Few subjects are as ill defined as extremism. Extremists may lead peacefull lives, but the ideology they espouse may cause
followers to take actions that produce loss of life and destruction of
property.
Before World War II,
extremism had been mostly represented by the two ideologies of Communism and
Fascism and although already there was an overlap between for example right and
left wing conspiracy theories, this overlap became even more evident after
WWII.
Initially left-wing
groups benefited at first from the discrediting of Nazism and Italian Fascism.
Student activism led to revolts in France and the United States in the late
1960s, which spread worldwide.
Intense debate took
place among left-wing revolutionaries on the strategy and tactics to produce a
successful revolution.
Latin American
revolutionaries examined both urban and rural insurrectionary strategies. Che
Guevara, the Argentinean revolutionary and Cuban Revolution hero, and his
theories on rural guerrilla tactics had an impact on all such discussions. In
Asia, the revolutionary strategies of Mao Tse-tung
echoed Guevara's in Latin America.
Nazi supporters on
the other hand realized that as long the Holocaust remained unchallenged, a
neo-Nazi movement had little of success. Holocaust denial became article of
faith of all neo-Nazis and organized international campaign.
The Italian neo-Fascist
party, the Italian Movement, and its successor, the N. Alliance, did have the
advantage of parliamentarianism in a state that had a tradition of
parliamentary instability.
But extremism in the
Middle East also had an anti-Jewish agenda, plus hostility toward the state of
Israel has become an article of faith. Hostility toward Israel has come from
both secular organizations, such as the Palestine Liberation Organization
(PLO), and Muslim organizations, such as Hamas. All of these groups consider
Israel an interloper in Palestine and a creature of Western imperialism.
The Neo-Nazi’s again
have in commen with the previous that also they
believe in a worldwide conspiracy of ‘Jewish Bankers in New York’ among
esoteric groups pictured as ‘ Illuminate’.
Islamists however
want an adherence to Islamic law (sharia) of the Koran. Despite religious
differences between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims, Islamists, they share the common
belief that Western culture and mores have corrupted modern Islam. They hold
that only by returning to the precepts of original Islam can the evils of the
Western world be driven out. In the case of the left wing ‘Black Blok’ (that
also include radical environmentalists) the same belief exists as the neo-Nazi
‘New World Order’ conspiracy theory.
Thus while many
mainstream Americans were swept away with patriotic feelings in reaction to the
terrorist attack against the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11,
2001, Aryan revolutionaries and some neo-Pagans were among the few Americans to
openly applaud the event. This should of course not be understood as if every
counterculture activist praised the attack.
But again, this tide
of racist and ethnic paganism in the UK and the United States is linked with
the processes of globalization and with the mainstream redefinition of the
"nation" to include as co-nationals all people within its territory
irrespective or race, ethnicity, or religious preferences. Globalization
involves a tension between centripetal and centrifugal forces. The gradual
construction of a global culture that increasingly becomes the larger context
for all previous cultures of man by necessity involves a relativization of
systems of meaning and values.
So at the end of this
overview, part b, I will after an alphabetical listing of some right wing
extremist groups in Europe, also mention some of the more ‘esoteric’ right wing
groups.
But first as an
introductory example one that illustrates the above merging of right and left
extremism so characteristic for the post WWII era.
For example Alexander
Dugin in Russia was one of the founders of the
National Bolshevik Party yet next became active in the newly created Eurasia
Political Party. He also became a part of the Golovin
Circle. Yevgeny Golovin, a scholar in European mystical
literature and poetry, had gathered two others, Yuri Mamleyev,
a Christian philosopher, and Geidar Jema, a specialist in Islam studies, to study mysticism.
Dugin
was a natural member of this circle because he had mastery of nine foreign
languages. His first contribution was translation into Russian of Julius Evola's Pagan Imperialism. When Soviet authorities learned
of his contacts with the Golovin Circle, he was
dismissed from the Moscow Aviation Institute. To earn a living, Dugin became a Moscow street sweeper, but continued his
study of right-wing and neo-Fascist thought.
The introduction of
more freedoms after 1987 allowed Dugin to enter
Russian politics. In 1987, he joined the anti-Semitic Pamyat
(Memory) group. Leaders of Pamyat appreciated his
abilities and, in late 1988, he assumed a seat on Pamyat's
Central Council. By the middle of 1989, Dugin decided
that he could no longer associate with Pamyat because
of its low intellectual level. He decided to travel to Western Europe and
contact leading neo-Fascist figures. On his travels, he had talks with Alain de
Benoist, the French intellectual, and Jean Franqois Thiriart, the Belgian neo-Fascist. They reinforced his
distaste for the Ameri events left this movement as a relic of a bygone age
until Dugin adopted it. Dugin
gathered allies, from Mufti Talgat Tadzhuddin on the
Muslim side to Rabbi Avrom Shmulevich
on the Jewish side, to form the Eurasia Nationwide Political Movement on April
21, 2001. Since then, Dugin has been active building
the movement and attracting political allies. He has been wooing Russian
President Vladimir Putin to adopt the Eurasian concept as an alternative to the
American alliance.
Dugin
not unlike European counter cultural groups in general, found the
American-British invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003 to be an attempt by the
United States to establish worldwide hegemony. In several articles, he advised
the Putin government to oppose American policies.
Suggested readings:
Yelena Dorofeyva, "Eurasia Movement Created in
Russia," TASS (April 21, 2001), p. 1; Aleksandr Dugin,
"Columnists Eye War's Implications for Russia, World," Current Digest
of the Post-Soviet Press, vol. 55, no. 15 (May 14, 2003); Aleksandr Dugin, "Russia Watches Europe Split over Iraq,"
Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press, vol. 55, no. 7 (March 19, 2003); Grigory Nekhoroshev,
"'Eurasians' Decide to Rely on Vladimir Putin," Current Digest of the
Post-Soviet Press (May 23, 2001), p. 14; Stephen D. Shenfield, Russian Fascism:
Traditions, Tendencies, Movements (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2001).
From here then first
an alphabetical overview of other extremist groups in Europe:
The Black Banker
Born Franqois Genoud he was a Swiss
banker who assisted extremist groups from neo-Nazi’s to Middle East terrorists.
Born in 1914, and a member of the Swiss Nazi Party during World War II, he
played role in the negotiations between the head of the American OSS Strategic
Services), and Nazi SS to end the war. After the war, he acquired the
publication rights to the works of Hitler, Martin Bormann, an Goebbels.
Plus Genoud became the banker of both the neo-Nazi movement a East extremist groups,thus
earning the name “Black Banker.” After developing
contacts with the
Egyptian government of President Gamal Abdel Nasser, he started shipping arms
to the Algerian independence movement FLN (National Liberation Front). After
Algerian independence, he was appointed head of the Arab Popular Bank (Banque
Populaire Arabe) in Algiers. After his involvement in
a feud among Algerian leaders, Genoud was arrested in
October 1964 for an illegal transfer of funds. This ended his involvement with
Algeria.
In the late 1960s, Genoud turned his attention to supporting anti-Israel
groups, and backed the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)
with funding and legal support. He also established a working relationship with
the leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Genoud
openly applauded Black September’s attack on Israeli athletes at the Olympic
games in Munich, Germany.
In 1982, Klaus
Barbie, the accused Nazi war criminal, was extradited from Bolivia to France. Genoud and his close associate Jacques Verges provided the
funds and the legal defense for Barbie. They used the trial to attack Barbie’s
accusers and at the same time to highlight France’s crimes against Algeria.
Despite their defense, Barbie was convicted of war crimes.
Genoud
also backed Ramirez Sanchez, or Carlos the Jackal who after the Sudanese
government relinquished Sanchez to French authorities on August 15, 1994, was
brought to France to stand trial for the killing of two French policemen.
Genoud
arranged the defense for Sanchez, but despite Genoud’s
efforts, Sdnchez was convicted. Genoud
took the occasion to express his admiration for Sanchez as a hero of the
Palestinian struggle.
Finally Genoud committed suicide by drinking a cocktail of drugs in
his home in Pully, a district of Geneva, Switzerland, on May 30, 1996.
Suggested readings: Kevin
Coogan, Dreamer of the Day: Francis Parker Yockey and
the Postwar Fascist International (Brooklyn, NY: Autonornedia,
1999); John Follain, Jackal: The Complete Story of
the Legendary Terrorist, Carlos the Jackal (New York: Arcade, 1998); Martin A.
Lee, The Beast Reawakens (Boston: Little, Brown, 1997).
British National Front (BNF)
Leaders of the League
of Empire Loyalists (LEL) and the British National Party (BNP) decided to merge
into an umbrella organization in 1967. Two leaders of this merger were A. K.
Chesterton, a veteran neo-fascist and head of the League of Empire Loyalists,
and Andrew Fountaine, head of the British National
Party. Chesterton was the first president, but he soon engaged in a power
struggle with Fountaine that led to his resignation
as president in 1970.
Fountaine became the new head, but his refusal to use his large
family fortune to back the party led to his expulsion from the BNF in 1970. By
the 1970s, John Tyndall, who was selected and ,served as the head the British
National Front until the leadership removed him from authority in 1980, was the
party's most prominent leader. Leadership problems had continued to haunt the
BNF enough so that at times the party has been marginalized.
The British, National
Front had the same neo-fascist, racist, and anti-immigration orientation of the
British National Party. Sometimes the two parties united in demonstrations, but
other times members fought against each other. They combined to conduct
demonstrations against Asian immigrants in the spring and summer of 2001.
Racial tensions had been high over incidents between British whites and Asians
in the former industrial towns of Bradford and Oldham. Riots broke out
beginning April and did not end before August, leaving several dozen injured
and damage to property in the thousands of pounds.
Suggested readings:
Nuala Haughey, "on the Streets," Irish Times (August 11, 200 60; Ian Herbert,
"In Oldham's 'No Go' Z Independent (London) (May 28, 2001), Angus
Roxburgh, Preachers of Hate: The R the Far Right (London: Gibson Square B
2002); Peter Webb and Malcolm MacPhe "Britain's
New Ultra-Right," Newsweek (A 29, 1977), p. 44.
British National
Party (BNP) (Great Bri The British National Party
(BNP) is o the leading neo-Nazi parties in Great Br Leaders of two neo-Nazi
groups-the tional Labour
Party (NLP) and the V Defence League (WDL)-formed the
B National Party in 1960. Andrew Fount a wealthy landowner and a vetera Franco's army during the Spanish Civil became BNP's
first president. Other pr nent leaders of the BNP
were John Be chemist and veteran fascist leader; Colir
dan, a former English and mathem teacher and former
head of the WDL; John Tyndall, salesman and former he the NLP and the BNE This
galaxy of ers soon had to weather leadership disa ments. Jordan's refusal to
stop build separate neo-Nazi movement caused hi be expelled from the BNP in
1962. Ty left at the same time, and together started the National Socialism
Move (NSM).
The ideology of the
British National was racial nationalism. Protectio,
England's Nordic heritage from Jews an migrants from Third World countries w,
main preoccupation. Part of this pro was to force non-English elements to the
country. Efforts to turn the BNP i neo-fascist or
neo-Nazi party had adhe in the party, but most of
them left witt dan and Tyndall. Bean remained a
leader, and he
directed most of his atte to gaining political
influence by running didates for Parliament. His use
of the p newspaper, Combat, was an effective to spread propaganda. He was able
to ca ize on British unrest about immigrati
stage some upsets in the mid-1960s.
In the early 1990s,
Tyndall rejoined the British National Party and became its head. During this
time, in an effort to help the BNP, American neo-Nazi William Pierce advised
the party on political tactics. However, the British National Party went into a
period of decline until Nick Griffin assumed control of the party in 1999.
Griffin had been active in the British National Front until 1989. After
flirting with other right-wing neo-fascist groups, he joined the British
National Party in 1995. After winning a power struggle with Tyndall, he emerged
as the head of the party. He had long emphasized Holocaust denial and he led
the party in this direction. Soon Griffin decided that anti-immigration
agitation was the way for the British National Parry to carve out a political
constituency. In 2001, Griffin's strategy of anti-immigration demonstrations
attracted enough supporters for the British National Party to become an
electoral force in British politics. His father's role in the Conservative
Party caused a scandal, but Griffin used the opportunity for more publicity.
Griffin has also been active in the recruitment of skinheads to serve as shock
troops for the BNP. See also British National Front (BNF); Holocaust Denial;
Jordan, Colin; Skinhead Movement.
Suggested readings:
Chris Blackhurst, "World's Leading Nazi Advises British Fascists,"
Independent (London) (March 2, 1997), p. 3; Steve Boggan,
"March of the Far-Right," Evening Standard (London) (February 3,
2003), p. 16; Sarah Lyall, "Shadowy Party Heats Up British Racial
Tensions," New York Times Juby 4, 2001), sec. A, p. 3; T. R. Reid,
"Party Stokes Racial Ire in Britain," Washington Post (July 10,
2001), p. A12; Angus Roxburgh, Preachers of Hate: The Rise of the Far Right
(London: Gibson Square Books, 2002); Richard Tburlow,
Fascism in Britain: From Oswald Mosley's Blacksbirts
to the National Front (London: Tauris, 1999), Sarah Wilson, "BNP Feeds Off
Docklands Dogged by Racial Prejudice," Scotsman (Edinbrough)
(April 26, 1997), p. 8.
Fortuyn, Pim (The
Netherlands)
He was The
Netherlands' leading right-wing, populist politician until his assassination in
May 2002. He was born on February 19, 1948, into a respectable Catholic family.
His father was a traveling salesman and Fortuyn grew up in the village of Driehuis, just outside Amsterdam. After local schooling, he
attended The Netherlands Business School in Breukelen,
where he studied economics, history, law, and sociology. At this time, Fortuyn
considered himself a Marxist. He was also active in the Dutch student movement.
After graduating in 1970, he went to study sociology at the University of
Amsterdam, where he received a doctorate in 1971. Next he enrolled at the Rilksuniversiteit Groningen for further study in sociology,
and in 1980 he received his doctorate in the social sciences. After service in
both government and private industry, Fortuyn obtained a teaching position at
the Erasmus Univarsity in Rotterdam in 1990. While he
was a successful professor, Fortuyn became fascinated with politics.
Fortuyn pursued a
political career as a populist and a libertarian. Soon after taking his
position at Erasmus University, he began writing in newspapers expressing his
views. He began to question his Marxist views and soon developed a right-wing
viewpoint. He began attacking the liberal consensus of the Dutch government,
and, in particular, its open immigration policies. His target was Muslim
immigration, because he believed that Muslims could not be assimilated into
Dutch society. In a series of books, including Against the Islamicisation
of Our Culture; Fifty Years Israel, but for How L The Orpbaned
Community, he a lamic fundamentalism as incomp Western life. His anti-immigrant corresponded closely
to that of and Austrian right-wing leader Joerg Haider, but Fortuyn rejected
him because of Nazism and anti-Semitism. With the 'Liveable
Netherlands' (Leefbaar Nederland) party in November
2001, he turned this party toward the radical right, but he was removed from
leadership of the party in February 2002 because of his charge to abolish the
Dutch constitution's Article One, which bans discrimination.
He reacted by
establishing his own party, List Fortuyn, to contest the Dutch March elections.
His success in these elections gave him hope that he could play a leading role
in the Dutch government by winning in the May 2002 elections. Fortuyn knew that
his confrontational style had risks, so he employed bodyguards. But on May 6,
2002, after Fortuyn left a radio station in Hilversum near Amsterdam an animal
activist of all, killed him. Despite Fortuyn's death, his sounding victory at
the pol pated in the creation of government.
Suggested readings:
Da 'Fascist' and the 'Activist,"' (London)] (Mary 20, 2002), vol.
Evans-Pritchard, "Holland's Hi New Politics," Daily Telegraph 2002),
p. 16; Stryker McGuire, Newsweek (May 20, 2002), Osborn, "Gay Mr. Right W
Observer (London) (April I Stephen Robinson, "Colourf
Touched a Raw Nerve until Telegraph (London) (May 8, 2 Roxburgh, Preachers of
Hate: (London: Gibson Square Books,2002)
Frey, Gerhard (1933- )
The leader of Union
(Deutsche Volksunion) was born in 1933 and earned a
law degree in political science. After a stint working as a freelance
journalist for the German (Deutsche Soldatenzeitung)
newspaper in the late 1950s, he started the German Weekly Newspaper (Die Wochenzeitung). By 1998, his publishing business was
estimated to b $300 and $500 million.
Soon upon
establishing his business empire, Frey turned to right-wing politics. His
newspapers have always touted nationalism, anti-Semitism, and anti-immigrant
views. In January 1971, he founded the German People's Union as a right-wing
lobby group. Then in 1987, Frey tuned the DVU into a political party. This party
depends exclusively on Frey for its financial support and in return it serves
as an outlet for his political ideas. Frey is not a charismatic figure and he
is more comfortable operating behind the scenes. He has been careful not to let
any rivals for leadership into the DVU. Frey's party has been moderately
successful in German state elections. Several times it has been rumored that
Frey had concluded an electoral alliance with other German right-wing parties,
but each time Frey had backed out. The German government estimated in 2000 that
the DVU had around 15,000 active members, but Frey claims that this figure is
much too low. His party has been able to capitalize on the general economic and
political malaise among young Germans following reunification in the early
1990s.
Frey has developed
extensive contacts with neo-Nazis and other extremists both in Germany and in
Europe. He has always been careful to skirt on the edge of German law against
Holocaust denial and Nazism. He has espoused Germany's claim to land that
formerly belonged to the German Reich under the Nazis, and he has opposed
efforts for European unification. Frey developed a relationship with Franz
Sch6nhuber and the Republican Party, but this relationship cost Sch6nhuber his
leadership of that parry. His friendship with the British historian and
Holocaust denier David Irving led him to collaborate with Irving on exposing
the Nazi ties of German political figures. Frey has close ties with France's
right-wing political leader JeanMarie Le Pen and
Russia's neo-fascist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky. His relationship with other
German right-wing leaders is less cordial because they distrust him and they
fear that his financial resources will overwhelm them.
Suggested readings:
Markus Krah, "Danger on the Right,"
Jerusalem Report (July 6, 1998), p. 30; Martin A. Lee, The Beast Reawakens
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1997); David Marsh, "West German Rigbt-Wing Publisher Combs Nazi Files in Berlin," F.-nincial Times (London) (March 14, 1988), p. 3; Ca; Mudde, The Ideology of the Extreme Rigbt
Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press; Philip Sherwell,
"Bavarian Tycoon Fans Flantes of Racism,"
Ottawa Citizen (May 3, 1998), p. F8; Philip Sherwell,
"Secretive Tycoon's Poll Victory Raises Nazi Fears," Sunday Telegraph
London) (May 3, 1998), p. 29; Denis Staunton, -Far-Right Party Little More Than
One Wealthy Fanatic's Toy," Irisb Times (April
28, 1998), p. 11.
Front National (FN)
Founded October 5,
1972, the initial goal was to unite all of France's right parties into a
coalition party that could make efforts to gain control by parliamentary means.
The new party elected Marie Le Pen as itsleader. Le
Pen's strategy appealed to the disaffected in France motto "France for the
French."
The Front National
had limited success during its first few years. After several municipal
elections, and change of the French electoral law to proportional
representation, the Front National was able to win 35 seats in the 1986
elections. However the FN's political success tapered after 1986 when efforts
to collaborate with other right-wing parties proved unsuccessful.
Le Pen organized the
party in an authoritarian manner with Jean-Pierre Stirbois
as the party's secretary-general. Both Le Pen and Stirbois
allowed no discussion or dissent from subordinates. This intolerance toward
dissenting views led to a constant turnover of party members. Still, Harvey
Simmons reported in his book on the Front National that it had 50,000 members
in the 1990’s.
And Le Pen led the
parry to a stunning success in the first round of France's 2002 presidential
election. He received 16.8 percent of the vote in April 21, 2002. But President
Jacques Chirac was able to gather allies and resoundingly defeated Le Pen in
the second round of the election. Le Pen has used the 2002 success to begin
grooming his youngest daughter, Marine Le Pen, to replace him as head of the
Front National.
See James Cohen,
"Le Pen's Pitchfork Populism, in These Times (October 28-Novem 1996), p.
25; Christopher Flood, "Or Fear and Indignation: The Front Nat
France," in Richard J. Golsan (ed.), Scandal,
Revision, and Ideology, 1980 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998);
Harvey G. Simmons, The French National Front: The Extremist Challenge to
Democracy (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996); Alex Duval Smith, "Racist
Party Wins Over the Workers," Guardian (London) (November 3, 1996), p. 21.
Republican Party (Die Republikaner)
Die Republikaner (REP) was co-founded by Franz Schoenhuber, a former radio journalist and former member of
the Waffen SS in World War II in a Bavarian tavern on November 17, 1983. A
divergence of political viewpoints between Schonhuber
and his two co-founders Handlos and Voigt led to them
leaving the party, thus in June 1985, Schoenhuber was
elected chairperson.
Schoenhuber's intent was to build a party that would attract German
nationalists by not repudiating its Nazi past. Among his platform points were
the abolition of trade unions, curtailment of the welfare state, expulsion of
all foreigners, and a return to Germany's 1937 borders. This party has been
successful in appealing to traditional German nationalistic value by combining
it with condemnations of foreign workers.
Since the enactment
of the Maastricht Treaty establishing the European Union, the Republican Party
began enjoying political success. In June 1989, the party garnered enough votes
to send Schoenhuber and five of his colleagues to the
European Parliament in Strasburg.
Many of his
supporters also belong to other extreme nationalistic or neo-Nazi groups, the
German Alternative (Deutsche Alternative, or German National Democratic Party (Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands or NPD), German People's Union (Dentsche Volksunion, or DVU), and
Liberal Gern Workers Party (Freiheitliche
Dentsche Arbeiterpartei, or
FAP)-many of whom have been banned by the German government.
But the Republican
Party lost most of its political gains in the 1990s, because in 1994, the German
Federal Government declared the REP a right-wing extremist group.
Schoenhuber concluded an electoral alliance with Gerhard Frey and
the German People's Union (DVU). But because the REP had a lengthy history of
opposition to Frey and the DVU, this alliance caused a backlash in the REP. In
a subsequent meeting of the leadership of the REP in October 1994, Schoenhuber was dismissed as party leader. Rolf Schlierer, a lawyer and the leader of the moderate wing of
the REP, replaced him. Schoenhuber and his adherents
opened political warfare on Schlierer and his
supporters, and in the process, the party has become further marginalized in
German politics.
Suggested readings:
Adrian Bridge, "A Far Cry That Sounds just Like Hitler," Independent
(London) (March 21, 1993), p. 14; Paul Hockenos, Free
to Hate: The Rise of the Right in Post-Communist Eastern Europe (New York:
Routledge, 1993); Martin A. Lee, The Beast Awakens (Boston: Little, Brown,
1997); The Ideology of the Extreme Right (Manchester, UK: Manchester University
Press, 2000); Angus Roxburgh, Preachers of Hate: The Rise of the Far Right
(London: Gibson Square Books, 2002); Serge Schmemann,
"Is Extremist or Opportunist behind Bonn Rightist's Tempered
Slogans?" New York Times (June 27, 1989), p. Al.
One Nation Party (ONP)
Pauline Hanson formed
this party in 1997 shortly after she was elected to the Australian Parliament
from Oxley in Ipswich, Queensland. After her maiden speech in the House of
Representatives during which she attacked taxpayer support for minority groups,
a spontaneous group of backers formed to give her political support.
Her advisors David Ettridge and David Oldfield advised her to divide One
Nation into two separate entities. The first, One Nation Limited, was
incorporated so that Hanson, Ettridge, and Oldfield
could control it. The other, One Nation Party, had a membership and operated as
a political party. Within months One Nation Party had 200 local branches across
Australia. The political stronghold of the One Nation Party was in Queensland.
The first indication
of the drawing power of the One National Party was in the 1998 Queensland
election. Adherents of the ONP won 11 of the 89 seats. Almost as soon as the
ONP deputies assumed their seats, dissension broke out within the party.
Dissidents claimed that the ONP had been fraudulently registered in the 1998
Queensland election. In August 1999, the Supreme Court of Queensland ruled that
the registration had indeed been fraudulent. Even before this ruling Hanson, Ettridge, and Oldfield began purging the party of
dissidents.
Internal dissention
and failure in the 1998 federal elections weakened the One Nation Party. Many
of its deputies in the Queensland Parliament broke away from the party and
became independents. Despite the populist rhetoric emanating from Hanson, the
leadership in the ONP was autocratic and it became less popular over time.
Charges of election irregularities also appeared involving the registration of
the party in 1997. In January 2003 Pauline Hanson resigned as head of the One
Nation Party to face the fraud charges along with her chief aide, David Ettridge. Their later conviction of election fraud and
prison sentences have had a further negative impact on the party. After an
appeals court quashed their sentences, Hanson and Ettridge
gained an early release from prison in December 2003. Hanson has since retired
from politics. See also Hanson, Pauline; League of Rights.
Suggested readings:
Dennis Atkins, "How the West Has Won," Courier Mail (January 19,
2002), p. 28; Paul Kelly, Paradise Divided: The Cbanges,
the Challenges, the Choices for Australia (St. Leonards,
NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2000); Michael Leach, Geoffrey Stokes, and Ian Ward,
The Rise and Fall of One Nation (St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press,
2000); Gerald McManus, "Why They Vote for Hanson," Sunday Herald Sun
(Melbourne) (February 18, 2001), p. 38; Natalie O'Brien, Belinda Hickman, and
Dennis Shanahan, "Western Showdown," Weekend Australian (Sydney) (May
26, 2001), p. 21; Greg Roberts, "Tactical Withdrawal," Sydney Morning
Herald (January 19, 2002), p. 27.
Zhirinovsky, Vladimir Volfovich
(1 (Russia)
Vladimir Zhirinovsky
is the lead fascist politician in Russia and the the
Liberal Democratic Party o (LDPR). He was born in A Kazakhstan, on April 25, 1946.
1was Volf Isaakovich Eidelstem, a P ish lawyer. His
mother was a Shortly after he was born, his fath an
automobile accident. Zhirino tended a school in
Almaty and was member of the Komsomol, the co youth
organization. He had difficul in school because of
his Jewish bac In 1964, he graduated from high sc
changed his name from Eidelste mother's name,
Zhirinovsky. In th( of 1964, Zhirmovsky
moved to Mo attended the Moscow University In Asian and African Studies, where
h ized in studying Turkish affairs. In traveled to
Turkey to work as a con interpreter-translator at the Iskend
and Steel Joint Soviet-Turkish W( stay in Turkey was brief, however, ish authorities arrested him for e and deported him. Soviet
authoritie ered him
politically unreliable an him admittance to membership in munist
Party.
Soon after
graduation, Zhirino drafted into the Soviet army. He
ser officer in the Transcaucasian Mili trict at Tbilisi, Georgia, for two yea being discharged as
a captain in
held a variety of
jobs while studying law at Moscow State University night school. In 1977,
Zhirinovsky obtained a law degree. He then took a position as vice president at
the Higher School of the Trade Union Movement where he remained until 1983. Zhirmovsky's next job was head of the law department at the
Mir Publishing House where he stayed until he entered politics.
In 1988, Zhirinovsky
decided to enter politics. He founded the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia
(LDPR) in December 1989 and became its head at the March 1990 Congress. The LDPR
was the second party officially registered in Russia. Zhirinovsky's call to
Russian nationalism garnered him almost 8 percent of the vote in the June 1991
presidential elections, finishing third in the election. Help in making Zhirmovsky acceptable to the Russian right wing came from
Eduard Limonov, the novelist and head of the National
Bolshevik Front. Zhirmovsky's position in Russian
politics improved in the December 1993 parliamentary elections when the LDPR
captured nearly one quarter of the electoral and elected 64 deputies to the
Duma. His efforts in the December 1995 elections resulted in a drop in popular
appeal, but the LDPR still won 51 seats in the Duma. Zhirmovsky
ran for the presidency in the June 1996 elections, but the result was less than
6 percent of the vote. His political strength fell during the late 1990s
because of his disqualification and the disqualifications of his running mates
for not reporting properly before elections.
Zhirmovsky is still a political force in Russia because of the
popularity of his extremist views. He stands for the re-creation of the Russian
empire by a large-scale southward expansion. His vision includes includes access to the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean
Ocean. An expansion of this nature means that the Russian army would have be
expanded and used in the drive to the south. Russia's sphere of control would
have to include Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey. Central Europe would be divided
between Germany and Russia, and Poland would no I ist. He has supported the war in C because it coincides
with his dri south. Zhirmovsky
believes that the States is too passive to interfere wit
ation of a Russian empire.
Besides his
geopolitical he is also controversial because of his anti-Semitic views. One of
his more extreme has been for Jews to be segregated vations.
His anti-Semitism a right-wing views have made him among other European
right-wing groups including France's Jean-Marie Le Pen. His popularity with
other right-wing extremists, however, has deteriorated because of what they
consider his erratic behavior.
Suggested readings:
Susan B. Glasser, "Russian Revises His Heritage; Anti-Semitic Politician
Zhirinovsky Admits Father Was Jewish, " Washington Post (July 17,2001), p.
A13; Vladimir Kartsev, Zhirinovsky! (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1995); Martin A. Lee, The Beast Reawakens (Boston:
Little, Brown, 1997); Stephen D. Shenfield, Russian Fascism: Traditions,
Tendencies, Movements (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2001); Mark Smith, "The
Last Dash South-The Geopolitics of Vladimir Zhirinovsky," Jane's
Intelligence Review 6, no. 6 (June 1, 1994), p. 250; Vladimir Solovyov and
Elena Klepikova, Zhirinovsky: Russian Fascism and the
Making of a Dictator (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1995).
Julius Evola became the leading philosopher of the European
neo-fascist movement. Born May 19, 1898, in Rome, he descended from an
aristocratic Sicilian family and was raised a strict Catholic. He started out
as a Dada artist and poet before turning to journalism.
After WWI Evola became a student of magic, the occult, alchemy, and
Eastern religions. And although he never joined Mussolini's Fascist Party, Evola accepted the Fascist state.
However Evola was critical of the Fascist regime because it was not
fascist enough. In 1927, his book Pagan Imperialism (Imperialismo
pagano) appeared, and in it he attacked the Catholic
Church. Later he opposed the Lateran Accords that made peace between the
Mussolini regime and the Catholic Church. He also served as the cultural writer
of the influential journal, The Fascist His solution was that the state primacy
over civil society. Rulers were to be an elite that would with spiritual
ideals.
In 1953, he published
Men among the Ruins (Gli U Robine)
in which expressed his views. His pessimism with modernity attracted Italian
youth and young fascists around Europe.
Two of his disciples,
Girogio Freda and Adriano Romualdi,
continue to advance his ideas. After scattering Evola's
ashes in the Italian Alps, his admirers established the Foundation Evola to advance his ideas.
Another group is
called Ordine Nuovo, the New Order a militant Italian
right-wing group. Many of its members earlier left the neo-fascist Italian
Social Movement because they found it too moderate politically. German Nazism
appealed to them more than Mussolini's Fascism.
Early on members of
the ON were attracted to the philosophy of Julius Evola
who rejected both Marxism Leninism and Western capitalism. In the place of
these ideologies, he advocated an aristocratic elitism that would lead easily
to a neo-fascist society.
Summer camps were
established to train young recruits and to indoctrinate them. A relationship
was also developed with the Italian military intelligence in a alliance against
Italian leftists.
A Rome court
sentenced 30 members of the New Order to various prison terms on November 21,
1973, for reconstituting the banned Fascist Party. New Order members in this
case later assassinated the judge, Vittorio Occorsio,
in July 1976.
Throughout the 1970s
and early 1980s, its chief rival among right-wing terrorism groups was Stefano Delle Chime's National Vanguard (Avanguardia
Nazionale). Both groups engaged in disinformation campaigns by blaming their
terrorist acts on leftist groups, including the Red Brigades. Only after
investigations in the early 1980s that proved that the New Order had
participated in terrorist incidents with the collusion of Italian intelligence
services did the group start to whither away, but re-surfaced briefly after 9/11.
Suggested readings:
Kevin Coogan, Dreamer of the Day: Francis Parker Yockey
and the Postwar Fascist International (Brooklyn, NY: Autonomedia,
1999); Richard Drake, The Revolutionary Mystique and Terrorism in Contemporary
Italy (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1989); Franco Ferraresi, Threats to Democracy: The Radical Right in Italy
after the War (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996); H. T. Hansen,
"Julius Evola's Political Endeavors," in
Julius Evola, Men among the Ruins: Post-War
Reflections of a Radical Traditionalist (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions,
2002); Leonard B. Weinberg, After Mussolini: Italian Neo-Fascism and the Nature
of Fascism (Washington, DC: University Press of America, 1979); Leonard B.
Weinberg and William Lee Eubank, The Rise and Fall of Italian Terrorism
(Boulder, CO: Wesrview Press, 1987).
Since the Eurocentric
reconstructions of premodern Norse, Celtic, or Mediterranean traditions, racist
Satanism, and occult national socialism Evola’s
theories seem to thrive again in the Aryan revolutionary milieu.
But why would a white
racist eagerly embrace theories about, say, the polar origins of Aryan man,
speculations about race-specific divine archetypes engraved at birth in the
cerebral cortex in each person of pure Aryan blood, or assertions of a
post-I945 esoteric war in which Hitler is still alive as fuehrer of a hidden
bastion of supreme Aryan warriors inside the hollow earth?
A common denominator
between racism, alternative science, and paganism is that adherents accept as
truth knowledge that is rejected or ridiculed by the institutions of mainstream
culture that claim monopoly in the field of production of knowledge.
These milieus however
center around what Michael Barkun in his November
2003 book “Culture of Conspiracy” terms "stigmatized knowledge". That
is, knowledge that claimants regard as empirically verifiable but that has been
censored by the universities, academic press, school authorities, and
communities of scholars. Barkun subdivides the domain
of stigmatized knowledge in five categories: 1) forgotten knowledge, that is,
knowledge once known but lost through faulty memories, cataclysm, or some other
interrupting factor (e.g., Atlantis, the divine origin of Aryan man); 2) superceded knowledge, that is, knowledge previously
recognized but now rejected as false (e.g., astrology and alchemy); 3) ignored
knowledge, that is, knowledge claims that persist in low prestige social status
groups but are ridiculed by others (e.g., herbal and folk medicine); 4)
rejected knowledge, that is, knowledge that is explicitly rejected as false
from the outset (e.g., UFo abductions); and 5)
suppressed knowledge, that is, knowledge that authoritative institutions know
to be valid but that is suppressed by the powers that be (e.g., alien origins
Of UFOS, the poisoning effect of fluoride drinking water, the true JFK
assassins).
Believers in one kind
of stigmatized knowledge as Barkun points out, tend
to be receptive or open to other kinds of stigmatized knowledge. The fact that
a knowledge claim is not accepted as true by the universities and mainstream
media is interpreted to mean that there must be something to it.
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