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Supporters wave old campaign posters as they welcome neo-Nazi David Duke to a gathering in honor of his recent release from prison. Duke helped organize a new coalition of hate groups at the New Orleans meeting.
(The Associated Press) |
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NEW ORLEANS -- Over the Memorial Day weekend, leaders of major hate groups from three countries gathered here and established a dangerous new alliance. Overlooked by the mainstream media, they signed on to a historic plan to work in concert to more effectively infect society with their neo-Nazi, white supremacist beliefs.
The agreement to band together in promoting their hate agenda was reached at an assembly of more than 300 white supremacists. They came together on May 29 to celebrate the recent return of David Duke, one of the most notorious leaders of America's hate movement, who was released from federal prison last month after serving time for fraud.
"The New Orleans Protocol," written by Duke, is a pledge by groups to work together to support the hate movement. It requires groups to aim their hate at their real targets, not at each other, and to advance in unity their vision: a nation for white people.
Volunteering is tactic
Some of the tactics discussed during a strategy session at the gathering included volunteering as Little League coaches, providing access to impressionable young children, and joining the Red Cross to gain credibility for their ideas.
"The Protocol is nothing more than a smokescreen to legitimize their white supremacy. It's an attempt to unify and sanitize their efforts to infiltrate the fabric of our society," said Joe Roy, director of the Center's Intelligence Project, which monitored the gathering.
Among those signing the Protocol at the meeting were:
- Duke, former Klansman and now leader of European-American Unity and Rights Organization (EURO);
- Don Black, a former Klan leader and the creator of Stormfront, the Internet's first and most influential hate website;
- Willis Carto, a primary architect of the Holocaust denial movement in this country;
- Kevin Strom and David Pringle of the neo-Nazi National Alliance, the organization whose founder inspired the Oklahoma City bombing;
- Paul Fromm, head of the Canadian Association of Free Expression, a vehemently anti-immigrant organization;
- Attorney Sam G. Dickson of the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC); and
- John Tyndall, founder of the racist British National Party.
During the meeting, Duke singled out Jews as the source of the world's problems. While there was also much hostility toward minorities, most of conference participants' ire was directed at what they consider to be a worldwide Jewish conspiracy to destroy the white race through immigration and miscegenation.
"Anything that strikes out and weakens that Jewish supremacist power is good for us," Duke said.
Duke's Jewish Supremacism, an excerpt of his autobiography My Awakening, reportedly has sold than more than 580,000 copies worldwide and is about to be translated into Arabic. It is also available on his website.
Duke has successful record
Duke has a surprisingly successful track record, and his influence should not be underestimated. In 1989, he won a seat in the Louisiana legislature.
When he ran for the U.S. Senate, he won 607,391 votes, almost 60 percent of the white vote, but not enough to win a primary runoff. In the early 1990s, the annual Dukefests — offering free barbecue and music for Duke supporters — drew more than 10,000 people each year.
Throughout the weekend conference, various leaders of the hate movement railed against the Center and its work to expose their agenda and promote tolerance.
SPLC Report
June 2004
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