NWC Symposium Looks at the International Scene
One benefit of combining the Northwest Coalition's conference with the Network's was the exposure Montanans got to what's happening in Europe. According to the editors of Searchlight magazine from London (a monthly anti-fascist magazine publishing for 25 years) neo-Nazi violence has been on the rise in Germany with seventy-five murders recorded since 1990. At the polls, fascist parties across western Europe have broken out of their marginalized position, sending members to town councils, parliaments, and the European Parliament. Most notably, Austria's Freedom Party polled 1.2 million votes (28%) in the last election, giving it number two status.
White Power music has been transformed from a "back-street" phenomenon into a multi-million dollar business, with profits from CD sales financing fascist electoral activity. The skinhead music scene peaked in 1995 with concerts attended by several hundred youth. Today, as fascists move into the conservative mainstream, far-right youth fashion is dumping the working-class look of the skinheads and moving into "gabba" music, a high-tech 200 beats/minute sound aimed at college kids. Two anti-fascists from Berlin stated that the mainstream German parties as well as the police have been ignoring the growing problem. Since 1990, a nationalist movement has appeared that was unthinkable during the 1980s. In 1998 alone there were over 11,000 reported incidents of anti-foreigner activity, ranging from physical assaults to hate speech.
There is a connection between American and European fascist resurgence. The Europeans agreed that Holocaust denial was certainly a popular export. In addition, Robert Jay Matthews of The Order has been made into a folk hero. William Pierce's Turner Diaries have gained wide readership. Pierce has been working to create an internationalist, Pan-Aryan movement in Europe. In some areas, even the militia movement has found emulators in camouflaged young men stalking each other through the trees.