White League (America)

The ***White League*** was a far right, dukeist paramilitary organization founded by George Lincoln Rockwell but mainly led by David Duke, active in the United States of America and several post-American countries, in particular the Republic of America. In 1990, with the Halloween Coup, the WL became the dominant political force of the RA, reshaping the whole state apparatus and society based on its ideology.

The WL was created by the merger of a variety of smaller right wing extremist organizations, usually of paramilitary nature, the biggest ones being the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party, whose Commander George Lincoln Rockwell was the League's broker. It's primary concern was violently countering leftist and anti-racist politics, particularly targeting the Communist Party and the Civil Rights Movement and vehemntly defending the persistence of Segregation, blaming racial violence on the barbarity of Black people and on racial separation not going far enough. League members were sometimes dubbed "Whiteshirts" or "Black Berets"

## **BACKGROUND**

During the 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement against Segregation was met with repression, especially following the 1963 Washington Massacre and the assassination of Martin Luther King. This so-called Bloody Decade saw the rise of White suprematist paramilitaries, particularly the 3rd incarnation of the Ku Klux Klan, the National States' Rights Party, the criminal syndicate Aryan Brotherhood and the small but very active National Socialist White People's Party led by Rockwell. The KKK was initially the largest a couple thousands of members, many of whom inactive, and was quite decentralized and disorganized, it was seen with a bit less disgust than the Nazis. In spite of this, Rockwell was easily the most well known face among the members and the one considered most charismatic. His party numbering less than 700 members and 8000 financiers by 1967, Rockwell began to realize that the openly nazi aesthetic and name was counterproductive to the group. He had originally adopted it in 1959 after being described as a nazi by opponents as a way to attract attention, but now he needed a better name and symbol to ride the racist paranoiah which was running rampant. Rockwell successfully called on the Klan and the Brotherhood to forge bonds by organizing a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12 1967, nicknamed "Unite the White". Here, Duke announced the disbandment of the NSWPP and its confluence into a new organization called "White League".

## **HISTORY**

WIth this rebranding, Rockwell superficially disavowed nazism. In an interview right after the rally, he declared that he had never been a nazi and was just "using it as an hyperbole and provocation to force the mainstream media to acknowledge our struggle for White rights". To prove this, he announced his resignation from leadership of the World Union of National Socialists, although later investigation found that the WL in practice mantained the ties. The followers of Rockwell stopped describing themselves as members of a party but rather as a "non-electoral, direct action movement for White civil rights". In practice this confirmed and strenghtened the strongly militant and violent nature of the American Nazi Party, whose Stormtroopers simply changed uniform from that of the Brownshirt to the brand new Whiteshirt. Many Klan chapters and cells of the Brotherhood joined it, and so did all the members of the States' Rights Party. The League saw a bit of a moment of panic when Rockwell was injured in an attempted murder by John Patler (a member of the NSWPP he had expelled for being too racist) on August 25, but he survived, tho his health declined.

Originally, the WL numbered just over 2 thousand members, but the media coverage it got allowed it to recruit a large number of new entries, one among them being 17 years old David Ernest Duke. The group grew rapidly in the first few years of its existance, reaching almost 10 thousand members in 1970, supporting heavily the electoral campaign of George Wallace in 1968 and practicing voter intimidation and violence against Black communities and left wing movements. With the murder of Fred Hampton, the end of the Bloody Decade and the brief period of quiet in the early 1970s, the League experienced stagnation, and then decline when Rockwell died of a stroke in 1972, during an excessively long promotion tour he was doing all across the country. After his death, the title of Commander passed to his right hand man Matthias Koehl. Koehl was however part of the section that refused to disavow nazism and he was heavily influenced by esotericism and the odd religious theories of Savitri Devi (a French-Greek and later Indian nazi lady, co-founder with Rockwell of the World Union of National Socialists who believed that Hitler was the embodiment of the Hindu god Vishnu).

Koehl's weird theories and excesses caused the party to lose a fair share of membership, and the organization along the lines of Fuhrerprinzip made it hard to remove him. William Luther Pierce, who considered himself the real successor of Rockwell, left to create the National Alliance with less than a thousand members, then a couple hundreds more formed the Southern Party, a neoconfederate organization. What saved the WL was the emergence of the figure of David Duke. Duke managed to mobilitate the members of the League against Koehl, launching a sort of "party strike" and being acclaimed new Commander. Koehl did not acknowledge that and he and a couple hundreds formed a de facto separate organization still called White League, which later changed name to New Order. Duke managed to clean up the public image of the League a bit, claiming that genuine nazis represented an outsider infiltration in it which had now gotten purged. Duke also restored ties with Pierce and the Southern Party. With economic stagnation followed by recession and oil crisis in 1973, the League found a new opportunity to grow, by putting a much greater focus than before on the fight against rising leftism, toning down instead antisemitic rethoric, and encouraging acts of violence towards left wing students. They collaborated with the FBI on several occhasions in their efforts to undermined the CPUSA. Starting from the early 1980s, the League also attracted increasing funding from private businesses, especially ones in counties and states administrated communists, businesses that relied on cheap Black labor or several companies that secretely hired them as strike breakers. The power and wealth of the League attracted other groups to associate with it, in exchange for sharing the funds. Even Koehl gave up and rejoined it in 1983, the same year when Duke officially formed an alliance with the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. While they remained formally distinct, almost all the members of this organizations were also members of the League. Even moreso than his mentore Rockwell, Duke acted as a unifying figure for the American far right, managing to keep nazis, neoconfederates and undefined racists together.

The group once again experienced high rates of growth in the membership, especially due to the increasing threat of communism and the lack of trust, especially by big entrepeneurs, in legal measures. Originally, this kind of extremist militias were mostly by working class, unemployed and some middle income White men. Starting in the second half of the seventies, the latter demographic came to form a bigger and share. However, an even bigger share was constituted by former middle income people whose business and economic status was either lost to or jeopardized by the economic crisis. The political program was detailed in the White People's Bill of Rights, detailing the prospect of a White ethno-state, securing the welfare of White people, upholding Protestant Christian morality, eliminating foreign influences (particularly that of Communists and Zionists) and the centralization of powers into a strong President away from "the biggest brothel in America" (the Congress). While it wasn't a party, the League was closely associated with the American Independent Party, with Duke even being the vicepresidential candidate in 1984.

By the time of the collapse of the United States in 1988, the League had well surpassed half a milion members (587 thousand registered). Below half of the members were concentrated in the Deep South, some 70 thousand in Texas, about 40 thousand in the North West, a similar number in the territories of California and nearly 150 thousand in those of the People's Union of America, many of whom however fleed south. After the failure of the League to coup the governments of Louisian and Texas, the American Identity Party and American Front were created in those states to replace it, limiting Duke's authority to the RA. Despite the setback, and losing to George Bush in 1988. the WL kept growing. Bush was unable to solve the crisis, the unindustrialized South was seeing some growth, especially in weapons manifacturing, thanks to the influx of capitalists from the North, but he wasn't really good at kickstarting it. Although he managed to repress the insurrection of the Socialist Republic of New Afrika in 1989, he couldn't defeat the terrorist tactics of the New Black Panthers. While White leftism was electorally weak, union membership was high, especially among miners, who agitated and formed the Fairness Party in 1987. It was estimated that they'd get about 18 percent in the 1990 Congress Elections.

After the Atlanta Hotel Siege and the attempt at a desegregation bill in its aftermath, Duke took contacts with the leaders of the Industry Confederation of America, the Land Owners' Union and other guilds which represented his main source of funding to concur on their support for a coup d'etat. By this time, not only did the Whiteshirts numbered in just over 400 thousand, but they had the almost complete support of the police department as well as a majority of the armed force, especially high ranking generals, and had governors at the local level. With this security, Duke launched the Halloween Coup of 1990, assuming the position of Acting President with uncostitutional powers. Duke mantained a facade of legality until 1992, when he was elected officilaly as President. After this, he launched the Purges, with the goal of wiping out the influence of all opposing political forces inside the Republican state apparatus as well as defeating factionalism in the League.

Neoconfederates and Esotericists, who represented a loud minority in the League, were disempowered or killed. White League officials, members or sympathisers were put in every position of power. The WL successor American Identity Party revolted in Louisiana in 1992, allowing for the state to be annexed. The White League of Florida followed suit in 1994, leading to the division North-South of the state. In Texas, the American Front formed a coalition with the Republican Party. Under the dukite regime, the League became deeply involved in the everyday life of people, with children and women being de facto forced to join the White Youth, the Young Ladies and the League of Women. Whiteshirts often acted as law enforcement and, starting from 1998, with the Act of Integration, were integrated in the National Republican Army as an elite units and political commissars, akin to the Waffen SS, fulfilling the transformation of the RA into a totalitarian state. The divisions constituted by Whiteshirts were listed as "League Combat Divisions", officials set to control the ideological purity of the army "Watchmen of Anti-Patriotic Activity" or just Watchmen. Watchmen were also in charge of the Resettlement Camps were Undesirables were mass murdered by the milions. During the American Holocaust, the Whiteshirts acted mainly to capture minorities and dissenters in the RA territory, but, as more Black people joined the Liberation Army and the internal situation got more chaotic, the former fell mostly on the LCD.

Following the collapse of the RA, the White League ceased to exist and all its leaders committed suicide, except for Don Black, who formed the Knights of America as a direct successor, launching an insurrection in North Carolina soon after the war was over. Many former White League members followed Micheal Hill in creating the neoconfederate Dixie Army, while officials escaped in large numbers abroad or were trialed and executed by New Afrika and the Assembly of Democratic Communists.

In the North West, the White League was key in the formation of the State of Lincoln and the Free Republic of Liberty, but later lost contact with Duke and changed name to American Identity Party (not to be confused with the Louisianan party by the same name). The AIP was the second party in both countries after the Libertarian Union, which won due to their policy of regional authonomy and lack of reunificationist fervor. It was also the third party in Oregon after the Communist and Libertarians in 2010. Upon the Oregonian Civil War, the members formed militias that were later united by former Whiteshirt Oskar Strom, creating the Nation of Freedom.

## **IDEOLOGY**

The White League's ideology was that of Dukeism, but in reality it was initially a very varied spectrum united by shared ideals of White Supremacy, antisemitism and anti-communism.

The program of the League was laid out in the 1968 White People's Bill of Rights, or the Fourteen Points, however Point 6, 7 and 14 were only added in 1992:

1-"America was created as the country of the White people, and it should be restored as such. We reject multiracialism, and aim at the achievement by the most peaceful possible means a racially homogenous America in line with the ideals of our Founding Fathers."

2-"We reject the notion of non-existance of race. Race is an undeniable social and biological fact. Each race has peculiarities and necessities, the separation of the White Race from others is necessary not only for the welfare of White people but for that of other races as well."

3-"We reject the notion of inherent equality of the human being. The notion that all men are created equal has long been disproven by science and sociology. Factors such as race, culture and birth conditions determine the characteristics of a person. The goal of a state should be to constantly and scientifically select the best to elevate the level of the people."

4-"Based on the unparalleled achievements of the White Race compared to others, we recognize the superiority of White genetic characteristics in political management and scientific intellect, while not denying the presence of valuable genes and intelligence in other races. Education should be adapted to each race's level of intelligence in each field, at least so far as a multiracial state exists."

5-"We reject foreign influence over America, in any shape it takes. In particular, we oppose the influence of pro-Soviet Communist saboteurs, spies and sympathizers, who need to be eradicated by any mean. Zionists, by mean of financial power, religious activity and lobbyism, have also come to represent an influence to eliminate."

6-"America was built on Protestant Christian morality and values, as 'one nation under God'. We reject multiculturalism and degenerate atheistic culture, in favor of a coherently Christian society based on the many Protestant churches of America. Catholicism represents a tolerable variable, but the influence of the Catholic Church needs to be vastly restricted, and even moreso Jewish religious influence."

7-"We believe in enforcing traditional Christian morality at every level of society. Homosexuality or other such sexual deviances represent an abomination to eradicate, as they threaten the mind, body and soul of the people. Degenerate and violent culture and art should be restricted or banned."

8-"We believe in upholding the security of White people against the increasing threat of Negro communist terrorism and the ongoing attempt at a White Genocide. We believe in classifying all the so called 'civil rights group' as terror groups and repressing them by any necessary mean. Any measure is allowed in the ongoing race war for the defense of the White people."

9-"We believe in freedom of enterprise, the free market and meritocracy as guiding principles of the economy, and vehemently oppose communism, socialism and any other anti-American ideology that desires to crush them. We however believe in state intervention to support private enterprise and collaborate with it to further the collective needs of society, especially in the ongoing race war. We oppose plutocracy and chrony capitalism."

10-"International finance, represents a dangerous and exploitative phenomenon that must be excluded from America. As its main conducer is Zionism, the influence of the Jewish community needs to be restricted as well. America should no longer put the interests of Israel ahead of its own. We, however, support Israel's right to exist in all of the Holy Land as a bastion of Western Civilization against Arab abuses."

11-"As the state of the White people, America should secure the human right of all Whites to job, housing, shelter, healtcare, nourishment and the pursuit of happiness, as long as the same White people fulfill their duties of citizens by protecting and elevating the country and its future."

12-"We support the Natural family structure of father, mother and children. We reject the notion of equality among genders and support the furthering of each's different, but equally vital, roles in society. Men's natural aggresiveness and strenght makes them adapt to leadership position, whereas women's reproductive and educational role makes them the most valuable asset of any healthy society."

13-"We support the elimination of corruption and chronyism in the federal government in favor of full executive power in the hands of a strong, democratically elected President, in line with Article 2 of our Constitution. The powers of the Congress should be strongly reduced due to it's extreme corruption and tendency to divide the country."

14-"We believe that America is one and to be restored as one. Our ultimate goal, as the legal and spiritual successors of the United States of America, is the reunification of our homeland and the eradication of what caused it's collapse."

In general, the ideology of the White League has been described as White suprematist, White nationalist, neo-Nazi, Christian nationalist and American reunificationist. It's ultimate goal was to create a White ethno-state extended to all of the former United States under the control of a single dictator, with other races or "degenerates" and "foreign influences" needing to be purged. This was attempted via the American Holocaust and the genocide of over 7 million people between 1998 and 2010.

## **UNIFORM, FLAG AND SYMBOL**

The uniform of the White League consisted in a white shirt, a black beret, both with symbols of the League on them, and dark jeans. The uniform was intentionally simple but also consistent with the color scheme of the party flag.

This latter consisted in a white background with 12 black rays (4 of which thicker and closed between two thinner) irradiating to the angles from the black Crossed Circle (also known as Sun Cross), the main symbol of Dukeism.

According to Duke, the color scheme symbolized the League's vision of a White versus Black contrast, not just as of the literal race war, but in a more metaphorical way as a good versus evil struggle: "Far from being naive, our vision of the world is the most realistic one going forward. Native are the ones who think they can reason with the enemies faced by America now, there is no moral grey here, you are either with us or against us." The combination of the Sun Cross with rays symbolized the rise of the sun and therefore the dawn of a new era.

The Crossed Circle also however recalled the target of a rifle, with the ray imagery contributing to the idea of it being a sort of weapon ready to shot. It was also probably used as a compromise with pagan esotericists in the original membership of the League.

The League however also used other symbols, one of the most prominent was a black eagle carrying a fascio on a white background. This symbolized the League's commitment to fascism and American nationalism. This symbol was the only other one to be occhasionally put on the uniforms in place of the Crossed Circle, becoming pretty famous when a photo came out in 2018 showing Thomas Rousseau (prominent leader of Nation of Freedom) wearing it in a meeting of the Freedom Youth.

## **TRIVIA**

* The original flag of the League was a simple black cross on a white background, identical to the flag of the League of the South.

* The League's birth is in a rally in Charlottesville called Unite The White, based on the Unite The Right rally that happened in reality in 2017, exactly 50 years after the Liberty Fallen version . Whereas the Charlottesville Rally has irl being considered a failure for the Alt Right movement, failing to form a unified and relevant White nationalist front, the one in 1967 succeeds, with the White League being similar in ideals and aesthetic to the Alt Right movement but way more powerful and organized.
* Originally, the League was to be formed by Duke in 1983 and to be preceded by a much larger version of the Knights of the KKK. This was changed when user ByzantineBoy on the LF discord noted that the KKK has historically been too ridicolous and goofy to be the basis of such a successful movement, and that the formation of a new White suprematist group instead was more likely.