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Siege (sometimes stylised as SIEGE[5]) is an anthology of essays first published as a single volume in 1992, written in 1980s by James Mason, a neo-Nazi and associate of the cult leader Charles Manson.[6] After growing disillusioned with the mass movement approach of neo-Nazi movements, he began advocating for white revolution through terrorism. Referred to as the "Godfather of Fascist Terrorism", Mason has been proscribed as a "terrorist entity" in Canada.”[7][8] Mason originally wrote the essays for the eponymous newsletter of the National Socialist Liberation Front, a militant splinter of the American Nazi Party.[9]

Content and ideology: "Siege Culture"

The ideology of Siege is commonly called "Siege Culture" by neo-Nazis and counter-extremism experts alike.[10] Siege Culture takes inspiration from Nazism and includes the idea of The System, which is a conspiracy of the government, Jews and capitalists acting against white interests. Within Siege Culture, Fascism is the highest truth and the natural state in which whites dominate all others. As a result, Siege Culture believes that any softening of the message to increase their appeal is impossible, and that any form of compromise is inherently flawed. Siege Culture is critical of other right-wingers who are seen as being uncommitted and resulting in a belief that they represent a revolutionary vanguard with access to special truths.[11][4] In a memo, the FBI mentions a "Siege network," which they describe as a "global network of online channels and real-world groups that cooperate with each other in analog reality."[12] Likewise Europol noted on "Terrorist Situation and Trend Report" for 2022 that "SIEGE and Accelerationism, both with significant potential for inciting violence, were the most prominent ideologies in 2021, especially attracting young people radicalised online."[13]

Members of Iron March, a neo-fascist[14] internet forum republished and popularized Mason's book "Siege" and its brand of explicitly terroristic neo-nazism.[6] According to International Centre for Counter-Terrorism:

While [ Atomwaffen Division and Russian Imperial Movement ] are serial purveyors of online extremism and often celebrate terrorism in their fora, deeper similarities extend to a shared ideological embrace of “accelerationism” and, in particular, a recently-revived doctrine advanced by the neo-Nazi ideologue, James Mason, now termed “Siege Culture.”...terroristic advocacy of “Siege Culture” has a radicalising effect on right-wing extremists".[15]

Although fringe ideology even among right-wing extremists, "Siege Culture has underpinned many of the recent counter terrorism cases linked to the extreme-right in the UK" according to Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats.[11] Siege is an obligatory read for those within the contemporary neo-Nazi movement today, and Mason is considered by some to be the most important fascist revolutionary alive.[15] Siege explicitly advocated “lone-wolf terrorism,” years before the better-known Louis Beam published his essay “Leaderless Resistance".[8] Having finally found his audience, Mason’s writings have inspired a global spike in militant neo-Nazi activity. Especially for younger neo-Nazis, since 2015 Siege has been a foundational text, arguably rivalling Mein Kampf. Counter-terrorists experts have found this concerning because Siege is at the "shamelessly terroristic" end of right-wing extremism".[15] Globally Siege Culture has been connected to innumerable terror attacks and plots, Counter Extremism Project connected Siege Culture to 25 terrorists in 2020 alone.[9] For example, in Finland in 2021 five men who according to the Finnish security services adhered to Siege Culture were arrested with assault rifles, over 40 kilos of ready explosives and hundreds of litres of explosive precursors.[16][17][18][19] According to the SPLC, the new generation neo-Nazis are going through "total immersion in Mason’s teleology [...] they are challenging the established far-right and far-left with their eagerness to perpetrate violence."[6]

The meme "Read Siege" and hashtag #ReadSiege became popular among the internet neo-Nazis and alt-right social media.[3]

Siege Culture organizations

  • Atomwaffen Division is an accelerationist neo-Nazi terror organization found in 2013 by Brandon Russell responsible for multiple murders and mass casualty plots. Atomwaffen has been proscribed as a terror organization in United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.[20]
  • The Base is a neo-Nazi, white supremacist and accelerationist paramilitary hate group and training network, formed in 2018 by Rinaldo Nazzaro and active in the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and Europe. As of November 2021 it is considered a terrorist organization in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.[14]
  • Combat 18 is a neo-Nazi organization that has been proscribed in Canada and Germany and is tied to the assassination of Walter Lübcke and the 2009 Vítkov arson attack.[21][22]
  • Nordic Resistance Movement is a pan-Nordic neo-Nazi organization that adheres to accelerationism and is tied to ONA and multiple terror plots and murders, like the murder of an antifascist in Helsinki in 2016. There has been an international effort to proscribe NRM as a terrorist organization, and it was banned as such in Finland in 2019.[23][14] On 14 June 2024, the United States Department of State designated NRM and its leaders as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT).[24][25][26]
  • Order of Nine Angles is a neo-Nazi satanist organization that has been connected to multiple murders and terror plots. There has been an international effort to proscribe ONA as a terror organization. Further, the ONA is connected to the Atomwaffen and the Base and the founder of ONA David Myatt was one-time leader of the C18.[14]
  • Russian Imperial Movement is a white supremacist organization found in Russia and proscribed as a terror organization in United States and Canada for its connection to neo-fascist terrorists. People trained by RIM have gone on to commit a series of bombings and joined the separatist militants in Donbass.[15]

Siege Newsletter

The SIEGE Newsletter ran each month from August 1980 until June 1986. Each issue was six pages and was almost always written by the original author James Mason.[27] His writings frequently built off the ideologies of George Lincoln Rockwell, Joseph Tommasi, Adolf Hitler, and William Luther Pierce. The newsletter also sometimes came in the form of reprints and writing by Joseph Tommasi, Perry Warthan, and Frank Spisak. Mason saw his works in two separate periods, covering the world and how to change it in the first four years and then providing "greater clarification" in the last two years of the newsletter.[28] During this time, Mason's neo-Nazi ideology remained ardent, but also fluctuated. For example, he ultimately proclaimed Christianity as an important facet of neo-Nazism in the last years of the publication.[27] Another fluctuation during this newsletter was his support for violent activism. In the beginning, Mason wrote fondly of violent tactics from leftists and Black nationalists. Later, however, his support for this sort of activism — even more broadly — wained. Through and through, the SIEGE Newsletter remained anti-system, even rejecting notions of being conservative or right-wing. According to Spencer Sunshine:

He stressed that it was not merely the seizure of state power that was needed but a cleansing revolution, 'a TOTAL WAR' against 'the Jew-Capitalist System!!' SIEGE's readers were exhorted to take actions that would not merely be sparks to ignite the masses but that had an openly messianic aim of a uniquely 'total and complete' revolution.[27][29]

In terms of violent activism, Mason was drawn to state and civilian clashes such as the 1981 Brink's robbery and the 1985 MOVE bombing. However, he advised that the neo-Nazis should let Black nationalists and leftists fight this fight with the state and that the neo-Nazi movement should deactivate any violent activism.[30]

The SIEGE Newsletter ended in 1986, as Mason cited depression and a sense of his ideology being fully communicated in what he had already self-published.

Siege Book

With the ending of the SIEGE Newsletter, other figures in the American neo-Nazi movement such as Michael J. Moynihan encouraged Mason to create an anthology of sorts that included his earlier works. Moynihan himself ended up writing the introduction to the SIEGE book, which is excerpted below: [31]

The SIEGE volume you hold in your hands is intended both as a guide and a tool. For the observer, or the curious, it serves as a guide through the netherworld fo extremist political thought.... this book offers a unique and direct access-point to understanding the philosophy, tactics, and propaganda of an increasingly militant and uncompromising brand of National Socialism. ... Secondly, and more importantly, this book is meant to serve as a practical tool. A majority of readers will hopefully not be mere sociologists or researchers, but rather that small faction of people who may be already predisposed towards these ideas. this certainly does not only refer to National Socialists, but revolutionaries and fanatics of all stripes.[32][31]

After years of struggling to find someone who would publish the book for Mason, the book came out in April 1993 titled SIEGE: The Collected Writings of James Mason. Mason dedicated the book to Charles Manson, whose anti-semitism, female following, racism, and popularity among young people inspired his own work.[33][31] A second edition was later released in 2003.

Siege's Influence

Readership of Mason's SIEGE was not large while it was in circulation. For example, the SIEGE Newsletter did not run more than one hundred copies each time it circulated.[34] However, the impact of James Mason's SIEGE grew exponentially with its rediscovery in the 2010s on Iron March.

Ban in Russia

According to TASS, the Primorsky court of St. Petersburg declared on August 14, 2023 that "The court recognized [Siege] by James Mason as extremist material prohibited from distribution on the territory of the Russian Federation". The court recognized that Siege had inspired, among others, an Atomwaffen Division cell in Buryatia that planned attacks against racial minorities and drug users. The court banned 11 websites that hosted and distributed Siege.[35]

References

  1. ^ a b Spencer Sunshine (2024). Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism: The Origins and Afterlife of James Mason’s Siege. Routledge. p. 13. ISBN 9780429576010.
  2. ^ "Tutkintoja ja tuomioita: Kankaanpään, Lahden ja Ylöjärven tapauksissa yhteensä 10 natsiterroristia". Varisverkosto. 10 May 2024. Yhdysvalloissa avoin "rotusodan" ihannointi sai uutta pontta, kun yhdysvaltalainen uusnatsi James Mason julkaisi Siege-nimisen kirjan 90-luvun alussa. Teos on käännetty suomeksi ja liikkuu myös natsien Telegram-ryhmissä sekä muualla verkossa. [In the United States, the idealization of an open "race war" got a new impetus when the American neo-Nazi James Mason published a book called Siege in the early 90s. The work has been translated into Finnish and is also circulating in Nazi Telegram groups and elsewhere online.](via Google Translate)
  3. ^ a b "James Mason". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on June 17, 2019. Retrieved June 16, 2019.
  4. ^ a b "Siege: The Atomwaffen Division and Rising Far-Right Terrorism in the United States" (PDF). International Centre for Counter-Terrorism. October 9, 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 25, 2019. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
  5. ^ "THE TERRORGRAM NETWORK: A SPIRAL TOWARDS BLOODSHED". Hope Not Hate. 23 November 2022.
  6. ^ a b c "Atomwaffen and the SIEGE parallax: how one neo-Nazi's life's work is fueling a younger generation". Southern Poverty Law Center. 16 June 2020.
  7. ^ Public Safety Canada (December 21, 2018). "Currently listed entities". Government of Canada. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  8. ^ a b "The Godfather of Fascist Terrorism". Fair Observer. 18 August 2022.
  9. ^ a b Counter Extremism Project, "James Mason’s Siege: Ties to Extremists, 2 September 2022"
  10. ^ Contemporary manifestations of violent right-wing extremism in the EU: An overview of P/CVE practices Migration and Home Affairs | European Commission, 2 September 2022. "The Siege Culture is inspired by the book called Siege, published in 1992 by American neo-Nazi James Mason. Throughout the book, Mason calls for leaderless resistance and deliberate terrorist acts to bring about a race war and the downfall of the global political system."
  11. ^ a b Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats, "Siege Culture And Accelerationism In The UK, 2 September 2022"
  12. ^ "The Brown Internationale". Die Zeit. 30 September 2022.
  13. ^ ""Terrorist Situation and Trend Report"" (PDF). Europol. 6 October 2022.
  14. ^ a b c d Upchurch, H. E. (22 December 2021). Cruickshank, Paul; Hummel, Kristina (eds.). "The Iron March Forum and the Evolution of the "Skull Mask" Neo-Fascist Network" (PDF). CTC Sentinel. 14 (10). West Point, New York: Combating Terrorism Center: 27–37. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 December 2021. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  15. ^ a b c d Johnson, Bethan; Feldman, Matthew (2021-07-21). "Siege Culture After Siege: Anatomy of a Neo-Nazi Terrorist Doctrine". International Centre for Counter-Terrorism: 1. Before examining specifics of the newer elements of "Siege Culture," it merits pausing to consider the primogenitors of this content, James Mason and Siege. Siege is essential reading for those within the contemporary neo-Nazi movement today, and Mason currently may be themost important fascist revolutionary alive.
  16. ^ "Terroristiepäilyjen taustalla pahamaineinen Siege-kulttuuri – tästä siinä on kyse". Iltalehti. December 7, 2021.
  17. ^ "Kankaanpään epäiltyjen maailmankatsomus on marginaalinen jopa äärioikeiston sisällä - tutkijat kertovat, mitä akselerationismista tiedetään". Aamulehti. December 7, 2021.
  18. ^ "Äärioikeistolainen ideologia terrorismin näkökulmasta". Finnish Security Intelligence Service. December 7, 2021.
  19. ^ "Online radicalisation changed the far right in Finland". Finnish Security Intelligence Service. 17 June 2022.
  20. ^ "Backgrounder: Atomwaffen Division (AWD)". Anti-Defamation League. Archived from the original on February 3, 2018.
  21. ^ "About the listing process". www.publicsafety.gc.ca. 21 December 2018. Archived from the original on 5 October 2016. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  22. ^ "Bekanntmachung eines Vereinsverbots gegen "Combat 18 Deutschland" vom 13. Januar 2020 (ÖSII3-20106/2#13) (BAnz AT 23.01.2020 B1)" (PDF) (in German). Bundesanzeiger. 23 January 2020. Retrieved 26 September 2020.
  23. ^ "The case against the Nordic Resistance Movement in Finland: an overview and some explanations". University of Oslo Center for Research on Extremism. Retrieved 2 November 2020. It is notable however, that some NRM activists have reasoned that only radical measures will be effective post-ban, thus coming to support e.g. the accelerationist model of activity. Certain members of the group have also appeared as contributors to publications that promote esoteric forms of neo-Nazism. A corresponding shift towards a more "cultic" direction has also been observed in the United Kingdom after the banning of the National Action (NA).
  24. ^ "Counter Terrorism Designations; West Bank-related Designation; Issuance of Amended Frequently Asked Questions". Office of Foreign Assets Control. 14 June 2024.
  25. ^ "Terrorist Designations of Nordic Resistance Movement and Three Leaders". state.gov. 14 June 2024. Today, the Department of State is designating Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM) as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, as amended.
  26. ^ Bergkvist, Frida (2024-06-14). "USA terrorstämplar nazistiska NMR". DN.se (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 2024-06-14. Retrieved 2024-06-14.
  27. ^ a b c Sunshine, Spencer (2024). Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism: The Origins and Afterlife of James Masons's Siege (1st ed.). New York, NW: Routledge. pp. 112–116.
  28. ^ SIEGE 13(6) June 1984, p.1.
  29. ^ SIEGE 14(9) September 1985, p.3 (Siege, p. 175); SIEGE 9(6) October 1980, p.4; SIEGE 10(12) December 1981, p.4.
  30. ^ Sunshine, Spencer (2024). Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism: The Origins and Afterlife of James Mason's SIEGE (1st ed.). New York, NW: Routledge. p. 120.
  31. ^ a b c Sunshine, Spencer (2024). Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism: The Origins and Afterlife of James Mason's Siege (1st ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. pp. 236–238.
  32. ^ Jenkins/Moynihan, "Introduction," Siege, 1st, ed. pp.xii, xxvii.
  33. ^ Sunshine, Spencer (2024). Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism: The Origins and Afterlife of James Mason's Siege (1st ed.). New York, NW: Routledge. p. 9.
  34. ^ Sunshine, Spencer (2024). Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism: The Origins and Afterlife of James Masons's Siege (1st ed.). New York, NW: Routledge. pp. 112–116.
  35. ^ "Суд Петербурга признал экстремистским сборник Siege американского неонациста Мейсона". TASS. 14 August 2023.

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