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When challenging active members of the British far-right, one of the most common responses seems to be, "The fascists of the future will be the anti-fascists," as if they are quoting Winston Churchill. Problem is, there appears to be no record of the once-British-leader ever saying this.

If you were to type the quote into Google, you'll be presented with a number of flat discussions on Yahoo Questions and various message boards, as well as self-confessed Islamophobic blogger sites using Churchill's "words" as non-credible sources to their arguments.

Searching further, popular belief in Churchill as the originator of the phrase seems to be more mythical than factual, considering the main source for Churchill on the web, winstonchurchill.org, has no record of the aforementioned quote, and the Winston Churchill Society couldn't find anything, either, when I recently contacted them via email.

Where it came from, then, is a topic for debate. The One Million United website suggests the quote was adapted from 40th Louisana Governor Huey Long's words, “Sure we’ll have fascism here, but it will come as an anti-fascism movement,"; whilst the quote also seems to mirror Italian author Ignazio Silone, when he said, "The final conflict will be between the Communists and the ex-Communists," (Max Lerner, "The Hero as Ex-Communist," pt. 4, The Unfinished Country (1959).

It would appear that this is nothing more than a mishmash of words aligned to Churchill (who is no longer living to defend himself) by the likes of EDL and BNP members. Attempts to hijack the status of Britain's former leader, and turn the tables on the resistance movement by making out they are the real fascists, have even been noted by his grandson, who says such methods are "appalling".

Fascist BNP leader Nick Griffin infamously denied the holocaust ever happened, so it comes as no surprise that such a deluded practice relates back to the propaganda of fascism. Recently fearing they were being exposed for what they really are, the party decided to remove a blog entry citing the Churchill quote from their official website.

Just goes to show, then, Churchill's apparent quote seems to have been used out of desperation more than anything else, which further contributes to the far-right's tendency to distort the facts and hide behind its opponents when it comes to recruiting new members.

(C) Andy Carrington, 2012.

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– Be sure to subscribe to Andy Carrington's blog to keep up to date with articles relating to the themes of racism/fascism and Islamophobia.

– Don't forget to check out, also, the poetry books Paki Lover and Somewhere In-between Misanthropy & Anti-Fascism, which give an overview of human exploitation and racism at a grassroots level as well as within higher-level organisations (such as the Freemasonry).