Allington, Daniel; Mcandrew, Siobhan and Hirsh, David
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Allington, Daniel; McAndrew, Siobhan and Hirsh, David. 2019. Violent extremist tactics and the ideology of the far left. Technical Report. Commission for Countering Extremism, London. [Report] https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/26698/ The version presented here may differ from the published, performed or presented work. Please go to the persistent GRO record above for more information. If you believe that any material held in the repository infringes copyright law, please contact the Repository Team at Goldsmiths, University of London via the following email address: [email protected]. The item will be removed from the repository while any claim is being investigated. For more information, please contact the GRO team: [email protected] Copyright © 2019 Daniel Allington, Siobhan McAndrew, and David Hirsh About the authors Daniel Allington is Senior Lecturer in Social and Cultural Artificial Intelligence at King’s College London and Deputy Editor of Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism. Siobhan McAndrew is Lecturer in Sociology with Quantitative Research Methods at the University of Bristol. David Hirsh is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at GoldsMiths, University of London and the author of Law against genocide: cosmopolitan trials (Glasshouse Press, 2003) and Contemporary left antisemitism (Routledge, 2017). Acknowledgements The fieldwork for this study was funded with a grant from the UK ComMission for Countering ExtreMisM, which also arranged for independent expert peer review of the research and for online publication of the current document. The ComMission had no role in the design and conduct of the research. Table of contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 1 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Definitions: what the sectarian far left is ...................................................................................... 2 1.2 Ideologies: what the sectarian far left believes ............................................................................. 2 1.3 Tactics: what the sectarian far left does ........................................................................................ 4 1.4 Violent extremisM and the sectarian far left ................................................................................. 6 1.5 Review of existing research .......................................................................................................... 7 1.6 Hypotheses .................................................................................................................................... 8 2. Methodology .......................................................................................................................... 9 2.1 Stage one: forMulation of statements representing current far-left ideology ............................... 9 2.2 Stage two: survey of ‘very left-wing’ British adults ................................................................... 10 2.3 Stage three: nationally-representative survey of British adults .................................................. 11 2.4 Stage four: analysis ..................................................................................................................... 12 2.5 Technical note ............................................................................................................................. 12 3. Measuring revolutionary workerism and sympathy for violent extremism ......................... 13 3.1 Piloting and factor analysis of new questionnaire items ............................................................. 13 3.2 The revolutionary workerist and Modified SyFoR inventories ................................................... 16 4. Description of samples ......................................................................................................... 18 4.1 The characteristics of the ‘very left-wing’ .................................................................................. 18 4.2 Explicit indicators of support for radical politics within the general population ....................... 19 5. Revolutionary workerism and sympathy for violent extremism across both samples ......... 23 5.1 Reliability of Measures and distribution of scores ...................................................................... 23 5.2 Levels of revolutionary workerisM ............................................................................................. 24 5.3 Levels of sympathy for violent extremisM ................................................................................. 24 6. Sympathy for violent extremism by geopolitical outlook ..................................................... 26 7. Sympathy for violent extremism by revolutionary workerism .............................................. 28 8. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 31 References ................................................................................................................................ 33 List of figures Figure 1: AgreeMent with stateMents expressing aspects of the ideology of the sectarian far left (‘very left-wing’ saMple) ................................................................................................... 14 Figure 2: Correlations between stateMents (‘very left-wing’ saMple) ..................................... 15 Figure 3: Scree plot of factors explaining variance in agreeMent with stateMents (‘very left- wing’ saMple) ........................................................................................................................... 15 Figure 4: Left-right political identity (nationally-representative omnibus saMple) ................. 20 Figure 5: Views of ‘revolutionary socialist’ and ‘British nationalist’ groups (nationally- representative omnibus saMple) ............................................................................................... 21 Figure 6: Views of ‘private sector’ and ‘profit-Making’ companies (nationally-representative omnibus saMple) ...................................................................................................................... 22 Figure 7: Revolutionary workerisM and sympathy for violent extreMisM by saMple ............. 23 Figure 8: Percentage chance of sympathising and observed proportion of sympathisers by level of revolutionary workerisM ............................................................................................. 30 List of tables Table 1: StateMents reflecting aspects of the ideology of the sectarian far left ...................... 14 Table 2: Factor loadings (‘very left-wing’ saMple) ................................................................. 16 Table 3: Revolutionary workerist inventory ............................................................................ 17 Table 4: Modified SyFoR inventory (adapted from Bhui, Warfa, and Jones 2014) ................ 17 Table 5: DeMographic characteristics of the ‘very left-wing’ and nationally-representative omnibus saMples ...................................................................................................................... 19 Table 6: Left-right political identity (nationally-representative omnibus saMple) .................. 20 Table 7: Views of ‘revolutionary socialist’ and ‘British nationalist’ groups (nationally- representative omnibus saMple) ............................................................................................... 21 Table 8: Views of ‘private sector’ and ‘profit-Making’ companies (nationally-representative omnibus saMple) ...................................................................................................................... 22 Table 9: Revolutionary workerisM and sympathy for violent extreMisM (‘very left-wing’ saMple) ..................................................................................................................................... 23 Table 10: Revolutionary workerisM and sympathy for violent extreMisM (nationally- representative omnibus saMple) ............................................................................................... 23 Table 11: Comparison of saMples by individuals expressing sympathy with at least one form of violent extreMisM ................................................................................................................ 25 Table 12: Countries regarded as ‘greatest threat to world peace’ (‘very left-wing’ saMple) .. 27 Table 13: Countries regarded as ‘greatest threat to world peace’ (nationally-representative omnibus saMple) ...................................................................................................................... 27 Table 14: Comparison of sympathisers and non-sympathisers, SyFoR 1-6 ............................ 28 Table 15: Comparison of sympathisers and non-sympathisers, SyFoR 3-5 ............................ 28 Table 16: Regression coefficients, SyFoR 1-6 ........................................................................ 29 Table 17: Regression coefficients, SyFoR 3-5 ........................................................................ 29 Violent extremist tactics and the ideology of the sectarian far left Daniel Allington (King’s College London) Siobhan McAndrew (University of Bristol) David Hirsh (GoldsMiths,