Women’s groups around the country are gathering again this weekend to recognize the anniversary of the Women’s March, a nationwide mass protest that became the largest demonstration in U.S. history.
Now white nationalist snowflakes say they plan to protest a women’s march in Knoxville, Tenn., causing organizers to change the march’s original route and beef up security.
As USA Today reports, the counterprotest is being planned by the Traditionalist Worker Party, a group the Southern Poverty Law Center describes “as a white nationalist group that advocates for racially pure nations and communities and blames Jews for many of the world’s problems.”
Founder Matthew Heimbach posted on TWP’s website Friday about plans to protest the Knoxville march.
“We call all local Party comrades to assemble in Knoxville to take a stand for life, against the hordes of those who would empty the cradle of our nation, and to march for the lives of our unborn,” Heimback wrote.
In the post, titled “Pussyhats and Pitchforks,” Heimback also specified the dress code (white supremacist casual?) and invited all “comrades in good standing” to a cookout:
We will be assembling at noon on Sunday the 21st and will be active for several hours. All comrades should be in uniform, if possible (or at least solid black with no pre-approved flags, symbols, or accessories), and be prepared for cold weather. Traditionalist Worker Party comrades in good standing are also invited to attend a meeting, cookout, and oath ceremony outside of Knoxville on Saturday the 20th.
Not invited: seasoning.
TWP also plans to join the March for Life in Knoxville, an anti-abortion march organized by Tennessee Right to Life that’s also scheduled to take place on Sunday.
But as USA Today reports, the director of the Knox County Chapter of Tennessee Right to Life, Stacy Dunn, for reasons that should be fairly obvious, says her group does not condone white supremacist beliefs.
They, too, are working with the police on a safety plan.
Last year’s women’s marches were a direct response to the election of Donald Trump, a man whose current record of racist, sexist and xenophobic behavior exhausts word-count limits. Since his election, white nationalists and neo-Nazi groups have felt more comfortable coming to the fore, creating their own marches and loudly demonstrating against other groups.
The most prominent example was the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va. The August 2017 protest drew white nationalists and neo-Nazi groups from around the country, leading to violent clashes with counterprotesters and bystanders that resulted in one death.
Read more at USA Today.