White Aryan Resistance (WAR)

Introduction

Yet another movement fomented by the notorious neo-Nazi Tom Metzger, White Aryan Resistance (WAR) capitalised on the rise of racist skinhead culture to quickly garner infamy amongst far-right networks. With activity largely consisting of the distribution of racist ideas using various forms of media, including a television series broadcast across local access cable networks, WAR acted as a conduit and central hub for radicalising young skinheads into racial violence.

This radicalising process led to tragedy in November 1988, after three WAR-associated skinheads beat Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian student, to death. This led to the incarceration of the murderers and a lawsuit being levelled against WAR by the Southern Poverty Law Centre on behalf of Seraw’s family. This lawsuit found Metzger at least partially culpable for Seraw’s death and resulted in a $12.5 million fine against Metzger’s estate, essentially gutting WAR.

Despite this catastrophic blow against WAR, Metzger continued to use the framework of the movement as a mouthpiece for his racism until his death on the 4th of November, 2020, due to Parkinson's disease.

History & Foundations

Whilst WAR rapidly gained notoriety throughout the 80s, its founder, Tom Metzger, had already earned a reputation as one of the leaders of racially based hatred in the US. A former member of the anti-communist Minutemen paramilitary group, Metzger joined the KKK in 1975 and was quickly anointed as the grand dragon of the California Knights of the KKK (aka KKKK) (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2025).

Metzger also had a particular affinity for recruiting younger radicals. Known as the "godfather of the racist skinhead scene" (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2025), Metzger regularly took young men under his wing and further radicalised them towards racism and neo-Nazism. For example, in 1979, Greg Withrow, a teenager from Northern California, generated controversy through his creation of the "White Students Union" at his high school. Metzger quickly got in contact with Withrow and developed a working relationship with the teenager, with the White Student's Union eventually becoming the Aryan Youth Movement (WAR's youth group) (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2006). 

Despite this concerted effort to further his career in the racist networks of the US, in 1980, Metzger and the leader of the KKK, David Duke, disagreed, leading to Metzger's separation from the group (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2025). Deciding to take a more traditional tack, Metzger instead ran for the US Congress Democratic primary and surprisingly won, with 33,000 or 27% of the votes; however, he lost badly to the Republican candidate in the general election after being disavowed by the Democratic Party (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2025). Despite this initial loss, in the long term, his run in the primaries solidified him as a key figure in the far right. 

Following his loss in the primaries, Metzger moved to leverage his newfound popular support and formed the White American Political Association, intending to push "pro-white" (white supremacist) political candidates. With this new backing, Metzger again attempted to run in the Democratic primary in 1982, but this time lost badly, leading to the ex-KKKK grand dragon returning to non-conventional political approaches (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2025). 

Moving away from mainstream politics, Metzger renamed the White American Political Association to the White Aryan Resistance, aka WAR. Using local access cable television, WAR quickly began broadcasting Metzger's racist TV show "Race and Reason", as well as disseminating WAR's monthly tabloid newspaper (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2025). WAR also ran a telephone hotline which disseminated racist information, and an electronic bulletin board to aid skinheads in finding and communicating with other skinheads (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2025). 

In September 1986, the Race and Reason TV broadcast garnered controversy after it aired an episode featuring an interview with Richard Barrett, a Mississippi lawyer (Turner, 1986). In the episode, Barrett espoused many openly racist ideas, even suggesting the return of racial segregation and separation. Due to legal restraints, the broadcast could not be pulled. Instead, the local access channel then ran a 90-minute-long call-in session following the episode's airing, where viewers could express their opinions on the episode's content (Turner, 1986). This led to 39 of the 40 callers protesting the episode's airing. 

With WAR officially founded, its real-world activity began to increase. From 1987 to 1988, WAR members carried out a campaign of harassment against the Arizona Anti-Defamation League and a series of synagogues in a similar era (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1988). Synagogues were also targeted with nazi/anti-semitic graffiti, egging, and a toy hand grenade was planted in a mailbox. 1987 also saw the growth of WAR in Las Vegas, and the eventual formation of a Las Vegas chapter (Federal Bureau of Investigations, 1988). Metzger's proclivity for recruiting younger members also continued, with teenage WAR Skinheads, led by Dave Mazella, attending a KKK ceremony in Modesto (Federal Bureau of Investigations, 1988). 

1988 saw WAR gain further notoriety both in the public eye and amongst law enforcement circles. Early in the year, an informant notified the FBI that WAR Skinheads were planning a "clean-up week" in San Diego starting around the first of August (Federal Bureau of Investigations, 1988). This "clean-up week" was supposed to consist of the mass slaughter of all minorities and "unwanted persons", but of course never went ahead. Shortly after this supposed "clean up week" was supposed to go ahead, on the 4th of November, John Metzger (the son of Thomas Metzger) made an appearance on a Geraldo Rivera's talk show titled "Teen Hatemongers" where he represented WAR (New York Times, 1988). After Metzger insulted a black guest, calling him an "Uncle Tom", a fight broke out on stage, leading to Rivera's nose being broken. 

1988 also saw Metzger and his son organise the first hate music festival titled 'Aryan Fest', with the event being advertised to skinheads (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2006). This festival, based in Oklahoma, led to Metzger and WAR gaining increased notoriety, with Metzger being invited to speak at numerous rallies and concerts afterwards. During this time, Metzger had taken to leading a group of skinheads on a tour around numerous US talk shows. Through time spent together on this impromptu tour, Dave Mazzella became close with Metzger, leading to his promotion to vice-president of the Aryan Youth Movement (WAR's youth section) (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2006). 

Unfortunately, this hateful bond led to bloody tragedy. Following Metzger getting word that skinheads in the north west were rapidly developing in strength and activity (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2006), the WAR leader sent Mazzella on a trip to Portland to contact a collection of skins known as the East Side White Pride (ESWP) group (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2025). Mazzella was given a letter from Metzger introducing himself, and Mazzella was instructed to arrange a phone call between Metzger and members of ESWP (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2025). 

Three weeks after Mazzella arrived in Portland, on the 12th of November, a skinhead from ESWP called Ken Mieske, and two others, murdered Mulugeta Seraw, beating the Ethiopian college student and father to death (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2006). In court, the three skinheads pled guilty to murder (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2025) and openly admitted they were followers of WAR (London, 1990). 

Whilst the skinheads who had committed the murder were placed in prison, WAR/Metzger went relatively unscathed by the tragic events they had clearly had a hand in perpetrating. WAR was allowed to continue operating relatively unobstructed until October 1990, when the SPLC and the Anti-Defamation League conducted a civil lawsuit against WAR for the murder of Mulugeta Seraw on behalf of his family (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2025). More specifically, Metzger was sued for inciting the attack through his promotion of violence against persons of colour (London, 1990), with these attitudes clearly spread to other WAR members, considering that following the murder, the first person Ken Mieske called was John Metzger (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2006). 

A jury agreed that Metzger was culpable, and a $12.5 million verdict was levelled against Metzger and WAR (London, 1990). Metzger lost his house, truck, and tools, and was forced to make monthly payments to Seraw's estate for 20 years, with WAR becoming bankrupt and essentially collapsing (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2025). The courts openly stated that the considerable monetary amount that WAR was charged had the objective of sending a message to the wider organised hate community (London, 1990). 

Despite this heavy blow to WAR's activities, Metzger continued to use the shell of the organisation as a mouthpiece for his hateful views (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2025). In January 1992, skinhead members of the Rhode Island WAR sent letters to at least 10 stores in the area, threatening to destroy stores that stocked 'Jungle Fever', and that the KKK would light burning crosses in front of the stores which failed to remove their stock of the film (The Associated Press, 1992). 

Despite this attempted resurgence, law enforcement bodies continued to suppress WAR's activities. On the 29th of August 1994, 18-year-old Richard Camps from Sacramento, California, and an apparent WAR follower, was found guilty of committing a series of firebombings (Reuters, 1994). These firebombings targeted the home of Jimmie-Yee, a Chinese-American Sacramento City Council Member, and the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. Whilst Camps was convicted of both of these attacks, the jury was deadlocked on his involvement in the firebombing of the Sacramento office of the National Association for the Advancement of coloured people, a local synagogue, and the Japanese American League (Reuters, 1994). 

By this point, WAR had been all but dissolved; however, in 2009, Metzger became implicated in a federal indictment (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2025). Dennis Mahon and Deniel Mahon were arrested after, in 2004, the twin brothers sent a mail bomb to the Scottsdale Office of Diversity and Dialogue, leading to three people being injured. In the indictment, it was claimed that the Mahonss had acted on behalf of WAR to "promote racial discord", with Metzger having known the brothers since the 80s (https://www.splcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/indictment.pdf_). The twin's connection to WAR was further exemplified by the fact that a few months before the bombing, Dennis Mahon had left a voicemail at the Diversity office stating that he was " Dennis Mahon of the White Aryan Resistance of Arizona" and that “The White Aryan Resistance is growing in Scottsdale. There's a few white people who are standing up. Take care.” (https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca9/12-10273/12-10273-2015-07-20.html). 

This voicemail instigated an undercover investigation into the twins by the FBI. Dennis Mahon actually tried to have the evidence from this undercover investigation thrown out, citing entrapment through the use of an attractive young woman as a honeypot (https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/5914afeeadd7b0493474fe37). This young woman told the twins that she knew of a child molester who was abusing a family member, and that she wanted to do something about it, to get the twins to show her how to commit acts of violence/revenge. However, Mahon showed this undercover informant how to build and plant bombs without being caught, and the twins themselves travelled to gun shows to buy components for bomb building (https://www.splcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/indictment.pdf_).

Due to these independent acts, including providing the informant with books on guerrilla resistance and racist ideology, attempts to have the undercover evidence thrown out were denied (https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/5914afeeadd7b0493474fe37). On the 24th of February 2012, Dennis Mahon was convicted of conspiracy, distribution of information about explosives, and using explosives to attack a building and was sentenced to 40 years in prison, whilst Daniel Mahon was acquitted on a single count of conspiracy (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2025). Court documents show that the ATF thought that the bomb used by the Mahons was very similar in design to those illustrated in literature sold by Metzger's website.

Metzger continued running the WAR website until he died on the 4th of November, 2020, of Parkinson's disease (León, 2020). 

Objectives & Ideology

WAR's core ideology was inherently violent/accelerationist, with WAR's FBI files all being marked "armed and extremely dangerous" (Federal Bureau of Investigations, 1988). For example, a 1990 WAR telephone answering service message stated, “We will put blood on the streets like you’ve never seen. And advocate more violence than both world wars put together" (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2025). WAR's primary objectives were the overthrow and collapse of the US government and the extermination of blacks and jews (Federal Bureau of Investigations, 1988). More generally, WAR aimed to create chaos through the generation of fear and the feeling of government ineptitude throughout the wider population, leading to citizens arming themselves and eventually turning on one another in a racially motivated civil war (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1988). 

In fact, WAR's violent and (attempted) anti-authoritarian rhetoric was an active effort to capture the first wave of racist skins that came about in the mid-80s. Metzger harnessed the Skinhead movement as a tool to perpetrate WAR's ideology, a pioneering move as previously skinheads hadn't been taken seriously by older racist leaders due to their unpredictability (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2006). For WAR, Skinheads were both the reason behind the group's violent ideology and the foot soldiers who would carry said ideology out. 

Of course, WAR also held massively racist attitudes. According to Metzger,

“Each WAR associate serves the idea that what’s good for the White European Race is the highest virtue. Whatever is bad for the White European Race is the ultimate Evil" (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2025).

These white supremacist ideas seeped into WAR's perspective on essentially every social issue, including abortion rights, which WAR opposed due to their apparent responsibility for the death of a generation of white babies (Turner, 1986). As with all neo-Nazi groups, white supremacism often went hand in hand with anti-semitism. For example, WAR's TV series, Race and Reason, regularly touched on the idea of deporting jews (Turner, 1986). WAR followers also regularly preached the "final solution" to Jews, being their extermination, with such sentiments being a common component of conversations between the group's members (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1988). 

Military/Political Abilities

WAR and Metzger himself were considered pioneers in racist activism. Metzger was one of the first heads of the white power movement to notice the importance of music and concerts as tools for the recruitment of young people (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2025). WAR's use of local access cable television and the WAR tabloid was similarly innovative, allowing Metzger to spread his ideas across the US even after the organisation had largely collapsed (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2025). 

In fact, WAR's activity was so notable that it was considered a priority for FBI investigations. In the group's FBI files, WAR are described as extremely dangerous with unlimited access to weapons and ammunition and a considerable pool of skinhead groups from which to draw manpower (Federal Bureau of Investigations, 1988). 

Approach to Resistance

WAR's self-titled tabloid was self-described as "the most racist newspaper on earth", and featured badly drawn racist and anti-semitic cartoons and articles (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2025). The newspaper also featured the Aryan Youth Movement's newsletter in an effort to capture a younger audience, especially skinheads (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2006). These younger recruits were to be used as the "shock troops of the coming revolution" (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2025), with these recruits being in turn tasked with the distribution of WAR pamphlets and posters at their local high schools and colleges (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2006). These recruitment tactics were a key component of Mazella's activity with the skinheads in Portland, who eventually went on to murder Mulugeta Seraw (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2006). 

The use of local access television broadcasts for the distribution of propaganda was another method largely pioneered by Metzger (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2025). In tandem with this tabloid was Metzger's TV series "Race and Reason", at its peak airing in 62 cities in 21 states (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2025). Episodes of "Race and Reason" were around 30 minutes long and featured interviews with ideologically relevant figures, filmed in a studio in Fullerton, California, that was legally required to offer such services to those who ask for them (Turner, 1986). 

Local access cable stations had to allow for local programming as a requirement. Metzger and, eventually, many other racist leaders were able to take advantage of this open gap and broadcast their own shows (Turner, 1986). For example, in Idaho, the Pocatello Human Relations Council was unable to block the Race and Reason broadcast because the agreement between the city and the cable company in the area forbade the exclusive use of the public access channel for advertising or pornography. This left a required gap that "Race and Reason" could exploit to be aired (Turner, 1986). Generally, cable franchises were required to provide a channel for public access, in some cases even requiring free maintenance of local production facilities, as derived from the 1972 Federal Communications Commission on cable TV.

Despite this strong central hub of information and propaganda/recruitment, WAR took on a loose/cell-based structure (Federal Bureau of Investigations, 1988). There was no official members list, no initiation process and no uniforms, a relatively novel feature of the organisation for its time (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2025). Following the lawsuit levelled at Metzger over the murder of Seraw, and the wider collapse/infiltration of far-right organisations by law enforcement, WAR began to promote the idea of leaderless resistance (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2025). At a 2004 skinhead rally at which Metzger was a speaker, the WAR leader said, “Don’t operate like a battleship. Operate like a Nazi submarine! Use your periscope! We have to infiltrate! Infiltrate the military! Infiltrate your local governments! Infiltrate your school board! Infiltrate law enforcement!” (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2006). Metzger doubled down on this stance following his implication in the actions of the Mahon brothers, stating that “Membership organisations are fraught with leaks and agents" (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2025). 

International Relations & Alliances

WAR developed extensive ties to racist, primarily skinhead, groups across the US. As noted throughout this article, Metzger made particularly close ties with racist youth groups in an attempt to recruit their members into WAR's ranks. These youth groups would often be encouraged to produce their own racist literature, with a particular emphasis on violent action encouraged within this literature (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1988). 

American Front, a skinhead group, was a particularly close relation to WAR. The first skinhead group to develop factions in multiple states, Metzger quickly reached out to the group's leaders and founded a working relationship (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2006). Whilst WAR was US-based, some international support was offered from Arab groups. This support was turned down due to the belief that the Aryan race must defeat its struggle without the support of others (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1988).

Bibliography

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