The Global Networks of Fascism

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"In June last year fascist and hard right forces staged their biggest demonstration in Britain since the 1930s, as 15,000 people called for the release from prison of Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon), incarcerated for contempt of court. Robinson’s imprisonment became a cause célèbre for the international far right, and the demonstration symbolised the drawing together of Europe’s major extreme right parties and their willingness to ally themselves with more-or-less openly fascist movements.
Speakers included Belgian MP Filip Dewinter of the Flemish Vlaams Belang (formerly Vlaams Blok) and Geert Wilders of the Muslim-baiting Dutch Party for Freedom. Messages were read out from numerous international far right parties and personalities, including the French National Front now called the National Rally–Rassemblement National (RN). Another key speaker was former UKIP MEP Janice Atkinson, who, along with Geert Wilders, has used her position in the European parliament to promote a growing alliance of the major hard right parties with more openly fascist movements.
Several days before the demonstration she hosted a meeting in the European parliament, with British neofascist speakers, to enlist support for Robinson. Giving presentations were Lee Williams from the Democratic Football Lads Alliance (DFLA) and Richard Inman of Veterans Against Terrorism, as well as Robinson’s cousin Kevin Carroll–a former leader of the fascist English Defence League and before that a supporter of the British National Party (BNP). Geert Wilders subsequently organised a meeting for Robinson in the Dutch parliament.
The role of Atkinson in promoting the new fascists reflected the tensions among UKIP MEPs over whether or not to participate in the hard-right European parliament group, the Europe of Nations and Freedom Group, which includes the French RN, the Dutch Party of Freedom, the Freedom Party of Austria, the Belgian-Flemish Vlaams Belang and Italy’s Lega party, the dominant force in the Italian government. UKIP, under pressure from former leaders Nigel Farage and Paul Nuttall, refused to join this hard-right bloc. After May’s Euro elections there will be no British MEPs because of Brexit, but in any case, new UKIP leader Gerard Batten, who spoke at the June ‘free Tommy’ demonstration, with the assistance of former member Janice Atkinson, has cemented UKIP’s alliance with the European neofascists. From the new UKIP viewpoint, Farage and Nuttall are yesterday’s people.
After former White House advisor Steve Bannon was fired from the White House in July 2017, he set off on a European tour to form a new far right International–‘The Movement’. On that tour he was feted at the national conference of the fascist-led French RN and was welcomed onto the stage by the movement’s leader, Marine Le Pen. On a subsequent visit to Italy he discussed with deputy premier Matteo Salvini of Lega, and was given a rapturous reception at the annual rally of the Brothers of Italy, the direct descendant of the fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI). Bannon’s reception in Italy reflected the depth of that country’s descent into the political dominance of anti-immigrant, xenophobic demagogy. Forty per cent of Italians have a favourable view of Donald Trump, way above any other European country.
Despite the large amount of money that Bannon mobilised for this project, ‘The Movement’–originally established by rich Belgian lawyer Mischaël Modrikamen–has received important setbacks. Bannon’s problem is twofold. First, he wanted to create a unified far right list for the 2019 Euro elections, which most extreme right parties rejected, and second, the major far right parties already have their own international ‘club’ in the European parliament. They don’t need Bannon to co-ordinate them. . ."


https://mronline.org/2019/02/21/the-global-networks-of-neofascism/



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