Hate Group List Includes 26 Groups in Michigan

The Southern Poverty Law Center has released its annual list of “hate groups” in the United States, identifying 888 active racist, fascist, and anti-Semitic groups across the country. Of the groups identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center, 26 are located in Michigan. With the exception of Ohio, Michigan has the largest number of hate groups in the Great Lakes region.

The Southern Poverty Law Center described a “hate group” as one that has “beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.” They further add that:

“Hate group activities can include criminal acts, marches, rallies, speeches, meetings, leafleting or publishing. Websites appearing to be merely the work of a single individual, rather than the publication of a group, are not included in this list. Listing here does not imply a group advocates or engages in violence or other criminal activity.”

Over the past few years, several of these groups have been written about on Mediamouse.org, especially in our “Far Right in West Michigan” database. The groups located in West Michigan include:

* The Council of Conservative Citizens – Caledonia

* National Socialist Movement (NSM) located in Grand Rapids

* White Voices of America – Grand Haven

The rest of the groups listed include:

* American National Socialist Workers’ Party – Jackson

* American Nazi Party – Westland

* Brotherhood of Klans Knights Ku Klux Klan – Ironwood

* By Yahweh’s Design – Stevensville

* Charles Darwin Research Institute – Port Huron

* Nation of Islam – Detroit

* National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan

* National Socialist Aryan Order – Davison

* National Socialist Movement – Detroit

* Northern Hammerskins – Detroit

* NS Publications – Wyandotte

* United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan – Fraser

* Volksfront – Detroit

* Yahweh’s Truth – Essexville

* Young Americans for Freedom at Michigan State University – Lansing

In addition, there are various other groups that don’t have specific jurisdictions including the Imperial Klans of America, National Vanguard, the Romanian National Vanguard, and chapters of the National Socialist Movement.

SPLC Classifies Immigration “Reform” Group as a “Hate Group”

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) announced yesterday that it has decided to classify the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) as a “hate group.” FAIR is the largest anti-immigration group in the United States–and despite persistent reports of connections to racist groups–it has maintained considerable influence in the United States. The group is regularly cited in the media, in Congress, and in electoral politics. Its influence and credibly has largely gone unchallenged, despite accepting funding from a white supremacist foundation and connections to white supremacists. However, in a new article titled “The Teflon Nativists: FAIR Marked by Ties to White Supremacy,” the SPLC argues that FAIR has become increasingly connected to the racist right over the past few years.

Despite FAIR’s influence in the immigration debate, its Michigan connections have largely gone unnoticed locally. FAIR’s founder, John Tanton–perhaps one of the most influential figures in the anti-immigration movement–lives in Petoskey, Michigan where he runs the Social Contract Press, a publishing house that distributes racist and anti-immigrant literature. Additionally, the SPLC reports that Wayne Lutton, the editor of Tanton’s The Social Contract and who has been involved with four racist groups including American Renaissance and the Council of Conservative Citizens, works out of Tanton’s Petoskey office.

FAIR also had a presence at an anti-immigration rally organized in Grand Rapids in May of 2006 that was also attended by the racist Council of Conservative Citizens. It has intervened in Michigan’s electoral races as well, running ads in 2000 against Arab-American Senator Spencer Abraham. The ads featured side-by-side photos of Abraham and Osama Bin Laden and said “Why is Senator Abraham trying to make it easier for terrorists like Osama bin Laden to export their war of terror to any city street in America?” while accusing him of supporting legislation that would “take American jobs.”

Racist Group Holds Anti-Immigration Demonstration

Over the weekend, the Michigan Council of Conservative Citizens, a racist group affiliated with the national Council of Conservative Citizens organization, held its first anti-immigration protest of 2007 in Lansing. Earlier this spring, the Michigan Council of Conservative Citizens had announced on their website that they would “again focus on illegal immigration,” an apparent reference to a May 2006 protest the group held in Grand Rapids.

A report published on the national Council of Conservative Citizens website shows three demonstrators with the Council holding signs reading, “Illegals are Criminals,” “Amnesty? No Way Jose,” and “Burglars Aren’t Guests.” Chairman John Raterink evaluated the protest as successful, stating “judging by the honking horns and thumbs up, those supporting our message outnumbered those who had opposed us by at least 50:1.” Like the Grand Rapids rally, it is unclear how much the most recent protest will help spread their message, with the group apparently having to resort to “unannounced street demonstrations” in order to avoid being targeted by anti-racist protestors. The protest appeared to have attracted no media attention.

While the signs advanced the flawed notions that immigrants are dangerous criminals out to harm residents of the United States, they concealed the organization’s underlying racism. According to the Council of Conservative Citizens’ “Statement of Principles,” the Council believes that “the American people and government should remain European in their composition and character” and supports restricting immigration from non-European and non-Western peoples.” Additionally, the group opposes “all efforts to mix the races of mankind, to promote non-white races over the European-American people through so-called “affirmative action” and similar measures, to destroy or denigrate the European-American heritage, including the heritage of the Southern people, and to force the integration of the races.”

SPLC Releases Annual “Year in Hate” Review, Includes List of “Hate Groups” in Michigan

The Southern Poverty Law Center has published its annual “Year in Hate” review. According to its research, there are now a total of 844 hate groups in the United States, a rise of 5% over the year before. This number is a 40% increase since 2000, with the Southern Poverty Law Center attributing much of this increase to the use of immigration as an issue to gain recruits. While much of the white supremacist right has been in disarray with infighting, deaths of old leaders, and no single group dominating the scene, there has been a “breathtakingly rapid rise of a right-wing anti-immigration movement made up of groups that are xenophobic but mostly stop short of the open racial hatred espoused by hate groups.” The report cites the formation of 250 nativist groups since 2005 and argues that these groups are becoming more violent.

Along with their annual review of hate groups, the Southern Poverty Law Center has updated their “Hate Group Map” that documents hate groups across the United States. According to that map, Michigan is home to 25 hate groups (the second highest total in the Midwest after Ohio) encompassing groups ideologically aligned with the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazi, white nationalist, Christian Identity, and “black separatist” movements. The latter category, has been a subject of some contention within the left, with some arguing that groups such as the Nation of Islam and other “black separatist” groups should not be included amongst historically violent groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. In response to these criticism, the Southern Poverty Law Center states that it “recognizes that much black racism in America is, at least in part, a response to centuries of white racism” and as such must be confronted.

Many of the groups listed in Michigan have been written about and profiled by Media Mouse over the past year as part of our “Far Right in West Michigan” database. Among the groups listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Media Mouse has documented activities by the Council of Conservative Citizens, the Ku Klux Klan, the National Socialist Movement, and Young Americans for Freedom. In addition, we have also documented activities by groups not mentioned in the Southern Poverty Law Center’s report including the Heartside Boot Boyz, the European American Association, and the Nazi Low Riders.

The Southern Poverty Law Center’s report also mentions the connections between the racist Council of Conservative Citizens and the anti-affirmative action Proposal 2 (Michigan Civil Rights Initiative) that was passed in Michigan. The report states:

Last fall, the CCC’s Michigan chapter head, the Rev. John Raternik, allied with Ward Connerly, a well-known black conservative, to back a state referendum to ban affirmative action. Connerly rejected calls to denounce the CCC, which has referred to blacks as “a retrograde species of humanity.” The ban passed.

While the report is correct to cite the Council of Conservative Citizens as one of the few groups in Michigan supporting Proposal 2 (the other being the Ku Klux Klan), it gives too much credit to the Council of Conservative Citizens for their “role” in the passage of the measure. Aside from a rally overshadowed by protestors and a letter writing campaign that resulted in a few letters printed in newspapers, the Council of Conservative Citizens did little organizing around the issue. It also neglected to mention that Connerly made a weak public dismissal of the Council of Conservative Citizens in the media, although he did praise the Ku Klux Klan later in the campaign.

The report officially lists the Michigan State University chapter of Young Americans for Freedom, the first student group to be listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. It was added to the list in response to its anti-gay and anti-immigrant actions, as well as its efforts to eliminate organizations of color on Michigan State University’s campus.

Updates to Far Right Database

Today, Media Mouse made a number of updates to our database tracking the far right in West Michigan. Entries on the Ku Klux Klan and the Council of Conservative Citizens were updated to with more recent information about organizations. In addition, we added entries for two individuals that have been involved in the local religious right, Emilie Wierda and Edgar Prince. Both are members of Holland’s Prince family and have been supporters of the religious right through their individual activism and as part of the family’s Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation. An entry for Blackwater funder and West Michigan native Erik Prince was also updated.

White Supremacist Leader Discusses “Victory” of Proposal 2

Last month, John Raterink, the leader of the Michigan chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens (a white supremacist group), discussed the role that he believes the Council of Conservative Citizens played in the passage of the anti-affirmative action Proposal 2 (or the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative) on a racist radio program broadcast out of Memphis on AM radio and the internet. While Media Mouse reported last week that the racist right in Michigan has been emboldened by the passage of Proposal 2, Raterink’s comments are worth considering for what they say about the Council of Conservative Citizens’ political strategy, the strategy of the racist right in Michigan, and the entities that supported Proposal 2.

John Raterink discussed the passage of Proposal 2 on a radio program called The Political Cesspool, a show that is heavily promoted by the national Council of Conservative Citizens and Stormfront (one of the largest online white supremacist websites). The Political Cesspool, which broadcasts seven nights per week on WLRM 1380 AM out of Memphis, Tennessee, regularly features representatives of a variety of groups from the racist right. Among those who have appeared on the show include Canadian fascist Paul Fromm, Jared Taylor of the American Renaissance, numerous members of the Council of Conservative Citizens, Chris Simcox and Jim Gilchrist of the Minuteman Project, Dr. Michael Hill of the League of the South, and prominent anti-Semite Kevin MacDonald. The show has also featured former presidential candidate and prominent conservative Pat Buchanan, who has himself become an increasingly strong advocate of racism and white nationalism. The Political Cesspool’s mission promotes the concept of “America first,” English as the official language, and “cultural and national integrity” – a statement that is very much akin to the “European heritage” code words that the more discrete segments of the racist right use to describe their politics. Indeed, on the day that Raterink appeared on the show, its hosts were decrying “illegal” immigrants who “want to commit genocide against American culture” while also heavily promoting an upcoming two-part interview with the racist teenage musical duo, Prussian Blue.

In the interview with John Raterink, the hosts played up the role that the Michigan Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC) played in the passage of Proposal 2 and described it as a “big victory” for their version of the conservative movement. Raterink explained that the Michigan CofCC began organizing early on and was initially excited that the Initiative was coming to Michigan, as his group “saw it as an opportunity to make things better for our children.” He went on to say that they were not sure how it would fair at the polls, especially in light of the opposition of One United Michigan and the group By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), whom Raterink claimed is a domestic terrorist organization according to the FBI. He also explained that almost everyone–politicians, churches, and businesses were against the initiative so it put the Council of Conservative Citizens in a unique position to be the main public advocate of it. Of course, Raterink neglected to mention the fact that the other organized entity supporting Proposal 2 was the Ku Klux Klan, another prominent racist group in Michigan. In response to a query about where the ban was at, Raterink told the hosts that it was still being litigated but that he had confidence that it would not be struck down as it has the support of Republican Attorney General Mike Cox, who was one of the only politicians to support the measure. Raterink said that while the left used intimidation to scare people and cited unsubstantiated incidents such as the alleged ransacking of the capital “by communists,” a knife being pulled or implied on Jennifer Gratz of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative Jennifer Gratz, and the ransacking of the Board of Canvassers, the left ultimately assisted the organization by driving supporters to the CofCC. Raterink, who at one point described the Civil War as “the war of northern aggression,” said that the Council became “somewhat of a household name” during the struggle and that they successfully used letters to the editors as a means of building support for the Proposal 2. Of course, this was not quantified in any meaningful way.

Much was also made of an editorial written by John Raterink that appeared in the Kalamazoo Gazette on December 6, 2006, an editorial that originally appeared on the Michigan Council of Conservative Citizens’ website and later in the Citizen Informer, the newspaper of the Council of Conservative Citizens. Raterink explained to his radio audience that the purpose of the article was to present an analysis of “why the Republicans got their tale whipped.” In the editorial, Raterink praises his group’s work and articulates a theory that the Republican Party’s loss in November was a failure to listen to the values of “Middle America,” which Raterink sees as being a grassroots sort of conservative populism opposed to the “neocon agenda.” Raterink’s editorial argued that those conservatives have been sold out by the Republican Party and that the passage of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative shows what they can accomplish if they organize outside of the Republican Party. Raterink expanded on these comments on the Political Cesspool, asserting that there is not a clear line between Democrats and Republicans and that the Republican support of outsourcing and global empire has hit workers in Michigan particularly hard. He asserted that Dick DeVos, the former CEO of Amway (Alticor), could not relate to “Joe Six Pack, blue collar” and that the Republican Party is no longer speaking to them.

In a sense, Raterink provided a fairly astute analysis of the potential for racist movements to achieve successes in the United States. The majority of those living in the United States have been left behind by the Democratic and Republican parties. Indeed, many theorists have argued that the racist and fascist right has an advantage in the current political climate, as those groups articulate a clear vision of what they want, and while rarely accurate, assign blame to specific entities. By contrast, the left in the United States has no clear vision, and more troubling, makes no serious appeal to those displaced by the current system. The racist right, including groups such as the Council of Conservative Citizens, have been successful in taking issues such as immigration and affirmative action, over which there is widespread confusion, and using them as a tool for building a grassroots infrastructure to support organized racism. Groups such as the Council of Conservative Citizens have been particularly adept at this strategy, as they eschew the more overtly racist practices such as wearing Klan costumes or Nazi uniforms, and instead articulate a more subtle form of racism that talks about “heritage” and “identity.” Of course, at their core, these groups are quite racist and must be confronted and exposed by the left. While their current influence is always debatable, left unchallenged these groups will grow.

Racist Groups Organize Support of Anti-Affirmative Action Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI)

The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI), a ballot initiative to eliminate affirmative action programs in Michigan, is being supported by at least two white supremacist groups active in the state. The Michigan chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens and the United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan are both actively encouraging their members to vote in favor of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative when it appears on the ballot on November 7 and organizing to build further support for the initiative. Ward Connerly has even had his picture taken shaking the hand of Michigan Council of Conservative Citizens leader John Raterink (Raterink has also subscribed to the newspaper of the neo-nazi National Alliance:

The Michigan chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens, an affiliate of the national Council of Conservative Citizens, has taken an active role in supporting the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative. As of October 13, 2006, the Michigan Council of Conservative Citizens’ website has a large banner encouraging people to “Vote YES on Proposal 2.” This encouragement comes along with at least one public rally held on July 30, 2006 in Jackson, Michigan to promote the passage of the MCRI. At the rally, members of the Council of Conservative Citizens held signs reading “Stop Gov’t Racism” and “Stop Racist Quotas” while planning to hear from United States Taxpayers Party candidate for Attorney General Chuck Conces. In addition, the group has organized at least two meetings to discuss “upcoming ballot issues and strategies for the November election” in Michigan. The Council of Conservative Citizens, while claiming to be a “white separatist” group and denying charges of white supremacy, holds many views that are racist or white supremacist. The group believes that “the American people and government should remain European in their composition and character,” opposes immigration from “non-European and non-Western peoples” as it “threatens to transform our nation into a non-European majority in our lifetime,” is opposed to all efforts to mix the races of mankind, to promote non-white races over the European-American people through so-called ‘affirmative action’ and similar measures, to destroy or denigrate the European-American heritage, including the heritage of the Southern people, and to force the integration of the races,” and opposes “multiculturalist” or “Afrocentric” curricula in the education system. The group itself was formed in 1985 and is an outgrowth of the White Citizens’ Council movement, organized against desegregation in the 1950s and 1960s. The WCC’s strategy was to distinguish itself from the overt racism of the Ku Klux Klan and to rely on connections with bankers, the media, and politicians to preserve segregation. The Council of Conservative Citizens was organized by former White Citizens’ Council organizer Gordon Lee Baum and was built up in part from old WCC mailing lists.

Another racist group in Michigan, the Michigan Realm of the United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (one of the various splinter groups of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)), based out of Fraser, Michigan, has also called on its members and supporters to “get rid of affirmative action” in Michigan. Grand Dragon Eric Kent wrote on the organization’s website that it is “extremely crucial to our state as White Christians we can no longer stay on the side lines and let our civil liberties be removed due to affirmative action [grammar errors are in the website text]” while going on to claim that if white residents of Michigan lose their jobs that they “will not receive any aid… simply because you [they] are white.” Kent urges “white people” to become more active by distributing literature anonymously. Some of this literature is available online, including an affirmative action leaflet titled “Affirmative Action is Racism in Action” and encouraging white people to organize and “wake up” because “A black student accepted into college over a better scoring white student simply because they are Black.” Another leaflet, titled “Stop Racism!,” encourages whites to organize against “a society oriented to the wishes of non-whites” with whites “faced with reverse discrimination in jobs, promotions and scholarships-high taxes for non-whites welfare- a black and Hispanic plague of crime- gun control- anti white movies and TV shows.” Another Ku Klux Klan group, the Mystic Knights of the Ku Klux Klan issued a statement in 2004 supporting the MCRI and urging members and supporters to gather signatures to put the MCRI on ballot. The Mystic Knights archived website describes that they “are collecting signatures to get a constitutional amendment banning racial preferences on the ballot for the next election” and contains information for obtaining petition sheets from the MCRI.

While these are the only known ties between the racist right and the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, the MCRI has ties to the far right through their funding of organizations led by Ward Connerly. A review of financial data from the Michigan Secretary of State’s office shows that the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative—through the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative Committee—has been largely supported by the Connerly-headed American Civil Rights Coalition, which was formed in 1997 as part of a coordinated national campaign with the American Civil Rights Institute to end affirmative action. Its unclear who the individuals behind the American Civil Rights Coalition are, but if funding of Connerly’s effort to pass Proposition 54 in California (a failed effort to prevent the state of California from collecting racial data) is any indication, it is likely the far right that Connerly associates himself with. The Proposition 54 campaign received $250,000 from the long time far right financial backer Joseph Coors, $300,000 from Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch, and $200,000 from William J Hume of the anti-labor Basic American Foods. Connerly’s American Civil Rights Institute has also received funding from prominent foundations supporting the far right including the Lynne and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Richard Mellon Scaiffe Foundation, and the John M. Olin Foundation. This funding has totaled $5.1 million from 1997 to 2005.

Videos from Protest against Michigan Council of Conservative Citizens

Media Mouse has completed two short videos featuring footage from Sunday’s protest against the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens in Jackson. The first is a short commercial using video footage featuring the Michigan chair of the Council Conservative Citizens, John Raterink, and urging people to vote against the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) and the second is a parody election commercial featuring Chuck Conces, Constitution Party candidate for attorney general, who said he hoped to receive the endorsement of the Council of Conservative Citizens in the upcoming election.

Activists (and Rain) Drown out White Supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens in Jackson

Anti-racist activists have reported to Media Mouse that the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens, a racist group with origins in the segregationist White Citizens’ Councils of the south and active recently in Grand Rapids, were effectively disrupted in Jackson, Michigan by the combined presence of a large number of anti-racists and rain. The Michigan Council of Conservative Citizens scheduled the first of two rallies it plans in the state in order to build support for the passage of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) yesterday in Jackson. Anti-racist activists report that they showed up shortly before 2:00pm to the Council’s “Anti-Affirmative Action Rally” to find that the fifteen anti-racists essentially matched the small crowd of Council of Conservative Citizens members and their supporters and the group was consequently easily able to halt the scheduled proceedings of the rally. While there were plans to have speeches followed by a march through Jackson, the activists—holding banners and signs reading “NO MCRI,” “No Nazis, No KKK, No Fascist USA,” and “CCC is a White Supremacist Organization”—were able to use noise and chanting to interfere with the Council’s rally and effectively limited their ability to both spread their racist message or attempt to recruit additional members.

While much of the rally consisted of activists calling out Council of Conservative Citizens’ members and supporters for their racist agenda and arguing between the two groups, there were a few noteworthy items gleaned from the stories related to Media Mouse. John Raterink of Hastings, the leader of the Michigan chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens, confirmed that he has previously supported the neo-Nazi National Alliance by subscribing to their newspaper. While Raterink claimed that he “has no use” for “Klansmen or Nazis,” this statement is at odds both with his support of the National Alliance as well as the attendance of a known neo-Nazi at yesterday’s rally. There was one politician who showed up to give a speech at the rally—Charles “Chuck” Conces, a candidate for Michigan Attorney General with the Constitution Party of Michigan (United States Tax Payers Party)—who said that he was asked to speak by the Council of Conservative Citizens and claimed that he was unaware that they were a white supremacist organization. Despite being told that they were and given information confirming this fact, Conces said the he still hoped that the Council would endorse him in the upcoming election. While Conces denied being a racist and claimed to be unfamiliar with the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) despite both being invited to speak at the a rally in support of the MCRI and being a candidate for attorney general, the Constitution Party’s platform makes it clear that it is of the far right with opposition to taxes, a desire to make the United States a “Christian” country, advocacy of an “English Only” policy, and an opposition to immigration from Mexico. Of course, Conces has little chance of winning for a variety of reasons ranging from his platform to the difficulty of obtaining media coverage for candidates outside of the Democrat and Republican parties, but the presence of a political candidate at the rally is illustrative of the longstanding connections that the Council of Conservative Citizens has maintained with politicians over the years, with Senators Trent Lott and Bob Barr speaking to the organization (among others) in the past.

The Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC) was formed in 1985 and is an outgrowth of the racist White Citizens’ Council (WCC) movement that organized to oppose desegregation in the 1950s and 1960s. The White Citizens’ Councils attracted nearly one million members by eschewing the overt racism of the Ku Klux Klan and relying on connections to powerful individuals such as bankers, newspaper editors, and politicians to organize in defense of segregation. Nationally, the Council of Conservative Citizens is led by Gordon Lee Baum (a former White Citizen’s Council organizer) and is based in St. Louis. The CofCC has built its membership in part from old mailing lists from the White Citizen’s Councils and by appealing to conservatives through organizing around contentious issues such as affirmative action, immigration, and gun control. Like the White Citizen’s Councils, it maintains a host of racist and white supremacist views with the Council of Conservative Citizens’ its “statement of principles” including the belief that “the American people and government should remain European in their composition and character,” a vehement opposition to immigration from “non-European and non-Western peoples” as it “threatens to transform our nation into a non-European majority in our lifetime,” and an opposition to “all efforts to mix the races of mankind, to promote non-white races over the European-American people through so-called ‘affirmative action’ and similar measures, to destroy or denigrate the European-American heritage, including the heritage of the Southern people, and to force the integration of the races.” The group’s statement of principles also includes opposition to “multiculturalist” or “Afrocentric” curricula in schools and an opposition to homosexuality, which they describe as a “perversion.”

The Michigan Council of Conservative Citizens appears to be a relatively new white supremacist organization in the state, with John Raterink registering the domain for their website – micofcc.org – and yesterday’s anti-affirmative action rally being their second public event. The group previously held a private July 4 picnic in 2005 in Nashville, Michigan and an anti-immigration rally in Grand Rapids in May of 2006. Based on attendance at the two public events and the number of anti-racist activists compared with the number of Council of Conservative Citizens members, it would seem that the group has little constituency in the state of Michigan, despite the Raterink’s organizing efforts. Indeed, while Raterink works closely with the national office of the Council of Conservative Citizens, speaking at the 2006 National Convention on the topic of “Keeping Christ in the Family” and hosting their “Citizen’s Supply Shop” that sells Council of Conservative Citizens’ merchandise, his organizing within the state seems to have made little progress.

Local group confronts Anti-immigration rally, exposes them as racists

On Saturday, about 40 people gathered at the Calder Plaza for an anti-immigration rally, under the guise that they opposed what they termed as “illegal immigrants.” Local people who felt it necessary to take a public stand, particularly with the Latino community, met the rally with their own signs, drums and statement that “we are all immigrants.” The two groups quickly began exchanging views and chants. After a few minutes the Grand Rapids Police showed up and told the crowd that since no one had a permit it was not legal for them to be at the Calder unless they were moving. At that point about half the anti-immigration crowd began to march around downtown, the whole time being followed by people who kept calling out the racist position of the group. Eventually everyone made their way back to the Calder Plaza where few people remained and smaller conversations sprang up before people left the area.

There was some media attention at the event. Fox 17 and WZZM 13 both had reporters there before the counter-protestors showed up. The WZZM 13 story only had comments from the anti-immigrant group and the Grand Rapids Press framed the story at the very beginning as “A demonstration against illegal immigration turned noisy when drum-banging counter-protesters turned the event into a shout-fest.” The Press story also gave substantially more space to the anti-immigrant perspective and put the only pro-immigration perspective at the very end of the article. The editor of El Hispano was also present, but since it is a weekly publication, there is no way of knowing now what will be printed. This writer did speak with the editor of El Hispano who thought that “confronting the anti-immigrant protesters only brings attention to them.” It was pointed out that these people needed to know that many object to their position and that the commercial news media was already giving them attention whether there was a confrontation or not. In many ways what was learned about who this group was and what their agenda is proved to be very useful. The commercial media has attempted to just present this as two opposing views engaging in their first amendment rights, but much more can be said about who was behind the anti-immigration rally.

It was quickly discovered that some of the anti-immigration rally were affiliated with Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). FAIR is one of the most visible anti-immigration groups in the US. It’s founder John Tanton, lives in Michigan, and is a former president of the group Zero Population Growth. One man was handing out a publication called Citizens Informer, the national publication of the Council of Conservative Citizens. The group also carried a banner with the same name. What the CCC really believes is that the US is a Christian country and that “the United States is a European country and that Americans are part of the European people.” Their organizational manifest says “we oppose the massive immigration of non-European and non-Western peoples into the United States that threatens to transform our nation into a non-European majority in our lifetime (source).” An essay by the CCC’s founder Robert Patterson calls for the repeal of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The publication also has a states update section and mentions the importance of passing the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI), if passed would eliminate affirmative action programs in the state government and at the university level. The Michigan Chair of the CCC is John Raterink and the mailing address for the local branch is P.O. Box 224, Caledonia, MI. 49316.

Another group associated with the Council of Conservative Citizens are American Renaissance, a group that warns “If massive non-white immigration continues, and welfare keeps encouraging high birth rates among blacks and Hispanics, whites will become a minority in the US.” Also promoted at the anti-immigration rally was the Save Our State group which “is committed to creating a New Paradigm, one that consists of one singular tenet: the transference of pain. Our enemies in the open borders lobby are not going to change their policies or behavior unless we make it painful for them to continue propagating their anti-American agenda.” They also have chapters around the country and are committed to closing the US borders. There were comments about people losing jobs to “illegal immigrants” and that some UAW members were at the rally, but it was clear that this was not just a group of people concerned about the legality of immigrants. With the representation of at least three national organizations, all of which promote White Supremacy and White Purity, this anti-immigration rally was not just organized by disgruntled citizens.

View photos from the protest