Far-right Organisations Research Articles

Seeds of authoritarian opposition: Far-right education politics in post-war Europe.

Since the 1980s, right-wing extremism, radicalism, and populism have emerged as transformative forces in European politics. This unexpected resurgence has triggered an interdisciplinary scholarly effort to refine our understanding of the far right. Educationalists, however, have largely been absent from this endeavour, leaving us unable to theorise and address the potential effects of the far right’s political and cultural growth on European education. This article aims to provide an empirically based conceptional groundwork for educational research on the far right. Drawing on archival research and content analysis of programmatic material produced by diverse and influential far-right organisations in France, (West) Germany, and Italy, I show that the post-war European far right disposes of the two essential features of a social movement: an action-oriented frame that reduces educational reforms to a common contentious theme, and a dense organisational network. The latter engages in institutional and contentious politics, as well as education. Theoretically, these findings suggest that, in the realm of education, the far right ought to be conceptualised as a social movement that seeks to influence education policy, and represents itself an educational actor. Addressing the far right’s multifaceted educational engagement thus requires a combined effort across European education research.

Where Have All the Normal Men and Women Gone?

Abstract FAR-RIGHT SOCIAL MOVEMENTS, WHOSE POPULARITY IS ON THE RISE IN EUROPE, ARE OFTEN DESCRIBED AS MALE-DOMINATED ORGANISATIONS. CONSEQUENTLY, MASCULINITY IN THE CONTEXT OF FAR-RIGHT ORGANISATIONS AND THE MANOSPHERE HAS RECEIVED SCHOLARLY ATTENTION. HOWEVER, MOST STUDIES FOCUS ON MALE ORGANISATIONS AND MALE LEADERS, GIVING THE IMPRESSION THAT “MASCULINIST DISCOURSES” ARE REPRODUCED ONLY BY MEN (KIMMEL, 2013, 2018; MILLER-IDRISS, 2018). YET, IT BECOMES INCREASINGLY DIFFICULT TO CONTINUE TO IGNORE THE PATRIARCHAL DISCOURSES OF WOMEN ENGAGED IN ACTIVISM IN FAR-RIGHT ORGANISATIONS. THEREFORE, THIS EXPLORATORY STUDY FOCUSES ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER IN THE ONLINE COMMUNICATION OF THE CZECH FEMALE ORGANISATION ANGRY MOTHERS. THE STUDY PROVIDES A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF HOW WOMEN CAN CO-CONSTRUCT THE MANOSPHERE, WHICH IS DEEMED TO BE A FUNDAMENTALLY MISOGYNIST ONLINE SPACE. TO ANSWER MY RESEARCH QUESTIONS: HOW DOES THE ORGANISATION USE VISUAL LANGUAGE TO CONSTRUCT GENDER IN THEIR ONLINE COMMUNICATION? AND WHAT TYPES OF MASCULINITY/FEMININITY ARE PORTRAYED AS SUPERIOR AND WHAT TYPES OF MASCULINITY/FEMININITY ARE PORTRAYED AS SUBORDINATE?, I ANALYSED MATERIAL PUBLISHED ON THE ORGANISATION’S FACEBOOK PAGE USING THE METHOD OF VISUAL ANALYSIS (ROSE, 2016), INFORMED BY CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS (CDA) (WODAK & MEYER, 2016). BASED ON THE FINDINGS, I ARGUE THAT THE ACTIVISTS’ VIEWS PRESENTED IN THEIR POLITICAL COMMUNICATION AIM TO PRESERVE A MASCULINIST, PATRIARCHAL STRUCTURAL ORDER IN SOCIETY, DESPITE THEIR SELF-IDENTIFICATION AS PROTECTORS OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS. HOWEVER, THROUGH THEIR DISCURSIVE PRACTICES, THEY SIMULTANEOUSLY PORTRAY WOMEN AS POWERFUL ACTORS IN THEIR TRADITIONAL GENDER ROLES.

A ‘fertile ground for poisonous doctrines’? Understanding far-right electoral appeal in the south Pennine textile belt, c.1967-1979

ABSTRACTHistorical far-right organisations have long proved pervasive, but are rarely interpreted as competitive political parties. While these minority parties and movements never secured significant representation, they influenced municipal and constituency political activity. Focusing on the ‘textile belt’ of Eastern Lancashire and West Yorkshire, this article seeks to understand how far-right organisations engaged in local electoral politics. It considers the influence of regional economic changes, caused by industrial realignment, and how opponents, primarily local Labour parties, interpreted post-war fascism and the concerns it engendered. The article then examines the growing influence of Labour’s anti-fascist campaigns, the popular appeal of far-right politics, and the composition of such group’s memberships. As far-right institutional archives are limited, the article uses material produced by predominant local Labour parties. Alongside providing new perspectives, it encourages scholars to interpret far-right organisations as electoral actors, rather than mere cultural and political pariahs.

Terrorism in time of the pandemic: exploiting mayhem

ABSTRACT Despite the world’s overwhelming preoccupation with the COVID-19 pandemic, the threat of international and domestic terrorism is not in decline according to available indicators. The angst that the pandemic induced in millions of people, and the incapacitation of major functions and institutions of world’s societies are exploited by both jihadist and far-right terror organisations for the spread of conspiracy theories aimed to fuel hate against their alleged nemeses, the encouragement of easy attacks against vulnerable targets, and the spread of bedlam and confusion intended to bring down governments and promote the terrorists’ agenda. In this paper, we illustrate and discuss terrorism trends manifest during the COVID-19 pandemic and consider the threat these trends pose to the world’s security.

Vox como representante de la derecha radical en España: un estudio sobre su ideología

The emergence of Vox in Spanish politics has raised a debate around the very ideological nature of this new party. This article addresses this concern by performing a qualitative content analysis of its party manifestos and discourses, based on the causal chain method. The findings show that Vox is a far-right organization as it fits the characteristics of the radical right party family. Its ideology is based on a combination of nationalism and xenophobia (nativism) and an authoritarian view of society, attached to the values of law and order. This authoritarianism, however, represents neither the willingness to establish an autocratic regime nor the use of violence to reach political goals. This nuance moves Vox away from the most extremist elements of the far right. On the other hand, nativism is the element which distinguishes Vox from the mainstream conservative parties. Finally, two specificities of the Spanish representative of the radical right are worth pointing out: Firstly, unlike many of its counterparts in Europe, populism is not very present in its discourse; the rhetoric of Vox is far more nationalist than populist. Secondly, while many representatives of this party family try to blur their socioeconomic position to attract a broader base of voters, Vox shows without complex a clear conservative stance in issues such as traditional values and a neoliberal economic agenda.

The European and Russian Far Right as Political Actors: Comparative Approach

The article is devoted to the comparative analysis of the far right (nationalist) as political actors in Russia and in Europe. Whereas the European far-right movements over the last years managed to achieve significant success turning into influential political forces as a result of surging popular support, in Russia the far-right organizations failed to become the fully-fledged political actors. This looks particularly surprising, given the historically deep-rooted nationalist tradition, which stems from the times Russian Empire. Before the 1917 revolution, the so-called «Black Hundred» was one of the major far-right organizations, exploiting nationalistic and anti-Semitic rhetoric, which had representation in the Russian parliament – The State Duma. During the most Soviet period all the far-right movements in Russia were suppressed, re-emerging in the late 1980s as rather vocal political force. But currently the majority of them are marginal groups, partly due to the harsh party regulation, partly due to the fact, that despite state-sponsored nationalism the position of Russian far right does not stand in-line with the position of Russian authorities, trying to suppress the Russian nationalists. This is sharply contrasting with the situation with the far right in Europe, which are more well-established and institutionalized as political actors, using conventional forms of political activity. However, despite some differences with the European counterparts, the Russian far right have obvious potential as political actors, which can be realized under certain circumstances, enabling them to play more significant in the political system of Russia.

Eugenics and racial anthropology in the Ukrainian radical nationalist tradition

ArgumentEugenics and race played significant roles in Ukrainian interwar nationalism, yet remain largely unstudied. The Ukrainian nationalists' understanding of the racial makeup of their imagined community was contradictory as they struggled to reconcile their desire for racial "purity" with the realities of significant variations between the populations inhabiting the enormous territories which they sought to include in their intended state project. The "turn to the right" over the 1930s placed an increased onus on race, and eugenics came to occupy an increasingly prominent place in Ukrainian radical nationalism from around 1936. In 1941, the leading Ukrainian far-right organization, the OUN had developed a project for eugenic engineering, for their aborted state, declared in L'viv on June 30, 1941. Racial conceptualizations of the Ukrainian community figured prominently well into the Cold War era, gaining a new actuality and meaning in an émigré community dispersed across several countries.

Far-right Appropriations of the Medieval Military Orders

In April 2016, Nick Griffin, former leader of the far-right British National Party, visited Prague, where he was filmed wearing the robes of a Knight Templar. He had joined the Knights Templar International, a far-right organisation that purports to emulate the medieval Templars. The Templars were the first military order, religious fraternities of soldier-monks which fought in the crusades. Because of their warfare against Muslims, the military orders have attracted much attention from the far-right. Three groups similar to the Knights Templar International have been established in the past few years, all of them far-right organisations modelled upon the military orders. This paper examines how these imitation orders use the memory of their medieval predecessors and what attracts them to this history and that of the Templars in particular. It discusses the ways in which these groups use the memory of the military orders, and how these appropriations in turn fuel Islamist discourses about fighting against modern-day crusaders. In both cases, it will be shown that the history was more complex than the one these groups construct. It also argues that representation of the Templars in pop culture has created a view of them as noble, pious knights - a view that, by association, is used to fuel violence on the far-right.

A Dialectical Approach to Online Propaganda: Australia’s United Patriots Front, Right-Wing Politics, and Islamic State

This article examines how the United Patriots Front (UPF), an Australian far-right organization, has communicated its ideology with reference to right-wing politics in Australia, Western Europe, and the United States, and through allusions to Islamic State. The investigation uses critical discourse and documentary analysis and a framework derived from the theory of Pierre Bourdieu to analyze textual and audiovisual postings on UPF Facebook pages, YouTube channels, and Twitter accounts. Relevant to the discussion are Bourdieu’s interdependent theories on “doxa” as a condition in which socially constructed phenomena appear self-evident, and “habitus” and “field,” which explain how structures and agents, through their reflexive behavior, become dialectically situated.

Far-right activism in Hungary: youth participation in Jobbik and its network

ABSTRACT The Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik) qualifies as one of the most successful far-right organisations in contemporary Europe. Through its swift rise in popularity and entry to parliament, the ‘movement party’ has been able to alter the Hungarian public discourse, existing patterns of party competition, additionally exerting effects on the government’s policy agenda. At least part of these effects should be attributed to Jobbik’s popularity among the youth; its overrepresentation among those aged below 30 is, by now, an established fact within national politics. The article argues for a broader understanding of youth participation in far-right politics and sets two principal research goals. First, to reconstruct the breeding ground of far-right youth activism at the grassroots level, by unveiling potential links between the subcultural, social movement, and party arenas. The study will chart far-right milieus in Hungary and their overlap with Jobbik: thus, it will introduce supply-side factors that contributed to its popularity among the youth. Second, we seek to investigate Jobbik’s appeal through the role of different elements used to justify joining a particular movement. The article uses primary data drawn from interviews and focus groups with students, and in-depth interviews with leaders of Jobbik.

The Rise and Fall of the English Defence League: Self-Governance, Marginal Members and the Far Right

What determines the success or failure of far-right organisations? This article uses new qualitative data to explain the sudden rise and subsequent decline of the English Defence League, an anti-Islamic, street protest organisation established in the UK in 2009. We explain the rise and fall of the English Defence League through the lens of the theory of collective action to show that the English Defence League initially motivated activism by supplying selective incentives that were enhanced by the participation of others. The pursuit of ‘participatory crowding’ led to indiscriminate recruitment into the organisation that enabled numbers to expand into the thousands, but ultimately caused the English Defence League’s downfall because it resulted in the presence of large numbers of ‘marginal members’ with low levels of commitment whose subsequent exit was decisively destructive. Self-governance mechanisms to ensure greater loyalty from members could have prevented the English Defence League’s decline but would also have limited its initial success.

Russia’s Far-Right Violence Wave

This article explores the reasons behind a dramatic rise in far-right violence in the late 2000s in Russia that has been attributed mainly to the actions of radicalized parts of a vast skinhead scene. Analysis of one of the most brutal far-right organizations disproves the notion that skinheads are incapable of developing more than “skin-deep ideologies” of racism without the help of politicians and that they merely engage in isolated and spontaneous attacks on victims. Instead, it argues that skinheads in the organization studied explicitly planned a broad terror campaign, ensuring the lethality and “interconnectedness” of the killings well in advance of carrying out most known deadly attacks.

Australia’s anti-Islam right in their own words. Text as data analysis of social media content

ABSTRACTIn recent years, far-right organisations have formed in response to what they believe to be the threat from the rise of Islam in Australia. Parallel movements have spawned an extensive literature internationally. In this study I investigate this movement in Australia using automated text analysis of all public posts from two of the most popular Australian anti-Islam groups on social media. This approach complements traditional polling methods by offering access to large samples of the spontaneously generated opinions, allowing subjects to speak in their own words. My analysis finds evidence that concerns about terrorism and the perceived political threat from Islam are paramount in these groups’ discussion of Muslims. I conclude by discussing the implications for counter-messaging strategies.

Iconic images in propaganda

Italian visual propaganda often makes use of well-established imagery, to exploit its proven impact. Renaissance masterpieces with religious subject matter were recurrently reproduced on political posters in the early post-war years and during the referenda campaigns of 1974 and 1981, mostly to characterise the parties as Christian. In Italy and elsewhere these images now tend to be employed in a secular way, for instance to denounce injustices and atrocities, and invite compassion and solidarity for the victims. Symbolic motifs traditionally associated with specific ideological traditions also used to feature strongly in Italian visual propaganda; they virtually disappeared in the early 1990s with the collapse of the Christian-Democrat and Socialist parties in the wake of theMani puliteinvestigations, and the Communist Party’s transformation into a social-democratic party. They have been replaced by new icons. Iconographic motifs dear to fascism and Nazism, however, continue to be used, by stealth or unabashedly, by Italian far-right organisations.

White Youth: the Far Right, Punk and British Youth Culture, 1977-87

White Youth’ recovers and explains the relationship between far-right organisations and British youth culture in the period between 1977 and 1987. In particular, it concentrates on the cultural spaces opened up by punk and the attempts made by the National Front and British Movement to claim them as conduits for racist and/or ultra-nationalist politics. The article is built on an empirical basis, using archival material and a historical methodology chosen to develop a history ‘from below’ that takes due consideration of the socio-economic and political forces that inform its wider context. Its focus is designed to map shifting cultural and political influences across the far right, assessing the extent to which extremist organisations proved able to adopt or utilise youth cultural practice as a means of recruitment and communication. Today the British far right is in political and organisational disarray. Nonetheless, residues tied to the cultural initiatives devised in the 1970s–80s remain, be they stylistic, nostalgic or points of connection forged to a transnational music scene.

The Separatist War in Donbas: A Violent Break-up of Ukraine?

ABSTRACTUkraine previously experienced significant regional political divisions, including separatism in Crimea and Donbas. However, in contrast to post-communist countries such as Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, and former Yugoslavia, prior to 2014 Ukraine was able to avoid a war and a break-up. This study examines the role of separatists, the Yanukovych government, the Maidan opposition and the Maidan government, far-right organizations, Russia, the US, and the EU in the conflict in Donbas. It uses a specially commissioned survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) in 2014 to analyse public support for separatism in Donbas, compared to other regions of Ukraine, and the major factors which affect such support. It concludes that all these actors contributed in various ways to the conflict in Donbas, which involved both a civil war and a direct Russian military intervention since August 2014. The study links this conflict to the ‘Euromaidan’, specifically, the government overthrow by means of the Maidan massacre, and the secession and Russia's annexation of Crimea. The KIIS survey shows that support for separatism is much stronger in Donbas compared to other regions, with the exception of Crimea, and that the break-up of Ukraine is unlikely to extend to its other parts.

The Making of a Myth: The National Labor Alliance, Russian Émigrés, and Cold War Intelligence Activities

This article examines the role of the National Labor Alliance (NTS), a far-right organization of Russian exiles, in U.S. intelligence operations during the early Cold War. Drawing on declassified archival documents and émigré sources, the article discusses how the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) used the NTS in covert operations to undermine Communism in Europe. Early operations to penetrate Soviet borders failed, as NTS members who were sent into the USSR were quickly rounded up amid suspicions of internal betrayal. Following Soviet attempts to kidnap and assassinate NTS leaders in Germany in 1954, the CIA adopted a new approach, using the émigré organization as a tool of political and psychological warfare. Borrowing political strategies used by the exiles themselves, the CIA promoted a false image of the NTS as a powerful underground organization in order to provoke the Soviet state into costly and destabilizing countermeasures against it. As a result, the NTS became a mythical organization, and the intelligence agencies of both superpowers sought to manipulate it to their advantage.

Securitization of LGBTIQ Minority in Serbian Far-right Discourses: A Post-structuralist Perspective

This article analyses the securitization of LGBTIQ population in the narratives of Serbian far-right organizations, i.e. the discursive construction of the LGBTIQ minorities as a threat. The analysis relies on securitization theory in order to demonstrate how the issue of gay rights is taken beyond ‘normal politics’ and constructed as a security issue. By drawing upon post-structuralist reading of securitization theory, this article argues that the narratives of Serbian far-right groups acquire legitimacy due to their coherence with the mainstream discourses on homosexuality and LGBTIQ rights. Moreover, it argues that through the securitization of sexual minorities in the far-right discourses, the Serbian national identity is being re-defined and strengthened. This article uses discourse analysis as main method. The sources of data include press statements and other media pieces, reports by civil society organizations and government institutions, public opinion surveys and websites of the far-right groups. The analysis is focused on the period from the adoption of the Anti-discrimination Law in 2009 onwards, as the period in which the issue of LGBTIQ rights has become increasingly topical in the Serbian public sphere.

What the Far Right Does Not Tell Us about the Maidan

Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity has multiple meanings. For some, it demonstrates Ukrainians' ability to organize themselves, fight a corrupt police regime, and champion the rule of law, human rights, and freedom from imperial Russian rule. For others, the presence of the Far Right among its leaders symbolizes the return of the most aggressive, violent features of Ukrainian nationalism. The specter of extreme right-wing nationalism has haunted Ukraine's revolution since late November 2013, when students and young professionals began demonstrating on Kyiv's Independence Square, die Maidan, to protest President Viktor Yanukovych's decision on 21 November not to sign an Association Agreement with the European Union the following week. Yanukovych's government hinted that further aid from Russia, and possibly membership in its Eurasian Customs Union, would substitute for EU assistance. Thus it looked as if was about to lose its sovereignty and become a satellite state of Russia or part of a resurrected Soviet Union. Such developments encouraged activists in right-wing organizations to take the lead. Already in the first days of protests, there appeared the black-and-red flags of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), first adopted by Stepan Bandera's wing of the organization during World War II. Far-right political chants such as to Glory to the heroes! Ukraine above all! and to the nation! Death to the enemies! resounded on the Maidan. Students from the right-wing political party Svoboda (Freedom) were among those mobilizing protesters around these slogans. These nationalist-motivated calls for justice grew fiercer after Ukraine's Berkut security forces beat up demonstrators and drove out the Euromaidan on the early morning hours of 30 November. to Ukraine! became a rallying call the next day, 1 December, as people in Kyiv in the tens and hundreds of thousands took to the streets and demanded not just closer relations with Europe but justice against the police, the resignation of Ukraine's government, and even the ouster and imprisonment of their own president. Over the next three months, symbols attributed to the Far Right appeared whenever violence flared up. After Ukraine's parliament, the Supreme Rada, passed the so-called Dictatorship Laws on 16 January 2014, clashes broke out on Kyiv's Hrushevsky Street between protesters and security forces. A far-right organization connected with the Maidans self-defense units, Right Sector, took credit for sparking the scenes of flying Molotov cocktails, burned-out buses, and flaming tires that spread across the world's media. When a peaceful march to the Supreme Rada on 18 February turned into nearly three days of bloodshed, resulting in at least 100 dead, the chant, to the nation! Death to the enemies! took on special meaning. It resounded in die makeshift morgue in the Hotel Ukraine, up the hill from the Maidan, after doctors and priests had given the dead their last rites. When President Yanukovych fled on 21 February, it looked to some as though the forces of the Far Right had triumphed in Kyiv and were threatening the country's future. Right Sector took over the Hotel Dnipro and some shops on Kyiv's main street, Khreshchatyk. Members of parliament from Svoboda became government ministers. Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea and uprisings orchestrated and managed by Russian military intelligence in the Donbas region prompted violence between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian forces that led to up to 40 pro-Russian activists being killed in a fire in the Trade Unions Building in Odessa on 2 May. Right Sector activists allegedly claimed credit for die act, diough the details remain murky. (1) When armed men, some of diem from Russian military intelligence, seized administrative buildings in die Donbas, volunteer battalions, some of them led by people of die Far Right, took up arms and helped die government wage its war against pro-Russian forces, known as the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO). …

DIFFERENT MANIFESTATIONS OF THE RISE OF FAR-RIGHT IN EUROPEAN POLITICS: THE CASES OF GERMANY AND AUSTRIA

The recent rise of the far-right in Europe has been manifested in different fields that create crucial challenges for maintaining peace and stability in Europe. The first, concerns the increasing votes for far-right parties in various local, national and European Parliament elections. Secondly, there has been rise in far-right organizations and far-right violence. Thirdly, there has been normalization of farright discourse in European politics. This article focuses on different manifestations of the rise of the far-right in Germany and Austria and the underlying reasons. Specifically, it compares the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) and Germany’s National Democratic Party (NPD) in terms of their party programs, discourse and electoral success