Traditionalist Worker Party | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Abbreviation | TWP |
| Chairman | Matthew Heimbach |
| Founded | 2013 |
| Dissolved | 2018[1][2] |
| Preceded by | Traditionalist Youth Network |
| Succeeded by | Patriotic Socialist Front |
| Headquarters | Paoli, Indiana[3] |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Far-right |
| Regional affiliation | Nationalist Front (2016–2018) |
| Party flag | |
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TheTraditionalist Worker Party (TWP) was aneo-Nazi political party active in the United States between 2013 and 2018, affiliated with the broader "alt-right" movement that became active within the U.S. during the 2010s. It was considered ahate group by theSouthern Poverty Law Center'slist.[4]
Established byMatthew Heimbach under the nameTraditionalist Youth Network (TYN), the group promoted white separatism and awhite supremacist view ofChristianity. As a member of the neo-NaziNationalist Front, the TWP held a number of protests and other local events. In 2015, the Traditionalist Workers Party changed into a political party so as to run in elections for local office. In April 2018,The Washington Post reported that the TWP had been disbanded the previous month after group leader Matthew Heimbach's arrest for battery.[2] In July 2021, Heimbach announced his intention to reform the party alongNational Bolshevik lines.[5]
The Traditionalist Youth Network was established in May 2013 byMatthew Heimbach and Matt Parrott.[6] Heimbach has been a white supremacist activist since fall 2011, when he formed a group atTowson University inMaryland and invited the white supremacistJared Taylor to speak at Towson's campus. The following year, Heimbach founded a "White Student Union" on campus, adopting racist andantisemitic views.[6] In spring 2013, upon graduation, Heimbach established the Traditionalist Youth Network in partnership with Parrot, who founded a white supremacist group, Hoosier Nation, inIndiana around 2009.[6] The group eventually became a chapter ofAmerican Third Position (later known as theAmerican Freedom Party).[6]
TheSouthern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which tracksextremist groups, hasdesignated the Traditionalist Worker Party as ahate group and has written of Heimbach: "Considered by many to be the face of a new generation of white nationalists... Since graduating in the spring of 2013, he has entrenched himself further in the white nationalist movement and become a regular speaker on the radical-right lecture circuit."[7]
In January 2015 the TYN established the Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP) as itspolitical-party offshoot in preparation for the 2016 elections, and a small group of candidates from thefar right announced plans to run under its banner.[8] The party states that it stands against "economic exploitation, federal tyranny, and anti-Christian degeneracy".[8] The group's strategy differs from that of theAmerican Freedom Party (AFP), a different fringe group: while the AFP "has long run presidential candidates with no hope of success" in order to "exploit the election cycle as a way to raise money and generate publicity for their racist positions, TWP actually hopes to win by running for local offices in small communities."[8]
One element that separated the Traditionalist Worker Party from many other far-right organizations was its anti-capitalist positions "denouncing corporate interests and environmental degradation, endorsing worker unions and [supporting] nationalization of key industries."[9] Heimbach and other Traditionalist Worker Party leaders publicly supported organizations and such as theNation of Islam,Hezbollah, and the governments ofBashar al-Assad,North Korea, the Russian Federation, and China, stating that "Our policy is, if you're a group that's dedicated to a political revolution through peaceful, legal and honorable means, then you're someone we can work with...They want independence for their communities; they wantself-determination. [That's something] all nationalists can stand by."[10] The Traditionalist Worker Party endorsed the creation of a "Traditionalist International" so that nationalist organizations, under Russian leadership, could work to advance their far-right, separatist, and oftenhomophobic andanti-semitic beliefs in global politics.[11]
The organization focused its attention on developing chapters in impoverished areas through charity events, following the model by the Greek fascist partyGolden Dawn, and putting forward a message that "these are people that the establishment doesn't care about" and working to provide a political voice for.[12][13]
On April 22, 2016, the Traditionalist Worker Party formed a coalition with several other organizations called the Aryan Nationalist Alliance. The Aryan Nationalist Alliance later changed its name toNationalist Front.[14] Its aim was to unite white supremacist,neo-Confederate, and white nationalist groups under a common umbrella. The coalition was joined by the neo-NaziNational Socialist Movement (NSM), neo-confederateLeague of the South, the neo-NaziVanguard America, and four other groups.[15][16]
In April 2017, the group organized the white supremacist rally inPikeville, Kentucky which attracted 125 to 150 supporters.[17] In August 2017, the affiliated groups participated in theUnite the Right rally inCharlottesville, Virginia.[18] In October 2017, the Nationalist Front was a key organizer of the "White Lives Matter" rally inShelbyville andMurfreesboro, Tennessee. Participating groups included: NSM, TWP, League of the South, Vanguard America,The Right Stuff, andAnti-Communist Action.[19][20]
On March 13, 2018, Heimbach was arrested inPaoli, Indiana, on charges ofdomestic battery arising from a domestic dispute. Following this, Parrott shut down the TWP's websites and said he planned to delete membership data, citing privacy concerns. According to Parrott, the TWP no longer existed, as the incident had destroyed the group's credibility.[21][22][23] Days later, however, Parrott filed asworn declaration in court (in an ongoing federal civil lawsuit over theUnite the Right rally in 2017), stating that he had not deleted or destroyed the membership information, as it was relevant to the ongoing litigation.[24]
On April 5, 2018, the left-wing media collectiveUnicorn Riot released hundreds of thousands of messages on TWP's Discord server and associated ones such as "Silver Guild" and "Not Tradworker" as part of a series on alt-right and neo-Nazi organizations. The messages on TWP's Discord server revealed that the group promoted and praisedDylann Roof, the perpetrator of theCharleston church shooting atEmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church inCharleston, South Carolina as well asJames Alex Fields, the man behind theCharlottesville car attack during the violentUnite the Right rally inCharlottesville, Virginia. The group also praised Jacob Scott Goodwin, a member of the group that was involved in thebeating of DeAndre Harris in the parking lot during that rally. Additionally, there was a conflict within TWP over one of its members, Colton Williams, taking issue with another member having a non-white spouse. These conversations also included the group's ties toAtomwaffen Division, a violent neo-Nazi terrorist network linked to 5 murders such asthe death of Blaze Bernstein of which Mark "Illegal Aryan" Daniel Reardon and Vasilios "VasilistheGreek" Pistolis were members of both organizations. Despite his group having been involved in violent incidents as well, Heimbach expressed concern over Atomwaffen's level of extremism and influence and eventually denounced it.[25]
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Heimbach and his group advocatedwhite separatism, and the group also adhered to awhite nationalist andwhite supremacistideology.[6][26][27] Heimbach and Parrott are "self-declaredethnonationalists"[28] who aim to create a separatewhite ethnostate.[29] Specifically, the group promoted awhite supremacist interpretation of Christianity,[6] recruiting members to battle what it terms "anti-Christian degeneracy."[30] The group advocated the prohibition ofabortion, restrictions onimmigration, and the carrying out of what Heimbach calls "peaceful secessionist projects."[29] In media reports, Heimbach has been called an "alt-right personality".[31]
The SPLC describes the group's ideology as being "virulentlyracist andanti-Semitic."[8] The SPLC and theAnti-Defamation League both note that the group is modeled after the EuropeanIdentitarian movement.[8][6] The TWP proclaims itself to be "againstmodernism,individualism,globalism andMarxism."[6] The group identifies itself as ananti-capitalist organization and it connects this position to its advocacy ofnationalism by stating "For us, to be anti-capitalist is to be a nationalist.Nationalism is a bulwark againstcapitalist exploitation andglobalism."[29]
The Traditionalist Worker Party rejectedmultiracial societies and the concept ofcivic nationalism, instead, it believed that "The ethnic community is the definition of a true nation. Shared blood, history, and traditions are what make a people and bind us together as an extended family."[32] The rejection of multiculturalism as organizational policy is a continuation of the group's virulentwhite separatist beliefs.
In 2016, Heimbach hailed theBritish vote to leave the European Union as "the greatest European nationalist victory since 1933," theyear of the Nazi rise to power in Germany.[30] In 2016, the TWP and theBarnes Review, aHolocaust denial publication, announced a partnership to promote each other.[28]
Traditionalist Youth Networks's only active university chapter is at theIndiana University Bloomington; this group is led by a white-supremacist activist Thomas Buhls, who has been affiliated with theHarrison, Arkansas-based Knights Party, aKu Klux Klan group.[6] In December 2016, the group's founder Heimbach claimed that it had some three dozen active chapters and 500 members across the United States; analysts at the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League state that these numbers are likely exaggerated.[29] The SPLC's 2017 annual report identifies the TWP as having chapters inPaoli andBloomington, Indiana;Benson, North Carolina, andWisconsin, and the affiliated Traditionalist Worker Party as having chapters in Paoli andColumbus, Indiana;Sacramento, California;Louisville,Madisonville, andMurray, Kentucky;Kansas;Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;Dallas, Texas; and Virginia.[33]
In August 2013, the group protested a leftist bookstore inBloomington, Indiana; in October 2013, the group held rallies protesting campus speeches by anti-racist educatorTim Wise.[6]
In September 2013, the group, as Traditionalist Youth Network, held an event inCorunna, Michigan, in support ofSyrian presidentBashar al-Assad's government.[34] The group initially planned a "Koran BBQ" that would feature theburning of copies of theQur'an and pictures ofMuhammad, to show "Islamic immigrants and citizens alike that they are not welcome here in Michigan"; however, this was changed to a pro-Assad protest after the U.S. government announced its plans to supportSyrian rebels.[34] Heimbach toldMLive that he did not regret the group's original plan, and that the group supported Islam "when it's in its own home in the Middle East."[34]
In 2014, the group filed anamicus brief in afederal court in Michigan in the case ofDeBoer v. Snyder. In its brief, the group took a stance againstsame-sex marriage, which Parrott described as part of "the Leftists [sic] social engineering campaign to destroy every last vestige of Western civilization."[35] Later the same year, the group filed a second amicus brief in a case in Maryland challenging alaw prohibiting assault weapons; in a four-page filing, the TYN stated that it opposed "the enemy of freedom—the Culture Distorter—in its sights and wishes to shoot down unconstitutional legislation that disarms our people".[36]
In July 2015, the group called for the filing of hate-crime charges in connection with the beating of a white man inFountain Square, Cincinnati. The local prosecutor,Hamilton County ProsecutorJoe Deters, stated that there was no evidence of ethnic intimidation in the crime.[37]
At a March 2016,Donald Trump rally at theKentucky International Convention Center inLouisville,[38] Heimbach was filmed shoving a black woman who was protesting Trump.[26] Heimbach and two other men were initially charged with misdemeanor harassment with physical contact and were served with a criminal summons in April 2017.[39] The charge was later amended to second-degreedisorderly conduct; in June 2017, Heimbach entered anAlford plea, a form of guilty plea.[39] Heimbach was fined $145, was ordered to attend anger management classes, and was sentenced to 90 days in jail; the jail sentence wassuspended on the condition that Heimbach not commit another crime within two years.[39][40] In 2018, after Heimbach was charged with misdemeanor battery and felony domestic battery in Indiana in a separate case, Heimbach's probation in the Kentucky case was revoked and he was sent to jail for 38 days.[41]
In a separate civil case, Heimbach is being sued in federal court forassault andbattery by the woman he accosted at the March 2016 rally, Kashiya Nwanguma, and two of her fellow protesters, Henry Brousseau and Molly Shah, who allege that they were also the victims of violence at the rally. Also named as defendants are Alvin Bamberger (who is accused of assault and battery) and Donald Trump and Trump's campaign (who are accused of incitement to riot, negligence, andvicarious liability).[42] In the case, Heimbach, who is representing himself, said that he "relied on Trump's authority" in order to oust the woman from the rally, citing Trump's directive to "Get 'em out of here" and promise to "pay for the legal fees" of supporters who expelled dissidents from rallies.[38] On this basis, Heimbach has filed court papers seekingindemnity from Trump.[43]
In November 2017, the group created an onlinecrowdfunding platform called "GoyFundMe" for racists, white supremacists, and other extremists with the objective of advancing their causes.[44] The name is aplay on the name of theGoFundMe crowdfunding platform, founded in 2010, and the wordgoy.
Twitter suspended the account of Matt Heimbach on January 3, 2017.[45] The account for the group itself was suspended from Twitter on December 18, 2017.[46]
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