December 17, 2009
Neo-Nazi Kevin McGuire of Bozeman, Montana, is trying to attract young people to the white supremacist movement by placing ads in student newspapers offering free music downloads from his Victory Forever Web site. According to the Web site, the purpose of the Victory Forever project is to disseminate "white resistance" music as widely as possible and to "recruit vast minions of White youth to become soldiers in the war for White racial survival."
Student Newspaper Incidents
In November 2009, Victory Forever placed advertisements in student newspapers in California and Indiana. Both ads, one appearing in the Lowell High School newspaper in San Francisco on November 13 and the second appearing on November 20 in the Carmel High School newspaper in Carmel, Indiana, advertised free music downloads from the Web site.
According to one of the student newspapers, the Victory Forever Web site originally included a page offering music by independent artists, including at least one African-American artist. However, between the time when the ads were purchased and when they ran, the site was apparently changed to its present, explicitly white supremacist form.
Fetch the Rope
Closely linked to the Victory Forever Web site is another Web site called Fetch the Rope. This site offers free full PDF versions of well-known white supremacist books such as The Turner Diaries by William Pierce, the late founder of the neo-Nazi National Alliance; My Awakening by David Duke, and The White Man's Bible by Ben Klassen, the late founder of Church of the Creator (now known as the Creativity Movement).
McGuire started the Fetch the Rope Web site in early 2008, picking a name seemingly designed to evoke lynching. "Fetch the Rope" was also the name of a song from the popular white power band Skrewdriver. According to McGuire, he chose it to be provocative and to appeal "to a certain type of person who is angry, aggressive, action-oriented and utterly disgusted with what society has become and feels nothing but contempt and burning hatred for those in power and their followers." He added, "It is also how I feel, personally."
McGuire debuted the Fetch the Rope Web store in April 2009, describing it as a not-for-profit venture. In August 2009, McGuire announced on Stormfront, the white supremacist Internet forum, that a Fetch the Rope "distribution CD" was now available, with 15 songs and two speeches. He set the price at $10 for 25 CDs, or, as he put it, "cheap enough to hand out to the neighborhood kids." In the Fetch the Rope Web store, one can also purchase Fetch the Rope business cards, swastika stickers, and a Fetch the Rope T-shirt.
Extremist Connections
McGuire, 27, has longstanding ties to the National Alliance (NA), and has been active in the white supremacist movement for years. Neither Victory Forever nor Fetch the Rope explicitly links to National Alliance or its record label, Resistance Records. However, on November 10, 2009, three days before the first Victory Forever ad ran in San Francisco, an Ohio NA member, Robert Ransdell, placed a newspaper ad for Resistance Records in "The Northerner," the school newspaper of Northern Kentucky University. This ad directed readers to the Resistance Records Web site and advertised music from white supremacist bands such as Skrewdriver and No Remorse. Ransdell stated on the Resistance Records message forum that he had tried to place an ad with the University of Cincinnati but failed. Because the ads placed by McGuire and Ransdell are similar and were placed in student newspapers within a very short time frame, there may be a link between the two.
A History of Trying to Reach Young People
McGuire has a previous history of using school newspapers to disseminate anti-Semitic and white supremacist rhetoric. In 2003, he wrote an editorial for the student newspaper of Santa Rosa Junior College, in California, where he was a student at the time. The article -- entitled "Is anti-Semitism ever the result of Jewish behavior?" -- claimed that "the Jewish war of genocide is being funded by us the American taxpayer...Each of us contributes directly to the Israeli holocaust waged against the people of Palestine, and we each personally purchase the hatred for America which caused the 9/11 attacks..." Not surprisingly, this piece drew substantial criticism from the surrounding Jewish community, as well as students and staff of the college. McGuire later moved to Bozeman, Montana, to attend Montana State University.
McGuire has attempted to draw attention to the white supremacist cause in different ways over the years, primarily by staging protests. In 2004, he organized a counter-protest of a Martin Luther King, Jr., Day rally in Bozeman that drew 13 individuals. On June 16, 2007, McGuire protested an adoption fundraiser in Bozeman organized by Sacred Portion Children's Outreach, holding a sign with the message, "Stop immigration, Keep America white." McGuire also protested in Butte, Montana, in April 2008, at a pro-Obama rally, holding a sign that read "America without ni--ers." In addition to his protests, he has distributed racist fliers in several Montana towns.
Like many other white supremacists in the past, McGuire has attempted to run for elected office. In 2005, he ran for a position on the School Board of Bozeman, Montana. He lost this election, receiving 157 votes, 3.6 percent of the total.