By Jay Ramasubramanyam
Disorganized white nationalist groups that were dormant for several years have had new life breathed into them as far-right politicians enjoy increased electoral support. The rise of political authoritarians like Donald Trump, Sebastian Kurz, and Marine Le Pen in 2017, has coincided with an increase in the number of hate crimes against minorities.
In defiance of previous liberal trends towards multiculturalism, the rise of the alt-right has signalled something of a renaissance for white nationalists and hate groups. With more supporters, far-right groups are organizing demonstrations in larger numbers.
Warsaw saw the highest-ever number of white supremacist protesters on the city’s streets (60,000 to be precise) on Poland’s Independence Day.
In Charlottesville last year, a large “Unite the Right” rally culminated in Vanguard America member James Alex Fields Jr. using his car to assault an anti-racist march, killing Heather Heyer and injuring many others.
Meanwhile, Canada isn’t immune to such movements, even if their development is happening more quietly.
There’s been an alarming increase in far-right groups in the Maritime provinces, for example, as documented in a Feb. 15 Radio Canada article. In the article, hate crimes researcher Barbara Perry from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology notes that in the last three years, the number of right-wing racist groups increased in Canada from around 100 to upwards of 150.
Perry also notes that far-right groups commit many more violent hate crimes compared to radical Islamists. Over 30 years in Canada, she tracked 120 violent hate crimes by far-right extremists, compared to seven by radical Islamists – who nonetheless draw much more media scrutiny and law enforcement resources. The recent mass shooting in Florida and the Québec City mosque shooting last year – are carried out by young, Trump-loving white supremacists.
With public demagogues like Donald Trump promising to ‘make America great again’ – i.e., restore the yesteryear of white identity and white domination – it should be no surprise that explicitly racist groups are pushing their way back into the mainstream. The debasement of democratic principles and liberal cosmopolitanism is well-underway as other far-right leaders are increasingly elevated to positions of power in several nation-states.
For the first time since the Second World War, Germany saw a far-right party like the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), occupy its Bundestag (Federal Parliament). Marine Le Pen of Front National, a far-right party in France, has successfully transformed it from a fringe party to a mainstream option, doubling its support base since 2002.
None of this was supposed to happen. Europe was supposed to be on an inevitable march to a progressive and economically-harmonized union. Meanwhile, after Obama’s last election, pollsters argued that Republicans – catering as they did to a white and primarily rural majority – might never be elected again. Demography was supposed to be against them – young people and urbanites are inherently more progressive and racial minorities are growing in numbers and influence.
The rise of a young and dynamic alt-right movement seems to have overcome this prediction.
The alt-right has appropriated aspects of the post-60s leftist counterculture in a successful synergy reminiscent of the original Fascist (i.e. revolutionary conservatives) appropriation of revolutionary left movements, like Marxism and anarcho-syndacalism.
Until recently the idea of an ‘alternative’ culture – an alternative resistant to mainstream culture – implied an acceptance of difference and an egalitarian ethos. Defenders of this alternative culture were indeed social justice warriors. When it comes to rhetoric and methods the alt-right has positioned themselves similarly brave warriors against mainstream – except they are fighting to spread politics of hate and fear.
Younger people are drawn to the idea of being “offensive” for the sake of it. The faces of the Charlottesville ‘Unite the Right’ rally in 2017, were almost entirely young white men who revelled in the theatrics of white nationalism. A video filmed by C.J. Hunt in Charlottesville depicted a white man taking off his khaki-white Vanguard America “uniform.” He went on to say, “It’s kind of a fun idea – just being able to say ‘white power,’ you know?”
People like Hunt get a transgressive thrill out of these kinds of statements, the feeling that they are being revolutionary when in fact they are simply being hateful.
These sentiments are reactionary in the purest sense of the word – they are a reaction to some of the social justice achievements of the past decades. The partial success of feminist and anti-racist movements, for example, have actually created a sense of grievance in dominant communities.
Opportunities for the white working and middle classes are being squeezed by globalized trade and increasingly successful minorities. But instead of targeting the economic oppressors above them, white nationalists go after oppressed communities below them.
It has always been a fascist strategy to scapegoat groups with little power, claiming through convenient conspiracy theories they are actually powerful and threatening. Such cowardly ideologues wouldn’t dare take on actual economic oppressors.
“When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression,” as the slogan goes. This is the sentiment that the alt-right has tapped into so powerfully.
Figureheads like Richard Spencer, Tomi Lahren, Lauren Southern and Faith Goldy have found ways to peddle white nationalist sentiments in appealing and social-media savvy ways. Gone are the white hoods of the KKK, the throwback ‘Heil Hitler’ salutes. In every way the alt-right presents a more accessible, modern and open style – from their casual, hipster style to their savvy social media use. But in the end what they are calling for is deeply reactionary – literally a throwback to medieval Crusades.
Canadian Faith Goldy, for example, describes herself as a “fearless journalist and devout Catholic.” She posted a video of herself in Bethlehem duringthe Muslim call to prayer claiming that the city has been “taken over” by Muslims. She called for a new crusade by using the phrase “Deus vult,” a Christian war cry during the medieval Crusades meaning “God wills it” – and now an alt-right catchphrase and password.
In all, the alt-right has created a cult-like sense of belonging to many who have increasingly felt disenfranchised. And those in power now speak the language of the alt-right. After the ‘Unite the Right’ rally Trump pointed out that there were some good people who were protesting the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee.
What should we do? We have written all this to say that challenging far-right power and discourse is more important than ever. The stakes are high, as shootings from a mosque in Québec City to a school in Florida prove. Fortunately, we have justice and beauty on our side.
This article first appeared in the Leveller Vol. 10, No. 5 (Feb/Mar 2018).
