From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: "Populist" party: Friendly Fascists
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Distribution: na
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1992 01:09:04 GMT

/** action.jewish: 32.0 **/
** Topic: Warning on "Populist" party **
** Written  9:41 pm  Sep 10, 1992 by dyurman in cdp:action.jewish **
Bo Gritz
[Adapted from "Right Woos Left"]
 
by:     Chip Berlet
 
Political Research Associates
678 Massachusetts Avenue
Suite 205
Cambridge, MA 02139
 
(617) 661-9313
 
The author wrote an article, "Friendly Fascists," in the June
Progressive magazine where he discussed Gritz and his ties to the
far-right. He is quoted in an article on Gritz in the September
issue of Soldier of Fortune.
 
[permission to excerpt or quote is granted]
 
==============================================================
 
Summary:
 
Bo Gritz is the point man in an effort to build a coalition of
white supremacists, anti-Jewish bigots, neo-fascists, and
paranoid gun nuts. He accepted the nomination for president of
the Populist Party, which even Readers Digest called a haven for
neo-Nazis and ex-klansmen which was founded by notorious
anti-Semite and Hitler apologist Willis Carto who founded the
Liberty Lobby.
 
 
==============================================================
 
 
True Gritz 
 
One of the most visible far right movements involves the
presidential candidacy of Bo Gritz. Gritz is running for
president through a variety of local parties and groups, but his
earliest candidacy this electoral round was under the banner of
the fascist Populist Party. Gritz has attracted a large audience
of with his anti-administration appeals.
 
Gritz primarily seeks to build networks of support in reactionary
and far-right circles. He made a presentation on "MIA/POW &
Government Drug Dealers" at the Third Christian Heritage National
Conference held in November of 1990 in Florida. Among other
featured speakers were Bob Weems, Pete Peters, Col. Jack Mohr and
other persons who promote Christian Identity, a white supremacist
conspiracy theory that targets Jews as agents of Satan. Also
speaking were Eustace Mullins, who provided the "Total Conspiracy
Update," and A.J. Barker, national chairman of the Populist Party
which ran former neo-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke for
President in 1988 with Gritz as the original vice-presidential
nominee. Gritz later dropped off the ticket to run for local
office, and now makes excuses for his earlier affiliation with
Duke. Gritz claims he opposes racism and is trying to clean up
the Populist Party.
 
But according to the Monitor newsletter from the Center for
Democratic Renewal, "Gritz's standard stump speech is an amalgam
of themes popular among white supremacists and others on the far
right: the Federal Reserve System is unconstitutional and should
be abolished and a vast conspiracy of "internationalists" are
taking over the world. In his book Called to Serve, Gritz writes
that "Eight jewish (sic) families virtually control the FED,"
(the Federal Reserve System.)
 
Pastor Pete Peters is a leading proponent of the Christian
Identity religion. In a speech at Peter's Colorado headquarters,
Gritz acknowledged that Peters had helped publish and distribute
his book Called to Serve, which is used to promote the Gritz
presidential campaign.
 
Christian Identity is a religion that sees Jews as agents of
Satan and considers African-Americans to be sub-human. Identity
claims the United States is the real promised land and white
Christians are the real children of Israel. Many proponents of
Christian Identity seek to overthrow the "Zionist Occupational
Government" in Washington, D.C. and establish an exclusively
white Christian nation, or at least seize the states of the
pacific northwest.
 
Gritz defends author Eustace Mullins and distributes his book on
the Federal Reserve. According to Gritz, Mullins is not
anti-Jewish.
 
In his pamphlet The Secret Holocaust, Mullins asserts:
 
        "The record shows that only Christians have been victims
of the historic massacres. The Jews, when they did not do the
killings themselves, as they always prefer to do, were always in
the background as the only instigators of these crimes against
humanity. We can and we must protect ourselves against the
bloodthirsty bestiality of the Jew by every possible means, and
we must be aware that the Christian creed of love and mercy can
be overshadowed by the Jewish obsession that all non Jews are
animals to be killed." (Eustace Mullins, The Secret Holocaust,
Word of Christ Mission, no date.)
 
Mullins' speaking tours are promoted in ads placed in Liberty
Lobby's Spotlight newspaper, a publication that has praised the
spirit of the Waffen SS and promotes the view that the accepted
history of the Nazi Holocaust is a Jewish hoax.
 
The Populist Party began promoting Gritz for President in the
summer of 1991. The banner headline in the June, 1991 issue of
The Populist Observer: Voice of the Populist Party was
"Groundswell Building For Gritz Presidential Run." Gritz had
addressed the Populist Party national convention in May 1991. The
following month, The Populist Observer ran another banner
headline proclaiming: "Gritz Populist Party Candidacy for
President Official!" In a memo sent to Populist Party regulars by
Chair Don Wassall, and signed by 11 Populist Party Executive
Committee members, Wassall wrote that "We are reaching out to new
people, and we have a tremendous presidential candidate in Bo
Gritz." Campaign flyers mailed from the Populist Party
headquarters are headlined "Bo Gritz for President...Vote
Populist Party." In the June, 1991 issue of The Populist
Observer, Gritz wrote, "I call upon you as Republican, Democrat,
Libertarian, Independent, right, left, conservative, liberal,
et.al., to UNITE AS POPULISTS [emphasis in original] until we
have our nation firmly back on her feet." Gritz told the audience
at a July, 1991 meeting in Palo Alto, California that they should
reach out and attempt to recruit persons from the left.
 
While leading fascist organizer Willis Carto was one of the key
founders of the Populist Party, the Party is now under the
control of Don Wassall who is feuding with Willis Carto and the
Liberty Lobby over control of the movement. According to the May
1992 issue of The Monitor, "Wassall's Populist Party has been
forced to take a back seat as Gritz has cobbled together his own
organization, the America First! Coalition."
 
Gritz was heavily promoted by the Carto forces as early as the
summer of 1987 when Gritz was holding press conferences charging
that key U.S. government officials were the "biggest customers"
of the world's leading "drug lord," Gen. Khun Sa of Burma.
 
In a January 3, 1992 letter to Willis Carto, Gritz urged the
warring factions in the Populist Party to cease their bickering,
and told Carto he was "seeking cooperation between you and your
former allies." He also wrote "During my first meeting with Don
and Phil as a Populist candidate, I expressed utmost concern over
accountability of funds," thus clearly acknowledging that he
considers himself the Populist Party candidate. Gritz
continuously misrepresents the nature of the Populist Party.
 
An article in the September 1992 Soldier of Fortune magazine
notes:
 
        "Gritz also said he does not know Jerry Pope, chairman of
Kentucky's Populist Party. Pope was once a prominent figure in
the National States Rights Party founded by racist J.B. Stoner,
who was imprisoned for the deaths of black children in the
bombing of a Sunday school class in Birmingham, Alabama."
 
Gritz and the Liberty Lobby Convention
 
At the 35th Anniversary Liberty Lobby convention held in
September, 1990 there was considerable antiwar sentiment
expressed by speakers who tied the U.S. presence in Saudi Arabia
to pressure from Israel and its intelligence agency, Mossad. No
matter what actual political involvement, if any, forces that
support Israel may have had in shaping the events that led to the
Gulf War, the themes discussed at the Liberty Lobby conference
tilted toward undocumented anti-Jewish propaganda rather than
principled factual criticisms.
 
At the Liberty Loby conference Fletcher Prouty released the new
Institute for Historical Review's Noontide Press edition of his
book on CIA intrigue, The Secret Team. Prouty also moderated a
panel where Bo Gritz wove a conspiracy theory which explained the
U.S. confrontation with Iraq as a product of the same "Secret
Team" outlined by Prouty.
 
Spotlight's coverage of the Gritz presentation featured a
headline proclaiming "Gritz Warns...Get Ready to Fight or Lose
Freedom: Links Drugs, CIA, Mossad; Slams U.S. Foreign Policy;
Alerts Patriots to Martial Law Threat."
 
The Liberty Lobby Populist Action Comittee 
 
In 1991 Liberty Lobby announced the creation of the advisory
board of the Populist Action Committee. The Spotlight ran a major
feature on the formation of the advisory board with photographs
of the persons announced as appointed to launch the Committee.
Both Bo Gritz and Fletcher Prouty were named to the advisory
panel.
 
According to the Spotlight, the other persons named to the
advisory board were:
 
Abe Austin, described as an Illinois businessman and expert on
money;
 
Mike Blair, Spotlight writer whose articles on government
repression were highlighted by Project Censored;
 
Ken Bohnsack, an Illinois resident called the founder of the
Sovereignty movement;
 
Howard Carson, a Spotlight distributor; 
 
William Gill, president of the protectionist American Coalition
for Competitive Trade;
 
Boyd Godlove Jr., chairman of the Populist Party of Maryland;
 
Martin Larson, a contributor to The Journal of Historical Review
which maintains the Holocaust was a Jewish hoax;
 
Roger Lourie, president of Devin-Adair Publishing;
 
Pauline Mackey, national treasurer for the 1988 David Duke
Populist Party Presidential campaign;
 
Tom McIntyre, national chairman of the Populist Party from
1987-1990;
 
John Nugent, who ran for Congress from Tennessee as a Republican
in 1990;
 
Lawrence Patterson, publisher of the far-right
ultra-conspiratorial Criminal Politics newsletter;
 
Jerry Pope, chair of the Kentucky Populist Party, formerly active
in J.B. Stoner's segregationist National States Rights Party;
 
John Rakus, president of the National Justice Foundation;
 
Hon. John R. Rarick, former Democratic House member now in
Louisiana;
 
Sherman Skolnick, a Chicagoan who has peddled bizarre conspiracy
theories for over a decade;
 
Major James H. Townsend, editor of the National Educator from
California;
 
Jim Tucker, Spotlight contributor who specializes on covering the
Bilderberger banking group;
 
Tom Valentine, Midwest bureau chief for Spotlight and host of
Liberty Lobby's Radio Free America;
 
Raymond Walk, an Illinois critic of free trade;
 
Robert H. Weems, founding national chairman of the Populist
Party, and former state leader of the Mississippi Ku Klux Klan.
 
Prouty has been appearing at conferences and on radio programs
sponsored by the Liberty Lobby, but claims "there was never a
handshake" concerning his official appointment to the Populist
Action Committee. Prouty nonetheless admits that he is aware his
name is being publicized in that capacity and refuses to ask his
name be dropped from the list.
 
Skolnick also says he was never "officially" asked to be on the
advisory board, but although he is aware he was named to the
panel, he refuses to distance himself from the board or Liberty
Lobby.
 
Gritz's Attempt to Blur his Political Views
 
Gritz's call for the left/right coalition apparently first
surfaced publicly at his Freedom Call '90 conference held in
July, 1990 in Las Vegas. Speakers at that conference included
Gritz and anti-Semite Eustace Mullins, as well as Father Bill
Davis of the Christic Institute, ex-CIA official (now critic)
John Stockwell, and author Barbara Honegger. This fact of
attendence is not meant to imply that all these persons share the
same views. It is meant to demonstrate that Gritz is attempting
to draw a broad range of government critics into a coalition.
Stockwell, Honegger, and Davis have all said their appearance at
the conference should not be interpreted as an endorsement of
Gritz's research or political views. Gritz's Center for Action
still sells a set of tapes from the conference, including
speeches by Gritz and Mullins, along with Father Davis, Barbara
Honegger, and John Stockwell.
 
This set of tapes is advertised in the Prevailing Winds catalog
which mixes material from mainstream, progressive, and far-right
sources. Prevailing Winds promotes the Christic Institute and
dozens of other left and liberal organizations and writers
(including this author), as well as featuring a full page ad for
Gritz's Center for Action. A West Coast affiliate of the Christic
Institute sells The Guns and Drugs Reader, edited by Prevailing
Winds. Prominently featured in the publication is material by Bo
Gritz,
 
John Stockwell has expressed concern over the the way Prevailing
Winds has lumped his research together with research he finds
problematic. In the past, Stockwell has been highly critical of
Honegger as a reliable source of information, and has had
criticisms of some aspects of Christic research as well.
Stockwell says he "met Gritz there on stage" at the 1990
conference and "came away greatly unimpressed," and he was quick
to distance himself from the Populist Party.
 
After the controversy broke in the left press, a spokesperson at
Prevailing Winds (who asked to be identified simply as Patrick)
said they were now considering at least including a warning in
their catalog about Bo Gritz's ties to the Populist Party and
other rightist and anti-Jewish groups and individuals. Patrick
said their catalog came out before Gritz accepted the Populist
Party presidential nomination, but defended the inclusion of the
Gritz material, saying that "middle America needs this kind of
information" because "Bush is basically a dope-peddling Nazi."
 
Patrick said the appropriateness of carrying Gritz's material,
given his ties to the anti-Jewish far right, has been discussed
by the Prevailing Winds staff, and also discussed with Bo Gritz
and with Father Davis of Christic.
 
According to the Prevailing Winds representative: 
 
        "Its an argument we've gone back and forth on, it's a
tough question, whether or not to make it available and to
preserve it for research. We are interested in getting the
information to the people. The good thing about it is no one else
is trying to build these bridges between groups. We need to reach
a rainbow of people."
 
Christic's Father Bill Davis walked out of the 1990 Gritz
conference when Mullins gave his speech. Yet over a year after
the event, Christic still had made no public statement distancing
itself from Gritz or Mullins. In the meantime, Gritz was touring
the country promoting Christic's Iran-Contra research and
implying a friendly working relationship between himself and key
Christic figures, especially Danny Sheehan. Sheehan is featured
in a privately-distributed videotape program focusing on Gritz's
research which takes a critical look at the Reagan and Bush
Administrations' intelligence and drug policies. That videotape,
circulated by Gritz and his allies, also uncritically shows a
headline from the LaRouchian newspaper New Federalist to
illustrate a point.
 
Christic's national director, Sara Nelson, told In These Times
that Christic apologizes for the appearance of Davis at the
conference with Mullins, and no one is suggesting that Christic
harbors any racist, anti-Jewish or fascist views. But Christic
has not issued a clear and widely disseminated public statement
alerting people who may have seen the Prevailing Winds catalog or
the Gritz material and who now seem confused over who supports
whom. This is not meant to be interpreted as a blanket criticism
of the Christic Institute. Many Christic projects have been
valuable. They circulated a tremendous amount of useful
information about the issue of covert action and the Iran-Contra
scandal. Especially notable in other areas are the work of Lewis
Pitts at Christic South and the project by Andy Lang to
illustrate problems with forging democracy in eastern Europe. Yet
Christic's Sheehan, Davis, and Nelson have not taken seriously
the problem of right-wing groups and individuals linking
themselves to the Christic case and recruiting Christic
supporters in a way that implies a shared agenda. While this is
not just a problem with Christic, the role that Christic could,
and should, be playing in providing leadership on this question
would be extremely useful.
 
Front Man for Fascism: Bo Gritz and the Racist Populist Party, a
report by the California anti-fascist group People Against Racist
Terror describes how Gritz has promoted himself on the left. The
report urges Christic to be more vocal:
 
"Christic should join the campaign to expose Bo's campaign for
the fascist vehicle it is. Christic should take the lead in
condemning the Gritz campaign, rather than demanding retractions
from those who have raised criticisms and concerns. It should
share frankly and self-critically with its followers the process
of deception and rationalization by which it was hoodwinked, so
that others can escape the same fate."
 
END END END
 
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