- Mats Deland: “The Swedish introduction of Identitarianism”
- Jacob Aasland Ravndal: “Explaining the metapolitical turn of the revolutionary right”
- Graham Macklin: Transnational networking in the Anglo-American extreme right
- Elisabetta Cassina Wolff: The Italian Far Right’s ambiguity between metapolitical commitment and praise of violence
Abstracts
The Swedish introduction of Identitarianism
Mats Deland, Mittuniversitetet Sundsvall
Identitarianism was introduced to Swedish extreme right-wing activists in 2006-2007. This paper covers the discussion, mainly between activists of the Swedish organisations Nordiska förbundet and Svenska Motståndsrörelsen (nowadays NMR) on the value and content of the concept and the strategy changes that it implicated.
Violence, militancy and (different conceptions of) race are thematised. At the same time, the introduction was an obvious quest for leadership within the race-ideological movement. The discussion is reconstructed from surviving internet threads, that are treated as open sources, and is thereby also a pilot study in the fine art of contemporary history based on Internet sources.
Explaining the metapolitical turn of the revolutionary right
Jacob Aasland Ravndal, University of Oslo
In today’s Western Europe, increased migration, rising Islamist terrorism, and growing support to radical right parties have led several experts to suggest that an outbreak of right-wing terrorism could be brewing in this region. However, the nature of this alleged terrorist threat and the conditions shaping it remain obscure. Few right-wing terrorist groups have been active in Western Europe since the death trail of the German terrorist cell Nationalsozialistischer Untergrund (NSU) ended in 2007.
Attacks occur sporadically, are usually carried out by lone actors, and do not seem to be coordinated by any specific network or ideological authority. At the same time, another form of activism – metapolitics – is becoming increasingly popular among revolutionary right activists both in Western Europe and in the United States. On the surface, metapolitics comes across as the non-violent alternative of the revolutionary right. However, as this paper argues, underneath the surface lies a capacity and willingness for violent struggle that is likely to come forth under the right (or wrong) conditions.
This paper is aimed at explaining why metapolitics has become the preferred strategy of the revolutionary right today, and in doing so, identifying key conditions for explaining the strategic decision-making of revolutionary movements operating within the context of Western democracies. In doing so, the paper first investigates four dominant strategies from the revolutionary right in post-WWII to Western Europe, before drawing on social movement theory to explain the metapolitical turn of today’s revolutionary right
Anglo-American militant Networks
Graham Macklin, C-REX, University of Oslo
Transatlantic militant subcultures and networks are an ingrained component of post-war extreme right-wing activism. This paper addresses some of the conditions under which transnationalism occurs and the potential impacts it has upon the groups/milieu engaged in such activism. It does so through a case study of the longstanding subcultural interchange between extreme right-wing milieus in Britain and the United States.
The paper examines the contours of this transnational relationship from the 1940s onwards, noting in particular the impact of groups like the National States Rights Party, the National Alliance and The Order, upon their British counterparts, and vice versa. Having established the historical trajectory, the paper explores how and in what context British militants debated the ‘inspirational’ revolutionary acts of racial terrorism committed by US groups, the main tributaries for the diffusion of such ideas, and the resulting ‘Americanisation’ of the British extreme right during the 1990s. The dynamics of transnational activism remain rooted in their respective domestic contexts, however.
The paper examines this argument through an analysis of the appearance of William Pierce, leader of the National Alliance, at the 1995 rally of the British National Party, led by John Tyndall. Rather than reflecting a simple ideological alignment of the two groups, Pierce’s visit illuminated a long-stranding debate within the ‘scene’ regarding the efficacy of racial terrorism. Moreover, this transnational activism was politically important within a domestic context since Pierce’s presence, literally and symbolically, helped Tyndall reassert his leadership at a moment when more tactically violent groups like Combat 18 were challenging it.
The Italian far right’ ambiguity between metapolitical commitment and praise of violence
Elisabetta Cassina Wolff, Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo
My paper aims to be a contribution from the discipline of humanities to the study of violent extremism. My ongoing empirical research follows the historical evolution of one particular national case: the extra-parliamentary Italian far right from the 1950s until the end of the 1970s. Along the way, we meet a cluster of think tanks, cultural institutes, publishing houses and journals that all share a common anti-liberal, anti-capitalist, anti-materialist and revolutionary stance vis-à-vis the liberal-democratic system. The analysis will mainly delve into the ambiguous relationship between the metapolitical commitment of these movements/circles/parties and the militant (and violent) experience of many of their followers, some of them even compromised with right-wing terrorism during the 1970s. Focusing on the ideological content of far-right discourse and on the political/practical choices of some specific actors, my arguments will be two-folded. First, I intend to show the continuity in ideological discourse within the Italian far right milieu from the inter-war period to the post-war period and until the 1970s. Second, I argue that a relevant element in such discourse is exactly the praise of violence as political means. Hence, through a narrative style, and using a historical approach and qualitative analysis, my paper aims at giving complementary knowledge to quantitative studies on political extremism coming from the fields of sociology and political science.