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Jonathan Bowden

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For the footballer, see Jon Bowden.

Jonathan Bowden
Bowden speaking in December 2011
Born(1962-04-12)12 April 1962
Kent, England
Died29 March 2012(2012-03-29) (aged 49)
Berkshire, England
Alma materBirkbeck College, University of London (B.A.)

Jonathan David Anthony Bowden (12 April 1962 – 29 March 2012)[1] was an English far-right activist, orator, and writer. A member of the Conservative Party in the early 1990s, he later became involved in far-right[2] organisations, including the British National Party (BNP). Bowden has been described as a "cult Internet figure" amongst the far-right movement, even several years after his death.[3][4]

Life and career

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Early life and education

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Bowden was born in Kent, England, and attended Presentation College in Reading, Berkshire.[5] His mother suffered from severe mental illness,[3] and died when Bowden was 16 years old.

In 1984, he completed one year of a Bachelor of Arts history degree course at Birkbeck College, London University, as a mature student, but left without graduating. He subsequently enrolled at Wolfson College, Cambridge University, in autumn 1988, but left after a few months. He became a personal friend of Bill Hopkins during this time.[6] Bowden was otherwise largely self-educated.[3]

Conservative Party

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Bowden began his political career as a member of the Conservative Party in the Bethnal Green and Stepney constituency. In 1990, he joined the Conservative Monday Club, and the following year made an unsuccessful bid to be elected onto its Executive Council. In 1991, he was appointed co-chairman with Stuart Millson of the club's media committee,[7] and was also active in the Western Goals Institute.[8] In 1992 Bowden was expelled from the Monday Club.[9] (The Conservative Party disassociated itself from the Monday Club in 2001, and the club disbanded in 2024.)

Revolutionary Conservative Caucus

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Bowden and Stuart Millson co-founded the Revolutionary Conservative Caucus in November 1992[10] with the aim of introducing "abstract thought into the nether reaches of the Conservative and Unionist party".[8] The group published a quarterly journal entitled The Revolutionary Conservative Review. By the end of 1994, Millson and Bowden parted company and the group dissolved.

In 1993 Bowden published the book Right through the European Books Society. He was also reported to be a prominent figure in the creative milieu responsible for the emergence of Right Now! magazine.[11]

Freedom Party

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Bowden then joined the Freedom Party, for which he was treasurer for a short time,[12] and subsequently was a member of the Bloomsbury Forum, alongside Adrian Davies.[13]

British National Party

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In 2003 Bowden joined the BNP. He was appointed Cultural Officer, a position that was created by Nick Griffin – the party's leader at the time – to give Bowden an official role. In July 2007 Bowden resigned both his position and his membership after a dispute between him, Griffin, and other individuals within the party. Although he gave speeches throughout England at local meetings for the BNP, he never re-joined the party, and cut all ties after the 2010 general election.[14]

Many of his speeches were recorded and have been transcribed. Topics of his lectures included philosophers, politicians, and historical literary figures who were prominent in the far-right. In late 2011 and early 2012, Bowden made 14 appearances on Richard B. Spencer's Vanguard podcast.[14]

New Right

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New Right Committee
Formation16 January 2005
FoundersTroy Southgate, Jonathan Bowden, and Jonothon Boulter
Legal statusdefunct
Websitenew-right.org (archive)

The New Right Committee, or simply "New Right", was a United Kingdom-based pan-European nationalist, far-right think tank founded by Bowden and Troy Southgate. The name was a reference to the French Nouvelle Droite and the group was otherwise unrelated to the wider British and American usage of the term "New Right". It was launched on 16 January 2005 at a meeting in central London.[15]

In March 2005 the group described itself on its Yahoo! Groups page: "We are opposed to liberalism, democracy and egalitarianism and fight to restore the eternal values and principles that have become submerged beneath the corrosive tsunami of the modern world.[16]

In June 2005 New Right announced that it would publish New Imperium, a quarterly magazine it described as an "intellectual journal".[17] Bowden was the organisation's press officer.[18]

Death

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On 29 March 2012, Bowden died of heart failure or a heart attack at his home in Berkshire, 14 days before his 50th birthday.[1] In 2011, he had been released from the psychiatric ward of a hospital, to which he was involuntarily committed earlier that year after suffering a mental breakdown.[3]

Views

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Bowden believed that some hierarchies are good for society, that "liberalism is moral syphilis" and that native Europeans are justified in asserting their cultural, ethnic, psychological, and spiritual hegemony over Europe.[3]

Bowden expressed pagan religious beliefs.[3]

Bibliography

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Works

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  • Mad (London: Avant-Garde Publishing, 1989); (Nine-Banded Books, 2009) ISBN 978-0578006406
  • Sade (London: Egotist, 1992); (Nine-Banded Books, 2013) ISBN 978-0989697217
  • Aryan (London: Egotist Press, 1992); (Nine-Banded Books, 2020)
  • Brute (London: Egotist Press, 1992)
  • Skin (London: Egotist Press, 1992)
  • Axe (London: Egotist, 1993); (London: The Palingenesis Project, 2014). ISBN 978-1909606074
  • Craze (London: Egotist Press, 1993) ISBN 1-872181-17-1
  • Right (London: European Books Society 1994); (London: The Palingenesis Project, 2016) ISBN 978-1909606159
  • Collected Works, 6 vols. (London: Avant-guarde, 1995)
  • Standardbearers – British Roots of the New Right, edited by Adrian Davies, Eddy Butler & Jonathan Bowden; Beckenham, Kent, 180pps, (April 1999)
  • Apocalypse TV (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2007). ISBN 978-0-9557402-0-6
  • The Art of Jonathan Bowden (1974–2007) (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2007). ISBN 978-0-9557402-2-0
  • The Fanatical Pursuit of Purity (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2008). ISBN 978-0-9557402-3-7
  • Al-Qa’eda Moth (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2008). ISBN 978-0-9557402-5-1
  • Kratos (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2008). ISBN 978-0-9557402-1-3
  • A Ballet of Wasps (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2008). ISBN 978-0-9557402-6-8
  • Goodbye Homunculus! (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2009). ISBN 978-0-9557402-9-9
  • The Art of Jonathan Bowden, Vol. 2 (1968–1974) (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2009). ISBN 978-0-9557402-4-4
  • Lilith Before Eve (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2009). ISBN 978-0-9557402-8-2
  • Louisiana Half-Face (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2010). ISBN 978-0-9565120-2-4
  • The Art of Jonathan Bowden, Vol. 3 (1967–1974) (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2010). ISBN 978-0-9565120-1-7
  • Our Name Is Legion (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2011). ISBN 978-0-9565120-3-1
  • Colonel Sodom Goes to Gomorrah (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2011). ISBN 978-0-9565120-4-8
  • Locusts Devour a Carcass (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2012). ISBN 978-0-9565120-5-5
  • Spiders Are Not Insects (London: The Spinning Top Club, 2012). ISBN 978-0-9565120-6-2
  • The Speeches (London: Black Front Press, 2012). ISBN 978-0957324510
  • Pulp Fascism (San Francisco: Counter-Currents, 2013). ISBN 978-1935965640
  • Western Civilization Bites Back (San Francisco: Counter-Currents, 2014). ISBN 978-1935965770
  • Demon (London: The Palingenesis Project, 2014). ISBN 978-1909606043
  • Blood (London: The Palingenesis Project, 2016). ISBN 978-1909606098
  • Heat (London: The Palingenesis Project, 2017). ISBN 978-1909606197
  • Deathlock (London: The Palingenesis Project, 2017). ISBN 978-1909606210
  • Extremists: Studies in Metapolitics (San Francisco: Counter-Currents, 2017). ISBN 978-1940933481
  • Why I Am Not a Liberal (Imperium Press, 2020). ISBN 978-0648859307
  • Reactionary Modernism (San Francisco: Counter-Currents, 2022). ISBN 978-1642641677
  • The Cultured Thug (San Francisco: Counter-Currents, 2023). ISBN 978-1642640113

Filmography

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Year Title Starring Credits
2001 (production)

2005 (release)

Venus Flytrap Jonathan Bowden, Lisa Garner, Nicola Henry, Jane Robinson, Katie Willow, Nicole Wiseman and Claudia Minne Boyle Directed by Andrea Lioy

Produced by Jonathan Bowden

Screenplay by Jonathan Bowden and Andrea Lioy

Based upon the short story by Jonathan Bowden

2007 (production/release) Fenris Devours Odin Written and narrated by Jonathan Bowden
2006 (production)

2009 (release)

Grand Guignol Jonathan Bowden, Nicola Henry, Katie Willow, Michael Woodbridge and Lucy Zara Directed by Andrea Lioy

Produced by Jonathan Bowden

Screenplay by Jonathan Bowden and Andrea Lioy

Based upon the play by Jonathan Bowden[19]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Jonathan Bowden 1962-2012". Archived from the original on 24 June 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
  2. ^ Dickson, EJ (4 November 2019). "So, Uh, Why Is Richard Spencer Still on Twitter?". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Clements, Tom (4 September 2019) "I fell down the rabbit hole of alt-right propaganda and this is what I learned" The Independent
  4. ^ Hawley, George; Marcy, Richard T.; Zúquete, José Pedro (31 May 2023). "Examining the performance and political influence of far right vanguard leaders: the case of Jonathan Bowden". Journal of Political Ideologies: 1–19. doi:10.1080/13569317.2023.2219211. ISSN 1356-9317. S2CID 259036311.
  5. ^ Bowden, Jonathan (23 May 2012). "Credo: A Nietzschean Testament". Counter-Currents. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
  6. ^ "Bill Hopkins and the Angry Young Men". 6 July 2006. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  7. ^ Monday Club News, July 1991 edition, p.2. – Monday Club Executive Council Minutes, 13 May 1991. This position did not, however, afford Bowden a seat on the Council
  8. ^ a b "Interview with Bowden". Archived from the original on 7 August 2009.
  9. ^ Sonia Gable and Adam Carter, "New Right chairman dies" Archived 21 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Searchlight, 26 April 2012
  10. ^ The Revolutionary Conservative, issue no.2, 1993, p.16.
  11. ^ "Right Now! A Forum for Eugenecists". Searchlight. July 1998. Archived from the original on 28 March 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2020 – via Institute for the Study of Academic Racism.
  12. ^ "Freedom Party News". Freedom Party. 30 September 2006.
  13. ^ "UNITED KINGDOM 2005". Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism. Archived from the original on 21 February 2009. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
  14. ^ a b George Hawley; Richard T. Marcy; José Pedro Zúquete (2023). "Examining the performance and political influence of far right vanguard leaders: the case of Jonathan Bowden". Journal of Political Ideologies. doi:10.1080/13569317.2023.2219211.
  15. ^ "Fascist meeting in London". Red Action Discussion Forum. Archived from the original on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
    - "Introduction". New Right. Archived from the original on 9 March 2007. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  16. ^ "Yahoo! Groups : new_right". Archived from the original on 31 March 2005. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  17. ^ "NEW IMPERIUM". Altermedia UK. Archived from the original on 22 July 2012. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  18. ^ "New Right Committee". New Right. Archived from the original on 7 March 2007. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  19. ^ "Films". The Jonathan Bowden Archive.
[edit]
Wikiquote has quotations related to Jonathan Bowden.

Further reading

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Castegory:Far-right modern pagans

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