||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||| ||| ||| A N T I F A ||| ||| ||| ||| I N F O - B U L L E T I N ||| ||| _____ ||| ||| ||| ||| * News * Analysis * Research * Action * ||| ||| ||| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ***** ||/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\||/\|| || * -- RESEARCH -- * -- May 27, 1996 -- * -- RESEARCH -- * || ||\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/||\/|| ***** Power never takes a step back -- only in the face of more power. Power doesn't back up in the face of a smile, or in the face of a threat, or in the face of some kind of nonviolent loving action. It's not the nature of power to back up in the face of anything but some more power. And this is what the people have realized in Southeast Asia, in the Congo, in Cuba, in other parts of the world. Power recognizes only power, and all of them who realize this have made gains. -- Malcolm X ----- RESEARCH SUPPLEMENT 1. INTRODUCTION 2. WHAT IS NEO-CONFEDERACY? By Emil Greenhalgh Prague 3. WEB LINKS To Neo-Confederate and Neo-Secessionist Movements ----- EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION The report below explores the little-known, but highly- influential Neo-Confederate movement; it provides a critical overview and sheds light into another corner of racist reaction in the United States. What after all, is the legacy of the Confederate States of America and the "heritage" of the Old South? It is a legacy of the Ku Klux Klan and Bull Connor, of night-riders and chain-gangs updated for the 1990s; a heritage of terror. As with a majority of reactionary nationalist groupings in Europe, such as Umberto Bossi's Lega Norda (Northern League), the Southern League in the United States employs a coded language of "traditionalism" and uses historical revisionism as a method to mask the racist nature of it's project -- the defense of white supremacy. Historical revisionism comes in many flavors; Southern nationalism and neo-Confederacy, though less known than Holocaust revisionism, share a similar methodology. The point of re- writing the history of the South, white-washing the primary economic prop of the Southern system -- slavery -- is a move to re-frame the past in order to exculpate responsibility for historical crime and oppression while justifying contemporary crime and repression by ruling corporate and State elites against the black community. I'd like to thank Emil Prague for making his research available for publication in AFIB. Though I do not share his apparent view that racist reaction is the exclusive domain of the Republican Party, Prague's comments on seizing "historical memory" are especially relevant today. Hopefully this report will incite continuing research into the content of historical memory, exposing and confronting those who seek to "revise" America's history -- so that the slave master's win this time. It is no accident that the mythology of the "Lost Cause" appears during a particularly bleak period of "actually existing capitalism." Scapegoats must be re-invented; what better way to justify massive unemployment, the toxic poisoning of Third World communities, hopelessness, despair and accompanying State repression, than to blame those who are the historical targets of ruling class attacks, North _and_ South? The Confederate flag, you say? "Burn baby, burn." ***** Date: Wed, 22 May 1996 05:02:20 -0700 (PDT) From: crawfsh@anet-dfw.com ----- WHAT IS NEO-CONFEDERACY? How the Neo-Confederates Have Become A National Movement And The Opportunities It Gives Us To Fight Racism And The Right By Emil Greenhalgh Prague ----- The Neo-Confederate movement is already a national movement. The Southern League has Chapters in many states outside the South including New York, California, and even Minnesota. The Council of Conservative Citizens have chapters in Massachusetts and Wisconsin; just about everywhere across the country. Though they are strongest in the South, like the Christian Right they are distributed nationally. Indeed, the Christian Reconstructionist movement have many prominent members who are also conspicuous Neo-Confederates. Many Neo-Confederates have never lived in the South. For example, the "paleo-conservative" Rockford Institute, an organization sharing affinities with the Neo-Confederates is based in Rockford, Illinois and publishes "Chronicles." You can even buy Neo-Confederate literature from Boise, Idaho. Rutgers University Transaction Press publishes many books by leading Neo-Confederates. Thomas Woods, a Southern League activist, is a graduate student at the History Department at Columbia University. Mark G. Malvasi, an up and coming Neo-Confederate theorist, received his Ph.D. from the University of Rochester of New York, under Eugene Genovese, a neo-Confederate professor there. Malvasi was born and raised in Ohio. The examples of Neo-Confederates and activities outside the South could go on and on. This is not a recent development, however. Russell Kirk, the 20th Century's most influential American Conservative, taught at Hillsdale College in Mecosta, Michigan. His biography tells how he was an admirer of David Donaldson and the Southern Agrarians in his early years. As the writer of the "Viking Conservative Reader" (Penguin Press) and the book "The Conservative Mind," he is representative of a great many conservatives outside the South who have converted to Neo-Confederate beliefs and gone on to promote them. He has been called "a Northern Agrarian." So the Neo-Confederates have gone national. They seek to make over the entire nation to a Confederate image. How have they done this, and what is Neo-Confederacy? WHAT IS NEO-CONFEDERACY? A part of Neo-Confederacy, but ONLY A PART, is the Lost Cause view of the Civil War and Reconstruction. The Reconstruction part of Neo-Confederacy is as important component of the Lost Cause as is the Civil War. It is also an alternative view of history going back to the American Revolution and on to the present. The late M.E. Bradford, one of the most important Neo-Confederates who for a long time kept the movement alive, wrote mostly about the American Revolution. His American Revolution served to create a Patrician republic in his mind, not what was to become fully over time a democratic Republic. Otto Scott, another leading Neo-Confederate, in his newsletter "The Compass," condemns the Renaissance in Italy and The 18th Century Enlightenment. He has produced many videos, such as "The Meaning of Calhoun Today," featuring South Carolina University professor Clyde Wilson. Otto Scott is more widely known as a Christian Reconstructionist, an associate of R.J. Rushdoony, and writer for "The Journal of Christian Reconstruction." However, this arguing over history is only a part of Neo-Confederacy. NEO-CONFEDERACY IS ALIENATION TO MODERNITY It is a general reactionary attitude which sees the present society, which they reject with hostility, as deriving from wrong turns in history. In particular, the Civil War and the whole development of modern democracy since then is scorned. Their ideal society has been critiqued as a squirearchy. They hope to convince the public to believe in their alternative history so that people will then believe their ideals. An example is "A Theological Interpretation of American History," which sees the Civil War as a theological conflict. It is the same view of Rev. Steve Wilkins a prominent Neo-Confederate who has a whole series of audio tapes on such subjects as "The Character of Lee and Jackson: A Study in Christian Manhood," and "Abolitionism and Secession." His sixteen (16) tape series "America: The First 350 Years" and its study book show the Neo-Confederate identity of Christian Reconstructionist history. Rev. Steve Wilkins is also a founding director of the Southern League. It is an example of how the American Religious Right is underpinned by historical interpretation. It is used as a source by many Neo-Confederate writers. "A Theological Interpretation of American History" was written in 1967 by C. Gregg Singer; this demonstrates that Neo-Confederates have been long in coming and have labored for decades. Modern 'liberal' religion and modern morality are both viewed as a result of the defeat of the Confederacy. SO WHAT IS NEO-CONFEDERACY SPECIFICALLY? It is fear mongering about immigration, it is hostility to gay rights, it is U.S. Senator Trent Lott, it is Strom Thurmond, it is opposition to civil rights for minorities and women, it is for censorship, for a "Christian" nation, for the entire agenda of the Hard Right when leading proponents themselves are not the actual leaders of a multitude of backlash movements. It is the American Renaissance organization led by Southern League member Jared Taylor. It is hostility to taxes and big government. Indeed, the Neo-Confederate world-view is justified by their alternative history. However, this needs to be explained carefully. Neo-Confederacy is not an additional agenda item on the Conservative agenda. Defending the Confederate flag and other Confederate symbols is an additional agenda item. Neo-Confederacy is the historical ground which is tilled by these activists to grow a viewpoint, a consciousness, a political ideology, for a Confederate vision of America. Defending the Confederate flag is to protect this historical ground but it is not the same thing. All these items of the Hard Right, from anti-feminism to anti-democracy, are plants nurtured by this Confederate soil in which new shoots grow. There is feedback of course; the historical ground shapes the ideas, but the ideas tend to till this historical ground, building upon the specific ideological legacy of the South, even as the movement expands beyond southern geographical borderlands. However, Neo-Confederacy does not subsume movements, such as anti-immigration. These movements are supported by Neo-Confederates, but are not departments of Neo-Confederacy, and have non-Neo-Confederates involved. Neo-Confederacy is not a monolithic movement. It has branches and factions and groupings which overlap. Not every Neo-Confederate subscribes to every idea. So the Neo-Confederates have become national, since they capitalize on national resentments. African Americans are now nationally distributed and this has given the Neo-Confederates a national opportunity to capitalize on racism. They tie these national reactionary sentiments to their historical view. Thus, the Lost Cause becomes a justification for a national reactionary view. This is a very clever move on their part. We all have our views rise out of some historical ground to a great extent. They recognize this and are slowly but surely seizing the popular historical imagination. We take the historical imagination for granted or ignore it. We give it very low or no priority. For those who feel that the historical imagination or ideas can not have power and influence, or feel that Neo-Confederate ideas have not gone far enough to be of concern, or feel that the United States could not be threatened by secessionist movements, I pose these questions. Who in the 1970's thought Canada would be breaking up? In 1987 who thought in just a few years the Soviet Union would be gone. Who would imagine just 5 years ago that the Lega Norda (Northern League) in Italy would be of any significance, let alone a threat to Italian nationhood. The Lega Norda in particular used the historical imagination to tap into pre-existing resentments, in particular racial feelings against Sicilians to build their movements. The founders of the Southern League studied the Lega Norda, including visiting Italy to learn from them. Thomas Fleming, Editor of "Chronicles," and founding director had articles on the Lega Norda (Northern League) in the Jan. 1991, July 1991, March 1992, Feb. 1993, and Nov. 1993 issues of "Chronicles." In the video of the First Annual Southern League Conference in 1994, Thomas Fleming speaks on how he spent time with the Lega Norda to study their tactics. "The Southern Patriot" newsletter of the Southern League explains how the League name originates from that of Lega Norda. League president Michael Hill, writing in the "Southern Partisan," 4th Quarter 1994, explains how the origin of the name was derived from the Lega Norda. All these events, good and bad were ultimately driven by the historical imagination. Nations are imagined and monuments are markers of the imagination. The Past is not distant and dead. We imagine the past and it is immediately with us close at hand. For example, Easter is not 2000 years in the past on Easter Sunday to Christians at Church that morning, as if it was a great distance to walk or a long flight of stairs. It is right with them that morning in their hearts. History is a power the Right is using, and we are throwing away. OUR OPPORTUNITY There are four major opportunities: 1) The American public is deeply patriotic. The idea of the Civil War being reversed and Abraham Lincoln thrown down would deeply sicken and greatly threaten the great majority of Americans. That is why I am able to get suburbanites here in the South, some conservative Republicans and all except one of them white, to volunteer to assist me. The public can be shown that this whole complex of reactionary ideology is essentially Confederate values in opposition to American values. That this movement seeks to upset and overthrow the American national story, vision, and history. 2) Our group, by studying the Neo-Confederates and realizing their hostility to the Statue of Liberty, The Declaration of Independence, and American democratic values in general have also come to realize one thing. RACISM = TREASON That is, that to support racism you have to support policies that undermine and subvert democracy and eventually advocate these things such as hating the Statue of Liberty. Also, if you are hostile to democracy your first strategy, as the Neo-Confederates have done, is to foster racism to divide the public. After all what was the Confederacy, but treason then. When the broad public realizes that Racism is a threat to the American democratic republic it will harden their attitudes against racism considerably. It will no longer be liberal _noblesse oblige_, but a very self-interested determined hard attitude against racism. Understanding that Racism is a Confederate value would communicate this idea. 3) Finally this politics gives an opportunity to flush out the real identities of people. Fighting racism can be difficult since much is covert. It is like a weed you pull out of the ground and you are surprised, the roots which extend all over. Agitation against a Confederate symbol or history would directly threaten Neo-Confederacy. Given the Federal support for Confederate memorials and many Confederate monuments outside the South, there is abundant opportunity to agitate outside the South. The Neo-Confederates would have to respond, in fact want to respond. This would allow Neo-Confederate sympathies of many reactionaries, including those who are not members of the movement to be smoked out. For example, Newt Gingrich comes from a conservative Georgia district. If Federal support for the Lost Cause was challenged, let say the Jefferson Davis Highway in California, in the U.S. House he would have to take a stand. If the Jefferson Davis Highway was challenged in San Diego outside the Republican Convention the Republicans would have to take a stand, especially as the Buchananites go crazy and fly Confederate flags and respond to a demonstration. There are many other opportunities to bring up the issue. If the slogan was "Down with Confederate Values" in regards to the Republican party the real character of many Republicans would bubble to the surface. In general the real face of racism and the hidden faces of racism would be brought to the surface. It becomes very clear, either you are against a flag or for it, for the monument or against it. Things are brought to the surface in the passions aroused. 4) We don't have to be always on the defensive resisting attacks. We can go after them. We need to fight for the national historical memory. We need to because we need to secure our American values and because it offers us an opportunity to defeat Confederate values. ***** WEB LINKS TO NEO-CONFEDERATE AND NEO-SECESSIONIST MOVEMENTS The Southern League: http://www.dixienet.org "Homelands" Page: http://www.wavefront.com/~homelands/ Peaceful Secession: http://www.wavefront.com/~homelands/peaceful.html Lega Norda (Italian): http://leganordsen.it/ Lega Norda (English) http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1172/lega_english.html Italy-wide links to Lega Norda and their affiliates: http://www.agora.stm/it/politic/z-nord.htm * * * * * Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights (BACORR) 750 La Playa # 730 San Francisco, California 94121 Voice: (415) 437-4032 E-Mail: On PeaceNet visit BACORR's conference. For subscription information e-mail Wendi Jones, On PeaceNet visit ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN on or by gopher --> gopher://gopher.igc.apc.org:7021/11/europe BACORR text files can also be found on the following sites: Arm The Spirit WWW:gopher://locust.cic.net:70/11/politics/Arm.The.Spirit/BACORR FTP: ftp.etext.org --> /pub/politics/Arm.The.Spirit/BACORR FTP: ftp.etext.org --> /pub/politics/Arm.The.Spirit/Antifa/Antifa.Info-Bulletin Institute For Alternative Journalism (AlterNet) http://www.alternet.org/an/demworks/html gopher://gopher.igc.apc.org:70/00/orgs/alternet ***************************************************************** BACORR: DEFENDING CLINICS, EXPOSING TERRORISM -- BECAUSE NO ONE'S GONNA DO IT FOR US! ***************************************************************** ++++ stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++ ++++ if you agree copy these 3 sentences in your own sig ++++ ++++ see: http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/spg-l/sigaction.htm ++++