White Aryan Resistance

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WAR's logo, with the slogan "Let them hate... As long as they fear!" The slogan is a quote from Roman emperor Caligula.

White Aryan Resistance (WAR) is a neo-Nazi white supremacist organization in the United States founded and led by former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard Tom Metzger. It is based in Warsaw, Indiana, and is incorporated as a business.

It holds views that are self-described as racist, as seen in its website sections "Racist Jokes" and "Racist Videos," and in the tagline for its newspaper The Insurgent: "the most racist newspaper on earth." WAR uses the slogan White Revolution is the Only Solution.

History[edit]

Metzger's first group was known as the White Brotherhood, which he led in the mid-1970s until joining David Dukes Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in 1975. By 1979 he had risen to Grand Dragon of the California realm. During these years the California realm conducted unauthorized border patrols at the Mexican border and kept a blackshirted security detail that would engage in skirmishes with anti-Klan demonstrators and police. One incident in Oceanside, California, in the spring of 1980, involved 30 members of this squad and left seven people injured. In the summer of 1980 Metzger left the national organization and founded his own California Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. The group continued to harass Hispanics and Vietnamese refugees.[1][2]

From 1980 to late 1982, Metzger headed the California Knights, while also pursuing various electoral offices. In 1982 he left the Klan to found a new group, the White American Political Association, a group dedicated to promoting "prowhite" candidates for office. After losing the 1982 California Senate Democratic primary, Metzger abandoned the electoral route and reorganized WAPA as White American Resistance in 1983 and then to White Aryan Resistance, to reflect a more "revolutionary" stance.[3][4]

By the late 1980s, Tom Metzger began Race and Reason, a public-access television cable TV show, airing WAR propaganda and interviewing other neo-Nazis.[5] The show caused much controversy, and its guests included anti-abortion speakers, Holocaust deniers and pro-segregation lawyers.[5] WAR members gained attention through appearances on talk shows throughout the late 1980s.[6][7]

In 1988 Metzger, recorded this message on his "WAR HOTLINE",

You have reached WAR Hotline. White Aryan Resistance. You ask: What is WAR? We are an openly white-racist movement—Skinheads, we welcome you into our ranks___The federal government is the number one enemy of our race. When was the last time you heard a politician speaking out in favor of white people?... You say the government is too big; we can’t organize. Well, by God, the SS did it in Germany, and if they did it in Germany in the thirties, we can do it right here in the streets of America_We need to cleanse this nation of all nonwhite mud-races for the survival of our own people and the generations of our children.[8]

On November 13, 1988, three white Aryan supremacists who were members of East Side White Pride, which allegedly had ties to WAR, beat to death Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian man who had moved to the United States to attend college.[9] In October 1990, the Southern Poverty Law Center won a civil case on behalf of the deceased's family against Tom and John Metzger, for a total of US$12.5 million. The jury awarded the figure based on: Kyle Brewster- $500,000, Ken Mieske-$500,000, John Metzger-$1,000,000, WAR-$3,000,000, Tom Metzger-$5,000,000, and the jury awarded $2.5 million for Mulugeta's unrealized future earnings, and pain and suffering.[10] The SPLC did not charge for their work, and the Seraw family did not share any money won with the SPLC. The Metzgers did not have millions of dollars, so the Seraw family only received assets from the Metzger's $125,000 house and a few thousand dollars.[11] The Metzgers declared bankruptcy, but WAR continued to operate.[12] WAR continued to publish a newspaper despite the verdict. Metzger launched a website in 1997 and had an Internet radio program.[13] The cost of trial, in the hundreds of thousands of dollars[14] was absorbed by the SPLC and the Anti-Defamation League.[15]

WAR has been associated with dangerous individuals throughout its existence.[16] WAR was mentioned in the press when it was revealed that a member threatened video stores in Rhode Island which carried Jungle Fever.[17] In 1994, Richard Campos, a WAR sympathizer, was convicted of racially motivated bombing plots. Calls were made stating that the bombings were perpetrated by an organization called the Aryan Liberation Front, of which Campos was the only member.[18][19][20] In early 1995, Campos was sentenced to the maximum term of 17 years in prison.[20]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Michael and Judy Ann Newton eds. The Ku Klux Klan; an encyclopedia Garland Reference Library of the Social Science Vol.499 London and New York; Garland Publishing inc. 1991 pp.92, 387
  2. ^ Anti-Defamation League Danger: Extremism; the major voices and vehicles on America far right fringe New York; Anti-Defamation League 1996 pp.77-8
  3. ^ Newton & Newton p.92
  4. ^ Danger: Extremism p.79
  5. ^ a b Turner, Wallace (October 7, 1986). "Extremist Finds Cable TV is Forum for Right-wing Views". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-09-18. 
  6. ^ "Geraldo Rivera's Nose Broken In Scuffle on His Talk Show". New York Times. November 4, 1988. Retrieved 2007-09-18. 
  7. ^ "Trash TV," Newsweek, November 14, 1988
  8. ^ Atkins, Steven E. (2011). Encyclopedia of Right-Wing Extremism In Modern American History. ABC-CLIO. p. 55. ISBN 978-1-59884-350-7. Retrieved 16 March 2016. 
  9. ^ "Lawyer makes racists pay". USA Today. October 24, 1990. Retrieved 2007-09-18. 
  10. ^ London, Robb (October 26, 1990). "Sending a $12.5 Million Message to a Hate Group". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-09-18. 
  11. ^ Associated Press (December 25, 1990). "Assets of White Supremacist Are Target of Legal Maneuver". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-09-18. 
  12. ^ "Klan Chapters Held Liable in Church Fire; Jury Awards $37.8 Million in Damages," Washington Post July 25, 1998
  13. ^ "HBO: 'Hate.com' Exposes Bigotry", Daily News (New York), October 13, 2000
  14. ^ Morris Dees and Steve Fiffer. Hate on Trial: The Case Against America's Most Dangerous Neo-Nazi. Villard Books, 1993, p. 116
  15. ^ Morris Dees and Steve Fiffer. Hate on Trial: The Case Against America's Most Dangerous Neo-Nazi. Villard Books, 1993, p. 277
  16. ^ Reinhold, Robert (July 17, 1993). "Authorities Cite Links of Plotters To Hate Groups". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-09-18. 
  17. ^ "'Jungle Fever' Brings Threats To Rhode Island Video Stores". New York Times. January 11, 1992. Retrieved 2007-09-18. 
  18. ^ "Man Convicted Of 2 Bombings Tied to Racism". New York Times. August 31, 1994. Retrieved 2007-09-18. 
  19. ^ Press Archive File—Article on “Aryan Liberation Front” dated Thursday, October 14, 1993:
  20. ^ a b Southern Poverty Law Center report “The Godfathers” about the recruiting of skinheads by various white supremacist groups:

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]
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