NEW FDD REPORTS PROVIDE EXTENSIVE LOOK AT TRANSNATIONAL WHITE SUPREMACIST AND MILITANT ANARCHIST AND ANTI-FASCIST MOVEMENTS

Reports provide granular analysis of two different aspects of domestic extremism in the United States

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 14, 2021 – The Foundation for Defense of Democracies today released two separate reports that provide an accurate, objective assessment of two domestic extremist movements in the United States: the transnational white supremacist movement and the militant anarchist and anti-fascist movement.

Skinheads, Saints, and (National) Socialists: An Overview of the Transnational White Supremacist Movement, by Dr. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Samuel Hodgson, provides an overview of white supremacist extremism, both domestic and international. It addresses key white supremacist extremist (WSE) ideologies, major domestic and foreign WSE groups, the nature of the WSE threat in the United States, and transnational WSE activity. The report provides a firm foundation for understanding the threat of WSE ideologies today and an indication of how the WSE movement may continue to evolve in the United States and internationally.

Behind the Black Bloc: An Overview of Militant Anarchism and Anti-Fascism, by Gartenstein-Ross, Hodgson, and Austin Blair, analyzes militant anti-fascism and anarchism within a broader domestic tapestry of armed politics and explores transnational movements connected to anarchism and anti-fascism. Ideologically, anarchism and anti-fascism are similar but not identical. The two ideologies influence one another, and the two movements have notable commonalities. While neither is inherently violent, both ideologies have adherents who embrace the use of violence to achieve their goals. The report examines why and how some groups carry out violence.

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is a Senior Advisor on Asymmetric Warfare at FDD and the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the private firm Valens Global. Hodgson and Blair are analysts at Valens Global.

Instead of combining the two extremist ideologies into a single report, the authors produced two studies to accurately portray two different sides of the domestic violent extremism landscape, and how they interact with one another. The authors make clear the threats from the two are not equal. “White supremacist extremists have conducted more terrorist attacks than any other ideological stream in the U.S. over the past several years, and the movement has claimed more lives in the U.S. during that time than any other militant ideology,” Gartenstein-Ross says. “However, when we face an overall growth in extremism in the United States, it is worth looking at various extremist ideologies and evaluating the interplay of ostensibly opposed movements and groups.”

The reports make a sophisticated argument concerning how, in an environment of increasing extremism, the U.S. should be concerned with both threat streams.

To contact FDD media relations, please email [email protected].

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