National Socialist Movement (United States)

National Socialist Movement
Leader Robert Brannen and Cliff Herrington
Founded 1974
Preceded by American Nazi Party
Headquarters Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Newspaper NSM Magazine[1]
Youth wing Viking Youth Corp[2]
Ideology
Political position Far-right[6][7]
International affiliation World Union of National Socialists[8]
Colors      Black,      White,      Red,      Blue
Ethnic group White Americans
Party flag
Website
www.nsm88.org

The National Socialist Movement (NSM) is a neo-Nazi political party based in Detroit, Michigan. It is a part of the Nationalist Front.[9]

History

The party was founded in 1974 in Saint 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. The party's chairman is Jeff Schoep, who has held that position since 1994.[10] The Party claims 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" in the vein of civil rights groups such as 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 has national meetings and smaller regional and unit meetings.

The NSM was responsible for leading the demonstration which sparked the 2005 Toledo riot.[11] 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.[12] 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.

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.[13] The highway was later renamed the "Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel Memorial Highway" by the state legislature.[14]

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. As of 2015, the NSM reports having direct organized presences in seven countries around the world, and other affiliations beyond that.[15]

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.[16]

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".[17]

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.[18] 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.[19]

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.[20][21] 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."[22]

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.[23]

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.[24][25] 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.[26][27]

The account of its leader, Jeff Schoep, was suspended by Twitter on December 18, 2017.[28]

Charlottesville suit against the NSM

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.[29][30][31][32]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "NSM Party Magazine The Stormtrooper". Nsm88.org. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
  2. ↑ "Viking Youth Corp". Nsm88.org. Retrieved 2018-06-12.
  3. ↑ "You are being redirected". Adl.org. Archived from the original on 2013-01-04. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
  4. ↑ Harmon, Christopher C. (2007). Terrorism Today. Taylor and Francis. p. 18. ISBN 0-203-93358-3. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
  5. ↑ "25 POINTS OF AMERICAN NATIONAL SOCIALISM". National Socialist Movement. Archived from the original on April 4, 2013. Retrieved 4 September 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.
  6. ↑ "You are being redirected". Archive.adl.org. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
  7. ↑ David Holthouse (2006-04-19). "Nationalist Socialist Movement Building a Juggernaut | Southern Poverty Law Center". Splcenter.org. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
  8. ↑ "World Union of National Socialists Membership Directory : W.U.N.S". Nationalsocialist.net. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
  9. ↑ "The Nationalist Front Limps into 2017". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2017-11-06.
  10. ↑ "The National Socialist Movement". The Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved 22 April 2013.
  11. ↑ "Police Chief On Toledo Riots". October 17, 2005. Cbsnews.com.
  12. ↑ "Hundreds Protest Neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement in Lansing". Media Mouse. April 24, 2006. Retrieved August 31, 2014.
  13. ↑ "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.
  14. ↑ MICHAEL COOPER (2009-06-20). "In Missouri, a Free Speech Fight Over a Highway Adoption". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
  15. ↑ "Units of the National Socialist Movement - America's Nazi Party". Nsm88.org. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
  16. ↑ Robert Faturechi; Richard Winton (1987-11-23). "White supremacist rally at L.A. City Hall draws violent counter-protest - latimes". Articles.latimes.com. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
  17. ↑ JESSE McKINLEY (2011-05-10). "Jeff Hall, a Neo-Nazi, Is Killed, and His Young Son is Charged". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
  18. ↑ "Jeff Hall, a Neo-Nazi, Is Killed, and His Young Son is Charged" by Jesse McKinley, The New York Times, May 10, 2011
  19. ↑ "Neo-Nazi running for office in Riverside County" by Tony Barboza, Los Angeles Times, October 19, 2010
  20. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-10-05. Retrieved 2011-10-12.
  21. ↑ Breann Schossow, "West Allis beefs up security outside State Fair", Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Aug. 9, 2011.
  22. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-09-03. Retrieved 2014-08-28.
  23. ↑ "Affidavit: 2 Men with supremacist ties had weapons". Fox News. 2012-04-27. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
  24. ↑ "Several people stabbed during Neo-Nazi event in Sacramento". Fox News. 26 June 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  25. ↑ "Stabbings amid chaos at Calif. "Nazi mega-rally"". CBS News. Associated Press. 26 June 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  26. ↑ Kovaleski, Serge; Turkewitz, Julie; Goldstein, Joseph; Barry, Dan. "An Alt-Right Makeover Shrouds the Swastikas". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  27. ↑ Schoep, Jeff (November 4, 2016). "National Socialist Movement: Announcement". National Socialist Movement. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
  28. ↑ "Twitter cracks down on swastikas and 'hateful imagery' and it starts enforcing new rules on abusive content - shuttering accounts run by white nationalist magazines and more". Daily Mail. December 18, 2017.
  29. ↑ "'Summer of Hate' challenged in companion civil lawsuits". Hatewatch. Southern Poverty Center (October 19, 2017).
  30. ↑ Legal Complaint against NSM and other alt.right groups filed in The City of Charlottesville Circuit Court. Georgetown University Law School, October 12, 2017
  31. ↑ 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.
  32. ↑ Brandi Buchman (October 12, 2017). "Charlottesville Lawsuit Aims to Stop White Nationalist Militias". Courthouse News Service.
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