One of those groups was Identity Evropa, now rebranded as the “American Identity Movement.” Discord is an online platform used primarily by video gamer players because it allows them to talk with each other while playing video games. In recent years however, it has become a favorite platform for the Alt-Right, and was used heavily to organize the Unite the Right rally that led to the death of Heather Heyer on August 12th, 2017.
One of the central organizers of the Unite the Right rally, was none other than CSU Stanislaus student, Nathan Damigo, who is now implicated in a lawsuit stemming from the racist event. Richard Spencer, one of the most notorious white nationalists in the US who was supposed to speak at the demonstration, said of Damigo: “I’d love to take credit for it [Unite the Right], but it was more Nathan.”
But by the time that Unite the Right took place, Damigo was already well known on the Turlock campus, as he had made headlines for leading Identity Evropa, putting up flyers and posters around campus, and also attacking a young woman in Berkeley at a demonstration on April 15th, 2017. In response, CSU Stanislaus students organized a series of protests, demonstrations, and disruptions of school events to push for Damigo to be removed. The response, or lack thereof, from the CSU administration was deafening, and the campus refused to expel Damigo, much less admit that there was active Alt-Right organizing happening on campus.
After Unite the Right, Damigo wrote in the Discord chats that Alt-Right, neo-Nazi, and white nationalist student organizers should follow his example and not be afraid. – it’s not like the school administration would come after them. He wrote:
“I still haven’t been kicked out…,” says Nathan Damigo of CSU Stanislaus.
After Unite the Right and continued pressure from students, Damigo took a series of online classes and quietly graduated. However, he wouldn’t be the last student at CSU Stanislaus to become part of Identity Evropa.
Christopher Thompson
On January 13th, Christopher Thompson, posting as “Chris N,” announced himself to the Identity Evropa server. He wrote of himself that he was 18, a good student, an orchestral violinist, that he even went to Harvard for a summer semester when he was 16, and now – was majoring in finance. (Photos of Christopher’s Harvard ID were later posted by @BerkeleyAntifa on Twitter.) He complained about the students around him, how non-white CSU Stanislaus was, and that his father made too much money for him to apply for assistance. Thompson said he was “red-pilled,” (brought into the Alt-Right), like many other young men, through watching YouTube videos by white nationalists like Jared Taylor and others.
There is! Hmmm, this is probably pretty significant. Christopher Thompson says he was celebrating his birthday on January 22 with his family. pic.twitter.com/NgtwsZvhHy
Christopher Thompson’s mother also seems to have been celebrating Chris’s birthday on that very same day! Coincidence? Here’s her Instagram post. Note this also includes the Harvard ID that Chris mentions he still owns elsewhere on Identity Evropa’s private chat server. pic.twitter.com/6EhtRg85L9
Thompson also said that while at CSU Stanislaus he was keeping his head down, especially since the campus was already known to be associated with IE activity after Damigo’s tenure. But Thompson went on to state that he was in fact already a member of the student government and was planning to run in the April elections. Thompson stated his goal would be to “cut funding” to “diversity and multiculturalism” events. By this he means; anything not having to do with the “white race.”
He wrote:
Christopher Thompson, Student Leadership Council
Christopher Thompson, on right.
To find Christopher Thompson from “Chris N,” antifascist researchers first looked at Chris’ first clue he left us: that he was in student government. Being that there are few men that were on both the elected student government and the appointed Student Government Leadership Council (SGLC), we had a good idea that “Chris N” was the “pretty recognizable” redhead that looked 18.
After verifying and checking with students on campus, we soon learned that “Chris N” was in fact, Christopher Thompson on the SGLC, which is described as a “10-week introduction and leadership development program…[to] get hands on experience working with ASI Student Government.”
Antifascists then cross checked Thompson’s classes that he complained about within the Identity Evropa discord chat logs and compared it to the current course book on the CSU Stanislaus website, easily finding it was indeed a match with an Environmental Law class.
After corroboration from sources on the campus who also IDed Thompson going into the same class, we were certain that Thompson was in fact “Chris N” from the Identity Evropa logs. However, there was more evidence: the fact that Thompson was running for office.
In the Discord logs, Thompson stated twice his intention to run for office and then use his position to defund and strip away money for groups made up of students of color. We were able to verify with students and staff on campus that Thompson was indeed running for the office of director of the college of business. On April 15th, The Signal, the CSU Stanislaus student newspaper, ran an article on the candidates, listing “Christopher Thompson” as one. The question now is: how will students respond?
CSU Signal article that mentions Thompson running for office.
Why Is Stan State Silent?
Directly after the Unicorn Riot Discord logs went online, the SGLC page on the Stan State website went down, showing a 404 – Page Not Found error message, while another page was soon linked. But while other student government pages featured bios and photos of student leaders, the SGLC, the student group that Christopher is a part of, simply featured a photo.
As news of the Discord leaks grew and newspapers and press outlets around the country began to report on Identity Evropa organizers infiltrating everything from police agencies, the military, to political parties, CSU Stanislaus stayed quite and refused to put out a statement, even alerting students of Christopher’s intentions to “defund” their campus organizations if elected.
This lack of transparency and accountability has been the MO of the campus administration since Identity Evropa/AmIM first began putting up Alt-Right flyers and stickers there in 2016. First the campus denied that Damigo was putting up materials. Then, as a deflection, they stated that he was “being investigated,” when in reality, this was in reference to the events in Berkeley on April 15th being looked at by police, who of course did nothing. When students rallied and demanded Damigo be expelled, the campus refused to acknowledge that he was even putting up stickers and posters, while the entire campus knew otherwise. Some teachers even invited Damigo, who became a white nationalist after reading David Duke’s autobiography in prison when doing time for carrying out a hate crime against a cab driver, into their classrooms to debate.
In 2019, another member of Identity Evropa and a non-student was even stopped while putting up stickers and posters in broad day light, and the campus refused to release his name to the public.
Despite a constant stream of declarations about “diversity” and being an inclusive campus, the administrators of CSU Stanislaus have done nothing to alert a student body made up largely of students of color, about an organized racist threat that is using CSU Stanislaus as a place to organize out of and in fact, who’s members have even been put into position of power.
If students sit by and do nothing, they may even help elect one.
Anti-fascist mobilization against fascist convergence in Berkeley on August 27, 2017. Banner reads, “Avenge Charlottesville. Defend your communities.”
As mainstream media coverage of the anti-fascist struggle has skyrocketed over the last year, we’ve noticed that questions surrounding it have largely been confined to concern over a narrowly defined free speech. This has been accompanied by numerous, sometimes deliberate, misrepresentations. While narratives of violence have tended to be over-represented in accounts of anti-fascist and anti-racist organizing, reporting on the alt-right has been the opposite, downplaying the violence inherent to the recently re-energized white nationalist movement. Because clashes in Northern California between anti-fascists and white supremacists have captured so much media attention over the last year, we feel it necessary to place these incidents within their proper context. Continue reading →
This article is the first in a two part series examining California organizations that are connected and affiliated with the Republican Party, and have increasingly demonstrated a pattern of promoting and pursuing fascist and neo-Nazi politics under the cover of promoting the GOP.
Introduction
Earlier this year, NoCARA shared some of its research on the Berkeley College Republicans (BCR) weeks before an event in which the student club would host Milo Yiannopoulos at UC Berkeley. The event, planned for February 1st, 2017, was successfully cancelled and disrupted by university students along with the local community. Our previous research exposed the Alt-Right leanings of a handful of the club’s members and associates in an attempt to illustrate the fascist creep that was infecting the campus.
This process of the fascist creep, or the increasing integration and legitimization of fascist political positions within mainstream discourse, has continued with the aid of institutions including media outlets, GOP-linked organizations, and even the University of California itself. Resistance to the far-Right’s attempts to advance their vision of inequality persists, and we hope this expanded look at BCR will aid those engaged in antifascist work.
Leader of Berkeley College Republicans is also a big fan of Sellner, and wrote about his brand of white nationalism in Alt-Right paper. pic.twitter.com/bUeoFLbH3v
While BCR members have been profiled in local media such as Berkeleyside and bigger outlets like the New York Times, these articles have largely served as no more than superficial puff pieces that simply frame BCR as innocent victims of overaggressive Leftists or ‘antifa.’ Lacking in these journalists’ work is any serious attempt to understand why BCR has caught the attention of antifascists, as well as what role the club plays in mainstreaming white supremacy in the era of a Trump presidency. This piece will attempt to outline how BCR maintains one foot in the world of traditional mainstream conservatism while keeping the other in the world of far-Right organizing and fascist violence.
“Some of the most red-pilled people you’ll ever meet in your life.” – Kyle Chapman referring to BCR in an interview with InfoWars at Sproul Plaza, 9/27/17
“…[S]ome of the club members who supported Worden told him they were “national socialists,” a term often used by neo-Nazis…” – The Mercury News, 10/28/17
BCR members Anthony Limon, Troy Worden, Claire Chiara, and Jose Diaz. Limon is wearing a Radical Agenda shirt. Radical Agenda is operated by Christopher Cantwell, aka the “Crying Nazi.” Cantwell is the violent white supremacist and anti-Semite known for his participation in the Charlottesville, VA rally on August 11-12 as documented in this VICE News video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P54sP0Nlngg
Throughout 2017, BCR has made various connections to far-Right individuals and groups, including members of the Alt-Right movement responsible for organizing the deadly rally in Charlottesville, VA last August. Most of the club’s associations with these far-Right activists are made through Troy Worden, who has filled the role of President of BCR for most of 2017. Even after his removal from the group by way of an internal coup, Worden still has kept close with other BCR members, and attended a talk by anarchist and antifascist author Mark Bray in Berkeley in November, along with various other BCR members, including Vice President Naweed Tahmas. Clearly, despite Worden being voted out as the President, he still has a leadership role within it as a member, as evidence by the fact that other members of BCR who support him literally self-identified themselves to news media as actual National Socialists, or, neo-Nazis.
The following list details the growing connections between BCR and other formations, organizations, and individuals within the far-Right, the Alt-Right, and Alt-Lite.
Keith Campbell aka kpikklefield
Keith Campbell of El Cerrito, CA is a member of the Oath Keepers, a patriot militia organization who has livestreamed from many right wing events in Northern California throughout 2017. When BCR and others attacked a BAMN meeting at UC Berkeley for instance, Campbell tagged along to document it.
Campbell has encouraged right wing violence and promoted it using his social media pages. Other times, Campbell has used social media to doxx and harass and antifascist and Leftist activists. His desire for violence caught up to him at the August 27th rally in Berkeley where he was confronted by demonstrators.
Campbell is well networked into the local and regional far-Right and Alt-Right scene, following a variety of neo-Nazi, Alt-Right, and white nationalist accounts, despite his attempt to distance himself from white nationalism when he was interviewed by Reveal. Only several months later however, he was back on the streets, supporting Patriot Prayer in Portland, Oregon, on November 4th.
Keith Campbell (center, black baseball hat) with Troy Worden behind him as they and a group of others attack a BAMN meeting at UC Berkeley
Some examples of Keith Campbell’s tweets threatening violence. On the left, he is discussing a young African-American who was attacked at Unite the Right.
Daniel Quillinan
Daniel Quillinan is a fascist living in Berkeley associated with BCR. Quillinan has engaged in violence at rallies in Berkeley and is close to Kyle Chapman. On social media, Quillinan constantly posts racist and violent content, including discussions of weapons. Politically, Quillinan comes from a ‘reactionary Libertarian’ perspective that seeks to make common cause with neo-Nazis and members of the Alt-Right, by way of in his words, attacking ‘anti-racism.’ Quillinan is also a mainstay at BCR meetings and events, as well as street demonstrations. In September, Quillinan was a part of a group that also included BCR members that attacked and disrupted a BAMN meeting on the UC Berkeley campus.
BCR’s David Craig (center) and Daniel Quillinan (right) on Sproul Plaza
Naweed Tahmas (left) and Daniel Quillinan (right) among a group that attacked a BAMN meeting at UC Berkeley
Daniel Quillinan wearing a shirt bearing the image of fascist dictator, Augusto Pinochet.
Charles Murray
Charles Murray is the author of 1994 book, The Bell Curve, widely known as a pseudoscientific attempt to legitimize racism by arguing that intelligence potential is biologically linked to race. Though Murray’s claims have been debunked, his book remains a staple among the Alt-Right, white supremacists, and growing amounts of ‘average conservatives.’ Troy Worden describes Murray as “one of the most stimulating conservative intellectuals out there.” Murray visited BCR at UC Berkeley in April.
Troy Worden’s caption describes debunked white supremacist Charles Murray as “one of the most stimulating conservative intellectuals out there.” A comment on Worden’s Instagram post says “racial differences in IQ are real”
“Tiny [Joey’s second in command] reached out to me and called me up over Facebook and said, ‘You know, I support [IE] and what you do,” Von Ott said.
Von Ott added that Toese told him IE members were “the only people that actually were up front the entire time along with the Street Preachers. The Oath Keepers just sat back—in his words—with their fancy gear and stayed in the back the whole time.”
Gibson traveled to Berkeley with others for the rally on April 15th, where members of BCR were also in attendance. Patriot Prayer has continued organizing events in Berkeley in August, September, and November. BCR members participated in every one of these rallies, and Gibson’s events in September coincided with the so-called “Free Speech Week,” organized by members of BCR.
During that week of actions, BCR members spent considerable time with Joey Gibson. On September 27th, Troy Worden was at Pappy’s in Berkeley having drinks with Joey Gibson and members of Patriot Prayer as well as Kyle “Based Stickman” Chapman and members of the Proud Boys. The night before, Troy Worden traveled with the same group to have drinks at Forbidden Island Tiki Lounge in Alameda. For more information on Joey Gibson and his own ties to the fascist movement, see Rose City Antifa’s article here.
Kyle Broussard (Seattle, WA) of Patriot Prayer getting aggressive with black students at UC Berkeley during “Free Speech Week”
Joey Gibson and Ashton Whitty (BCR) stand together on Sproul Plaza 11/11/17
Troy Worden’s night out in Alameda with Kyle Chapman, Patriot Prayer, and Proud Boys during “Free Speech Week”
Proud Boys
The Proud Boys, a Alt-Lite group with links to the Alt-Right and white nationalists, have attended all of BCR’s major 2017 events in Berkeley, starting on February 1st for the Milo Yiannopoulos failed speaking event. BCR members have also in turn been seen with members of the Proud Boys at these events.
The Proud Boys, founded by Gavin McInnes, describe themselves as “Western Chauvinists,” and the group does include token people of color and queer folks, who they frequently point to in order to claim they are not racist while advancing implicit white nationalist politics. At the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, various members of the Proud Boys were present, along with their ‘military’ division, FOAK, or the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights, and even the event’s organizer Jason Kessler was a member of the Proud Boys himself.
Back in the bay area, members of the Proud Boys were seen at the Ben Shapiro talk put on by BCR, as well as all of the Alt-Right, far-Right, and Alt-Lite demonstrations which were also attended by BCR members over the past several months. In October, Troy Worden even made an appearance on Gavin McInnes’s show.
Proud Boys at UC Berkeley for BCR and Ben Shapiro
BCR VP Naweed Tahmas with Proud Boys during “Free Speech Week”
“Free Speech Week” group photo includes BCR members, Martin Sellner of Generation Identity (a white nationalist group), Brittany Pettibone of AltRight.com (run by Richard Spencer), Kyle “Based Stickman” Chapman, and Proud Boys
Ashton Whitty with Proud Boy Chad Lanyon while livestreaming in San Francisco on November 4 at a Refuse Fascism rally
Kyle “Based Stickman” Chapman
Gabriel Brown, Unite the Right attendee + member of neo-Nazi 'Anticom,' poses here with buddy Kyle "Based Stickman" Chapman in #Boston. pic.twitter.com/LGMS0ts2um
Since Chapman’s rise to prominence in far-Right circles, he has attempted to mainstream white nationalist talking points such as ‘white genocide,’ worked openly with Alt-Right figures like Augustus Invictus (a Unite the Right speaker), and helped to promote neo-Nazi groups like Rise Above Movement (RAM). Chapman’s group FOAK was also very prominent in Charlottesville, VA during Unite the Right on August 12th, and his own Facebook page featured a livestream from the event, though Chapman has since deleted the video. Chapman has even gone so far as to call for a return to lynching, called a black Trump support the ‘n-word,’ and told him that he would “have fun slapping those blue gums out your cock holster.”
Kyle Chapman has also worked with BCR and been seen with them on several occasions. Aside from their time together with Joey Gibson already mentioned above, Chapman spoke at a Make Cali Great event with BCR’s Troy Worden, (here Chapman claimed whites were being wiped out and railed against Muslims), and they were seen together at the California GOP convention as well as other events in the Bay Area. As with other Alt-Right and far-RIght figures, the connection between BCR and Chapman show how the campus club has their feet both in fascist street movements and in institutional politics.
Chapman chums it up with Jason Kessler, the man who would go on to organize the neo-Nazi ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville.
Ashton Whitty and Kyle Chapman
Troy Worden and Kyle Chapman
Image from neo-Nazi Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA. In the center is Augustus Invictus, who was at the time Chapman’s co-leader of the Fraternal Order of Alt Knights or FOAK. Chapman still remains at the head of the group, and you can see Chapman’s “V” shield logo worn by the Alt-Right protester in the foreground.
Red Elephants
The Red Elephants is a pan-far-Right media group based in Southern California. The organization has known ties to the neo-Nazi group, Rise Above Movement (RAM), which includes members of the Hammerskins neo-Nazi skinhead gang, and has promoted and encouraged violence carried out by this group on several occasions.
To watch live streams of the Red Elephants is to be hit with a barrage of references to neo-Nazi memes and code words, from the “14 words,” to how awesome David Duke is. Unsurprisingly, earlier in 2017, Ashton Whitty of BCR started working for Red Elephants, livestreaming events in Northern California. Disqus wrote:
This past Friday the neo-Nazi propaganda group The Red Elephants announced the expansion of its coverage in the San Francisco Bay area with the addition of Ashton Whitty. She is a student activist at Berkeley who works with the Berkeley College Republicans and the Berkeley Patriot. She has also collaborated with the Leadership Institute’s propaganda group, Campus Reform. She has been given the epithet Patriot Barbie by her neo-Nazi fans.
The Red Elephants typically creates videos catering to fascists and white supremacists, livestreaming from events such as the neo-Nazi rally, Unite the Right in Charlottesville, VA on August 12, as well as the neo-Nazi White Lives Matter rally in Tennessee, and many events in Berkeley. Members have also been seen on streams disseminating white supremacist propaganda such as Holocaust denial. For more information on the connection between white supremacist groups and The Red Elephants, see NoCARA’s previous research here.
Ashton Whitty livestreaming at UC Berkeley for The Red Elephants on September 7, 2017. In this video, Ashton announces she is officially taking over for Rick Write and will be livstreaming from Northern California for RE
Ashton Whitty in BCR shirt with Rick Write of Red Elephants and Colin Duke making a livestream video for the white supremacist channel. Spoiler alert: They never managed to infiltrate any antifa group
Rick Write livestreaming for Red Elephants from inside a BCR meeting on UC Berkeley campus
Lauren Southern
Lauren Southern is a far-Right and Alt-Lite activist from Canada. She recently became known for joining the fascist group Generation Identity for their “Defend Europe” media stunt along with Brittany Pettibone from California, who writes for AltRight.com, a website run in part by Richard Spencer.
While onboard the ship, Southern shot flares at a boat containing refugees. Lauren Southern has traveled to Berkeley on multiple occasions to join BCR at various events and also livestream. The students were seen with her during the April 15th rally, and she also came to the university campus for BCR’s Ben Shapiro event and their “Free Speech Week,” and has been seen taking various group photos with members of BCR both during street actions and while on campus tabling.
Lauren Southern with BCR on Sproul Plaza 4/14/17
Lauren Southern with BCR outside Ben Shapiro event
Martin Sellner and Generation Identity
Martin Sellner is a leader of Generation Identity, a fascist and white identitarian group based in Europe, who gained notoriety for being the primary organizer behind the failed “Defend Europe” publicity stunt.
Sellner is from Austria and visited Berkeley during BCR’s “Free Speech Week” where he was seen with Troy Worden, Kyle Chapman, and Lauren Southern, while spending time with girlfriend, Brittany Pettibone. Generation Identity recently started branches in the UK and Ireland, and may be looking to bring their movement to the US, where it has also inspired groups such as Identity Evropa. Worden himself has also written glowingly of Generation Identity, claiming that white Identitarianism is able to succeed whereas neo-Nazi groups in the US generally fail.
Troy Worden with Martin Sellner during BCR’s “Free Speech Week”
Kyle Chapman takes a selfie with Martin Sellner and Brittany Pettibone during BCR’s “Free Speech Week”
Francois Marion and the American Freedom Keepers
Francois Marion and his organization American Freedom Keepers have been at several far-Right events, including in Berkeley and Washington DC. The American Freedom Keepers are described as a militia group, and even attended the neo-Nazi Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. Because of this, both Marion and his organization are listed among the defendants in a lawsuit from the City of Charlottesville and other plaintiffs due to Marion’s “illegal paramilitary activity” at the Charlottesville, VA rally on August 12th. The group is connected with the Berkeley College Republicans.
For instance, on August 27th, Marion picked up BCR member Ashton Whitty from MLK park in Berkeley during the cancelled “Rally against Marxism.”
Ashton Whitty in the back of Francois Marion’s car after he picked her up from MLK park on August 27, 2017
Nathan Damigo and Identity Evropa
Nathan Damigo is the founder of the fascist and white supremacist organization Identity Evropa. Damigo and his organization were among the primary organizers of the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, VA in August where Heather Heyer was murdered and many more were injured. Before that rally, Damigo and supporters participated in the April 15th rally in Berkeley where Damigo was caught in a viral video punching an antifascist woman in the face. Nathan Damigo has also been linked to BCR repeatedly.
At the April 15th rally, BCR member Jack Palkovic was seen meeting with and shaking Damigo’s hand. Damigo had already been spending time with BCR and developing a relationship with the group as early as January 2017. On January 20th, BCR allowed Damigo to join them at their table on Sproul Plaza to celebrate the inauguration of Donald Trump, where they did an interview with him on a conspiracy theory and white supremacist internet show, Red Ice TV.
Nathan Damigo standing to the right of Troy Worden at BCR table Sproul Plaza 1/20/17
Nathan Damigo and Naweed Tahmas on the neo-Nazi channel Red Ice TV
Nathan Damigo and Matt Ronnau on the neo-Nazi channel Red Ice TV
Damigo also attended the Milo Yiannopoulos event at UC Davis on January 13th to recruit for Identity Evropa and showed up to UC Berkeley on February 1st to do the same thing until he saw the anarchist black bloc, which made him physically remove himself.
Nathan Damigo and Jack Palkovic of BCR shaking hands at April 15 rally in Berkeley
BCR has attempted to bring Milo Yiannopoulos to UC Berkeley twice in 2017, first on February 1st and again in September for “Free Speech Week.” Both of these events were disastrous failures due to the group’s own organizational contradictions and disorganization compounded by resistance from antifascists.
BCR continues to support Yiannopoulos despite the fact that he is known to have made comments supporting pedophilia and leaked emails show that he worked directly with white supremacists to popularize the Alt-Right while working at Breitbart.
Milo also attacked BCR and their front group, the Berkeley Patriot, claiming it was their fault that Free Speech Week fell apart. During Free Speech Week, a wide variety of neo-Nazis, white nationalists, Alt-Lite, and Alt-Right trolls hit the streets, and BCR and Troy Worden blanketed the Berkeley campus with homophobic and racist messages, posters, and slogans. The atmosphere of fear was compounded by Alt-Right attacks and harassment against left-wing bookstores, homeless encampments, and the beating of a man of color on Telegraph Ave.
Troy Worden and Naweed Tahmas attempted to infiltrate an anti-Milo organizing meeting before BCR’s failed February 1 event
Ashton Whitty, Troy Worden, and Naweed Tahmas attend author Mark Bray’s talk at UC Berkeley on November 13th and attempt to troll the event.
“The grassroots arm of the Republican Party” – College Republican National Committee
As we have just shown, BCR maintains several connections to the Alt-Right and white supremacists, both locally and elsewhere. Some of these connections are directly responsible for violence done in the name of those white supremacist ideologies to which they adhere. This indicates the obvious fact that BCR holds a place in the Alt-Right ecosystem, especially as they connect a neo-fascist street movement to the club’s credibility and connections through the mainstream conservative apparatus, which in turn means the ability to organize events and access to vast amounts of taxpayer money. Guess big government doesn’t suck!
This puts BCR in the position to normalize Alt-Right politics on campus and within the broader conservative constituency, facilitating the process of the fascist creep. Below we point out the institutions backing BCR even as they cater to the Alt-Right and violent fascists behind the scenes.
Naweed Tahmas leading the pledge of allegiance at the California Republican Party Convention
Matt Ronnau (BCR) with Roger Stone, long time Trump operative.
American Freedom Alliance and Geert Wilders
On May 21, BCR members were guests at the American Freedom Alliance’s “2017 Heroes of Conscience Dinner” event. The Southern Poverty Law Center has reported on the American Freedom Alliance’s 2016 and 2017 conferences and their promotion of extreme anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim views. Indeed, the keynote speaker at the 2017 dinner was Geert Wilders, pictured with BCR executives Troy Worden and Matt Ronnau. Founder and leader of the Dutch Party for Freedom, Wilders gave a speech in which he advocated for an end to immigration from Islamic countries and a ban on mosques. Wilders then ended his speech by saying that if Muslims in the Netherlands “start acting like Sharia law,” they will be “sent packing.” BCR members can be seen clapping throughout in a video of the speech on YouTube.
BCR were guests at hate group American Freedom Alliance’s event
Troy Worden with Geert Wilders at American Freedom Alliance event
Matt Ronnau getting an autograph from Geert Wilders at American Freedom Alliance event
Young America’s Foundation (YAF)
The Young America’s Foundation (YAF) is behind BCR’s Ann Coulter, David Horowitz, and Ben Shapiro events in 2017, though only one of those actually happened as planned. YAF is funded in part by the affiliated organization the Leadership Institute (LI), and both organizations together receive millions from entities such as the DeVos Foundation, the Charles Koch Foundation, and the F.M. Kirby Foundation. Seems these ‘enemies of globalism,’ are funded by billionaires and have deep ties to the Trump administration and GOP.
Troy Worden with UKIP’s Nigel Farage at YAF’s National Conservative Student Conference
In 2015, YAF spent over $8 million to sponsor conservative speaking events on college campuses. However, YAF and LI don’t limit their political engagement solely to paying for college speaking appearances. These organizations have trained conservative activists for decades. Young Republicans that have come from this training have gone on to become prominent GOP politicians, including Vice President Mike Pence, Mitch McConnell, and Karl Rove. In short, despite advancing theories that the left is backed by people like Soros, the reality is that groups like BCR are much more in bed with billionaires and segments of the status quo than anyone.
LI also funds Campus Reform, a conservative meets Alt-Lite publication which members of BCR have worked for. Aside from working with the Alt-Right friendly BCR, YAF itself has had its own internal connections to the white nationalist movement. Current YAF board member James B. Taylor also served as the Vice President of the National Policy Institute (NPI) as late as 2007. NPI is a white nationalist think tank currently headed by infamous neo-nazi Richard Spencer. When Taylor was VP, NPI published “The State of White America 2007,” which called Brown v. Board of Education “arguably the worst decision in the Court’s 216-year history,” as noted by Political Research Associates.
Troy Worden works for the Leadership Institute’s Campus Reform
College Republican National Committee and the Republican Party
As part of the College Republican National Committee (CRNC), BCR functions as part of “the grassroots arm of the Republican Party.” The CRNC trains young Republican students to prepare them to become the future leaders of the conservative movement and sees the activism it offers to members as being a gateway into the Republican party. The CRNC’s website features a resume bank section where members can apply for jobs including working for politicians and think tanks.
Former BCR member Claire Chiara was one of the youngest members of the California delegation at the 2016 Republican National Convention where she supported Trump and she also ran for California State Assembly that same year. At the 2017 California GOP Convention, a far-Right group of College Republicans called Rebuild CCR, led by “Milo Yiannopoulos ally” Ariana Rowlands, won control of the California College Republicans. Troy Worden from UC Berkeley is a part of this group, and now serves as Administrative Vice Chair. In other words, the alt-right hasn’t infiltrated the party, the alt-right is becoming the party.
Rebuild CCR using Trump’s campaign language
UC Berkeley and the City of Berkeley
Both UC Berkeley and the city of Berkeley have spent millions of dollars to protect BCR and their Alt-Right friends as they engage in their political activism and organizing. UC Berkeley has responded to antifascist resistance on their campus by bending over backwards to accommodate BCR in the name of a crisis of free speech.
UC Berkeley chancellor Carol Christ has declared this “the year of free speech” on campus and has waived thousands of dollars in venue fees so BCR could host Ben Shapiro in Zellerbach Hall in September. While the far-Right has cried “free speech” in order to force their hateful views into the national conversation, UC Berkeley has obliged them, citing the campus as the home of the free speech movement. Despite their so-called defense of free speech, the university cancelled a student-led class about Palestine in late 2016 and cancelled a talk by Dr. Anna Tsing on September 25th, organized by the university’s anthropology department, so they could lock down the campus to accommodate BCR’s “Free Speech Week,” despite the fact that the anthropology event was scheduled far in advance of the BCR event.
At the same time, Carol Christ and Berkeley mayor Jesse Arreguin continue to urge people to stay home and not protest against the far right when they come to antagonize and attack the local community.
But despite a new club president, Troy Worden is still a member of BCR and no other leadership changes have been made. Nor has BCR or its members created distance from the Alt-Right or denounced any of the far-Right and white supremacists discussed above. However, it is clear that internal contradictions and outside pressure are having an effect. This should continue.
BFFs 4ever? Troy Worden and Bradley Devlin
Jack Palkovic is not happy with Bradley Devlin
Additionally, this problem is not unique to UC Berkeley. President of the Washington State University College Republicans, James Allsup, resigned after being identified as a tiki-torch carrying participant in the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville. Despite this, Allsup continues to be a major player within Alt-Right, white nationalist, and neo-Nazi circles, where he has been arguing against some factions of the Alt-Right, that the movement needs abandone street demonstrations and enter into the world of electoral politics and begin to run candidates. On November 30, Allsup was re-elected as president of WSU’s College Republicans, however others within the group claim that this was dismissed on the grounds that Allsup isn’t a student. Regardless, Allsup, like the members of BCR, shows the incredible space and room that the Republican Party will give to openly neo-Nazi, Alt-Right, and white nationalist ideas.
Moreover, white supremacist groups like Identity Evropa will continue to try and recruit on college campuses, while also making inroads into college Republican groups. As the fallout from Unite the Right continues and as the 2018 election race draws closer, a larger segment of the movement will go back towards attempting to engage in entryism, either by following Bannon or trying to pass undetected in the Republican party. Antifascists should continue to research local fascists and their connections, and take strategic action to stop the fascist creep on their college campuses and in their community.
The Berkeley College Republicans (BCR) have invited Milo Yiannopoulos to speak at UC Berkeley [1] as a stop on his so-called “Dangerous Faggot Tour” on February 1st, 2017. Milo has gained a fair amount of infamy in recent years, currently has a lucrative book deal, and writes for the far-Right online publication Breitbart, whose former editor, Steve Bannon, is now currently Trump’s top advisor. Continue reading →
Nathan Damigo’s seemingly meteoric rise to media prominence with his white supremacist activism under the banner of Identity Evropa would not be possible without the emotional and material support of his family before and after his release from prison in 2014. Nathan currently lives with his family on a 5 acre compound in Oakdale, located in Stanislaus county, California. Continue reading →
Andrew Ferguson and Kilian Glish, 1st and 3rd from left. Two members of the fascist and white supremacist group, Identity Evropa, and former members of the DKE frat in Michigan. Shawn Mccaffrey is pictured 2nd from the front right, and is another Michigan resident.
A building for DKE in Michigan. The fraternity included members who are part of Identity Evropa, some even serving in leadership positions.
This report focuses on Identity Evropa members and their alt-right network in Michigan, some of which are former members of the DKE fraternity. Delta Kappa Epsilon for centuries has been a prestigious frat for wealthy, bougie, and well connected spoiled brats, and boasts a total of 5 former members who have gone on to become POUS. For more information on Identity Evropa in general and their membership outside of Michigan, see our last report, Identity Evropa: Mapping the Alt-Right Cadre. Continue reading →
The combined money from all IE members trust funds could bail out half of students with loan debt. Identity Evropa (IE) members at the National Policy Institute gathering in Washington DC.
Several weeks ago, the National Policy Institute (NPI) held its annual conference in Washington DC, which ended with NPI head Richard Spencer declaring, “Hail Trump! Hail our people! Hail Victory!” as people in the audience threw up their arms in fascist salutes. While images of white supremacists Sieg-Heiling went viral online, it did nothing to stem the tide of media spotlight that the mainstream bestowed upon Spencer. After the conference, white supremacists on the podcast, “Intersectional Alt-Right” with Andrew Anglin (of The Daily Stormer) and Jazzhands McFeels discussed the event and talked about how a gap was widening between the “older vanguard” (like Jared Taylor of American Renaissance and Peter Brimelow of V-DARE) and the “new generation,” (headed by Richard Spencer and many others who grew out of the Alt-Right subculture of Neo-Nazi podcasts and memes). But another key player was emerging: Identity Evropa. Continue reading →
The Berkeley College Republicans have invited far-right agitator Milo Yiannopoulos to speak at UC Berkeley on February 1st.
Given the recent increase in fascist activity both on and around the UC Berkeley campus, we feel that the university’s willingness to provide a platform to Milo Yiannopoulos and his views is unacceptable, and we intend to shut this event down. We are inviting all allies and the Berkeley community to join us in making UC Berkeley a fascist-free zone. Continue reading →
Recently, the president of CSU Sacramento called up the president of CSU Stanislaus, a campus located in the Central Valley town of Turlock, CA. The CSU Sacramento president, Dr. Robert S. Nelsen, was concerned and angry after discovering that a white supremacist group, Identity Evropa (IE), had pasted up a series of posters promoting themselves around the campus. Continue reading →
Print off these (8.5×11 & 11×15) posters and post them up wherever you see white nationalists encroaching. Put them up anywhere else you see fit to demonstrate that there is a growing movement opposing the fascist threat. While we think it is crucial for you to take part and please distribute these posters with us, we also encourage you to take precaution, go postering with a buddy, and look out for one another. Making a plan and committing to safe practices are important while we move forward and work to end fascism. Continue reading →
In March of 2019, the independent and non-profit news organization Unicorn Riot released the latest set of chat logs from a variety of white nationalist, Alt-Right, and neo-Nazi groups – many of which organized the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.
One of those groups was Identity Evropa, now rebranded as the “American Identity Movement.” Discord is an online platform used primarily by video gamer players because it allows them to talk with each other while playing video games. In recent years however, it has become a favorite platform for the Alt-Right, and was used heavily to organize the Unite the Right rally that led to the death of Heather Heyer on August 12th, 2017.
One of the central organizers of the Unite the Right rally, was none other than CSU Stanislaus student, Nathan Damigo, who is now implicated in a lawsuit stemming from the racist event. Richard Spencer, one of the most notorious white nationalists in the US who was supposed to speak at the demonstration, said of Damigo: “I’d love to take credit for it [Unite the Right], but it was more Nathan.”
But by the time that Unite the Right took place, Damigo was already well known on the Turlock campus, as he had made headlines for leading Identity Evropa, putting up flyers and posters around campus, and also attacking a young woman in Berkeley at a demonstration on April 15th, 2017. In response, CSU Stanislaus students organized a series of protests, demonstrations, and disruptions of school events to push for Damigo to be removed. The response, or lack thereof, from the CSU administration was deafening, and the campus refused to expel Damigo, much less admit that there was active Alt-Right organizing happening on campus.
After Unite the Right, Damigo wrote in the Discord chats that Alt-Right, neo-Nazi, and white nationalist student organizers should follow his example and not be afraid. – it’s not like the school administration would come after them. He wrote: 
Christopher Thompson, Student Leadership Council
Christopher Thompson, on right.
Thompson bottom, second from left.
Thompson on left.
Antifascists then cross checked Thompson’s classes that he complained about within the Identity Evropa discord chat logs and compared it to the current course book on the CSU Stanislaus website, easily finding it was indeed a match with an Environmental Law class.
After corroboration from sources on the campus who also IDed Thompson going into the same class, we were certain that Thompson was in fact “Chris N” from the Identity Evropa logs. However, there was more evidence: the fact that Thompson was running for office.
CSU Signal article that mentions Thompson running for office.
In 2019, another member of Identity Evropa and a non-student was even stopped while putting up stickers and posters in broad day light, and the campus refused to release his name to the public.
