Under the Southern Cross

Book review.

See here.

I try to read everything of value about the Legionary Movement (*). Under the Southern Cross is a selection of writing of Vasile Marin and Ion Mota, the Romanian Legionary martyrs who died in the Spanish Civil War. The book begins with a general introduction summarizing the deaths of Mota and Marin in the Spanish Civil War, and situating that sacrifice within the history of inter-war Europe and of the Legion.  Then, a brief introduction to Marin followed by a selection of Marin’s writings. Subsequently, a brief introduction to Mota followed by a selection of Mota’s writings.  Finally, a conclusion and timeline about the Legionary Movement and its place in Romanian history (albeit, unfortunately, with hand-wringing over Jews killed in a post-Codreanu Legionary “pogrom” - oy vey!).

There are many interesting photos in the book, most of which I have not seen before.  Some of the photos are of not good quality, somewhat fuzzy, but this may have been unavoidable. In general, the photos are an excellent addition to the book, and shed a light on the lives of Mota and Marin, both as men and as Legionaries.

One problem in the book is the repeated attempts to argue that the Legionaries, including Marin (who married a half-Jew) and Mota, were not biological racists. I think the explanations of Tudor in the notes of For My Legionaries were more informative in this regard.

Note: All of these “arguments” are not going to stop the Left from labelling the Legion as “Nazis.”  The book also makes an error in devaluing the fascist pedigree of the Legionary Movement (wrongly suggesting that fascist movements must be derived from Italian/German inspiration instead of being home-grown) and also over-emphasizing the “agrarian” “traditionalist” “twigs and branches” elements of the Legionary Movement, and ignoring its modernist elements.  See this.

The cuckservative and historically illiterate ramblings of the book’s editor are by far the worst parts of the book.  Ignore that and just concentrate on the writing of Marin and Mota.

Quotes by Marin and Mota:

Marin:

We believe in the ethical value of force. Against the legal state, which grants liberty to the selfish interest of the sporadic individual, we support the ethical state, built on the legitimacy of morality, inside of which is found harmonisation and justification of nothing other than the aspirations and interests of national collectivities. We demolish with contempt the carcass of the demo-liberal state, in order to proclaim in its place not a paternal state of clan interest, but a state fertilised by the principle of moral authority, within which the full development of the entire nation can be achieved.

- Vasile Marin

Marin also distinguished two forms of national collectivism vs. the atomized individualism of liberal democracy – fascism that derives economics from ethics and communism that derives ethics from economics. Thus, in fascism, a specific ethical worldview is paramount, and everything else, including economic theory, is derived from, and must be consistent with, that ethical worldview. Standard Marxian communism puts economics as paramount, and tries to create all else, including a warped ethics, derived from, and consistent with, economic Marxism.  Today, with Cultural Marxism having to a large degree replacing the older economic form, anti-White and anti-Western activism is paramount, and everything, including ethics, is derived form, and is consistent with, those racial and cultural fixations.

On to Mota:

We all of us have the most formidable dynamite, the most advanced weapon of war, more powerful than tanks and machine guns: it is our own ashes!

…if you place conditions on your struggle that it not spoil your personal interests, however you justify them, then all your beautiful resolutions, all your heated conventions will bring about no victory, but will instead remain part of history only to characterise the cowardice of a generation unworthy of its predecessors and deserving only of the curses of its descendants.

And make, Corneliu, from our homeland a land as beautiful as the sun, strong and obedient to God.

- Ion Mota

All in all, despite some flaws, an informative book, and recommended for all those interested in the Legionary Movement.

Notes:

*The other topic I have equal interest in is Yockey. What is necessary is a biologically-informed Yockeyism as an ideological foundation, with a Legionary-style movement as its vehicle.

My old work on Mota.

See this.