Nationalist Groups Research Articles

Consumption, Wellness, and the Far Right

Consumption, Wellness, and the Far Right

Bloody Sunday at Fifty

Bloody Sunday at Fifty Sarah Jaffe (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution On January 30, 2022, marchers pass a mural of the victims of Bloody Sunday. (Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) [End Page 136] The first thing you notice about Derry, a city of 110,000 or so in the north of Ireland close to the much-contested border of partition, is that it’s beautiful. It’s hilly and green and the River Foyle winds through it and the ancient walls that enclose the old city are gorgeous—if you forget for a moment that they were built to keep the Irish out of the colonial settlement. Like so many other places that have become household names because of the violence inflicted on their people, the loveliness of this particular part of Ireland often gets forgotten. Derry was beautiful on Sunday, January 30, as a cold drizzle fell on the thousands of marchers winding their way from the neighborhood of Creggan down the hill to the Bogside to commemorate the 1972 killings of fourteen unarmed people by British soldiers. The families of the dead and their neighbors, friends, and allies march every year; this, the fiftieth anniversary, was even more painfully significant, more of an aching reminder that, as the famous Free Derry wall was repainted this winter to say, “There is no British justice.” What is known as Bloody Sunday was an inflection point in the conflict euphemistically known as the Troubles, itself a point on the centuries-long curve of the Irish freedom struggle. Between the building of the stone walls and the peace walls, between colonization and partition and the Good Friday agreement, the Irish fought by various means to reclaim their land. In the 1960s, a civil rights movement inspired by the Black freedom movement in the United States grew in the North to demand representation and rights for the Catholic Irish, who were still closed out of politics and decent jobs by various means legal and extralegal. The British military’s crackdown only made the various factions of the Irish rebellion more determined, and the violence left them with so much grief—grief aggravated by the continued attempts to blame them for their own brutalization. That Sunday in 1972, nearly 15,000 people defied a ban on marches to call for the release of hundreds of activists and militants who were being held without trial. Anger over their internment in military camps (complete [End Page 137] with violent interrogations and what we’d now very clearly call torture) had swelled the ranks of the protesters as well as the armed militants of the Irish Republican Army—the two organizations with that name, which had recently split into the Provisional IRA and the Official IRA. It also kicked off a massive civil resistance campaign that included rent and bill strikes, allowing people who might not come out to the streets and certainly would not pick up guns to withdraw their consent from the partitioned government. In response, the Parachute Regiment of the British Army was sent in with an armored vehicle and opened fire. And so this year too marchers made their way down the hill, accompanied by Republican marching bands and bearing flags from local and national organizations, including dissident nationalist groups, the socialists of People Before Profit, pro-choice marchers (abortion is still not readily available in the North), and the Palestine solidarity campaign. When they reached the Free Derry corner, the marching bands halted, and “We Shall Overcome,” borrowed, like other tactics, from Black American activists, poured through the loudspeaker. The conversations and even laughter occasionally heard on the march quieted, and Bernadette McAliskey, known at the time of Bloody Sunday as Bernadette Devlin MP (elected to the British Parliament aged just twenty-one), took the microphone. McAliskey spoke softly, intimately even, to the thousands huddled in the rain. She remembered calling the hospital to find out what had happened to the people who’d been shot, and recalled her realization that as a member of parliament she could make demands that would otherwise be ignored and the chilling feeling that set in as the list of the dead grew. The...

Journeys with Yal Devi: War, Peace, and Contemporary Art in Sri Lanka

Journeys with Yal Devi: War, Peace, and Contemporary Art in Sri Lanka Sonal Khullar (bio) i was excited to be taking the express train Yal Devi, named after the goddess of Jaffna, to attend ”but political by persuasion,” a workshop on contemporary art in Sri Lanka organized by Mariah Lookman in Colombo in 2018 (Figure 1).1 It was my first time on the train. My companion on that journey, the artist Jasmine Nilani Joseph, was also keen on going south by train from Yalpannam, as Jaffna is known in Tamil. She spoke of Yal Devi, the train and goddess, as a friend and protector. I had come to know Joseph, a graduate of the fine arts program at the University of Jaffna, on trips to Sri Lanka between 2013 and 2018 while researching a book on contemporary art from South Asia.2 The rail journey between Jaffna and Colombo, cities in the North and South of the country and associated with its Tamil-minority and Sinhalese-majority communities respectively, had been impossible for much of the twenty-six-year-long civil war that began in 1983 and concluded in 2009, which is to say, for most of Joseph’s life. [End Page 502] Joseph was born in 1990, the same year Sri Lanka Railways suspended train service to Jaffna City and Kankesanthurai in the Northern Province. Service to Jaffna City and Kankesanthurai resumed in October 2014 and January 2015, respectively. As Sharika Thiranagama has argued, the Yal Devi, or ”Queen of the North,” train was legendary for transporting goods and passengers in twentieth-century Sri Lanka and symbolized better relations between Tamil and Sinhalese communities.3 For many Tamils, the train signified ”normality,” ”magical days” of a prewar period, and ”the dream of ordinary movement, as opposed to wartime forced displacements” and travel ”to a destination that you yourself had chosen.”4 north and south On that day in 2018, the six-hour ride between Jaffna City and Colombo Fort stations was bumpy, even bruising, as train tracks had been bombed in 1985 and set ablaze in 1990 by the ltte (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) during the war and were still not fully repaired. Our journey yielded sights and stops laden with meaning. We passed Kilinochchi, erstwhile administrative base of the ltte, and Anuradhapura, capital of an ancient Sinhalese kingdom. Joseph pointed out Vavuniya, where her family had lived in a refugee camp between 1995 and 1998 (Figure 2). Peacocks danced in the arid bush, with their blue and green plumes shining against golden earth. In response to state-sponsored discrimination against Sri Lanka’s Tamil population, the ltte led a political and military campaign against the Sri Lankan government demanding Tamil Eelam, an independent Tamil homeland.5 The Jaffna Peninsula in the Northern Province was [End Page 503] the imaginative locus for Eelam, although Sri Lanka’s Tamil population, which includes Hindus, Muslims, and Christians, is scattered across the country with significant communities in the east, north, and southwest. The civil war officially ended in May 2009 with the ltte’s defeat by Sri Lankan military forces, a large-scale refugee crisis, and human rights violations by the Sri Lankan government and ltte.6 More than a decade later, the process of resettlement, reconstruction, and reconciliation is incomplete. The postwar period has witnessed a continuation of war by other means and generated new conflicts, encapsulated by the rise of Bodu Bala Sena, a Buddhist nationalist group, and the Easter bombings in April 2019.7 Effects of war are perceptible in the North, South, and journeys between them. During the war, the 250-mile journey by road between Colombo and Jaffna could take as long as three days because of checkpoints and curfews, the artist T. Shanaathanan recalled at a conference in Colombo in 2013. (My bus journey on the A9 highway took about six hours in 2018 with stops. Thiranagama recalls a thirteen-hour journey [End Page 504] on that road in 2010.8) On those journeys, Shanaathanan was stopped and questioned about his drawings by security forces who believed them to be maps that could be used as weapons against the state.9 Maps were coveted...

JAV lietuvių tautininkų Lietuvai vaduoti sąjungos įkūrimas 1941 metais

THE FOUNDING OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE LIBERATION OF LITHUANIA BY AMERICAN-LITHUANIAN NATIONALISTS IN 1941 Summary Historiography lacks a deep and thorough analysis of the Association for the Liberation of Lithuania (ALL), the American-Lithuanian organisation of nationalists (tautininkai), and yet its founding in 1941 marked the beginning of independent actions by American-Lithuanian nationalists and their relations 155 with the US government. Unfortunately, their efforts were undermined by their opponents (the Catholics and the socialists in particular), who expressed concerns regarding their agenda. Among the most notable claims were that the ALL duplicated the agenda of the Lithuanian American Council (LAC), and interfered in common interests during the Second World War. The Soviet occupation of Lithuania in 1940 greatly encouraged different patriotic political groups (Catholics, nationalists and socialists) to combine their efforts and establish a common political organisation, the Lithuanian Rescue Council, which in 1941was renamed the Lithuanian American Council. Unfortunately, the nationalists found it difficult to accept a common financing model and the dominance of the Catholic group, which led to friction within the organisation. Moreover, Antanas Smetona, the president of Lithuania, who arrived in the USA in 1941, received a cold and unfriendly welcome from the socialists and the Catholics. Consequently, this caused even greater dissatisfaction in the nationalist group, as they had hoped to work closely with the former president to help the occupied country. Therefore, Smetona became a unifying axis for the nationalists, and a reason for them to withdraw from the council. It is no coincidence that the 1941 nationalist convention was held at Juozas Balčiūnas’ summer house in Michigan: President Smetona was living there with his family. Soon the Tabor Farm became a nationalist hub, which united like-minded Lithuanian-Americans from Chicago to Brooklyn. The twoday convention was attended by 27 nationalist delegates, as well as other guests, including Jadvyga Tubelienė and the consul Petras Daužvardis. The event is also known for the founding of the ALL and the Information Bureau, as well as the establishment of the Lithuanian National Relief Fund, which brought together other smaller nationalist funds. The purpose of the fund was to collect donations not only from Lithuanians, but also from American citizens, to support Lithuania and its diaspora. The aforementioned organisations settled in Chicago in order to keep the balance between the patriotic left and right wings. Antanas Olis, a US-born lawyer, stood out as a new leader, and was elected head of all three organisations. The participants in the conference at the Tabor Farm approved the ALL statutes, which defined the structure of the new organisation, its goals and agenda. The statutes also highlighted the aim of this nationalist organisation, which was not only to work with the Lithuanian diaspora, but also to establish relations with the political class in the USA. It was essential to inform them about recent developments in Lithuania, and to garner their support in order to restore Lithuania’s independence. The main idea was to openly support the Lithuanian government, which was formed by local citizens rather than by foreigners.

Right-wing Terrorism and Emerging Threats to the US National Interests

The USA acclaims to be a multicultural land of opportunity assimilating migrant settlers since its inception,but another facet of the USA is a culture of white racial supremacy, and orthodox beliefs regarding blacks, women, religiousand ideological others. The policy of constructing the ideological other, i.e., communism, was the highlight of cold warpolitics. The end of the cold war brought a shift in US policy and led to the rise of right-wing nationalist groups. The Trumpvictory was the triumph of these groups leading to an exponential rise in incidents of domestic terrorism during the TrumpEra. The paper employing Realist IR theory analyzes the Right-wing terrorist ideology through secondary data. One outcomeof the study is that the ideology of populism employing violence is causing civil unrest and is a stigma for USA soft image,and the rise of domestic terrorism is associated with the wave of global religious revivalism.

Lebensraum’s Tropical Turn

AbstractIn 1981 the ATF, FBI, and U.S. Customs Service agents arrested a group of American and Canadian White nationalists as they were on their way to overthrow the government of Dominica. Although seemingly improbable, the event is important because it illustrates the hegemonic nature of the relationship between the United States and Caribbean countries and, also, the globalization of White nationalist violence. In this paper I show that extant theory on White nationalism can be used to explain the White nationalist plot. In particular, I invoke the concept of Lebensraum and the fact that White nationalists espouse multiple objectives—in addition to racism—to explain their intent to subvert a Black country and to live there.

The Indonesian Government's Political Control of the Islamic Ideology Movement in a Country with a Majority of Muslims

Geneological perspective differences on the Jakarta Charter had become the main cause for some Islamic groups to have an endless struggle in embodying Islamism and Islamic ideology formalism as the basis of their philosophy and ideology. Compromise and radicalism are part of the movement of these groups. This study aims to examine the supporters’ movement of the understanding of Islamism and Islamic Idiology formalism in order to get involve in Indonesian political system. The phenomenological constructivism approach is used in understanding the views of New Order Regime and Reforms Regime in dealing with Islamism and Islamic idiology formalism which are taken from interview and document analysis. The results of the study show that the radical issues are far more than the normal level of the Indonesian Islam movement. The concerns of certain groups which are oriented towards the Islamic movement in Indonesia are more co-opted in an anti-Islamic global network sponsored by the United States. The status of the New Order Regime and the Reform Regime do not differ significantly in addressing various state issues related to the issues of the Islamic movement. For these two regimes, Islamism is still seen as a movement that must be tightly controlled, radical issues and terrorism are the most effective political instruments for controlling Islamic nationalism groups whose views differ from secular nationalist groups with regard to national philosophy and identity.

New Donors, New Goals? Altruism, Self-Interest, and Domestic Political Support in Development Cooperation in Latin America

ABSTRACTThe literature on aid allocation shows that many factors influence donors’ decision to provide aid. However, our knowledge about foreign aid allocation is based on traditional foreign aid, from developed to developing countries, and many assumptions of these theories do not hold when applied to southern donors. This article argues that south-south development cooperation (SSDC) can be explained by the strength of development cooperation’s domestic allies and foes. Specifically, it identifies civil society organizations as allies of SSDC and nationalist groups as opponents of SSDC. By using for the first time data on SSDC activities in Latin America, this article shows the predictive strength of a liberal domestic politics approach in comparison to the predictive power of alternative explanations. The results speak to scholars of both traditional foreign aid and south-south development cooperation in highlighting the limits of traditional theories of foreign aid motivations.

Eating Up the Enemy: Teaching Richard Coer de Lyon and the Misrepresentation of Crusader Ideology in White Nationalist Agendas

American white nationalist groups, such as the Klu Klux Klan, the American Freedom Party, and the American Nazi Party, capitalize on the fantasy of a white, heteronormative medieval Europe in their anti-Islam agendas, misrepresenting both the history of the Crusades and the “Pork-Eating Crusader” image associated with it. Now a product available for purchase at certain online retail shops, the image of a crusader eating “pork” appears in the popular medieval romance Richard Coer de Lyon (RCL) when an ailing King Richard unwittingly eats a Saracen captive instead of the pork he requested. This article examines how working with students to trace the history of this image through RCL gives needed context to the racial and religious identities represented in Crusader texts. When properly contextualized, the episodes of Richard cannibalizing his Saracen enemies demonstrate that the infamous king is a figure for modern audiences to question rather than to emulate. By teaching students that medieval racial and religious identities were in flux, they are better able to see how the modern fantasy of the medieval period is used by white nationalist activists and how to combat their agendas. Such lessons further articulate how certain positions, like race, gender, and religion are constructed over time, and, more importantly, how they continue to be constructed and changed.

The University of Texas's “Racial Geography Tour,” designed by Dr. Edmund Gordon

The University of Texas's “Racial Geography Tour,” designed by Dr. Edmund Gordon

The Political Myth of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu in the Thought of Contemporary Polish Nationalist Groups

The Political Myth of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu in the Thought of Contemporary Polish Nationalist Groups

Hard choices, soft targets: Terror proscription and strategic targeting decisions of FTO

ABSTRACT Proscription lists are common counter-terror tools, yet their impact on terrorist violence is unclear. We find that proscription can be effective at constraining the violence of some types of groups, especially those that are young, secular, and without institutional support. However, proscription also can backfire from a counter-terrorist prospective, especially when applied to groups that are well-established, religious, and/or sponsored by states. Our analysis evaluates 534 terrorist groups, including sixty-six that were ultimately proscribed under the United States’ Foreign Terror Organization list. Unsurprisingly, we find that terrorist groups that attract proscription are more violent and better equipped to tap into international terror networks. While younger groups and nationalist groups are more vulnerable to proscription, older religious groups and those with state sponsors seem to be more violent after proscription. Proscription can be an effective tool for reducing terrorist attacks and lethality, but it is most effective against younger terror groups and states should exercise caution in its use as it may not have the desired effects on all types of groups. Las listas de proscripción son herramientas antiterroristas comunes; no obstante, su impacto sobre la violencia terrorista es poco claro. Observamos que la proscripción puede ser efectiva en la limitación de la violencia de algunos tipos de grupos, en especial de los grupos nuevos, seculares y que no reciben apoyo institucional. Sin embargo, la proscripción también puede resultar contraproducente desde una perspectiva antiterrorista, especialmente cuando se aplica a grupos sólidamente establecidos, religiosos o que cuentan con el patrocinio del Estado. Nuestro análisis evalúa 534 grupos terroristas, incluidos 66 que se proscribieron finalmente conforme a la lista de Organizaciones Terroristas Extranjeras de los Estados Unidos. Como era de esperarse, observamos que los grupos terroristas que suscitan la proscripción son más violentos y están mejor equipados para acceder a redes internacionales de terrorismo. Mientras que los grupos más nuevos y los nacionalistas son más vulnerables a la proscripción, los grupos religiosos más antiguos y aquellos que reciben el patrocinio del Estado parecen ser más violentos después de la proscripción. La proscripción puede ser una herramienta efectiva para reducir la letalidad y los ataques terroristas, pero es más efectiva contra los grupos terroristas más nuevos, y los Estados deberían aplicarla con precaución, ya que es posible que no tenga los efectos deseados en todos los tipos de grupos. Les listes de proscriptions sont des outils courants de lutte contre le terrorisme, mais leur impact sur la violence terroriste n’est pas clair. Nous constatons que la proscription peut être efficace pour limiter la violence de certains types de groupes, en particulier ceux qui sont jeunes, laïques et sans soutien institutionnel. Cependant, la proscription peut également se retourner contre elle dans une perspective antiterroriste, en particulier lorsqu’elle est appliquée à des groupes bien établis, religieux et/ou soutenus par des États. Notre analyze évalue 534 groupes terroristes, dont soixante-six qui ont en définitive été proscrits en vertu de la liste des organizations terroristes étrangères des États-Unis. Sans surprise, nous constatons que les groupes terroristes qui attirent la proscription sont plus violents et mieux équipés pour puiser dans les réseaux terroristes internationaux. Tandis que les groupes plus jeunes et les groupes nationalistes sont plus vulnérables à la proscription, les groupes religieux plus anciens et les groupes soutenus par un État semblent devenir plus violents suite à la proscription. La proscription peut être un outil efficace pour réduire les attaques terroristes et leur létalité, mais c’est contre les groupes terroristes plus jeunes qu’elle est la plus efficace et les États devraient faire preuve de prudence dans son utilization car elle peut ne pas avoir les effets souhaités sur tous les types de groupes.

Enemigos íntimos. Percepciones del marxismo y las izquierdas en Tacuara y sus agrupaciones derivadas

The purpose of this article is to understand what place the representations of Marxism and the left occupied in Tacuara and its branch organizations, as part of a broader investigation of the Catholic, Marxist and nationalist groups identified with the Peronist left in the ‘60s. The text states that Marxism and the left were represented as a radical otherness with negative features, which operated as a constitutive exterior of the tacuarist identity itself. The conspiracy theory of universal government, or the cultural battle between Christianity and materialism, could not function without the specter of communism as a permanent and multiform threat. On the other hand, nationalist groups wanted to imitate the efficiency attributed to communism to infiltrate societies and colonize consciences. In this context, the concept of class struggle was problematized by Tacuara, and then incorporated by some of its subdivisions, which evidences the displacement of a culturalist nationalism to a more secularized one. To advance these formulations, will be analyzed the political press of Tacuara and its derivative groups, such as Tacuara. Vocero De La Juventud Nacionalista, Ofensiva, Barricada Del Nacionalismo Revolucionario, Tacuara del manchon y Nueva Argentina, among other documents.

Gendered Islamophobia: The nature of Hindu and Buddhist nationalism in India and Sri Lanka

AbstractThis article explores the gendered nature of Hindu and Buddhist nationalism in India and Sri Lanka. Nationalist movements have become increasingly prevalent in both countries and frequently rely upon Islamophobic discourse centred around a fear of Muslim expansionism. Specifically, nationalists in each country frame their concerns through a gendered lens concerning Muslim fertility vis‐à‐vis Hindus and Buddhists, religious intermarriage of Muslim men with Hindu/Buddhist women, and the securitization of Muslim women’s clothing choices. Femonationalist rhetoric has also increasingly been utilized by Hindu and Buddhist nationalists to frame Muslim women as victims of Islam’s patriarchal structures and in need of saving by Hindus and Buddhists. This article draws upon original field research in India and Sri Lanka, including interviews with Hindu and Buddhist nationalist groups, their leaders, and Muslim minorities and organizations.

Postcolonial Conflictual Nationalism causing Gender Violence in Pakistan and Srilanka analyzed through Fatima Bhutto and Nayomi Munaweera’s Select Fictions

Nationalism, although a celebrated ideology, is observed as suffocating and detrimental to feminist individuality in certain regions of post liberated Pakistan and Sri Lanka wherein aggravated sectarian and ethnic conflicts have led to gender-based violence which has demolished feminine sexual purity forever. Since independence, both nations have undergone national crises as Sri Lankan citizens lived in trepidation for almost a decade because of the Sinhala-Tamil dispute whereas minority Shias and other deviant sects of Pakistan live in a constant threat of violence from radicalized and orthodox religious nationalist groups. The self-proclaimed nationalist Sunni and Sinhala groups peculiarly target women who apart from their role as reproducers and nurturers, participated equally in the anti-colonial liberation struggle only to be rewarded with ethnic and sectarian violence conflated with gender violence. The research article aims to present a literary exploration of Shia and Tamil women’s grievances and resistance through Fatima Bhutoo & Nayomi Munaweera’s select fictional works and highlights the postcolonial political privileging of masculinity through nationalist ideologies and strategies which, despite structuring a brave new world of equality, attempts to silence women forever. At this point, the fundamental flaw of nationalism i.e. creating rife based on inequalities of ethnicity, race, culture, religion, and gender divisions within a nation becomes evident which not only conspires to push women back from their struggle for equal gender rights but also deprives them of social acceptance forever.

THE SURVIVAL AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION OF A KUWAITI SHIA MOVEMENT: THE NATIONAL ISLAMIC ALLIANCE

ABSTRACT The National Islamic Alliance (NIA) has evolved as a leading Shia Kuwaiti political group since the 1980s. The NIA participates in electoral politics and Kuwaiti cabinets. While its roots go back to Shia activists in Kuwait, some of whom were linked to Iraq's Islamic Da'wa Party in the end of the 1960s, it is a pragmatic and Kuwaiti nationalist group. The article argues that the NIA shifted from being an active opposition group in the 1990s to a pro-ruling family and government group in 2008. The NIA's transformation was partly a response to the rise of sectarian politics in Kuwait and the opposition's resentment of the NIA's mourning of Imad Mughniyeh, a Lebanese Hezbollah leader. The article includes first-hand and secondary resources, including interviews and the NIA's figures' public statements to unpack the NIA's foundation, structure and changing relationship with the ruling family as well as its political engagement and positions on the Kuwaiti protest movement (2011–2013).

Glyphosate regulation and sovereignty politics around the world

Bayer's best‐selling herbicide, glyphosate, is a once in a generation product. This pesticide has come to symbolize widespread opposition to corporate influence over agrochemical regulation and led to calls for greater democratic accountability in science. In the 1960s, the modern environmental movement was born from campaigns against the insecticide DDT. In the 2010s, glyphosate is helping to foster new coalitions between environmentalists and nationalist groups calling for chemical sovereignty. This guest editorial describes how glyphosate has helped shape these movements in postwar Sri Lanka and the European Union before and after Brexit.

Conspiratorial medievalism: History and hyperagency in the far-right Knights Templar security imaginary

Imagery associated with the Knights Templar appears in the public discourse and symbolism of many white supremacist and white nationalist groups. The 2011 Norwegian mass murderer cited the Templars in his manifesto, as did the 2019 New Zealand shooter. Templar crosses were on display at the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, North Carolina. To understand the security imaginary behind these racialised medievalisms and their contemporary animation within right-wing extremism, this article develops the concept of ‘conspiratorial medievalism’. The Knights Templar imaginary blends a specific, racialised, and romanticised vision of history with the grammar of conspiracy theory. This is characterised by (a) a belief in the racialised decline and victimisation of a ‘righteous’ White Christendom; (b) a sense of threat posed by racialised Others and betrayal by insiders; and (c) an anachronistic view of near-omnipotent individual agency. Significantly, conspiratorial medievalism demonstrates an aspiration to not merely combat ‘undue’ agency of racialised Others, but to reclaim and perform extreme agency themselves. Agency is cast in the idiom of medieval chivalry and framed as the moral obligation of righteous White men. Although Knights Templar imagery may appear superficial, this article finds it is an important justificatory and enabling discourse for racist violence.

Thinking Beyond Extremism: A Critique of Counterterrorism Research on Right-Wing Nationalist and Far-Right Social Movements

AbstractResearchers increasingly use counterterrorism approaches to explain how right-wing groups mobilize as a growing social movement. I reveal the limits of security-oriented research for studying right-wing movements using a semi-ethnographic case study of the Canadian yellow vests. Dominant security narratives paint Canada’s yellow vests as foremost a criminogenic and violent white nationalist movement. My findings, however, suggest that these groups (1) fetishize law and order; and (2) attempt to maintain legitimacy by rejecting vigilantism and policing extreme messaging. Fixating on the ‘extremism’ and criminal risks of right-wing movements can distort analysis and exaggerate their distance from mainstream culture. My data include over 40 h of participant-observation at 20 right-wing rallies and 35 interviews with current leaders and members of on-the-ground nationalist groups.

Universal Humanity as Discourse of Nationalism in Garin Nugroho’s Soegija (2012)

This research discusses discourse of nationalism in Garin Nugroho’s Soegija, a biopic which premiered in 2012. The film is chosen because it presents the story of Soegijapranata, an intellectual who is not from dominant nationalist groups, during the era of independence movement; he is neither a prominent military figure nor a figure from the largest religious group in Indonesia. This film is analyzed to investigate its position in ideological contestations emerging after the Reformation, particularly after the 2000s. Seymour Chatman’s postulates regarding story and discourse in narrative structure of fiction and film (1978) is used as a theoretical framework for this research. The results show that discourse of nationalism is presented in the narrative structure of the film in the form of arguing the idea of universal humanity in the context of Indonesia as a nation. This effort is portrayed by the main character’s intellectual struggles against shallow primordialism that influences both Indonesian people’s perspectives during independence movement era and foreign people’s point of views, the colonizers, which are represented by subversive actions of the Dutch and Japanese in Indonesia. The values of universal humanity that have been adopted into the spirit of nationalism are stated through the main characters’ statements and actions. It can be concluded that the concept of nationalism in Indonesia is said to be born from a long struggle against oppression and injustice. This concept has become a dominant ideology which remains relevant, as implied in Soegija.