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 Terza Posizione, 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. 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 can be found in numerous groups of the extra-parliamentary right, such as Terza Posizione and Forza Nuova. 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 were also 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. Haikala said: "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." [14] Kai Murros is a prominent neo-fascist thought leader in Finland who has identified as a Maoist. [15] [16]
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 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 Thiriart), directed by Yves Batille. These organizations were a mix of 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. [17] Nazi-Maoist ideas were noticeably manifested in the ideology of the Fédération d'action nationale et européenne. [18]
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. [19]
Sister organizations were created in Italy and Germany, such as the Organización Nacional-Révolutionare Aufbau. [18]
Neo-Nazism comprises the post-World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and racial supremacy, to attack racial and ethnic minorities, and in some cases to create a fascist state.
Jean-François Thiriart, often known as Jean Thiriart, was a Belgian far-right political theorist.
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 far-right politician and convicted criminal who has been the leader of the party, Forza Nuova, since its foundation in 1997, as well as president of the Alliance for Peace and Freedom since 2015. He briefly served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Central Italy from 2008 until 2009.
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 Third Position, neo-fascist paramilitary terrorist group Ordine Nuovo, and possibly undetermined collaborators.
Terza Posizione was a short-lived neo-fascist political movement founded in Rome in 1978. The group published a journal, also called Terza Posizione which promoted Third Position politics. It was formed by teenagers and students from a previous group called Lotta Studentesca.
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 Bologna massacre was a terrorist bombing of the Bologna Centrale railway station in Bologna, Italy, on the morning of 2 August 1980, which killed 85 people and wounded over 200. Several members of the neo-fascist terrorist organization Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari were sentenced for the bombing, although the group denied involvement.
The Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari, abbreviated NAR, was an Italian neo-fascist armed militant organization active during the Years of Lead from 1977 to November 1981. It committed over 100 murders in four years, and had planned to assassinate the politicians Francesco Cossiga, Gianfranco Fini and Adolfo Urso. The group maintained close links with the Banda della Magliana, a Rome-based criminal organization, which provided such logistical support as lodging, false papers, weapons, and bombs to the NAR. In November 1981, it was discovered that the NAR hid weapons in the basements of the Health Ministry. The first trial against them sentenced 53 people in May 1985 on charges of terrorist activities.
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.
The Years of Lead were a period of political violence and social upheaval in Italy that lasted from the late 1960s until the late 1980s, marked by a wave of both far-left and far-right incidents of political terrorism and violent clashes.
Franco "Giorgio" Freda is an Italian neo-fascist intellectual, author, revolutionary and political theorist. A major figure of the post-war far-right politics in Italy, Freda has been particularly associated with neo-fascism and revolutionary nationalism, advocating for a radical transformation of society along nationalist and revolutionary lines.
Gabriele Adinolfi is an Italian far-right ideologue and essayist. Adinolfi was involved in Terza Posizione, a short-lived far-right group founded in 1979. Like other neo-fascists of his generation, he saw his enemy as the far-left and the Italian Social Movement (MSI). He founded several publications and a website called Noreporter.
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.
The Italian Social Movement was a neo-fascist political party in Italy. A far-right party, it presented itself until the 1990s as the defender of Italian fascism's legacy, and later moved towards national conservatism. In 1972, the Italian Democratic Party of Monarchist Unity was merged into the MSI and the party's official name was changed to Italian Social Movement – National Right.
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.
A far-right social centre is a space inspired by neo-fascist and Third Position ideas, typically in the 21st century.
In the First Italian Republic, after the Second World War, several armed, paramilitary, far-right organizations were active, as well as far-left ones, especially during the Years of Lead.