Neonazism and the German youth.

[Rjevan]

According to new studies about youth violence, right wing ideas are becoming more and more popular with the youth in Germany.
Excerpts from an article (http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,613844,00.html) in the "Spiegel":


14.4% of the interviewed pupils (every 7th) are to be considered as xenophobic. They showed great agreement with the statement "Most foreigners are criminals" or "The foreigners living in Germany are no enrichment to the German culture".
What's strinking: the xenophobia is strongest in regions with very few foreigners.

5.2% of the interviewed youths are clearly right wing, which is worrying because this is more than the established democratic parties attract as new youth members.
Since many social groups are closing down, the nazis fill the gaps in the leisure time facilities.

The government and Mr Schäuble, Minister of the Interior, show themselves very worried and appeal to the youth organisations to do more for the youths and prevent the right wingers from filling the gaps in the leisure time facilities.

I think this is a really worrying development but it fits into my personal experiances; right wing ideas are often considered as good solution and young people say that they are experiencing "wonderful values and companionship" at the right wing groups. Stereotypes and unemployment are doing the rest and currently no one sees any problem with racistic statements, "Jew" is a common cuss under the teenagers and sentences like "Well, look at Israel, maybe it would have been better if uncle Adi would have finished his job." or graffities saying "Scum Turks of to the KZ! (no joke, this one is in the city where I live)" are getting more common.
Every single day my wish for leaving this country grows stronger... :(

[Pogue]

Mate although its not as bad over here by any stretch its worrying. We need to seriously get into gear with organising against it because the far-right is getting unprecedented gains amongst youths, because racism is perpeptuated in the mainstram by reacitonary papers and slimy racist groups/parties who weasle in and spread hatred. The left wing is not very good at responding to this and is limited in what it can and does do. We need to grow and spread, fill the space and get the right ideas out there in place of fascist ones.

[communard resolution]

We're talking youths, and youths want action, friendship/comradeship, fun, excitement, and danger - all of which far-right groups and gangs offer to varying degrees. What programs do we have on offer for youths to fill the "gaps in the leisure time facilities" that the Spiegel writes about?

I think this may be less about idelogy than it is about having something exciting to do with your time. True, there are more neo-nazis in areas of Germany where the percentage of foreigners is relatively low (I don't find this quite as "striking" as the Spiegel seems to, for it only takes an imagined enemy to become a fascist), but these are also the areas where youth unemployment is the highest: the former GDR.

[communard resolution]

the far-right is getting unprecedented gains amongst youths

Is this really true? My impression is that the hard-core far right is mostly made up of people over 30 in the UK. Some guy on Scumfront even bemoaned that "Britain lacks a far-right youth movement" in a recent thread, and I tend to agree.

[Melbourne Lefty]

We're talking youths, and youths want action, friendship/comradeship, fun, excitement, and danger - all of which far-right groups and gangs offer to varying degrees. What programs do we have on offer for youths to fill the "gaps in the leisure time facilities" that the Spiegel writes about?


Yup.

You see the videos of far-right marches in Germany and Italy and the left wing marches against them and the striking thing is that [aside from Antifa] the average age of the fash is much younger, and of course massively male dominated.


Is this really true? My impression is that the hard-core far right is mostly made up of people over 30 in the UK. Some guy on Scumfront even bemoaned that "Britain lacks a far-right youth movement" in a recent thread, and I tend to agree.

In terms of youth activism the far right in the UK has nothing much to write home about.

But in the latest You-Gove poll the popularity of the BNP amongst young people [teens and 20's] was just as high as amongst old people.

The dip was in the baby boomer section. If a far right youth group got its act together [remote in the extreme] they might have material to work with.

[Rjevan]

I think this may be less about idelogy than it is about having something exciting to do with your time. True, there are more neo-nazis in areas of Germany where the percentage of foreigners is relatively low (I don't find this quite as "striking" as the Spiegel seems to, for it only takes an imagined enemy to become a fascist), but these are also the areas where youth unemployment is the highest: the former GDR.
Sadly, this is true. In Saxony, one of the most important federal states of the former GDR the NPD was voted into parliament with 9.2% in 2004.
The far right groups lure the yoth with interesting free time activities and indoctrinate them then. Whereas I have to say that they don't need to do much indoctrination, because the basis for their ideology is often already there.

Many youths in the former GDR simply look out for scapegoats because have have no jobs and according to studies most girls leave the east and go west because off the better jobs and universities there. The remaing male youth than is embittered because they have no girlfriend and no job and they blame it on the foreigners who "take away their girls and jobs". The NPD doesn't have to do much convincing and they also try to appeal to the bourgeoisis with "law and order", "Enough of lying politicians? Vote NPD!" and "Stop the dempralisation" slogans. This way they also attract people how aren't actually nazis but some sort of hardcore conservatives with a tendency towards fascism.

[Pogue]

Is this really true? My impression is that the hard-core far right is mostly made up of people over 30 in the UK. Some guy on Scumfront even bemoaned that "Britain lacks a far-right youth movement" in a recent thread, and I tend to agree.

Hm I suppose. I don't really know why I said that.