This post provides additional context to the film embedded above:
An introduction to The Conduit
An overview of the Rise of the Far Right event hosted on January 31st, including a link to a recording of the event and profile of speakers.
Reasons for optimism.
NB - I was pretty cynical before heading down to make this film. Conversations with attendees gave me hope, although there are some frighteningly naive people floating around the ‘progressive’ movement that need to wake up and realise what Global Corporate and the ‘philanthropic’ classes are actually doing.
Citizen power is good and necessary.
Citizen power coerced and cajoled by manipulative ‘philanthropic’ wealth is not.
What is the Conduit?
The Conduit is a private members’ club in London’s Covent Garden. It describes itself as “a diverse and dynamic community of like-minded individuals who are dedicated to driving positive change in the world. From entrepreneurs to activists, artists to academics, our members are united by a shared vision of creating a more sustainable, equitable, and just future.”
So far, so neo-Marxist.
The club was established in 2018 by three co-founders:
Nick Hamilton - former investment banker, who also founded Conduit Capital Partners: an ‘impact investment manager’ directly linked to the club, and based at the same address.
Paul van Zyl - high-profile human rights lawyer who served as the Executive Secretary of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Van Zyl is also a graduate of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leader programme.
Rowan Finnegan - founder of Regenerative Group, a ‘purpose-driven’ investment fund focused on systems change for ‘the creation of more sustainable world’.
The Conduit is clearly a significant hub of globalist, ‘left wing’, ‘progressive liberal’ thinking and action. They speak of themselves as a ‘Catalyst’ that brings together People (Community), Money (Capital) and Ideas (Content) in order to effect structural change across the global system:
As part of its ‘Content’ proposition, The Conduit runs over 150 events a year across 8 entirely predictable thematic areas: Racial Equity, Climate Action & A Sustainable Future, Education, Learning & Development, Employment & Economic Opportunity, Sexuality & Gender Equity, Peace & Justice, Health, Nutrition & Wellbeing and Arts and Culture.
The Conduit is also a proud partner of London Climate Action Week (LCAW), whose vision is ‘to create a net-zero, equitable and resilient future by harnessing the power of London as a global climate hub’. (Translation: Net-zero = Depopulated, Equitable = Communist, Resilient = Centralised.)
As you might be able to ascertain from the LCAW logo (see above image), the event is focused on delivering the UN Sustainable Development Goals. LCAW is also one of the main global dates on the calendar for Goals House, the SDG propaganda hub run by Freuds Group that I’ve written and spoken about extensively on this blog and UK Column over the past few months.
I’m sure the crushing irony of a private members club costing £2,000 a year, plus an upfront £350 joining fee, located in one of the most expensive neighbourhoods of one of the most expensive cities on earth being focused on ‘social good’ is entirely lost on its well-heeled members and the ‘cultural elites’ who come to speak at their events.
It’s all rather Davos, isn’t it?
Which is almost certainly the point.
In fact The Conduit could well be one of the most important ‘conduits’ (geddit?) for WEF policy to connect with the global NGO, professional and bureaucratic classes for whom London is such an important cultural, economic and political hub.
Anyway, what was I doing there?
The Rise of the Far Right - And What We Can Do About It
On the last day of January, in the wake of Davos 2024, members of The Conduit came together to discuss the ‘Rise of the Far Right - And What We Can Do About It’.
As a non-member, I was unable to attend the event in person (I’m also fairly sure it was sold out). But I wanted to find out more about what this all means. What is this ‘far right’ that everyone is so concerned about? And what are we supposed to ‘do’ about it? The outcome of this can be seen in the video embedded in the top of this post.
The full recording of the session (that I was unable to attend) can be watched back below. I’d suggest watching at least the first 20-30 minutes as useful context:
Speakers at the event were:
Paul Hilder - British ‘social entrepreneur’, co-founder of openDemocracy.net (backed by George Soros and the Ford Foundation), contributor to aavaz.org, former Labour candidate. He strikes me as one of those highly-strung, constitutionally-weak, entirely humourless British progressive politico-types who think their role in life is to go around telling other countries how to think.
Ece Temelkuran - Turkish journalist who’s written extensively on what she describes as Right Wing Populism, not least through her book ‘How To Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship’. She is also on the board of DemocracyNext, the Soros and Rockefeller-backed initiative focused on transforming the global political process that I’ve also spoken about extensively on UK Column over the past few months (See section starting with Obama Foundation from 21 minutes onwards).
Jon Alexander - host of the event, former ad-man and author of a book called ‘Citizens: The Key to Fixing Everything Is All of Us’. I’ve been following Jon for a while and his social media posts were how I found out about the event, and The Conduit itself.
Jon Alexander, in particular, seems like a decent guy and I agree with many of the points he raises. He does, however, seem to fall into the ‘naive progressive’ category mentioned earlier (sorry Jon) that doesn’t appreciate that the people backing his movement (Soros, Rockefeller, Ford, Rowntree etc) are fundamentally the problem we’re fighting against. And that the proposed solutions to political breakdown such as Citizens Assemblies and Sortition are wide open to abuse and, from where many of us are sitting, simply a way for liberal progressives to impose their political ideologies and worldview on people they clearly view as being less intelligent or culturally sophisticated than themselves.
But there is good news - there is much hope and room for common ground. Conversations with attendees were positive. I felt encouraged that we’ve identified many of the same fundamental issues with the existing institutions. The question is, what to do about it? The lines of communication must now be opened up and new ideas allowed to flourish - IMO it’s up to the ‘progressive left’ to start actually listening to what people outside the M25 (London’s ring road) and the ideological walled gardens embodied in places like The Conduit are actually saying. Not what they think we are based on polling and prejudice.
Time to get your hands dirty guys and gals :)
Anyway, enough writing from me for today.
I hope you enjoy the film.
Much love.
Ben
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What is 'The Conduit'?