Autonome Nationalisten (English: Autonomous Nationalists, abbreviated AN) are German,

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

and to a lesser degree

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

Nationalists, who have adopted some of the far-left and Antifa's organizational concepts (autonomous activism), demonstration tactics ( black bloc), symbolism, and elements of clothing, including

Che Guevara Ernesto Che Guevara (; 14 June 1928The date of birth recorded on /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Ernesto_Guevara_Acta_de_Nacimiento.jpg his birth certificatewas 14 June 1928, although one tertiary source, (Julia Constenla, quot ...

T-shirts and keffiyehs. Similar groups have also appeared in some central and eastern European countries, beginning with

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

(starting in 2009), the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

and

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

and others.

History

The phenomenon of the Autonome Nationalisten can be traced to "Freie Nationaliste" (Free Nationalists), "Freie Kräfte" (Free Forces) and "Freie Kameradschaften" (Free Comradeships) movements, which developed in the shadow of the Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (NPD) (

National Democratic Party of Germany The National Democratic Party of Germany (german: Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands or NPD) is a far-right Neo-Nazi and ultranationalist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 1964 as successor to the German Reich Part ...

) since the late-1980s. The police crackdown on the far-right after re-unification and the wave of banning in the early 1990s ("Deutsche Alternative", "Nationalistische Front", "Freiheitliche Deutsche Arbeiterpartei", among others) forced most of the local extreme far-right militant groups to split into "autonomous nationalist cells" of 5-20 members without a formal membership. Instead of conducting regular meetings, they started to use phones and later Internet for communication and organizing. Local cells formed loose umbrella networks in the regions to coordinate actions. In 2008, Germany's Autonomous Nationalists were estimated to number approximately 400 people, 1% of the country's neo-Nazis. The German

Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (german: Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz or BfV, often ''Bundesverfassungsschutz'') is Germany's federal domestic intelligence agency. Together with the Landesämter für Verfassungss ...

, which provides domestic intelligence for the government, estimated the number of active participants of the far right movement in 2008 around 40,000. According to the

Southern Poverty Law Center The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white s ...

(SPLC), in 2001 there were 75 extreme-right organizations in Germany with 50,000 members. The emergence of the Autonome Nationalisten was controversial within the German far right milieu, both because some older activists of the German extreme right objected to their "leftist" image and because the NPD feared they would complicate its efforts to take part in mainstream politics. Also controversial was that Autonome Nationalisten had occasionally expressed sympathy for Islamic extremism, as well as Hezbollah and

Hamas Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam ...

for their opposition to

Zionism Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

and

American imperialism American imperialism refers to the expansion of American political, economic, cultural, and media influence beyond the boundaries of the United States. Depending on the commentator, it may include imperialism through outright military conques ...

.Autonome neo-nazi’s op de linkse toer?
''Gebladerte Archief'' (Dutch) The same controversies arose among the far right in Poland. The Autonomous Nationalists in Europe made themselves visible starting from 2003–2004 and are now considered more violent than other members of the European far right. However, as of 2010, according to Miroslav Mareš, their impact in these countries has been limited so far.

Message

Researchers view the syncretic political movement of the Autonomous Nationalists in Europe as a "strategic concept, organization and subculture – all three terms are possible for the designation of this phenomenon." They emphasize that, The Autonomous Nationalists were ideologically inspired by

Strasserism Strasserism (german: Strasserismus or ''Straßerismus'') is a strand of Nazism calling for a more radical, mass-action and worker-based form of the ideology, espousing economic antisemitism above other antisemitic forms, to achieve a national ...

. The message of AN shifted to anti-globalist, anti-capitalist, and anti-imperialist ideas. It promotes complete organizational decentralization and autonomy inside the movement. The adoption of codes and symbols of the far left "Autonome Antifa" by the "Autonome Nationalisten" coincided with the persistence of vibrant alternative subcultures of the radical left and rejection of traditional skinhead cultural-political templates of behavior of the extreme right. The AN thus see themselves as 'autonomous' from established neo-Nazi programs and structures, developing their own ideological discourse, street message, action repertoire, music scenes and fashion codes. These are often meant to display anti-capitalist and anti-systemic rebellion and opposition to globalization and 'American

cultural imperialism Cultural imperialism (sometimes referred to as cultural colonialism) comprises the cultural dimensions of imperialism. The word "imperialism" often describes practices in which a social entity engages culture (including language, traditions, ...

'.Schlembach, Raphael
The ‘Autonomous Nationalists’: new developments and contradictions in the German neo-Nazi movement
''Interface: A journal for and about social movements'', Volume 5 (2): 295 - 318, (November 2013). The AN also raised some social and economic issues, including poverty. At present time, they are firmly entrenched in the neo‐Nazi movement.Schedler, Jan und Alexander Häusler (Hrsg.). ''Autonome Nationalisten Neonazismus in Bewegung''. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2011.

Gallery

File:AutonomeNationalisten am 7.10.2006 in NDH.jpg, Autonome Nationalisten/Autonomous Nationalists marching behind a banner with graffiti-style lettering in 2006 File:Autonome Nationalisten aus Südthüringen.jpg, Autonome Nationalisten/Autonomous Nationalists at a 2006 protest. The black and red flags on the banner are of the

Antifaschistische Aktion ''Antifaschistische Aktion'' () was a militant anti-fascist organisation in the Weimar Republic started by members of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) that existed from 1932 to 1933. It was primarily active as a KPD campaign during the Ju ...

's logo File:Autonome Nationalisten-Vermummung.jpg, Autonome Nationalisten/Autonomous Nationalists carrying a black flag, a traditional symbol of anarchism File:Autonome Nationalisten.jpg, German Autonome Nationalisten/Autonomous Nationalists stage a demonstration File:NWDO.jpg, Detention of the members of the Autonome Nationalisten/Autonomous Nationalists in Dortmund File:D90bcebc8a5c.jpg, Emblem of the Ukrainian Autonomous Nationalists which is similar to Antifa's symbols

References

External links

Autonom.pl
Autonomous Nationalists in Poland
Autonome Nationalisten

{{Authority control Third Position Neo-Nazism in Germany Syncretic political movements Neo-Nazi concepts

History

Message

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading

External links