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Update: Matthew Heimbach of the Traditional Worker Party has announced the conference section of the event will now take place on private land on Friday, although the rally in Downtown Pikeville is still scheduled to take place. In this video, Heimbach states that the conference will feature guest speakers from the TWP, the National Socialist Movement, the neo-Nazi web forum “Iron March,” and several guests from neo-Nazi groups in Europe. Heimbach also states that there will be a “private” event on Saturday, April 29th, most likely a swastika and cross lighting, perhaps held on the same land that the conference will be held on which is also where many people are camping. The leader of the TWP goes on to state that neo-Nazis must reclaim May Day, a holiday held to remember anarchist martyrs in the labor movement, from “the Left.” He goes on to state that National Socialism promotes cross-class alliances and ‘reclaiming’ May Day is an attempt to present National Socialism, aka, neo-Nazism, as a movement ‘for the workers.’

There’s a long history of outsiders coming into the hills and hollers of Appalachia to exploit our communities at great costs to the people who live here and the land they live on. From the day that European colonists first set foot on these mountains and unleashed unspeakable violence against the indigenous people’s whose land this really is; to the coal barons who have extracted untold wealth from beneath the ground and left us with nothing but black lung, poisoned water, mountains reduced to rubble, and one of the highest rates of poverty in the country. From the Confederate Army trying to force Appalachia’s self-sufficient farmers to defend plantation slavery, to the Federal government’s War on Poverty and it’s attempt to assimilate us into mainstream Yankee culture.

We are faced once again with a group of parasitic outsiders coming in to prey upon our communities. On April 28th and 29th, flatlander Mathew Heimbach and his neo-Nazi outfit the Traditional Workers Party, straight out of Indiana, plan to come to the heart of coal country in Eastern Kentucky in an opportunistic attempt to recruit this poor, predominately white community, into his racist nightmare of an all white ethno-state. These hateful scumbags hope to exploit the poverty and misery created by the ruthless greed of King Coal, and recruit us into being the foot soldiers for their genocidal worldview.

To the Nazis, white nationalists, and alt-right vultures: we will not be that easily fooled. You are just like every other carpetbagging swindler that’s come into our communities from outside telling us how to be. We ain’t buying your snake oil racism and your cheap fascist trinkets. KEEP THE HELL OUT OF APPALACHIA!

We aren’t scared of you and your threats of violence. Those of us in Appalachia are accustomed to standing up for what is right and have seen it all. We have had our houses burnt down, our pets killed, our brake lines cut, our children threatened, our wells poisoned, we’ve been fired from our jobs, sucker punched, pepper sprayed, run off the road and even shot. But we are still here, still fighting for what’s right, and fighting to keep our communities free of opportunistic scum like you.

To everyone who believes in true freedom and equality, please join us in kicking these racists out of Appalachia. We need all hands on deck. We don’t have the resources and numbers of big cities like Sacramento and Atlanta that have successfully organized against racist gatherings; but what we lack in numbers we make up for in grit, determination and love for the place we call home. Please get organized and plan on coming to Pikeville April 28-29th to stand by our side in defending our mountain communities from these vile racists. We know that the local organizers have not released information on a meet up point and other needed information. We have faith that those details are forthcoming and ask that you do to. Get your affinity group together, get trained in the skills you need to stay safe, and get your ass to Eastern Kentucky at the end of April!

– Hillbillies against Hate