As the mastermind of far-right “activist clubs” goes to prison, his violent movement has gone global

American neo-Nazism Robert RondoHis six-year battle “with the feds” — a battle that has spanned two dismissals, three appeals decisions, and extradition and deportation from at least two countries — ends today with his sentencing to federal prison for attacking ideological opponents at political rallies across California. In 2017.

With a number of members Rise above the actiona street fighting gang that Rondo co-founded with fellow extremist Ben Daly in Southern California during the height of the alt-right movement, Rondo was convicted in 2018 on charges of conspiring to violate the federal riot law for training and planning an attack. A series of attacks on political opponents at rallies across California and the United Right in Virginia the previous year. Although Rondo may remain behind bars for years, the movement he created is spreading wildly around the world.

In the intervening years since his Initial arrestAfter being charged, imprisoned, and fleeing the United States after his case was initially dismissed in 2019, Rondo helped mastermind an international network of RAM clones known as “Active Clubs.” A transnational alliance of far-right fight clubs closely intertwined with skinhead gangs and neo-fascist political movements in North America, Europe, Antarctica, and South America. Active club network It spreads internationally. there Dozens of active clubs In the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Australia and Colombia, according to the presence of groups on Telegram and extremism researchers.

Seemingly innocuous from the outside, active clubs are small groups of young people who go on hikes, train in combat sports, lift weights, and build camaraderie — all part of the original program of the Rise Along movement. But the darkness is in the details: the membership of these groups often overlaps with other extremist organizations such as the Patriot Front, criminal skinhead groups such as the Hamskins, and other groups. Violent extremists In foreign countries. Some US-based activist clubs are branching out into politics Intimidation and violencelike the upward movement before them.

“I definitely think that in the future there has to be a mass movement, a mass organization, but when it comes down to it, do you really want a bunch of guys coming strictly from the online world to join a mass movement without having any experience or skills?” Rondo said in a video posted online shortly before his March 2023 arrest in Bucharest, Romania. “Active clubs are a great local way to get young people started as they transition from the online world to the real world, learning actual skills.”

The Active Club model features a low barrier to entry and a focus on positive community building to draw new blood from outside extremist circles, says Hannah Geiss, a senior research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center who has extensively researched Rondeau and his partners. An international network is ready. “This model has really made it easier to facilitate those transnational connections,” says Geiss. “If you’re not organized, you can reach out to whoever you want.”