National Action is likely to be the first far-right group in Britain to be deemed a terrorist organization, which would effectively make joining and supporting the group a criminal offense. The group regularly invokes Nazi symbols at its rallies and online, and earlier this year, the group praised Thomas Mair for killing a member of Parliament, Jo Cox.

“I am determined that we challenge extremism in all its forms, including the evil of far right extremism,” Homes Secretary Amber Rudd said when Mair was convicted in November. On Monday, as Parliament signaled it will be proscribing, or banning, National Action, Rudd called the group “a racist, anti-Semitic, and homophobic organization.”

Under Britain’s Terrorism Act 2000, groups can be classified as “terrorist organizations.” Seventy groups have been proscribed under the bill so far, most of which are Islamist groups. The act says a group classifies if it “commits or participates in acts of terrorism; prepares for terrorism; promotes or encourages terrorism (including the unlawful glorification of terrorism); or is otherwise concerned in terrorism.”

While it’s unclear if National Action members have committed a violent act of terrorism, they have certainly incited violence, and proselytize hateful rhetoric. For instance, members once sent out a tweet referring to Jewish people by a derogatory term that was used during the holocaust: “Tykes gassin [K*kes] is our motto, #Yorkshire needs you #AntiCommunism #ProNationalSocialism #DefendBritain.” The group’s Twitter account was suspended. In the website’s November update, National Action, which brands itself as a “nationalist youth movement,” addressed the potential ban. “We neither sanction or endorse terrorism,” the group said.

Being added to the government’s official list of terrorist organizations is not necessarily the right approach, the Anti-Fascist Network tweeted on Monday. Saying they support “community and class action, not state bans,” the group added: “They can avoid charges by simply re-branding as a ‘different’ group, and it’ll lend them an aura of action and danger.” But Parliament is moving full steam ahead with the ban. They will be discussing the ban this week, and it is expected to go into effect on Friday.

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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The exterior of the Kiwi Cafe exudes calm and quirk: a mint green paint job is covered in cartoon figures, including one of a bird riding a bicycle that has kiwi fruits for tires. But on Sunday, inside the cafe, which is in the Old Town neighborhood of Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia (a country sandwiched between Turkey and Russia), a chaotic scene took place.

According to witness accounts, a group of 15 or so nationalist radicals walked into the cafe–which serves vegan fare and has a counterculture ethos–and pulled out grilled meat and fish. They started eating the forbidden foods and then began throwing them at the cafe’s patrons, who were watching a screening of the American cartoon “Rick and Morty.” A brawl ensued, spilling into the streets. The police were called. People living near the cafe joined the commotion. One neighbor wielded a knife.

And while nobody was seriously injured, the incident highlights an emerging faction in Georgian society: radical nationalist groups that yearn for a closed Georgia populated by ethnic Georgians. Days before the assault, far-right nationalist groups marched in Tbilisi to mark Georgia’s independence from the Soviet Union decades ago. But the marchers summoned an old slogan with nefarious connotations: “Georgians for Georgia,” which for most Georgians drudges up memories of the ethnic clashes of the early 1990s.

On it’s Facebook page, the Kiwi Cafe posted a statement condemning the actions of the “neo-Nazis:”

“They said that we must leave ‘their’ street, leave the country, do not ‘establish our procedure’, because in Georgia it’s not accepted to act like we do.”

The statement also made mention of a group of people who a month ago asked a nearby store clerk about the “LGBT, foreigners, punks, etc.” that hang out in the Kiwi Cafe. And while an official investigation into the matter has not been launched yet, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, witnesses said the attackers fled before the police arrived so the police directed their questioning at the cafe staff and customers.

“Because most of the staff, and a lot of the guests, have piercings and mohawk hairstyles, the police thought they were the ones responsible for the incident,” wrote one witness in an online post.

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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