Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere – Los Angeles
American Renaissance
Controversial Anti-immigrant Group Attends Immigrant Rights March
01 year ago
by Stephen Piggott
in American Renaissance, Americans For Immigration Control, Council Of Conservative Citizens, Federation For American Immigration Reform, Hate Campaign, Immigrant Rights, Immigration, Jared Taylor, John Tanton, Numbers Usa, Numbersusa, Politics, Roy Beck, White Nationalists, White Supremacist
Today in Washington D.C., Roy Beck, the executive director of the anti-immigrant organization NumbersUSA will be on the National Mall debating with immigration reform marchers who are flooding to the capital from all across the country.
NumbersUSA will be streaming the event live on its website as part of a four day anti-immigrant hate campaign which began on Friday. NumbersUSA’s campaign has so far failed to live up to its own high expectations with less than one percent of its alleged 900,000 members signing its most recent “anti-amnesty” petition, a key part of the four day campaign.
Throughout the campaign, NumbersUSA has updated its twitter page constantly. On many of the tweets there is the term “#AFIRE.” This term refers to Americans for Immigration Control and Enforcement, a “National DC based office in conjunction with Americans for Immigration Reform and Enforcement (AFIRE) made up of FAIR and Numbers USA.” According to this statement on the Utah chapter of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), we can see that NumbersUSA and FAIR are actively working together. This is just another example of two John Tanton Network groups teaming up to bash immigrants.
NumbersUSA’s finances and ties to white nationalists are very disturbing. Roy Beck, the group’s executive director spoke at a 1997 Council of Conservative Citizens conference, something that has haunted Beck ever since. Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC) is a white supremacist hate group. Its conferences have hosted a who’s who of the white nationalist hierarchy over the years, including Jared Taylor, founder of American Renaissance.
Beck is paid a colossal amount of money each year by NumbersUSA to spew anti-immigrant rhetoric. Beck was compensated a whopping $274,500 in 2007 alone, Beck’s paycheck is more than five times the net income of an average American.
Beck has also begun to think about the future of NumbersUSA and who will replace him at the helm when he finally retires. One of Beck’s right hand men at NumbersUSA is Chad MacDonald, the Director of Social Media Marketing for NumbersUSA. Chad recently spoke with Roy Beck and Tom Tancredo at the National Tea Party Convention, telling the crowd that each tea party group should have an “immigration expert.”
MacDonald has been busy in recent weeks in preparing for the four day anti-immigrant campaign. He has appeared in many videos, on both NumbersUSA’s website and YouTube page, discussing the immigration reform march and NumbersUSA’s anti-immigrant response to it. MacDonald is a much younger and more likable alternative to Beck, making him an ideal candidate to be the new face of NumbersUSA.
Anti-immigrant Network Uses Faith to Mask Hateful Agenda
01 year ago
by Jill Garvey
in American Free Press, American Renaissance, Catholics for a Moral Immigration Policy, Charles Martel, Conservative Political Action Conference, Council Of Conservative Citizens, Father Patrick Bascio, Immigration, Immigration Policy, James C Russell, John Tanton, Politics, Wayne Lutton, White Nationalist, Willis Carto
Fr. Bascio at Tanton event
The John Tanton Network has debuted its newest spin-off group. This time, instead of targeting environmentalists or progressives, they are trying to win over faithful Americans to their anti-immigrant agenda.
The group is called Catholics for a Moral Immigration Policy (CMIP). The public face of the organization includes a priest who, keeping with the Tanton Network’s history, has ties to controversial organizations like American Free Press – founded by notorious holocaust denier Willis Carto, and the white nationalist journal, The Social Contract, founded by John Tanton.
In fact, Social Contract’s bigot-in-chief, Wayne Lutton, personally helped Catholics for a Moral Immigration Policy (CMIP) get started at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington D.C. this past Friday. In addition to releasing racist publications, Wayne Lutton is also a Board of Director for the Charles Martel Society, an anti-Semitic organization that publishes the Occidental Quarterly. Lutton was also active with the overtly racist magazine American Renaissance and the flagship publication of the Council of Conservative Citizens. The Council of Conservative Citizens is the reconstituted, segregationist White Citizens’ Councils.
Catholics for a Moral Immigration Policy, which is also staffed by James C. Russell, may appear at first glance to be run by a few harmless, Christian academics who just happen to have a lot in common with the Tanton Network. However, CMIP has been strategically orchestrated by Tanton’s anti-immigrant movement to distract the public from some of its decidedly un-Catholic activities.
Sadly, this isn’t the first time James Russell or Father Patrick Bascio have dabbled in hate.
James Russell’s book, The Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity: A Sociohistorical Approach to Religious Transformation, I found was cited by several racist online publications, including Vdare.com and The Occidental Quarterly. Coincidentally, one of the only gushing reviews of Father Bascio’s book, On the immortality of Illegal Immigration, came from VDARE.com’s Brenda Walker. VDARE is named for Virginia Dare, allegedly the first white child born in the U.S. Brenda Walker is a prolific anti-immigrant blogger who uses racist and xenophobic outlets to spread her views. Walker was a featured presenter at last year’s “Preserving Western Civilization” conference in Baltimore, Maryland. The annual conference gathers a group of racist academics and anti-immigrant activists who focus on how the “massive influx” of “third-world immigrants” allegedly threatens American and European cultural values, as well as the dangers of Islam, and alleged racial differences in intelligence.
In 2009, Father Bascio’s book was sold on Amazon.com under the publisher American Free Press – the same publisher that persistently peddled anti-Semitic conspiracy theories post 9/11. Now it is sold as a revised edition under a different publisher. But the first few pages are filled with praise from a veritable all-star list of Tanton Network players. Otis Graham, an old friend of John Tanton and a board member for both organizations founded by Tanton, FAIR and Center for Immigration Studies, calls Bascio’s book “invaluable”. Leah Durant, the head of another Tanton front group, Progressives for Immigration Reform, says Bascio makes a “compelling case”. The book lists Vernon Briggs as a Cornell University professor, but conveniently omits that he is a board member with Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and The Social Contract. Maybe that’s because the book’s other admirers include CIS fellow James R. Edwards, board chairman Peter Nunez, and former director David Simcox.
John Tanton, the founder of FAIR, has financially supported platforms to debate pseudo-scientific research (racial eugenics) purporting to show that African Americans and Latinos are mentally inferior to whites because of their genetic makeup. While the false science of racial eugenics lost respectability after the crimes of Nazi Europe in the 1940s, Tanton still clings to these beliefs. In The Case for Passive Eugenics, Tanton does not overtly distance himself from Adolf Hitler’s application of eugenics to “cleanse” the German population. He writes instead that “Hitler’s reign in Nazi Germany did little to advance the discussion of eugenics among sensitive persons.”
Then of course, there is long-time FAIR representative Rosanna Pulido who is well-known for her anti-catholic diatribes. As we reported in January, Pulido stated at a public forum in October 2007, “The Catholic Church is not Catholicism. It has nothing to do with Christianity or the Bible.”
Of the Catholic Church and immigration she stated at the same forum, “What better way to fill your pews and fill your offering coffers than with inviting in and giving sanctuary to illegal aliens.”
In March 2009, Pulido harshly criticized Chicago’s Cardinal George for his appeal for humanity on behalf of immigrants. She told ABC news, “Cardinal George is responsible for every illegal immigrant who dies while crossing the border coming over here because he is luring them.”
It is clear that CMIP is merely John Tanton and Co.’s latest puppet show. America’s Catholic communities have proven time and again that they reject anti-immigrant bigotry. Catholics for a Moral Immigration Policy does not speak for America’s faithful.
Dept. Homeland Security Welcomes Neo-Nazi, Deports Immigrant Students
01 year ago
Janet Napolitano, the head of The Department of Homeland Security should stop the harassment of immigrant workers and students and focus on real threats. Searchlight Magazine, an anti-racist European monthly, has alerted civil rights organizations in the United States to the arrival of Nick Griffin. Griffin is the leader of the British National Party (BNP), a racial extremist political organization based in the United Kingdom.
Griffin, scheduled to speak at the now canceled white nationalist American Renaissance conference, will be appearing February 18 at Michigan State University. The student group sponsoring the event, Sons of Liberty, also states in its media release that Griffin “is expected to make an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington D.C.”
Despite the public overhaul of the BNP over the last decade, Griffin has been clear that his public distancing from overt racism and bigotry is nothing more than a façade, telling a group of U.S. neo-Nazis in 2001 that “My politics have not changed”.
Griffin became an organizer for the National Front, a neo-Nazi organization, in 1978 and in the 1980s traveled to Libya as a guest of Muammar al-Gaddafi in order to seek funding for the organization. In the 80’s Griffin hired Roberto Fiore. Fiore was convicted in 1985 for being a member of an Italian far right terror organization that was involved in a train bombing that killed eighty- five people.
According to the website Stop the BNP, several leaders and members of the British National Party have been convicted of assaulting a police officer, hate violence, armed robbery, gang rape, and illegal weapons possession. Tony Lecomber, the BNP’s Group Development Officer, was sentenced to three years under the Explosives Act. Lecomber was sentenced to another three years in prison on the charge of “unlawful wounding” which occurred during an attack on a Jewish school teacher.”
Unsurprisingly, Griffin, no stranger to racism, homophobia, and anti-Semitism, was himself convicted in 1998 for inciting racial hatred. A recent comment posted by “BNP Security” to the white nationalist website American Renaissance alarmingly asks volunteers to simply just show up as “security” for Griffin’s talk. With this history one has to wonder why The Department of Homeland Security is allowing Griffin into the country. Perhaps it is too busy deporting America’s brightest and smartest.
A new documentary called Papers: the Movie tells the story of undocumented youth and the challenges they face as they turn 18 without legal status. One of these students, Monica, should be worrying about which college she’ll attend and preparing to add to our nation’s brain trust, but instead she faces deportation thanks to the mixed up priorities of Homeland Security.
If you think it’s time for the Department of Homeland Security to get its priorities straight call Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), the Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security at (202) 226-2616 and let him know. For other members of the Committee on Homeland Security click here.
Janet Napolitano should listen to the American public. A recent poll shows that the majority of Texas residents oppose deportation of undocumented immigrants. Allowing neo-Nazi’s with Griffin’s history into the country while terrorizing young students like Monica only make a mockery of the Department of Homeland Security.
I suspect that Lady Liberty would be laughing at the irony. If she wasn’t so busy crying.
Sheriff Arpaio Joins Forces with Anti-immigrant Attorney
01 year ago
by Sarah Viets
in American Renaissance, Civil Rights, Federation For American Immigration Reform, Gop Candidate, Hate Group, Immigration, Immigration Reform Law Institute, Joe Arpaio, John Tanton, Kris Kobach, Maricopa County, Politics, Sheriff Arpaio, Southern Poverty Law Center, Wayne Lutton, White Nationalists
Joe Arpaio has found a new friend who is just as controversial as the sheriff himself. Kris Kobach and Arpaio appeared together at a press conference yesterday afternoon to unveil a new program that trains officers to target immigrants. Kobach, a GOP candidate for Secretary of State in Kansas, works for the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI). According IRLI’s website, it is the “public interest law affiliate of the Federation for American Immigration Reform” aka FAIR, designated as a hate group by the civil rights organization Southern Poverty Law Center.
Before detailing FAIR’s controversial relationships with white nationalists, let’s first examine Kobach’s colleague at IRLI, Mike Hethmon. Hethmon has worked with John Tanton (the founder of FAIR) for nearly nine years. Just last fall he attended Tanton’s annual Writers Workshop. In fact, Hethmon began his “legal overview” presentation by personally thanking “Dr. Tanton for hosting and sustaining what is now I believe 33 years of the Writers Workshop.” Hethmon also added that he has “had the privilege of attending for several years.”
What is even more disturbing is Hethmon’s association with two other attendees: Peter Brimelow, the founder of VDARE, a website dedicated to “race-betterment,” and Wayne Lutton, editor of The Social Contract, a quarterly white nationalist journal published by John Tanton. According to a recent article Lutton also writes for the anti-Semitic publication Occidental Quarterly and was scheduled to give a presentation on immigration issues during an anti-Black annual conference sponsored by American Renaissance.
After reviewing the long list of these troubling relationships, it’s hard to tell if immigration is the only issue of concern for Kris Kobach and the Immigration Reform Law Institute.
But the Immigration Reform Law Institute’s attorneys don’t just rub elbows with hate groups and far-right extremists, both Kobach and Hethmon have received significant financial support from FAIR. According to tax documents, FAIR has paid Hethmon over $400,000 and Kobach $125,000. In 2004, Kobach also accepted $10,000 from the U.S. Immigration Reform PAC, formerly known as the FAIR PAC. Perhaps IRLI’s legal counselors are merely following in the footsteps of their financial backers.
Arpaio’s office has not disclosed where it got the funds to pay Kris Kobach. Maybe the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is receiving a little help in that department.
According to several documents, John Tanton, the founder of FAIR, solicited and successfully received over 1.2 million from the Pioneer Fund. The Pioneer Fund is a foundation committed to eugenics and “scientific racism” used to justify the crimes of Nazi Germany.
FAIR also hired members of the Council of Conservative Citizens, an organization originally developed to fight integration during the Civil Rights Movement. When civil rights organizations asked FAIR to explain its controversial relationships, particularly its funding sources, FAIR’s current president Dan Stein stated, “I don’t give a sh*t what they do with their money, my job is to get every dime of Pioneer’s money.”
In 1989, John Tanton wrote, “I have all along seen the immigration battle as really a skirmish in a wider war . . .” Since that time critics of Tanton have worried that his “wider war” is one steeped in racism and white nationalism.
Yesterday’s development should alarm Maricopa County residents. Kobach’s ongoing relationship with the Immigration Reform Law Institute and FAIR is disturbing. According to a Kansas City Star article, Kobach blamed his loss of a 2004 Senate race on a series of ads “that charged Kobach with associating with groups that had white supremacist ties.” Kobach said he underestimated the ads’ effect. Perhaps he thought Kansas voters would support a candidate who works for a hate group. Gratefully, he was wrong.
If voters in Kansas stood tall against bigotry, so should Maricopa County.
Anti-Immigrant ‘Progressives’ Embrace Hate
02 years ago
by Eric Ward
in American Renaissance, Council Of Conservative Citizens, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Federation For American Immigration Reform, Immigration, John Tanton, Leah Durant, Neo Nazi Organizations, Politics, Progressives for Immigration Reform, Social Contract Press, Summit Ministries, Wayne Lutton, White Nationalist Movement
Back in 1963, The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream where . . . “little black boys and black girls” would “be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.” I’m fairly sure Dr. King wasn’t envisioning Leah Durant, executive director of Progressives for Immigration Reform (PFIR) joining group shots with prominent leaders tied to the American white nationalist movement.
For nearly a year Leah Durant has been working overtime in an attempt to convince the public that PFIR is a legitimate progressive organization concerned about the issue of immigration. Recently in a discussion on AlterNet Durant argued that the fact that she was African American should be proof enough of PFIR’s progressive bona fides. Ironically Durant makes this statement after arguing that her organization was not “concerned with race.”
PFIR is the latest front group of the anti-immigrant John Tanton Network. Before assuming her present assignment Durant was a staff attorney for the Tanton Network’s Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). In 2007 FAIR was listed alongside klan and neo-Nazi organizations as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
A recent photo of Leah Durant is yet another example highlighting that PFIR politics are progressive in name only. The photo is a group shot of Leah Durant (right) with PeterGemma (center) and Wayne Lutton (left). Durant, Gemma, and Lutton were attending the 33rd Writers Workshop put on by The Social Contract Press (TSCP) an organization founded by John Tanton. TSCP is well known for its peddling of racist publications and writers.
Wayne Lutton is the editor of Social Contract Press. Lutton got his start at the homophobic Summit Ministries based in Colorado. Lutton was also active with the anti-Black magazine American Renaissance and the flagship publication of the Council of Conservative Citizens. The Council of Conservative Citizens is the lineal descendant of the white citizens’ council organization that opposed Dr. King in the South during the 1960s. Lutton now writes for the anti-Semitic journal The Occidental Quarterly.
Peter Gemma, like Lutton, also writes for the anti-Semitic Occidental Quarterly. Gemma who interviewed Durant in the pages of TSCP in the summer of 2009 writes for Middle American News (MAN). MAN’s earliest leadership included white nationalist Samuel Francis (now deceased). Gemma participated with the extremist Council for National Policy and spoke at a white nationalist event alongside the famous neo-Nazi David Duke. In 2003 Gemma spoke at a Council of Conservative Citizens event addressing “The Attack on White Culture.” Other presentations at the event included defending Mississippi symbol of the Southern Confederacy. Gemma regularly posts at the website VDARE named after the first alleged white child born in North America.
Lutton, Gemma, and The Social Contract Press have nothing in common with progressive politics. If one is known by the company they keep the same probably goes for Leah Durant and Progressives for Immigration Reform. PFIR is nothing more than a cheap attempt at dressing up anti-immigrant bigotry in the garb of progressive politics. Durant’s activities don’t resemble The Dream of Dr. King rather the nightmare of racist bigotry that he stood against.
I guess at the end of the day one could still consider Progressives for Immigration Reform “progressive.” If you’re a Nazi that is.
Monthly Racism Round-up
02 years ago
Cairo, IL 1970
It’s common to encounter subtle bigotry from all types of people in every community in America, even in unexpected places. A sad reality of our progress as a nation is that we are not even close to overcoming racial divisions. But sometimes things are said or events take place that are so outrageously overt, they deserve special condemnation. This is a recent round-up of insidious items that went down just in the first month of 2010.
First up is Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies with this thoughtful quote, “My guess is that Haiti’s so screwed up because it wasn’t colonized long enough.” He goes on to say that French colonizers didn’t do a good enough job suppressing paganism. He is referring to Haiti becoming the first Black-led republic in the world when it fought for and won independence from France in 1804. It’s akin to saying that America should have been ruled by the British longer or slavery ended too soon. It’s blatantly racist and insults our most cherished American value: freedom. Center for Immigration Studies is trying hard to secure mainstream respectability, but with spokespersons like Krikorian, it can’t help stepping in racist doo-doo time and again.
Mark Krikorian’s friends at the white supremacist American Renaissance are on the radar as well. They’re on the hunt for a space to hold their annual conference on “Defending the west” after they were banned or booted from many DC-area hotels. With things like, “Virtually no whites anywhere are willing to break taboos about racial differences in IQ, the costs of ‘diversity,’ or the challenges of non-white immigration,” printed on its website, it’s no wonder every hotel is running in the opposite direction.
Concluding our racism round-up is Bob Kellar, a California councilman who spoke at a Save Our State anti-immigration rally in California and declared himself a “proud racist”. Kellar said he was glad when people told him he sounded racist. It doesn’t get much scummier than this blubbering bigot, folks.
As the above items illustrate, no matter how bigotry is qualified, it can’t be tolerated.