WAR (standing initially for White American Resistance, then later White Aryan Resistance) was an American neo-Nazi tabloid newspaper published by Tom Metzger's eponymous White Aryan Resistance (WAR) organization. It was published bimonthly, later monthly, out of Fallbrook, California. Self-described as "The Newspaper of the International White Racist" and later "the most racist newspaper on Earth", it was known for its sensational and frequently violent message. It appealed to, and was primarily read by, white supremacist skinheads.
It was established by Metzger in 1983 as the official publication of WAR. Even for a neo-Nazi periodical, WAR has been regarded by scholars as exceptionally extreme in its rhetoric and ideology, openly advocating race war and lauding perpetrators of racially motivated violence. It was styled as a tabloid and included numerous cartoons. It advocated the Third Position and racist environmentalism. WAR was renamed The Insurgent in the 2000s, afterwards being brought online and eventually ceased by about 2006.
The paper contained editorials, merchandise sales offerings, and promotions of white supremacist music acts, particularly the British white power band Skrewdriver. Metzger's public-access television show Race and Reason had its distribution coordinated through the newspaper. White supremacist paraphernalia was sold through the newspaper. Contributors to WAR included Metzger himself, his wife, and various members of WAR. Its managing editor was Wyatt Kaldenberg, who wrote articles promoting Odinism. James Mason, the author of the neo-Nazi book Siege, also wrote for the periodical.
The paper was influential on the white supremacist scene, particularly known for its white supremacist cartoons. The cartoonist Nick Bougas created numerous cartoons in the periodical under the pseudonym "A. Wyatt Mann". These cartoons included antisemitic and anti-black caricatures, including the notable antisemitic caricature the Happy Merchant. These cartoons were popular with white supremacists of the era and continued to be used by the alt-right.
Background The founder of the newspaper, Tom Metzger, was an American white supremacist and neo-Nazi activist. In his professional life he was a television repairman by trade. Previously a Grand Dragon of David Duke's Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in California, he left Duke's group in 1979 and founded his own California-based Klan organization. The next year, Metzger ran for a house district seat, achieving surprising success in the Democratic primary before losing in the general election. The same year he renamed his Klan group the White American Political Association (WAPA) in order to distance them from the Klan.
WAPA's name was changed in April 1983 to White American Resistance (WAR), then to White Aryan Resistance in September 1984. Their newspaper was part of Metzger's wider efforts to spread his ideology through the media; to the same end, he subsequently created a public-access television show, Race and Reason. Metzger complemented the paper with several other media efforts, including a telephone hotline and later a website. He primarily sought to recruit white supremacist skinheads to WAR, seeing them as preferable to conservatives. In the 1980s and 1990s, Metzger frequently received attention from the mainstream media, making appearances on mainstream talk shows.
History
WAR was established in 1983 as the official publication of the White American Political Association (shortly after changed to the White American Resistance). When the group's name was changed to White Aryan Resistance, the newspaper did not initially follow and kept being published under the name White American Resistance. It was later also changed to stand for White Aryan Resistance.
The paper's circulation continued to increase from 1985 to 1987. In 1986, James Mason's neo-Nazi newsletter Siege (later collected into a book of the same name) ceased its publication. Metzger, a reader of that periodical and one of the few people in the neo-Nazi movement who continued to platform Mason, disliked this news. In response, he asked Mason to write a column for WAR, to which Mason agreed. In 1989, the newspaper's layout was redesigned, becoming more professional in style and expanding many of its sections.
In 1988, Metzger's followers murdered an Ethiopian immigrant, Mulugeta Seraw, in Portland, Oregon. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and Morris Dees, acting on Mulugeta's family's behalf, filed a civil suit against Metzger and WAR in the aftermath. They won and received a judgment of $12.5 million from Metzger, his son John, WAR, and his associates, bankrupting Metzger and the organization. The SPLC seized Metzger's assets, including their printing presses, online media, telephone lines, and mail-order marketing program. Nevertheless, the WAR newspaper continued, as did Race and Reason, and Metzger continued to promote white extremism.
The fact that Metzger and his media outlets continued to be in operation despite going bankrupt and losing a $12.5 million civil suit was seen as suspicious by other white supremacists. Several years later, other white supremacists accused Metzger of secretly cooperating with the SPLC in exchange for the ability to continue to operate. Ed Fields wrote as such in his newspaper The Truth at Last, claiming that "if [supporters] want their letters to reach Metzger faster, they should write directly to Tom Metzger c/o Morris Dees". Harold Covington, a fellow neo-Nazi, was a chief voice of these allegations. He alleged in a 1995 article titled "Morris Dees is the De Facto Publisher of Metzger's WAR" that Metzger had cut a deal with the SPLC, allowing their agent to intercept all letters and money sent to him, but allowing him to keep half of the profits so he could stay in operation. Metzger responded with outrage to these claims, but according to scholar Jeffrey Kaplan, "was never able to fully deny the charges". According to Kaplan, others concluded that the SPLC did control Metzger's P.O. box for a period of time following the lawsuit (though were uncertain if this continued to be the case) but also claimed that other aspects of the allegations were false.
In a 1991 episode of CNBC's Talk Live guest-hosted by Christopher Hitchens, Metzger and his son John were questioned both men over a comic in the newspaper that celebrated the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and asked if they were serious about the violence they promoted. In response, John Metzger described the newspaper and promoted it to the audience.
The newspaper continued into the 2000s, later renamed to (or replaced by) The Insurgent. This newspaper maintained an avowedly racist ideology. It was published quarterly and later brought online, then ceased by about 2006. He continued to operate a website of the same name, The Insurgent, that served as a general portal for racist information online. Metzger died in 2020.
Contents and profile
WAR was issued bimonthly, later monthly except for January, in tabloid format and style, modeled off of publications like the New York Post. It has also been described as a zine, and as an underground newspaper. It was published by Metzger out of Fallbrook, California. He also edited the newspaper. The paper was sensational in tone, and stories frequently lacked bylines. Christine Cafarella for the magazine Orange Coast described its content in 1987 as "crudely designed", with its stories often being poorly written. The newspaper's visual style was improved in 1989, taking on a more stylized and professional look, with higher quality photographs and full length features on white supremacist topics. Criminologist Mark S. Hamm called its post-1989 iteration a "model of vibrant and electric presentations of a particular point of view".
Most issues contained an editorial from Metzger, followed by letters to the editor, selections from other appearances by Metzger, articles from WAR associates, cartoons, and merchandise sales. WAR promoted white supremacist music acts, particularly the British white power band Skrewdriver, with a section devoted to the band and Ian Stuart. Reviews of such music were also included. White supremacist paraphernalia was sold through the newspaper in an "Aryan Entertainment" section, including tapes from Metzger and Race and Reason, racist videos, books, and cassettes, as well as stickers, posters, jewelry, and t-shirts. It also had a mailing list of skinhead organizations in the United States. Issues contained a list of platform statements by Metzger writing about WAR's stance on various issues. Essays on ideology as well as fictional accounts giving guides on revolution also appeared.
Metzger coordinated the distribution of his public-access television program Race and Reason through the newspaper, requesting that his readers help him distribute the program. It also listed cable systems that carried Race and Reason. Contents of the program were generally tamer than the newspaper. WAR frequently republished and clipped stories from other newspapers, particularly ones that covered WAR and the various free speech controversies associated with their television program. The newspaper was distributed to neighborhoods that WAR believed may have people who sympathized with their goals, with WAR members dropping the paper on California lawns alongside other WAR materials. This resulted in media attention. It was also distributed to high school students in WAR's recruitment efforts. While primarily serious in nature (outside of the comics), the paper also included racist jokes on occasion. It had a section parodying the Southern Poverty Law Center's Klanwatch, titled "Kikewatch".
Jeffrey Kaplan described the newspaper as continuing the WAR organization's emphasis of "primitive emotional appeals that are the racialist movement’s lowest common denominator." Metzger frequently devoted articles to discussing and praising The Order, a neo-Nazi militant group that, at the time, was being hunted down by the federal government for several violent crimes, as their case developed. He later created a feature section on "Prisoners of War", how he described imprisoned white supremacists, listing them and featuring their prison addresses so readers could support them and their families. Metzger described them as "Prisoners of War" of the "Zionist Occupation Government". "Prisoners of War" listed in the newspaper included members of The Order, Karl Hand (the leader of the National Socialist Liberation Front), James Earl Ray, and Manfred Roeder.
Ideology Even for a neo-Nazi periodical, WAR was regarded by scholars and observers as exceptionally extreme and straightforward in its rhetoric; it openly advocated race war and violent revolution. The newspaper's motto was "The Newspaper of the International White Racist", and later "the most racist newspaper on Earth". The paper was designed to appeal to skinheads and influence them towards a more ideological kind of white supremacy. Raúl Pérez noted its primary message to readers as being that white men were under attack and needed to "fight back".
Swedish religious historian Mattias Gardell described it as "aggressively racist", George Michael wrote that it was "one of the most provocative underground publications in the movement", while Jeffrey Kaplan said it "interspers[ed] occasional literate expositions with repellent racist cartoons and inarticulate anger." Stephen E. Atkins noted it in 2002 as the "most racist of the extremist publications". Cafarella described it as putting "into print the points of view of various contributing white supremacists who enjoy taking potshots at blacks, Jews, Mexicans, Asians, and corporate white America". It frequently vilified racial minorities and LGBTQ people and used a variety of slurs in referring to them. Scholars of extremism John George and Laird Wilcox said of WAR that: