New Right (English: New Right ) is a school of political thought That Emerged in France During the late 1960s. Various political scientists have characterized the ND as an extreme-right political movement with links to older forms offascism , although this characterization is being rejected by many of the ND’s members.
The New Right Began with the formation of Group Research and Studies for the European civilization (GREECE) -a group Largely guided by the philosopher Alain de Benoist -in Nice in 1968. Benoist and other early members of the group Had a long experience in right wing groups, and the movement would be influenced by the German Conservative Revolutionary movement . The New Right was influenced by the tactics of the New Left and Marxism , in particular the ideas of the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci, with ND members describing themselves as „Gramscians of the Right“. The ND achieved a level of mainstream respectability in the 1970s. ND members joined a number of political parties, becoming a strong influence within the French National Front .
The ND opposes multiculturalism and the mixing of different cultures within a single society. It opposes liberal democracy and capitalism and promotes localized forms of „organic democracy,“ with the intention of taking over the control of oligarchy . It pushes for an “ archeofuturistic “ or a type of non-reactionary “ revolutionary conservative “ method to the reinvigoration of the European identity and culture, while encouraging the preservation of certain regions where Europeans and descendents of Europeansmay reside. Concurrently, it tries to sustain the protection of the variance of ethnicities and identities around the globe , defending the right of each group of peoples to keep their own lands and regions to occupy.
History
Following the end of the Second World War and the collapse of the Vichy regime , the French extreme-right was driven underground. [1] It resurfaced as a force able to contest elections in the mid-1950s, when some far-right activists successfully returned to the public arena through the Poujadist movement. [1] In the following two decades, the country’s extreme-right movement then rallied around the cause of the French Empire , opposing the decolonization movements that were gaining strength in Indochina and Algeria. [2] A number of far-right paramilitary groups have been formed in this environment, including the Secret Army Organization (Secret Army Organization – OAS) and the Revolutionary Army ( Revolutionary Army – AR). [2] Adopting another approach, a number of extreme-right intellectuals that they would try to make more of their ideas more socially respectable through the creation of the Research and Study Group for European Civilization (GREECE). [3] Thus, the New Right was established shortly before the May 1968 events in France . [4]
Establishing GREECE: 1968-1974
GREECE Was founded in the southern French city of Nice in January 1968. [5] It INITIALLY HAD forty members, [5] Among The Most prominent of Whom Were Alain de Benoist , Pierre Vial, Jean-Claude Valla, Dominique Venner, Jacques Bruyas and Jean Jacques Mourreau. [6] The political scientist Tamir Bar-On has stated that „the intellectual evolution of both GREECE and leading ND intellectuals is definitely situated within the middle right revolutionary“. [5]GREECE has been seen as a „logical alternative“ for those „young French nationalist activists“ to join, given the 1958 dissolution of the Young Nationgroup, the 1962 collapse of the OAS, and the defeat of the European Rally of Freedom in the 1967 legislative election . [7] These young radicals have been ultra-nationalists and anti-communists , and their beliefs are based on the defense of Western society , scientific racism , and eugenics . [7] They were opposed to the migration of non-white peoples from French colonies into France itself, and this led them to adopt anti-colonial and anti-imperialist perspectives. [7]
It would be De Benoist who would be considered as the „undisputed leader“ of the New Right, [7] and its „most authoritative spokesman“. [8] Benoit was for instance a member of the ultra-nationalist Federation of Nationalist Students and Involved with the Racialist Europe Action Journal, [5] both of which have been observing ND ideas in their „embryonic form“. [9] GREECE inherited a number of key themes from Europe Action, among them „the anti-christian stance, has marked elitism, the racial notion of a united Europe, the seeds of a change from biological to cultural definitions of“ difference, „and the sophisticated inversion of racism and anti-racism . [5] De Benoit was also influenced by the Conservative Revolutionary movement of interwar Germany-including thinkers like Ernst Jünger , Arthur Moeller van den Bruck , and Oswald Spengler -and in the 1970s the ND would help to promote a revival interest in these conservative revolutionaries . [10]
The group circulates an internal document in which it could be associated with GREECE with older fascist sectors of the far right. [5] It also urges its members to socialize with some of Europe’s most important decision-makers, so it’s better for the ground. [5] GREECE did not remain a homogeneous intellectual movement but contained different and sometimes conflicting perspectives. [9]The ND Learned from the unrest of 1968 as well as from the ‚wider New Left movement of That decade, Adopting the idea que la Promotion of cultural ideas are a precondition for political change. [11]De Benoist noted that the French left the idea of having acquired considerable traction in French society, particularly among intellectuals. He sought to change the values and assumptions of a society in a similar way, by shifting the prevailing ideology without the need for any electoral victories. [12]
GREECE held a number of seminars and colloquia with varying degrees of success. [13] It also began to issue a number of semi-academic publications through which it could promote its views. [3]Its diary, New School , initially circulated among the group’s members. [14] A review, Elements , was then made public in 1973. [15] Over the course of 1975 and 1976 it issued bulletins promoting its message among medical, educational, and military circles. [15] In 1976, GREEN then launched a publishing house, known as Copernicus. [15]
Growth and opposition: 1975-79
– Michalina Vaughan, 1995 [3]
The new right expression was not originally a term of self-appellation. [16] It was first appeared in a series of articles on GREECE written by the journalist Gilbert Earl and published in The World in March 1978 which were titled „A new right?“. [17] It was applied at a time when the term „new“ was being applied to a wide range of developments in intellectual and cultural life, including new philosophers , new historians , and new economists , as well as new cuisine . [15]
By the late 1970s, the ND HAD captured the political zeitgeist in France, [18] reaching icts mass media heyday. [19] During these years, intellectuals affiliated with the movement published articles in the mainstream Le Figaro magazine , edited by Louis Pauwels . [20] In 1978, De Benoite’s Seen from right won an award from the French Academy . [15]The development of liberalization, the fascism, and the vichyite movement that sought to undermine liberal democracy, egalitarianism, and the legacy of theFrench Revolution of 1789 . [19] A campaign calling for the rejection of the ND Was Embraced by media outlets like Le Monde , Le Nouvel Observateur , L’Express , and The Cross , resulting and in Le Figaro Withdrawing icts patronage of the movement. [21] The ND claimed that it was facing a form of intellectual persecution to McCarthyism in the United States. [22] Now deprived of a popular platform, the ND accelerated away from biological racism and towards the claim that different ethno-cultural groups should be kept separate in order to preserve historical and cultural difference. [21]
In 1974, a group called The Club was established by several GRECE members-notably Jean-Yves Le Gallou, Yvan Blot, and Henry de Lesquen-to serve as an elite think tankfor ND ideas. [23] The Club was frustrated with GREECE’s long-term metapolitical strategy and sought to hasten the speed of change, with its members joining the Rally for the Republic (RFR) and the Union for French Democracy(UDF). [23] By the late 1970s, The Club had moved away from GREECE by both endorsing economic neoliberalism and embracing Roman Catholicism as a core aspect of France’s national identity, something in contrast to GRECE’s anti-Christian bent. [24]
Political influence: 1980-present
In the early 1980s, Jean Haudry , Jean Varenne , Pierre Vial, Jean-Claude Bardet, and Pierre de Meuse-came out of support of the extreme-right National Front (FN) party, which was then growing in support under the leadership of Jean-Marie Le Pen . [25] The FN was influenced by the ND in their platforms and slogans, adopting the ND’s emphasis on ethno-cultural differentialism. [26] The Club called for the RFR and UDF to enter into a political alliance with the FN to defeat the Socialist Party government of President Francois Mitterrand , though this did not happen. [27]In 1994, there were four ND-affiliated individuals on the FN politburo, making it the second most influential faction within the party. [28] Within the FN, there were tensions between the ND-affiliated factions and other groups, most particularly the Catholic faction which rejected the exultation of paganism . [29] There were also tensions between the FN’s new rightists and the ND, in particular with the wing influenced by De Benoist. [30] De Benoist openly criticized The Pen’s party, condemning its populism with GRECE’s emphasis on elitism, [31] and expressing opposition to the FN’s use of immigrants as scapegoatsfor France’s problems. [32] He may have been seeking to distinguish his GRECE with the FN, being aware that the two had much overlap. [33]
In 1993, a group of 40 French intellectuals signed „The Appeal to Vigilance“, which was published in Le Monde . This warned of „the resurgence of anti-democratic currents of far Right thought in English and European intellectual life“ and called for a boycott against ND-affiliated intellectuals. [34] In 1994, the appeal was again published, this time being signed by 1500 European intellectuals. [34]
Some of the prominent names that have collaborated with GREECE include Arthur Koestler , Hans Eysenck , Konrad Lorenz , Mircea Eliade , Abellio Raymond , Thierry Maulnier , Anthony Burgess and Jean Parvulesco. [35]
Ideology
Fascism and the left-right wing spectrum
The ND is located on the extreme-right or far-right of the political spectrum. [36] A number of liberal and leftist critics of the NA have described it as „fascist“. [37] The political scientist Roger Griffin agreed, arguing that the fascist: a populist ultra-nationalism and a call for national rebirth. [38] McCulloch believed that the ND had a „distinctly fascist-revivalist character“ in part because of its constant reference to earlier right-wing ideologues like the German Conservative Revolutionaries and French figures like Robert Brasillach , Georges Valois , Pierre Drieu La Rochelle , andThierry Maulnier . [39] McCulloch also saw parallels in the ND’s desire for ethnically and culturally homogenous European societies, its hostility to globalization and universalist modernity, and its call for a cultural rebirth. [40] The ND rejects the labels of „fascism“ and the „extreme right“. [41] De Benoist has himself been described as a neo-fascist . [42] De Benoist has rejected the label of „fascist“, claiming that it has been used by his critics „for the sole purpose of delegitimizing or discrediting“ his ideas. [43] The ND ‚Nazism and older forms of fascism and the far right. [44]
The New Right was distinct from the mainstream of anti-capitalist , anti-Western, pro-Third World, anti-nationalist, federalist, and environmentalist positions that were traditionally deemed left-wing. [41] This blend of traditionally leftist and traditionally rightist ideas has generated much ambiguity surrounding the ND’s ideological position, generating confusion for academics, intellectuals, and political activists. [41] The ND characterises itself as beyond both left and right. [45] Such a blend of traditional right and left-wing ideas has been recognized as a feature of fascism . [46]Benoist states that the New Right „has a certain number of characteristics of the Left and a certain number of characteristics of the Right.“ [47] He has also expressed the view that the political right to „leave the political system“, for „the new divides that have been emerging for the last few decades with the old left-right distinction „. [48]
Alberto Spektorowski, the political scientist, has pointed out that he has „seriously moved from its positions of old-style right-wing nationalism and racism to a new type of leftist regionalism and ethno-pluralism“. [49] Cultural criticism has largely been characterized as a right-wing phenomenon, [4] categorized by the political scientist Tamir Bar-On, [4] who expresses the view that „ND thinkers have never fully transcended their original revolutionary right-wing roots. “ [50] Bar-On explains the role of survival strategy, which also suggests that it was „a subtle attempt to resurrect some of the ideals of the revolutionary Right“. [19]McCulloch believed that it was „a deliberate attempt to paint some ideological concepts in the compromised colors“, [51] while Griffin stated that the ND’s claims to transcend the Left and Right was „an impressive piece of the hand of the ND“. disguises its extreme right-wing identity „. [46]
The New Right was deeply indebted to the New Left movement. [4] The New Right borrowed heavily from the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci , [52] and its proponents have described themselves as „Gramscians of the Right“. [53] Among the other Marxist thinkers whose work has been used by Frankfurt School intellectuals Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer and Neo-Marxists like Louis Althusser and Herbert Marcuse . [54]Other figures have been cited as having various figures, with GREECE Secretary-General Pierre Vial for instance praising Che Guevara, the Italian Red Brigades and the German Red Army Faction for their willingness to die fighting against capitalist liberal democracy. [55] During the 1984 Election to the European Parliament , De Benoist announced his intention to vote for the French Communist Party , deeming them to be the only credible anti-capitalist, anti-liberal, and anti-American political force then active in France . [55] In 1997, he referred to The Greensas the only French political party that challenged the materialist and industrialist values of Western society. [55]
The New Right also revered the Italian far right thinker Julius Evola . [56] Under the GREECE umbrella have been found „European imperialists, traditionalists influenced by Julius Evola and Rene Guenon , communitarians, post-modernists, Völkisch nostalgics, anti-Judeo-Christian pagans“. [9] Amidst this diversity, its ideological core remained „the defense of identity (of whatever kind) and a refusal of egalitarianism“. [57]
Critics identify the New Right as a new or sanitized form of neo-fascism or as an ideology of the extreme right that significantly draws from fascism (Laqueur, 1996, Lee, 1997).
Metapolitics and strategy
GREECE promoted the idea of slowly infusing society with its ideas and rhetoric in the hope of achieving cultural dominance, which would then allow for the assumption of political power. [9] Vial stated that „Politics is not the affair of GREECE.“ It is a collective consensus and a popular consensus is Elaborated „. [9] De Benoist has called for the overthrow of liberal democracy through a long-term metapolitical strategy. [54] Although rejecting liberal democracy, the New Right is not inherently anti-democratic , but calls for a localized form of what it calls „organic democracy“. [58]Of Benoist has maintained that the New Right has never endorsed a particular political party, and that it has always been a position of observers, never and cultural work.Nothing else. “ [59]
The New Right critics both modernity and post-modernity . [60] It opposes global capitalism and liberalism , and regionalization, federalism, socialism and local forms of democracy. [61] It rejects the principle of human equality, which is inherently hierarchical. [62] It stressed the need for elites, claiming that this would allow for harmonious social hierarchy in which they are aware of their particular responsibilities and tasks. [62]
Ethno-pluralism
The ND has criticized the liberal emphasis on the rights of individuals and instead foregrounded the rights of groups. [63] The ND exhibits a hostility to multiculturalism and to cultural mixing. [32] Multicultural societies are viewed by the ND as a form of „ethnocide“. [58] GREECE has stated that it is against immigration that it would not expect settled ethno-cultural minorities in France to emigrate en masse . [57] Instead of separating the ethno-cultural groups within France, with each emphasizing its own cultural identity and not integrating and mixing with the others. [57] It supports homogeneity within a society. [58]GREECE called on Europe and the Third World to work together on this global ethno-cultural segregation and combating any homogenizing identities. [64] Critics have argued that this attitude is akin to older fascist preoccupations with the ideas of cultural or racial purity. [65] It shares this belief in diversity in isolation with the FN. [21] Spektorowski suggests that the view of the world be changed by third countries to become more industrialized while allowing them to become more technologically advanced. position. [66]
The European Union is not showing up in Europe. [7] De Benoit has stated that „the European race is not the absolute superior race, it is only the most apt to progress“. [66]
Benoit long adhered to ethnic nationalist ideas ALTHOUGH Sought to Develop a form of nationalism That deconstructed the nation-state. [67] GREECE promoted the replacement of the French Republic with a „republic of French peoples“ which would be in turn of part of a wider ethnic federation of European peoples. [67] According to the ND, the ethnic-region would have to make draconian laws against immigrants who were ethnically different, but would have impenetrable cultural barriers to keep them out. [67] Ideas about such a regionalised federal Europe Driven by La Rochelle , Dominique Vennerand Jean Mabire. [67] In His analysis of the NA’s beliefs about Their Future perfect, Spektorowski states That Any society Established along the ND lines Would resembles apartheid-era South Africa, Would Be a form of totalitarianism based on the politics of identity , and Would Be “ a permanent nightmare for old immigrants and for political and ideological dissenters „. [68]
Opposing global capitalism and an unrestricted free market , GREECE promoted a communitarian form of capitalism. [7]
The ND claims that the Christian heritage of Europe has generated an egalitarian ethos which has since developed into such secular variants as liberalism, social democracy, and socialism. [11]It condemns the monotheism of Christianity as exhibiting a totalitarian ethos which seeks to impose on Western ethos on the world’s many different cultures. [69] According To Vial „totalitarianism Was Born 4000 years ago … It was born the day Appeared monotheism. The idea of monotheism Implies the submission of the human being white to the will of a single, eternal God.“ [64] GREECE was avowedly pro-pagan, viewing pre-Christian Europe in positive terms as a healthy and diverse, polytheistic continent. [29]The ND’s opposition to Christianity has resulted in the rejection of the ideas of the Old Catholic Right and the neo-liberal Anglo-American Right. [11] It should be noted that, although it is acceptable, it should be noted that „Judaism is certainly right for the Jews,“ „Islam is for the Arabs, and we can not accept the racist practice of imposing our cultural model on foreign peoples. “ [64]
While celebrating and defending Western civilization, GREECE condemned Westernization . [70] The ND was equally critical of both the Soviet Union and the United States. [62] The ND exhibits an intense anti-Americanism , rejecting what it perceives as the hyper-capitalist ethos of the United States. [71] It claims that both Europe and the Third World are allied in a struggle against American cultural imperialism. [64] Within the ND, there is no overt anti-Semitism . [41] McCulloch argued that anti-Semitic conspiracy theories were still present in the ND-affiliated members of the FN. [72]In the early 1990s, Georges Charbonneau announced that GRECE officially repudiated Holocaust denial . [73]However, one of the organization’s founders, Jean-Claude Valla, has stated that he personally believes the claims of Holocaust deniers. [73]
Beyond France
By the end of the 1980s, espousing publications New Right ideas had appeared in various European countries, namely Belgium, Spain, Italy, and Germany. [52] Works by Benoist and Guillaume Faye . [52]
ALTHOUGH mostly Known in France, selon Minkenberg, the New Right borders to other European „New Right“ movements, Such As Neue Rechte in Germany , New Right in the United Kingdom , Nieuw Rechts in the Netherlandsand Flanders, Forza Nuova in Italy , Imperium Europa in Malta , Nova Hrvatska Desnica in Croatia , Noua Dreapta in Romania and the New Right of Paul Weyrich and the Free Congress Foundationin the United States . [74]
This claim is disputed by most other scholars, who argues that the European Right has some superficial similarities to certain sectors of the New Right in the United States , but not the entire New Right coalition. The European New Right is similar to the Cultural Conservatism movement led by Paul Weyrich and the Free Congress Foundation , and to the related traditionalism of paleoconservatives Such As Pat Buchanan and the Chronicles magazine of the Rockford Institute (Diamond Himmelstein, Berlet and Lyons). These subgroups of the New Right Coalition in the United States are closely linked to Christianity, whichNew Right rejects, describing itself as a pagan movement. [75] Both Jonathan Marcus, Martin Lee and Alain de Benoist himself have highlighted these important differences with the US New Right Coalition. [76]
As Martin Lee explains,
By rejecting Christianity as an alien ideology that was forced upon the Indo-European peoples two millennia ago, New Rightists distinguished themselves from the so-called New Right that emerged in the United States during the 1970s. Ideologically, [the European new Right group] GREECE had little in common with the American New Right, which [the European new Right ideologist] of Benoist dismissed as a puritanical, moralistic crusade that clung pathetically to Christianity as the be-all and endangered all of Western civilization. [77]
United Kingdom
The New Right also developed in the United Kingdom, where the term „New Right“ was more closely associated with the Thatcherite policies introduced under the Conservative Party Administration of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher . [78] The British far right first collaborated with the New Right in 1979, when a GREECE delegation met with the League of St. George in London. It was claimed that the meeting went well, there was no further collaboration between the groups. [79] The New Right’s ideas were pursued in Britain when far right activist Michael Walker launched the National Democratmagazine in 1981, renaming it The Scorpion in 1983. During the 1980s and in the early 1990s, Walker then co-hosted several conferences with a group called Islands of the North Atlantic (IONA), which was led by Richard Lawson; These conferences were attended by New Right figures like De Benoist. [82][80] Walker had been a senior member of Britain’s National Front, and believed that it had failed to achieve its goals because it had neither engaged with culture nor won over intellectuals to its cause.[52] He felt that the Nouvelle Droite thinkers could aid the British far right by challenging two of its „sacred cows“: biological racism and conspiracy theories.[52] In his publication, Walker produced translations of some of De Benoit and Faye’s writings.[81]
After Walker left Britain for Cologne , his role as promoter of the New Right in Britain was taken over by Lawson, who launched the meta-political magazine Perspectives in the early 1990s; This was re-launched as Radical Shift in 1997, but remained uninfluential. [83] In the mid-1990s, some hard-right Conservatives co-operated with members of the British National Party (BNP) to establish the Bloomsbury Forum, a self-described „New Right“ group that modeled itself on GRECE. [84] After Nick Griffintook over the BNP in 1999, he reformed it in a manner based on the French National Front and the New Right. [85] In certain ways Griffin’s BNP remained distinct from the New Right, however, for instance by not embracing the latter’s wholesale rejection of Christianity. [86] The terminology of the New Right, in particular that „ethno-pluralism“, has also been adopted by the British National Anarchist Troy Southgate . [87]
Reception
The New Right has gained a wide range of enemies. [49] Although many liberals and socialists have claimed that they have been left socially unjustly, the leftist journal Telos has praised the ND’s ability to transcend the left-right paradigm. . [49] The Right to Know the Right and the Right of Anglo-American Right for its Anti-Capitalist and Anti-Western Views, and by the Catholic Right for the United States irreligious and anti-Christian views. [88]
The New Right has been the subject of various studies since its emergence in the 1970s. [89] Benoist has responded negatively to Bar-On’s work, claiming that the latter „unceasingly attributes to the positions that are not belong to it, and are even sometimes diametrically opposed.“ [90]