Abstract:

In recent years prophetic warnings of a coming dystopia have been spread by political and social agents: warnings of the ‘death of Europe’ (Zemmour) and of white genocide. Warnings of a future in which ‘white, Christian’ nations are submerged by alien immigrants. In order to understand this phenomenon, we look first to our own contexts, and to the past, to English politician Powell (1902-1998). In so doing, we build on Kerr et al.’s study (2022) of four waves of English populism and the role of leaders within them, namely: the British Brothers League (BBL), Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists (BUF), Enoch Powell’s anti-immigration speeches (1968-75), and Vote Leave (2015-16). We identify Powell as a key figure: a powerful orator, whose ‘Rivers of blood’ speech (Birmingham 1968), presented a dystopian vision, warning that ‘alien’ Black and Asian immigration constituted an existential threat to the English nation and people.

Utopias and dystopias can be seen as ‘symbolic tokens’ in political struggles of the present (Jameson 2004). That is, ‘xenophobic or racist group practices … have their utopian impulsion’ (Jameson 2004).

The question we then pose is: how does Powell, 50 years after his dystopian ‘Rivers of blood’ speech, and a quarter of a century since his death, maintain this status of a prophet of dystopia for the international ultra-right?

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Primary Track: Critical Management Studies

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Prof Martyna Sliwa