A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #352 - Anti-Fascism, Symbols of the Far Right: Knowing Them to Better Fight Them (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The stylized flame of the FN and then the RN, the fleur-de-lys of the 
Action Française... these characteristic symbols of the French far right 
are now well anchored in the landscape "in our cities and our 
countryside" to use one of their favorite expressions. In recent years, 
groups and small groups have appeared thanks to the profusion of 
far-right ideas and dissolutions. New codes have emerged. Here are some 
elements to identify them in order to be able to make them invisible (by 
tearing off the stickers when possible or by covering them, while 
ensuring the legality of the sticking, let's avoid fines for this as 
much as possible!).

The principle of code, sign of recognition and symbolism is important in 
all political camps. By forging a visual identity, it is a question of 
participating in creating a sense of belonging and identification that 
is conveyed through logos, flags, stickers, and graphic charters.

For the left, without claiming to be exhaustive, the symbols identified 
are the communist hammer and sickle, the red star, the 
anarcho-syndicalist black cat, or the red triangle, originally a 
distinctive sign attached to the chest of political prisoners in Nazi 
concentration camps, which later became an anti-fascist symbol through 
the reversal of the stigma[1].

The far right is no exception to the rule and also has its own 
symbolism. However, this political camp attaches particular importance 
to cryptic visual codes, which require reading keys to be decoded.

There are at least two reasons for this.

The first is that fascists sometimes defend ideas that are so violent 
that they provoke (for the moment) a broad rejection from the population 
when they are stated openly.

Thus, openly advocating genocide or making explicitly racist or 
homophobic remarks can - even if too rarely - expose them to legal 
proceedings, or more modestly to moderation measures on social networks 
- banning, shadow banning (the fact that algorithms silently stop 
promoting content) or demonetization.

Using codes to spread these ideas then serves to sow doubt and dodge 
sanctions.

The second reason is that the far right, a great fan of conspiracy 
theories, likes to consider itself an elite capable of seeing through 
the subterfuges of their enemies (the media, politicians, Freemasons, 
wokes, etc.) and distinguishing itself from a mass that, on the 
contrary, lets itself be fooled by these stratagems.

Also, the gradual learning of codes serves as an initiation ritual that 
separates the camp of "those who know" from that of the "sheep", the 
"useful idiots", as they call them, and forges a connivance between the 
former.

This tactic is not new. We can cite the infamous example of 
"international finance", a euphemism used by the Nazis to designate the 
Jews when they addressed a large audience.

In the age of the internet, this code system is called 
dogwhistle[2]which literally refers to whistles that produce a sound too 
high-pitched to be heard by humans and to which only dogs respond.

Since they lose their interest when they become too well-known to the 
rest of the world, these codes change very often. To take a recent 
example on social networks, the extreme right has taken to using the 
term and image of the "celestial dragons", which originally referred to 
a decadent and literally untouchable aristocracy in the universe of the 
manga One Piece, to talk (once again) about Jews.

More unusual, a few years ago, this same community displayed the world 
map emoji in their profile. This symbol referred to a pseudo-scientific 
work by psychologist Richard Lynn who claimed, thanks to a dubious 
methodology, to have determined the average IQ of all the nations of the 
world. His results were intended to show that the IQs of African 
countries were ridiculously low.

When used well, these dogwhistles can be used to implement mass 
harassment tactics. With them, a fascist can very quickly identify 
another fascist engaged in an online debate and can immediately gang up 
on them against their interlocutor, or even call for reinforcements.

These codes make it harder for people who are not aware of these tactics 
to identify racist or sexist speech, while retaining their deleterious 
effects on the people targeted.

This is why it is important for antifascists to keep an eye on the (very 
rapid) evolutions of these codes and their meaning.

This involves tedious monitoring work, which fortunately does not need 
to be done individually - specialized collectives take care of it and 
share their analyses to counter this far-right strategy.

Tools for identifying far-right symbolism
Until recently, there was no platform that systematically listed all of 
these symbols. We could count on the remarkable antifa monitoring of the 
comrades of La Horde who were responsible for listing the work of local 
groups on their site[3]but also for producing a series of articles on 
some of these symbols (Celtic cross, black sun, coat of arms of the 
Charlemagne division, etc.).

Since the end of 2022, a dedicated site, Indextreme, has been created. 
Its objective is simple: to list as many "symbols created, diverted, 
reappropriated in all their variations by the neofascist and neo-Nazi 
far right since the end of the Second World War to the present 
day[...]identified on French territory" "About", Indextrême: 
https://indextreme.fr/a-propos/.

Indextrême was originally the brainchild of two people (it has since 
become a collective): photojournalist Ricardo Parreira and designer 
Geoffrey Dorne - the site's graphics are very successful, which has the 
merit of making browsing this mass of symbols somewhat pleasant. It is a 
small gold mine for obtaining information on the codes used by the far 
right. These are classified by category: acronyms, animals, numbers, 
crosses, flags, gestures, brands, historical or fictional characters, 
emojis, etc.

For each symbol, a detailed sheet specifies its context of appearance, 
its use and indicates links to online resources (La Horde, Médiapart, 
StreetPress, Rapports de force, Rebellyon, etc.) and photos of the 
symbol "in action".

The collective has also produced three excellent infographics: on the 
Nazi symbols used between 1933 and 1945 (and on those today that are 
inspired by them), on the symbols used in anti-communist rock circles 
(RAC) and by National Socialist Black Metal (NSBM) and finally a 
chronology of far-right symbols from prehistory to the present day[4].

Recurring criteria
How can you easily spot a far-right symbol? After consulting several 
thousand of them, we were able to see that some elements stand out.

Here are some points to watch out for regarding the colors, typography 
(font) or slogans used.

The recurring colors are those of the "classic" far-right movements: 
navy blue and golden yellow, characteristic of the Action Française 
logo, but also white, black and red (a direct reference to the colors of 
the Nazi flag), as in the case of the symbol "FCK AFA" (Fuck Antifa or 
"fuck the antifascists") or "FCK RFGS" (Fuck Refugees or "fuck the 
refugees").

Concerning the fonts used, our class enemies having tastes that reflect 
their ideas, an illegible gothic script is generally a good indicator 
that you are in the presence of a far-right symbol.

Another typeface appreciated by far-right groups, particularly the 
Ultras - and sometimes, unfortunately, also taken up by some far-left 
groups - is the Ultras Liberi font, used by Ouest Casual.

Finally, as for slogans, any reference to the words "French", 
"identity", "invasion", "national", "homeland", "sovereignty" or 
expressions such as "first", "at home", "in our cities/countryside/etc." 
should raise a red flag.

Since anti-fascist vigilance is everyone's business, now that you've 
been warned, pass the article on to your friends!

UCL Anti-Fascist Commission

Validate
[1]Claim, appropriation of a stigmatization made against it.

[2]"Reperages: the dog whistle, it stirs up", Alternative libertaire, 
no. 328, June 2022.

[3]"Petits guides des symbole d'extrême droite", January 20, 2013, 
Lahorde.info. See also the work of the Antifascist Committee 06 on their 
Instagram account: comiteantifasciste06

[4]"Infographies", Indextrême: https://indextreme.fr/infographies/

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Symboles-de-l-extreme-droite-Les-connaitre-pour-mieux-les-combattre
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