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There are no shortcuts in life, and as such there are no shortcuts to lasting political change either. All attempts to take the easy road to success inevitably come crashing down, and those that try this path enjoy a fleeting glimpse of glory before crashing into ruins, left without any real salvation. I have looked at how radical movements in the past have either succeeded or failed, and experienced in real time a movement around me that has seemingly been plunging further and further into failure, and thus conclude:

 

The only path to lasting victory, is to refuse to take those shortcuts.

 

Protest and Pressure-Group Activism – The ‘shortcut’ to influence

Over the past fifty years, alongside political parties and movements, there have existed (and still exist) protest movements, activist fronts and what are often called ‘metapolitical’ organisations. The theory goes that these kinds of entities can create ‘cultural change’, shift ‘Overton windows’ and ‘change discussion’. The reality of these kinds of activities is vastly disconnected from the theory. In practice, whilst they provide outlets for people to get their point across, they find themselves completely impotent in the face of genuine political authority.

 

No amount of protesting over the Iraq War caused it to stop. No amount of protesting over Brexit changed the results. No amount of protesting over Gaza has or will change the governments stance on the matter. No amount of protesting against ‘tyranny’ and ‘two-tier policing’ will make those issues go away. The reason why is because these movements, except in extremely rare circumstances, lack the real-world political authority that they need to actually legislate and enact change.

 

People are drawn to them because, at face value, it APPPEARS as though they are having an impact, but the objective reality is that those engaging like this tend to get further and further away from their ultimate goal, the entire time. It is also, by comparison, effortless. It is much easier for someone to go and glue themselves to a road whilst complaining about pollution, than it is to develop alternatives to industrial policy. It is much easier to demand the resignation of Police Commissioners through a megaphone than it is to actually offer a credible replacement for that Commissioner. Trying to achieve systemic change by protesting and pressure-group activism is a shortcut to real political influence, and like all shortcuts in life, it leaves those taking it even worse off than at the beginning. It is fundamentally about putting the onus on OTHER people to devise solutions and take actions, and when you end up with even thousands of people who all want a solution, but who won’t take any action themselves, then no matter how many thousands, it goes nowhere.

 

Low-hanging fruit and meaningless but easy wins – the ‘shortcut’ to power

In the context of electoral politics for radical third-position and nationalist parties, the discussion turns to seats and elections. One of the predominant theories in this sphere since the 1990s is the concept of the ‘ladder strategy’; you start at the lowest levels of power (parish councils, local councils) and then work your way up to district councils and constituency seats. The idea being that it is ‘easier’ to win local elections than it is to win constituency elections.

 

It may indeed be easier, but just because it is easier, it doesn’t mean it is valuable.

 

Every single party that has pursued this strategy since its inception, has failed. And not only this, but the harder a party focusses on ‘localised’ politics and trying to get a foot on the bottom of the ladder, the WORSE they tend to do, even at that lower level. The lower your ambitions, the lower your achievements. The closer you move the goalpost, the poorer your performance. This strategy has never worked, and the slavish devotion to it by the overwhelming majority o the nationalist sphere in particular is crippling.

 

In the rare instances where this strategy has paid off (at a very limited and short-term level), it has produced wins that cannot be capitalised on, and put good people into positions whereby they can’t actually deliver on any of the promises they have made. It is no good promising to curtail immigration by winning a seat on a local council, or telling people that you can restructure the economy by being a parish councillor. Inevitably anyone that promises that will disappoint anyone who votes for them, even if they be the best and most competent individual in the world.

 

Just because something is easier to win, it doesn’t mean that it is the first thing to try and win.

 

Ignoring our people who most need us – the ‘shortcut’ to support

I cannot count the number of times that I have heard people express phrases like, ‘London is lost,’ ‘Bradford is lost,’ ‘Birmingham is lost,’ and the list goes on. The default position in most National circles is that once the problems of immigration, deprivation, unemployment and political disenfranchisement become sufficiently bad, that entire locality needs to be abandoned as a lost cause, with the focus switching to creating ‘strongholds’ in places that don’t have these issues.

 

This concept is based on the shortcut idea that you can simply win things much more easily, by just avoiding having to deal with any opposition or any real problems that need solving. And like every other shortcut, it fails. It creates a situation whereby a party is campaigning on issues that aren’t actually affecting the people that are in the position of voting for it, whilst at the same time ignoring the very voters that actually desperately need it as an alternative. To see explicitly ethnocentric political parties putting all their energy into campaigning for an ethnostate in an area that is already homogenous, is as cretinous as it is laughable.

The reality is that the people in the areas actually affected by the most serious political issues of today, who lack money, lack representation and lack any kind of cohesive community, are the people who most need an alternative. And you can go to even multiracial localities and most people will still identify the exact same major issues – unhappiness with the political system, the state of the economy and public services, even immigration.

 

You cannot sell a product to people that don’t actually need it, and likewise you cannot shortcut your way to political support by offering a solution to a problem people don’t actually have.

 

The Path to Victory

The shortcuts to Victory need to be put out of sight and out of mind, resisted with the same fury as every other obstacle that stands in the way. Our people can triumph, and they will do it with a combination of willpower and organisation. The temptation to take the easy roads when offered can be resisted, and once that temptation is laid to rest, then the great successes will begin to come. Everything must be done with long-term goals in mind. The focus can never falter or be lost, even for a moment, and there must be people who are willing to put themselves into the cause knowing that they may not live to see it succeed, only those after them will.

 

It will take a monumental feat of leadership and strategy to not only remedy a crippled political movement, but to get it into a position where it can aspire to government and permanent victory. It is entirely possible, because with a strength of will and self-belief, all things are possible. The Party will be an instrumental part of this process, and for as long as it exists and I lead it, there will be no shortcuts.

 

By Alek Yerbury

Party Leader