While some people from the formerly united white power skinhead scene were seeking political forms of work and influencing the public, hardline militants were getting deeper involved in violence and terror. Couple of years ago the neonazis divided themselves in two main streams of the movement. One, being presented by semi legal and legal organisations and political parties, such as Narodni Aliance (National Alliance) and Vlastenecka Fronta (Patriotic Front). The other, consisting mainly of subculture of boneheads and hooligans, being loosely organised in street gangs and action groups, such as Narodni odpor (National Resistance) and Obrana Naroda (National defence).

Those two streams were closely cooperating and supporting each other, while sometimes claiming being opposite. The fascist scene includes some 5000 – 7000 supporters and about a 500 – 800 hardcore activists. These are mainly open neonazi skinheads and are publicly supported by tens of thousands of far right parties voters.

The more open and politically oriented neonazis formed number of patriotic organisations, which were very active in propaganda, fundraising and organising the movement. The most important of those groups are Narodni Aliance and Vlastenecka Fronta. Both claim to be patriotic and no fascist. However, they often cooperate with militant neonazis. They organised number of rallies, mainly on national holidays. They organised number of major demonstrations, with attendance of several hundreds followers. On these actions, the speakers were attacking the antifascist scene, ethnic minorities and claiming holocaust was a lie. Those public meetings forced the state to ban the organising parties and this ban is in process now. On one demo a leader of Narodni Aliance was arrested for hate crime charges and was imprisoned for 4 months – later freed on bail. Some of those public actions were confronted by antifascist – mainly on 22.4. (Hitler’s birthday anniversary) in Jihlava and at largest gathering at city of Most. Both places are poverty stricken regions and full of class and racial tensions and those meetings were trying to reach working class people. On both occasions the antifa made counter demos and some street fights were the results with AFA being the overall winner (it is not always the case). There were two magazines published by legal organisations. They are not published at the present – probably due to internal disputes, but they were of good technical quality and showed that nazis are probably getting larger sums of money from abroad and from business oriented supporters.

The more hardline part of the movement was trying to get organised, too. Their activities were more focused on inner consolidation and for the preparation of more effective methods of war. They see themselves as political soldiers of race war like SA. The older people in the movement were replaced by the younger ones, and the well known activists from Blood and Honour and Bohemia Hammerskins are not as active as before. There are some new groups, rooted deeply in white power subculture and lifestyle, focusing more on street confrontation and violent, sometimes terrorist kind of actions. The most militant activists formed groups like Narodni Odpor and Obrana Naroda, typically consisting of about a 20-50 members. There were many zines published both on paper ant on internet and a lot of music bands were playing. There were dozens of concerts organised all over the country, sometimes on the same spot again and again. The most notable concerts attracted as many as 800 people – last one being the joint action of Narodni Odpor and German Hammerskins from Sachsen Region. Czech groups are cooperating with groups abroad, mainly from Slovakia, Germany, Scandinavia, Serbia and Britain. They claim to found a division of Combat 18 group, but it is probably more a statement of militancy rather than direct affiliation. The Czech neonazi movement is very active and internationally considered as one of the most significant – for example B&H activist Max Hammer called the Czech Republic the promised land for Aryans.

Generally, the situation is rather stable, with the whole movement being less active then years before. There were many activities toward unification of fascists and cooperation with like groups abroad (Junge National Democraten in Germany) but such unity did not happen. The neonazis are being publicly loathed and marginalised, but their activities are largely unopposed by the government or general public. The Antifascist Action is an exception in directing the neonazis and confronting them even physically. Such tactics was partly successful. Most notable confrontation happened on 23. 9. during large AFA demo of 4000 people connected to S26 anti corporate protests. AFA members attacked larger group of neonazis leaving the counter S26 manifestation – some fascists were seriously wounded. During the massive S26 protests three days later the National Resistance militants were actively stalking lone anarchists and attacking them. Being lately arrested during massive clampdown, guns were found within the members of this group. The neonazis are sort of regionally organised with different levels of supports, their movement being strongest in Prague, in Moravia and in Northern Bohemia – mostly working class areas.

Lately, about hundred of members from Narodni Aliance and leading figures of Narodni Odpor became members the rather nonsignificant Vlastenecka Republikanska Strana – Patriotic Republican Party. They were independent candidates in its ranks in the last regional elections. The whole party received about 5000 votes and fascist candidates got about half of those votes. The fascists will no doubt try to control the party – get legal platform for their activities, skip the lengthy and blocked process of establishing a new legal party and attract more followers. On The 3rd March of this year, there was a meeting of the party with new fascist members participating. The new emerged party – National Socialist Bloc aims to unite all fascist activists under one organization. Among leaders of this party are leaders of Narodni Odpor Filip Vavra and Narodni Aliance Vladimir Skoupy. The meeting was met with strong resistance of about 80 antifascist, who attacked the comunnity centre, where it took place. Heavy clashes with police, which protected the fascists, followed – 19 antifas were arrested, 3 people injured. The meeting was partially disrupted, some fascists chased on the streets.

More radical fascist activists will continue in clandestine activities and conspiracy and will orient part of the movement on acts of terror and random violence – taking their example from Combat 18 and groups like The Order. The risk of serious terrorist activities is high, although not imminent. So far, the fascist violence has claimed about 25 lives in the past 10 years – mainly Roma (gypsies), immigrants and anarchists. The total number of violent racist and fascist crimes goes in thousands. The public response was with few exceptions very low. The police investigate such crimes rather passively and often cooperates with fascists openly.

Czech AFA can be contacted at: international[at]antifa.cz
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