ABSTRACT
Over the past few decades, the extreme right in the United States has taken on an increasingly revolutionary orientation. Extrapolating trends, such as demographics, immigration and crime, the movement's prognosticators have frequently warned of an impending societal implosion. In late 2005 representatives of the movement cited three events in particular as further proof of this sombre future: Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath in New Orleans; the riots that convulsed the suburbs of Paris; and an interethnic mêlée that occurred on a beach in Sydney, Australia between native Whites and Middle Eastern immigrants. This article critically examines these three events from the perspective of the American far right. Analysing the contemporary discourse of this milieu can provide an indication of where the movement is likely to be headed in the near future but, more than this, it can also help to provide important insights as to how issues of race, immigration and multiculturalism may play out in the wider American society. As Jeffrey Kaplan and Leonard Weinberg, two noted observers of political extremism, have correctly argued, ‘the study of this esoteric subculture can foretell national controversies yet to take place’. 1
