Some residents of LeClaire, Iowa, woke up on Thursday morning to find fliers from the National Alliance, a neo-Nazi group, on their lawns and driveways. The fliers distributed in the city of 4,000, located near the Quad Cities, were wrapped around rolled-up copies of Little Village magazine.
This is not the first time someone associated with the National Alliance has used copies of Little Village to help distribute their propaganda. In June, a different National Alliance flier, also wrapped around copies of Little Village, was thrown onto lawns on Iowa City’s north side. That same flier had already been distributed in the Wetherby Park neighborhood in January 2018, but that time it was wrapped around copies of Davenport-based River Cities’ Reader, a free monthly newspaper.
It should go without saying, but neither River Cities’ Reader nor Little Village has any connection to the National Alliance, beyond reporting on the hate group. But both are available for free, and add enough weight to allow the single-page fliers to be easily tossed into people’s yards.
The National Alliance is a white supremacist group founded in West Virginia in 1970. Explicitly racist and anti-Semitic, it has repeated called for the elimination of both Jews and racial minorities in America, and the establishment of an all-white homeland.
For decades, the National Alliance was considered one of the most dangerous white supremacist groups in the country, but over the last 20 years, it has largely fallen apart. The original leadership died, new leaders fought among themselves and its membership numbers collapsed. Currently, the group does little but sell white supremacist books and paraphernalia to its few remaining supporters.
At least one of those supporters lives in the Davenport area, and Little Village has been distributed in the Quad Cities since August 2018.
Offensive as the fliers are, it is not illegal to possess or distribute neo-Nazi or white supremacist propaganda.
A report issued in March by the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism documented a sharp increase in the distribution of white nationalist fliers, stickers, banners and posters during the previous year. “The propaganda, which includes everything from veiled white supremacist language to explicitly racist images and words, often features a recruitment element, and frequently targets minority groups, including Jews, Blacks, Muslims, non-white immigrants and the LGBTQ community,” the report stated.
The report found the number of 2018 incidents “far exceed any previous annual propaganda distribution counts.” There were 1,187 incidents reported nationwide, a 182 percent increase over the 2017 total of 421.
When the Anti-Defamation League issued the report, it cautioned that the report likely understated the extent of problem.
Update: On Monday, Sept. 30, a resident of Moline, Illinois, emailed Little Village to say the National Alliance fliers distributed in LeClaire last week had appeared in her neighborhood. Once again, they were wrapped around copies of Little Village.
Second Update: On Monday, Oct. 14, residents of Bettendorf contacted Little Village to say the same National Alliance propaganda, wrapped around copies of Little Village, had been distributed in their neighborhood.
