Montana Nazis fundraise for anti-abortion movement

by: Jay Stevens

Wed Jan 27, 2010 at 11:35:32 AM MST

According to a posting on a popular white supremacist website, Gaede said she's given to Hope Pregnancy Ministries in the past, and it is a good way to "help save White babies." She stated a fundraising mailing from the Ministries said a local donor would match all donations dollar for dollar.

Gaede's posting continued by saying she has "personally met many of these people" (Ministries' staff). She told her peers to tell staff members that they were supporters of Stormfront, the white supremacist website where Gaede made her request, when making a donation. She included the mailing address and website address for the Ministries. Gaede encouraged her fellow white supremacists to send funds, because "our local population is over 95% White so they would be pretty much guaranteed to be helping to save White babies."

Hope Pregnancy Ministries essentially set up fake medical clinics - which aren't staffed by medical professionals, but instead are created as lures to persuade pregnant women not to have abortions.

As the report points out, this isn't the first time that the anti-abortion movement and Montana white supremacists allied. Montana Right to Life endorsed self-identified Nazi state house candidate, Shawn Stuart. The organization later admitted Stuart shouldn't have been endorsed when it became clear that the National Socialist Movement supports "eugenic abortions for non-whites." MHRN:

In other words, the National Socialist Movement, like April Gaede and other white supremacists, only oppose abortion when it comes to "white babies." Otherwise, they support abortion and sterilization for women of color.

Given the views of Gaede and her peers, the Montana Human Rights Network has asked Hope Pregnancy Ministries to donate the money raised by Stormfront members to the Montana Indian Education Association.

We'll have to wait and see if Kalispell's pro-life community values fetuses of color as much as they do those that are white.

Update: Apparently saving white babies isn't the only item on Gaede's agenda: she's also interested in creating them.

National expert to discuss the resurgent right wing, tonight in Helena

by: Jamee Greer

Fri Nov 13, 2009 at 11:35:15 AM MST

Senior analyst at the Massachusetts-based Political Research Associates, Berlet will give a presentation titled "Obama, Right-Wing Populism, and White Rage:  How Race, Class and Gender Anxiety Fuel Demonization and Scapegoating."  Berlet said his presentation will examine how "racial fears, economic anxieties, and gender panics" are triggers of a right-wing backlash that targets the Obama Administration.  The Right, he continued, is mobilizing resentment among a large number of middle-class and working-class whites who are convinced to support efforts that go against their own economic self interest and defend existing power structures.

Mr. Berlet is co-author of Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort. He's written for the Boston Globe, New York Times, The Progressive and Amnesty Now, and blogs on the Huffington Post, and Religion Dispatches.  

Bill to require at least one American Indian on the Board of Pardons and Parole

by: Jamee Greer

Fri Feb 20, 2009 at 11:24:43 AM MST

This problem exists outside Montana's borders. Nationwide, a much higher percentage of American Indians are imprisoned, per capita, than any other ethnicity besides African Americans. In Montana, where American Indians comprise about six percent of the population, the numbers show a dangerously wide gap:

-In 2008, 19.5 percent of males and 27.1 percent of females in Montana correctional facilities were American Indians.?

-Those numbers are slightly down from 2007, but higher than 2006, 2005 and 2004.

-These numbers do not reflect the number of American Indians imprisoned outside of Montana, nor the number finishing sentencing outside of prisons and on parole or probation.

It must be made clear that the Network and our allies do not want to insinuate or draw the assumption that our current Governor, nor the leadership of the Board on Pardons and Parole or Montana Department of Corrections, are ignorant of the disparity or unwilling to work on remedying the great divide within our corrections system. In fact, current board membership includes three American Indians, or about 42% of the board. It should be duly noted that Governor Schweitzer's office stood in support of HB 591, and Indian Affairs Coordinator Jennifer Perez Cole spoke on its behalf.  Our greater concern, and the concern of Indian leaders who have fought hard for this bill for many sessions, is with who will make these appointments after our current leaders are gone.

Montana code (MCA 2-15-108) requires racial and gender parity on "all appointive boards, commissions, committees, and councils of state government." But parity is parity: there is no requirement that on a board of seven, any member is required to represent one of the state's largest minorities.

Perhaps in the 2009 Session this will finally happen.

Jamee Greer, a not-so-regular contributor at Left in the West, lobbies for the Montana Human Rights Network during the 2009 Legislative Session.