Photos of young men with bare chests and arms crossed standing in front of flags with runic or Celtic symbols are multiplying on social media. These images are not of ordinary sports clubs, but show a transnational far-right network called Active Clubs.

Hidden behind innocuous rhetoric of self-improvement and calls to become “the best version of yourself,” these groups actually promote a form of virile camaraderie infused with white nationalism and accelerationist ideology. Their core belief is that forging a strong and disciplined body is essential to prepare for an anticipated racial war and for what they describe as the “reconquest” of western civilization.

Our analysis is based on a body of 1,000 publications from Telegram channels linked to Active Clubs, as well as internal media resources within the movement. With our colleague Isaac Gnochinni, we recently published the results in the journal Amnis.

Active Clubs originated in the United States, drawing inspiration from the Rise Above Movement, founded in 2017 by Californian neo-Nazi activist Robert Rundo. From exile in Romania, Rundo developed the idea of a network of local, decentralized clubs based on a simple principle: replacing large, hierarchical organizations with small autonomous cells that are harder to dismantle and where physical training becomes a vehicle for radicalization.

Chapters now exist in Canada, Europe and Australia. According to the American organization Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, their numbers have grown by 25 per cent since 2023, with 187 clubs in 27 countries.

Training........

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