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The UK’s far-right movement is more synonymous with the thuggery and violence of this summer’s anti-immigration riots than with dinner meetings. And it is more readily associated with incendiary personalities such as Tommy Robinson than with softly-spoken men who publish articles and give PowerPoint presentations. But where some wear their intolerance openly, others are pushing an extreme rightwing agenda in a more discreet, insidious manner by influencing powerful people to help finance, disseminate and normalise racialist “research”.
The urgent and unsettling Channel 4 documentary Undercover: Exposing the Far Right revolves around an investigation by anti-racism advocacy group Hope Not Hate into an international organisation with UK ties that promotes racial, eugenics-based theories. It follows a year-long infiltration during which journalist Harry Shukman was able to meet leaders of the so-called Human Diversity Foundation, which has both media and “race science” branches, by posing as a potential investor.
Through contact with senior figure Matthew Frost (an ex-private school teacher), Shukman discovers that the HDF has received more than $1mn in funding from an American tech entrepreneur called Andrew Conru. It has also, Shukman learns, made inroads into the political arena, having allegedly established ties with Erik Ahrens, a German activist connected to the rising rightwing Alternative-für-Deutschland (AfD) party.
In response to the investigation a spokesperson for Conru says that he “unequivocally rejects racism” and has “cut ties with the HDF” and ceased his funding. Ahrens says he was “never employed by HDF”. And Frost alleges that there are “numerous misrepresentations of both [his] actions and intentions” in the film and that he is “not politically aligned with any far-right ideology” and does not hold such views.
There’s a touch of old-school spycraft about how Shukman and his colleague Patrik Hermansson obtain information about the inner-workings of the HDF without raising suspicions. But what’s most striking in the footage of conversations with Frost and Ahrens is the casualness with which abhorrent ideas such as the correlation between race and IQ are mentioned, or how Ahrens refers to the SS when discussing creating a team of activists.
In addition to the HDF probe, the film provides an insight into Hope Not Hate’s own operations as it monitors agitators such Robinson and gathers intelligence about potential threats to minority communities, politicians and itself. We hear from CEO Nick Lowles and director of research Joe Mulhall about the harassment and intimidation that they have been subjected to by Robinson’s followers. What’s also clear is the emotional toll the job takes on them.
The film attempts to explain how alt-right organisations — often led by wealthy, well-educated individuals — exploit real socio-economic problems and political disenchantment to push their warped worldview. And while this analysis is a little cursory, especially when it comes to how everyday, institutional racism, sexism, homophobia can metastasise into extremism, it leaves us with a strong sense of where fringe radical movements can lead. Walking around a Jewish cemetery in Warsaw — not far from where he’s come undercover to attend a Polish nationalist convention — Shukman provides a sobering reminder. “This stuff never goes away. The symbols and flags might alter somewhat, [but] the meaning behind them doesn’t”.
★★★★☆
On Channel 4 at 10pm on October 21 and streaming online
