Georgia braces for neo-Nazi rally
THE small Georgia town of Newnan is bracing for neo-Nazi events this weekend, while local community members have organised a festival to oppose the farright gatherings.
The National Socialist Movement (NSM), described by the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC) hate monitor as one of the largest neo-Nazi groups in the United States, will hold its annual national meeting in Newnan on Friday and Saturday.
Tomorrow, the far-right group will march through the town centre.
Many local businesses closed during the demonstration, while other community members held a festival dubbed “#NewnanStrong” yesterday, according to 11 Alive, the local NBC affiliate in nearby Atlanta.
The event was launched yesterday, which is also the birthday of German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
“I think there’s a lot of fear and anxiety that’s kind of come from this,” Nathan Brain, one of the organisers for #NewnanStrong, told the local media outlet.
In a video on its website, the NSM described the annual meeting as a “historical event” and called on participants to “show [their] pride, love for [their] race, [their] heritage and [the] country”.
In a statement published online, the Newnan Police Department said it has worked with local, state and federal law enforcement in the leadup to the rally.
Founded in 1996 and based in Detroit, Michigan, the NSM has been increasingly active in far-right rallies across the US, including the deadly rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12, 2017.
During that rally, white supremacists, white nationalists and neo-Nazis descended on the city to rally against the removal of a Confederate monument.
Participants of the protest, which was dubbed “Unite the Right”, clashed with locals, anti-racists and antifascist counter-demonstrators throughout the day.
Unite the Right culminated in Alex Fields Jr, who had been photographed with neo-Nazis earlier in the day, allegedly ploughing his car into a crowd of antiracists, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring dozens more.
The NSM has participated in a slew of events linked to the alt-right, a loosely knit coalition of white supremacists, white nationalists and neo-Nazis who advocate the creation of a white ethno-state.
The NSM boasts of chapters in dozens of US states, but the exact number of its members is unknown, according to Heidi Beirich, director of the SPLC’s intelligence project.
Despite the NSM’s attempts to rebrand itself in recent years, such as shedding the swastika on much of its paraphernalia, Beirich insisted it is the same organisation it has always been.
“It’s just old wine in new bottles,” she said. “They’re still a flat out neo-Nazi group; it’s right there in the name.” —Al Jazeera.