Pedlars of Hate: the Violent Impact of the European Far Right
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Pedlars of hate: the violent impact of the European far Right Liz Fekete Published by the Institute of Race Relations 2-6 Leeke Street London WC1X 9HS Tel: +44 (0) 20 7837 0041 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7278 0623 Web: www.irr.org.uk Email: [email protected] ©Institute of Race Relations 2012 ISBN 978-0-85001-071-9 Acknowledgements We would like to acknowledge the support of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and the Open Society Foundations in the researching, production and dissemination of this report. Many of the articles cited in this document have been translated into English by over twenty volunteers who assist the IRR’s European Research Programme. We would especially like to thank Sibille Merz and Dagmar Schatz (who translate from German into English), Joanna Tegnerowicz (who translates from Polish into English) and Kate Harre, Frances Webber and Norberto Laguía Casaus (who translate from Spanish into English). A particular debt is due to Frank Kopperschläger and Andrei Stavila for their generosity in allowing us to use their photographs. In compiling this report the websites of the Internet Centre Against Racism in Europe (www.icare.to) and Romea (www.romea.cz) proved invaluable. Liz Fekete is Executive Director of the Institute of Race Relations and head of its European research programme. Cover photo by Frank Kopperschläger is of the ‘Silence Against Silence’ memorial rally in Berlin on 26 November 2011 to commemorate the victims of the National Socialist Underground. (In Germany, white roses symbolise the resistance movement to the Nazi regime. The red roses were placed to remember the victims of the 22 July 2011 massacre at Oslo and Utøya island.) Designed and printed by Upstream Ltd (TU) A workers’ cooperative 020 7358 1344 www.upstream.coop Pedlars of hate: the violent impact of the European far Right Liz Fekete Contents Preface ......................................................................................................................................3 Introduction .............................................................................................................................4 Online threats and ‘national traitor’ listings ...........................................................................7 From virtual attack to acts of violence ..................................................................................11 Preparing for ‘race war’ ..........................................................................................................15 Vigilantism, militia, policing and the military .....................................................................18 Extremist subcultures and the ‘cultural revolution from the Right’ .....................................23 The changing geography and mechanics of hate .................................................................27 References ..............................................................................................................................33 Appendix: Use of terms and glossary of parties and organisations in each country ...........43 2 PEDLARS OF HATE – The violent impact of the European far Right « Preface « Preface here have been many indicators over the last year that Europe, the continent which gave birth to fascism is the 1930s, is experiencing what the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern parliamentary leader of the Social TDemocrats calls an early form of far-right terror. First, July 2011, Oslo, and the murder of seventy-seven people, mainly children, by Anders Behring Breivik; then, December 2011, Florence, and the gunning down of two Senegalese street vendors by an erstwhile supporter of CasaPound. The scandal engulfing Germany, following revelations that the police and the intelligence services failed to detect the National Socialist Underground (NSU), the neo-Nazi terror cell which committed at least seven murders from 2000-2007, was another foreshadowing. Yet in the aftermath of each event, come explanations which militate against deep reflection about the causes and consequences of the crimes of Breivik, Gianluca Casseri, Uwe Mundlos, Uwe Böhnhardt, et al. The media debate focuses on the salacious, psychological and random aspects of such massacres. Breivik was a paranoid schizophrenic, Casseri a vulnerable loner. And we were constantly told that the NSU posed a uniquely difficult challenge to the state because, unlike other terror cells, it did not glorify or seek public recognition for its crimes. Thus, societies carry on as before, reassured that while the killings were indeed horrific, they suggest no hidden pattern and, hence, nothing fundamental needs to be changed. The hundred-plus cases, mostly from EU countries but also from Norway and Switzerland, documented here in Pedlars of Hate, reveal that there is indeed a pattern. NEW PATTERNS OF HATE The report is divided into sections that describe the texture of far-right sub-cultures and delineate the various stages that the far Right go through as its members make their way from racist ranting and the peddling of hate online, to violence and death on the streets, to the stockpiling of weapons in preparation for ‘race war’. What we are witnessing are not a series of individual acts, but something far more systematic and threatening. Muslims and Roma, who were the first targets of the far Right, already know that the ‘lone wolves’ theory is not credible. But so now does much of the alternative Left and anti-racist civil society groups, as they too are being regularly subjected to far-right political violence. Of course, the situation is not uniform. And fascism 1930s style is not just around the corner. But new geographies of hate are developing, and certain regions, towns and cities are at risk from the propaganda and violence associated with fascism. The cases documented in Pedlars of Hate also reveal a shocking lack of professionalism among key sections of European police and intelligence services which have not shown the requisite leadership or developed systems to protect vulnerable minorities and others from far-right violence. Worse still, we record instances that strongly suggest a police bias towards the far Right, and indicate that the intelligence services are developing infiltration schemes, which, because of a lack of democratic oversight, end up colluding with the far Right in ways that bring to mind the collusion of the Royal Ulster Constabulary with Loyalist paramilitaries in the North of Ireland. Europe’s growing counter-jihadi movement and network of defence leagues, in depicting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as conflicts between a superior civilisation and a barbaric Muslim enemy, are attempting to recruit returning soldiers and encouraging them to extend the fight to the Muslim enemy within. It is in this context, that we draw attention to the dangers posed when anti-democratic tendencies on societal, institutional and state security fronts combine. NATIONALIST MESSAGES NURTURE FAR RIGHT As Europe’s politicians and civil servants embrace the age of austerity and the hope of its citizens for full employment, decent living standards and greater security is eroded, the attraction of extremist parties offering simplistic messages and scapegoats for anger and disillusionment will increase. But if centre-right and centre-left electoral parties respond to that crisis by offering nationalism as the palliative, then far-right extremism will have its ideal breeding ground of ultra-patriotism and nativism. Historically, fascism and ultra-nationalism went hand in hand; the masses were indoctrinated into a hysterical identification with the Fatherland under threat from ‘foreign infiltration’ and the ‘enemy within’. The Jews were accused of having a ‘decadent culture’ which was unpatriotic and cosmopolitan. Today it is the assault on multiculturalism (by centre-right leaders like Angela Merkel, David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy) which, combined with debates on national identity and core values, foment and encourage fascist and ultra-nationalist tendencies on the ground – only this time those nostalgic for a racially pure society use ‘multiculturalism’ as a synonym or shorthand for ‘cosmopolitanism’. We hope that this report will encourage reflection and action, not just against far-right extremism but against the rising tide of nationalism in Europe. In order to help readers understand the variations in far-right ideology and activism we provide at the end of the report an Appendix including a glossary of groups and parties and explanation of terms. Liz Fekete PEDLARS OF HATE – The violent impact of the European far Right 3 Introduction his report brings together over one hundred extreme-right, nativist and anti-immigration parties cases from the beginning of 2010 until April (such as the Danish People’s Party, the Norwegian T2012. Many aspects of far-right violence are Progress Party, the Freedom Party in Austria, the discussed – from online death threats to arson and National Front in France, and the Northern League in murder. While some of the cases suggest that small Italy). When these extreme-right parties made their underground groups are stockpiling weapons and first dramatic electoral breakthroughs in the early preparing for ‘race war’,1 with the organisations and 1990s, anti-immigrant and far-right voters seemed individuals attempting to articulate how serious the to have found a natural home. But with the passage situation is, now at serious risk themselves from the far of time, many extreme-right and right-wing populist Right,2 it would