Third Position is an ideology that was developed
in the late 20th century by political parties
including Terza Posizione in Italy and Troisième
Voie in France.
It emphasizes opposition to both communism
and capitalism.
Advocates of Third Position politics typically
present themselves as "beyond left and right"
while syncretizing ideas from each end of
the political spectrum, usually reactionary
right-wing cultural views and radical left-wing
economic views.
== History ==
The term "Third Position" was coined in Europe
and the main precursors of Third Position
politics were National Bolshevism (a synthesis
of far-right ultranationalism and far-left
Bolshevik socialism) and Strasserism (a radical,
mass-action, worker-based, socialist form
of National Socialism, advocated by the "left-wing"
of the Nazi Party until it was crushed in
the Night of the Long Knives in 1934 ). Neo-fascist,
Neo-Nazi author Francis Parker Yockey had
proposed an alliance between communists and
fascists called Red-Brown Alliance (Red being
the color of communism and Brown being the
color of Nazism) which would have been anti-Semitic,
anti-American, and anti-Zionist in nature.
Yockey lent support to Third World liberation
movements as well.
== Argentina ==
At the peak of the Cold War, the former Argentine
President Juan Perón (1946–1955; 1973–1974)
defined the international position of his
doctrine (Peronism) as a Third Position between
capitalism and communism, a stance which became
a precedent of the Non-Aligned Movement.
Until we proclaimed our doctrine, in front
of us, capitalist individualism and communist
collectivism rose triumphal, the shadow of
their imperial wings extending in every path
open to mankind…
This way, Justicialism was born, under the
supreme aspiration of a high ideal.
The Justicialism, created by us and for our
descendants, as a third ideological position
aimed to liberate us from capitalism without
making us fall into the oppressing claws of
collectivism.
== England ==
International Third Position (ITP) was a neo-fascist
organisation formed by the breakaway faction
of the British National Front, led by Roberto
Fiore, an ex-member of the Italian far-right
movement Third Position.
== France ==
During the 1930s and 1940s, a number of splinter
groups from the radical left became associated
with radical nationalism.
Jacques Doriot's French Popular Party (from
the French Communist Party) and Marcel Déat's
National Popular Rally (from the French Section
of the Workers' International).
Third Position ideology gained some support
in France, where in 1985 Jean-Gilles Malliarakis
set up a "Third Way" political party, Troisième
Voie (TV).
Considering its main enemies to be the United
States, communism and Zionism, the group advocated
radical paths to national revolution.
Associated for a time with the Groupe Union
Défense, TV was generally on poor terms with
Front National until 1991, when Malliarakis
decided to approach them.
As a result, TV fell apart and a radical splinter
group under Christian Bouchet, Nouvelle Résistance,
adopted National Bolshevik and then Eurasianist
views.
== Italy ==
In Italy, the Third Position was developed
by Roberto Fiore, along with Gabriele Adinolfi
and Peppe Dimitri, in the tradition of Italian
neo-fascism.
Third Position’s ideology is characterized
by a militarist formulation, a palingenetic
ultranationalism looking favourably to national
liberation movements, support for racial separatism
and the adherence to a soldier lifestyle.
In order to construct a cultural background
for the ideology, Fiore looked to the ruralism
of Julius Evola and sought to combine it with
the desire for a cultural-spiritual revolution.
He adopted some of the positions of the contemporary
far-right, notably the ethnopluralism of Alain
de Benoist and the Europe-wide appeal associated
with such views as the Europe a Nation campaign
of Oswald Mosley (amongst others).
Fiore was one of the founders of the Terza
Posizione movement in 1978.
Third Position ideas are now represented in
Italy by Forza Nuova, led by Fiore; and by
the movement CasaPound, a network of far-right
social centres.
== United States ==
In the United States, the Political Research
Associates argue that Third Position politics
has been promoted by some white nationalist
and neo-Nazi groups such as the National Alliance,
American Front, Traditionalist Worker Party
and White Aryan Resistance as well as some
black nationalist groups such as the Nation
of Islam, since the late 20th century.
In 2010, the American Third Position Party
(later renamed American Freedom Party) was
founded in part to channel the right-wing
populist resentment engendered by the financial
crisis of 2007–2010 and the policies of
the Obama administration.
== See also ==
== References ==
== Bibliography ==
L. Cheles, R. Ferguson, and M. Vaughan, Neo-Fascism
in Europe, London: Longman, 1992.
Giorgio Cingolani, La destra in armi, Editori
Riuniti, 1996 (in Italian).
N. Copsey, Contemporary British Fascism: The
British National Party and the Quest for Legitimacy,
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
Gianni Flamini, L’ombra della piramide,
Teti, 1989 (in Italian).
ITP, The Third Position Handbook, London:
Third Position, 1997.
== External links ==
Declaration of International Third Position.
Political Research Associates.
What is the Third Position?, on PublicEye.org
(2000).
Southern Poverty Law Center.
Third Position On The Web.
