ABSTRACT
Nouvelle Résistance (NR) was a left-leaning national revolutionary groupuscule founded by long-time French activist Christian Bouchet in 1991. In contrast to the generally ‘nostalgic’ neo-fascist grouplets of the 1960s (such as Occident), which tended to adopt intransigent pro-Western, anti-communist and pro-colonial platforms during the height of the Cold War, NR adopted a much more radical political programme characterized by pan-Europeanism, anti-Americanism and Third Worldism, the proclaimed goal of which was the unification of all ‘anti-system’ forces, rightist and leftist, in a common struggle against the globalist New World Order. In that sense, it was in certain ways representative of the ongoing radicalization of younger generations of European neo-fascists, who increasingly sought to jettison the parochial nationalism, vulgar racism and cultural conservatism of the past and forge a new, ‘hipper’ rightist youth (counter)culture. A detailed examination of NR’s history, organization, ideology and political tactics therefore serves to illuminate many broader topics, including the nature and significance of the ‘groupuscular’ form of organization, the cultural transformation of the postwar radical right, the increasingly close interaction between certain types of right- and left-wing extremists, and the complex ideological bases of fascism itself.
