Third Positionism?

[Taras Bulba]

Can anybody give a synopsis of what 3rd Positionism is about? I've read many contradictionary views on the topic. The only common thing I've heard is that the International 3rd Position is heavily Christian based and believes firmly in European nationalism based on Christian values.

[symmakhos]

As I understand it, it's an umbrella term for all sorts of leftist nationalist movements: Traditionalism, National Bolshevism, National Anarchism, French Novelle droite, Australia's New Dawn and so on. They claim to be neither Fascist nor Communist, but a third alternative to liberal Western democracy. For some reason Libya's Moammar Khadaffi is often named as a "Third Position"-leader.

[Turificator]

I might be wrong, but I believe the origianl Third Position should be identified with 'Terza Posizione', the militant political movement started in the 1970s in Italy. The name derives from an attempt to offer an alternative to both Capitalism and Communism, hence the slogan 'NE' FRONTE ROSSO NE' REAZIONE' (roughly 'neither red front nor reaction'). It was a grass-rootes movement, an attempt to breakaway from the reactionary stagnation of much of the 'Radical Right' of the time, through the fight for a spiritual revolution, a change in the hearts and minds of the common people. TP militants, who identified themselves as political soldiers (the TP symbol was the wolf hook warrior rune) fought against liberal capitalism, albeit never resorting to terrorism, taking inspiration from what we might label non-regime Fascism (e.g. 1919 Fascism, the Iron Guard, the SA, etc. all more 'socially' oriented). As you might guess, such a movement had nothing to do with most of what you might label 'Radical Right' in the States (KKK, Aryan Nations, etc.). It's main objectives in political terms were the fight against Americanism and mass-culture, for a return to the values of Tradition. (Curiously enough, Giorgio Vale, a TP political soldier murdered by the cops in 1982, also happened to be a mulatto...)

Terza Posizione was ultimately accused of subversive activities and disbanded by the Italian State in the early '80s.

If you can read Italian there's an interesting book on the TP experienced, entitled 'Noi Terza Posizione' (by G. Adinolfi and R. Fiore)

On this site you can find original TP writings from the late 70s (all in Italian):
http://members.tripod.com/cenerelli/...a/controme.htm

[Kvasir_]

Here is the ITP´s declararations of principles, taken from the magazine Final Colnflict http://politicalsoldier.netfirms.com/fcwewant.shtml

Declaration of Principles

The International Third Position is a spiritually motivated world view which rejects the received wisdom of the modern world that all peoples and cultures are doomed forever to choosing between Left and Right, Socialism and Capitalism. Based upon a sound knowledge of human nature and its interests, the Third Position does not seek an unviable centrism, but a mode of Thought and Action that truly transcends the sterile hatreds of the modern world. The Third Position, therefore, is the political creed of the twenty-first century.

1. THE PRIMACY OF SPIRIT.
It is an integral part of our political tradition that Man is, self-evidently, a complex of Spirit and Matter, and that the primacy lies with the Spirit. Without an all-pervading spiritual revolution - a method of purification and improvement carried on by the individual for a life time - our militants will not differ in any essential sense from the degenerates who have given rise to the horrors of the modern world, and who have acted upon a purely materialist conception of Life and History. It is the belief of the Third Position that worldwide National Revolution can only be achieved by the moulding of a New Man, a militant who practises what he preaches. Such a New Man must embody our ideal in such a way that he acts in himself as the highest form of propaganda for the Third Position in the community in which he lives and works. It is equally the belief of the Third Position that the splendour of Europe, viewed historically and culturally, has its roots in the doctrine and practice of the Christian Faith. If, therefore, Europe is to regain its sense of Destiny and Mission, it must return sincerely and wholeheartedly to the Faith. As each individual develops his spiritual qualities, Europe will move forward thereby to a New Imperium.

2. THE MORAL ORDER.
Since the degeneracy of the modern world is founded upon immorality and amorality, it stands to reason that a regenerate world can only be built upon Moral Order and Christian standards of living. The Third Position believes that it is vital that people understand that, contrary to the propaganda of the mass media of contemporary society, there does exist Right and Wrong, Truth and Falsehood, Good and Bad in our world, and not a range of equally valid opinions and choices as materialists claim. Moral Order, to have any real meaning, is necessarily founded upon the immutable principle that only Truth has rights. Since the Family is the primary element and centre of any healthy society, it follows that its strength and unity are essential to the stability, happiness and development of the Nation in all its aspects, material and spiritual. For this reason, the Third Position opposes any and all agencies and policies which seek to restrict, undermine or destroy Family Life in any way whatsoever. Furthermore, we believe that healthy societies and large families go hand in hand; consequently, we believe that the State is duty bound to do all in its power to make large families the norm in our society. The Third Position asserts that it is wholly opposed to the "legalization" of Abortion, artificial birth control, Euthanasia, Divorce, Homosexuality, Genetic Experimentation on Humans at any age and Vivisection, since they contravene God's Law and Objective Truth in the most blatant manner, and wholly negate the life-giving principles of the Third Position as an Ideology and Way of Life. The Third Position likewise asserts that for this Moral Order to come into being, it is vital that the young, as well as future generations, are taught not merely book knowledge, but also the path of self-sacrifice and spiritual perfection, which give rise to individuals that are virtuous and honourable. By such means, we will raise a people qualitatively superior in all respects to the increasingly dehumanized hordes deliberately being turned out by contemporary "education".

3. OPPOSITION TO MATERIALISM.
The French Revolution of 1789 was the primary event which thrust philosophical materialism onto the world stage. In the intervening two centuries, the power of Organized Naturalism in all its diverse forms - that is to say, the systematic tendency to deny in theory and practice the reality of Soul and Spirit - has grown steadily to the point that it now threatens to engulf the entire world. Materialism in its war with the Spirit has taken on many forms; some have promoted its goals with great subtlety, whilst others have done so with an alarming lack of subtlety, but all have added, in greater or lesser measure, to the growing misery of Mankind. The forms which have done the most damage in our time may be enumerated as: Freemasonry, Liberalism, Nihilism, Capitalism, Socialism, Marxism, Imperialism, Anarchism, Modernism and the New Age. Each of these creeds - materialist at base - is philosophically wrong and discredited in practice. Thus, the Third Position condemns them all unreservedly, and affirms that opposition to all forms of Materialism is central to the ideology of the Third Position.

4. ZIONISM AND THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE.
Zionism as an organized political movement is little more than a century old, and yet in that time it has built a power structure of colossal proportions that straddles the globe. This structure includes not only the illegal Israeli regime, set up on the stolen land of Palestine, but also the power bases that Zionists have constructed in the spheres of Politics, Economics and the Media, especially in the USA and Europe. Needless to say, this power structure exists to serve and extend the interests of International Jewry, and this can only be done at the expense of the indigenous populations who have lost control of their countries to this discriminatory creed. In Palestine, Zionist control has taken on a brutal and overt form, whilst in the West it has tended to be a great deal more subtle in its methods; but methods aside, the result is the same. Whilst the Zionist colossus exists, our nations are being denied their right to national self-determination. It is an intolerable position, and one that cannot The Third Position affirms that it is resolutely opposed to the political, economic and territorial imperialism of the Zionist movement, and proclaims that all peoples have a right to determine their destiny unmolested, directly or indirectly, by the Zionist power. The Third Position also rejects the Arafat Puppet State that has been set up at the behest of the powers that be behind the New World Order, since its very existence negates the core belief of the Palestinian National Movement: that the whole of Palestine be governed by its true inhabitants, the Palestinians. Any Treaty, any political diversion, which denies this principle in its integrity is necessarily unjust, and must be opposed by all those who seek True Peace and Justice.

5. THE IDEAL OF POPULAR RULE.
It is a core belief of the Third Position that harmony and peace within nations and between nations can only be truly attempted if each nation seeks to create an essential unity that transcends sectional or vested interests. For far too long the destiny of nations has been the plaything of corrupt political parties, power cliques and outright tyrants; it is now more urgent than ever that the material and spiritual integrity of the Nation and Culture comes into its own. It is the belief of the Third Position that this vital unity can only be achieved through the implementation of a thorough-going programme of decentralization, particularly in the political sphere where power continues to be centralized day by day. This programme of political decentralization we call Popular Rule. In its essence, it is a system of self-government by the people which starts at the level of the lowest socially viable unit, and extends through a series of organically linked structures to the national level. It is the direct participation of the entire adult population in the decision-making process - local, regional and national - and draws its strength from the fact that the entire people express their wishes and have these acted upon by duly appointed delegates. However, the people themselves must act within the Moral Order if their wishes are to be valid; that is to say, the people do not make the "truth" by voting, rather their political actions must conform to Objective Truth. If this w The Third Position asserts that all healthy societies are built upon recognition of God's Law and the rights of Truth, and not upon the civil constitutions and Bills of Rights that have been foisted upon us by vested interests striving to promote liberalism and relativism. It is foreseen that the clear enunciation of Moral principles by the Church will assist the citizen in daily, secular duties - to the benefit of Church, Society and Individual.

6. RACIAL AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY.
That the human species is comprised of a patchwork of differing races and cultures is a matter of commonsense, and yet there are, incredibly, those who would destroy this richness and diversity in humanity in order to replace it with a rootless mass, lacking identity and history. In such a nightmare world the very words Race, Nation and Culture would cease to have any meaning at all. In other words, this forced multi-racism is seeking to destroy the living soil within which all peoples have their roots, their identity, their being. The Third Position rejects any and all attempts to impose this inhuman conformity on Mankind, whether it be advanced by slick television propaganda, or at the point of a gun. The Third Position insists that it is both healthy and divinely ordained that people should have a genuine love and preference for their own kind; it likewise insists that this healthy instinct must be complemented by a sincere respect for those of differing race and culture who act upon the same principle. As a consequence, the Third Position supports the concept of Racial Separatism whereby different peoples and cultures co-operate in an atmosphere of respect and understanding to their mutual benefit, preserving one another from the abyss of multi-racism. In the struggle to preserve human diversity, resettlement of races to their countries of origin will play a major role, and will directly aid the struggle to build a more peaceful world.

7. PRESERVATION OF THE ENVIRONMENT.
Every sane individual, wherever in the world he may be, wishes to live in an environment that is both beautiful and healthy. Given that the membership of the Third Position is drawn increasingly from across the globe, it follows that it is committed to ensuring that all nations and cultures act to preserve the beauty and balance of the world that we all share, to our mutual benefit. However, this desire does not necessitate the creation of all-powerful global police bodies - as eco-fanatics and New Agers advocate - but rather the creation of a real and genuine understanding between nations of one another's needs. The flora, fauna and great waterways of the world exist in a complex and dynamic relationship, a relationship that allows Mankind to live and develop. It is clearly in the interests of all to preserve this life-giving relationship. For this reason, the Third Position affirms that it will act as a body to restrain the destruction of our common home, whether it be through the greed of the capitalist corporation; the mania for industrialization of Socialism; the rapacity of the international banking houses; or our would-be masters of the New World Order. Man has the primacy over Nature by divine right, but that primacy is one of stewardship and husbandry, and the passing on to future generations of a better world than the one inherited. The Third Position believes that in a sane social order there is a vital balance to be struck between Ruralism and Urbanism. In and of itself, Ruralism is by far the healthier, for it possesses all that is essential to life, but this does not detract from the fact that a complementary urbanism - made up of hamlets, villages, market towns, centres of non-polluting technological advance, light industry and research institutes - can add much of use and benefit to human existence. This balance between Ruralism and Urbanism is held to be central to the worldview of the Third Position, for it determines, directly or indirectly, so much else of the programme of the Third Position.

8. THE MENACE OF BANKERDOM.
No rational person could seriously deny that Money, the love of it and the scramble for it, dominates the modern world in a degree hitherto unknown in the history of Mankind. Increasingly, the very right to existence of individuals, families, communities, regions, nations and cultures is determined by an alleged "economic viability", as though Money was the sole standard of importance in all the crucial questions of Life. In other words, Money, which was originally no more than a useful means of facilitating life in an increasingly complex society, has come to be the Judge of all things in Life and Society. Such a perversion of True Order has, not surprisingly, wrought misery and horror on a grotesque scale: cynically provoked wars; famines; pollution; genocide; grinding poverty; social manipulation; crass consumerism; youth suicide; widespread alcoholism; disintegrating families. The Third Position asserts that Money is nothing more than a lowly servant of Man and Society, a servant that must be compelled to work for the Common Good of all, both within and between nations. It further asserts that since the modern Banking System is practising the most refined usury the world has ever known, it follows that we will campaign for its destruction, and replace it with a social banking system based on Sound Money. As a result, all debt, be it domestic, national or international, which springs from usury will be cancelled without compensation, and the bank owners will be compelled to make restitution to their unfortunate victims. The Third Position believes that International Finance is one of the greatest evils of the modern world, and thus is intrinsically hostile to the programme of the Third Position.

9. A THIRD POSITION ON OWNERSHIP.
The Third Position believes that there is a mode of ownership - in industry, in agriculture, in domestic circles - which goes far beyond the inhuman and unjust concentration wrought by both Capitalism and Socialism, and which apart from being pre-eminently practical is also perfectly natural, and in accordance with human nature. In the English-speaking world, this alternative is known as Distributism, an alternative developed and popularized by two fine English writers, Hilaire Belloc and G.K. Chesterton. This form of ownership occurs in an economy which is decentralized to the smallest, viable unit and thus results in a plethora of producer and service co-operatives, small businesses, craft workshops, Guild structures, artisanal associations, small holdings, family firms and family farms. It is a mode of ownership which promotes individual initiative and creativity, and yet does so only within the framework of the Common Good. It is the natural conjunction of Individual Freedom with Social Justice. Given the total failure of Socialism, with its unnatural bureaucracy and inefficiency, and given the exploitation and gross inequality that result from Capitalism's so-called "Free Market", it is evident that Distributism is going to be the socio-economic creed of the twenty-first century.

10. NATIONAL REVOLUTION WORLDWIDE.
It is because the Third Position seeks to build a New Social Order that it recognizes that all peoples and cultures, who adhere to the basic tenets of the Third Position, must work together closely in an air of mutual trust and support. Since the victory of a National Revolution in one part of the world is a victory for all Third Positionists, it follows that each affiliated member must be prepared to give moral, financial or technical assistance, where possible, should a revolutionary situation emerge in any given country. Parochialism in an age when the One World Ideology is striding to total victory is a complete negation of everything we profess, and thus is vigorously rejected by the Third Position.

[Taras Bulba]

Thank you. Especially Kvasir and his post. I can see I agree with much that 3rd Positionism stands for and will probally have to look more into it. I have visited that Political soldier website before and I found much there interesting.

[Kvasir_]

No problemos Pushkin, I also find 3rd positionism very attractive. How does the old slogan go? Not red, not reactionary?
The WN movement needs a revolutionary alternative to marxist Communism and liberal Capitalism, maybe in the 3rd positionism we can find that?
I find National Socialism to be a kind of 3rd positionistic view, against capitalism and marxism. What do you think?

[Julius]

Some of these Italian Third Positionists were allegedly involved in terrorism. They therefor fled Italy, and some of them ended up in Britain, where they more or less completely renewed National Front with Third Positionist ideas. Most from the NF-leadership later started the International Third Position (ITP). The Italians have also founded the Italian party Forza Nuova.

Many of the National-Anarchists are in fact former 3Ps. Few of them are Christians, but some of them have been. They had left International Third Position to start another less reactionary Third Position. Naturally, these 3P-groups didn't like each other very much.

Here's the National-Anarchist's story:

http://www.rosenoire.org/essays/itp.php

Today, ITP is probably the only formal Third Positionist group around.

[Moody]

Another TP element in the British NF split off to form a party called 'The Third Way' - a kind centrist group led by Patrick Harrington [who points out that Tony Blair's New Labour stole the phrase from them via LSE lecturer Anthony Giddens].
Patrick Harrington made the headlines in the 1980s when he was a student - the student union tried to stop him studying because he was in the NF at the time; there were mass pickets etc.,
I take it that Harrington is a Catholic.

See this link for the Third Way;

http://www.thirdway.org/files/frame1nf.html

[folkandfaith]

A great site to see more of these sorts of views is Folk And Faith - The North American Alternative to Capitalism and Communism. It too stands firmly against reds and reaction. See the quotes section for a whole host of 3P ideas. The Articles of Interest goes more indepth and has articles on Third Position ideals as well as National Anarchism. What is needed is for more folks to help get out the word on F&F and to help it create that true North American alternative, contribution of articles, linking to it, spreading the word on it, participating in its forum and likewise all other means of support that can be contributed that will help it grow.

The Smash The System webring is the main link of solidarity in all these sites taking over where the Resist@nce webring left off so long ago.

Stay tuned to it for other new additions and contributions to the NR scene.

[folkandfaith]

"The New American Patriot will be neither left nor right, just a freeman fighting for liberty," Louis Beam wrote in the aftermath of Seattle. "New alliances will form between those who have in the past thought of themselves as 'right-wingers,' conservatives and patriots, with those who have thought of themselves as 'left-wingers,' progressives, or just 'liberal.' "

"The new politics of America is liberty from the NWO ["New World Order"] Police State and nothing more," Beam wrote. Whatever their political sympathies, the violent Seattle protesters were bravely fighting the "Police State goons" who were there "to protect the slimy corporate interest of 'free trade' at the expense of free people."

The common enemy was, in a word, globalism.

'A Precursor to the Future'
More and more, people on both ends of the traditional political spectrum — particularly those who are young — are finding that their world views overlap. They are opposed to what are seen as the homogenizing forces of globalism.

They despise capitalism, with its tendency to concentrate wealth and to make people and economies more and more alike — turning the planet into what is seen as a bland and materialistic McWorld. They pine for nations of peasant-like folk tied closely to the land and to their neighbors. They fight for a pristine environment, a land unsullied by corporate agriculture and urbanization.

They detest man-centered philosophies, seeing animals as no less important than humans. They reject rationalism in favor of a kind of mystical spirituality. Above all, these mainly young people — in some ways, the descendants of the "back-to-the-land" hippies of the 1960s — favor decentralization.

One National Anarchist group in Britain — which is experiencing a similar left/right convergence — puts it like this: "The [National Revolutionary Faction] is committed to fighting globalisation whenever and wherever it raises its ugly head. ... There will definitely be a convergence between groups presently considered to be opposed to one another...

[W]e are witnessing the gradual emergence of two distinct phenomena: the centralists and the decentralists. The time is approaching when activists from all anti-Capitalist groupings will be forced to decide which side they are on. "


...Or, in the concluding words of Louis Beam's angry essay: "A new dawn is breaking upon the American political scene. The old words of divide and conquer will come to mean less and less to thinking people. There will be no meaningful differences between those who want freedom.

But rather, just 'Americans' who want to be free and are fighting the Police State to gain that freedom. Wake up and smell the tear gas, freedom is calling its sons and daughters."

www.folkandfaith.com