A leading 'Unite the Right' speaker has said he expects more people to die in racially charged protests following the fatality at Charlottesville.

White nationalist Christopher Cantwell spoke to VICE News , who were embedded with his group throughout last weekend's violence, and said the US can expect more of the same.

"I'm carrying a pistol, I go to the gym all the time, I'm trying to make myself more capable of violence," he said.

"A lot more people are going to die before we're done here frankly. Why? Because people die every day," he said.

Cantwell showed no remorse or regret for the death of a counter-protester who was mown down by a car allegedly driven by a white nationalist.

"We knew we were going to meet a lot of resistance. The fact that no one on our side died, I'd go ahead and call that points for us. The fact that none of our people killed anyone unjustly is a plus for us. We showed our rivals we won't be cowed," Cantwell told VICE.

When asked about the deadly incident where a white nationalist allegedly rammed into a crowd of people, Cantwell said: "The video appears to show someone striking that vehicle, when those animals attacked him again, he saw no way to get away from them except to hit the gas".

Cantwell argues the incident was "more than justified".

Cantwell was one of an estimated 1,000 neo-Nazis and white supremacists who descended upon Charlottesville, Virgina to protest the slated removal of a Confederate monument, a bronze-cast statue of General Robert E. Lee.

Chaos swamped the city as 'Unite the Right' protesters clashed with anti-racism demonstrators.

There were fist fights in the street, racial slurs and projectiles hurled.

As calm returned to the city, three people were dead and at least 33 were injured.

On what's next, Cantwell said it will be tough to "top" Charlottesville but asserted the 'Unite the Right' movement was "up to the challenge" .

A local activist told VICE News the violence had been "brewing for quite some time".

"This is the face of supremacy, this is what we deal with every day being African American; this has always been the reality of Charlottesville," Tanesha Hudson.

The alt right movement

The protests saw the physical manifestation of what had largely been an online movement of the 'alt-right'.

"I believe as you can see, we're stepping off the internet in a big way," Daily Stormer feature writer Robert Ray told VICE News.

The Daily Stormer is an American neo-Nazi and white supremacist news and commentary website.

It is news outlets such as the Daily Stormer and the comments section of Trump advisor Steve Bannon's Breitbart News, which have provided an online home for white supremacists.

Social media has seen a new generation of extremist groups take root, mostly created by angry young white men anxious to exploit fears of Latino immigration and radical Islam, the shrinking white share of the US population and the cultural shifts of globalisation.

Until now, the "alt-right" movement and its violent fringes has been deeply fragmented, unable to coalesce around common ideologies, goals and tactics.

However, Charlottesville's 'Unite the Right' protests shows how fast this is changing.

"They are acting in concert right now," said Spencer Sunshine of Political Research Associates, which specializes in research on right-wing groups.

"The rising tide of Trump-ist racism is raising their boats."

US President Donald Trump said the groups protesting against white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, were "also very violent" and labelled them as the "alt-left".

Mr Trump's handling of the weekend violence has raised new and troubling questions, even among some supporters, about why he sometimes struggles to forcefully and unequivocally condemn white supremacist groups.

Members of his own Republican Party have pressured him to be more vigorous in criticising bigoted groups, and business leaders have resigned from a White House jobs panel in response to his comments.

Democrats were quick to issue outrage.

Virginia Senator Tim Kaine said on Twitter that the Charlottesville violence "was fuelled by one side: white supremacists spreading racism, intolerance and intimidation. Those are the facts."