White nationalist recruitment posters began appearing on Kutztown University’s campus tonight as part of a nationwide campaign conducted by the white nationalist/alt-right group Identity Evropa. The group began posting pictures from their campaign on Twitter using the hashtag #ProjectSiege.
The flyers included pictures of ancient Greek statues overlaid with the slogan “Let’s Become Great Again” or “Serve Your People” and the group’s name. Pictures from other college campuses showed fliers with the slogans, “Our Future is Ours” and “Project Your Heritage.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, Identity Evropa was founded in March 2016 by Nathan Damigo, a former Marine corporal who first launched his brand of alt.right white nationalism on the campus of Cal State Stanislaus.
Damigo…is part of the so-called alt-right movement. Some experts who study extremism say he is emblematic of the young, web-savvy racists who are trying to intellectualize and mainstream bigotry. Damigo and others like him have set their sights in particular on college campuses, eager to take on hostile audience in hopes of getting their message across.
Northern California Anti-Racist Action noted in October 2016, that Domingo and his white-nationalist brainchild is very much focused on expanding a neo-fascist movement:
Damigo is interested in building a fascist movement, not just in popularizing images for online consumption through twitter. For instance, earlier this year Damigo and his circle of Neo-Nazis, white nationalists, and Trump supporters held a rally at UC Berkeley that was live-streamed by Red Ice Radio, an extremist, anti-Semitic media outlet. Damigo has worked on and off with Red Ice Radio in recent months. He reported for them at the RNC with fellow white supremacist Richard Spencer, and spoke with them at the American Renaissance conference, a gathering that presents fascist and racist ideas as ‘scientific’ and ‘biological’. All of this signals the beginnings of a new fascist movement- one that incorporates many different groups, seeks to ride the coattails of the Trump campaign, and has the potential to build something much more lasting and destructive.
Emboldened by Donald Trump’s election victory and Domigo’s broader connections to the alt.right (e.g. neo-fascist, racist, white nationalist) movement, Identity Evropa’s #ProjectSiege has made its way to Pennsylvania. This is a troubling, yet not unexpected development mirroring a national trend.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center annual report, “Intelligence Report,” Pennsylvania has the fifth highest number of hate groups in the country, including a known Ku Klux Klan chapter in Bally, PA – just a half-hour drive from Kutztown University’s campus.
Here are some of the pictures posted to Twitter earlier today.
