The Turner Diaries: A Marxist Review.

I just recently finished a rather notorious book known as the Turner Diaries, written by William Luther Pierce using the pseudonym Andrew Macdonald. To those who don't know, this is the book that has inspired various home-grown white terrorists to attack the US government, most famously Timothy McVeigh's attack on the federal building in Oklahoma City.

In one of J. Sakai's more powerful writings, "The Shock of Recognition: Looking at Hamerquist's Fascism & Anti-Fascism," Sakai makes many interesting remarks about who the real internal security threat to the US government is. It isn't communists, anarchists, liberals, black nationalists, Muslim extremists or Mexican immigrants. It is a type of white man, probably in his 20s or 30s, who might be attracted to books like the Turner Diaries. To quote Sakai at length:

The truth here is startling and it isn't in the least bit vague. The new fascism is, in effect, "anti-imperialist" right now. It is opposed to the big imperialist bourgeoisie (unlike Mussolini and Hitler earlier, who wanted even stronger, bigger Western imperialism), to the transnational corporations and banks, and their world-spanning "multicultural" bourgeois culture. Fascism really wants to bring down the World Bank, WTO and NATO, and even America the Superpower. As in destroy. That is, it is anti-bourgeois but not anti-capitalist. Because it is based on fundamentally pro-capitalist classes.

Obviously, rightist political views that touch on fascism are held by many white Americans. They're conditionally loyal to the government (and in the government) only because their level of prosperity and privilege is so high that why should they lift their faces from the trough? But if the u.s. capitalist class left it to a "democratic" vote of its white citizens, known fascists like David Duke would be in the u.s. senate, there would be no W.T.O. but also no Civil Rights Act, and much of America would proudly fly the Confederate flag of the slavemasters. The imperialist State's largest domestic security priority is not terrorism, the ghetto or the border as they pretend, but restraining and defusing white settler rebellion to the right.

When I read this piece a few years ago, it was these passages that stuck with me more than anything else Sakai wrote in his book review. While not everything Sakai writes is golden (Sakai admits in another article that he once believed AIDS was created by the US government to exterminate blacks in America), Sakai is generally a cut above anything you will find coming out of traditional "Left" circles of the White Nation.

As I hinted at in my first post on this blog, for anyone wanting to really screw with the US government, it would be men like Timothy McVeigh, who are attracted to material like the Turner Diaries, who form a base of people capable of engaging in terrorist attacks on the US government. While the first inclination no doubt would be for a hostile foreign power to reach out to Black Nationalists or communists, it is in my view, and the view of Sakai, that this would be an error. It is an understandable error, given the history of the United States, to assume that the US government ultimately represents the White Nation and its most fascistic elements. But this is not true, which is why there are thousands of white men like Timothy McVeigh in the United States, who have a deep, deep hatred of the US government.

How this radioactive element of the US population is contained is a story that is not told very often. Reading works like the Turner Diaries could give you a clue, but let me spell it out for the reader: the job of the mainstream 'Right' is to fool these people into thinking they have their interests at heart. This is why the term Cuckservative has gained some traction recently, even making it into the mainstream press. The mainstream 'Right' press openly discusses this problem, because they know the spreading of this particular meme speaks of the radioactive element of the US population leaking out of its container.

Just as it is the job of the Democratic Party and the Labor Bureaucreacy to keep the "Left" minded 'workers in line, so it is the job of the Republican Party and various 'Right'-wing organizations to contain this element of the White Nation. It is my hunch that a lot of Marxist-Leninist discourse on the National Question realizes the ultimate conclusions of a thorough-going Nationalist leads them to a type of socialism: a socialism for their nation. The Nationalist could only want the best for their People. That this type of thinking inevitably leads to a volkish socialism, except possibly in the advanced capitalist countries where imperialism yields enormous benefits to the entire population, seems obvious to me.

It is also why all the thoroughly Nationalist-minded revolutionaries of the undeveloped world turned to the Marxist-Leninist ideology in the first place. One of the architects of the Vietnam War, Dean Acheson, once remarked that "All Stalinists in colonial areas are nationalists." The authentic-Nationalists of the Oppressed Nations are ultimately forced to become Marxist-Leninists, if they truely give a damn about their People.

Skipping ahead in the Turner Diaries to the point where the Organization has taken over southern California, the operation was only possible because the Organization had infiltrated the military enough in the area to cause extreme confusion. One of the generals in Northern California also defected from the US government (called the "System" by Pierce/Turner). The figure of General Harding is a perfect representative of the type of 'Right' thinking man who tries to keep a lid on the radioactive element of the US population. The Organization sends some representatives to General Harding, in a bid to get him on their side:

"Revolutionary Command made the strictly practical decision to let General Harding carry the ball in his area, and our people were instructed not to oppose him. This had the effect of substantially reducing our own losses, although the military has actually suffered many more casualties in northern California than in the south. This is because Harding has failed to take sufficiently radical measures to consolidate his authority and to deal with Black military personnel.

When a delegation of Organization people went to Harding last month and suggested a joint Organization-military rule for northern California, with Harding’s forces handling defense matters and the Organization handling civilian matters—including police functions— Harding arrested them and has refused to release them. Since then he has been issuing idiotic proclamations about “restoring the Constitution,” stamping out “communism and pornography,” and holding new elections to “re-establish the republican form of government intended by the Founding Fathers,” whatever that means.

And he has denounced our radical measures in the south as “communism.” He is appalled that we didn’t hold some sort of public referendum before expelling the non-Whites and that we didn’t give individual trials to the Jews and race-criminals we dealt with summarily. Doesn’t the old fool understand that the American people voted themselves into the mess they’re in now? Doesn’t he understand that the Jews have taken over the country fair and square, according to the Constitution? Doesn’t he understand that the common people have already had their fling at self-government, and they blew it?"

Here ostensibly 'Right'-wing General Harding, who has just himself mutinied from the "Left"-wing US government, is calling the Organization a bunch of communists for utilizing "radical measures." The "radical measures" here is referring to the forced expulsion of blacks, Chicanos, and the murder of Jews and "race-traitor" whites. Pierce's mouthpiece Earl Turner no doubt sees the US government ("the System") as representing communism, but Harding turns the charge against them. Who is right, General Harding or the Organization?

Turner has much more to say about 'Right'-wingers in general. General Harding would fit into the mold Turner describes for them early in the book:

"Our present inability to recruit is a source of great worry to everyone. Rumor has it that there has not been a single new recruit in the Washington area in the last two months. During that time we’ve lost approximately 15 per cent of our strength. I hope conditions aren’t as bad elsewhere.

Of all the segments of the population from which we had hoped to draw new members, the “conservatives” and “right wingers” have been the biggest disappointment. They are the world’s worst conspiracy-mongers—and also the world’s greatest cowards. In fact, their cowardice is exceeded only by their stupidity.

The current conspiracy theory being circulated among conservatives is that the Organization is actually in the pay of the System. We are hired provocateurs whose job is to raise enough hell to justify the repressive counterrevolutionary and anti-racist measures the System is taking. If we would just stop rocking the boat, things would be easier on everyone. Whether they believe that theory or not, it gives them an excuse for not joining us."

General Harding becomes the ultimate coward, refusing to unite with the Organization to fight "the System," and using a 'conspiracy theory,' that the Organization is an expression of communism, as the excuse.

In another article I wrote for this blog, I point out that the 'Right' in the US is essentially split between pro-Israel and anti-Israel factions. There are fundamentally ideological issues here, such as whether or not Ashkenazi Jews are "white" people, and certainly religion plays a role here. Some of the most influential men in the American 'Right' act as go-betweens for the two factions. They seek to contain the radioactive element, even fooling it, into accepting the leadership of the mainstream pro-Israel faction. They will tell the minority faction whatever they want to hear about 'the Jews' behind closed doors, and get them to go along with whatever the larger faction, and ultimately the Republican Party, want. The Turner Diaries, in a sense, could be seen as a breakdown of this entire political process.

When playing on these national questions, the Turner Diaries is at its most powerful and explosive. An updated, 21st century version of the Turner Diaries would no doubt want to give greater attention to this aspect of American 'Right' politics. The people that become White Nationalists are usually too stupid to figure it out, and if they do, what they can even do about it.

The Turner Diaries is at its weakest when discussing international questions. The views of Earl Turner and General Harding are basically identical when it comes to the Soviet Union. The Organization, seemingly having lost all real concern for the immediate welfare of the 'white race,' decides to send nukes to the Soviet Union, simply to provoke a nuclear exchange between "the System" and the USSR for tactical purposes.

This weakness at analysing international questions is a reflection of the race-ideology of the White Nation. In the mind of American White Nationalists, 'nation' just becomes another word for 'race', or at best, a 'nation' is just a small subgroup within a 'race'. This is clearly reflected in Earl Turner, who laments that an "unknown number of millions of racial kinsmen in the Soviet Union" had to die for the plans of the Organization to succeed. From other passages in the book, it is clear Earl Turner sees the Soviet Union as another version of "the System." Earl Turner and General Harding both share the same disgust for communism. That the Soviet Union is nuked at the same time as Israel hints to the reader that Pierce ultimately sees the Soviet Union as essentially being another Jewish controlled "System." But then how would Pierce attempt to explain the extreme hostility of the Bolsheviks to Zionism, and the opposition of the USSR to the state of Israel? Pierce obviously wouldn't want to bog down his white readers with discussion of such questions, least it show his view of the international situation to be not much different from the General Harding types of the world.

Probably the most hilarious aspect of the book is its almost pornographic depictions of "System" support for miscegenation continually scattered throughout it. White Nation feminism, dominated in the mind of Earl Turner by Jewish women, has resulted in a situation where rape is basically not a crime anymore:

"Consider rape, for example, which has become such an omnipresent pestilence these days. It had already been increasing at a rate of 20 to 25 per cent per year since the early 1970’s until last year, when the Supreme Court ruled that all laws making rape a crime are unconstitutional, because they presume a legal difference between the sexes. Rape, the judges ruled, can only be prosecuted under the statutes covering nonsexual assaults.

In other words, rape has been reduced to the status of a punch in the nose. In cases where no physical injury can be proved, it is now virtually impossible to obtain a prosecution or even an arrest. The result of this judicial mischief has been that the incidence of rape has zoomed to the point that the legal statisticians have recently estimated that one out of every two American women can expect to be raped at least once in her lifetime. In many of our big cities, of course, the statistics are much worse.

The women’s-lib groups have greeted this development with dismay. It isn’t exactly what they had in mind when they began agitating for “equality” two decades ago. At least, there’s dismay among the rank and file of such groups; I have a suspicion that their leaders, most of whom are Jewesses, had this outcome in mind from the beginning."

This passage sets up the basis for the continuous theme of black men raping white women found all throughout the Turner Diaries. One could only laugh at it today, when it has become obvious to most that White Nation "feminism" is just as racist-minded as it ever was. One need only ponder over the hoopla surrounding the Hollaback catcalling video to see clearly White Nation "feminism" hates black men as much, if not more, than White Nationalists do.

That Pierce could actually imagine something like this being the case leaves one to question just how serious of a work the Turner Diaries is. One gets the impression it serves the function of leaders of the Confederacy telling Southern white men that their daughters will be marrying black men if the North wins. Perhaps Pierce thought such a thing would be necessary to motivate white men to violence with this book. Personally, I can't drop the suspicion that it only serves to mock the intelligence of his own readers who could believe such a thing would become possible.

One last aspect I want to touch upon is Earl Turner's praise for Black Nationalism. Despite Earl Turner ultimately being committed to a project of extermination all non-white people from the Earth, Turner still has respect for Black Nationalism:

"Besides the political vandals and the loonies, two other segments of the population have been playing an important role in recent events: the Black separatists and the organized criminals. Until a few weeks ago everyone assumed that the System had finally bought off the last of the nationalist-minded Blacks back in the ‘70’s. Apparently they’ve just been lying low and minding their own business, and now they see a chance to get a few licks in. Mostly they seem to have been blowing up the offices of Tom groups and shooting each other, but they organized a pretty good riot in New Orleans last week, in which there was a lot of window-breaking and looting. More power to them!"

Here Turner surprisingly expresses support for Black Nationalism. As the old saying goes, like is attracted to like, at least in this instance. While the passage is ambiguous enough to be interpreted simply as support for their disruptive activities, it seems clear to me Pierce/Turner is expressing support for Black Nationalism much the way the leaders of the KKK supported the efforts of Marcus Garvey back in the early 20th century. Seemingly, an authentic Black Nationalism would have prevented the situation Turner and white America finds itself in. A triumphant Black Nationalism would have created a separate Nation-State in North America, and blacks would be responsible for themselves, policing themselves, feeding themselves, etc. An authentic Black Nationalist ideology would create in the minds of black men (and women) a bond between themselves, leaving no thoughts of miscegenation in the black man or the black woman. This hints to the reader another vision of a war against "the System" could be imagined, one in where the White Nationalist and the Black Nationalist team up to destroy "the System" together, to live in peace in separate Nation-States, rather than the gory vision of the Organization necessitating the extermination of all non-white people.

There are some other things worth briefly mentioning. Mirroring the ideological fanaticism of Islamist Takfiris on the payroll of the US and Israel in Syria, Turner is converted into a quasi-religious group known as the Order by reading 'the Book,' the contents of which are never revealed to the reader. Pierce here is consciously suggesting what is needed is a White Man version of ISIS, complete with a religious ideology that will drive them to do things like commit suicide for the cause, which Earl Turner ultimately does by flying a plane over the Pentagon and dropping a nuclear weapon from low altitude. This ultimately reveals Pierce's own dismissal of White Nationalism as being enough to get the job done, which further lends credence to the idea Pierce does not take his readers seriously, much like Pierce's own tax-exempt Cosmotheism church scam.

The impact this book has had on the radioactive element of the White Nation should be consciously pondered over by all enemies of the US government. That Pierce himself doesn't take his readers seriously should encourage other enemies of the US government to consider writing their own version of the Turner Diaries, perhaps with a less objectionable ending. Poking the beast of White Nationalism will undoubtedly become a necessary strategy in order to bring down the US government, and implanting in these radioactive minds a vision of a White Nation-State living in harmony with the rest of the world would be a prudent thing to do.