From Canada to Finland, a US neo-Nazi fight club is rapidly spreading across the globe

‘Active clubs’ that use martial arts to espouse far-right, fascist ideologies are proliferating in the US and abroad

Around the world, Canada isn’t the only country being introduced to these clubs, which are fitness and mixed martial arts groups operating out of local gyms and parks that espouse neo-Nazi and fascist ideologies. Already proliferating across the US in a number of states, active clubs openly take their historical cues from the Third Reich’s obsession with machismo and their modern inspiration from European soccer hooliganism.

Recent research published by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) has shown that since 2023, these clubs are newly sprouting in Sweden, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, the UK, Finland and for the first time, in Latin America with two chapters in Chile and Colombia appearing.

According to the GPAHE research, there are now chapters in 27 countries, with new youth wings – akin to Hitler Youth-styled clubs – are surging stateside and abroad, “metastasizing” across western countries and recruiting young men into toxic, far-right ideologies encouraging race war.

“The Active Club model was designed by Rob Rundo,” said Heidi Beirich, founder of GPAHE, referring to an infamous neo-Nazi and New Yorker who pleaded guilty in 2024 to conspiracy to riot at 2017 political rallies in California.