Recently we’ve received enquiries about an upcoming event organised by a group calling itself “Our Free Town”.
Our Free Town sounds nice… it’s all about self-sufficiency, and creating “a cultural community in Stroud – a sense of well-being, togetherness, kindness and giving; a common-sense approach that aligns with how our local communities used to operate in the past”. What’s not to like?
A scratch below the surface, though, and it turns out to be the group of contrarians that distribute “The Light” paper in Stroud, operating yet another front group to recruit people into conspiracy beliefs and tolerance of far-right ideas, individuals and organisations (see footnote for more on the group’s origins). The group already variously brands itself as “The Info-Hub” or “Info-Hug”, “Stroud Freedom Group” and “Stroud Peace Hub”. Their stall promotes the “Our Free Town” initiative, as does the email list set up by another branded group, the “Beacon of Renewal” – used alongside “Stroud Freedom Group” to promote regular events at different venues since the physical venue “The Beacon” closed in January 2022.
Community Solidarity Stroud District has exposed and challenged the promotion of the far right, consistent climate denial, anti-women content, transphobia and homophobia, and events that have featured people with histories of antisemitism and Holocaust Denial in “The Light” and in events organised by the previously mentioned groups… but what’s our problem with “Our Free Town”. Aren’t the ideas promoted things we support too? Wouldn’t it be a good thing if the contrarians get involved in this sort of initiative and moved away from their harmful ideas?
The problem is that the initiative doesn’t represent a move away from contrarian ideas – but an attempt to recruit people through a cuddly project.
“Our Free Town” organises foraging events and farm volunteering, alongside lecturers by pseudoscientists and quacks. It directs people to a website which promotes “fearless speech”, and turns out to be a gateway to climate science denial, back issues of “The Light”, “Stroud Freedom Group” events, and attacks on “woke” that would be at home in the Daily Mail, at the Conservative Party conference, or – indeed – in “The Light”.
There’s also a new “Our Free Town” Magazine edited by Richard House, also the editor of a “Best of The Light” book and author of regular pieces in “The Light” paper (sometimes more than one piece in the same issue).
What about their upcoming event?
It’s called “Supporting Farmers for Food Security Symposium” which sounds worthy. The flyer is a bit strange though – full of computer-generated imaginary images of farms – with solar and wind energy as the hellish alternative. With a big logo for the “No Farmers No Food” movement, which appears grassroots. The DeSmog site has revealed there is a Climate Denial Network Behind [this] ‘Classic Astroturf’ Farmers’ Campaign, however.
Then there’s the speakers:
We’ve written about Sandi Adams previously as she’s been hosted in Stroud several times, despite our request organisers think again due to the horrible antisemitic content she hosts on her website (she has removed much of it, claiming it was put there by a webmaster without her knowledge, but to this day still hosts a nasty documentary on the “Jewish Crucifixion of Russia”). Adams also promotes anti-environmental conspiracy theories.
The compere is Charles Malet from “conspiracy theory-oriented online media outlet” UK Column, which has “areas of overlap with the far right” (in the words of this Hope Not Hate ‘Case File’). Examples include Malet himself equating gender affirmation surgery with “genital mutilation”, and the media outlet as a whole pushing Nazi-era conspiracies about the “Kalergi Plan”, a version of the paranoid and racist Great Replacement/White Genocide fantasy that imagines a plot to “replace” white Europeans through migration.
Another speaker, Richard Vobes – a former TV writer turned YouTuber (who has also been featured in “The Light”) – pushes a range of paranoid ideas. These include a fantasy not entirely unrelated to the ‘Great Replacement’ – again denying the agency of people from other countries seeking refuge or a better life in the UK. For him its plausible to wonder if these people are UN soldiers being brought in to police a future lockdown.
One of the farmers speaking (Mark Byford) works with The Sovereign Project, promoting dangerous and false pseudo-legal solutions that often land desperate people in big trouble. The ‘sovereign citizen’ beliefs behind this group are imported from the US, originating with the far right extremist antisemitic Posse Comitatus movement. He recently posted a link to the “Great British PAC” on social media, describing this as “at last some real sanity”. A letter announcing the launch of the group talks of how “it will “the right must be united” to “save the country from the socialists”. The organisation enthusiastically places themselves as operating in the spirit of the new US administration and it’s dramatic attempted use of executive powers to attack marginalised people and force an overwhelming “shock doctrine“-style dismantling of social support: “This is how Trump and Musk are reshaping America”. In the United States, a political action committee or PAC is a tax-exempt organization that pools campaign contributions and donates those funds to campaigns.
Conclusion
While “Our Free Town” or their farming event might seem harmless enough, that’s the point. It’s not intended to introduce people from the far-right or conspiracy fans to the pleasures of growing vegetables. Instead, the aim is to funnel people with an interest in self-sufficency, or local food towards the far-right. If some of your friends innocently stumble across this and think it seems nice, put them right. We would recommend directing energy to better local projects like Transition Stroud or Stroud Commons – or, the many existing food initiatives, Stroud Community Agriculture, for example. Regarding the politics of food, there are also national initiatives like the Real Farming Trust and Landworkers’ Alliance. The latter is launching a new campaign to ‘Re-Root Agroecology’, we’ll end this article with some of their words:
“it’s not enough to just farm with nature, without acknowledging that not everyone is able to access land and green spaces. It’s not enough to nurture diversity in our farming systems if we’re not fighting for justice and anti-oppression in our workforce. It’s not enough to provide cheap food at affordable prices at the expense of farmer’s wages, just as it’s not enough for farmers to fetch a good price for quality produce if it’s not accessible to those at the sharp end of food poverty. “
“The fact that farming is political has been brought into even sharper focus recently by the ongoing farmer protests around changes to agricultural inheritance tax. This controversy has foregrounded issues around land ownership, corporate power, generational renewal, farm income, and much much more. While the LWA stands in solidarity with the many farmers who may suffer from this blunt-instrument policy (our own members included), we firmly condemn the blatant attempts by the far-right to infiltrate the farmer’s movement and further their fascistic agenda.”
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Footnote – the curious origins of “Our Free Town”
It’s not the most important thing to say, but for anyone interested in the backstory of “Our Free Town”, it’s worth us mentioning that the name is a rebrand. The initiative was launched with quite a lot of fanfare in November 2023. On the YouTube channel of conspiracy influencer Richard Vobes, Stroud was heralded as the first UK incarnation of the idea.
One Small Town is a project of South African “scientist” Michael Tellinger, who writes books about how humanity is a species created by aliens intending to use us as slaves to strip-mine our planet. The internet is peppered with examples of Tellinger’s bizarre legal subterfuges, including his attempt to avoid paying off his mortgage on the grounds that banks had created the money that they had lent him. There’s a Facebook page created by people who report on his various scams, including a free energy device.
Funnily enough, for someone who envisages a “world without money”, Tellinger seems quite happy to take ours. One Small Town is enabled by a cryptocurrency token (Tellinger’s own-brand version of Bitcoin), and he will sell you some – ironic, given the way that “The Light” rails against digital currency and alternatives to cash.
There’s hardly any mention of Tellinger, or his funny-money, or One Small Town, in Our Free Town publicity. Perhaps the group has moved away from this model, but regardless – this origin story is yet another example of the way in which this isn’t as positive or grassroots an initiative as it might first appear.
Community Solidarity Stroud District 