A new far-right and openly racist organization has recently started in Finland. The community promotes white supremacy and opposes globalization. It has spread from the United States after 2021 quickly throughout Europe.
Active Club, which calls itself a national radical, has attracted young white men to its membership through social media such as Tiktok and Instagram. The group also informs about its activities on its Telegram page.
The organization has a total of at least a hundred clubs in different parts of Europe and the United States, according to the American online media Vice News.
Active Club’s Finnish-language network is known to have spread to at least Uusimaa, Helsinki, Turku, Tampere and Oulu within a few months. The organization has spread just as quickly in other Nordic countries.
The club’s roots are in the United States
The Active Club network is largely inspired by the American one Robert Rundon from the Rise Above Movement (RAM), which supports white supremacy, says the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an American non-governmental organization fighting anti-Semitism. European groups representing freestyle sports and supporting white supremacy have also been role models.
According to the ADL the members of the club see themselves as fighters who train to fight against the “system”. According to them, the “system” is planning a deliberate attack on the white race.
By system, membership means democracy and its institutions, such as political parties. The Active Club network also considers sexual minorities and Jews as enemies.
White warrior spirit and population exchange
Clubs attract young men to their ranks by emphasizing “brotherhood and the white warrior spirit”. They collaborate with several white supremacist groups. In the United States, they fill the void left by the group Proud Boys, among others. The Active Club network is active in at least 25 states in the United States.
The center that studies extremism and terrorism has also familiarized itself with Active Club’s ideology Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. According to the article published by the center, the organization’s thinking includes accelerationism, i.e. an operating model that accelerates the collapse of society.
The term population exchange theory is also cultivated within the club. Population exchange is an extreme right-wing conspiracy theory, according to which, for example, Jews seek to replace the white population with non-white ones through immigration.
The internationally operating club network spreads the propaganda of white supremacy in addition to social media by pasting stickers in public places, participating in demonstrations and gathering in training events, such as fighting dispersals, sparring or burning books and flags.
Videos of fighting and racism
In Finland, Active Club plans to participate in the Finland Wakes up march on Independence Day. In the photos and videos published by Active Club Finland, its members are, among other things, boxing and attaching stickers promoting the Independence Day march and white supremacy to a pole.
One of the videos alternately combines images of migrants sitting in boats and men boxing.
According to the American magazine Forbes, Tiktok has removed Active Club accounts from its video service. However, there are still several recruitment videos under the name of the fighting group, which have garnered millions of views.
The club has grown rapidly in Europe
According to experts, the spread of Active Club into a world-renowned organization has been amazingly fast.
The US-based Counterextremism Project organization says in his report, that Clubs recruit members by emphasizing fitness and brotherhood. Recruiters may not initially mention their ideology, but according to the report, violence against enemies is still a key part of the clubs’ activities.
– I have never seen a far-right network grow so fast. Usually, it takes years to build a transnational network, says the researcher who wrote the report Alexander Ritzmann For Vice News.
According to Ritzmann, the rate of growth is worrying.
The recruitment has been effective, says the research coordinator of the University of Jyväskylä, who has also studied the extreme right in Finland Tommi Kotonen.
According to Kotonen, the group does not deviate significantly from the white supremacy groups.
– There are clear points of convergence here from the point of view of the extreme right, the defense of the white race and national socialism, Kotonen says.
According to Kotonen, the same themes are repeated in other far-right subcultures. Kotonen believes that the Finnish Active Club movement includes members of the Blue Blue movement and the Nordic resistance movement. They represent a similar world of ideas.
– It seems that now there are even more young people involved, says Kotonen.
“The phenomenon is worth following”
According to the far-right researcher, should Finland be worried about the spread of Active Club? According to Kotonen, it is always worth following phenomena that start to spread reasonably strongly.
– A more concrete concern at the moment is the Independence Day demonstration. There may be clashes with counter-protesters and the police, says Kotonen.
It is difficult to estimate the exact size of the Finnish Active Club community, but according to Kotonen, according to the videos and propaganda material, we can talk about a few dozen participants.
– I believe that the security police and the authorities are monitoring the threat images related to this club and the development of the situation.
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