8/24/08

Is There a Split Underway in the North American Secessionist Movement?

I recently stumbled across an interesting and confusing statement published on the web site of The League of the South. The statement in question is one short paragraph as an addendum to the announcement of The League’s 15th Annual National Conference. The byline to the post is, League Announces 15th Annual National Conference. There is no date attached to the post.

The statement in question reads:

“Additionally, the League announces its participation in the 3rd Annual North American Secessionist Convention, which is scheduled to be held in beautiful Charleston, South Carolina (emphasis mine) sometime this fall. More information about this event will be posted as it becomes available.”

It is common knowledge to those secessionists and secessionist organizations who attended last year’s 2nd Annual North American Secessionist Convention in Chattanooga that the 2008 Convention is slated to be held in Manchester, NH, November 14-16. Like others, I have paid for a flight to Manchester and accordingly reserved accommodation.

It strikes me that The League’s announcement that the location of the 2008 Conference will be in Charleston constitutes more than a simple typo. What gives?

There has been no follow-up announcement by The League, nor has there been offered an explanation by either The League or The Middlebury Institute, the organizing body of the Manchester convention.

Without some kind of official clarification, North American secessionists, in particular, those attendees who have locked into the Manchester convention, are left with only their political imaginations as to what might be going on.

Should this so very obvious contradiction for this year’s convention locations be an indication that there is a split forming in the North American secessionist movement, then the next question that begs to be answered is: Why?

Postscript, 29 August, 2008: It has been clarified for me by The Middlebury Institute that there had been an attempt to hold the 2008 conference in Charleston by a small faction allied with the LOS. This attempt failed, at which point the conference was slotted for Manchester. As of this date, the 2009 conference is slated for Charleston.

It could have been just as easy for the LOS to publicly make this correction and clarification as it was on their web site that the undated Charleston claim first appeared. If insinuations are dangled, then the reasons why they are dangled come into play.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous2/9/08 21:51

    In all sincerity, I don't know where I stand with the Novacadia, Vermont joining Quebec or Vermont seceding altogether, let's avoid the League of the South, please? Their connections with the American Nazi Party are dangerous and simply putting them in the same category as this state's secession movement is dangerous and damning for your political pursuits.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous3/9/08 04:31

    The underlying principle, as I understand it, is the acknowledgement and honouring of the wide political diversities that individual NAmerican secessionist organizations bring to the table. The one unifying principle is that of secession and, again, acknowledging the self-determination of small nation states. How politically correct they are, egalitarian, etc. is secondary. No one holds a monopoly on social perfection. This principle stems directly out of Leopold Kohr’s The Breakdown of Nations, a book that is held in high regard by NAmerican secessionists.

    Until such time as I have concrete proof of the claims made against the LOS, as opposed to second and third source accusations, I have no other option but to defer to the LOS’ own statement: “We believe that Christianity and social order require that all people, regardless of race, must be equal before the law. We do not believe that the law should be used to persecute, oppress, or favour any race or class. We believe that the only harmony possible between the races, as between all natural differences among human beings, begins in submitting to Jesus Christ's commandment to 'love our neighbours as ourselves.' That is the world we envision and work for." Personally, I oppose the religiosity of the statement, but as per above, who am I to say?

    What politically expedient measures will need to be taken in time remains to be seen. The situation/context seems to be shifting as is witnessed by the SVR’s recent distancing of itself from the LOS. As a relative newcomer to the NAmerican secessionist movement, I shall bide my time…carefully, I would hope. If there is a fray, I will discover for myself when I attend my first secessionist conference in November.

    It may interest you to know that I have sent an email to the Nation of Islam inquiring if they would consider “sending a delegation and/or a delegate to the Third North American Secessionist Conference.” It would be interesting to discover if the movement has the vision and the courage to even contemplate the creation of a black nation on NAmerican soil.

    ReplyDelete