National Socialist Movement (United States)
National Socialist Movement | |
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Leader | Burt Colucci (disputed with James Hart Stern) [1] |
Founded | 1974 |
Preceded by | American Nazi Party |
Headquarters | Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
Newspaper | NSM Magazine[2] |
Youth wing | Viking Youth Corp[3] |
Ideology | |
Political position | Far-right[8] |
International affiliation | World Union of National Socialists[9] |
Colors | Black, White, Red, Blue |
Ethnic group | White Americans |
Party flag | |
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Website | |
www | |
The National Socialist Movement (NSM) is a neo-Nazi organization based in Detroit, Michigan. It is a part of the Nationalist Front.[10] The Party claimed to be the "largest and most active" National Socialist organization in the United States. Although classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, it refers to itself as a "white civil rights organization", and compares itself to the NAACP. The party also objects to being referred to as "racist", and "Neo-Nazi", stating that such descriptions of their goals are unflattering and inaccurate. Each state has members in smaller groups within areas known as "regions". The NSM holds national meetings and smaller regional and unit meetings.[citation needed]
In January 2019, the leadership of the group was turned over to James Hart Stern, a black activist, who announced his intention to undermine the group and "eradicate" it.[11][12][13] In March 2019 in a press release Schoep said that Stern “does not speak for the NSM and he holds no legal standing with the NSM” and in addition to him speaking out against Stern he also noted that he was leaving and giving his position to Burt Colucci.[14]
Contents
History[edit]
The NSM was founded in 1974 in St. Paul, Minnesota, as the "National Socialist American Workers Freedom Movement" by Robert Brannen and Cliff Herrington, former members of the American Nazi Party before the decline of the ANP. In 1994 Jeff Schoep became the group's chairman,[15], a position he held until January 2019.[13]
The NSM was responsible for leading the demonstration which sparked the 2005 Toledo riot.[16] In April 2006, the party held a rally on the capitol steps in Lansing, Michigan, which was met by a larger counter-rally and ended in scuffles.[17] In 2007, some members left to join the now-defunct National Socialist Order of America, which was led by 2008 presidential candidate John Taylor Bowles.[citation needed]
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20190604083236im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f6/National_Socialist_Movement_Rally_US_Capitol.jpg/220px-National_Socialist_Movement_Rally_US_Capitol.jpg)
In January 2009, the party sponsored a half-mile section of U.S. Highway 160 outside of Springfield, Missouri, as part of the Adopt-A-Highway Trash Cleanup program.[18] The highway was later renamed the "Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel Memorial Highway" by the state legislature.[19]
In 2009, the NSM had 61 chapters in 35 states, making it the largest neo-Nazi group in the United States according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.[20] As of 2015, the NSM reports having direct organized presences in seven countries around the world, and other affiliations beyond that.[21][unreliable source?]
On April 17, 2010, 70 members of the NSM demonstrated against illegal immigration in front of the Los Angeles City Hall, drawing a counter protest of hundreds of anti-fascist demonstrators.[6]
In May 2011, the NSM was described by The New York Times as being "the largest supremacist group, with about 400 members in 32 states, though much of its prominence followed the decay of Aryan Nation and other neo-Nazi groups".[22]
On May 1, 2011, Jeff Hall, a leader of the California branch of the NSM, was killed by his 10-year-old emotionally troubled son, who claimed he was tired of Jeff beating him and his stepmother.[23] Hall had run in 2010 for a seat on the board of directors of a Riverside County water board, a race in which he earned approximately 30% of the vote.[24]
The NSM held a rally on September 3, 2011 in West Allis, Wisconsin, to protest incidents at the Wisconsin State Fair on August 5, 2011 when a large crowd of young African-Americans allegedly targeted and beat white people as they left the fair around 11 p.m. Police claimed the incident began as a fight among African-American youths that was not racially motivated.[25][26] Dan Devine, the mayor of West Allis, stated on September 2, 2011, "I believe I speak for the citizens when I say they [the NSM] are not welcome here."[27]
In 2012, two former members of the NSM were arrested and sentenced to prison for drug trafficking, stockpiling weapons, and plotting terrorism against a Mexican consulate in the United States.[28]
As of March 2015, the organization had planned a return to Toledo, Ohio, for a rally focusing on crime in the area.
In June 2016, the group helped organize (with the Traditionalist Worker Party) the rally which turned into the 2016 Sacramento riot.[29][30] In November 2016, following the election of Donald Trump, the organization changed its logo, replacing the swastika with an Odal rune in an attempt to enter mainstream politics.[31][32]
The account of its leader, Jeff Schoep, was suspended by Twitter on December 18, 2017.[33][34]
Charlottesville suit against the NSM[edit]
After the August riot and violence rising from the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, two lawsuits targeting 21 racist "alt-right" and hate group leaders, including the NSM and leader Jeff Schoep, were filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia and another in Virginia Circuit Court. Organizations named in both suits were the National Socialist Movement; Traditionalist Workers Party (TWP); League of the South (LOS), and Vanguard America, a two-year-old white supremacy group claiming 12 U.S. chapters. Two Ku Klux Klan groups, the Loyal White Knights and the East Coast Knights of the KKK, were named defendants in the federal suit.
The 96 page federal court filing accused the white supremacists of violating the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 and other statutes and seeks compensation and punitive damages. They also asked the courts to intervene with legal orders preventing a repeat of the deadly events that occurred in Charlottesville on August 11 and 12, and barring use of private militias at such events. Plaintiffs in the 96-page federal suit were described as "University of Virginia undergraduates, law students and staff, persons of faith, ministers, parents, doctors, and businesspersons – white, brown and black; Christian and Jewish; young and old". The City of Charlottesville, along with several businesses and neighborhood associations, were plaintiffs in the 81-page state suit.
The lawsuits claimed the August rally in Charlottesville was planned for weeks, with its organizers making extensive use of social media – coordinating everything from telling individuals to buy tiki torches to use of an internet-based communications system originally designed for gamers. The federal suit said "hundreds of neo-Nazis and white supremacists traveled from near and far to descend upon the college town ... in order to terrorize its residents, commit acts of violence, and use the town as a backdrop to showcase for the media and the nation a neo-nationalist agenda".
While the federal suit focused on civil rights violations, the state suit targeted what it describes as the illegality of using militia forces to protect alt-right and white nationalist demonstrations.[35][36][37][38]
Change of leadership[edit]
On February 28, 2019, the Associated Press reported that, according to Michigan corporate records, Jeff Schoep had been replaced as director and president of the NSM in January by James Hart Stern, a black activist. Stern became its leader after receiving a call for help from Schoep who wanted to get out of the organization due to the legal issues that were mounting against it,[13] and he has said that he wants to use his position to undermine the group. Stern had previously been instrumental in dissolving a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in Michigan.[notes 1] Stern wrote in a blog post in February that he had worked with Schoep to replace the Nazi swastika as the group's symbol with an Odal rune, and that he would be meeting with Schoep to sign a proclamation in which the NSM would disavow white supremacy.[11][12]
Stern and Schoep began a relationship when Schoep called Stern in 2014 to ask about his connection with Edgar Ray Killen, the head of the Klan chapter that Stern dissolved. According to Stern, Schoep said that Stern was the first black man he had reached out to since Malcolm X. When Stern learned that Schoep was a white supremacist, he arranged for a meeting between the two. Since then the pair has engaged in debates over the Holocaust, the swastika, white nationalism, and the fate of the NSM, with Stern attempting to change Schoep's mind. This he was not able to do, but Schoep came to him in 2019 for advice about the group's legal problems. He felt that the NSM was an "albatross hanging around his neck" and wished to cut ties with the group in order to start a new organization that would be more appreciated in the mainstream of white nationalism. Stern then encouraged Schoep to turn over control to him, and Schoep agreed.[13]
Stern filed documents with a Federal court in Virginia, asking that it issue a judgment against the group before one of the pending Charlottesville-related lawsuits went to trial, but because the law does not allow a corporation to be its own attorney, Stern is looking for outside counsel to re-file the papers. Stern does not plan to dissolve the NSM in order to prevent any of its former members from reincorporating it. He plans to turn the group's website into a place for lessons about the Holocaust.[13]
The group's former community outreach director, Matthew Heimbach, commented that Schoep had been in conflict with the membership, who resisted the ideological changes Schoep wished to make, and wanted to remain "a politically impotent white supremacist gang". Heimbach estimated that the group had 40 dues-paying members as of last year. In a video posted on his blog, Stern took credit for "eradicating" the NSM.[11][12] Burt Colucci is currently the NSM's 'Commander,' a position disputed by many outside of the racist, neo-nazi group.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
Informational notes
- ^ Stern met Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen in prison while Stern was serving a 5 year sentence for wire fraud and the two shared a cell. Before he died, Killen gave Stern power of attorney and land rights, which Stern utilized to dissolve the Klan chapter. Palmer, Ewen (March 1, 2019) "Who is James Hart Stern? Black Man Who Leads Neo-Nazi Group Vows to Eradicate Them" Newsweek
Citations
- ^ "Neo-Nazi Allegedly Begged Black Activist to Take Over His Group: 'It's Affecting My Health'" (Press release). Daily Beast. 15 March 2019.
- ^ "NSM Party Magazine The Stormtrooper". Nsm88.org. Retrieved November 12, 2016.
- ^ "Viking Youth Corp". Nsm88.org. Retrieved June 12, 2018.
- ^ "You are being redirected". Adl.org. Archived from the original on 2013-01-04. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
- ^ Harmon, Christopher C. (2007). Terrorism Today. Taylor and Francis. p. 18. ISBN 0-203-93358-3. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
- ^ a b Faturechi, Robert; Richard Winton (November 23, 1987). "White supremacist rally at L.A. City Hall draws violent counter-protest". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 12, 2016.
- ^ Staff (ndg). "25 Points of American National Socialism". National Socialist Movement. Archived from the original on April 4, 2013. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
Only members of the nation may be citizens of the state. Only those of pure White blood, whatever their creed, may be members of the nation. Non-citizens may live in America only as guests and must be subject to laws for aliens. Accordingly, no Jew or homosexual may be a member of the nation.
- ^ Holthouse, David (April 19, 2006). "Nationalist Socialist Movement Building a Juggernaut". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved November 12, 2016.
- ^ "World Union of National Socialists Membership Directory : W.U.N.S". Nationalsocialist.net. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
- ^ "The Nationalist Front Limps into 2017". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2017-11-06.
- ^ a b c Associated Press (February 28, 2019) "Neo-Nazi group's new leader is a black man who vows to dissolve it" NBC News
- ^ a b c Palmer, Ewen (March 1, 2019) "Who is James Hart Stern? Black Man Who Leads Neo-Nazi Group Vows to Eradicate Them" Newsweek
- ^ a b c d e Mettler, Katie (March 1, 2019). "How a black man 'outsmarted' a neo-Nazi group — and became their new leader". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
- ^ Weill, Kelly (2019-03-16). "Neo-Nazi Allegedly Begged Black Activist to Take Over His Group: 'It's Affecting My Health'". Retrieved 2019-05-20.
- ^ "The National Socialist Movement". The Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved 22 April 2013.
- ^ "Police Chief On Toledo Riots". October 17, 2005. Cbsnews.com.
- ^ "Hundreds Protest Neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement in Lansing". Media Mouse. April 24, 2006. Retrieved August 31, 2014.
- ^ "National Socialist Movement unit adopts section of Missouri highway". Missourian. January 22, 2009. Archived from the original on January 19, 2013. Retrieved 2009-06-21.
- ^ Cooper, Michael (2009-06-20). "In Missouri, a Free Speech Fight Over a Highway Adoption". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
- ^ "National Socialist Movement". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
- ^ "Units of the National Socialist Movement - America's Nazi Party". Nsm88.org. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
- ^ McKinley, Jesse (2011-05-10). "Jeff Hall, a Neo-Nazi, Is Killed, and His Young Son is Charged". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
- ^ "Jeff Hall, a Neo-Nazi, Is Killed, and His Young Son is Charged" by Jesse McKinley, The New York Times, May 10, 2011
- ^ "Neo-Nazi running for office in Riverside County" by Tony Barboza, Los Angeles Times, October 19, 2010
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-10-05. Retrieved 2011-10-12.CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link)
- ^ Breann Schossow, "West Allis beefs up security outside State Fair", Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Aug. 9, 2011.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-09-03. Retrieved 2014-08-28.CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link)
- ^ "Affidavit: 2 Men with supremacist ties had weapons". Fox News. 2012-04-27. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
- ^ "Several people stabbed during Neo-Nazi event in Sacramento". Fox News. 26 June 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
- ^ "Stabbings amid chaos at Calif. "Nazi mega-rally"". CBS News. Associated Press. 26 June 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
- ^ Kovaleski, Serge; Turkewitz, Julie; Goldstein, Joseph; Barry, Dan. "An Alt-Right Makeover Shrouds the Swastikas". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
- ^ Schoep, Jeff (November 4, 2016). "National Socialist Movement: Announcement". National Socialist Movement. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
- ^ Aja Romano (December 18, 2017). "At long last, Twitter has begun banning (some, not all) Nazis". Vox.
- ^ Christopher Mathias (December 18, 2017). "Twitter Has Started Its Messy 'Purge' Of Neo-Nazi And 'Alt-Right' Accounts". Huffington Post.
- ^ "'Summer of Hate' challenged in companion civil lawsuits". Hatewatch. Southern Poverty Center (October 19, 2017).
- ^ Legal Complaint against NSM and other alt.right groups filed in The City of Charlottesville Circuit Court. Georgetown University Law School, October 12, 2017
- ^ Dahlia Lithwick (October 12, 2017). "Lawyers vs. White Supremacists – Can the organizers of the Unite the Right rally be held responsible for the violence in Charlottesville?" Slate.
- ^ Brandi Buchman (October 12, 2017). "Charlottesville Lawsuit Aims to Stop White Nationalist Militias". Courthouse News Service.
External links[edit]
- Alt-right
- Neo-Nazi political parties in the United States
- White supremacy in the United States
- White supremacist groups in the United States
- Racism in the United States
- Political parties established in 1974
- Far-right political parties in the United States
- American fascist movements
- Neo-Nazi organizations in the United States
- 1974 establishments in Minnesota