National Alliance : Media-savvy group spreads hate to Massachusetts

They are on the radio, on CD, on college campuses, all over the Internet and, they claim, increasingly likely to be living in a neighborhood near you.

The National Alliance, the hate group that covertly dumped racist fliers in Arlington last weekend and anti-Semitic literature in Sharon a few weeks earlier, says the controversy generated from the two actions has helped boost its ranks locally - exactly what the group intended.

And those new followers, the group vows, will soon be spreading their message of hate to even more Bay State communities in the dark of night.

``Our membership is increasing. There will be one town after another after another,'' said a man who identifies himself as Jeff Hackworth, a Cape Cod resident and Massachusetts spokesman for the West Virginia-based National Alliance. The neo-Nazi group is described by the Anti-Defamation League as ``the single most dangerous organized hate group in the United States today.''
(...)

While the National Alliance declines to release information detailing the size of its membership or their identities, Hackworth said members in Massachusetts range in age from 18 to 50, with an average age of about 30. He said the group is increasingly attracting college students and young professionals.
(...)

The Anti-Defamation League, which tracks hate groups, says the National Alliance has about 1,500 members nationwide and likely has fewer than a dozen in Massachusetts.

``They have come up with a strategy that seems to generate a lot of media response,'' said the ADL's New England director, Rob Leikind. ``Their purpose is to gain attention and membership.''

At the Somerville-based Political Research Associates, which also tracks hate groups, analyst Chip Berlet said the Alliance's Massachusetts chapter has greatly expanded its public presence since the launch of its Web site in July 2000.

``This is a very sophisticated Web page,'' Berlet said. ``This is persuasive propaganda for people who are thinking that some group has stolen their life.''

The technology and tactics of the Massachusetts chapter mirrors those of the National Alliance across the country.

The Alliance is led by former Oregon State University physics Prof. William Pierce, who penned ``The Turner Diaries,'' a 1978 novel about a race war by an all-white army. The book, which describes the blowing up of a federal building using a bomb made of ammonia nitrate, is believed to have inspired Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

Two years ago, Pierce pumped up the volume considerably when he bought Resistance Records, described by experts as the most lucrative hate enterprise in the country. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, Resistance Records is the leading U.S. label for hate music, churning out a reported 70,000 CDs last year and generating more than $1 million that is funneled back to the National Alliance.

``The two key recruitment tools into the belief system of white supremacy is music and the Internet,'' said Abby Ferber, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Colorado. Ferber, who researches hate groups, said the National Alliance is the most active in recruiting on college campuses.

``With the Internet, they are clever. A student may be studying the Holocaust, and it takes them to a white supremacist Web site,'' Ferber said. ``They are creating a community over the Web where people can talk anonymously, not like a cross-burning where everyone can see you.''
(...)

Nationally, the number of hate crimes - distributing hate literature is not considered a criminal act - has held steady over the past few years, according to the FBI. But the number of groups and Web sites has grown significantly.

``There has been a splintering of hate groups into small cells,'' Levin said. ``It makes it very difficult for the FBI to investigate.''

Levin said that no more than 5 percent of all hate crimes nationwide are commited by members of organized groups. But Levin and other experts said that what makes the groups, such as the National Alliance, so dangerous is that they tend to inspire individuals to commit violent acts.
(...)

Ultimately, say experts, the recent activities by the National Alliance of Massachusetts may also produce a positive effect.

``In a perverse way, they are doing a public service,'' said the ADL's Leikind. ``They are letting people know that there are pockets of hate in society, that they are out there. For many people it's a wake-up call.''
[...more...] [Need the full story? Read this]