Robert Rundo: Rise Above Movement, Active Clubs, and Related Organizations Robert Paul Rundo is an American white-nationalist organizer best known for cofounding the Rise Above Movement and developing the decentralized Active Club model. His importance lies not only in the organizations he has personally led, but also in the organizing method he helped popularize: small local groups combining physical training, male fellowship, political education, propaganda, and connections with a broader international network.

Rundo’s relationship with Patriot Front and United Youth is significant but should be described carefully. He does not publicly command either organization. The available evidence instead shows a network of mutually supportive movements that share personnel, events, propaganda, commercial infrastructure, and an overlapping political culture.

Rise Above Movement  Rundo emerged nationally through the Rise Above Movement, commonly called RAM, which developed in Southern California during 2017. RAM described itself as a nationalist athletic organization, but its members trained for and participated in physical confrontations at political demonstrations.

Federal prosecutors alleged that Rundo and other RAM members prepared for violence and attacked opposing demonstrators at rallies in Huntington Beach, Berkeley, and San Bernardino. Members also traveled to the August 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The resulting federal prosecution followed an unusually complicated path. The charges were twice dismissed by a district judge—initially because of constitutional concerns surrounding the Anti-Riot Act and later on selective-prosecution grounds. Both dismissals were reversed on appeal. After leaving the United States and spending time in several European countries, Rundo was arrested in Romania and extradited in August 2023. He ultimately pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Anti-Riot Act and was sentenced in December 2024 to two years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release. RAM supplied the organizational foundation for Rundo’s later projects. Its combination of martial arts, racial politics, tightly controlled visual presentation, and edited action videos anticipated the Active Club model.

Development of the Active Club Movement  After prosecutions disrupted RAM, Rundo promoted what he called “White Nationalism 3.0.” In his account, earlier skinhead organizations represented a first generation, while the internet-centered alt-right represented a second. His proposed third stage would return political organization to local, in-person activity while avoiding large, easily disrupted national structures. Beginning around late 2020 and early 2021, Rundo and German-Russian activist Denis Kapustin—also known as Denis Nikitin—used the Active Club Podcast and other media to encourage supporters to establish small clubs of their own. Rundo’s years in Eastern and Southeastern Europe exposed him to nationalist combat-sports organizations, football-ultras culture, and internationally connected clothing brands. These influences became important components of the Active Club aesthetic.

Active Clubs generally organize around boxing, mixed martial arts, weightlifting, hiking, propaganda distribution, and private social events. Individual clubs use regional names and exercise considerable autonomy. They nevertheless repeat common symbols and messages, circulate material from Rundo’s channels, and participate in joint events. This structure makes Rundo more accurately the movement’s principal architect and promoter than the formal commander of every club. The model was intentionally designed to function without a conventional national chain of command. A local club can follow Rundo’s strategy while remaining organizationally independent  Will2Rise and Media2Rise  Rundo’s influence is reinforced by two associated projects. Will2Rise is a clothing and merchandise brand whose products circulate throughout the Active Club environment. Media2Rise produces or distributes polished photographs, videos, interviews, and promotional material. 

These projects serve several purposes simultaneously. They give the movement a consistent identity, provide groups with ready-made propaganda, connect otherwise autonomous clubs, and potentially produce revenue. Clothing functions as both merchandise and a discreet badge of affiliation. Media content allows a small training session or propaganda action to be repackaged for a much larger online audience.

Will2Rise has also helped connect the American movement with European producers and nationalist subcultures. Reporting in 2024 traced the brand’s production relationships to Bulgaria and documented connections with businesses serving far-right football-ultras groups. 

Relationship with Patriot Front  Rundo and Patriot Front leader Thomas Rousseau run separate projects with different organizational designs. Patriot Front is comparatively centralized: Rousseau directs a national membership organization with standardized uniforms, numbered regional networks, centrally produced propaganda, and tightly controlled demonstrations. Rundo’s Active Club model is more decentralized, allowing participants to form locally governed crews.

Despite that distinction, the two movements have cooperated. Patriot Front members and Active Club participants have attended training sessions and combat-sports events together. In August 2022, Patriot Front, the Southern California Active Club, and Will2Rise were associated with the “Birth of a New Frontier” mixed-martial-arts tournament. Patriot Front material and Active Club content are also repeatedly circulated within the same online environment.

Commercial links reinforce the relationship. Patriot Front members have worn or promoted Will2Rise clothing, and reporting based on internal records has described assistance from a senior Patriot Front member in establishing financial infrastructure for the business.

Rundo himself has publicly described members of Patriot Front as friends and said that the movements support one another because they share general objectives. Because that statement appeared in a sympathetic nationalist interview, it should be treated as Rundo’s own characterization rather than independent verification. It nevertheless supports the broader record of collaboration.

The most accurate conclusion is that Rundo and Rousseau are allied organizers rather than participants in a single organization. Patriot Front provides centralized political activism and disciplined national demonstrations; Active Clubs supply a more flexible fitness, fighting, and social network. Individuals can participate in both environments without requiring a formal merger.

Relationship with United Youth  United Youth and its regional Youth Clubs appeared publicly in their current form during 2025, after Rundo’s Active Club model was already well established. These clubs target participants generally between 15 and 18 years old and reproduce many Active Club features: physical training, male camaraderie, regional organization, political education, propaganda, and movement-oriented social activity.

There is no conclusive public evidence that Rundo personally founded United Youth or directs its daily operations. United Youth claims to be youth-led. Its structural relationship to the adult network is nevertheless substantial. Youth Club channels promote Active Club material, adult clubs endorse the youth initiative, and United Youth directs participants who age out of its program toward adult Active Clubs. Public documentation also shows adult and youth participants meeting or training together.

Rundo therefore has an important indirect relationship with United Youth. The youth network applies the organizing system he developed to a younger population and can function as a pathway into the adult Active Club movement. In 2026, monitoring also identified a coordinated social-media expansion involving Rundo-associated accounts and youth channels. This indicates continuing alignment, though not necessarily direct operational control.

Overall Assessment  Rundo occupies a different position from Thomas Rousseau. Rousseau is the identifiable leader of one centralized organization. Rundo is better understood as the designer, propagandist, commercial organizer, and international connector of a decentralized movement.

The relationships can be summarized as follows:

• Rise Above Movement: Rundo’s original organization and the direct predecessor to his later model.
• Active Clubs: The movement he helped conceptualize, publicize, and connect internationally, although individual clubs retain autonomy.
• Patriot Front: An organizational ally with documented event, media, merchandise, and personal connections, but not a subordinate chapter.
• United Youth: A youth network modeled closely on Active Clubs and linked to the adult movement, without conclusive evidence that Rundo personally commands it.
• Will2Rise and Media2Rise: The commercial and communications infrastructure that helps bind the wider network together.

Rundo’s primary contribution has been to replace the idea of one highly visible national organization with an interconnected political subculture. In that system, athletic clubs, youth groups, propaganda outlets, merchandise brands, and formal organizations remain legally and structurally separate while still supporting a common movement.