----- Original Message ----- From: G*rd*n <gcf at panix.com> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Saturday, November 27, 1999 11:26 AM Subject: Re: FW: in defense of opportunism/hating the white working class
< SNIP>
>
> Does anyone actually know people who are involved with
> militias? I met Bo Gritz long ago, and my personal
> experience of the breed and its witnesses leads to me to
> believe it's another bit of romanticism greatly enlarged
> by the mass media. There may be little or no there there
> (speaking pragmatically; I'm not reflecting on the
> philosophical validity of their concerns).
>
>
> Gordon
>
Greatly hyped by the mass media, perhaps, but hardly an invention.
The following is culled from an encyclopedia entry I wrote:
The Patriot movement and its armed wing, the citizen militias, evolved out of earlier right-wing and insurgent populist movements. Their immediate predecessors in the 1970s and 1980s formed when far right groups interacted with apocalyptic survivalists to spawn a number of militant quasi-underground formations, including some that called themselves patriots or militias.
The armed militias are the militant wing of a diverse right-wing populist social movement composed of independent groups in many states, unified around the idea that the government is increasingly tyrannical. Specifically, the anti-government ideology of the militias focuses on federal gun control, taxes, regulations, and perceived federal attacks on individual citizen's Constitutional liberties. Many militia members also believe in a variety of conspiracy theories that identify a secret elite which controls the government, the economy, the culture, or all three. Many of these conspiracy theories are long-standing anti-Semitic ideologies dating to the nineteenth century, though many militia members appear unaware of that fact. White supremacist state's rights arguments and theories rooted in racial bigotry also pervade the militia movement. Despite these historic roots, many in the militia and patriot movement seem oblivious to how their ideas perpetuate racist and antisemitic stereotypes.
The ideology promoted by the leadership of the armed militia movement appears defensive in nature; that is, the appeal to people's fears of a tyrannical and threatening government and vague threats posed by scapegoated enemies mandate that they defend themselves with arms. In reality, the militia movement ideology promotes ideas that would deny basic rights for people with whom they disagree and create second class citizenship for those seen as threatening, especially people of color, and immigrants. International treaties are seen as a prelude to a New World Order, ushering in a Global One-World Government. This has been the basic theme of the John Birch Society for over thirty years.
Militia organizers manipulate and capitalize on real fears and grievances by targeting the following scapegoats:
* Federal officials and law enforcement officers * Minority groups and Jewish institutions * Abortion providers and pro-choice supporters * Environmentalists and conservation activists * Gay and lesbian rights organizers, and * People of color, immigrants, and welfare recipients.
When President Bush announced his new foreign policy would help build a New World Order, his phrasing surged through the Christian and secular hard right like an electric shock, since the phrase had been used to represent the dreaded collectivist One World Government for decades. Some Christians saw Bush as signaling the End Times betrayal by a world leader. Secular anticommunists saw a bold attempt to smash US sovereignty and impose a tyrannical collectivist system run by the United Nations. This galvanized into activism pre-existing anti-globalist sentiments within the right.
A self-conscious Patriot movement coalesced involving some 5 million persons who suspected--to varying degrees--that the government was manipulated by secret elites and planned the imminent imposition of some form of tyranny. The Patriot movement is bracketed on the reformist side by the John Birch Society and the conspiratorial segment of the Christian right, and on the insurgent side by the Liberty Lobby and groups promoting themes historically associated with white supremacy and anti-Semitism. A variety of pre-existing far right vigilante groups (including Christian Identity adherents and outright neonazi groups) were influential in helping organize the broader Patriot and armed militias movement.
Patriot movement adherents who formed armed units became known as the armed militia movement. During the mid-1990s, armed militias were sporadically active in all fifty states, with numbers estimated at between 20,000 and 60,000. After the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building, these numbers began to shrink. In anticipation of attack by government agents, a significant segment of the Patriot and armed militia movement embraces survivalism.
-Chip Berlet