In April a group called “Project Libertas” planned to host two Nazi meetings in Stroud – celebrating Hitler’s birthday and promoting the antisemitic forgery “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”.
Community opposition led to the organisers cancelling these meetings.
The group is a splinter from the group that hands out “The Light” – paper. They’re a distinct group but with a pretty similar approach to the world.
It’s this group that was responsible for inviting Katie Hopkins to Stroud – not long after the paper had printed a fawning interview with her.
They continue to organise meetings with dodgy speakers who spread hatred and fear with baseless conspiracies.
Meanwhile, “The Light” paper has adopted the man who was due to speak at the Nazi meetings – John Hamer, a white nationalist and Holocaust denier who spreads hatred of Jews and Muslims online – as a regular contributor. And the people who hand the paper out in Stroud seem to think that’s no big deal, and keep handing it out.
Dodgy events at The Old Convent
Sandi Adams has been invited to speak in Stroud 4 times, most recently by “Project Libertas”.
In July 2020 Adams published an article titled “The Truth is anti-Semitic” which repeated vile claims that have been and are still used to persecute the Jewish community and are extremely harmful. Adams also hosted a notorious, 12-hour long highly antisemitic pro-Nazi Holocaust denial documentary.
Adams has blamed this content on her then website manager, deleting some items she claims were published without her knowledge or permission. However, she continues to host blantant antisemitism on her website, including a ‘documentary’ called The Jewish Crucifixion of Russia, which concludes “Although it is believed the Soviets lost power years ago, the Jewish hand behind [Communism] is very much alive today.” Adams describes this ‘vital’ and adds a grossly antisemitic cartoon featuring a Jewish ‘puppetmaster’.
As well as repeatedly hosting Sandi Adams, The Old Convent has been host to James Delingpole on at least two occasions – again at the invitation of “Project Libertas”.
Since the pandemic, Delingpole has been embracing increasingly extreme conspiracy theories and their politically extreme proponents including Colin Robertson, a white nationalist who has enthused about “torpedo[ing] boats carrying refugees”.Before that, he had a long history not only of denying the science around climate change, but of attacking climate scientists and activists, to the point of repeatedly inciting violence.
Project Libertas has also organised two meetings at The Old Convent featuring Andrew Bridgen, a former MP expelled permanently from the Conservative party for making offensive and baseless comparisons between the COVID-19 vaccine rollout and the Holocaust.
And the group is planning to hold a meeting with leader of the far-right Heritage Party David Kurten, who has recently been promoting “remigration” – the forced return of non-European immigrants and their descendants to their place of origin.
We don’t think anyone should have anything to do with The Old Convent until they take a clear stance against bringing hate to our town.
Below are adverts for the recent event featuring Sandi Adams and Andrew Bridgen, and the previous advert for the planned Nazi meetings Project Libertas intended to host – and which they advertised with images of Adolf Hitler and nasty content about “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”.
Community Solidarity Stroud District 