The Logic of Street Demonstrations

Alabama

In the article below, I have conveniently summarized in one place why the League of the South has spent so much time on street demonstrations, and what all these street demonstrations are supposed to accomplish:

1.) Violate The Taboos – As things stand today, it is taboo in America for a White Southerner to be explicitly pro-White, pro-South, and pro-Christian, to support Southern independence from Washington, to unabashedly advance this position in the public sphere, and to advocate on behalf of our own interests as an ethnic minority.

By taking to the streets on a regular basis, we are demonstrating that we are no longer going to observe these taboos or acknowledge their legitimacy in the South. We believe our cause is moral and just, that our demographic displacement is an immoral assault on the birthright of future generations, and we invite our fellow Southerners to publicly violate the reigning taboos and join our movement.

Just as in the days of Jim Crow, the reigning taboos will only crumble under pressure when a sufficient number of White Southerners are willing to publicly rise up and stand together against them. We are taking the initiative, working toward a new normal where violating the reigning taboos has become commonplace, and making it easier in the process for those less bold than ourselves to step forward.

We’ve done this five times now in Uvalda & Vidalia, GA, Murfreesboro & Shelbyville, TN, Atlanta, GA, Greer & Traveler’s Rest, SC, and Tallahassee, FL. We can point to our street demonstrations as proof that the taboos can be challenged at little cost. There’s no reason why our movement has to be contained to the internet when we can operate with impunity here in the real world.

The power of our enemies like the SPLC has been wildly exaggerated and routine street demonstrations are a means to puncture this misconception. In Tallahassee, a black reporter asked Dr. Hill what he thinks about the League of the South being labeled “a bunch of racists.” His response illustrates our attitude, “So what? I’m standing up for my people – white Southern people – no one else.”

So what? We’re standing up for our people. It is the right thing to do. It is what we ought to do. We should have started doing it a long time ago. The fear of sticking our necks out has long been one of our worst enemies.

2.) Raising Our Profile – There are millions of White Southerners out there who are already thinking along the same lines.

We know from the polling data that millions of White Southerners are upset like we are about issues like immigration, multiculturalism, gay marriage, abortion, cultural degeneracy, the spiraling national debt, black crime, affirmative action, gun control, endless foreign wars and entanglements, the seemingly endless growth of the federal government, the unsustainable welfare state, and so on.

We know that millions of White Southerners have little confidence in the political class, the Democrats and Gee-Oh-Pee, and national institutions in Washington. There are already millions of White Southerners who are openly supportive of secession, who already believe that America is beyond reform and cannot be salvaged, plus millions more who are on the verge of throwing in the towel on reform and need only a small push to throw their support behind the cause of Southern independence.

Street demonstrations are a way to push ourselves to the forefront of this larger cultural angst, identify ourselves with it, and agitate it. So when our people go looking for trouble, we want to have already established our reputation as the South’s most notorious group of troublemaking secessionists.

3.) Defining Our Image – The League sees itself as an advocacy group for the survival, well-being, and independence of the Southern people.

For about 15 years though, the League was known more for avoiding racial controversy and “telling the truth about history” than political activism. The outside perception of the League as a “Neo-Confederate group,” a group of reborn Johnny Rebs who live in the past and who are primarily concerned with defending Confederate memory, rather than a vibrant Southern Nationalist activist organization, which is oriented toward the present and future of our people and motivated by contemporary threats to our existence still hasn’t fully caught up with recent changes.

Street demonstrations are a way to define our own identity and recast our image as a social movement. When the SPLC publishes scurrilous articles that insinuate we are a violent organization composed of retrograde Neo-Nazis and Klansmen, we can respond by rolling hours of tape on YouTube of dozens of peaceful demonstrations about immigration, gay marriage, and other social issues attended by polite, friendly, well dressed, ordinary Southerners who share the concerns of our neighbors on these issues.

These street demonstrations are the public face of the League of the South. The way in which we present ourselves when in the public eye undermines media stereotypes and caricatures. The videos and images from our rallies attract new people to our cause. The silent sympathizer can see what we are doing and conclude that we are the kind of organization that he or she would feel comfortable in joining.

4.) Building Social Capital – The anonymous relationships which are formed in cyberspace on the basis of abstract ideas are notoriously fragile.

By holding street demonstrations, we are giving our people something constructive to do in the real world on a regular basis, which builds relationships, trust, and solidarity within our organization which makes it stronger over time. Among other things, it makes it harder for trolls and the opposition to use the internet to disrupt our group.

5.) Real World Social Networks – It is not enough to “educate” our people with abstract ideas on the internet. Street demonstrations are a useful entry point for converts into our budding real world social networks.

In order for an individual to take the next step in the conversion process beyond the embrace of abstract ideas, real world social networks are needed to validate and affirm the new belief system of the convert. Quite often, the convert is exchanging one value system and social network for a more agreeable and intellectually consistent one. Thus, real world social networks provide a critical milieu for exploring taboo ideas with the support and fellowship of likeminded people, which enables converts to overcome the deterrent of social stigma in their area.

6.) Self-Regulation – The anonymity of the internet is a paradise for trolls and other disruptive individuals who would harm our organization. By taking our movement into the streets, we are erecting a massive barrier to malcontents who flourish on the internet but stick out like sore thumbs in a high trust environment where our activists can be measured by their deeds rather than by a rhetorical commitment to our cause.

7.) Gaining Publicity – As our street demonstrations grow in number and frequency, our movement will garner more publicity from the mass media.

As things stand today, the mainstream media prefers to ignore us when possible or defame us when we can’t be ignored in order to keep us marginalized and unknown to our target audience. Generally speaking, it is better to be defamed than ignored and the publicity the League is receiving has been trending upwards over the last year as a direct result of our street demonstrations, not all of which has been negative.

It’s reasonable to assume that as the League becomes associated in the public mind with opposition to changing demographics in the South, particularly in the minds of mainstream journalists, we will be sought out more often by the media whenever stories are written about the issue. Just last month, I was sought out by HBO to participate in a documentary on the failure of Alabama’s immigration law, HB 56.

The League is also starting to put up SECEDE billboards in heavily trafficked areas in conjunction with our street demonstrations – the first billboard is already up in Tallahassee, FL and two more billboards will soon be unveiled in Alabama and Georgia. These billboards directly expose thousands of commuters to our core message and force the mainstream media to acknowledge our movement.

There’s also a social media trail on YouTube of our street demonstrations and conferences, which discredits slanderous mischaracterizations of our movement as a bunch of buffoons and cartoon characters, which can be accessed anyone in their pajamas in the comfort of their own home who want to learn more about our organization.

8.) Making a Sacrifice – Human beings are born with an overwhelming desire to believe in something and White Southerners have traditionally believed in Americanism, liberty and equality, that kind of stuff. Southern Nationalism can become the focal point of such a desire by offering them a cause, a new creed to follow that appeals to White Southerners who have lost their faith in Americanism.

Street demonstrations are rituals to perform, a small sacrifice that a convert can make to advance Southern Nationalism, which allows them to demonstrate both fidelity to our cause and come away feeling more committed to our people than before. These events are a practical outlet for giving structure to our movement.

9.) Gaining Experience – Every time the League holds a street demonstration we gain more practical experience with hosting these events. We can see what works and what doesn’t. We can try new things like putting up billboards.

10.) Sparking Imitators – Just as a breeze can blow across a fire and ignite other areas, the street demonstrations that we have been doing in GA, TN, SC, and FL can spark activism in other parts of the South. That’s already true in our own case because we ourselves have been directly inspired by groups like Vlaams Belang overseas.

We followed the controversy over The Mantra billboard in Harrison, AK as well as the secession billboard in Missouri and decided to put up our own SECEDE billboard in Florida. We followed the media firestorm that was ignited when the Virginia Flaggers raised a Confederate Battle Flag on a lot just south of Richmond.

If a tactic is perceived to work, it will spread. There’s a possibility that White Nationalists in other parts of the United States might be inspired by our example, launch their own street demonstrations, and start getting better organized. They might even decide to shift their focus away from the poisonous environment of the internet, which brings out the worst in our people, and back toward the real world, which tends to bring out the best in our people, for the some of the same reasons delineated above.

Whenever we gather in the real world for a demonstration, I have noticed that it always lifts our spirits. I’ve seen lots of people feed off the positive energy of other people and come away from our events with a new outlook. It’s exactly the opposite on the internet where long term exposure to all the negative energy of curmudgeons in cyberspace tends to make people more cynical, alienated, and defeatist over time. In particular, I think this unhealthy environment is repulsive to women, and goes a long away toward explaining their absence in anonymous movements based on the internet.

Conclusion

The logic of street demonstrations isn’t a road map to our long range goal of secession and creating a Southern nation-state. It’s a practical guide to how we can become marginally more powerful than we are now.

There’s no reason why we can’t attract more people to our cause, get better organized, cultivate new leaders, raise more money, and become more influential over time – these five things, numbers, organization, leadership, money, and influence, are the components of political power, and as we accumulate more power, we will be in a better position to offset the power of other groups whose agenda is hostile toward our own.