¡No Pasarán!: How anti-fascist activists in Oslo (re)configure strategies in relation to history, social relations and far-right movements

This thesis explores the ways in which contemporary anti-fascist activism in Oslo is shaped by history, politics and social relations, with a particular focus on far-right movements. Using the strategic interactionist perspective (SIP) and the Dynamics of Contention (DOC) research program as theoretical frameworks for the analysis, this thesis answers four research questions. These research questions are concerned with i) the activists’ subjective legitimations of contemporary anti-fascist activism, ii) who are perceived as central influencing actors, iii) how the activists perceive contemporary far-right movements, and iv) how anti-fascist networks (re)configure repertoires and strategies in relation to their contemporary operating environment. The data material consists of six qualitative, in-depth interviews with five anti-fascist activists and participant observation of two counterdemonstrations. The respondents were recruited using snowball sampling via encrypted messaging apps. Due to anti-fascist activists’ fear of reprisals from political opponents and the police, anonymity and acquisition of trust are essential aspects of this thesis. This thesis pursues an understanding of individual activists’ subjective interpretations and experiences of their activism. The theoretical frameworks emphasise the role of relations among actors in collective political action. SIP and DOC allow for interpreting processes of collective action as being constituted by the relations between present actors. As the anti-fascist movement fundamentally exists as a physical reaction to its political opponents, the relations between them are seen as essential for the movement’s developments. This thesis finds that the diversification of the far-right in particular has a significant impact on anti-fascist activism. The diversification has made the far-right challenging to define, which consequentially restructures the anti-fascist activists’ strategies, constraints and possibilities. The anti-fascist movement has also become diversified as a response, and several distinct anti-fascist networks coexist. Two main trajectories are identified. First, some networks pursue conventional anti-fascist strategies that are grounded in historical and ideological reasonings. These networks are able to maintain the anti-fascist collective identity and forms of protest learned by the movement’s history. The second strategic evaluation highlights pragmatic and broader forms of protest, which poses a strategic dilemma between maintaining the anti-fascist heritage versus (re)configuring their strategic evaluations for contemporary contexts and goals. The cooperation between these networks constitutes the sum of the anti-fascist movement in Oslo and allow the networks to construct an approach that is both composed of its political heritage as well as wider participation. Other influencing actors and developments are also examined. Specifically, the police force and recent US media representations shape the activists’ ability to reach contemporary aims and participate in public discourse. The internet is identified as an important arena of interaction, as contemporary processes of far-right radicalisation necessitates a discussion on the strategic limitations of anti-fascism. This is because anti-fascism traditionally has physically confronted organised far-right movements, which is inevitably transformed in the context of online manifestations of the far-right. The findings of this thesis are linked to recent research on anti-fascist activism and radical left-libertarian movements in Sweden and Denmark. This thesis does therefore contribute to a fuller understanding of the anti-fascist movement in Scandinavia as a whole, which is important due to the movement’s critical developments towards pragmatism and its augmented attention in international media