Klansmen on the march again

Press, 14 December 1977, Page 12

Klansmen on the march again

By

CHARLES FOLEY,

“Observer,” London

The Ku Klux Klan is on the march, selling itself to Right-wing Americans in a dozen states in the south and west. It is picking up an unexpected amount of support and attention, and is growing faster in California than in any other state. In recent months there have been a series of incidents demonstrating the Klan’s new-found vigour. After an inter-racial clash at Camp Pendleton, the huge United States Marine Corps base near Los Angeles, brought about by the strong presence of a Klan cell in the camp, 12 black marines were jailed, disciplined, or dismissed the service. A ritual cross-burning in token of white supremacy drew a large crowd at Fresno, a major California city. Klan leaders delivered tirades against blacks and Jews. There were cries of “kill the bastards.” In President Carter’s home town of Plains, Georgia, a white man has been found guilty and is sentence for breaking up a Klan rally by ramming the platform with his car. injuring 38 people. Californian “Grand Dragon” Jeff Murray said: “If anything like that happens here, we will retaliate — whether it is Jews or Negroes or homosexuals, or any other brainwashed assassin of the Carter Administration.” In California, the Klan has announced plans to “patrol” the United States Mexican border to curb the flow of illegal immigrants. David Duke, who calls himself national leader, or “Grand Wizard,” of the Klan — there are other contestants for the title — said: “We want to end the flow of colour over our border. It is washing away our culture, our racial fabric; it is changing the America we know.” When someone yelled “shoot the bastards" after references to blacks and Mexican-Americans, the assembled Klansmen, in their pointed hoods and robes, cheered. “God expects his children to fight integration,” Wilkinson went on. . . some of the bloodiest wars in history were Christian crusades. “We encourage every white man to keep his arms and

ammunition ready — in case of a race war.” Jeff Murray, who stood at his “Imperial Wizard’s” side throughout this recitation, claims the Klan has dozens of cells in California. “New branches pop up all the time.-The Klan is doing real well in the Armed Forces. White servicemen are sick of being told what to do by uppity blacks.” Murray’s right-hand man in California, Bill Macklin, says the “Invisible Empire” — as the K.K.K. likes to call itself — has a secret training camp where Klansmen are given guerrilla training. They learn how to handle weapons, prepare boobytrap bombs, and engage in underground warfare. “But we’re not terrorists. We’re just getting ready to defend ourselves.”

The Klan has gone through many changes in its time. Since it was first formed in post-civil war days as a hooded, nightriding cadre to terrorise “uppity Negroes” and their Yankee friends in the South, its fortunes have declined and risen with the nation’s mood. Why it should be enjoying a renaissance today among students, in the military, and among middle-class city dwellers is puzzling most Americans. California “Dragon” Murray explains: “There is an ahti-liberal backlash sweeping the country. People are sick of all these thousands of organisations working for minority interests. Every* where I go folks tell me these groups need some competition.” The Klan, then, is battening on economic insecurities, unemployment, and the rise of a new American conservatism — as well as their old standby, racism, ‘The Jews, the niggers, and the Communists in Washington are trying to mongrelise our nation.” said “Imperial Wizard” Bill Wilkinson, at the Fresno rally. “Once we’ve been mongrelised, domination is easy.” Would he work with the United States Nazis? “Sure. Hitler wasn't so bad. He didn’t kill six million Jews. That’s Jew

propaganda. Maybe two million. And what’s that when you think how many people got killed in war.” “Grand Dragon” David Duke, who runs a separate arm of the Klan, based in Louisiana, devised the headline-grabbing scheme to “patrol” the Mexican border in Southern California. Between 500 to 1000 Klanners would be deployed, he swore. “They have some guys out there with citizens band radios,” says a San Diego officer. “But I don’t believe the Klan has more than 50 followers around here. It’s a publicity stunt.” Police say that they could arrest Klans* men only if they were found carrying concealed weapons without a permit ... “We don’t take this too seriously.” Nevertheless, San Diego

Mayor Peter Wilson and California Senator Alan Cranston, spurred by Mexican-American leaders, have taken it all seriously enough to ask Washington for federal help to block the Klan’s scheme. Laws against vigilantism may be used to curb Klan activities. David Duke — a 25-year-old Louisiana State University graduate who ran as a Klansman in a recent state senate election and collected onethird of the vote in his wealthy, all-white district — is the Klan’s supreme publicist. He has scores of paid, full-time organisers; he speaks on the college lecture circuit in the South; he has a hard-sell radio advertisement, aired on dozens of stations. He has brought marketing into Klan rallies. “See the beautiful cross-lighting ceremony,” exhorts a radio spot. And those who turn up may buy K.K.K. jewellery, racist pamphlets and books, and permanentpressed robes — “just $29.95. with hood and mask.” The F. 8.1. says that it believes over-ail Klan membership is not more than 2500 — but they agree that the movement is growing once again. Klan chiefs will give no figures, though they claim the F.8.1.’s estimate is “ridiculously small." -— OF NS Copyright.