#hitlerwasright: National Action and National Socialism for the 21st Century

Authors

  • Paul Jackson

Keywords:

Right-Wing Extremism, National Action, National Socialism, Social Media, Ideology

Abstract

This article examines the new neo-Nazi organisation National Action. It begins with a brief overview of the group, from its formation in 2013 to its latest activism at the end of 2014. It then develops three analytical concepts to explore the nature of the group in greater depth. It firstly presents National Action as a neo-Nazi groupuscule operating within a wider milieu of extreme right organisations in the UK, some of this it has developed working relationships with, others it rejects as inauthentic. Secondly, it analyses the transnational dynamics of the group, revealing its engagement with groups outside of Britain. Finally, it examines how the group historicises it activity, linking the contemporary situation with the history of interwar fascism, especially Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists. It concludes that, at the present moment, National Action poses limited risks to the public, however this could change over time given its extremist ideology and its links to international organisations.

Author Biography

Paul Jackson

Dr Paul Jackson is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Northampton. He is co-editor of Wiley- Blackwell's journal Religion Compass: Modern Ideologies and Faith , and editor of Bloomsbury's book series A Modern History of Politics and Violence. His books include Great War Modernisms and the New Age Magazine  (Bloomsbury, 2012) and The Postwar Anglo-American Far Right  (Palgrave, 2014), co-edited with Anton Shekhovtsov.

References

- Bale, Jeffrey M., (2002) ‘National Revolutionary Groupuscules and the Resurgence of Left-wing Fascism: the Case of France’s Nouvelle Résistance,’ Patterns of Prejudice, 36/3

- Gable, Gerry, (2014) ‘Not Thugs but Terrorists in the Making’ Searchlight website

- Griffin, Roger (2003) ‘From Slime Mould to Rhizome: An Introduction to the Groupuscular Right’, Patterns of Prejudice, 37/1

- Griffin, Roger, (2007) Modernism and Fascism: The Sense of a Beginning under Mussolini and Hitler Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan

- Jackson, Paul and Shekhovtsov, Anton eds., (2014) The Postwar Anglo-American Far Right Basingstoke: Palgrave

- Kaplan, Jeffrey and Lowe, Helene eds., (2002) The Cultic Milieu: Oppositional Subcultures in an Age of Globalization Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press

- Mammone, Andrea, (2009) ‘The eternal return? Faux populism and contemporarization of Neo-Fascism across Britain, France and Italy’ Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 17/2

- Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens Hans Brun (2013) A Neo-Nationalist Network: The English Defence League and Europe’s Counter-Jihad Movement, International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence

- Thurlow, Richard, (1998) Fascism in Britain: From Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts to the National Front London: I. B. Tauris

- Virchow, Fabien, (2004) ‘The Groupuscularization of Neo-Nazism in Germany: The Case of the Aktionsbüro Norddeutschland’, Patterns of Prejudice 38/1

Downloads

Published

2014-12-19

Issue

Section

Articles