Norway: a taste of the magma

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Magma (from Greek μάγμα "paste") is a mixture of molten rock, volatiles and solids that is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and may also exist on other terrestrial planets. Wikipedia

The Norwegian right wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik, who killed at least 76 people in two terrorist attacks Jul. 22 Oslo and Utoya, is a member of a network of more than 10,000 neo-fascist groups spread across North America and Western and Northern Europe. Common to this informal North Atlantic neo-fascist coalition is the hatred of Islam, the radical opposition to immigration and to multicultural society, the belief in white racial supremacy and in Christian fundamentalism, the unconditional support of Israel, sympathies for the U.S. ‘Tea Party’ movement, and contempt for democratic institutions. Sympathetic to these neo-fascist groups are extreme right wing parties functioning in practically all European countries, from the Norwegian Progress Party, the Sweden Democrats, the True Fins, and the Danish People’s Party, to the French Front National (FN), and the Italian Lega Nord. The perpetrator of the massacre on Jul. 22 was a long-standing member of the Norwegian Progress Party. IPS

Interviewed on a popular radio show, Francesco Speroni, a leading member of the Northern League, the junior partner in Berlusconi's conservative coalition, said: "Breivik's ideas are in defence of western civilisation."(...) "If [Breivik's] ideas are that we are going towards Eurabia and those sorts of things, that western Christian civilisation needs to be defended, yes, I'm in agreement," he told Radio 24. In France, the National Front announced on Tuesday it had suspended a former local election candidate who made remarks on his blog that were interpreted as supportive of Breivik. Guardian

Glenn Beck spoke out about the mass killings in Norway on his Monday radio show. Beck said that he was troubled by the summer camp that was the site of the overwhelming majority of the carnage perpetrated by Anders Behring Breivik, the right-wing extremist who has admitted to the killings. The camp is run by Norway's leading center-left party, the Labor Party, and has long been a haven for young people looking to break into the political scene. Beck said the camp "sounds a little like the Hitler Youth. I mean, who does a camp for kids that's all about politics? Disturbing." He then went on to say that he had warned that there would be horrible consequences due to the rise of what he called the "evil" strain of Islam in Europe. Islam, he said, is "squeezing the neck" of the continent, and multiculturalism is "killing" it. Huffpost

Lone gunmen running amok killing numerous people is widely seen as an "only in America-mom and apple-pie", US specialty, so no American should feel smug for a moment about Anders Breivik's Norwegian shooting spree. Nor should anyone think that America's ultra-right is any less insane than Europe's or further away from power than Europe's... The Tea Party led debt negotiations are ample proof of that.

Given the access to guns and explosive that Americans have, and the training in using them that so many Americans have received and the general craziness of the American "conservatives", the world of Glenn Beck and his wannabes, I would be very surprised if somebody doesn't try to top the Norwegian massacre in America any day now.

What is very much needed at this precise moment is a rigorous cui bono analysis of the ultra-right, in Europe and America. Who profits from this insanity, what is in it for them? What economic or geopolitical interests activate or free ride on the milieu where Breivik was nourished?

This neo-fascist culture has to be explored in depth and the dots have to be connected. That should be the first task that progressive set themselves today. DS