Active Clubs stalk martial arts clubs and workout facilities to recruit new members into their white nationalist organization. Domestic terrorism has a new face - one that wears workout clothes instead of a uniform.
by Judith Ruiz-Branch Public News ServiceCHICAGO - Experts said they are seeing a rise in white nationalist movements in Wisconsin and across the country that are disguising themselves as fitness groups.
They are called "Active Clubs" and present themselves as sporting clubs or fighting clubs focused on brotherhood.
Art Jipson, associate professor of sociology and criminology at the University of Dayton, said they recruit both online and in-person, targeting young, white men using shared interests as tools to gradually introduce and normalize racist ideologies.
"You add to that the willingness to engage in violence against people of color, LGBTQ people… there's a clear potential for violence here," Jipson cautioned.
Members said they are dedicated to "self-improvement and brotherhood" seeing themselves as "a noble resistance"...
Jipson pointed out Active Clubs often meet in Christian churches and gyms with recent activity showing multistate coordination, like a Wisconsin Active Club regularly meeting with an Illinois Active Club for "family days." They use distinctive symbols like the Celtic cross -- a well-known neo-Nazi symbol -- and share content across social media platforms to maintain connections between chapters and other white supremacist groups.
Active Clubs are growing internationally as well, with the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism reporting a 25% increase since 2023. Jipson noted the groups are a huge shift in organizing for white supremacists and white nationalists, following what he calls a decentralized, leaderless resistance.
"Their decentralized structure makes them difficult to track but it also allows them to spread pretty quickly," Jipson observed. "They're embedding white supremacist and white nationalist ideology in everyday spaces rather than only the political rally."
Jipson emphasized new chapters of Active Clubs are frequently being created and linking with one another. Members said they are dedicated to "self-improvement and brotherhood" seeing themselves as "a noble resistance" in the cause of preserving the white race.
"They are mobilizing around really powerful images and ideology that at the end of the day, gives people something to believe in," Jipson added. "That's really difficult to combat."
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TAGGED: Wisconsin Active Clubs extremism, fitness cover white nationalist groups, Art Jipson extremism research, Midwest hate group activity, decentralized white supremacist networks
Active Clubs frame themselves as innocuous workout groups merging a new and harder-to-detect form of white supremacist ideology with fitness and combat sports culture.
Small local organizations called Active Clubs have spread widely across the U.S. and internationally, using fitness as a cover for a much more alarming mission. These groups are a new and harder-to-detect form of white supremacist organizing that merges extremist ideology with fitness and combat sports culture.
Active Clubs frame themselves as innocuous workout groups on digital platforms and decentralized networks to recruit, radicalize and prepare members for racist violence. The clubs commonly use encrypted messaging apps such as Telegram, Wire and Matrix to coordinate internally.
The clubs reportedly operate in at least 25 U.S. states, and potentially as many as 34.
Following their arrests, Active Club Canada’s public network went dark, Telegram pages were deleted or rebranded, and the club went virtually silent. Nippak was granted bail under strict conditions, while Althorpe remains in custody.
Rundo previously founded the
Rise Above Movement, which was a violent, far-right extremist group in the U.S. known for
promoting white nationalist ideology, organizing street fights and
coordinating through social media. The organization carried out
attacks at protests and rallies
from 2016 through 2018.
Active Club messaging glorifies discipline, masculinity and strength – a “warrior identity” designed to attract young men.
These cells are deliberately small – often under a dozen members – and self-contained, which gives them greater operational security and flexibility.
“The active club is not so much a structural organization as it is a
lifestyle for those willing to work, risk and sweat to embody our ideals for
themselves and to promote them to others,” Rundo
explained via his Telegram channel.
“They never were like, ‘You need to learn how to fight so you can beat up
people of color.’ It was like, ‘You need to learn how to fight because
people want to kill you in the future,’” a former Active Club member
told Vice News in 2023.
These cells are deliberately small – often under a dozen members – and
self-contained, which gives them greater operational security and
flexibility. Each club
operates semi-autonomously
while remaining connected to the broader ideology and digital network.
Figures connected to
accelerationist groups
– organizations that seek to create social chaos and societal collapse that
they believe will lead to a race war and the destruction of liberal
democracy – played a role in founding the Active Club network. Along with
the Rise Above Movement, they include
Atomwaffen Division
and another neo-Nazi group,
The Base – organizations that
repackage violent fascism to appeal to disaffected young white men in the
U.S.
Brotherhood as a cover
By downplaying explicit hate symbols and emphasizing strength and
preparedness, Active Clubs appeal to a new generation of recruits who may
not initially identify with overt racism but are drawn to a
culture of hypermasculinity and self-improvement.
Club members engage in activities such as combat sports training, propaganda dissemination and ideological conditioning.
Anyone can start a local Active Club chapter
with minimal oversight. This autonomy makes it hard for law enforcement agencies to monitor the
groups and helps the network grow rapidly.
Potential members first see propaganda on encrypted apps such as Telegram or
on social media. The clubs recruit in person at gyms, protests and local
events, vetting new members to ensure they share the group’s beliefs and can
be trusted to maintain secrecy.
However, precise membership numbers remain difficult to ascertain. Some
groups call themselves “youth clubs” but share similar ideas and aesthetics and engage in similar activities.
Active Club members view themselves as defenders of Western civilization and
masculine virtue. From their perspective, their activities represent
noble resistance rather than hate. Members are encouraged to stay secretive, prepare for societal collapse
and build a network of committed, fit men ready to act through
infiltration, activism or violence.
Hiding in plain sight
Law enforcement agencies, researchers and civil society now face
a new kind of domestic threat
that wears workout clothes instead of uniforms.
Active Clubs work across international borders, bound by shared ideas and
tactics and a common purpose. This is the new white nationalism:
decentralized, modernized,
more agile
and disguised as self-improvement. What appears to be a harmless workout
group may be a gateway to violent extremism, one pushup at a time.
Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com.
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