Across North America and Europe, the far-right Active Clubs movement is expanding at an unprecedented pace, posing new threats to democratic elections and minorities.
With a network of decentralized cells throughout most of the United States and European Union member states, the Active Clubs movement has blended right-wing extremism with mixed martial arts (MMA). By presenting a more appealing image to the public and combining their extremist ideology with exercise, fitness and MMA training, Active Clubs have broadened their appeal and reach a much broader audience than traditional white supremacist groups, whose members are often derided as “keyboard warriors.” . .
Unlike these traditional hate groups, whose existence is mostly mocked in online echo chambers, active clubs put real-world engagement at the heart of their group. Whether kickboxing, weightlifting, hiking or organizing demonstrations – active clubs focus on getting active in the here and now. While Active Clubs’ ideology continues to resemble the tired and hateful ideologies of traditional white nationalist organizations, two unique factors – decentralized organizational structures and personal growth – have distinguished the Active Clubs movement and fueled its rapid growth.
Launched in 2021, the movement now includes more than 104 known cells in the United States, Canada and Europe, according to a recent report from the Counter Extremism Project. The movement’s unprecedented growth poses serious risks to public safety as the United States and many democratic countries face elections in 2024. Due to a history of political violence and intimidation, there is significant risk that the network’s cells could serve as a violent militia “brown shirt” organization that interferes in elections and political events in the United States in the coming year.
To understand the growth and dangers of active clubs, we must examine how the movement began. The network, first launched in January 2021, was the second project of Robert Rundo, a white American nationalist who spent time in Europe, learned from other far-right groups and founded the Rise Above Movement (RAM).
After the arrest of Rundo and three other group leaders during the 2019 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, the hierarchically organized RAM began to disintegrate. Recognizing the danger that well-placed arrests could pose to vertically structured organizations, Rundo adopted the leaderless resistance model first developed by white nationalist writer Louis Beam in 1983.
With this lesson, Rundo structured the Active Clubs movement as a decentralized network where each cell functions independently but still remains connected to others through encrypted messaging platforms such as Telegram and Rocket.Chat. This more permanent decentralized network approach ensures that the entire network remains intact even if a branch or cell leader is arrested.
In addition to this more resilient organizational structure, the second factor in the dramatic growth of the Active Clubs movement is the combination of far-right ideologies with personal growth and physical fitness.
By encouraging healthy pastimes like weight lifting, kickboxing and even hiking, the group focuses on positive, communal activities. Active clubs enthusiastically encourage their members to live a healthier lifestyle by avoiding tobacco and drug use, exercising daily, and even going on hikes. For many new members, Active Clubs initially serve as a means of self-development where they can train and exercise among like-minded people.
In addition to this personal growth, the group gradually introduces its members to the ideology of the movement as their commitment increases. Placing physical training at the heart of the organization is a powerful tool for boosting the confidence of its members, many of whom are disenfranchised or isolated with few other options. The network not only boosts their confidence by centering the movement around collaborative training, but also helps its members build a strong sense of camaraderie.
These powerful social and psychological factors have helped the group not only reach a wider audience of disaffected young people than comparable organizations, but also grow faster than any other far-right movement I have observed.
In contrast to most right-wing extremist groups, which simply demand time and money from their members, active clubs are characterized by the fact that they claim to offer concrete social and psychological benefits to recruits. When these social and psychological benefits are combined with a sense of purpose and sacred values, they can become powerful catalysts for collective action, likely to lead to further political violence and electoral interference.
Members of the Active Clubs movement have been involved in a wide range of political activities, including violent far-right rallies, political intimidation during campaign debates, and clashes with counter-protesters.
The Active Clubs openly praise their American founder Rundo, who was jailed in 2019 for inciting violent rallies in Virginia and California, and pursue the goals of his former organization RAM in a more long-lasting decentralized structure.
Active clubs also maintain close ties to more traditional white nationalist and accelerationist groups, such as the Patriot Front, which have used violence in the past. In Canada, it is known that members of the Active Club were also members of designated terrorist groups, including the Nuclear Weapons Division.
The active clubs have recently become increasingly involved in direct political influence. In late 2023, Active Clubs members in Franklin, Tennessee, staged a show of force during a mayoral debate that disturbed some members of the public. While the activist clubs involved claimed they were only protecting the candidate, their presence at debates, polling stations and town halls can have a chilling effect, making voters feel unsafe and discouraging them from attending pro-Democratic events System are crucial. In other cases, Active Club members have attempted to disrupt LGBTQ fundraisers and Black Lives Matter demonstrations.
As the United States faces a turbulent election later this year, there is significant risk that Active Clubs could function as combative militias or “brown shirt” organizations ready to intimidate voters at polling stations, debates and peaceful demonstrations. Because individual Active Clubs branches span most U.S. states, the network has a broad geographic footprint that could lead to voter intimidation and election interference across the country.
While some Active Clubs members view former President Donald as a false messiah who has failed to uproot the establishment, many others likely still see his campaign as their best chance to advance some of their political goals. The increasingly lurid and violent rhetoric of Trump, who has promised to suppress insurrectionists and rioters from the 6th to the US elections.
With major global elections approaching in 2024, the risks posed by far-right groups are rapidly increasing. To counter these threats in the short term, we must invest in trust and security teams to ensure extremists cannot exploit private platforms to organize, recruit and spread hateful propaganda. We must also encourage law enforcement and the military to expand their plans to ensure their ranks remain free of extremist-oriented individuals.
But in the longer term, we need to do much more to address the underlying social, economic and political conditions that lead individuals to join extremist groups such as Active Clubs. As generative artificial intelligence and greater specialization lead to higher unemployment, additional funding for upskilling and retraining will be required to begin to address these economic factors. However, any approach must also provide alternative sources of collective and personal agency. Community sports, coding workshops and entrepreneurship programs would be a step in the right direction. While this is a slow and costly process, without steps to change these basic social conditions, movements like Active Clubs will continue to grow and cause significant harm to both the minorities they target and our democratic system as a whole.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of Al Jazeera.