Nazi-Maoism was a political movement and ideology that emerged in Italy around 1968 [1] with the formation of a group known as "Struggle of the People". This group of students from the Sapienza University of Rome [2] took heavy inspiration from the writings and theory of Franco Freda [3] and advocated for a combination of ideas from both the far-left and far-right. According to the Neo-Fascist group "Third Position", Nazi-Maoism had a stance of "neither capitalism nor communism, neither reds nor reactionary". [4] Nazi-Maoists such as Freda wanted to form a "Fascist dictatorship of the proletariat" [5] by using the Maoist guerrilla strategy of people's war to overthrow the government and the bourgeoisie. [6]
Nazi-Maoism is believed to have mostly faded away after the Struggle of the People group dissolved in 1973. However, some forms of Nazi-Maoism continued in other similar groups into the late 1970s, albeit not as active as the Struggle of the People. Some slogans of the so-called "Nazi-Maoism" can be found in numerous groups of the extra-parliamentary right, such as Terza Posizione and, more recently in Forza Nuova, who, despite an accentuated anti-communism and nationalist positions typical of the far-right, they have a strong attention to social problems, as well as a violent anti-Americanism and anti-Zionism. [7] [8] [9]
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SS-veterans Sakari Haikala and Aarne Roiha were founding members of Maoist Finland-China Society [10] and members of its board. [11] Lieutenant Colonel and fascist party MP Paavo Susitaival described himself as a "Maoist fascist". [12] [13] The pro-Maoist position among Finnish far-right was at least partially motivated by anti-Soviet position of Mao's China. "We visited the Helsinki embassy of China, and they showed anti-Russkie propaganda movies with massive cheering Chinese armies demanding attack to the USSR. We cheered also, this is the salvation of Finland. I still think that." said Haikala. [14]
In France, a sister organization of the Italian "Struggle of the People" was called: Lutte du Peuple. It was created from the remains of Giovane Europe and Jeune-Europe, which were sister organizations structured around ideas propagated mainly by Jean Thiriart. Among the founders of Lutte du Peuple (l'OLP) were some dissident left-wing nationalists of the Ordre Nouveau and European socialists of the Pour Une Jeune-Europe (not to be confused with Jeune-Europe headed by Jean Thiriart), directed by Yves Batille. These organizations were a mix of Jean Thiriart's theses with a Maoism adapted to the European scene, but there was a fundamental difference, because while for Thiriart Maoism was a secondary element, for Nazi-Maoist organizations it was a fundamental element. [15] Nazi-Maoist ideas were noticeably manifested in the ideology of the Fédération d'action nationale et européenne. [16]
In late 2019, Ukraine's Azov movement's literature club and publishing outfit Plomin (Flame, in Ukrainian), presented a translation of Freda's writings into Ukrainian. Freda's ideas were also promoted in Ukraine by neo-Nazi groups Karpatska Sich and Wotanjugend. [17]
Sister organizations were created in Spain and Germany, the Organización Nacional-Révolutionare Aufbau. [16]
Maoism (毛主义), officially called Mao Zedong Thought (毛泽东思想) by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realize a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China and later the People's Republic of China. The philosophical difference between Maoism and traditional Marxism–Leninism is that a united front of progressive forces in class society would lead the revolutionary vanguard in pre-industrial societies rather than communist revolutionaries alone. This theory, in which revolutionary praxis is primary and ideological orthodoxy is secondary, represents urban Marxism–Leninism adapted to pre-industrial China. Later theoreticians expanded on the idea that Mao had adapted Marxism–Leninism to Chinese conditions, arguing that he had in fact updated it fundamentally and that Maoism could be applied universally throughout the world. This ideology is often referred to as Marxism–Leninism–Maoism to distinguish it from the original ideas of Mao.
Neo-fascism is a post–World War II far-right ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, racial supremacy, populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xenophobia, and anti-immigration sentiment, as well as opposition to liberal democracy, social democracy, parliamentarianism, liberalism, Marxism, capitalism, communism, and socialism. As with classical fascism, it proposes a Third Position as an alternative to market capitalism.
Jean-François Thiriart, often known as Jean Thiriart, was a Belgian far-right political theorist.
New Force is an Italian neo-fascist political party. It was founded by Roberto Fiore and Massimo Morsello. The party is a member of the Alliance for Peace and Freedom and was a part of the Social Alternative from 2003 to 2006. The party has often been strongly criticized for its radical positions and for acts of violence involving some militants. It was also the protagonist of political campaigns opposed to same-sex marriage and immigration to Italy.
The Third Position is a set of neo-fascist political ideologies that were first described in Western Europe following the Second World War. Developed in the context of the Cold War, it developed its name through the claim that it represented a third position between the capitalism of the Western Bloc and the communism of the Eastern Bloc.
Roberto Fiore is an Italian politician and the leader of the party Forza Nuova, convicted in Italy for subversion and armed gang activity and for his links to the right wing terrorist organization "Terza posizione". He self-identifies as a neo-fascist.
The Piazza Fontana bombing was a terrorist attack that occurred on 12 December 1969 when a bomb exploded at the headquarters of Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in Piazza Fontana in Milan, Italy, killing 17 people and wounding 88. The same afternoon, another bomb exploded in a bank in Rome, and another was found unexploded in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The attack was carried out by the far-right, neo-fascist paramilitary terrorist group Ordine Nuovo and possibly certain undetermined collaborators.
Jeune Europe was a neo-fascist euro-nationalist movement formed by Jean Thiriart in Belgium. Emile Lecerf, a later editor of the Nouvel Europe Magazine, was one of Thiriart's associates.
Ordine Nuovo was an Italian far right cultural and extra-parliamentary political and paramilitary organization founded by Pino Rauti in 1956. It had been the most important extra-parliamentary neofascist organization of the post-war Italian republic.
The Parti Communautaire National-Européen (PCN) is a Belgium-based political organisation led by Luc Michel, a former member of the neo-Nazi FANE party. A largely National Bolshevik movement, it also has activists in France.
Franco "Giorgio" Freda is one of the leading neo-Fascist intellectuals of the post-war Italian far-right. He founded a publishing house for neo-Nazi thought, and described himself as an admirer of Hitler. He was convicted but later acquitted for lack of evidence for involvement in the Piazza Fontana bombing. He founded the Fronte Nazionale, which was disbanded by the Italian government in 2000 when Freda and forty-eight other members were found guilty of attempting to re-establish the National Fascist Party.
The Acca Larentia killings, also known in Italy as the Acca Larentia massacre, were a double homicide that occurred in Rome on 7 January 1978. The attack was claimed by the self-described Nuclei Armati per il Contropotere Territoriale. Members of militant far-left groups were charged but acquitted, and the culprits were never identified.
CasaPound Italia is an Italian neo-fascist movement. It was formerly a political party, born as a network of far-right social centres arising from the occupation of a state-owned building by squatters in the neighborhood of Esquilino in Rome on 26 December 2003. Subsequently, CasaPound spread with other instances of squatting, demonstrations and various initiatives, becoming a political movement.
Proletarian nation was a term used by 20th century Italian nationalist intellectuals such as Enrico Corradini to refer to Italy and other nations that they regarded as having the characteristics, through analogy with the proletariat, of being productive, morally vigorous, and inclined to bold action. Corradini admired revolutionary proletarian movements such as syndicalism for their tactics, although he opposed their goals, and he wanted to inspire a radical nationalist movement that would use similar tactics in service of different goals: a movement that would advocate imperialist war in place of class revolution, while maintaining the same methods of "maximum cohesion, concentration of forces, iron discipline and utter ruthlessness." Corradini associated the concept of proletariat with the economic function of production, arguing that all producers are in a moral sense proletarian, and he believed that all producers should be at the forefront of a new imperialist proletarian nation.
Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were opposed by many countries forming the Allies of World War II and dozens of resistance movements worldwide. Anti-fascism has been an element of movements across the political spectrum and holding many different political positions such as anarchism, communism, pacifism, republicanism, social democracy, socialism and syndicalism as well as centrist, conservative, liberal and nationalist viewpoints.
A far-right social centre is a space inspired by neo-fascist and Third Position ideas, typically in the 21st century.
Post–World War II anti-fascism, including antifa groups, anti-fascist movements and anti-fascist action networks, saw the development of political movements describing themselves as anti-fascist and in opposition to fascism. Those movements have been active in several countries in the aftermath of World War II during the second half of the 20th and early 21st century.
In the First Italian Republic, after the Second World War, many armed, paramilitary, far-right organizations were active, as well as far-left ones, especially in the Years of Lead.