NCJ Number
115460
Date Published
1985
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This report describes the nature and activities of the main racist and anti-Semitic organizations and individuals that are currently engaged in a campaign across the rural midwest.
Abstract
These groups have often couched their anti-democratic messages in terms of concern for family-style agriculture and have met with some success in gaining converts to their cause. Their movement currently has an estimated 2,000 to 5,000 hard-core activists, together with 7 to 10 sympathizers for each activist. Stockpiling of weapons and ammunition is increasing, and several killings have occurred. Efforts to recruit followings from the current farm protest movement began in the late 1970's with efforts by Lyndon LaRouche's cult. The Posse Comitatus, founded in 1969, grew in the 1970's and promoted the views that the nation is really a Christian republic and that the Federal Reserve System and the income tax are unconstitutional. The loose structure and small-circulation newsletters of the Posse-type organizations contrast with the more sophisticated approach of the Schiller Institute and the National Democratic Policy Committee of the LaRouche cult. Another major organization is the Populist Party, which contains all the political elements present throughout the Far Right effort among farmers and the rural population.