The number of neo-Nazi fight clubs is on the rise, according to new data.
Known as Active Clubs, groups focusing on martial arts and fitness with neo-Nazi values have been gaining in number in the US, Europe and beyond. Reports claim they have been logged in Canada, Denmark and France.
The semiautonomous, supremacist groups are understood to have proactively encouraged young men to come and train with them. Data on the groups seen by Vice has been gathered by the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) which published a report that claims: “Since the creation of the first Active Club in late 2020, at least 100 Active Clubs have been created in the U.S, Canada, and Europe.”
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Alexander Ritzmann, the report’s author and senior advisor to the CEP, told the outlet: "This is an unprecedented growth. I've never seen a network in right-wing extremism grow so fast. Usually, it takes years to build a transnational network. It’s concerning.”
The groups are local, rather than being deeply connected to one another, and centre on martial arts and fitness through a white nationalist lens. The report claims that groups number from five to 25 members.
It also claims that some of the white nationalist values of the groups may be hidden or shrouded, rather than being overtly supremacist.
The first of the groups is understood to have popped up around 2020, and since then the report claims that 43 are thought to be in operation in the United States. Some of the groups are understood to have now been spotted at anti-LGBTQ+ protests.
Meanwhile, the groups are understood to organise fights, with people coming from elsewhere to participate. This is a trend believed to be taking place in Canada too.
Other countries identified to have such groups operating by the report are: Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the UK, and Sweden.
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