Nazi Music: Coming Out of the Underground?

by M.C. Reddy

Members of Toronto ARA and members of the Love and Rage Federation from Minneapolis and Detroit recently hosted a workshop called "Combating the Nazi Music Underground" at a Columbus, Oh. anti-racist conference.

Increasingly in the vanguard of the new wave of neo-nazi organizing and violence in Europe and North America are young people. On both sides of the Atlantic, racist/nationalistic music and the social scene around it play an important role in bringing y outh into organized nazi formations.

For years the presence of white-power skins in the punk/alternative music scene was not uncommon. In many areas they were driven out. In others they withdrew on their own, and in some locations they held sway. In this shadowy milieu, their underground, they built structures.

These included gang-like alliances, often called "Hammer Skins," with prefixes such as Eastern, Confederate, and Northern. Bands catering to this subculture developed, and followings were established. Mail-order cassette and paraphernalia operations st arted. Certain public areas and nightspots became turf. Some private music/drinking clubs came into being.

Cross-fertilization of ideas and skills took place on two levels.

This occurred between these youths and older Klan/nazi organizations. It also occurred between working-class elements and more middle- and upper-class types among the youth. The result has been politicization, arms caches, safe houses, crash pads, soph isticated computer operations, and business savvy. There is now a new crop of leaders attempting to cohere more dynamic strategies and alliances. There is an increasing willingness to challenge any older racialist group or leader felt to be a burnout, inc ompetent, untrustworthy, etc.

Music still figures prominently in their activities. There are several distributors and zines across the continent. There is an Aryanfest summer concert circuit. Now there are also two magazines, Blood & Honor, out of Long Beach, and Resistance, from t he Detroit area. Resistance has announced an ambitious perspective of emerging from the "underground." Trying to establish a beachhead in the metal scene is part of this.

Resistance, produced by Resistance Records [RR], is a joint project of some Canadian and US nazis. It is slick in cover and content. Multi-colored, it features interviews with North American and European fascist bands, letters, nazi and music shorts, a nd detailed instructions on aspects of building support for RR. There is also bad poetry, crossword puzzles, and editorial-page calls to national socialist insanity.

Prior to this RR sold cassettes and promoted bands through Under the Hammer, a skin zine, and ads in Aryan Action Line (SS Action Group). With the launch of Resistance, they have also stepped up to what could be called visually attractive CDs. There ar e plans of going to music videos.

Allied bands are Rahowa (Toronto), Max Resist and the Hooligans (Rochester, MI), Bound for Glory (Mpls./St. Paul), Aryan (London, Ont.), Aggravated Assault (Plainsboro, NJ), The Voice (Phila.), Nordic Thunder (Delaware) and Centurion (Wisc.). The summe r issue announced the promotion of their first long-haired metal band, an outfit from Jersey. Formerly called Ritual, the band has been repackaged as New Minority, its first release to be entitled "White, Straight and Proud."

One George Burdi is RR's main mover. Burdi (aka G. Eric Hawthorne) is lead singer for Rahowa, which stands for Racial Holy War. Until recently Burdi and company were part of the Church of the Creator [COTC]. COTC's many skinhead supporters have been a particularly aggressive lot. Young members have been convicted in murders, assassination plots, armed robberies, and pipe- and fire-bombings coast to coast.

Burdi and others have now left the COTC, in a feud with its new honcho, non-skin Dr. Rick McCarty. The Northern Hammer Skins continue to figure heavily in the COTC's operations. SS Action, American Front, nazi computer bulletin boards, and others conti nue to promote it.

On Sept. 31 Resistance Records promoted an Ian Stuart memorial concert in Racine, Wisc. Stuart, with his British band Skrewdriver, pioneered white-power music. He was killed in a car wreck. Nearly 400 young nazis attended. Afterwards a group of 40 bone heads fucked with some Black people in a store. Joe Rowan of Nordic Thunder was shot dead. Eric Banks, formerly of Bound for Glory, was dispatched in a similar fashion by a SHARP skin last year in Oregon. The nazis are now trying to hold them up as martyr s to pump others up.

Record shops, clubs and magazines that are found carrying their shit, that book them or take ads from them, need to be hit with anti-fascist campaigns. If you know of any, please inform us. Toronto ARA is currently taking on two such shops. Minneapolis ARA recently checked Skin Art magazine for carrying an ad. Word must be gotten out and preparations made to challenge any moves into new areas.

Heads up in the metal zone!

Inform us of Fascist Activities in Your Area:

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Toronto is preparing a pamphlet and organizing kit on the nazi music scene. Send anything that may be of help: newspaper articles, copies of nazi zines, album covers, photos, intelligence reports, etc.