Far-right fight groups endorse ‘youth clubs' targeting US young men and boys
So-called 'active clubs' have proliferated across the US and are a combination of fitness and mixed martial arts groups that often espouse neo-Nazi and fascist ideologies, openly taking their historical cues from the Third Reich's obsession with machismo and European soccer hooliganism.
Active clubs have emerged as perhaps the most dangerous form of far-right political organizing today. With links to other militant organizations, including Patriot Front, they encourage a seemingly mainstream version of masculinity, layered with ideologies promoting a US race war and using the popularity of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) as a gateway to recruiting.
Earlier this month, their main Telegram account, endorsed 'youth clubs', which are chapters beginning to spring up online across the country, showing pictures of 18-year-olds and under engaging in mixed martial arts, racist meme-ing, and posts referencing genocidal and bigoted literature.
'Youth clubs are for those under 18 that still want to get active,' said the recent active club post with thousands of views, linking to the central account of all youth clubs.
By all appearances, these youth clubs are proliferating. On Telegram alone, there are accounts showing nationwide chapters with photos of teens between the ages of 16 to 18 in Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, the New England states, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, Washington DC, lowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Michigan, among others.
The chapters have close to a thousand followers in total and in some cases list the same recruitment contact, suggesting a certain level of national coordination and vetting – an important aspect of far-right recruiting done to prevent against police or antifascist infiltration.
'Unapologetically Pro White', posted one of the youth clubs, adding they were also 'American Nationalist'.
Combined with the massive popularity among teen boys of the Tate brothers, mixed martial arts enthusiasts in their own right, young men and boys have emerged as the prime targets for far-right recruitment in recent years.
'The youth clubs are part of the same concept of active clubs' white supremacism '3.0' strategy: a decentralized movement focused on combat sports, fitness, propaganda activities, and building local groups,' said Joshua Fisher-Birch, an analyst of the American far right who has documented its rise for nearly 10 years.
'The youth clubs are self-described white nationalist activist groups for young men 18 and younger who train in combat sports and participate in extreme right propaganda activities.'
Their direct links to active clubs aren't a secret or hidden, either.
Fisher-Birch continued: 'Several youth club Telegram channels have also shared posts from active club-affiliated accounts. Additionally, youth club chapter logos are modeled on active club symbols. The logos are nearly identical in some cases.'
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The network of active clubs' original founder, Robert Rundo, pleaded guilty in 2024 to conspiracy to riot at 2017 political rallies in California. During that period, he was the leader of the Rise Above Movement, a violent neo-Nazi gang that promoted combat sports and physical assault of perceived enemies. Four of its members were charged for their part in the infamous 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Rundo and other members of the active clubs network made it clear in the past that they saw young men and boys as the next and important frontier for building the new American fascist movement.
Writing in a 2022 post on one of its main websites Rundo and others described how their 'tools of persuasion' can draw underage boys to join them. Along with flyers and stickers of local areas with their Nazi propaganda they told followers to 'target boxing and MMA tournaments, gyms, and motocross courses', but then went further.
'Ground-level intelligence collection might then inform that same activist crew that changing demographics at a local high school have led to gang-beatings of minority White youth,' they said. 'The cunning and resourceful activists see this news as [an] opportunity for a campaign focusing on the importance of a Brotherhood of young White men having each other's backs.'
During the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler made it a staple of his regime to create the Hitler Youth organization for minors to learn combat and survivalism skills under the guise of self-improvement and nationalist pride. Ever since, modern neofascists and Nazis like active clubs, have always placed particular emphasis on securing the next generation of white supremacy.
'You will grow up to be men,' Hitler once said at one of his German rallies for his young acolytes.
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