American neo-Nazi fight clubs are rapidly spreading around the world

A dozen men wearing black masks and sunglasses, preventing any open-source researcher from identifying them, appeared in June in a video posted on Telegram outside city hall in the Canadian city of London.

"Mass deportations now," they shouted in unison, holding banners with the same slogan. "No blood for Israel."

While such scenes of masked men shouting slogans are relatively common in the United States, this incident in Canada has revealed the background to a growing global movement: neo-Nazi "action clubs" - American neo-fascist fighting groups that are rapidly spreading across borders.

London, a major Canadian city located in the industrial belt of the province of Ontario, has a long history of ties to the Ku Klux Klan dating back to the 1920s and the racist murder of a Pakistani-Canadian family in 2021. However, the presence of an active club, which has also appeared in nearby towns and cities such as Toronto, the country's largest metropolis, is a relatively new phenomenon.

"Welcome to Hamilton, our city," reads a Telegram post from the same Canadian active club, with the club's symbol plastered on a sign for one of Ontario's largest cities. "People - Family - Future!"

Canada is not the only country where these clubs are popping up. Groups posing as fitness and MMA clubs are springing up all over the world, operating in local gyms and parks, promoting neo-Nazi and fascist ideologies. These clubs are already found throughout the US, and they openly invoke the historical legacy of the Third Reich and its obsession with machismo, while finding contemporary inspiration in European football hooliganism.

According to recent research published by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE), as of 2023, these clubs have begun to sprout in Sweden, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, the UK, Finland, and for the first time in Latin America, with one branch each in Chile and Colombia.

According to GPAHE research, these clubs now have branches in 27 countries, while new youth sections, similar to the Hitler Youth, are rapidly spreading both in the United States and abroad, "metastasizing" across Western countries and recruiting young men to toxic, far-right ideologies that call for race war.

"The active clubs model was conceived by Rob Rundo," said Heidi Bajrich, founder of GPAHE, referring to the notorious New York neo-Nazi who pleaded guilty in 2024 to conspiracy to incite violence at a 2017 political rally in California.

At the time, Rundo was also the leader of the Rise Above Movement, a neo-Nazi gang whose members were indicted for their role in the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. He later turned to promoting the idea of active clubs among followers as new centers of fascist indoctrination and recruitment.

"As far as we know, Rundo is not directly involved in the work of the movement's branches in a systemic way, but those branches are inspired by him and the ideology he represents," Bajrich said.

She added that while Rundo likely does not participate in the work of these groups, they fit into his original vision of "autonomous and local" active clubs. Many chapters, especially in countries with white populations, some of which have openly leaned towards racism and nativism in recent years, promote each other as part of a global struggle and are connected through a network of accounts on the Telegram app.

According to recent research published by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE), as of 2023, these clubs have begun to sprout in Sweden, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, the UK, Finland, and for the first time in Latin America, with one branch each in Chile and Colombia.

A special set of Telegram accounts that have become a kind of "trendsetter" in neo-Nazi circles online, promote local branches of active clubs around the world and praise those they consider role models worth emulating.

These same accounts also glorify the work of Thomas Sewell, a well-known and violent Australian neo-Nazi, who promotes groups in his country based on the model of active clubs.

"Their organization should be a model for every dissident group throughout European civilization," reads one post expressing admiration for Sewell and his group.

Bayrich alleges that Sewell, who previously admitted trying to recruit the Christchurch mass murderer into one of his previous groups, is ideologically close to Rundo.

"Sewell, just like Rundo, is a violent neo-Nazi who recruits new members to prepare them for violence against political enemies and communities he targets - such as immigrants, Jews and the LGBTQ+ population," she said, adding that he organizes MMA training and tournaments to attract new followers.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship and the combat sports that fall under its umbrella have become a hotbed of far-right sentiment. Similarly, both Sewell and Rundo promote these sports as a means to create street fighters, modern-day "brownshirts," for their movement.

The active clubs model was conceived by Rob Rundo, said Heidi Bajrich, founder of GPAHE, referring to the notorious New York neo-Nazi who pleaded guilty in 2024 to conspiracy to incite violence at a 2017 political rally in California.

Other organizations, more politically explicit and publicly engaged through activism, have recognized this model of organized violence as a way to attract new members and consolidate their own ranks. The Patriot Front, an American proto-fascist group known for its public marches and propaganda after natural disasters, openly associates itself with the active club movement.

The leader of the group, Thomas Russo, recently posted a group photo of himself with a group of men training in wrestling and striking at a martial arts gym in North Texas.

Bajrih described how Patriot Front members "often work closely with branches of active clubs," including joint MMA training. On Telegram, active clubs regularly share Patriot Front propaganda content.

"Join the Patriot Front if you're in America," reads a post on Telegram linked to active clubs, which has been viewed nearly three thousand times.

Translation: A. Š.