Ku Klux Klan marginalized by need for respectable' racism

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BORDEN 4 SOCIALIST ACTION MAY 1992 While David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, was running for President, he found it expedient to minimize his association with the hooded terrorists. He realized the image of hoods and bedsheets in the White House is scarcely "presidential."

Since Duke has studied American histo ry, he may feel he was born 70 years too late. In 1922, endorsement by the local KKK klavern would practically guarantee a candidate's election in a state or local contest. This was a period when over four million Klansmen and women dominated political life in many parts of the country.

It is doubtful that the six young men who founded a social club in Pulaski, Tenn., in 1866 expected their little group to expand to that size. They only wanted a club like the Greek fraternities they knew in college.

The Greek word kyklos means circle of friends. An adaptation of that word gave them "Ku-Klux" and adding "Klan" created an enigmatic title for the fraternity. Officers were given titles in the same style: Grand Cyclops, Grand Wizard, Grand Magi, etc. To keep their identity secret, members wore a hood and robe.

All this was not so far out at a time when Freemasons and Shriners held secret rituals or paraded in exotic costumes. But social conditions in 1866 gave the Ku Klux Klan a far more ominous role than secret society play-acting.

The South was then occupied by Union troops, freedom schools were teaching former slaves to read and write, and Blacks were voting and holding office. Life for unreconstructed whites was becoming intolerable.

To restore white supremacy, freedom schools had to be destroyed, and Blacks kept out of the voting booth. It would take a 19th-century version of Latin American death squads to terrorize the newly freed slaves into submission.

The Ku Klux Klan became the perfect cover for gangs of hooded horsemen spreading terror in Black communities. The fratemity boys were pushed aside as former Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest turned the KKK into an underground army of repression. Its emblem became a burning cross signifying religious sanction for Klan members, and the fires of hell when burned before a victim's home.

Extra-legal terror against Blacks The Klan targeted successful Blacks who owned farms or held office. Between 1866 and 1875 Klansmen killed an estimated 3500 Blacks, and whipped or tarred and feathered thousands more. Whites, who taught or otherwise helped former slaves, were beaten or driven out.

By terrorizing Blacks so they failed to vote, the Klan restored the Democrats to power in state after state. When the HayesTilden compromise in 1876 ended Reconstruction, the white Southern elite won back political power. Now they could pass all the Jim Crow laws they wanted.

They no longer needed the Klan, which had degenerated into bands of uncontrolled vigilantes. Through internal corruption and loss of official support, the Klan practically faded away by the late 1870s. KKK underground roots, however, were still intactready to flower again whenever the climate was right.

In the meantime, mass immigration from Central and Southern Europe at the turn of the century made poor Americanborn whites uneasy. The rise of trade unions and the socialist movement made the wealthy uneasy.

In 1915 a movie focused on white peoples' fears in a dramatic way. This was "Birth of a Nation," the first full-length motion picture. Its theme was the heroic role of the KKK in defending pure Southern womanhood against "bestial" Blacks.

Above: David Duke in 1977. H has shed his robe and hood for three-piece suit. Right: KKK marching in Washington, D.C., in 1925—a time when the Klan boasted of a membership of four million.

This picture attracted 50 million viewers, who thrilled to dramatic action never before seen on the screen. Its social message was uncritically accepted by thousands. A special screening in the White House was viewed by President Woodrow Wilson, who said the story was "terribly true."

Such endorsement eased the resurrection of the KKK. It was now titled, "The Invisible Empire of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan." They retained all the mummery and regalia of the old Klan and added Catholics, Jews, communists, and labor agitators to their list of enemies of white, Protestant America.

They pointed to the hordes of immigrants who were threatening the purity of true American Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Membership in the Klan became "respectable." Protestant ministers joined, as they preached against crime and immorality that the government could not control.

The Klan undertook to uphold "family values" by punishing wife-beaters, familydeserters, and home-wreckers. In 1923, Klan raiders whipped 2300 alleged transgressors-both men and women.

In the early 1920s, the Klan not only had whips, they had votes. In Chicago, 50,000 Klan members demanded the support of politicians and businessmen. In Oregon they elected a governor and state senators.

But then the tide that swept in the Klan soon receded. The great economic boom of the 1920s set in. Social relations stabilized, immigration was curtailed, and the bogeyman of "hordes of foreigners" ceased to scare.

Corruption within the Klan led to the exposé of Klan leaders as common swindlers. Trade unionists and other workers confronted the KKK in the streets and routed them. It was time for the hooded order to retreat to the boondocks and wait for another day.

Various shirted groups AP Wide World Photos advantage of the turmoil of the Great Depression. But each time they raised their heads, workers smacked them down. For example, the Silver Shirts in Minneapolis collided with Local 544 of the Teamsters. They faced rows and rows of hostile workers at the one public meeting they tried to organize.

The Klan sprouted new branches after the 1954 Supreme Court decision against school segregation. Blacks were sitting-in at lunch counters, and freedom marchers were taking over the streets. An atmosphere reminiscent of Reconstruction days developed.

Klan is marginalized

The Southern way of life was threatened and the KKK prepared to ride to the rescue. Once more, recruits assembled around burning crosses to pledge allegiance to the Invisible Empire. But the Klan today is only a shadow of the hooded order of the '20s.

In the 1950s, more broadly-based White Citizens Councils were set up by the Southern power structure to defend segregation. Police and sheriffs confronted the freedom marchers with clubs and hoses.

The Klan was assigned the subsidiary role of terrorists and underground death squads. In the four years after the 1954 Supreme Court desegregation decision, there were 530 cases of Klan related violence and intimidation. There were six murders, 29 shootings, five stabbings, and bombings of 30 homes, seven churches, four synagogues and four schools.

The Klan operated with relative impunity, as they recruited police and sheriffs. But the murder of two little girls in a Birmingham church bombing and the killing of three civil rights workers in Mississippi shocked the nation.

To "responsible" racists, the message of the Klan was great-but the messenger appeared uncouth, outdated, and somewhat ridiculous. The cause of white supremacy should be presented by clean-cut all-American youthsupposedly typified by David Duke.

Duke realized that hoods and robes would be accepted by only a tiny extreme fringe element, while the message of white supremacy would attract many more. The Klan's message of hate had to be presented in middle-class terms.

A three piece suit replaced the hood and robe, and the Grand Wizard became the National Executive. Duke finally dropped the KKK, setting up The National Association for the Advancement of White People. (NAAWP)

Duke will use any vehicle to reach out with his message of hate. Today he assumes a populist stance, as he appeals to the worker who fears Black and immigrant labor. He attracts the distressed middle class with xenophobic condemnation of "international financiers."

Duke's quest for respectability is helped by the basic racism of the ruling class. Bush's criticism of a "quota" civil rights bill echoes Duke's opposition to affirmative action. Duke only says what an important section of the ruling class is already thinking.

AMAR 8 UPI/Bettman/news Photos However, the ruling class is not yet ready for Duke, and Duke has not put together the mass movement of classical fascism. Meanwhile the Klan-split into dozens of competing dens and klavers—is marginalized.

It still remains dangerous, however, as it becomes part of the shadowy underground of the Survivalist Right-the Minutemen, Skinheads, Nazis, and other hate groups. They all preach the doctrine of race war and apocalypse. They practice armed terrorism and assassination.

They all feed on the fears of the backward and uneducated, who have been abandoned by Republicans and Democrats alike. Many could be recruited as pro-capitalist storm troops if social tensions demand it.

But the radical right can only advance if the organized labor movement abstains. The labor movement must become a pole of attraction for these dissatisfied millions, who themselves are victims of capitalism.

It is time to rebuild the labor movement, found a labor party, and create such a pole of attraction for the great working-class majority that the race haters will be marginalized to the point of impotence.

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DHORUTA BIN WAHAD WINS NEW TRIAL The United States, alone among the world's governments, claims to hold no political prisoners. The official position is that, in this truly "humane" society, all But such cases expose the fact that there are political resistance movements of such great potential impact that the goverment is compelled to use repression Over 50 of the political prisoners are activists in the fight for Black liberation. Many are serving incredibly long sentences. For example, eight Black political prisOne long-imprisoned Black activist, who has now gained his freedom, is Dhoruta Bin Wahad. He is a former leader of the Black Panther Party, who was imprisoned In 1971, Bin Wahad was framed by the FBI and the New York City Police Dept. (NYPD) because of his leadership position in the Black Panther Party. After a prolonged court battle, Bin Wahad proved that the district attorney and NYPD were guilty of misconduct against him and that his original trial was invalid. The Manhattan district attorney, however, demanded that Bin Wahad be put back in prison At a court hearing on April 16, Bin Wahad beat back the attempt to rearrest him and won his chance for a new trial. A new trial is important, not only to do justice to Bin Wahad for the 19 years of his life that were robbed from him, but also to do Justice to the fact that there are many more Bin Wahads in the U.S. prison system.

Close to 200 detense supporters attended the hearing Bin Wanad told them atterwards that he was free "because all of you are here " He then urged the crowd to broaden the struggle, and attend the hearing for the New York Three (Herman Bell, Anthony "Jali!" Bottom and Albert "Nuh" Washington on April 28.

Further information on these cases can be obtained from: The Campaign to Free Black Political Prisoners and POWs in the U.S., P.O. Box 339, Bronx, NY 10463SOCIALIST ACTION MAY 1992 5 The following is an article submitted by Nicholas Lignola, a prisoner at the Sierra Conservation Center in California.

In a letter included with the article, Mr. Lignola states:

"As an inmate in the California Department of Corrections I am able to witness, first hand, some of this state's more flagrant abuses. I felt compelled to share my thoughts and observations with the public, who I believe is, in great part, unaware of these facts. If you feel it would be useful, I would appreciate your publishing this article in one of your publications. I thank you in advance and look forward to hearing from you in the near future."

I never would have thought that my life's destiny would have included time in prison. Then again, I never would have thought that I would have ended up on the streets of San Francisco's Tenderloin, hustling $20 for another "rock" of crack cocaine.

But life has many twists and turns. When one falls prey to substance abuse and addiction it's like being caught in a downward, turbulent spiral. It is precisely that spiral that brought me to this prison.

Sierra Conservation Center (SCC) is not one of the "high power" prisons that makes people shudder just at hearing the name. It is not Folsom, San Quentin, or Soledad. It is, however, a prison—a place of confinement. It is a place where, at public expense, men are detained, housed, clothed, and institutionalized. It is a place where the "seeds" are sown in the cycle of incarceration.

For many of the men this is but a training ground for that day when they too will be able to go to those "high power" prisons that are a must on every true gangster's resume. In reality, Sierra is a haven for many poor, drug addicted, misguided "wannabes" who never had a stake in the society by which they are now incarcerated.

In a time of budgetary crisis and alleged fiscal restraint, Sierra is a prototypical publicly-funded boondoggle, which should raise the ire of every hard-working California taxpayer.

Very few of the 3500 inmates at Sierra Conservation Center have the skills or ability to earn $30,000 per year when out on the streets. Yet, this is the approximate sum that California's taxpayers pay for each man who spends a year at Sierra Conservation Center, or at similar prisons. Tuolomne County, where SCC is located, has a relatively depressed, rural, economy.

To the population of Tuolomne County, the presence of this institution has been a blessing. Or, has it? What is for certain is that SCC, and institutions like it, is a bleeding sore on California's already blighted financial spreadsheet and on its hemorrhaging social fabric.

If asked whether California should fund schools for adult delinquency, any rational taxpayer would reply with a resounding negative. Yet, it is precisely this type of institution that is being increasingly funded as California goes on a mad race to build more and more correctional institutions to house an ever-increasing number of petty offenders, most of whom are addicted to drugs and come from underprivileged environments.

While reducing its budget for education, California has gone on a spending spree for prison construction. Are California's leaders purposely avoiding to deal with the root problems which lead to incarceration?

Is dealing with the reality of the fact that in the lower socioeconomic brackets an entire generation is being lost to drug abuse too painful or too inconvenient?

Whatever the case, it is time that the honest taxpayers of California take a look at the hard reality which confronts them. The problem will not go away by itself.

Central to the problem at hand is the fact that because of special interests, corruption, and graft, the proliferation of prisons is merely serving to employ a constantly growing, and ever-more parasitical, sector of the state's economy.

In fact, the correctional system has become a haven for continued and progressive criminality. It becomes clear that the legislature is apparently not concerned with stemming the root of the criminal problem which is poverty, lack of education, and substance abuse.

It would, indeed, appear ture, supported by certain privileged segments of society, has a vested interest in perpetuating the cycle of incarceration which results in the effective disenfranchisement of an "undesirable", • and potentially politically threatening, segment of society.

In the early 1980s, the California Department of Corrections had approximately 25,000 inmates. Today, the system is teeming with approximately 105,000 inmates.

Califomians, however, have certainly not benefited with significantly lowered crime rates. So, who has benefited from this enormous and scandalous waste of human potential and resources? Certainly, the ever-increasing bureaucracy, the thousands of correctional officers, and the legions of highly paid, non-uniformed, employees have found ample benefit at the trough of this wasteful enterprise.

Indeed, in a depressed state-wide economy, the correctional "industry" has been a consistently growing endeavor. It is to be expected that these beneficiary groups will continue to fight hard to maintain and expand the status quo. Where, but in the "correctional" system, can a marginally educated man or woman be paid in excess of $42,000 per year to put an average two hours of work in during an eight-hour day?

Yet, the system continues to call itself "Department of Corrections." On what basis does it use this misnomer? I would be the first to agree that criminal acts must be punished and that society has a right to protect itself from people who pose a public threat.

However, the "Department of Corrections" is actually becoming a "warehousing" project for the dispossessed, uneducated, the poor, and the addicted. The overwhelming majority of people entering the correctional system today do not meet the public's criteria of what constitutes a "dangerous criminal"

About three quarters of the people in California's prisons are addicted to either alcohol or drugs, better than half are functionally illiterate, and a majority have lower than average intelligence quotient scores. In other words, the Department of Corrections is now the receptacle for the problems which California refuses to address.

By DAWN REEL those jailed for politically motivated actions are "criminals."

against them.

oners will soon begin their third decade behind bars.

on false charges for 19 years-from 1972 to 1991.

before a new trial could take place.

9339. Telephone: (718) 624-0800.

In the course of these "Republican years", beginning in the early 1980s, the divisions within American society have grown greater, as well as more painful and apparent. California has been at the forefront of this reactionary swing.

What once was considered a liberal and progressive State has now become a bastion of economic exploitation, police brutality, and of insensitive and unresponsive government. Califomia incarcerates its citizens at a higher rate than any nation on earth, including South Africa.

A very sad distinction for the "Golden State." While California's inner cities decay and wither under the oppression of "trickle-down" economics, drugs, gang violence, and police brutality, California's Republican leadership concerns itself with prison expansion rather than urban renewal.

Dollars taken from education budgets are diverted to incarcerate the very people the State has chosen to deprive of an education and, consequently, of access to society.

Whereas low-income and single mothers are unable to avail themselves of childcare services at reasonable cost, the state has taken it upon itself to become an involuntary adult "baby-sitting" service for the grown children of California's squalid public housing projects.

Is it any coincidence that whereas only 12 percent of the state's population is African American, over 35 percent of the prison population represents this ethnic group? Is it coincidental that the largest single incarcerated group is Hispanic American? The Department of Corrections principal task has become to remove the human results of California's misguided fiscal policies off of city streets.

It is time that the honest, tax paying, public come to the realization that Sacramento's politicians have a very different agenda for California than the average citizen. It is a basic law of bureaucracies that their primary purpose is to perpetuate themselves. The California Department of Corrections has gone out of control.

Is there any sound rationale in slashing public funding for housing, education, and social services while then paying over $30,000 per person, per year, for each inmate in a state prison?

As long as the poor and illiterate are prevented from gaining a stake in California society, they will continue falling prey to the tragedy of illiteracy, violence, and substance abuse. The cycle of incarceration takes the focus away from the real problems.

The state is systematically incarcerating that segment of society which is considered burdensome by those special interest groups which support Sacramento's politicians.

Stated simply, the legislative agenda concering California's social problems is "out of sight, out of mind!" It has become painfully clear that this approach is a dismal failure. The people of California deserve better.

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Joseph Ryan/Socialist Action Action