A new approach to countering the extremism of the radical right is desperately needed. This month, the Commission for Countering Extremism published the findings from its public consultation. Seeking to better understand what extremism is, how it finds form, and most importantly what can be done about it, the commission visited more than 20 towns and… Continue reading “Hateful extremism and the radical right: we need new definitions”
The UK education system has, since the statutorisation of Prevent, been legally obliged to both nurture ‘resilient’ students and refer those whose resilience has been or is at risk of being eroded. Resilience being understood as the ability to ‘bounce back from adversity’, or in other words, being able to both reject and remove oneself… Continue reading “A Case for Making Students Resilient to the Far-Right?”
Anti-fascist action has been an inherent part of the British society. Macklin and Busher (2015), who looked at the interactions between far right movements and counter-movements in the period after World War II, referred, for instance, to the activities of the 43 Group in the 1940s, the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in the 1970s, Anti-Fascist… Continue reading “The Battle of Cable Street: ‘they shall not pass’”
Authoritarianism, a characteristic of the far-right, has developed anew in the 21st century and has presented itself in multiple guises and in multiple loci to an extent that poses an increased threat and risk to democratic societies. For good or ill, I choose to label this phenomenon as the Alternative Right (Alt-Right), although recognizing that… Continue reading “The New Authoritarianism and the Glorification of Amoral Calculation”
Hermeneutical injustice is defined as the inability to communicate and/ or understand one’s own social experience, owing to a lack of concepts available in society used to define the experience. For example, before Carmita Wood’s introduction of the concept of sexual harassment, individuals were incapable of understanding and communicating this social experience and the significant… Continue reading “Hermeneutical injustice and the far right?”
The institution of the police may be considered a key indicator in the empirical measurement of democratization processes. The institution that creates and maintains domestic security — and that can ultimately guarantee it during emergencies — is the police. However, a comparative look at the historical development of various political systems shows that, in the… Continue reading “A Healthy Police Force Is a Sign of a Healthy Democracy”
Britain’s far-right undertow turns hostile currents against ethnic and religious minorities into a tsunami of hatred. Pause a moment to register two unloved anniversaries. This spring marks a decade since the first anti-Muslim street movement, the English Defence League (EDL), emerged on British streets. Slowly but surely, the Democratic Football Lads Alliance (DFLA), now a… Continue reading “The DFLA: a(nother) new UK far right movement?”
At the age of twelve, my classics class at the high school devoted an entire week to the ancient war between the Persian Empire and Athens. We were told that the battle of Marathon and Salamis (490 and 480 BCE) represented civilisational encounters between Europe and the ‘barbarians’, west and east. The unlikely victory of… Continue reading “The far right’s weaponisation of history”
In today’s CARR insights blog, Senior Fellow Professor Ruth Wodak is interviewed by the Another Europe podcast team – looking at Britain’s relationship with Europe. As the extension is granted, but with no end in sight to the parliamentary deadlock, Co-host Luke Cooper is joined by Ruth Wodak, distinguished emeritus professor at the University of… Continue reading “Britain Alone: The self-inflicted darkest hour”
The far right recognizes the value, both in training and in terms of access to arms and equipment, that active and former soldiers bring to its organizations. In early October 2018, a photo emerged that showed former leader of the English Defence League, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson) posing with a group of Army Cadets.… Continue reading “The Far Right Has a History of Infiltrating the British Army”