Far right news and analysis

13Jun11

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Andrew Coates: Marine Le Pen Analysed by Caroline Fourest

Caroline Fourest is a feminist, a fierce defender of French secularism, critic of Islamism,  and a ferocious opponent of the Front National.

Caroline Fourest  has just published, with Fiammetta Venner, what promises to be the French political book of the Summer, on Marine Le Pen.

On France-Inter this morning (see Here.) she made some important points.

• Marine Le Pen’s ‘modernising’ turn does not mean a break with the extreme right. Her closest advisers are from the ‘third way’ nationalists. That is those who advance the concept of a ‘communitarian’ nationalism.
• They are anti-globalisers, and even appear anti-capitalist (drawing imagery from the left). This side of the ‘revolutionary’right remains linked to an idea of a fight against those conspiring ’behind’ globalisation – guess who.
• They can be concerned with identity – agitating against non-European immigration.
• They are attempting to appropriate French secularism, while retaining a  strong bond to French Catholic culture.

As Fourest points out this is full of contradictions.

Here are some.

To be secularist, but to be strongly Christian, to support the French republic, but to defend the heritage of the French far-right which loathes the French Revolution, to be nationalist, yet in favour of European civilisation, to be anti-capitalist but to support French enterprises, and, above all, to be ‘revolutionary’ but respectable.

Naturally one would need to go a lot deeper into the social basis of Front National support (at present outriding the Socialists, and the left). That the FN may be the ‘first party’ of the French working class, and certainly has strong roots in the popular classes, as well as in more traditional lower middle and conservative bourgeois circles,  has deeper causes than Marine’s rhetorical turn and the talents of her publicists. But Fourest make a good step in the right direction by not reducing it, as British observers, particularly those on the left, do to ‘Islamophobia’.

This morning Fourest referred to Le Pen, père, and his liking for the Iranian regime.

Stop Racism and Hate: Gaddafi’s ‘Libyan Friendship Society’ with Canada’s racist movement

Libyan agents began forging ties with the leaders of Canada’s extreme right in the late 1980s. Twice, the Gaddafi regime brought delegations of Canadian “white nationalists” to Tripoli, where they were feted and given cash. “The common ground was the hatred of Jews,” said Grant Bristow, who went on one of the trips in his capacity as an undercover Canadian Security Intelligence Service agent. “That was the basis of the relationship.” […] [The white nationalists were Don Andrews of the Nationalist Party and his friend Wolfgang Droege, the co-founder of the Canadian Ku Klux Klan.]

ICARE: Even Mongolia has neo-Nazis

Neo-Nazism forms a particularly dark and lurid part of the political landscapes of virtually all European countries and North America, sixty-five years after the collapse of the Third Reich of Germany. However, neo-Nazi movements have cropped up in some unlikely places. Consider Mongolia, the vast and remote nation in northern Asia. “Dayar Mongol” is a far-right nationalist movement that focuses much of its wrath on the giant neighbor to the south, China. Ironically, while members of Dayar Mongol sport swastikas and march like storm-troopers, Mongolia has been under Communist domination since the end of World War II. First, the Soviet Union (whom Mongolia helped to defeat Adolf Hitler); and now China, which has provided millions of dollars in military aid. However, many Mongolians are resentful and suspicious of China’s intervention in their country. Dayar Mongol has exploited fears that the Chinese seek to destroy traditional Mongolian culture and also dilute what they consider the “pure” Mongolian race. As such, Dayar Mongol warns Mongolian women against sleeping with Chinese men. There are also growing fears that the Chinese want to develop Mongolia’s coal and energy reserves, thereby disrupt the ancient pastoral lifestyle the country is widely known for.

Dayar Mongol’s leader, Erdenebileg Zenemyadar, openly exhibits Nazi swastika on his website and in public demonstrations; although he personally always wears the traditional dress of Mongolian’s nomadic herdsmen. […]

Slack Andy: Antifa news

In Berlin (Germany) on May 14, antifa successfully prevented a small march of several hundred neo-Nazis (‘autonomist nationalists’) from getting very far; German police, however, did allow a number of the fascists to attack migrants and leftists and the day overall seems to have been quite eventful:

The police lost the control as the Nazi activists tried to force their march outside the second exit of the subway station. But here several hundred people blocked the route. Bottles, fire crackers as well as vegetables where thrown from both sides, several people got injured. The riot police finally managed to surround the Neo-Nazis but were themselves surrounded by left protesters. The situation was very chaotic and every few minutes scuffle broke out.

Benjamin Hiller @ Demotix has more here.

Speaking of neo-Nazi aping of alt.culture, antifa.cz on ‘The Big Neo-Nazi Crib’ is useful: Sydney-based neo-Nazi and ‘national anarchist’-turned-Volksfront organiser Welf Herfurth has gamely tried to advance the notion in Australia, but without much luck; the tiny, Melbourne-based student groupuscule ‘Nationalist Alternative’ flirts with the same model. Otherwise, ‘Australian Protectionist Party’ leader Darrin Hodges formed part of the ‘national anarchist’ ‘black bloc’ back in 2007. Sadly, his new political formation is being dubbed the ‘Australian Pathetic Party’ after its derisory performance in the NSW state election in March, and several recent demos that were tiny even by local fascist standards:

Newcastle, December 2010

Sydney, April 2011

Related articles

• Neo-Nazi woman arrested in Moscow for race-hate murder (dokmz.wordpress.com)
• Serbia bans neo-Nazi group (dokmz.wordpress.com)
• Marine Le Pen, France’s (Kinder, Gentler) Extremist (nytimes.com)
• French Jews protest Marine Le Pen (jta.org)
• Anger over Marine Le Pen radio interview (thejc.com)
• Gaddafi ‘funded Sarkozy’: if true, this is a magnificent gift to Marine Le Pen (blogs.telegraph.co.uk)
• Marine Le Pen’s National Front performs well in local elections (telegraph.co.uk)
• Variousness 40 (antigerman.wordpress.com)
• Moscow police collude with neo-Nazis against gays (dokmz.wordpress.com)
• National anarchists [sic] in Manchester (antigerman.wordpress.com)
• Neo-Nazis Attack Immigrants (deviousdiva.com)
• Victorian neo-Nazi used as medic in Afghanistan (theage.com.au)
• British neo-Nazis plotted to kill Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón (dokmz.wordpress.com)

Filed under: Antifa, national anarchism and autonomous nationalism   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Australian Protectionist Party, autonomist nationalism, Canadian Ku Klux Klan, Canadian Nationalist Party, Darrin Hodges, Dayar Mongol, Don Andrews, Erdenebileg Zenemyadar, Front National, Ku Klux Klan, Marine Le Pen, Mongolia, Nationalist Alternative, Neo-Nazism, Welf Herfurth, Wolfgang Droege