Far-right activists have a long history of traveling overseas to fight for global white supremacy. Why aren’t they treated as terrorists? A 1975 article in British Patriot magazine tells the story of John Coey, a 24-year-old college graduate from Ohio who was killed fighting for the continuation of white supremacy in the unrecognized state of Rhodesia. A member of the National Socialist White People’s Party (previously American Nazi Party), Coey had long been engaged in extremist activism. Having begun officer training for the United States Marine Corps, Coey asked for a discharge with the intent to travel to southern Africa and fought with both the Rhodesian Special Air Service and the Rhodesian Light Infantry. (…) In the following decade, this tradition continued, with far-right mercenaries traveling to the Balkans to support neo-Ustashist elements within the Croat cause. Members of the French nationalist-revolutionary group, New Resistance, traveled to Croatia to join the Black Legion in 1991, where they were joined by Italian, Spanish, British and American recruits, the majority of whom were linked to extreme-right organizations within their own countries. The number of recruits grew to such an extent that a number of specific international paramilitary brigades were founded. (…) While the landscape of extreme-right activism has shifted in recent years, the foreign fighter problem remains very real. The most recent battleground has been in Crimea, where extreme-right activists from across Europe and North America have joined up with the now notorious Azov Battalion, an ultranationalist Ukrainian paramilitary infamous for its political extremism and violence. The battalion has become a magnet, attracting over 2,500 “ethnic nationalist” volunteers from Sweden, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, many of whom see their battle as a “fight against the extinction of Europe.”In Germany, former Azov members have been actively recruiting, and flyers with instructions on how to join were recently distributed at a notorious far-right rock festival. In Ukraine, these far-right activists are being trained and tested in warfare scenarios, bringing their newly found expertise, experience and extremism back to their home countries and organizations.In the following decade, this tradition continued, with far-right mercenaries traveling to the Balkans to support neo-Ustashist elements within the Croat cause. Members of the French nationalist-revolutionary group, New Resistance, traveled to Croatia to join the Black Legion in 1991, where they were joined by Italian, Spanish, British and American recruits, the majority of whom were linked to extreme-right organizations within their own countries. The number of recruits grew to such an extent that a number of specific international paramilitary brigades were founded.Ukraine thus threatens to offer the same kind of environment that Kathleen Belew suggests both Vietnam and the First Gulf War offered in the 20th century, in that it provides space for radicalization and training that will energize and educate white supremacist groups in the US and Europe. If Christchurch shooter Brenton Tarrant’s claim that he trained with the Azov is to be believed, we may already be witnessing the result
via fairobserver: Foreign Fighters and the Global War for White Supremacy