Two Faces of Neo-Nazi White Supremacist Group Volksfront
NewsToBeRead
Intelligence Report, Summer 2004, Issue Number: 114
Two Faces of Volksfront
A growing and increasingly important neo-Nazi group claims it opposes any
kind of political violence. Could it be true?
Volksfront Rising
Randy Krager, now 30, is leading a resurgent Volksfront. The group that had
virtually disappeared as the 1990s came to an end grew from five to eight
chapters in 2003, spreading east to Pennsylvania and strengthening its
presence in California.
From an estimated 50 members in 2001, when it first reemerged, it has grown
to approximately 100 serious members, many of them in a highly active
Phoenix unit.
"We've had a fairly constant flow of individuals with ties to Volksfront
coming to Phoenix," said Michelle Lefkowith, a hate group researcher who
works for the ADL. "There's quite a network developing between Oregon,
Washington, California and Arizona. They seem to be a real up-and-coming
neo-Nazi organization."
They are also an unusual one, in that they follow a political line very
similar to that of Tom Metzger, the so-called "Third Position" or "Third
Way."
In practice, that means the group claims to stand for working-class whites,
rejecting capitalism as well as communism (though Metzger often lauded the
former Soviet Union as a white workers' state), and angrily opposing
non-white immigration. It backs unions, a fact underlined by Krager's
activism in local construction unions.
And it embraces a racist version of Asatr�, a form of Scandinavian paganism
dating to the Middle Ages.
This ideology has not stopped Krager, a scary-looking man of some 240
pounds, from maintaining a relatively nonsectarian stance and making
alliances with many sectors of the radical right.
This January, in a park outside Phoenix, Volksfront hosted Aryan Fest, a
major white power music event, and managed to win plaudits from most of
those who attended. Among the racist stars who came were Richard Butler, the
leader of the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations; Metzger, who also spoke at a 2001
event hosted by Volksfront; Billy Roper, the head of a hot new group, White
Revolution; and a large number of racist bands.
After the event, which featured heavy security provided by Volksfront,
racists sung the praises of the group far and wide.
Krager's group also claims to have recently purchased a five-acre plot of
land, apparently located outside Medford, Ore., from members of the neo-Nazi
Aryan Nations. Volksfront has said on its Web site that it intends to build
a "folk homeland" on its acreage.
Volksfront seems to have profited from the troubles of other groups, among
them the World Church of the Creator, which collapsed after its leader Matt
Hale was convicted this spring of soliciting the murder of a federal judge
(see Pontifex Ex).
Hard times in the Aryan Nations and the National Alliance, two historically
large neo-Nazi groups, also may be driving new members into Volksfront.
"They are definitely a more significant player on the white supremacist
scene with the decline of the National Alliance and the Aryan Nations," said
Randy Blazak, a Portland State University sociology professor who has
studied Volksfront and knows Krager personally. "They are trying to fill
that vacuum."
The Evidence
Is Volksfront really nonviolent? As its posted remarks on violence suggest,
the group manages to maintain a useful ambiguity on this critical question.
In 2001, the same year that it adopted its nonviolence language, Volksfront
also announced to its members that it had created a special security
database meant to track "enemy individuals and organizations." Photos and
other personal data on antiracists were solicited for the database.
Given the history of Skinhead violence in Portland - one racist Skinhead was
killed by an antiracist in the wars that convulsed the city in the early
1990s - this was widely seen as a serious threat by antiracists.
Intimidation One, the band that has been associated with Volksfront since
its early days, issued a threat to antiracists the same year, suggesting
that they click on a certain computer link to learn their eventual fate. The
link brought viewers to a film that showed apparent World War II fascists
sawing a man's head off with a knife - a film that is incredibly grotesque
and frightening, even by neo-Nazi standards.
Krager claims great distance from Intimidation One, even though the band
still plays regularly at Volksfront events and also distributes the group's
literature. In addition, Intimidation One albums are distributed by Imperium
Records - a white power music label whose Web site is registered to the same
address as Volksfront's main page (along with Volksfront's publishing arm,
Thule Publications).
According to Scott Britt, a former racist Portland Skinhead, Thule
Publications at some point endorsed the 1984 "Declaration of War" penned by
Bob Mathews, leader of the terrorist Order group that gunned down a Denver
talk show host and robbed some $4.1 million in armored car heists. (Mathews
was killed later that year in a Washington state shootout with the FBI.)
The declaration committed its backers to a "full and unrelenting state of
war" against the government.
Volksfront also sells on its own Web site a compilation CD - featuring both
Intimidation One and a band called Jew Slaughter - entitled "Martyrdom
Volume One: Free Ken Mieske."
Mieske, whose street name is Ken Death, is in prison for carrying out the
Seraw murder. Lauded by Volksfront as a prisoner of war, Meiske once wrote a
poem called "Senseless Violence." Its words are to the point:
Line them up against a wall,
Shoot them, watch them die.
I love to hear the agony,
They vomit, scream and cry.
Volksfront, along with racist outfits known as Upfront Records and the
Northwest Folk Alliance, sponsors a publication called The Folk Tribune: The
Independent Voice of the White Working Class.
In a 2002 issue, Volksfront pays tribute to Hendrik M�bus, a German neo-Nazi
convicted of the murder of a teenager. It angrily complains about the
conviction of members of a local neo-Nazi band for assault and witness
tampering. ("BEATING A PEDOPHILE IS NO CRIME," it says. "IT IS A PUBLIC
SERVICE!")
It carries "Scum Watch," a feature with photos of anti-racist activists
topped by headlines like "Criminal Jew" and "Traitor."
Volksfront's POW list also is instructive. Although it apparently won't be
featuring Kurtis Monschke any time soon, its authors do not shrink from
lauding others who committed similar crimes, saying that while they reject
violence they understand that those in prison were motivated by "defense of
our people."
Who are these Aryan heroes? David Tate, who murdered a Missouri state
trooper and was a member of Mathews' terror gang; George Loeb, killer of a
black Gulf War veteran; James Burmeister, an Army paratrooper who shot to
death a black couple outside Ft. Bragg, N.C.; Wallace Weicherding,
imprisoned for his role in a plot to blow up the Southern Poverty Law Center
and every state capitol in America; Yori Kahl, who helped his father murder
two U.S. marshals; and Nathan Thill, who shot a black man to death in Denver
because he was "wearing the enemy's uniform" - his black skin.
The list goes on, including a whole roster of racist killers.
"Krager was in the [prison] system a long time and he came out a lot more
sophisticated than he went in," said Lefkowith, who knew Volksfront well
when she was an activist with an Oregon anti-hate group.
"But it's all smoke and mirrors. It's a way to put a kinder, gentler face on
an extremely radical and violent organization. Numerous individuals
associated with Volksfront have long criminal histories."
Helping Out With Hate
Randy Krager and his growing group may admire cop-killers and racist
murderers, but they still insist that they have some real contributions to
make to society. That was made crystal clear to Randy Blazak a few minutes
before midnight one Saturday in late 2001.
Opening his electronic mailbox, Blazak found an E-mail sent to him in his
capacity as a member of the state's Coalition Against Hate Crimes (CAHC) - a
body that includes representatives of law enforcement, government, and civil
rights, gay rights and religious groups, among other things.
"Greetings!" it began, and then, identifying its authors as "a group
committed to ending violent and hate crimes," it politely asked for CAHC's
membership rules.
The E-mail was from Volksfront.
"I think we would represent a currently unrepresented segment of our society
on the issue of hate crimes and would therefore be a big asset," an
anonymous Volksfront member wrote in a follow-up E-mail.
"On this matter we are completely serious and very interested. Please do not
let your own preconceived notions of us interfere with the unique assets we
bring to the work of ending hate crimes."
"It was an amazing request," said Emily Gottfried, the American Jewish
Committee's representative at CAHC. "They weren't trying to join us because
they believed what we believed. That was not their purpose. It was insane."
Whether or not Volksfront indeed had "unique assets" to bring to the battle
against hate, it was not invited to join CAHC. Volksfront, after all, is
working to turn the Pacific Northwest into an all-white Aryan homeland - an
end it says it will reach by deporting people of color. Somehow, that didn't
sound too tolerant.
The public's verdict may still be out on Volksfront's attitude toward
violence. It's in, though, in the case of Kurtis Monschke, Washington state
leader of the organization - even if Volksfront did put up a belated message
disbanding all of its Washington operations because of "violations of
organizational policy."
And the verdict in that case was guilty. (Pillatos, Butters and Frye, who
testified against Monschke, pleaded guilty to lesser charges and are
expected to be sentenced for their roles this August.) Many observers think
that judgment could easily apply to Volksfront as well.
"Volksfront began at the hands of individuals who were involved in criminal
activity," said anti-racist Eric Ward, a former Seattle activist who now
works for the Chicago-based Center for New Community. "I have a hard time
believing that such criminal activity will not continue.
"They can say that they are not involved in violent activity and they can
condemn it, but it certainly seems to occur around them quite frequently.
Violence is part of the social environment of Volksfront."