Neo-Nazi group Traditionalist Worker Party plans to join anti-abortion activists in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Sunday to rally against the city's Women's March. The Knoxville Women's March is one of many marches being held in major cities across the country this weekend in protest to President Donald Trump's administration and sexism.
Because of their concerns about neo-Nazis showing up to the event in protest, the organizers of the Knoxville Women's March have changed the route for the march, and law enforcement will keep Women's March participants and those protesting them in separate locations, according to a KnoxNews report. There will also be a security screening where police will check bags, and no weapons or bottles are allowed.
Matthew Heimbach — a leader of the Traditionalist Worker Party — has arranged for the Traditionalist Worker Party to "take a stand for life, against the hordes of those who would empty the cradle of our nation," reports the Huffington Post. The Traditionalist Worker Party is a hate group that advocates for the creation of a white ethno-state.
In a post on the groups' website on Jan. 12, Heimbach wrote that they would take a stand against the feminist march and in support of the March for Life.
“As the defenders and advocates of women and our children, the Traditionalist Worker Party is taking a stand in Knoxville Tennessee on Sunday January 21st against the proposed feminist march and in support of the March for Life being held the same day," he wrote. "“Any movement that doesn’t defend the sanctity of life is not a movement worth having. If we are to build a free nation for our children, we must first secure life for our children.”
Heimbach told Newsweek he's expecting about 50 or 60 people to show up to join anti-abortionists in protest. Despite Heimbach's plans, anti-abortion activists with the group Tennessee Right to Life have already denounced joining with the Traditionalist Worker Party on Sunday.
“Any group or individual that promotes white supremacy or other dehumanizing world views, are not in tandem with the position of Tennessee Right to Life on the value of every person’s dignity and life,” Ed Albin, a Tennessee Right to Life leader, wrote in a Facebook post this week. “Our organization’s march has a single agenda to support the rights of mothers and the unborn, and we don’t agree with the violent agenda of white supremacists or Antifa.”
According to the Huffington Post, Antifa is scheduled to meet Heimbach in his group at Sunday's march in Knoxville. In a statement on the website It’s Going Down — a platform for anti-fascist activism — local anti-racist organizations, The Holler Network and Nashville Anti-Racist Action, explained their reasons for their plans to confront the Traditionalist Worker Party.
"The TWP and other white supremacist groups view Southeast Appalachia as an ideal region for a white separatist movement, and they prey upon rural and semi-rural areas to build their base. But their claims to Appalachia fly in the face of centuries of resistance to white supremacy and settler colonialism that are woven into these hills and rivers," the statement reads. "From indigenous resistance to militant maroon communities, to multiracial labor strikes and prisoner uprisings, to the very existence of tight-knit black and brown communities across these hills, we know Appalachia has never been and will never be their all-white vision — as long as we continue to resist. So join us! Bring your love, solidarity, and rage to Knoxville on January 21st and help us take this trash the f*** outta East Tennessee!"
