "Die Ideologiese Grondslae En Ontwikkeling Van Die Blanke Fascistiese Bewegings In Suid-Afrika, 1945- 1995," (The ideological foundations and development of white fascist movements in South Africa, 1945-1999) M.A. Thesis University of Pretoria (1999) Visser, Myda Marista p. 157
  7. "'Keef' of Croydon stokes SA race fires: English immigrant who heads". 29 June 1993. Retrieved 2 December 2016.
  8. Kemp, Arthur Victory Or Violence - The Story of the AWB of South Africa Ostara Publications (2008) p56
  9. Kotzé, H. & Greyling, A., Political Organisations in South Africa A-Z Tafelberg Publishers (1994) p112
  10. Harvey, A.D., The "Save Rhodesia Campaign"-why it failed. Kommando 5, Maart-Mei 1988, p134. HOOFSTUK IV, NEO-NAZISME IN SUID-AFRIKA: MIMETIESE FASCISME, 1970-1995, p. 157 "Die Ideologiese Grondslae En Ontwikkeling Van Die Blanke Fascistiese Bewegings In Suid-Afrika, 1945- 1995," (The ideological foundations and development of white fascist movements in South Africa, 1945-1999) M.A. Thesis University of Pretoria (1999) Visser, Myda Marista p. 134
  11. Schönteich, Martin and Boshoff, Henri Volk, faith and fatherland: the security threat posed by the white right Institute for Security Studies (South Africa)(2003) p19
  12. South Africa History Online website
  13. KRAFT, SCOTT (18 November 1988). "S. Africa Bans White Extremist Group : Move Is First Against Rightists in 40 Years of National Party Rule". Retrieved 2 December 2016 – via LA Times.
  14. Truth and Reconcilliation Commission report Vol 6, section 3, chapter 6 p446
  15. "CVET - Community Video Education Trust". www.cvet.org.za.
  16. van Rooyen, Johann Hard Right: The New White Power in South Africa I.B. Tauris (2004) p96
  17. Truth and Reconcilliation Amnesty Hearings
  18. "Truth and Reconcilliation Amnesty Hearings".
  19. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 3 July 2011. Retrieved 2010-12-08.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  20. Truth and Reconcilliation Commission report Vol 6, section 3, chapter 6 pp445-446
  21. Visser, Myda Marista Die Ideologiese Grondslae En Ontwikkeling Van Die Blanke Fascistiese Bewegings In Suid-Afrika, 1945- 1995 (The ideological foundations and development of white fascist movements in South Africa, 1945-1999) M.A. Thesis University of Pretoria (1999) p161
  22. Visser, Myda Marista Die Ideologiese Grondslae En Ontwikkeling Van Die Blanke Fascistiese Bewegings In Suid-Afrika, 1945- 1995 (The ideological foundations and development of white fascist movements in South Africa, 1945-1999) M.A. Thesis University of Pretoria (1999) p164
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