Minutemen's new name reflects changed organizing tactics

By HC116, May 7, 2005

Toward the end of April, Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist left Arizona before the completion of the Minuteman Project. The Minuteman Project's volunteers were placed under the "auspices" of Civil Homeland Defense Corps (CHDC), led by Chris Simcox, according to the Associated Press. CHDC volunteers themselves participated in the Minuteman Project as well led other Minuteman Project volunteers. Chris Simcox is a co-founder of the Minuteman Project.

According to the former CHDC's web site, the Civil Homeland Defense Corps' name has been changed to "Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, Inc." (MCDC). This apparent merger of the Minuteman Project and the CHDC is symbolic of the CHDC's strong leadership role within the Minuteman Project as well as the CHDC's long leadership role in border vigilantism in Arizona.

The CHDC tried to start similar campaigns to the Minuteman Project before Jim Gilchrist offered help, but they were all "duds" according to Mayor Ray Borane of Douglas, Arizona, one of the towns where the Minutemen were present.(2) The Civil Homeland Defense Corps has played a pivotal role in recent fascist activism and action on the Arizona-Sonora border, and now the CHDC, under the new name of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, is spreading to other States in the united $tates and supporting other organizations, such as the Kalifornia Friends of the Border Patrol.

The MCDC is not the only border vigilante organization currently active in Arizona. There are also the American Patrol and Ranch Rescue, accused of assaulting suspected undocumented migrants. Ranchers outside these two organizations have detained and killed suspected undocumented migrants in the past. The American Border Patrol has been more transparent than the Civil Homeland Defense Corps and the Minuteman Project about its anti-Latino migrant sentiments, going further than attacking just Latino "illegal immigrants" by attacking Latino migrants in general. But compared with American Border Patrol leader Glenn Spencer, Chris Simcox has been more willing to have volunteers carry firearms and use a militia.(3)

In 2000, vigilantes in Arizona distributed a brochure in Douglas, "Neighborhood Ranch Watch," inviting "volunteers to come to ranches along the border 'and help keep trespassers from destroying private property. Be a part of the American Way Team.' . . . The brochure invites volunteers to set up their RVs on border ranches and to bring CB or ham radios, halogen spotlights, signal flares, sirens, infrared scopes or glasses to watch for night movements and trip wire flare launchers"--technologies the Minuteman Project has used.(4) Ranchers weren't the only vigilantes before the Civil Homeland Defense Corps. Border vigilantism has been going on at the Arizona-Sonora border for decades. Fascism expressed its counterrevolutionary character in the form of Thomas Vincent Posey's Civilian Materiel Assistance (Civilian Military Assistance), which fought with the Contras against the Sandinistas and then got involved in detaining alleged undocumented migrants--and "terrorizing" them according to one of the CMA's own members.(5) The CMA called itself a neighborhood watch program. Vigilantes still call themselves neighborhood watch programs up to this day. It's an old ploy. The "secure the border" movement's pretense of political neutrality and concern for combating terrorism is bogus, too. Ranch Rescue leader Jack Foote is known for "strong anti-government sentiments, claims of 'Socialist' media conspiracies."(6)

Civil Homeland Defense Corps leader Chris Simcox's recent emphasis on reporting sightings of suspected undocumented migrants and not "engaging" them is tactical only. Aside from its own "Standard Operating Procedures" leaving open the possibility of "tracking" and "containing" in future "missions," the CHDC has itself reportedly detained suspected undocumented migrants before, and the CHDC has repeatedly called for u.$. military troops to be placed on the u.$.-Mexico border. Fascists and other white nationalists have for years been calling for the military to seal the border further.

Criticizing President Bu$h for supposedly being apathetic about the migrant "invasion . . . a hostile takeover" and critical of the Minuteman Project--even though Bu$h will probably sign the supplemental spending bill including the REAL ID Act (the final version of which was passed by the House last Thursday)--the American Patrol declares: "If America is to be saved, Americans must save it. . . . It is up to us."(7)

Fascists are typically a motley mishmash ideologically and full of eclectics, whim-worshippers, and other pre-scientific types, each with their own reactionary selfish interests. They vary in their orientation toward cooperating with the federal government and the media and disagree on other matters. Not surprisingly, the Minuteman Project volunteers have reportedly divided into multiple groups "with each announcing its own California border watch."(8) "Project co-founder James Gilchrist said he expects the groups to operate independently yet simultaneously, some under his endorsement and the Minuteman banner. . . . 'The Minuteman Project is more like a master marketing tool,' Gilchrist said. 'We are allies, but not as merging partners.' "(8)

Whether this is more a matter of strategy (a conscious policy of decentralization) or necessity isn't clear at this point: Gilchrist and Simcox might prefer that the leadership be more centralized. However, the assorted white nationalists making up the Minuteman Project have divided into factions, and "Gilchrist and two other Minuteman leaders have recently been quoted swapping barbed comments about each other."(8) Jim Gilchrist has admitted to having disagreements with fellow Minuteman Project founder Chris Simcox. On Hannity & Colmes , April 18, 2005, Alan Colmes pointed out "rumors that [Simcox] and co-founder Jim Gilchrist, that's the two of you, are not seeing eye-to-eye on the direction of the project. And that Mr. Gilchrist is leaving 10 days early."(9) Simcox said he wasn't leaving himself. Responding to the part about the rumors, Gilchrist said: "There is no distinction between Chris and I other than we have different opinions about the media. That's all."(9) Colmes: "What are your differing opinions?" Gilchrist: "We won't go there. I like you and he doesn't." But Simcox said: "I don't think that's something we should be talking about, but Jim and I -- there's no need for both of us to be monitoring this situation now. Civil of homeland defense will take over a continuous effort of monitoring the border. Jim is going to take phase two, Minutemen Project phase two and start implementing that on the interior where we're going to be -- have Minutemen protesters picketing employers who are hiring illegals and see if we can't make an effort, some impact there."

Publicly, Gilchrist and Simcox want to minimize their differences. However, on May 6, Express-News reported that "[t]he movement's two top leaders are working separately with splinter groups, and not all of the groups necessarily embrace the strict controls on volunteers established by Minuteman organizers."(10)

" 'There are no ties,' Gilchrist said this week. 'If we did anything else together, it would be as allies, not partners. I support his goals, but I'm weary of his management capabilities.' . . . Numerous Arizona participants, including organizers, said Simcox's dictatorial ways — he became known as 'The Little Prince' and 'The Little Hitler' — angered countless volunteers, prompting many to quit."(10)

Now, the Press-Enterprise reports that "Simcox said his group, formerly Civil Homeland Defense, has been renamed Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, and he plans to grant franchise status to other groups modeled on the Minuteman Project. He plans California border watches in June and October, he said."(8) This would allow the decentralized leadership of the Minutemen to present the appearance of unity

However it organizes itself, whatever face it puts on, this movement is fascist and must be stopped

Despite its "Hispanic" mouthpieces, its token Black and indigenous members, and its pretense of opposing "supremacy groups . . . no matter what their race," this whole "secure the borders" vigilante movement is fascist in character. It is has roots in chauvinist fears about an economic decline of the country, and openly appeals to fears about cultural mixing and the decline of predominantly white AmeriKKKa. It puts white nationalism on the same footing as oppressed-nation narrow nationalism. It equates white racism with oppressed-nation racism. It spreads confusion by equating fascism with racism and then waving around cracker wannabes like Andy Ramirez and Henry Esparza in order to prove it's not racist because it has a few nation traitor friends from the internal semi-colonies. Still, it portrays Latino migrants as innately violent people and sex offenders, and anti-"democratic." It pays lip service to going after businesses that employ undocumented migrants--and wrongly suggests only those businesses benefit from undocumented migrant proletarians' labor--but opposes removing the undocumented status that makes the migrants vulnerable to minimum wage and other labor violations in the first place. It has no fundamental disagreement with either capitalism or imperialism and has the support of imperialists like Congresspersyn Tom Tancredo, Senator Wayne Allard, DemoKKKrat John Kerry, and Kalifornia Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and many others. In fact, it obscures imperialism by representing the united $tates as a country oppressed by Mexico. It seeks to increase the harsh and inherently violent repression of undocumented migrant proletarians and to spread terroristic fear among would-be migrants. It openly panders to police and military personnel and defends those, such as Army Reservist Sgt. Patrick Haab, accused of detaining at gunpoint undocumented migrants. It calls for the government to militarize the border and make it more repressive and deadly than it already is. It pays lip service to opposing "big business," but it is deeply hostile to communism.

Jim Gilchrist and and the Civil Homeland Defense Corps have openly worked with virulent white nationalists such as Fred Elbel and Mike McGarry. The mainstream media identified them as "spokesmans" for the Minuteman Project. What the media did not say is that Fred Elbel and Mike McGarry are both directors of the Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform. CAIR advocates "for the rights of future generations of Americans" and opposes immigration in general. "We need a population policy that protects the interests of future generations!"(11)

The vigilante movement is backed to the hilt by the labor aristocracy and increasingly more imperialists, some of whom went to Arizona to meet the Minuteman Project. The elements of the labor aristocracy that oppose the Minutemen and measures like the REAL ID Act do so mainly on pragmatic and tactical grounds. Kalifornia Assemblypersyn Lori Saldaña criticized the Minuteman Project but "called on the governor to support more funding for the U.S. Border Patrol, introducing a petition asking him to support 'trained, professional law enforcement officers' that would be 'the best way to provide a safe and secure border for everyone.' "(12) The vigilante movement and the larger wave of repression against undocumented migrant proletarians appeals to, and draws its lifeblood from, the most chauvinist and reactionary elements of AmeriKKKan society. The Minuteman Project has trained its volunteers to dupe the gullible mainstream media about their intentions at the border (and even a couple of supposed "Indymedia reporters" named Walt and Jessica). The Minuteman Project has opposed fascism in words, but it has done everything, short of using undisguised racist language, to appeal to the fascists of Amerika and just encouraged the fascists who inevitably joined the Minuteman Project to hide their fascist language and in other ways convert to crypto-fascists.

The "vigilante" movement has the support of the labor aristocracy, including unionized Border Patrol agents. Bu$h verbally opposed the "vigilantes," and the "vigilantes" judge Bu$h for not being ruthless enough toward undocumented migrants, but the vigilantes unite with Bu$h on measures to reinforce and further the repression of undocumented migrants. The labor aristocracy's fascist activism and action dovetails with the imperialists' already harsh and lethal repression of undocumented migrant proletarians. Demokrat support for the Minutemen, recently embodied in John Kerry's reportedly lauding "the success of the Minuteman Project during a meeting with co-organizer Chris Simcox in Washington D.C," shows that the social base of fascism in the united $tates is broad, far-reaching, and not limited to the Bu$h clique.(13) The conditions do not yet exist for internal fascism on a large scale in the united $tates, but the incipient fascism targets the undocumented proletarians and the lumpen proletariat, not the petty-bourgeois Amerikan labor aristocracy. There must be resolute and militant opposition to the fascist activism and action on the u.$.-Mexico border. The various parasites, from the labor aristocracy to imperialists, who support the heightened repression of undocumented migrant proletarians must be exposed and their fascist movement against migrant proletarians defeated.

(14)

Notes:

1. Rick Murray and Chris Simcox, "Minuteman Civil Defense expands south and north; DHS' Chertoff to visit Cochise County," http://www.civilhomelanddefense.com/

2. "Group of private citizens plan to patrol the Mexico-US border in April to deter illegal immigrants from crossing into this country," National Public Radio (NPR), Morning Edition 10:00 AM EST NPR, March 23, 2005, transcript.

3. "Leaders of two citizen patrol groups feud over methods," Associated Press, March 27, 2003.

4. Arthur H. Rotstein, "Vigilante recruiting brochure aimed at deterring illegal crossers sparks protest," Associated Press State & Local Wire, April 26, 2000.

5. Nadine Epstein, "Border Patrol gets unwanted vigilante aid," Christian Science Monitor (Boston, MA), July 10, 1986, 1.

6. Thomas Korosec, "Soldiers of Misfortune : Ranch Rescue finds its welcome mat withdrawn," Houston Press (Texas), September 18, 2003.

7. "It Is Up to Us Now : Bush Attacks Loyal Americans, Ignores Challenge to Sovereignty," May 5, 2005, http://www.americanpatrol.com/05-FEATURES/ 050505-BUSH-SIDES-WITH-INVADERS/050505_Feature.html

8. Sharon McNary, "Minuteman splinter groups plan California border patrols," May 7, 2005, http://www.pe.com/breakingnews/local/stories/ PE_News_Local_D_border07.a2699.html

9. FOX HANNITY & CO 9:00 PM EST, April 18, 2005, transcript 041801cb.253.

10. Hernán Rozemberg, "Minutemen bordering on chaos," May 6, 2005, http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/ MYSA050605.1A.minuteman_texas.2478721ef.html

11. http://www.cairco.org/info/faq.html

12. "Rally rips governor's citizen-patrol nod," May 7, 2005, http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20050507-9999-1m7border.html

13. http://www.civilhomelanddefense.com/

14. aymara, "arizona dreams (photos)," April 29, 2005, http://sandiego.indymedia.org/en/2005/04/108609.shtml

The owner of these hands appears in a picture with Jim Gilchrist.