2004 Ends Much As It Began…With A Few Exceptions
By Leonard Zeskind
As December 2004 melded seamlessly into January 2005, the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan was still in court, arguing that a New York City anti-mask statute be declared an unconstitutional abridgment of their freedom of speech. Assisted by a civil liberties foundation, the Klan group claims that the mask is part of their message, and not an instrument to hide the perpetrators of racist terror from public view. The Supreme Court will probably hear the case, but either way white sheets are not likely to soon become the racist uniform of choice.
Meanwhile the beat of hate crimes pounds on. In Simi Valley, California, for example, four white teens were arrested for beating a 17-year black man as he tried to shop at a local mall. Not to be outdone, an Aryan Nations member in Nevada confessed to emailing death threats to government workers, and now faces five years in prison. In Utah, twelve jailed members of the so-called Soldiers of Aryan Culture are once again facing sanction by the court. So are dozens of other small-time white supremacist criminals across the county—but none have yet to mount a full-scale bank-robbing, radio host-killing guerrilla army as in decades past. Criminal violence was just more criminal and less political this year.
Except the Panzerfaust arrest…maybe. Operated out of Minnesota by Anthony Pierpont and Byron Calvert, two movement veterans in their 30s, Panzerfaust distributed white power CDs and paraphernalia with an ear much closer to the heartbeat of skinhead culture than its commercial rival, Resistance Records. And in recent years, it had started to catch up with the National Alliance business venture, particularly in sales volume. But as December began, Pierpont was taken to jail, with possible drug charges pending. Notwithstanding, Panzerfaust continued on as before, carving and re-carving the existing music market—but otherwise advancing little further than it had the year before.
Simply put, white nationalists in the now traditional centers of activity—Klansmen, skinheads, neo-Nazis and Christian patriots alike—did little better in 2004 than they had in 2003, except perhaps, the National Alliance. Here, the inheritors of William Pierce’s organizational will were given a boost in the arm by David Duke’s reappearance on their scene. After a Memorial Day meeting in New Orleans where Duke virtually partnered-up with the Alliance’s Kevin Strom, Duke has continued to make a prominent place for the Alliance on a weekly internet radio broadcast. Far more charismatic than any of the existing crop of National Alliance leaders, Duke gives the organization something it did not have in 2003: upfront physical presence. Whether Strom and Company can turn that into new growth in the next year will be the question to look for.
For white nationalists with one foot inside the Republican Party, by contrast, 2004 turned into a banner year. Although they butted heads with the Bush leadership on issues such as the war in Iraq, they won significant battles both inside the party at the local level, as well as statewide in Arizona. Working under an umbrella sponsored by Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo and publicist Pat Buchanan, white nationalists have brought their work against legal immigrants, as well as those without papers, to a fevered pitch. Now one bloc of individuals and organizations has declared war on another—those they believe are neo-conservatives inside their movement. And that may be the most significant difference between this year’s end and its beginning.
The battle lines boil down to this: On one side is Virginia Abernethy and those turning around the Council of Conservative Citizens’ axis. On the other side, is the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a financially larger outfit with more actual power in Congress. Money is at least part of the beef, as FAIR’s executive director’s salary tops $250,000 in salary and benefits—an excessive amount by any movement standard. But the gripe is also about strategy—as FAIR’s focus on “illegal” immigration often excludes the concerns of others who want to shut down all new entries. The bickering has just started, but in Arizona—where FAIR dumped $400,000 to bolster local groups—activists have already posted anti-FAIR bulletins on the internet.
For its part, FAIR continues to focus on the main chance. In a post-election analysis, they contend that the key challenge they face is convincing the House and Senate leadership “that there is no electoral mandate for open borders, guestworker, and amnesty proposals.” On that last point, FAIR (as well as detractors such as Abernethy) will ultimately have to contend with Pres. Bush—who favors a guestworker program with an quasi-amnesty provision.
If anti-racists and those opposed to the American First-style white nationalism now growing inside Republican ranks hope to make a few points in the year ahead—a year certain to be politically and spiritually dismal in any case—they will pay attention to these new fissures. And perhaps add a few of their own.