Fascist Propaganda: by David Lethbridge

The sale, distribution, and promotion of racist and fascist propaganda - or "hate propaganda," to use the term employed by the Criminal Code - is a federal crime punishable by imprisonment. But the lack of serious investigation into hate propaganda crimes, the lack of charges laid or convictions sought, is an indication that the Attorneys-General of the various provinces do not consider it to be a matter of much importance.

But the promotion of fascist propaganda is the most significant of all hate crimes. It is the central crime from which organized racist and fascist vandalism, harassment, armed robberies, bombings, assaults, and murders flow. Fascist propaganda is the direct or indirect cause of fascist violence.

Fascist propaganda serves as the front line recruitment tools, and as the on-going internal justification and rationalization for fascist violence on the part of those who are already members of organized racist and fascist groups. When crimes of violence are committed by individuals on the extreme right, it is first and foremost because they have been recruited and influenced by fascist propaganda.

Fascist propaganda constitutes, as a totality, the "Mein Kampf" of the contemporary organized racist and neo-fascist movement. It is the constitution, the founding texts, the political program of the far right, disbursed throughout tens of thousands of different books and pamphlets and tapes.

Fascist propaganda exists, objectively, for one purpose: to promote a whites-only fascist state. To be sure, not every racist or fascist publication explicitly endorses the full breadth of the fascist program. Like shards from a splintered mirror, various publications reflect different aspects or facets of fascist ideology. And there are different strands, different variations, within the extreme right.

But taken together, taken as a collectivity, contemporary hate propaganda fulfills both the "negative program" of fascism: the vilification of Jews, people of color, non-white immigrants, Communists, socialists, liberal democracy, trade unions, homosexuals, and abortion-providers; and its "positive program:" the quasi-mystical glorification of "race" and of nation, the demand for a "white living space" free from "alien" emphasis, a society based on "Aryan values," and a rigid hierarchical order based either on biological determinism or a twisted form of Christian theology.

Examples of book services or catalogs of fascist propaganda are legion. Paul Fromm's Citizens for Foreign Aid Reform (C-Far) Booklist, November 1998, includes titles that represent virtually all aspects of both "negative" and "positive" fascist ideology. Titles opposing non-white immigrants include "The Camp of the Saints," "Immigration: Where Canada's Forefathers Stood," "Immigration: Parliament Versus the People," and "Belize: Anatomy of a Multiracial Society." Racist and neo-Nazi titles include "The Aryan Race," "The Nordic Face," and "Lebensraum." Anti-Jewish titles include "Confronting the Canadian Anti-Life Network," and David Irving's "My 10 Years of Persecution." Titles promoting biological determinism include "Heredity and Humanity: Race, Eugenics and Modern Science," and "Race, Evolution, and Behavior."

Furthermore, it is clear that the extreme right views the struggle over hate propaganda as central to their work. Sensing that the Canadian government is unwilling to seriously confront the problem, the C-Far catalog has engaged in open provocation. The phrases "BANNED by Customs," or "Seized by Customs," follow beneath title after title. And, interestingly, such relatively mainstream publications as "Western Report," with an open affinity to the Reform Party, have no problem with running advertisements for Paul Fromm's book services.

Yet another example of a major fascist propaganda distributor is the Christian Defense League's "Sons of Liberty" book catalog. Literally, thousands of titles are sold by this organization, ranging from works by Hitler and Goebbels; to books by Adrien Arcand, the Canadian fascist leader interned during WW2; to Christian Identity material by Eustace Mullins and Richard Kelly Hoskins; to Eileen Pressler's fanatical anti-Jewish analysis of the United Nations.

Because right-wing extremists tend to subscribe to numerous periodicals and to purchase a wide variety of books from different sources, it is almost impossible to tie any specific item of fascist propaganda - or any specific book service - to crimes of violence. The most notable exception is the 136 page "Army of God Manual" which surfaced in 1993. Discovered in the backyard of Rachelle Shannon, an anti-abortion murderer, the manual continues to serve as an open inspiration for the assassination of clinic doctors.

What makes these forms of contemporary fascist propaganda so insidious is that, more often than not, the organizations that sell and distribute these materials refuse to acknowledge their fascist character. And perhaps there is nothing so new in that. Primo Levi, an anti-fascist partisan interned in Auschwitz, committed suicide in 1987. He was depressed that a new generation had arisen who were either oblivious to fascism or who were being actively swayed by it. But before his death, he warned us all. He wrote that there is "a new fascism... walking on tiptoe, calling itself by other names." And so it is today that fascism calls itself by other names: "Populist," and "Christian Patriot," and "Identity," and the "Army of God." But as Levi knew, fascism is fascism, whatever disguise it wears.

APPENDIX: List of Organizations Selling Racist and Fascist Propaganda

NOTE: The following should be considered as strictly a partial list of the hundreds of organizations promoting, selling, or distributing far-right propaganda today. Materials from each of these groups have been sold in Canada, and include white supremacist, fascist, antisemitic, and homophobic books, pamphlets, audiotapes, and videotapes. Internet distributors have been excluded from the list.

Samizdat Publications
(Run by Ernst Zundel in Toronto, and specializing in Holocaust-denial and pro-Hitler books and tapes. Samizdat distributes not only in Canada and the USA, but throughout Europe.)

Institute for Historical Review
(Based in Torrance, California, it is the largest international distributor of Holocaust-denial literature.)

Association for the Covenant People
(British-Israel book store in Burnaby,BC, specializing in antisemitic, Identity, and white racist literature.)

British-Israel World Federation Book Store
(Similar to above; based in Vancouver.)

Canadian League of Rights
(Run by Ron Gostick, and based in High River, Alberta, the CLR maintains an extensive catalog of antisemitic books.)

Council on Public Affairs
(Run by Eileen Pressler, and based in Salmon Arm, BC, this book service has specialized in antisemitic and Identity literature.)

Canadian Association for Free Expression / Citizens for Foreign Aid Reform
(Run by Paul Fromm, and based in Toronto, these organizations sell primarily anti-immigrant and white racist literature.)

National Alliance / National Vanguard
(Run by William Pierce, in Hillsboro, West Virginia. One of the largest racist and fascist propaganda outlets, specializing in a wide variety of pro-Nazi materials.)

Scriptures for America
(Run by Pete Peters, in LaPorte,Colorado. Very extensive catalog of Identity materials.)

Aryan Nations
(Run by Richard Butler, in Hayden Lake,Idaho. Distributes neo-Nazi and Identity books and pamphlets.)

Christian Defense League
(Run by James K. Warner, in Arabi,Louisiana. Extensive Identity and neo-Nazi catalog.)

Christian Patriots Association
(Based in Boring, Oregon. Extensive catalog of Identity and white racist literature.)

America's Promise
(Based in Sandpoint, Idaho. Sells primarily Identity materials.)

Sacred Truth Ministries
(Based in Mountain City, Tennessee. Extensive catalog of Identity, Holocaust-denial, and white racist books.)

Aryan Book Center
(Based in Decatur, Illinois. Distributes primarily neo-Nazi literature and posters.)

Virginia Publishing Company
(Based in Lynchburg, Virginia. Distributes the Identity literature of Richard Kelly Hoskins.)

Revelation Books
(Based in Staunton, Virginia. Distributes the Identity literature of Eustace Mullins.