Nov 14, 2006

War Within The HammerSkin Nation

The S.P.L.C. has just published a new report on the factionalism within the neo-Nazi "skinhead" movement. The report details the rise of the Vinlander Social Club/Blood and Honour U.S.A, from rogue element within the movement, to a potential dominant trend opposing the traditional leadership of the Hammerskin Nation.

The VSC/B&H have made clear their dissatisfaction and contempt for previous forms of neo-Nazi organization and are seeking to form new relationships and networks.

From the B&H U.S.A. website,

"There are conflicts raging on the Nationalist scene. At times, bitter ones have made enemies out of former friends. Alliances change and many feel frustrated from the disunity. We are not going to act as a hammer of one position against another. Still, we have our views on all matters, which we will not compromise. And we have our friends, who we shall not abandon for the sake of fragile peace and make-believe harmony. We believe in Direct Action, Leaderless Resistance and National revolution. We base that belief, not only on the company we keep, but we take this radical, often lonely and always dangerous stand because we have seen the failures of the old ways. And the entities and ideas which failed at the peak of their strength can hardly be picked up and polished as a new alternative for the future, which will surely become far more alarming and oppressive times."

The report issued by the S.P.L.C. is important because it's documenting internal shifts - organizational and political - that may alter the neo-Nazi scene fundamentally. But that said, one must read the report with a critical and suspicious eye. The S.P.L.C., while hailed by many anti-racists for their research and lawsuits against fascists and the far-right, is an unofficial organ of the federal government. An article from the now defunct ARA Research Bulletin describes them this way,

"The Southern Poverty Law Center has quietly gone about filling a special role in government monitoring. As a private organization wrapped in the banner of Civil Rights, it carries out political surveillance that current u.s. law forbids the f.b.i., a.t.f. and other police agencies from doing".

Unfortunately, radical anti-fascists have developed to few investigative apparatus, and even fewer media outlets dedicated to research and analysis. If the radical and anti-system antifas are to be truely independent, then there is gonna have to be serious work put in to building autonomous infrastructures. The S.P.L.C., A.D.L, and those who would work with them, are unreliable and ultimatley at odds with us.

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