No Fascist USA!. Hilary Moore
PRAISE FOR NO FASCIST USA!
“Smash fascism! Read this book!”
—Tom Morello, songwriter and guitarist from Rage Against the Machine
“No Fascist USA! is not only timely, but also essential in the present period of accelerated white supremacist activity and anti-racist organizing to combat it. In telling the story of the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee, the authors, without romanticizing or condemning, draw important lessons from the fifteen-year history of the group.”
—Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment
“With its savvy blend of youth culture and street confrontation, the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee tried to stop Trumpism before Trump. They confronted the rise of white nationalism in prisons, workplaces, and music scenes when precious few paid attention to it. If more people had grappled with their warning decades ago, we might be in a better place today. While I wish we did not need this book as badly as we do, I am grateful that Hilary Moore and James Tracy have gifted us this urgent read.”
—Dan Berger, author of Captive Nation: Black Prison Rights Organizing in the Civil Rights Era
“Yes! This book is right on time! As a Black woman supporting Black liberation struggles, it has been terrifying to grasp the resilience and reach of fascism in the U.S. and around the globe, and disheartening to see how many White people want to sign petitions and express discontent with current political conditions, but won’t acknowledge that there is an ongoing race war that they’re benefiting from, and who won’t put their actions behind their beliefs. This book is about an imperfect effort to be brave, to be committed, and to risk the privileges of Whiteness in order to relinquish the entire construct of white supremacy. And from where organized people of color are sitting, this kind of work is absolutely necessary. Studying the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee will give readers an understanding of the complexity of deconstructing the weapon of white supremacy from the inside out. Thank you, Hilary and James, for the precision of this analysis, and the true north of this star.”
—adrienne maree brown, author of Emergent Strategy and Pleasure Activism, and facilitator of Black liberation movements
“This riveting and deeply researched new book, Hilary Moore and James Tracy’s No Fascist USA!, brings us the unromanticized, and largely untold story of the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee. Through the stories of those who were part of this critical anti-fascist and U.S.-based group, we learn how their work exposed the complicity of the state—all the way to its highest levels—as well as the media’s role in the spread of white nationalist ideology. This book is a ‘must read’ for anyone wanting to understand the roots of what happened in Charlottesville, and the burgeoning white nationalist membership lists in the U.S. today. We cannot possibly take on the challenges we face without learning from the past. This book is a necessary and long overdue contribution to inform the way forward.”
—Carla F. Wallace, co-founder of Showing Up for Racial Justice
“The history of the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee is important because it explains the historical roots of the current struggle against American fascism. In their timely book, the authors of No Fascist USA! place the role of the state in proper perspective. Moore and Tracy remind readers that white supremacist terrorism thrives partly because the United States government embraces and benefits from it. Therefore, they indicate, the organizations and individuals are not just a Southern problem. No! They live, work, and attempt to dominate in every part of the United States of America. Equally important, there have always been dedicated White opponents of fascism. Refusing to sit idly as their Black and Brown comrades place their lives and freedom on the line, the people who joined JBAKC attempted to carry on the spirit of John Brown, just as Malcolm X suggested.”
—Dr. Edward Onaci, author of Free the Land!: Territorial Nationalism and Lifestyle Politics in the New Afrikan Independence Movement
“James Tracy and Hilary Moore deliver a searing, bold new work that examines another painful and complicated chapter in American race relations. In an eye-opening account, they are able to connect the dots of the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee, a band of contemporary predominantly white activists, and their efforts to expose white supremacist organizations. With a fresh eye and new research, their book uncovers with stunning precision how these groups remain active and exposes some of their unlikely alliances.”
—Laurens Grant, filmmaker, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution and Freedom Riders
“I’ve waited for thirty years for this book! Our emergency hearts have always driven uprisings to stop white terrorism, but it always takes more than black bloc tactics in the streets to stop fascists. No Fascist USA! firmly connects today’s militant antifascist street-fighting movements with important living radical histories to disrupt the cycles that keep the specter of fascism alive in the modern era. The struggles faced by the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee continue today in our difficult arc toward collective liberation.”
—scott crow, author of Setting Sights: Histories and Reflections on Community Armed Self-Defense
Copyright © 2020 by Hilary Moore and James Tracy
Foreword © 2020 Copyright by Robin D.G. Kelley
All Rights Reserved.
Cover photograph: Protesters demonstrating against the Aryan Woodstock, circa March 1–5, 1989. Printed with permission of Napa Historical Society.
Cover design by Herb Thornby
Open Media Series Editor: Greg Ruggiero
ISBN: 978-0872867963
eISBN: 9780872868007
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file
City Lights Books are published at the City Lights Bookstore
261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94133
www.citylights.com
Hilary Moore dedicates this book to:
Hans, for your good company as we wade through history.
James Tracy dedicates this book to:
Felix Shafer, Rest in Power!
CONTENTS
FOREWORD Robin D.G. Kelley
AUTHORS’ STATEMENTS
PREFACE: Past as Prologue
ONE One Long Reign of Terror
TWO Roots, Radicals, and Reagan
THREE After Winter Must Come Spring: The Anti-Klan Movement
FOUR Confrontations and Culture Wars
FIVE Small Steps on a Long Road
SIX Lessons for Today’s Movements
Acknowledgments
Endnotes
About the Authors
FOREWORD
Robin D.G. Kelley
“No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA!” has been a popular protest chant since the New York real-estate mogul and former reality TV star became the 45th president of the United States. This was no mere rhetorical flourish. We saw a surge in the ranks of white nationalists and the “alt-right,” an escalation of domestic terrorist attacks on Black and Brown people, immigrants, Muslims, Jews, and the LGBTQ community. The road to a “Fascist USA” took a deadly turn after Trump indirectly condoned the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which an assembly of Klansmen, “alt Knights,” neo-Nazis, and white nationalist militias inspired one of their number to mow down anti-racist protesters with his car. A consensus took hold that Trump’s election, along with the campaign to remove Confederate