Whether asking an Australian National Socialist how to better run his local Active Club or appearing on the official podcast of the Nordic Resistance Movement, Alex Vriend is connecting with the international far-right.
Peter Smith
Canadian Anti-Hate Network
Images of National Socialist Network in Australia (left), Nordic Resistance Movement (Centre) and Patriot Front (right). Source: NSN, NRM and Patriot Front/Telegram
When Australian neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell opened up his live audio chat on X, formerly Twitter, to questions from listeners, Alex Vriend was ready with his.
“I've built up a small little Active Club in my area but I have to move across the country now,” Vriend asked. “I don’t know who is going to take this over or how it is going to continue because there is no one really skilled enough to keep teaching boxing.”
Sewell, the head and founder of the National Socialist Network, when not advising listeners to have an “Adolf Hitler mentality” was joined on the March 8 call by organizers of various branches of Active Clubs, who promoted their brands and gave tips for better managing recruits. A decentralized movement of white-only workout clubs founded by Robert Rundo, a US white nationalist, there are dozens of chapters of Active Clubs throughout Australia, Europe, and North America.
Canada had 11 known “official” chapters organized in part by the Vinland Hammerskins, a much larger international racist skinhead gang. Since the arrest of two members also connected to the Atomwaffen Division were arrested, only the Quebec chapter has maintained its public channel on Telegram.
As Vriend went on with his question, he wanted an answer from Sewell’s experience “running a national organization” about how to fill skill gaps in training young white men.
Vriend is a streamer and content creator within the Diagolon community, a network of podcasters, trolls, shitposters, and extremists who promote a litany of conspiracy theories, have offered money for the personal information of their critics, and are increasingly embracing white supremacy.
Vriend made a name for himself within Diagolon creating memes, viral fake headlines, and eventually hosting an after-show to Diagolon concept creator Jeremy MacKenzie. When moving across the country, Vriend chose to sell most of his personal belongings and drive, during which he met and connected with various local pockets of the community.
Holocaust denial, racist statements about Arab and Muslim people, an inevitable violent uprising, and conspiracy theories around Jewish plots of global control have been typical within Diagolon for years. The more recent shift towards outright white supremacy has seen Vriend making appearances as a guest on other programs linked to international neo-Nazi organizations.
Nordic Frontier is the English-language podcast for the Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM), hosted by Andreas Johansson. The show presents itself as the “final solution to your podcast problems.” NRM is a militant fascist organization operating across Scandinavia with chapters in Norway, Sweden, and Iceland. NRM is banned in Finland for promoting a political system based on National Socialism.
“Been listening for close to a year,” Vriend told Johansson during a December 2023 appearance, “big fan of the podcast.”
Screen capture of Alex Vriend (left) and Andreas Johansson (right) on the Nordic Frontiers podcast. Source: Nordic Frontier/Telegram
Detailing some of his biography, Vriend lays out his grievances with most of mainstream politics—made up of what he calls “kosher parties”—during which he mostly focuses on immigration and the racial makeup of Canada.
Vriend mentions he’s employed in construction which involves “a lot of work in schools.” Speaking to Johansson, he bemoans the visible diversity in student portraits hanging in the buildings’ hallways.
“If I look at class photos going back to the 90s you can see it was all white kids or 95% plus white kids and all you have to do is start walking down the line of these photos.”
He also touches on the arrest of two former Atomwaffen Division members, Kristoffer Nippak and Matthew Althorpe. Both were current members of Ontario chapters of the Active Club, but Althorpe specifically is accused of being one of several pseudonymous authors of four manuals that encourage and outline how to carry out single-person or small-group acts of terror.
“They don't say what they did,” Vriend said on the NRM podcast, “just they were alleged to take part in terroristic activities and terroristic materials—which means memes.”
Screen capture of Thomas Rousseau (right) and Alex Vriend (left) during a live stream. Source Ferryman's Toll/YouTube
Vriend also indicated how he has continued to engage in offline organizing, including another reference to his Active Club. After complaining that Canada lacks organizations like Patriotic Alternative in the United Kingdom and Patriot Front in North America, both far-right groups organized with various degrees of effectiveness.
“Remember to put race first,” Johansson adds, reminding him of both the “race question and the Jewish question.”
While Vriend’s live streaming audience is limited compared to some other Diagolon members, he has used his show as a vehicle to connect with the international far-right. This includes Thomas Rousseau, the founder and leader of the US-based organization Patriot Front, who appeared on Vriend’s stream on January 25.
Known for holding rallies and marches in matching blue and khaki uniforms, the group uses the striking imagery to gain media attention and bring in new members. Patriot Front held marches through the streets of Chicago, near an Idaho Pride event, and most recently in New York City, only days before he appeared on Vriend’s live stream.
Patriot Front formed as a splinter group of another, Vanguard America, after the deadly Unite The Right (UTR) rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. James Fields, who drove into a crowd of people, killing Heather Heyer, had been seen rallying with Vanguard America and pictured holding a shield with the group’s logo — VA denied Fields was a member.
Rousseau, who recently was arrested for burning an object with the intent to intimidate during the UTR march, used his time on Vriend’s stream to defend against frequent accusations that Patriot Front is an operation by law enforcement.
This includes Nick Fuentes, a much more popular far-right live streamer, who claimed that anyone donning matching uniforms and marching after the Washington DC January 6 riots was either “an idiot or a fed.”
Vriend also expresses hope that Canada will come to be home to a similar organization.
“For years I have been waiting for the group that would be something like Patriot Front, not exactly obviously since all nationalism is rooted in its own nation,” he said.
“I don’t think it's coming and it's come to the point where…if somebody's going to do it I think it’s going to be us. We’re the ones who can and it's worthwhile to have conversations with people like Thomas because they’re already steps ahead.”
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