Neo-Nazism is often presented as the most taboo and dangerous form of far right activism. News reports featuring neo-Nazis regularly focus on hate crimes, violence, and terrorism, as well as their fascination with cultic. However, these types of reports, sometimes featuring excellent investigative journalism, offer only a partial picture of this often-misunderstood milieu, and can sensationalize as much as inform. This article offers a deep dive into contemporary neo-Nazi culture, and assesses the risks posed by contemporary neo-Nazi groups by exploring the relationship between extreme ideas and extreme actions.
It will show that the neo-Nazi milieu is transnational, fostering a wide range of small groups that operate across borders. These groups collectively develop a shared culture of radical opposition to mainstream society, idealizing a revolution in the name of the Aryan race. In these networks, neoNazis exchange a wide range of ideas that make up their worldview, and often take inspiration from each other’s activism. It will also highlight that these transnational neo-Nazi cultures, while steeped in radicalized discourses idealizing the violence of the Nazi regime and targeting groups such as Jewish communities today, often develop internal breaks on engaging in physical acts of violence. Typically, groups stop short of acting on their ideology by carrying out extreme violence, as members often see non-violent activism as more effective and less risky. They prefer to promote activity such as direct action stunts, running training camps for activists, and creating online communities.
So, while outwardly aggressive, these activities tend to steer activists linked to groups away from actual acts of violence, though they certainly do not stop them from engaging in criminality inspired by their ideas or disseminating deeply offensive material. On occasion, neo-Nazi groups do attract individuals with a range of wider instabilities who become inspired by the movement’s narratives to ‘take action’ and carry out violent acts, sometimes even lone actor terrorism. While this is atypical activity for most neo-Nazi activists linked to groups, and is only partially explained through the movement’s ideas, it clearly suggest this unstable, extreme culture poses an on-going risk to wider public safety.
What follows will explore these themes by focusing on a loose network of neo-Nazi groups that have emerged in Britain, America and Australia. It assesses the British group National Action, which was proscribed under terrorism legislation in December 2016, alongside a range of smaller follow-on groups; Atomwaffen Division, an American group founded in 2015 along similar lines; and Antipodean Resistance, an Australian group founded in 2016 and inspired by these groups. Additionally, this paper will examine how this network has developed through online spaces, especially through the websites ironmarch.org and fascistforge.com, which have allowed them to share ideas, inspire each other and project their activities to a wider extremist milieu.