Troy Southgate

Being a married, full-time father of four children whom you tutor yourself, you set an impressive example for other parents who want to raise a family independent of the totalitarian egalitarianism. How did that come about and how do you cope with what, for most people today, would seem an overwhelming task??

Home-schooling is not funded by the State and is still regarded in many circles as a rather bohemian and outlandish concept. There are well over a million home-educated families in North America, but in England the numbers are far smaller. My wife and I first thought seriously about home-schooling when she was still pregnant with our first child. At that time I was a Traditional Catholic and this form of alternative education was fairly popular amongst many of the parents in those circles. Coupled with the fact that England’s educational standards are some of the worst in Europe, we decided to join Education Otherwise, a self-help group designed to help families interested in home-schooling. A decade later we find ourselves with four children who have been taught to a fairly high standard and, thus far, managed to avoid becoming caught up in the cycle of Americanisation and youth crime that infects a vast number of other children. Home-schooling is very hard work and you do have to be very committed, but I can’t see any reason why all parents with our ideas can’t teach their children at home. It’s a question of reorganising one’s priorities and of making sacrifices. Compared to most people we do have to live on a fairly low income, but the results are there for all to see. Our children, whilst still very young, are already very clued-up about the nature of the world and the direction in which it is heading. By avoiding local schools and liberal teaching methods, therefore, we have managed to instil in our children a sense of identity, self-expression, individuality, history and ecological awareness. Home-schooled children also find it easier to relate to people of varying ages, rather than being unnaturally confined to a classroom with other children of exactly the same age. And rather than being ignored in a class of 40 or 50 pupils, they also receive one-on-one tutoring. People often ask us how we deal with the social aspect, which always seems very curious given that schools are supposedly designed to educate children and not to socialise them. In reality, of course, schools are indeed designed to ‘socialise’ children, inevitably preparing them for a life of uniformity, drudgery and wage-slavery. But our children participate in a whole variety of sports and belong to a number of clubs and organisations. That can involve a lot of time and money, but at least they do have friends outside of the home environment.

What should the role of the family be in the ideal society?

I see the family as the central part of an interconnecting chain that runs from the individual to the family and then from the family to the tribe. At the higher level, of course, we have the race itself, but it tends to become rather vague and abstract when people start talking about a ‘White race’ when there are so many diverse sub-categories involved. Needless to say, the family – along with the individual and the tribe – provides us with an identity and a point of reference. At the same time, of course, I don’t like the bourgeois interpretation of the family because some people are natural outcasts or tend to be rather misanthropic. People like that often have a higher purpose to fulfil, it’s not for everyone to settle down and have children.

How will you, being involved in several activities and independent groups such as National-Anarchism, Synthesis, the New Right and the music project H.E.R.R. (to mention but a few) concentrate your forces in the future? What are your plans and objectives for the coming year?

My chief priority at the moment, at least, is to continue with the work that we have been doing with the New Right since January 2005. There will be more meeting and social events. But whilst I remain a National-Anarchist at the purely political level, I no longer spend my time propagandising or putting up posters and stickers. A new generation of young activists are slowly emerging from the woodwork of this beleagured country, some of them influenced by the work we did back in the 1980s and 1990s with the English Nationalist Movement (ENM) and National Revolutionary Faction (NRF), not least the new English Peoples Party (EPP) and various other nationalistic and cultural groupings. The fact that people such as this are struggling for the same cause at the grassroots level, enables me to concentrate my efforts on the more intellectual and esoteric currents. Elsewhere, of course, I shall be performing live with H.E.R.R. and writing more songs with the other members of the group, as well as organising a series of camps and hikes. There is so much going on behind the scenes here in England and it often takes an immense effort to keep up with it all.

Finally, do you have any words of advice and inspiration for the independent, political European freedom fighter?

If you have strong beliefs and principles, try to make them become manifest throughout every day of your life. Make a calculated attempt to systematically avoid those things which could potentially damage or compromise your own values, whilst making an extra special effort to do those things that will make you stronger and more determined. In the meantime, I would like to offer my very best wishes to our friends and comrades in Norway. Keep up the good work.

On behalf of Nation & Kultur, I thank you for the interview.