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Neo-Nazism

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The term Neo-Nazism is used to refer to any social or political movement seeking to revive National Socialism or a form of Fascism, and which postdates the Second World War. Often, especially internationally, those who are part of such movements do not use the term to describe themselves. They eschew such terms as "Neo-Nazism" and "Neo-Fascism" for a variety of reasons: tactical avoidance of the stigma associated with these terms or an attempt to avoid legal consequences in which nazi and fascist organizations are banned; actual ideological distinctiveness from Nazism and Fascism; or a rejection of the "neo" prefix, based on a wish to project unequivocal commitment to Fascism or National Socialism. The prefix is not universally used to describe Neo-Nazi groups, but some groups specifically endorse it. Neo-Nazis, alike fascists and extreme nationalists, have supported racism and nativism in part of their ideologies.

Background

Groups and movements that do not include as core tenets racial nationalism, anti-Semitism, or praise for Hitler, are discussed on the page Neo-Fascism. Groups and movements that have been called Neo-Fascist but are constructed around a religious identity or theology are discussed on the page Neofascism and religion.

The exact ideals adopted by a Neo-Nazi movement can vary, but it often includes an allegiance to Adolf Hitler, the insignia of Nazi Germany (e.g. the swastika (not the type used in Hinduism, Buddhism, or Jainism), extreme lack of tolerance, the Sig Runes, the red-white-black color scheme which was inherited from Imperial Germany, and other features specific to Germany's Third Reich (1933 to 1945). This usually includes anti-Semitism, racism, and/or xenophobia, and may also include elements such as nationalism, militarism, and homophobia. These groups often draw membership from people who blame their society's problems, such as the disintegration of national unity and culture, and multicultural friction, on Jews, non-white immigrants, and liberalism in general; behind which they see a Zionist World Conspiracy.

In the United States, dedicated Neo-Nazi groups are only a sub-type of a wider array of anti-Semitic and white supremacist groups. Many of the other organizations operate in conjunction with, or at least sympathize with the Neo-Nazi focused groups. The actual Neo-Nazi groups tend to pay homage to, but are often less focused on, the specific tenets of the NSDAP than some international groups. In particular, they may look more to the German-American Bund and ideals of American Nazism of the 1920s and 30s. However there are a few Neo-Nazi groups that consider themselves national socialist.

It is exceptionally difficult to determine the exact extent of Neo-Nazi organizations, because these groups are aware that public opinion concerning them is extremely negative, not to mention the existence of organizations dedicated to monitoring their activities (such as the ADL and SPLC). While a small minority of Neo-Nazis continue to draw public attention, the vast majority operate underground, in order that they may recruit, organize and fund-raise without interference and the constant harassment which plagues openly Nazi movements. Current knowledge of Nazi activity though, indicates that it is at least a global phenomenon, with organized representation in literally every Western nation in the world, as well as strong cooperative networks and connections between groups internationally, making Nazism today the strongest it has ever been since the fall of the Nazi German government, and stronger than the original Nazi Party during the period in which it came to power. Despite this, modern Nazi groups are extremely marginalized by the stigma inherent in their emotionally and historically sensitive politics.

Significant Nazi revivalists

Significant people in the effort to revive Nazism include Colin Jordan, George Lincoln Rockwell, Savitri Devi, Francis Parker Yockey, William Pierce, Eddy Morrison, David Myatt.

Holocaust denial

File:Mass Grave Bergen Belsen May 1945.jpg
Mass graves at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945; Neo-Nazis claim such evidence is largely either counterfeit or misrepresented for propaganda purposes
Main article: Holocaust denial

Many Neo-Nazi groups also espouse denial of the Holocaust, claiming that the intentional mass murder of 6,000,000 Jews, many in gas chambers, is grossly exaggerated or is a lie, that the German Nazi government had no extermination policy, or at least that the extent of the Holocaust is greatly exaggerated, a claim unsupported by reputable historians. Some doubt that Neo-Nazi Holocaust deniers believe these claims, and accuse them of using it as a means to make their ideology more palatable by removing the stigma of association with genocide. Those who don't deny mass killings by the Third Reich (usually those uninitiated into the claims of denial) have engaged in pointing out alleged 'immoral equivalencies' (e.g. the fire bombing of German cities, like the bombing of Dresden, or the ethnic cleansing of Germans in formerly German regions and Eastern Europe) and/or justifications for the executions (e.g. retaliation or punishment for sabotage, terrorism, or subversion). Most Holocaust deniers are not neo-Nazis themselves, though many of their works are quoted and used by Neo-Nazi publications. Not only Holocaust denial is a major theme of Neo-Nazis, they include other revisionist history topics to deny or downplay Slavery and colonialism in the same manner.

Neo-Nazism and the law

Some Neo-Nazi groups espouse violence, and for this reason they are a source of concern to law enforcement. However, it is often surprisingly difficult to implicate them in violence or illegality in any meaningful way. This is because these groups have adopted a proxy system whereby organizations which the Nazis intend to be financially, politically and socially successful are made to be extremely professional and respectable, whereas other, less important organizations and individuals are almost always the ones responsible for intimidation, violent acts and terror tactics. This makes it extremely difficult to track criminal liabilities, because the culprits are often obscure and unimportant within the larger Nazi movement, and when groups or individuals are found guilty of crimes in these cases, they are almost always of little financial or political worth to Neo-Nazi goals. In this way, prominent Neo-Nazis may inspire, incite or even order violent crimes without much fear that their involvement will be traced in any meaningful way back to an organization which has a great deal to lose.

Notable North American exceptions to this fact are Matthew F. Hale and the World Church of the Creator, which has essentially ceased functioning effectively since Hale was imprisoned for soliciting the murder of a federal judge, and Richard Butler of Aryan Nations, which lost a 6.2 million dollar lawsuit after low level security personnel at Butler's compound opened fire on a passing vehicle. Aryan Nations has since lost its headquarters and paramilitary training grounds and split into three separate organizations, two of which claim to be the true successors to the group, but all of which are significantly reduced from the sum of the former group's parts.

Neo-Nazism in Belgium

A Belgian neo-nazi network, BBET (Bloed-Bodem-Eer-Trouw, or Blood, Land, Honour and Faithfulness, issued from a split from Blood and Honour), projecting bombings to “destabilize” the country, was dismantled on September 7, 2006. 17 people, including 11 soldiers, were arrested in the frame of the december 2003 Anti-terrorist Act, as well as the laws prohibiting racism, xenophobia and negationism. According to Manuel Abramowicz, a specialist of the Belgian far right quoted by Le Soir, and also in charge of the ResistanceS network gathering information on the neonazi movement, the “ultras” of the radical right have always had as aim to “infiltrate the state mechanisms”, including the army in the 1970s and the 1980s, through Westland New Post and the Front de la Jeunesse [1]. The police operation, which mobilized 150 agents, searched five military barracks (in Bourg-Léopold near the dutch border, Kleine-Brogel, Peer, Bruxelles (Ecole royale militaire) and Zedelgem) as well as 18 private addresses in Flanders. They founded weapons, ammunitions, explosives, and a homemade bomb large enough to make “a car explode”. The leading suspect, B.T., was also organizing a weapon traffic and developping international links, in particular with the dutch far right movement De Nationale Alliantie [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

Neo-Nazism in Germany

After the swastika became banned in Germany and other European countries, some neo-Nazis have taken to displaying an older flag, taken from Imperial Germany (Reichskriegsflagge).
A militant Neo-Nazi in Germany. "Lone Wolves" and revolutionary sleeper units are common amongst neo-Nazis in countries where these groups are illegal; most see themselves as covert resistance fighters against an oppressive and dystopian multiracial régime.

Nazi iconography remains to this day heavily restricted in Germany. As German law forbids the production of Nazi devotionalia, such items come into the country mostly (illegally) from the USA and northern European countries. Rock bands such as Landser have been outlawed in Germany, yet bootleg copies of their albums printed in the US and other countries are still sold. In fact, an American Neo-Nazi group called NSDAP/AO (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei/Aufbau- und Auslandsorganisation) runs an illegal yet surprisingly extensive smuggling ring, for supplying Nazi materials to Neo-Nazis in Europe and other locations where such material is banned by law. Materials supplied by NSDAP/AO include, but are not limited to: magazines (published in ten languages), CDs, posters, portraits, clothing, patches, stickers, leaflets and pamphlets, and certain equipment which is not generally listed in catalogues produced by the organization.

Current Neo-Nazi websites mostly depend on hosting in the USA and Canada and use other terms for Nazi ideas and symbols.

They also invent new symbols reminiscent of the swastika and other symbols used by the Nazis, e.g. the sun disc, sun wheel, hooked cross, wolf's cross, wolf's hook, black sun, or dark star (see fascist symbolism).

In Germany immediately after World War II, Allied forces and the new German governments attempted to prevent the creation of new Nazi movements through a process known as denazification. With this and the total defeat of the Nazi regime, there was little overt Neo-Nazi activity in Europe until the 1960s. Some former Nazis retained their ideology and racist beliefs, however, and passed them down to new generations (see Socialist Reich Party, Wiking-Jugend).

After German reunification in the 1990s, Neo-Nazi groups succeeded in gaining more followers, mostly among disaffected teenagers in Eastern Germany. Many were new groups that arose amidst the economic collapse and subsequent high unemployment in the former East Germany. Many Neo-Nazis from the East shown a dislike of Communism and left wing influence in the past, and that made them interested in Neo-Nazism to "fight back" the wrongs caused by Communism.

The activities of these groups resulted in several violent attacks on foreigners, creating a hostile atmosphere for foreigners in some towns. The violence manifested itself especially in attempts to burn down the homes for people in search of asylum in Germany. Among the most violent incidents:

("Arson attack" is a translation of the German word Brandanschlag, which implies throwing Molotov cocktails into houses (fire-bombing) in an attempt to burn them down.)

These events preceded demonstrations (Lichterketten, "candle chains") with hundreds of thousands of participants protesting against right-extremist violence in many German cities. In turn, these precipitated further massive Neo-Nazi demonstrations, which continue today. Demonstrations often erupt in violence as Nazis and their anti-Fascist counter-protesters clash in the streets.

File:Neonazimarch.jpg
Neo-Nazi march in Berlin, 2005

Official German statistics for the year 1990 record 178 violent crimes motivated by right-wing extremism (Gewalttaten). In 1991 there were 849 and in 1992 there were 1,485, with a significant concentration in the eastern Bundesländer (1999: 2.19 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants in the eastern Bundesländer and 0.68 in the western ones). After 1992 the numbers went down, although they have risen sharply again in subsequent years. In the former East Germany 17 people are murdered on average every year by far right groups[1] according to official statistics, while PDS claims these numbers are lowered down by 2 or 3 times, other types of attacks against people targeted by right-wingers have increased by 10% in 2005. Because public opinion and media coverage concerning Neo-Nazi ideologies is still extremely negative, local authorities often attempt to suppress large scale organizations by such groups (sometimes unsuccessfully, and almost always only temporarily) when they reach a certain size.

A trial was held before the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitution Court), the highest court in Germany, about the prohibition of the NPD (National Democratic Party), considered (though not proven to be) a Neo-Nazi party. In the course of the trial it was discovered that some high-ranking party members who should appear as witnesses worked as informants for the domestic intelligence service, the Verfassungsschutz (Constitution Protection). The trial turned into a major political scandal. It was first temporarily suspended and then finally rejected by the court because of the unclear influence of informants in the actions and image of the NPD. This issue has raised similar concerns globally, as attempts by all sides to discredit Neo-Nazi parties often hinge on the availability of evidence that such groups are violent or illegal in some way. With informants and infiltrators in such groups so common, and the very purpose of these agents being to confirm suspicions of malevolent intent, or even to act as agents provocateurs, it becomes difficult to discern whether a violent or illegal action is the product of the actual Nazi Party, or of the infiltrators own personal desire to see the party discredited.

In 2004, the NPD received 9.1% of the vote in the parliamentary elections for Saxony, thus earning the right to seat parliament members. The other parties are refusing to enter into discussion with the NPD.

Neo-Nazism in Austria

Immediately after the Allies had liberated Austria in 1945, the anti-Nazi parties - Socialists (SPÖ), Conservatives (ÖVP) and Communists (KPÖ) - passed important measures to overcome the effects of Nazi rule. According to the law of May 8, 1945, the NSDAP was banned and Nazi activity forbidden, thus giving the Austrian Constitution a strong anti-Nazi character. Up to the present day the main instrument in combating Neo-Nazi activities is a legal one.

The "denazification" programme insisted upon by the Allies and designed to purge the State apparatus and society as a whole of Nazi followers was not successful, mainly because of the sheer size of the problem and the bureaucratic shortcomings apparent in the programme's administration. This failure was reflected primarily in the fact that ex-members or sympathisers of the NSDAP were not "purged" of their opinions, prejudices or behavioural patterns. Even in the war's immediate aftermath, there began a fundamental change in the political climate which soon put an end to the oft-cited anti-Fascist "spirit of 1945."

During the Cold War the status of the Nazis, who always purported to be in the forefront of the struggle against "Bolshevism," was once more enhanced. Over 500,000 registered Nazis were allowed to vote in the 1949 General Election. Along with their families they represented a reservoir of voters which none of the three parliamentary parties felt they could ignore. As voters, as members or officials of established political parties, a considerable number of ex-Nazis were integrated into the SPÖ and the ÖVP, in the process of which a whole plethora of political and attitudinal concessions were made to them: suppression of the history/memory of the Nazi era, a fall-off in the prosecution of Nazi war criminals, the reinstatement of Nazi civil servants, teachers, professors, lawyers, policemen, etc. The opportunism of the democratic parties was counterproductive, the "national bloc" (nationales Lager) reconstituted and, placing itself, as always, in the Pan-Germanic tradition, came to be partially identified with the extreme right- wing political spectrum.

In the aftermath of the 1949 elections, when ex-Nazis, organized in the VdU (Verband der Unabhängigen; Association of Independents), put up candidates and won seats, the Austrian Right went through a gradual process of growth. The withdrawal of Allied troops from Austria (1955) encouraged the consolidation of right-wing groups (some had existed before 1933), which now represented the entire Right - from unashamed Neo-Nazis to "moderate" Pan-Germans.

Because of disagreements between the small liberal and the much more powerful "national" (German) wing, the VdU split in 1955, but re-formed itself one year later as Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (FPÖ; Freedom Party of Austria). Then and now the FPÖ is the only party represented in the Austrian Parliament which declares its adherence to the "German cultural community" (Party Programme). The first leaders of the FPÖ were former Nazis, Anton Reinthaller, for example, had been a Government Minister in the Nazi era, Friedrich Peter, an SS officer.

The Austrian public saw itself confronted with the organized Right for the first time in 1959, on the occasion of the "Schiller Celebrations", when "national" (Pan-German) youth, sport and cultural organizations took to the streets. Within student and university bodies the so-called Burschenschaften and schlagende Verbindungen (fraternities of male uniformed students), the FPÖ's students' organization RFS and its graduate equivalent FAV (Freiheitliche Akademikerverbände) attained considerable influence.

In 1960, during the so-called "South Tyrol Crisis", such right-wing extremists, along with German Kameraden, gained widespread notoriety by involvement in terrorist acts ("freedom struggle") in Italy. Prominent among these was Norbert Burger, the ex-RFS leader and subsequent chairman of the Neo-Nazi NDP (Nationaldemokratische Partei). The influence which the extreme Right had gained in the universities became dramatically apparent five years later, during the so-called "Borodajkewycz Affair". Hundreds of students demonstrated in favour of the anti-Semitic university professor Borodajkewycz and were involved in street battles, in the course of which Ernst Kirchweger, a former concentration camp inmate, was beaten to death.

During the 1960s and 70s, Friedrich Peter, Chairman of the FPÖ, endeavoured to anchor his party within the democratic party system, preparing the ground for the entry of the FPÖ into a Coalition Government with the Socialists in 1983. This development led, on the other hand, to the formation of a group around Norbert Burger (condemned in absentia by an Italian court for terrorist offences in South Tyrol), which split from the FPÖ in 1966 and set up the NDP (Nationaldemokratische Partei). In contrast to its German counterpart of the same name, which had some electoral successes in the mid-1960s, the Austrian NDP (banned as a Neo-Nazi organization in 1988) found little resonance in an electorate moving to the left in the late 1960s.

Because of the politically motivated and misguided tolerance shown by the authorities and Government in Austria, extreme right-wing groupings continued with their activities in the 1970s as well. The volume Rechtsextremismus in Österreich seit 1945, issued by DÖW in 1979, listed nearly 50 extreme right-wing organizations active in the country. Their true significance and influence, however, waned gradually due in no small part to effective liberalization programmes (emphasis on Austrian identity, democratic traditions) carried out in secondary schools and universities. The most striking evidence for this change was the declining vote attained by the RFS at student elections, which fell from 30% in the 1960s to 2% in 1987. At the polls for the student representative body (Österreichische Hochschülerschaft) in 1995, the RFS could muster only 4%, in contrast, its "mother party" FPÖ won 22% of the votes at the General Election in the same year.

At the beginning of the 1980s Neo-Nazi student groups never attained more than 1 % of the student vote and went through a period of stagnation and defeat. The single exception in this regard manifested itself in Carinthia, Austria's most southern province. There, old conflicts with Slovenia (then part of Yugoslavia) on the border issue or disagreements concerning the rights of Carinthia's Slovenian minority were used to orchestrate a permanent fever of Großdeutsch resentment (Kärntner Heimatdienst (KHD)).

Neo-Nazism in Croatia

See also: Neo-Nazism in Croatia
File:Ustashe.jpg
Some modern Ustaše supporters continue to impart far-right beliefs to their children; here they are dressed in the uniforms of the Black legion

Since gaining independence, Croatia has often been criticized for ignoring its past and erasing evidence of former Ustasha Fascist and Nazi crimes.[2] In one prominent case, Zagreb's "Square of the Victims of Fascism" was renamed "The Square of The Great Men of Croatia", provoking widespread criticism of Croatia's attitude toward the Holocaust.[3] Many streets in Croatia have been renamed after Mile Budak, a prominent Ustasha figure, which provoked outrage in the Serbian minority, that still numbered 12% in 1991, despite a WWII genocide.[4] The memory of the Ustasha genocide was still very vivid when Croatia started secession from the SFRY, and Serbs in Croatia often expressed fear at the new developments. A plaque in Slunj with the inscription "Croatian Knight Jure Francetić" was erected to commemorate the notorious Ustasha leader of the Black Legion, Jure Francetic. The plaque remained there for four years, and was eventually removed by the authorities. Since 2002 there has been a reversal of this movement, and streets with the name of Mile Budak or other persons involved or connected with the Ustasha movement are few or non-existent, and with the new legislation this is illegal. Neo-Nazism in Croatia is restricted by the law as of 2006 and public display of fascist symbols and paraphernalia is now formally banned, however imprisonment and fines for such acts are generally minor. To many of their modern supporters, the Ustaše are considered to have been merely victims of the Bleiburg massacre and there were even proposals by the late President Tudjman to rebury them together with victims of the Jasenovac concentration camp as a sign of national reconciliation, although it should be noted that Croatian partisans were only a very small proportion of the casualties at Jasenovac. Croatian Serbs, whose cousins died in the Jasenovac concentration camp and other concentration camps in Croatia, often felt insulted by such proposals. The resurgence of the Ustase movement in present-day Croatia is partly due to the financial support of Ustase members who emigrated to the HDZ during the 1990s. [5]

In 1998-9, an attempt was made to bring to justice Nada Sakic - who was a guard at the Stara Gradiska concentration camp. Nada Sakic, according to her accusers, was known for her cruelty towards the prisoners which is reflected in diverse testimonies that were the basis for her extradition in November 1998 to Croatia [6], [7], [8], [9]. The Croatian government granted her Croatian citizenship. Mrs. Sakic, then 72, was never indicted by the Croatian authorities. The Croatian government claimed that no evidence or witnesses exist to indict Mrs. Sakic. However, the New York based Jasenovac Research Institute was in contact with Survivors living in Yugoslavia who had given eyewitness testimony to Mrs. Sakic's crimes at Stara Gradishka (part of the Jasenovac camps). At the First International Conference on Jasenovac in New York City in 1997 one of these Survivors, Mara Vejnovic, gave an eyewitness account of Nada Sakic's activities as a camp commander. [10], [11], [12]

In November 1999 a lawsuit was filed in Federal Court, San Francisco, CA where the plaintiffs are of Serb, Jewish and Ukrainian background. The plaintiffs are also survivors of the WWII Ustashe concentration camps. The defendants are the Vatican Bank, the Franciscan Order and the Croatian Liberation Movements who allegedly concealed assets looted by the Croatian Nazis from their concentration camp victims (Serbs, Jews, Ukrainians) between 1941-1945. As per Jonathan Levy, one of the plaintiffs' lawyers, many of the plaintiffs have been reluctant to be photographed, and are still terrified of the Ustashe. Among Serbs, fear of the Ustashe is still particularly strong as the Ustashe still exists and has a party headquarters in Zagreb.[13]

The publication of Hitler's book Mein Kampf in 1999, caused the then German foreign minister Joschka Fischer to summon his Croatian opposite number Mate Granic, and press him to have the book banned in Croatia [14]; however, this did not happen. In a number of protests, it has been reported that supporters of Ante Gotovina and other suspected war criminals often carry nationalist symbols and pictures of Ante Pavelic. [15]There were several public appearances of Ustashe veterans wearing Ustashe uniforms, for instance in Zadar and Slunj. [16], [17]. Also, a popular Croatian singer Thompson has been singing the Jasenovac i Gradiska Stara in his concerts, a song which glorifies the Ustashe and their genocide of Serbs, Jews and Gypsies. [18]. Occasionally graffiti with Ustashe slogans appears in present-day Croatia, even an Orthodox church was sprayed with such graffiti in 2004 [19],[20] and the police have stepped up measures to prevent this from occurring by speeding up responses to the appearance of extreme right wing graffiti and other hate vandalism. [21]

Neo-Nazism in Greece

File:Imia06 2.jpg
Neo-Nazi march in Athens, 2006

Neo-Nazism in Greece has been relegated to the, now defunct, fringe political party of Hrisy Avi, which had minimal electoral appeal. However, swastika-paintings and anti-Semitic slogans can be found in graffiti in urban Greece.

The most important Neo-Nazi political party and movement was Hrisi Avgi, which stopped its activities in late 2005. During the 90's, Hrisi Avgi was considered a model National Socialist movement among Neo-Nazis and white supremacists worldwide, and was regarded as one of the most influential and best organized Neo-Nazi organizations in Europe[citation needed]. It held 10 offices across Greece and published a monthly youth magazine which attained moderate popularity among Greek teens. Members of Hrisi Avgi (including its former leader Nikolaos Michaloliakos) continue their activities through Patriotiki Symmachia, a nationalist party formed two months before the 2004 European Parliament elections, where it gathered 10,000 votes, corresponding to 0,17% of the general vote.

Neo-Nazis in Greece take pride in the Metaxas quasi-fascist dictatorship (see Greek fascism), in the participation of thousands of Greek volunteers in the infamous "Security Battalions" during the Second World War, and in the collaborationist regimes which were placed in power as puppet-governments by the Nazis during the German occupation of Greece (1940-1944) such as those of Tsolakoglou, Ioannis Rallis and Logothetopoulos.

Anti-Nazi laws have existed in Greece for decades, but the legislation has failed to stop Neo-nazi activities in Greece. The last activity of Greek Neo-Nazis was the attempt to organise a festival called "Eurofest 2005", which was announced by Hrisi Avgi and counted on the participation of the German NPD, the Italian Forza Nuova as well as on Romanian and Spanish Neo-Nazi groups. Neo-nazis in Greece have been tied to hate-driven attacks on immigrants, homosexuals and leftists. One of the most deadly attacks was the murder of 3 immigrants in central Athens by racist Pandelis Kazakos. Twelve Greek Neo-Nazis even participated as volunteers in the Yugoslav wars in Bosnia, aiding the Serbian Army in capturing the town of Srebrenica whereupon the worst war atrocity in Europe since the Second World War was commited. Greek Neo-Nazis are also active in football hooliganism, like many of their European counterparts. In September 2004, during a football match between Albania and Greece, when Albanian hooligans set the Greek flag on fire, members of Hrisi Avgi and The Blue Army (a nationalist organization that represents football fans) launched a series of riots targeting Albanian immigrants in Greece, which resulted in 1 dead and 7 wounded. Many blame the media for creating a hysterical atmosphere around the burning of the flag.

Anti-racist and human rights organizations have periodically criticized Greece for having failed to eliminate xenophobia, anti-Semitism and racism from Greek public discourse. The accusation is also based on statistical facts which show[citation needed] that many Greeks hold racist and anti-Semitic (as well as anti-American) views, on the wide availability of racist and xenophobic publications in Greece, and even the existence of racist and anti-semitic TV stations such as Tele-Asty. Greece is also criticized for not having gone[citation needed] through a process of de-Nazification after the period of fascist Greece (1936-1941), the following occupation of Greece by Nazi Germany and the quasi-fascist Greek military junta of 1967-1974.

Neo-Nazism in the USA

See also: Neo-Nazi groups of the United States

In the USA, the Constitutional guarantee for freedom of speech allows political organizations great latitude in expressing Nazi, racist or anti-Semitic ideology. Nazi groups in the United States can be traced back to the 1920s, with the US branch of the National Socialist German Workers Party. This organization merged with Free Society of Teutonia to form the German-American Bund. The Bund and other groups achieved a limited and controversial popularity in the 1930s (at one point staging a rally of over 20,000), but rapidly faded with the onset of WWII. The groups either disbanded or were dismantled by force during the war period.

After WWII, new organizations eventually formed which had varying degrees of adoption of Nazi principles, and again built ties with older organizations. As of the 21st century, there are some actual Neo-Nazi groups as well as a number of White supremacist, white separatist, anti-Semitic, and Fascist groups that share some or large parts of their ideology with Nazism. It should be noted that the Ku Klux Klan is different from, and predates Nazism; it is not a Neo-Nazi organization. The KKK has, however, often maintained ties to and sympathized with Nazi groups, including the German-American Bund during the 1930s.

U.S.-based Neo-Nazi and Nazi sympathizer groups often have web sites, occasionally stage public demonstrations, and even maintain international ties to groups in Europe and elsewhere. However, they are a vocal few and a tiny percentage of the population. More often than not, they are outnumbered at public demonstrations by counter-protesters and are quickly prosecuted for any crimes. The U.S. congress passed extra penalties for what are known as Hate crimes. Usual targets of U.S. Neo-Nazis are not limited to Jews or African Americans, Neo-Nazi groups are known to harass and attack Asian Americans, Catholics, Latinos, Italian Americans, Arab Americans, homosexuals and people with different political or religious opinions.

Neo-Nazism in the UK

The following British organizations have been described as Neo-Nazi:

Neo-Nazism is banned in Scotland under many acts (Expert needed)

Neo-Nazism in Russia

File:Bookcover The ABC of a Russian Nationalist.jpg
Bookcover of The ABC of a Russian Nationalist by A.P. Barkashov

Russia may seem like an unlikely place for a flowering of Neo-Nazi movements due to the strong memories of the devastation that was wrought on the nation by the Nazi German invaders during World War II. Nevertheless, the post-Soviet era has seen the rise of a variety of extremist nationalist political movements, some of them paramilitary organizations of openly Neo-Fascist or Neo-Nazi persuasion. These organizations are characterized by extreme xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and an active interest among a few of these groups in overthrowing the government and taking power by force. However, Neo-Nazis still represent a small minority when it comes to rebellious groups, with much of that category actually filled by Communists and Islamic extremists.

Social roots

The collapse of the Soviet economic system which culminated in the early 1990s caused an economic and social meltdown of epochal proportions, one often described as far exceeding the devastation the USA had experienced during the Great Depression. There was a great deal of popular discontent with the widespread unemployment and poverty.

This discontent found its main outlet in the major political parties that stood in opposition to the Boris Yeltsin government (1991-1999), especially the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (Kommunisticheskaya Partiya Rossijskoj Federacii, KPRF) which generally advocated a return to the Soviet economic policies, and the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (Liberal'no Demokraticheskaya Partiya Rossii, LDPR) led by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a xenophobic and chauvinist movement without a clear agenda beyond the opposition to the "democrats", i.e. the ruling political factions allied to Yeltsin.

However, soon enough it became clear that neither of these parties was capable of accomplishing any serious changes in the national policy, and indeed soon they came to be widely seen as having had "sold out" to the "anti-people regime" (anti-narodny rezhim, a label widely used by the Communists to refer to Yeltsin's government).

Consequently, a number of extremist paramilitary organizations of the Neo-Nazi persuasion were able to tap into the wellspring of discontent and despair among those who saw no future for themselves under the established conditions, particularly among the marginalized, lesser educated, and habitually unemployed youth..

Of the three major age groups, the youth, adults, and the retired elderly, it was the youth who in a sense had been hit the hardest. The elderly suffered greatly due to inadequate, or often unpaid, pensions (social security benefits), but they found effective political representation in the Communists, and generally their concerns were addressed sooner or later through better budget allocation. The adults, though often suffering financially and psychologically, such as due to a breadwinner's loss of work, still were generally able to find some employment and get by. Moreover, an established egalitarian system of indoctrination instigated by the Soviet Union generally predisposed most against the message of right-wing extremists. The youth generally had no such prior inclinations. Also, the youth had only experienced the last days of the Communist regime, which were made up of brutal crack downs, but without any idealistic presence, and were thus similar to Nazism.

Ideology

Russian Neo-Nazi organizations generally defined themselves as standing outside of the political process, disdaining the electoral system and advocating the overthrow of the government by force. Their ideological programs centered on Russian national identity, defending the Russians against what they perceived as a takeover of the country by people from ethnic minorities, notably Jews and migrants from the Caucasus region. Cleansing the nation by killing or expelling the non-Russians was a generally accepted goal, claimed to be a way to solve pretty much all of the woes facing the country. Their ideology became epitomized in the short slogan "Russia for the Russians", a catchphrase adopted more widely by less extremist factions later on. They did not generally have discernible economic programs, quite unlike the German NSDAP.

The Neo-Nazis openly admired and imitated the German Nazis and Hitler, and Mein Kampf stood high on their reading list. The most prominent organization, Russian National Union (Русское Национальное Единство) led by Aleksandr Barkashov, adopted a three ray swastika as its emblem (the Nazi swastika can be thought of consisting of two "rays", i.e. the _|¯ (Z) shaped segments). Some others preferred the original version. In order to harmonize Hitler's notion of the Germanic master race with the Russian national feeling, the doctrine was updated to include all Aryans or Indo-Europeans, both Germanic and Slavic. The definition explicitly excluded Jews and the people from the Caucasus (widely seen as alien and "black" because of a slightly darker skin color). On a more practical level, the Neo-Nazis considered the Russians to be a special and chosen nation, while looking down on others, including the non-Russian Slavic peoples.

These groups then exploited the vulnerability and discontent of young people, as explained above. However, Nazism did also attract many of the old, who suffered greatly in the Soviet economic collapse, even their living conditions were sometimes at least adequate.

Activities

The Neo-Nazis made it an explicit goal to take over the country by force, and they did put serious effort into preparing for this. Paramilitary organizations operating under the guise of sports clubs organized training for their members in squad tactics and weapons handling. The Neo-Nazis were never able to take over the country, but still had a huge impact on society. Weapons were stockpiled, generally illegally (due to the very restrictive Russian gun laws). Reputedly, many were interested in martial arts and unarmed combat, and did an efficient job of organizing realistic hand-to-hand combat classes. However, Neo-Nazis in Russia make use of legal weapons when facing trained opponents, as when two lightly-armed African-American US Marines guarding the wife of a Congressman were beaten by Russian Neo-Nazis with bats in broad daylight.

Despite these extensive preparations, extraordinary by the standards of a Western nation, the Neo-Nazis have not yet carried out any well-known attacks or otherwise come out into the open. Their most notable action so far was the participation in the armed defense of the Supreme Soviet (Soviet and Russian parliament before 1994) building against government forces during the standoff between Yeltsin and the Communist-dominated parliament in 1993, a conflict which Yeltsin won. The Neo-Nazis did generate considerable anxiety because of their potential for pogroms against people they disliked and indeed the possibility of actual power seizure. To date these outcomes have not eventuated, although rumors of impending pogroms did circulate widely in the early 1990s. (See also Pamyat.)

Human rights groups have expressed concern over what they see as the inability or unwillingness of the Russian police and security establishment such as FSB to act against the activities of the domestic Neo-Nazi movement. It has been alleged that the failure of the government to take decisive measures suggests a possibility to use paramilitary groups as a potential tool in a future struggle for power. Disturbing and unfortunate parallels have been drawn between this situation and the situation in 1930s Germany, just before the NSDAP took power. In Germany, the rich and the powerful in government often supported the Nazis, if for no other reason than because, of the three major political powers at the time (the Communists, the National Socialists and the democrats), the Nazis were the only group with the strength and will to do something about the rising tide of Communism. In practice, this made the Nazis defenders of the traditional German middle and upper-classes. -

Neo-Nazism in Scandinavia

File:Hailhitler.jpg

The following Scandinavian movements, parties and associations have been described as neo-Nazi:

Various small sects of Germanic Neopaganism held racist, nationalist and fascist ideologies, in conjunction to Norse and Germanic mythology. One of these fringe types Odinism or Odalism is notably involved in neo-Nazi and white supremacist activities.

Neo-Nazism in other countries

In many European countries, there are laws that prevent the expression of Nazi, racist or anti-Semitic ideology, thus no political party of significant importance will describe itself as being Neo-Nazi. In South America, there are Nazi movements to kill or remove non-whites in addition to Jews, including Mestizos. Neo-Nazi and pro-apartheid groups thrive in South Africa, due to political and economic conditions in the country. In the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, there was no major impact of Nazism in political government. But Neo-Nazi gangs focused on historic racism of non-white minority groups in these countries.

Organizations that have described themselves as 'Neo-Nazi,' or are categorized as such include:

Neo-Nazi bands

Although Burzum is treated a separate category of black metal, but has open Neo-Nazi and racist lyrics in their songs. National Socialist black metal is a combination of Pagan, anti-Christian, anti-Semitic and extreme nationalist lyrics.

See also

References

  1. ^ Les néonazis voulaient déstabiliser le pays, Le Soir, Jeudi 7 septembre 2006 Template:Fr icon
  2. ^ Un groupe terroriste néonazi démantelé, Le Nouvel Observateur, 8 septembre 2006 Template:Fr icon
  3. ^ La Belgique démantèle un groupe néonazi préparant des attentats, Le Monde, 7 septembre 2006 Template:Fr icon
  4. ^ Des militaires néonazis voulaient commettre des attentats, RTL Belgique, 8 septembre 2006 Template:Fr icon
  5. ^ Des militaires néonazis voulaient déstabiliser la Belgique par des attentats, AFP, 08/09/06, 07h12 Template:Fr icon
  6. ^ La Belgique découvre, stupéfaite, un complot néonazi au sein de son armée, AFP, 08/09/06, 12h01. Template:Fr icon
  7. ^ Un réseau terroriste de militaires néonazis démantelé en Belgique, Le Monde, September 8, 2006 Template:Fr icon

Primary sources

Academic surveys

  • The Beast Reawakens by Martin A. Lee, (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1997, ISBN 0-316-51959-6)
  • Fascism (Oxford Readers) by Roger Griffin (1995, ISBN 0-19-289249-5)
  • Beyond Eagle and Swastika: German nationalism since 1945 by Kurt P. Tauber (Wesleyan University Press; [1st ed.] edition, 1967)
  • Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890 edited by Philip Rees, (1991, ISBN 0-13-089301-3)
  • Hitler's Priestess: Savitri Devi, the Hindu-Aryan Myth, and Neo-Nazism by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (1998, ISBN 0-8147-3111-2 and ISBN 0-8147-3110-4)
  • Dreamer of the Day: Francis Parker Yockey and the Postwar Fascist International by Kevin Coogan, (Autonomedia, Brooklyn, NY 1998, ISBN 1-57027-039-2)
  • Hate: George Lincoln Rockwell and the American Nazi Party by William H. Schmaltz (Potomac Books, 2000, ISBN 1-57488-262-7)
  • American Fuehrer: George Lincoln Rockwell and the American Nazi Party by Frederick J. Simonelli (University of Illinois Press, 1999, ISBN 0-252-02285-8)
  • Fascism in Britain: A History, 1918-1985 by Richard C. Thurlow (Olympic Marketing Corp, 1987, ISBN 0-631-13618-5)
  • Fascism Today: A World Survey by Angelo Del Boca and Mario Giovana (Pantheon Books, 1st American edition, 1969)
  • Swastika and the Eagle: Neo-Naziism in America Today by Clifford L Linedecker (A & W Pub, 1982, ISBN 0-89479-100-1)
  • The Silent Brotherhood: Inside America's Racist Underground by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt (Signet Book; Reprint edition, 1995, ISBN 0-451-16786-4)
  • "White Power, White Pride!": The White Separatist Movement in the United States by Betty A. Dobratz with Stephanie L. Shanks-Meile (hardcover, Twayne Publishers, 1997, ISBN 0-8057-3865-7); a.k.a. The White Separatist Movement in the United States: White Power White Pride (paperback, Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2000, ISBN 0-8018-6537-9)
  • Encyclopedia of White Power: A Sourcebook on the Radical Racist Right by Jeffrey Kaplan (Rowman & Littlefield Pub Inc, 2000, ISBN 0-7425-0340-2)
  • Blood in the Face: The Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, Nazi Skinheads, and the Rise of a New White Culture by James Ridgeway (Thunder's Mouth Press; 2nd edition, 1995, ISBN 1-56025-100-X)
  • A Hundred Little Hitlers: The Death of a Black Man, the Trial of a White Racist, and the Rise of the Neo-Nazi Movement in America by Elinor Langer (Metropolitan Books, 2003, ISBN 0-8050-5098-1)
  • The Racist Mind: Portraits of American Neo-Nazis and Klansmen by Raphael S. Ezekiel (Penguin (Non-Classics); Reprint edition, 1996, ISBN 0-14-023449-7)
  • Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (2001, ISBN 0-8147-3155-4)
  • Free to Hate: The Rise of the Right in Post-Communist Eastern Europe by Paul Hockenos (Routledge; Reprint edition, 1994, ISBN 0-415-91058-7)
  • The Dark Side of Europe: The Extreme Right Today by Geoff Harris, (Edinburgh University Press; New edition, 1994, ISBN 0-7486-0466-9)
  • The Far Right in Western and Eastern Europe by Luciano Cheles, Ronnie Ferguson, and Michalina Vaughan (Longman Publishing Group; 2nd edition, 1995, ISBN 0-582-23881-1)
  • The Radical Right in Western Europe : A Comparative Analysis by Herbert Kitschelt (University of Michigan Press; Reprint edition, 1997, ISBN 0-472-08441-0)
  • Shadows Over Europe: The Development and Impact of the Extreme Right in Western Europe edited by Martin Schain, Aristide Zolberg, and Patrick Hossay (Palgrave Macmillan; 1st edition, 2002, ISBN 0-312-29593-6)
  • The Fame of a Dead Man's Deeds: An Up-Close Portrait of White Nationalist William Pierce by Robert S. Griffin (Authorhouse, 2001, ISBN 0-7596-0933-0)
  • Nation and Race: The Developing Euro-American Racist Subculture by Jeffrey Kaplan, Tore Bjorgo (Northeastern University Press, 1998, ISBN 1-55553-331-0)
  • Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism by Mattias Gardell (Duke University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-8223-3071-7)
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