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Sep 5, 19

Neo-Nazis with a History of Violence are Throwing a “Salute to President Trump” Rally in Georgia

While much of the Alt-Right and white nationalist movement has waned in their support of Donald Trump, some of the most hardcore neo-Nazi elements of the movement which openly call for mass genocide of Jews and non-whites are holding a rally in honor of the President on Saturday, September 14th, in Dahlonega, Georgia. The rally, which a coalition of local socialists has announced they will counter-protest, has put a spotlight on the small town with a population of only 7,000 as local far-Right news media has played up fears of “violent antifascists.”

Pro-Trump rally organizer Chester Doles while a member of the Ku-Klux Klan

The pro-Trump event is being organized by a “fourth-generation Klansman” and former member of the neo-Nazi organization the National Alliance, Chester Doles, a well known white supremacist in the Dahlonega area, who also is linked to the violent racist skinhead gang, Crew 38. In the past, Doles served time in prison for a violent racist attack against an African-American man who was riding in a truck with a white woman as well as on weapons charges.

Helping Chester promote and organize the rally within the neo-Nazi and white nationalist movement is another ex-National Alliance member Michael Carothers aka Michael Weaver who runs the neo-Nazi website, White Information Network and like Doles has done prison time for racist violence. Like Doles, Weavers has spent years in the white power movement; from attending the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville to being named “Activist of the Year” by the National Alliance.

Also pushing for the event is long time neo-Nazi Billy Roper, also formerly of the National Alliance, who openly has advocated for genocide of all non-white people and currently runs the neo-Nazi organization, the ShieldWall Network. Roper is perhaps best know for leading a group of neo-Nazis on a march in Arkansas during Holocaust Remembrance Day while chanting, “Six million more!,” in reference to the number of Jews killed by the Nazis in concentration camps. Roper’s worldview can best be summed up in his own words, which call for genocide:

“Every non-White on the planet has to become extinct. We need to remove these minor-league amateur races out of the game, and refine the playoff brackets a bit, if you get my meaning. The whole world is ours, and the only part of the earth that non-Whites should inherit is however much it requires to cover them.”
— January 2005 interview on Blood & Honour Radio

A member of Billy Roper’s group, the ShieldWall network, holds a photo collage with mass murderers Timothy McVeigh, Adolf Hitler, Rudolf Hess, Dylann Roof, and American Nazi Party leader, George Lincoln Rockwell. March 9, 2019. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart

So far the only confirmed speaker has been the New York based neo-Nazi troll and former Proud Boy, Jovi Val, once a fixture in pro-Trump and Alt-Lite circles, who recently has embraced full on neo-Nazism. Val participated in the second Unite the Right rally in DC and is known for traveling great distances to attend far-Right events and rallies, often to livestream them.

Pro-Trump Dahlonega rally speaker, Jovi Val

Despite being the only scheduled speaker at the pro-Trump rally in Dahlonega, Jovi Val claims to have left the MAGA movement. SOURCE: VK

The National Alliance, which Doles spent many years apart of along with many of the others who currently are helping to promote the Dahlonega event, was once one of the largest neo-Nazis organizations to exist within the United States and grew out of the youth wing of a group which campaigned for the segregationist, George Wallace. The National Alliance was lead by William Pierce, a former physicist who also penned the infamous Turner Diaries, detailing a fictional race war that ends in white people exterminating all non-whites. The book inspired Timothy McVeigh to carry out the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and a copy of it was found on him at the time of his arrest.

Chester promotes his event complete with anti-Semitic cartoon

At its heart, Doles’ event is an attempt to again build a big tent coalition between neo-Nazis and white nationalists alongside mainstream conservatives and Republicans around support for Trump in the lead up to the 2020 election. The event, according to flyers and Dole’s event description on the permit application, is also centered around a shared hatred of antifascists, which have become a time honored trope in Right media, an occasional subject of Trump’s tweets, and who neo-Nazis, those involved in the Alt-Right, and white nationalists blame for pushing their movement off the streets.

While the rally had originally garnered interest from the likes of Bikers for Trump, after being exposed as a neo-Nazi organized affair by Atlanta Antifascists, the organization as well as local GOP leaders, have now both disavowed the event and issued statements condemning the rally. However, as Atlanta Antifascists have pointed out, the Lumpkin County GOP has still refused to condemn the event, despite being aware of it on social media.

Bill Johnson of local far-Right website ‘Fetch Your News’ has been covering the neo-Nazi rally and playing up fears of violent antifascists

Despite this, one local far-Right website, Fetch Your News, has downplayed the neo-Nazi nature of the pro-Trump demonstration as well as the violence associated with those organizing it, while sensationalizing fears of an antifascist counter-protest. Fetch Your News has now published two articles about the upcoming rally, both by Bill Johnson, who lists being a member of the Republican Party on his Facebook and follows a multitude of local and regional GOP pages. Currently only the Socialist Coalition of North Georgia has publicly called for a counter-demonstration.

Attempt to Build Coalition Against ‘ANTIFA’ in Dahlonega

Chester Doles announcing his pro-Trump rally

According to Atlanta Antifascists, Chester Doles is organizing the rally on September 14th to intimidate the local population who opposes his views and Doles’ own words on the permit application seem to support this claim. Doles wrote that the demonstration will focus on “the rise of Antifa in Dahlonega” and states that his “group,” which he calls, Conservative Citizens of Lumpkin County, was formed in direct response to local progressive groups being active in the area.

In the permit for the event, Doles went on to write:

“…[L]eft-wing socialist activities of Indivisible Lumpkin. A satellite branch of Antifa wanna-bes. Who use the public library to recruit, plan and organize in. At the cost to Lumpkin tax payers. There [sic] about to be labeled a Domestic Terrorist Group.

As Atlanta Antifascists wrote:

The September 14 “Trump” rally flyer also claims that the event will be a chance to “Say […] ‘NO’ to Antifa in Lumpkin County” (where Dahlonega is located). On Facebook, Doles claims that “Antifa” are gaining ground in Dahlonega and he states that his rally will be a “square off” with them. Doles is therefore putting together a team of “men who are used to sparring” to do “security” for his September rally. This is clearly a perfect role for Doles’ violent white supremacist associates. As evidence of an “Antifa” threat in Dahlonega, Doles alludes to some small liberal events in the city. Through an imagined “Antifa” threat — which has little to do with actual antifascist organizing in the area — Doles is creating a pretext for a show of force and intimidation on September 14.

Chester Doles sharing link from neo-Nazi group, The ShieldWall Network

Also can’t help but point out the irony of Doles complaining about progressives using the local library “at the cost to Lumpkin tax payers,” when his neo-Nazi protest will surely cost tens of thousands, if not more, in police overtime and city resources.

According to Atlanta Antifascists, there is already a history of neo-Nazi intimidation against progressive groups in the local area. In March of this year, according to posts on Atlanta Antifascists Twitter account, flyers (see above) for the neo-Nazi group the National Alliance were left on people’s cars during a meeting of progressives at the local library.

The ‘threat of ‘ANTIFA’ is also a narrative that has been picked up by other neo-Nazis promoting the upcoming pro-Trump rally. As Billy Roper wrote on the white nationalist web forum Stormfront, which is linked to almost 100 murders:

Leading into 2020 and the next election cycle, we will see the polarization and division of America increase as both sides, red and blue, radicalize further. The center will shrink, and both fringes expand. Already, there are signs that battle lines are being drawn. A case in point is this upcoming event in Dahlonega, Georgia, on September 14th: Operation Newton’s Cradle in full effect against Antifa there, who have held six anti-Trump rallies on the town square recently. The local Antifa meet every month there at the public library. Now, the community is being mobilized against them. If you’re in Georgia or surrounding states, this will be an event you will not want to miss.

The people organizing this event are extremely trustworthy and veteran leaders of our movement who have years of experience in the field. I endorse them and the event, unequivocally. I have been invited to attend and will have to see what my schedule and travel budget is like as time gets closer.

This sentiment by Billy Roper seems to fly in the face of Chester Doles recent claim that the rally is not about promoting white nationalist and neo-Nazi politics, but instead simply a chance for Trump supporters to gather. As Fetch Your News recently wrote:

Chester Doles strongly rejected claims from the far left today (Sept. 5) that Saturday’s rally in Dahlonega is about recruiting for any extremist organization.

Clearly the other neo-Nazis promoting Dole’s event on white nationalist and neo-Nazis message boards would disagree: this rally is all about mobilizing Trump supporters against antifascists and hopefully, bringing them over to white nationalist politics. Doles even went on to state on Fetch Your News that he had officially withdrew the permit application for the event, in an attempt to distance himself from the protest:

I withdrew and Dustin Pinner, who is my neighbor and a friend filed the notice. Davis is a decorated veteran who served two tours of duty in Iraq. He’s not a member of any extremist organization.

Far from being just a neighbor however, Dustin Penner actually lives on property owned by the Doles family, according to Atlanta Antifascists:

The individual on the new permit, Dustin A. Penner, lives on property beside Chester Doles’ home which is also owned by the Doles family. There is every sign that Dustin Penner is serving as a front for Chester Doles when it comes to interactions with the City. Doles’ initial permit application shows that his rally is an attempt to target a local liberal group, which Doles characterizes as “antifa.” In contrast, Dustin Penner’s permit application lacks any rally specifics apart from approximate numbers, not even including a rally title. 

Atlanta Antifascists went on to write:

Chester Doles filed the initial permit application for the September rally, and writes that he paid for a pavilion rental at a nearby park. However, Doles recently withdrew his first permit application, with Dahlonega resident Dustin Penner allegedly putting his name to a new, re-filed application. With this move, Chester Doles now states that he is not involved in the September 14 event “in any legal capacity”. However, Doles remains the main person pushing the rally on social media and networking for it. The email address for Doles’ personal training business is the only contact information provided on the September 14 flyer.

Presently, the Dahlonega rally is only being promoted on Chester’s social media accounts and on a variety of neo-Nazi and white nationalist websites.

The Real Threat of Violence Comes from Neo-Nazis With a History of Attacking Members of the Public

While far-Right click bait websites like Fetch Your News, which are staffed by long standing local Republicans who are keen to play up fears of ‘ANTIFA,’ the real threat of violence comes from the people who have a history of violently attacking members of the public: the very neo-Nazis, racist skinheads, and KKK members who are promoting the Dahlonega event. Already they are talking about forming “security details” and using vehicles as “crowd control,” as websites like Fetch Your News have given them a context to engage in violence by presenting them as potential victims of violent ‘ANTIFA.’

Already, numerous potential rally attendees on social media have posted photos of weapons and encouraged others to bring them, implying the possibility of potential violence at the demonstration.

In the end, the ability of Chester and his collection of ex-National Alliance buddies to build a base of support for neo-Nazi ideas within GOP circles remains in the hands of local people on the ground, who must be brave enough to continue to draw a line in the sand against white supremacists with a history of violence and say loudly: not in our town.

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Investigative reporter and columnist on the front-lines of the class and/or meme war.

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