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World Union of National Socialists | |
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| Abbreviation | WUNS |
| Founders |
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| Founded | 1962 (original) September 6, 2006 (reformed) |
| Ideology | Neo-Nazism |
| Political position | Far-right |
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| Neo-Nazism |
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The World Union of National Socialists (WUNS) is an organisation founded in 1962 as an umbrella group for neo-Nazi organisations across the globe.
The movement came about when the leader of the American Nazi Party, George Lincoln Rockwell, visited England and met with National Socialist Movement chief Colin Jordan and the two agreed to work towards developing an international link-up between movements. This resulted in the 1962 Cotswold Declaration, which was signed by neo-Nazis from the United States, the United Kingdom, France (Savitri Devi), [1] West Germany (Bruno Ludtke), [2] Austria, and Belgium. More member nations would join later throughout the decade, including Argentina, Australia, Chile, Ireland, Iran, India, South Africa, Korea, Japan, Peru, and Ukraine.
Following Rockwell's assassination in 1967, control of the WUNS passed to Matt Koehl, who attempted to extend the influence of the group by appointing Danish neo-Nazi Povl Riis-Knudsen as general secretary. However a split began to develop over the insistence of Koehl that Nazism should also serve as a religion, and eventually he broke away from the WUNS to lead his own version of Nazi mysticism. The split fundamentally weakened the WUNS and its influence declined strongly, despite attempts by Jordan to reinvigorate it. Jordan remained the nominal leader of the organization until his death in 2009, when he was succeeded by Koehl, who was the titular leader until his own death in 2014.
A number of groups have become members of the WUNS or accepted association to the group down the years.
Given the leadership of Rockwell and Koehl, the American Nazi Party and its successor the National Socialist White People's Party were the main constituent groups of the WUNS.
In Canada, the group was represented by the Canadian Nazi Party, whose leader William John Beattie was chief of the WUNS in the country. [3]
It was also active in South America through the Partido Nacionalsocialista Obrero Chileno , a group set up in Chile by Franz Pfeiffer. [4] [5]
The National Socialist Movement and its successor British Movement were members.
WUNS was represented in Denmark by the National Socialist Workers' Party of Denmark, a rump group of the old pre-war movement affiliated under Sven Salicath, a close follower of Rockwell, [6] and by its replacement, the National Socialist Movement of Denmark. [5]
The Nordic Reich Party of Sweden maintained independence but co-operated closely with WUNS. [6]
The National-Democratic Party of Finland was accepted as member in 1981. [7]
Bernhard Haarde formed a WUNS group in Iceland, claiming around 300 supporters. [6] Bernhard was the brother of future Prime Minister Geir Haarde. [8]
A minor party in Ireland, the National Socialist Irish Workers Party, was affiliated. [5]
The National Socialist Party of New Zealand and the National Socialist Party of Australia were affiliated to the WUNS. [5]
The National Socialist Japanese Worker's Party is affiliated to the WUNS.
The Rhodesian White People's Party was affiliated to the WUNS.
The following organizations were listed on the WUNS website as participating members in 2019: [9]
The following organizations were members of the WUNS at some point:[ citation needed ]
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.
George Lincoln Rockwell was an American Neo-Nazi activist. Rockwell founded the American Nazi Party in 1959 and became the self-styled leader of Neo-Nazism in the United States.
The American Nazi Party (ANP) is an American far-right and neo-Nazi political party founded by George Lincoln Rockwell and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. The organization was originally named the World Union of Free Enterprise National Socialists (WUFENS), a name to denote opposition to state ownership of property, the same year—it was renamed the American Nazi Party in order to attract 'maximum media attention'. Since the late 1960s, a number of small groups have used the name "American Nazi Party" with most being independent of each other and disbanding before the 21st century. The party is based largely upon the ideals and policies of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party in Germany during the Nazi era, and embraced its uniforms and iconography.
National Socialist Party most often refers to the National Socialist German Workers' Party, commonly known as the Nazi Party, which existed in Germany between 1920 and 1945 and ruled the country from 1933 to 1945. However, similar names have also been used by a number of other political parties around the world, with various ideologies, some related and some unrelated to the NSDAP.
Savitri Devi Mukherji was a French-born Greek-Italian fascist, Nazi sympathizer, and spy who served the Axis powers by committing acts of espionage against the Allied forces in India. She was later a leading member of the Neo-Nazi underground during the 1960s.
Francis Joseph Collin is an American former political activist and Midwest coordinator with the American Nazi Party, later known as the National Socialist White People's Party. After being ousted for being partly Jewish, in 1970, Collin founded the National Socialist Party of America. (N.S.P.A.) In the late 1970s, his planned march in the predominantly Jewish suburb of Skokie, Illinois was challenged; however, the American Civil Liberties Union defended Collin's group's freedom of speech and assembly in a case that reached the United States Supreme Court to correct procedural deficiencies. Specifically, the necessity of immediate appellate review of orders restraining the exercise of First Amendment rights was strongly emphasized in National Socialist Party v. Village of Skokie, 432 U.S. 43 (1977). Afterward, the Illinois Supreme Court held that the party had a right to march and to display swastikas, despite local opposition, based on the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Collin then offered a compromise, offering to march in Chicago's Marquette Park instead of Skokie. After Collin was convicted and sentenced in 1979 for child molestation, he lost his position in the party.
Matthias Koehl Jr. was an American marine, neo-Nazi politician and writer. He succeeded George Lincoln Rockwell as the longest serving leader of the American Nazi Party, from 1967 to 2014.
Fascist symbolism is the use of certain images and symbols which are designed to represent aspects of fascism. These include national symbols of historical importance, goals, and political policies. The best-known are the fasces, which was the original symbol of fascism, and the swastika of Nazism.
James Nolan Mason is an American neo-Nazi. Mason is an ideologue for the Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi terrorist organization. After growing disillusioned with the mass movement approach of neo-Nazi movements, he began advocating for a white supremacist revolution through terrorism. He was referred to as the "Godfather of Fascist Terrorism" in the Fair Observer. He has been convicted of assault and weapons charges, as well as charged with sexual exploitation and possession of pornographic images of a minor. In 2021, Mason was one of only two individuals sanctioned by the Canadian Government on its list of terror-related entities.
Joseph Charles Tommasi was an American Neo-Nazi who founded the National Socialist Liberation Front. He advocated extremism and armed guerrilla warfare against the U.S. government and what he called its "Jewish power structure." Tommasi wanted anarchy and lawlessness so that the "system" could be attacked without protection. Tommasi was derisively nicknamed "Tomato Joe" by rival neo-Nazis because of his Italian heritage and "less than Nordic complexion." He was later expelled from the group for using drugs and misusing group funds.
A number of political movements have involved their members wearing uniforms, typically as a way of showing their identity in marches and demonstrations. The wearing of political uniforms has tended to be associated with radical political beliefs, typically at the far-right or far-left of politics, and can be used to imply a paramilitary type of organization.
Povl Heinrich Riis-Knudsen is a Danish neo-Nazi, prominent in the US as well as Denmark. Riis-Knudsen is known as the author of the articles National Socialism: A Left Wing Movement (1984) and National Socialism: The Biological World View (1987), as well as for having been involved with Matt Koehl of the American Nazi Party.
The National Socialist Vanguard is a Neo-Nazi group founded in 1983 and led by Rick Cooper, based in The Dalles, Oregon, US, from about 1998. It has focused its efforts on recruiting high school students.
Falangism in Latin America has been a feature of political life since the 1930s as movements looked to the national syndicalist clerical fascism of the Spanish state and sought to apply it to other Spanish-speaking countries. From the mid-1930s, the Falange Exterior, effectively an overseas version of the Spanish Falange, was active throughout Latin America in order to drum up support among Hispanic communities. However, the ideas would soon permeate into indigenous political groups. The term "Falangism" should not be applied to the military dictatorships of such figures as Alfredo Stroessner, Augusto Pinochet and Rafael Trujillo because while these individuals often enjoyed close relations to Francisco Franco's Spain, their military nature and frequent lack of commitment to national syndicalism and the corporate state mean that they should not be classed as Falangist. The phenomenon can be seen in a number of movements both past and present.
The Nordic Resistance Movement is a pan-Nordic neo-Nazi movement in the Nordic countries and a political party in Sweden. Besides Sweden, it is established in Norway, Denmark and Iceland, and formerly in Finland before it was banned in 2019. Terrorism expert Magnus Ranstorp has described the NRM as a terrorist organization due to their aim of abolishing democracy along with their paramilitary activities and weapons caches. In 2022, some members of the United States Congress began calling for the organization to be added to the United States Department of State list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. On 14 June 2024, the United States Department of State designated NRM and its leaders as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT).
The Canadian National Socialist Party, commonly known as the Canadian Nazi Party, existed from 1965 to 1978. It was led by William John Beattie, and was based in Toronto. It succeeded a separate, short-lived group also known as the Canadian Nazi Party that was led by André Bellefeuille and based in Quebec. It was affiliated with the World Union of National Socialists.
Gerhard Rex Lauck is an American neo-Nazi activist and publisher. Based in Lincoln, Nebraska, he is sometimes nicknamed the "Farm Belt Fuehrer" due to his perceived rural origins.
The National Socialist Liberation Front (NSLF) was an American neo-Nazi organization. Originally established in 1969 as a youth wing of the National Socialist White People's Party, in 1974 it reconstituted itself as the NSLF after its leader Joseph Tommasi was expelled from the NSWPP.
The Rhodesian White People's Party (RWPP) was a Rhodesian neo-Nazi political party led by James Kenneth "Ken" Rodger and the organizing secretary Frederick Lewis. The movement was founded in Bulawayo on 30 January 1976; it mainly inspired the American Nazi Party and later with it the National Socialist White People's Party to prevent the black rule in Rhodesia. It was outlawed in November 1976 by the government of Ian Smith for anti-Semitic incidents by US citizens who were members of the party against the Bulawayo Hebrew Congregation. Among the expelled citizens were the neo-Nazis Eric Thompson and Harold Covington. This political party was the only one of the World Union of National Socialists that was active in Africa. Its main activity was distributing Nazi literature and harassing Jews in the area. The group has been described by the Bishop Heinrich Karlen as having the "Nazi mentality of the superman."
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