Global Hate and Far-Right Extremist Groups
Far-right extremism movements in countries across the world are growing at a frightening rate, threatening flourishing, inclusive democracies that promote fundamental freedoms and human rights.
These far-right movements not only spread white supremacy, but also push for discriminatory policies that restrict the basic human rights, dignity, and equality of numerous communities and stand in the way of making progress on critical issues such as climate change. Critically, these movements can drive hate-motivated incidents, hate crimes, and other acts of online and offline violence, including mass terrorist attacks in multiple countries.
To further our work combating global hate and extremism and highlighting the transnational nature of far-right extremism, GPAHE conducts and shares deep research on far-right extremist groups and movements in multiple countries. Entities covered by our research generally embrace beliefs and activities that demean, harass, and/or inspire violence against people based on their identity traits including race, religion, ethnicity, language, national or social origin, caste, gender, sexual orientation, or gender identity. For more information, see the FAQs on GPAHE’s Far-right Hate and Extremist Groups.
The Countries
France
France has a very long history of far-right movements stretching back to the late 1800s motivated predominantly by antisemitism, ethnic nationalism, and religious—meaning Catholic–nationalism. Rooted in France’s history of generally conservative Catholicism, these movements portrayed Jews as a threat to Catholicism, an idea formerly enshrined in Catholic doctrine that is now officially rejected.
Other movements also historically viewed as enemies of the Church, specifically Freemasons, Protestants, and those in support of Republican forms of government, were targeted by the far right. In more recent years, immigrants, and particularly Muslims, have become anathema to the far right’s vision for the French people, which has become more overtly white supremacist and driven by propaganda rooted in the racist Great Replacement conspiracy theory.
Ireland
Since the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2015 and the expansion of access to abortion in recent years, the far-right scene has found foothold and is growing, with a new reactionary political party, the Irish Freedom Party established in 2018 as well as a handful of smaller groups that target immigrants and the LGBTQI community.
Many of these groups have adopted the white supremacist “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, which argues that white populations are being intentionally displaced from their homelands, a plot often blamed on Jews or globalists.
Australia
Australia’s history of far-right and white supremacist activism, often rooted in its colonial experience, has resulted in racist policies and laws regarding the dispossession of Indigenous people, white supremacy, and xenophobic politics. This history parallels in many ways that of the American experience.
Beginning in 1901, the year its six colonies were joined together to create the Commonwealth of Australia, a self-governing and domestically sovereign entity in the British Empire, Australia passed legislation to restrict non-white immigration into the country that lasted until the legal regimes was dismantled between 1949 and 1973 (these policies were akin to the United States of America’s Immigration Act of 1924 that restricted immigration to “Nordics” until 1965).
