‘Fascists’ reappear on campus after union ban overturned

Controversial Nietzsche Club launches new publicity campaign

exclusive

UCL’s enigmatic Nietzsche Club have this week launched a new poster campaign on campus…after a heavily publicised union ban was overturned.

The group, which ostensibly exists to promote the study of ‘traditionalist’ philosophers associated with the far-right, was in March banned from from meeting on campus.

A poster for the group in the South Junction of the Wilkins Building

Members of UCL’s Marxist Society had successfully tabled a contentious motion at a meeting of the Union Council, which accused the Nietzsche Club – which has never been an official union society – of “promoting a far-right, fascist ideology” and blacklisted it for two years.

But the media furore that ensued forced the union into a humiliating about-face, with the Motion to Fight Fascism that had banned the club being quietly overturned in July.

A statement released by the UCLU trustee board admitted that there had not been sufficient evidence to substantiate their anti-fascist zealotry.

Over the last week, new publicity material for the shady club has appeared in buildings on Gower Street.

The timing of the Nietzsche Club’s re-emergence – coinciding with Freshers’ Week – suggests that they are looking to find a bigger audience on campus for what UCLU denounced as “racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-Marxist and anti-worker” philosophy.

The Nietzsche Club has toned down its publicity material

The posters are markedly less incendiary than those which provoked the ban, which flirted with imagery and undertones that some thought to be explicitly racist.

The Nietzsche Club’s disregard for union opposition and the political posturing that will undoubtedly follow is likely to cause controversy on campus.

When The Tab broke the story in June, it sparked a debate on free speech at UCL and beyond.

Richard Dawkins thought the ban was an assault on free speech

The ban was the subject of articles in the Daily Beast, the Independent and the New York Times…and even had Richard Dawkins getting rowdy.