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National-anarchism is aradical right-wing[3][4][5][6]nationalist ideology which advocatesracial separatism,racial nationalism,ethnic nationalism, andracial purity.[6][7][8] National-anarchistssyncretizeethnic nationalism withanarchism, mainly in their support for astateless society, while rejecting anarchist social philosophy[clarification needed].[6][7][8] The main ideological innovation of national-anarchism is its anti-statepalingenetic ultranationalism.[3] National-anarchists advocatehomogeneouscommunities in place of thenation state. National-anarchists claim that those of differentethnic orracial groups would be free to developseparately in their owntribal communes while striving to be politicallyhorizontal, economicallyanti-capitalist, ecologicallysustainable, and socially and culturallytraditional.[6][8]
Although the termnational-anarchism dates back as far as the 1920s, the contemporary national-anarchist movement has been put forward since the late 1990s by BritishstrasseristTroy Southgate, who positions it as being "beyond left and right".[6] Scholars who have studied national-anarchism conclude that it represents a further evolution in the thinking of the radical right rather than an entirely new dimension on the political spectrum.[3][4][5]
National-anarchism has elicited skepticism and outright hostility from bothleft-wing andfar-right critics.[7][8] Critics accuse national-anarchists of being ethnonationalists who promote acommunitarian andracialist form of ethnic and racial separatism while "wanting" themilitant chic of calling themselvesanarchists without historical and philosophical baggage that would be said to have to accompany such a claim, including theanti-racistegalitarian anarchist philosophy and the contributions ofJewish anarchists.[7][8] Most scholars agree that implementing national-anarchism would not result in an expansion of freedom and describe it as an authoritariananti-statism that would result inauthoritarianism and oppression, only on a smaller scale.[9]
The termnational-anarchist dates back as far as the 1920s.[citation needed] However, it would be the writings of other members of theconservative revolutionary movement such asErnst Jünger which would later provide the philosophical foundation of the contemporary national-anarchist movement.[6] Keith Preston, an influence on the American national-anarchist movement, "blends U.S-based influences" such as "libertarian,Christian rightist,neonazi, andPatriot movements in the United States" with ideas drawn from theEuropean tradition of theNew Right, a "right-wingdecentralist" offshoot of "classical fascism" and from the German conservative revolutionary movement of the 1920s and 1930s, whose figures "influenced but mostly stood outside of theNazi movement".[9]
In the mid-1990s,Troy Southgate, a former member of theBritish far-rightNational Front and founder of theInternational Third Position, began to move away fromStrasserism and Catholicdistributism towardspost-left anarchy and theprimitivistgreen anarchism articulated inRichard Hunt's 1997 bookTo End Poverty: The Starvation of the Periphery by the Core.[6] However, Southgate fused hisideology with the radicaltraditionalist conservatism of Italian esotericistJulius Evola and theethnopluralism andpan-European nationalism of FrenchNouvelle Droite philosopherAlain de Benoist to create a newer form ofrevolutionary nationalism called "national-anarchism".[6]
Graham D. Macklin writes that although "at first glance the 'total insanity’ of this incongruous ideological syncretism might be dismissed as little more than a quixotic attempt to hammer a square peg into a round hole or a mischievous act of fascistDadaism'", national-anarchism "appears as one of many groupuscular responses to globalization, popular antipathy towards which Southgate sought to harness by aligning the NRF with the resurgence of anarchism whose heroes and slogans it arrogated, and whose sophisticated critiques of global capitalist institutions and state power it absorbed and, in the case of anarchist artistClifford Harper, whose evocative imagery it misappropriated".[6]
Southgate claimed that his desire for a "mono-racial England" was not "racist" and that he sought "ethno-pluralism" (i.e. racial apartheid) to defend "indigenous" white culture from the 'death' of multiracial society".[6] In claiming to defend "human diversity", Southgate "advocated 'humane' repatriation and the reordering of the globe according to racially segregated colour blocs" and "a radical policy of economic and political decentralization" in which theregions of the United Kingdom "were to be governed according to the economic principles of Catholic distributism and a wealth redistribution scheme modelled on the mediaeval guild system. The ensuing growth of private enterprise and common ownership of the means of production would end 'class war' and, ergo, the raison d'être for Marxism, and would also encourage an organic nationalist economy insulated from 'foreign' intervention".[6] Politically, "the regions would be governed by the concept of 'popular rule' extolled byGaddafi. The resulting restoration of economic and political freedom would re-establish the link between 'blood and soil' enabling the people to overcome the 'tidal wave of evil and liberal filth now sweeping over our entire continent'. 'Natural law' would be upheld and abortion, race mixing and homosexuality forbidden".[6]
About Southgate's vision of Western culture, Graham D. Macklin writes that it is "saturated with a profound pessimism tempered by the optimistic belief that only by 'complete and utter defeat' can tepid materialism be expunged and replaced by the 'golden age' of Evolian Tradition: a return of theGhibbelines of the Middle Ages or the 'medieval imperium' of theHoly Roman Empire before it collapsed into the 'internecine struggle' and 'imperialistic shenanigans' of the nation-state".[6] Southgate's desire "to create a decentralizedvölkisch identity has its roots in the ideological ferment grippingNational Front News andNationalism Today in the 1980s".[6]
In 1998, inspired by the concepts of thepolitical soldier andleaderless resistance, Southgate formed the National Revolutionary Faction (NRF) as aclandestine cell system ofprofessional revolutionaries conspiring to overthrow the British state.[6] The NRF stressed this was a "highly militant strategy" and advised that some members may only fund the organization.[10] Southgate claims that the NRF took part inanti-vivisection protests in August 2000 alongsidehunt saboteurs and theAnimal Liberation Front by following a strategy ofentryism,[6][11] but its only known public action under the national-anarchist name was to hold an anarchist heretics fair in October 2000 in which a number of fringe groups participated. After a coalition ofanti-fascists and green anarchists blocked three further events from being held in 2001, Southgate and the NRF abandoned this strategy and retreated to purely disseminating their ideas inInternet forums.[3][6] The NRF had long been aware of the bridging power of the Internet which provided it with a reach and influence hitherto not available to the groupuscular right.[12] Although Southgate disbanded the group in 2003, the NRF became part of the Euro-American radical right, a virtual community of European and American right-wing extremists seeking to establish a newpan-national andethnoreligious identity for all people they believe belong to the "Aryan race".[4]
Shortly after, Southgate and other NRF associates became involved withSynthesis, the online journal of a forum calledCercle de la Rose Noire which sought a fusion ofanti-statism,metapolitics andoccultism with the contemporary concerns of theenvironmental andglobal justice movements. Through the medium of musical subcultures (black metal andneofolk music scenes) and the creation ofpermanent autonomous zones for neo-völkisch communes, national-anarchists hope to disseminate theirsubversive ideas throughout society in order to achievecultural hegemony.[6] The national-anarchist idea has spread around the world over the Internet, assisted by groups such as theThule-Seminar which set up websites in the 1990s.[13] In the United States, only a few websites have been established, but there has been a trend towards a steady increase.[7]
While there exists some minor overlap, theAutonomous Nationalists ofGermany are generally not national-anarchists, instead only adoptinganarchist andAntifa aesthetics and/or methods while typically adopting aStrasserist, or other non-anarchist, ideology.
A proponent of theQuerfront strategy and notable self-proclaimed national-anarchist (German:Nationalanarchist) inGermany isPeter Töpfer, who has been involved in the distribution of national-anarchist texts, primarily through his websitenationalanarchismus.de, since the late 1990s and published the well-knownfanzineSleipnir.[14][15][16] Töpfer has been noted for his correspondence with the neo-NaziChristian Worch, to whom he complained about threats he had received from theAutonomous Nationalists when he showed up at anNPD-demonstration in 1998 with ablack-and-red anarchy flag. Töpfer has also cooperated with theNational BolshevikMichael Koth, at the time of theCombat League of German Socialists, and associated himself with the convicted holocaust denierHorst Mahler, at whose events he and his followers apparently distributed leaflets.[16][17] Leaflets, under the title"Tornado Runter" were also distributed at the 1999Ostermarsch [de] inHamburg, which protested theKosovo War, by a group called "National-Anarchists in the People's Liberation Struggle" (German:National-Anarchisten im Volksbefreiungskampf), apparently associated with Töpfer.[18][19][20] In 2004, Töpfer published a book that consisted of a collection of his national-anarchist writing from 1997 to 2000 namednationale Anarchie.[21]
Töpfer's ideology has apparently developed separately from that ofTroy Southgate, although Töpfer did later associate somewhat with the National-Anarchist Movement. He notes his ideology to be an expression of radical anti-modernism that combines radicalindividualism, inspired byMax Stirner, with radicalcollectivism, inspired by figures likeMikhail Bakunin, combined in the will to ultimateself-determination. Töpfer contrasted his "German national-anarchism" with that of other contemporaries by declaring its roots to bepacifist, "post-left-hegelian" (German:post-linkshegelianisch), and "radical-enlightened" (German:radikal-aufklärerisch); as well as noting his movement to beanti-political in nature. Töpfer also contrasted his ideology with that of an at-the-time emergent group of "Anarcho-Nazis" inSpain andPortugal by stating that he opposesHitlerlism.[22][23] In his 2004 national-anarchist manifesto, Töpfer writes, among other thoughts, of spontaneous action and the belief thatanarchism mustn't inherently meanstatelessness, but only freedom from authority, an idea that has been criticized as nonsensical.[23][24]
In Töpfer's sense there apparently existed two groups inGermany, one inBerlin, where Töpfer resided, and one inHamburg, although the latter apparently did not last long.[22] Among the supporters of Töpfer's national-anarchism was thebioregionalist Leif-Thorsten Kramps, who, among other things, advocated forethnopluralism in an article on Töpfer's website.[25]
Theneo-pagan and formerNational Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) politicianThilo Kabus independently created an ideology he termed "Anarcho-Nationalism" (German:Anarchonationalismus) which he explicitly contrasted to the national-anarchism ofPeter Töpfer.[26] Kabus was a member of the NPD for almost 20 years until ending his membership in 2003 once he started calling himself an Anarcho-Nationalist and seeking employment with theBrandenburg state parliament faction of theGerman People's Union (DVU); first working in the DVU's faction's press office and later being proposed as a member of the parliamentary youth welfare committee, for which he was declined by the parliament.[27][28][29] Kabus noted that his employment was separate from his ideological convictions, stating that he would also work "for thePDS or theCDU" and that he was highly critical of the DVU, calling itbourgeoisie andreactionary. He was an ideological lone wolf, declaring himself to be the only true Anarcho-Nationalist. Kabus was a member of theOdinic Rite Germany where he helped organize events along with his wife.[27] He caused controversy in the German Odinic Rite, since renamed to theAssociation for Germanic paganism (VfGH), in 2006 when the organization's leadership was informed of his political activities, with some advocating for his expulsion.[30] Kabus however stayed in the organization and later became theBerlin speaker of the organization, claiming to have left behind some of his views in a 2019 interview.[31]
National-anarchism in the United States began as a relatively obscure movement made up of probably fewer than 200 individuals led by Andrew Yeoman of the Bay Area National Anarchists (BANA) based in theSan Francisco Bay Area and a couple of other groups in Northern California and Idaho. Organizations based on national-anarchist ideology have gained a foothold in Russia and have been accused of sowing turmoil in theenvironmental movement in Germany.[8] There are adherents in Australia, England and Spain, among other nations.[8] In the San Francisco Bay Area, BANA began appearing in public only in late 2007. Since then, BANA members protested alongside theChristian right with "Keep Our Children Safe" signs and began forming "a fleeting alliance" with theAmerican Front, awhite supremacistskinhead group based in California.[8]
On 8 September 2007, theanti-globalization movement mobilized in Sydney againstneoliberal economic policies by opposing theAsia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. During the street protests, national-anarchists infiltrated the anarchistblack bloc, but the police had to protect them from being expelled by irate activists.[8][32] Since then, national-anarchists have joined other marches in Australia and in the United States.[8] In April 2008, national-anarchists protested on behalf of theTibetan independence movement against the Chinese government during the2008 Summer Olympics torch relay in both Canberra and San Francisco.[7] National-anarchists are carefully studying the successes and failures of their more prominent international counterparts whilst attempting to similarly win converts from theradical environmentalist andwhite nationalist movements in the United States.[8]
A December 2008 report by the Political Research Associates, described as "a Massachusetts-based progressive think tank", stated that "[t]he danger National Anarchists represent is not in their marginal political strength, but in their potential to show an innovative way thatfascist groups can re-brand themselves and reset their project on a new footing. They have abandoned many traditionalfascist practices — including the use of overtneo-Nazi references. In [their] place they offer a more toned down, sophisticated approach [...] often claiming not to be 'fascist' at all".[8] Similarly,anarchists, who areanti-racists, have been aware of national-anarchists "attempting to infiltrate and exploit their scene" since at least 2005.Entryism, defined as "the name given to the process of entering or infiltrating bona fide organizations, institutions and political parties with the intention of gaining control of them for our own ends", is one of national anarchists' principal tactics.[8] InThe Case for National-Anarchist Entryism, Southgate called for national-anarchists to join political groups and then "misdirect or disrupt them for our own purposes or convert sections of their memberships to our cause".[8]
On December 28, 2008, BANA members, dressed with hoodies emblazoned with "Smash All Dogmas" on the back and "New Right" on both sleeves, joined "a protest of several thousand against Israel's bombing of the Gaza Strip. Practicing full-blown entryism, they marched between groups carrying the Palestinian flag and the gay-pride flag, while shouting, "F---, F---, F--- Zionism!"[8] BANA members later started carrying "a black flag with the letter Q in one corner" in reference to "Yeoman's claim that his ancestors rode withQuantrill's Raiders, a notoriously violent pro-Confederate guerrilla outfit that battled for control of the border state of Missouri during theCivil War".[8] BANA members followJulius Evola, described as "anesoteric Italian writer and 'spiritual racist' lionized bymodern-day fascists", in believing themselves to be "in revolt against the modern world".[8] BANA's website includes "long-winded blog posts predicting the imminent collapse ofmulticulturalliberalism" and "carries notes of high praise forneo-Confederate secessionist groups like the League of the South and the Republic of South Carolina. Some of the site's content is unintentionally comical. For example, BANA exalts the lily-white town of Mayberry in the 1960s TV sitcomThe Andy Griffith Show as 'a realized anarchist society'".[8]
Writing for theSouthern Poverty Law Center, Casey Sanchez argues that national-anarchism "is really just another white nationalist project". According to Sanchez, national anarchists advocates "racial separatism and white racial purity. They're also fiercely anti-gay and anti-Israel". BANA envisions "a future race war leading to neo-tribal, whites-only enclaves to be called 'National Autonomous Zones'".[8] BANA co-founder Andrew Yeoman told theIntelligence Report that "[w]e are racial separatists for a number of reasons, such as our desire to maintain our cultural continuity, the principle of voluntary association, and as a self-defensive measure to protect each other from being victimized by crime from other races".[8] Sanchez describes BANA members "and other likeminded national anarchists" as cloaking "their bigotry in the language of radical environmentalism and mystical tribalism, pulling recruits from both the extreme right and the far left". Sanchez quotes Yeoman as saying that BANA is "an extremely diverse group. We have ex-liberals, ex-neo-cons, we have Ron Paul supporters, we have ex-skinheads, we have apolitical people that have been turned on to our causes".[8]
OnMay Day 2010, BANA participated in the Golden GateMinuteman Project's march in front of San Francisco City Hall in support ofArizona SB 1070, ananti-immigration Senate bill. The march took place duringInternational Workers' Day demonstrations as an attempt to counter mass protest against the bill inMission District, San Francisco. Local news media reported that Yeoman and four other national-anarchists were physically assaulted by about ten protesters as they left the march.[33]
According to Matthew N. Lyons, "freedom from government tyranny has always been a central theme of right-wing politics in the United States". Lyons cites "the originalKu Klux Klan that denounced 'northern military despotism'" and theTea party movement, "who vilify Barack Obama as a combination of Hitler and Stalin", as examples of theradical right, of which national-anarchism is part of, that has invoked "the evil of big government to both attract popular support and justify their own oppressive policies".[9] Lyons describes "the rise of so-called National-Anarchism (NA), an offshoot ofBritish neonazism that has recently gained a small but fast-growing foothold in the United States", writing that national-anarchists advocate "a decentralized system of 'tribal' enclaves based on 'the right of all races, ethnicities and cultural groups to organize and live separately'".[9] While criticizing "statism of both the left and the right, including classical fascism", national-anarchists "participate in neonazi networks such asStormfront.org and promoteanti-Jewish conspiracy theories worthy ofThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion".[9] According to Lyons,anti-statism is "a key part of National-Anarchism's appeal and helps it to deflect the charge of fascism".[9]
American Keith Preston, a proponent of the national-anarchist movement who promotes anauthoritarian anti-statist "eclectic synthesis" called "anarcho-pluralism" and advocating "a revolutionary alliance of leftist and rightist libertarians against U.S. imperialism and the state",[9] argues that despite theanti-Americanism of European national-anarchists and the patriotism of Americanpaleoconservatives, classical American ideals ofJeffersonian democracy are reconcilable with national-anarchism because of their common values, namelyagrarianism,localism,regionalism andtraditional values.[34] Preston's opposition tooppression is linked only to the state, arguing that "the state is a unique force for destruction".[9] InThe Thoughts That Guide Me: A Personal Reflection (2005), Preston wrote that "what I champion is not so much the anarchist as much as the 'anarch,' the superior individual who, out of sheer strength of will, rises above the herd in defiance and contempt of both the sheep and their masters".[9] Preston is described as "the moving force behind" theanti-state website Attack the System and the American Revolutionary Vanguard, its affiliate organization".[9]
According to Matthew N. Lyons, "Preston's own relationship withfascism is much closer than he acknowledges. While he lacks fascism's drive to impose a single ideological vision on all spheres of society, he offers a closely related form of revolutionaryright-wing populism. Above all, Preston and his rightist allies embody the main danger associated with fascism — to preempt the radical left as the main revolutionary opposition force".[9] Lyons describes Preston as "an intelligent, prolific writer" who has "established himself over the past decade as a respected voice inlibertarian,paleoconservative, and 'Alternative Right' circles", hence "in some ways even more dangerous" because it "represents a sophisticated reworking of far right politics that is flexible, inclusive, and appeals to widely held values such as 'live and let live'", having the potential to create a bridge that is unlike mostfar-right ideologies between national-anarchists and "a wide variety of rightist currents such aswhite nationalists,Patriot/militia groups,Christian rightists, [...] and even someleft-wing anarchists,liberalbioregionalists/environmentalists, andnationalistpeople of color groups".[9]
Although claiming "many leftist ideas in his political philosophy and apparently is still in touch with some actual leftists", unlike otherfar-rightists who advocateThird Position, Lyons describes Preston as a "former left-wing anarchist", arguing that his politics "are fundamentally right wing with a leftist gloss".[9] While defending his choice to "collaborate withracialists andtheocrats", Preston has nonetheless called for "a purge, if not an outright pogrom" in an effort "to driveanti-racist whites,feminists, andqueer activists from theanarchist movement" in order to "attract more young rebels into our ranks", although Preston later claimed that critics had taken this statement "way too seriously".[9] Lyons describes Preston as "an individualist who does not directly advocate the racial determinism and separatism of his friends the National-Anarchists".[9] Lyons describes Preston's call for a "pan-secessionist" strategy as being based on "a coalition of those across the political spectrum who want to carve out separate, self-governing political enclaves free" of American government and imperialist control. Lyons includes "Marxist-Leninists,white separatists,libertarians,neo-Confederates,indigenous rights activists,Christian rightists,Islamic rightists,militant environmentalists, andanti-ZionistOrthodox Jews" as "a broad array of potential partners" for Preston's "pan-secessionist" strategy.[9]
Preston embraces aconservative view of regarding human nature and society, whose tenets include "natural inequality of persons at both the individual and collective levels, [and] the inevitability and legitimacy of otherness". Preston is described as being "harshly critical ofthe left'segalitarianism anduniversalism. Instead, he offers anelitist,anti-humanist philosophy that echoesFriedrich Nietzsche,Ernst Jünger, andAyn Rand".[9] While stating that it would be a mistake "to see Preston's elitism as a mask for bigotry against any specific group of people", Lyons argues that "standard right-wing prejudices periodically creep into his prose".[9] Lyons states that "Preston only acknowledges oppression along lines of race, gender, sexuality, or other factors to the extent that these are directly promoted by the state, particularly through formal, legal discrimination against specific groups of people", ignoring or trivializing "the dense network of oppressive institutions and relationships that exist outside of, and sometimes in opposition to, the state".[9]
According to Lyons, "it is these societally based systems of oppression, notstate intervention, that perpetuate dramaticwealth disparities between whites and people of color, widespreaddomestic violence that overwhelmingly target women, andsuicide rates much higher amongLGBT teens than heterosexual teens, among many other examples". Lyons further argues that merely "dismantling the central state won't abolish other systems of oppression. It will simply create a power vacuum where they can function in a more fragmented, unregulated way. This is a recipe forwarlordism, a chaotic society where anyone with enough physical force can make the rules".[9] In contrast to Preston, Lyons concludes that "authoritarianism doesn't require a largecentralized state, but can operate on any scale, such as a region, a neighborhood, or a family. With no program for liberation except endingbig government, pan-secessionism", as advocated by national-anarchists such as Preston, "would foster many smaller-scale authoritarian societies".[9]
Theconservative revolutionary concept of theanarch as articulated by German philosopherErnst Jünger is central to national-anarchism.[6] National-anarchists stress that the "artificial nationalism" of thenation state which they claim to oppose must be distinguished from theprimordial "natural nationalism" of the people (volk) which they believe in its more consistent expressions is a legitimate rejection of both foreign domination (imperialism) and internal domination (statism). National-anarchists see "American global capitalism",consumerism,globalization,immigration,liberalism,materialism,modernity,multiculturalism,multiracialism andneoliberalism as the primary causes of the social decline ofnations andcultural identity.[6] They propose a strategic and ideological alliance ofethnic andracial nationalists andseparatists around the world (especially in theGlobal South),neo-Eurasianists in Russia,Islamists inMuslim-majority countries andanti-Zionists everywhere to resist theNew World Order—globalization viewed as an instrument ofAmerican imperialism and theantisemitic canard of Jewish-dominated international banking—that is inevitably leading to globaleconomic collapse andecological collapse.[6][7]
National-anarchism expresses a desire to reorganize human relationships with an emphasis on replacing the hierarchical structures of the state and capitalism withlocal community decision-making. However, national-anarchists stress the restoration of the "natural order" and aim towards adecentralized social order where eachnew tribe builds and maintains apermanent autonomous zone for aself-sufficientcommune which is economicallymutualist, ecologicallysustainable and socially and culturallytraditional.[6] Politically, national-anarchists believe in something of ameritocratic system, wherein leaders would rise to their positions based on their talents. These leaders, however, would not have any sort of vested authority, and would be more akin tobig men than rulers.[5] Asserting theright to difference, national-anarchists publicly advocate a model of society in which communities that wish to practice racial, ethnic, religious and/or sexualseparatism are able to peacefully coexist alongside mixed or integrated communities without requiring force.[34] National-anarchists claim that "national autonomous zones" (NAZs) could exist with their own rules for permanent residence without the strict ethnic divisions and violence advocated by other forms of "blood and soil"ethnic nationalism.[34] National-anarchist Andrew Yeoman has stated that this racial segregation is actually a belief adopted from anarchists of color, who sometimes refuse to allow those of white descent into their spaces.[8]
Some leading national-anarchists have stated in the past as having originally conceived the idea of establishing whites-only NAZs which have seceded from the state's economy asno-go areas for unwelcomed ethnic groups and state authorities. In their view, this was aninsurrectionary strategy to fomentcivil disorder and racial tensions as an essential prelude to racial civil war and the collapse of the global capitalist system.[6][8] National-anarchists such as Keith Preston advocate "a vision of revolutionary change that centers on replacing centralized nation-states with a diverse array of small-scale political entities". According to Preston, "anarcho-pluralism" is "anti-universalist" because "it rejects the view that there is one 'correct' system of politics, economics, or culture that is applicable much less obligatory for all people at all times and in all places". According to this view, "any group of people could organize and govern themselves as they wished, as long as they leave other groups free to do the same. These self-governing units could be based on ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, political philosophy, or cultural practice". For those national-anarchists, this is "the best possible method of avoiding the tyrannies and abuses of overarching Leviathan states, and accommodating the irreconcilable differences concerning any number of matters that all societies inevitably contain".[9]
In terms of cultural and religious views, national-anarchists are influenced by the radicaltraditionalism and spiritual racism ofJulius Evola, who called for a "revolt against the modern world".[8] National-anarchists have a pessimistic vision of modernWestern culture yet optimistically believe that "the decline of the West" will pave the way for its materialism to be expunged and replaced by theidealism of the primordial tradition.[6] Although some adhere to a form ofChristian Identity, most of its members within the national-anarchist movement reject Christianity because those national-anarchists believe it to be aSemitic religion that usurped the "Aryan" racial legacy ofMithraism as the historically dominant religion and moral system of the West.[6] National-anarchists embrace a spiritual anarchism based on different forms ofneopaganism,occultism and theethnic religion ofnational mysticism, especiallyNordic racial paganism which they view as genuine expressions of Western spirituality, culture and identity that can also serve as an antidote to thesocially alienating effects ofconsumer culture. National-anarchists holdracial separatism andcultural revitalization through the establishment ofconfederations of autonomous neo-völkisch communes as the ultimate barrier against globalizedracial mixing andcultural homogenization.[6]
Scholars who have examined national-anarchism consider it to be on theradical right.[3][5][6][7]
In his 2003 essay "From Slime Mould toRhizome: An Introduction to the Groupuscular Right",Roger Griffin argued that national-anarchism is a segment of the groupuscular right which has evolved towards a "mazeway resynthesis" between "classic fascism, third positionism, neo-anarchism and new types of anti-systemic politics born of the anti-globalization movement", whose main ideological innovation is astatelesspalingenetic ultranationalism.[3]
In his 2005 essay "Co-opting the Counter Culture: Troy Southgate and the National Revolutionary Faction", described as a "case study of the National Revolutionary Faction (NRF)" which "provides a salutary example of fascism's cogent syncretic core and its ability to produce novel and pragmatic syntheses", Graham D. Macklin argued that theconservative revolutionary concept of theanarch provides sanction for the ideological shapeshifting and unrestrainedsyncretism of national-anarchism, allowing its adherents to assert they have transcended the dichotomy of conventional politics to embrace higher political forms that are "beyond left and right".[6] While stating that national-anarchists claim to promote "a radical anti-capitalist and anti-Marxist 'anarchist' agenda of autonomous rural communities within a decentralized, pan-European framework", Macklin further argued that despite a protean capacity for change,far-right groupuscules retain some principles which he calls core fascist values (anti-communism,anti-liberalism,anti-Marxism, violentdirect action,palingenesis,Third Positionism andultranationalism), describing national-anarchism as "racist anti-capitalism" and "communitarianracism".[6] Macklin concludes that national-anarchism is a synthesis ofanarcho-primitivism and the radicaltraditionalist conservatism ofJulius Evola in a "revolt against the modern world".[6] Macklin concludes that "[a]lthough Southgate's impact on left-wing counter-cultural concerns has been completely negligible, this case study of the NRF's wanton intellectual cannibalism shows that groupuscular fascism poses a clear danger, particularly for ecological subcultures whose values are profoundly different from the ecological agenda mooted by the far right. [...] If this article is anything to go by, then anarchist, ecological and global justice movements need to remain on their guard in order to ensure that the revolution will not be national-Bolshevized".[6]
In his 2005 bookThe Radical Right in Britain: Social Imperialism to the BNP, Alan Sykes argued that national-anarchism represents a further evolution in the thinking of the radical right rather than an entirely new dimension, a response to the new situation of the late 20th century in which the process ofglobalization (cultural,economic andpolitical) and the apparent triumph ofmaterialistcapitalism in the form ofeconomic materialism andneoliberalism on a global scale requires a greater assertion of the centrality of anti-materialist andidealisticethnic nationalism.[5]
National-anarchism has critics on both the left and right of the political spectrum as they both look upon their politics with skepticism, if not outright hostility, mainly because of the multifaceted threat they conclude it represents.[7][8] Scholarly analysis asserts that national-anarchism is a "Trojan horse forwhite nationalism" and represents what manyanti-fascists see as the potential new face offascism.[7][8][35] This analysis argues that it is a form ofcrypto-fascism which hopes to avoid the stigma of classical fascism byappropriating symbols, slogans and stances of theanarchist movement while engaging inentryism to inject some corefascist values into theanti-globalization andenvironmental movements.[7][8] According to scholars, national-anarchists hope to draw members away from traditional white nationalist groups to their own synthesis of ideas which national-anarchists claim are "neither left nor right".[7][8] Some scholars also warn that the danger national-anarchists represent is not in their marginal political strength, but in their potential to show an innovative way thatneo-fascist groups can rebrand themselves and reset their project on a new footing in order to preempt theradical left as the mainrevolutionary opposition force. Even if the results are modest, this can disrupt left-wing social movements and their focus onegalitarianism andsocial justice, instead spreadingseparatist ideas based onantifeminism,antisemitism,heterosexism,naturalistic fallacy andracism amongst grassroots activists.[7][9]
Scholars have reported how far-right critics argue thatneo-Nazis joining the national-anarchist movement will lead to them losing credit for the successes of theiranti-Zionist struggle if it is co-opted by anarchists. Scholars further noted how those far-right critics argue that national-anarchists want themilitant chic of calling themselvesanarchists without the historical and philosophical baggage that accompanies such a claim, namely the link with 19th-centuryJewish anarchists.[8] Scholars such as Graham D. Macklin use apostrophes when describing national-anarchists' "anarchism" and write that "despite its alleged 'anarchism', [it] looks favourably on theheptarchy of Anglo-Saxon England as a model of racial 'kingship'". Macklin describes national-anarchism as "a seemingly incongruous synthesis of fascism and anarchism" that owes more the "conservative revolutionary thought" of theanarcha than anarchism as it is "totally devoid of anarchism's humanistic social philosophy, which is rejected as 'infected' with feminism, homosexuality and Marxism". Macklin also argues that "[its] political organization reveals the NRF to be closer in inspiration to theLeninist 'revolutionary vanguard' than anarchism".[6]
Scholars such as Matthew N. Lyons argue that implementing national-anarchism would not result in an expansion of freedom as its proponents claim and that "in reality it would promote oppression and authoritarianism in smaller-scale units".[9] According to Lyons, the opposition to the state of national-anarchists such as Keith Preston is based on "a radically anti-humanistic philosophy of elitism, ruthless struggle, and contempt for most people".[9]
