Since the September 11th attacks, racist groups have gained increasing size and political power.
Leaders of these far right groups have used 9/11 for their own political purposes, in much the same way president Bush has, and put the blame on "lax" immigration policies, minorities and leftists to further their own racist and fascist agenda. It is important for progressives to be aware of this since they have been targeted recently by these groups. Some of these organizations have a long record of violence along with clandestine and even overt support from the government. Recent examples are the Minuteman Project and the state-supported neo-Nazi rallies in Toledo. Members of the more violent groups will do anything they think they can get away with, and with our current right-wing government, there is quite a bit they can get away with. The FBI reported that the number of hate crimes rose in 2004, and that's an FBI statement. The most violent far right groups are usually the neo-Nazi skinhead organizations and they often have no more than a website as a means of advertising themselves to the general public.

Here is a list of racist organizations with a history of violence.

Aryan Brotherhood
Aryan Nations
Blood & Honour
Creativity Movement
Hammerskins
Ku Klux Klan
Minuteman Project
National Socialist Movement
Retaliator Skinhead Nation
Volksfront
White Aryan Resistance

The larger far right organizations are described below.

The American Front lost some steam although it seems to have resurfaced under the leadership of James Porazzo. Porazzo moved the American Front to Harrison, Arkansas, and began to push a more obviously Third Position philosophy. The Third Position is a mix of extreme Right and Left wing politics. The American Front currently uses a great deal of Communist ideology amongst their White Power politics. Porazzo advocates "socialist revolution in a racialist context," explaining "We propose a workable, realistic alternative, and that is Seperatism! White autonomy, Black autonomy, Brown autonomy and death to the current twisted system.... The only other obvious route would be an eventual winner take all race war: I don't think anyone with any sense would want that... " This particular version of Communist analysis targets Jews as the major players in the capitalist system. Porazzo also blames Zionism for the general state of global turmoil.

The American Nazi Party was an American Neo-Nazi political party formed in February 1959 by George Lincoln Rockwell. The organization was headquartered in Arlington, Virginia and maintained a visitor's center at 2507 North Franklin Road (now a coffeehouse). The organization was based largely upon the ideals and policies of the NSDAP in Germany during the Third Reich. Following the assassination of Rockwell in 1967 by a disgruntled party member, the group was taken over by Matt Koehl who renamed it the National Socialist White People's Party. More recently a new American Nazi Party has been launched and is largely regarded as extremist, even for a fascist organization. The new group claims to be the inheritor of Rockwell's legacy and is led by Rocky Suhayda. It was formerly known as the European American Education Association and is based in Eastpointe, Michigan.

The Aryan Brotherhood, or AB, is a predominantly Caucasian (White) gang that originated in California's San Quentin State Prison in 1967. The AB was first established to protect its members from the more numerous Black and Mexican gangs. They are said to have grown out of another prison gang, the Blue Bird Gang, that was active from the late 1950s to the 1960s. Chapters also allegedly exist in homeless shelters in several large American cities, including New York, and some law enforcement officials believe that the Freight Train Riders of America may be affiliated with the organization.AB symbols include the Nazi "SS" bolts; the Nazi swastika; the number "666;" the letters "AB;" and the shamrock (as a symbol of their originally Irish membership). AB members who are released from the prison system are expected to maintain their ties to their incarcerated kindred and even continue to provide active support by sending money or smuggling drugs into the prisons. Members, in and out of the prison system, have been connected to robberies; assaults, murders, including contract killings; and drug dealing, especially marijuana and methamphetamines.The AB is believed to have connections to Aryan Nations, a neo-Nazi organization that follows a religious ideology known as Christian Identity. However, in some areas, AB's are said to be using the neo-pagan religion, Odinism, to disguise their gang activities.

Aryan Nations (AN) (also known as the Aryan National Alliance) is an anti-Semitic White supremacist anti-government group based in the United States. It was founded in the 1970s by Richard Girnt Butler as an outreach arm of his Christian Identity ministry, the Church of Jesus Christ-Christian. After losing a $6.3 million lawsuit in September 2000, brought by Victoria and Jason Keenan who were attacked by Aryan Nations guards in 1999, the group was bankrupted. In February 2001, the group's Hayden Lake compound and intellectual property including the names "Aryan Nations" and "Church of Jesus Christ Christian" were transferred to the Keenans. Butler died in 2004 at the age of 86. Since Butler's death, Aryan Nations now has a leadership "Council", which handles all aspects of the organization. The new "Senior Pastor", Jonathan Williams, resides in Atlanta, Georgia. The group's Headquarters are now in Lincoln, Alabama. There are offshoots of people claiming to be within the organization, such as August Kreiss, and James Wickstrom, however, neither of these men are truly involved. The World Headquarters recently confirmed that, in fact, neither Kreiss or Wickstrom have ever held a position within this organization. "They are fraudulent in their claims", according to "Pastor Williams", "and people should beware, because Kreiss and Wickstrom are seedy individuals who seek to profiteer off of people's misery!" The group now holds it's "Aryan World Congress" in Scottsboro, Alabama, every year in September. Their website has recently expanded to include a 'Youth section" and a "Record Label".Like many other extremist right-wing groups AN has produced many small, transitory subgroups. Bob Mathews formed a group called The Order, which committed a number of violent crimes, including murder. Their mission was to bring about a race war. Dennis McGiffen, who also had ties to the AN, formed a cell called The New Order, based on Mathews' group. The members were arrested before they could follow through on their violent plans. A relatively new tenet among Christian Identity believers justifies the use of violence in order to punish violators of God's law, as interpreted by Christian Identity ministers and adherents. Christian Identity followers engaging in such behavior are referred to as Phineas Priests or members of the Phineas Priesthood, though they usually seem to act alone.

The Council of Conservative Citizens (abbreviated CCC or CofCC) is a white supremacist and white separatist American paleoconservative political organization. It is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri and its most active chapter is in Mississippi. Other states with active chapters include Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and New York. Sporadic CofCC activities occur in other parts of the country as well. The executive committee is made up of Gordon Lee Baum, Bill Lord, and Tom Dover. The 16 member board of directors includes Leonard Wilson, Sam Dickson, and AJ Barker.

The Hammerskins, or Hammerskin Nation is a white supremacist skinhead gang. Organized in 1988 in Dallas, Texas, it is considered one of the United States' most organized and dangerous skinhead groups. The Hammerskins' primary focus is production and promotion of white power music, but many of their members have also committed hate crimes. Chapters currently exist in several countries besides the U.S., including Canada, England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, New Zealand and Australia. They are affiliated with Panzerfaust Records. The Hammerskin logo, depicting two hammers arranged to resemble goose-stepping legs, is copied from that of a fictitious neo-fascist organization depicted in The Wall, a 1979 album (and 1982 film) by rock band Pink Floyd.It is unclear however whether they understand that the symbol used in the wall was to "mock" this type of belief and show that one would have to be enlosed in a wall to believe this.

The National Alliance is a white supremacist organization based in the United States. The National Alliance claims to have members in various countries throughout the world. Membership is not based upon citizenship in one particular country. Instead, membership is contingent upon the person being of non-Jewish European ancestry. The National Alliance describes itself as a white nationalist group or, at times, a "white separatist" group. Critics consider the group to be white supremacist and neo-Nazi. An article appearing in a 1989 issue of their magazine National Vanguard celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of Adolf Hitler, declaring him "the greatest man of our era". Before the death of Pierce, the SPLC and the FBI called the Alliance the best-financed and best-organized white nationalist organization of its kind in the United States. Membership in 2002 was estimated at 1,500 with an income of $1 million annually. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, paid membership has declined to fewer than 800 as of 2003.[2] The 2005 revolt again weakened the organization. In 2002, the organization had a paid staff of 17 and ran a White Power record label called Resistance Records. It also has a radio show, American Dissident Voices, heard on shortwave and streaming audio on the Internet, hosted until April 16, 2005 by Kevin Alfred Strom.

The National Association for the Advancement of White People is a white nationalist political organization in the United States founded in 1980 by David Duke, former Ku Klux Klan leader, its name a takeoff on — and some assert, a parody of — the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The group claims it advocates "white separatism" and not white supremacy, but many observers dispute this. It is headquartered in Metairie, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans. The organization's views include vehement opposition to affirmative action programs and a strong law and order stance, such as favoring the death penalty and three strikes laws. Its official slogan is: "Equal Rights For All — Special Privileges For None."

"Ku Klux Klan" (often abbreviated "KKK") is the name of a number of past and present fraternal organizations in the United States that have advocated white supremacy and anti-Semitism; and in the past century, anti-Catholicism, and nativism. Although often still discussed in contemporary American politics as representing the quintessential "fringe" end of the far-right spectrum, today the group only exists in the form of a number of very isolated, scattered "supporters" that probably do not number more than a few thousand. In a 2002 report on "Extremism in America", the Anti-Defamation League wrote "Today, there is no such thing as the Ku Klux Klan. Fragmentation, decentralization and decline have continued unabated." However, they also noted that the "need for justification runs deep in the disaffected and is unlikely to disappear, regardless of how low the Klan's fortunes eventually sink."

The National Socialist Movement (also called "NSM" or "NSM88") is the largest neo-Nazi Party operating in the United States. They co-operate with other "white nationalists", such as the Ku Klux Klan, Nazi-Skinheads, and the National Alliance. The "88" in its name is a code word for "Heil Hitler", H being the 8th letter in the alphabet. The name America's Nazi Party is somtimes used, but this should not be confused with the revived American Nazi Party, a different group. The NSM is led by Jeff Schoep, and its spokesman is Bill White. They claim to have members in most states and in some overseas countries. Membership is open "to all "Aryans". The group is inspired by Adolf Hitler, and its symbol is the Swastika. It has roots back to the American Nazi Party under George Lincoln Rockwell.
Volksfront (German for "popular front") is a Portland, Oregon based Neo-Nazi organization. The group was formed in 1994 by Randall Krager, while in prison for the beating of an African-American man. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a controversial anti-hate group, has added Volksfront to its list of watched groups.Since being formed in 1994, it has expanded to 4 continents and 7 countries, with chapters in nearly 20 American states. They have approximately 1,000 to 1,500 members world-wide, with large chapters in Oregon and Southern California. In 2005, Volksfront's American Chapter helped form the first Official Blood & Honour Division in the United States.

The White Aryan Resistance is a white supremacist organization headed by former Klan leader Tom Metzger. It is based in California, USA. The WAR does extensive prison organizing and, unlike the KKK, does not claim to be Christian, condemning Christianity as a form of Judaism. The group was effectively bankrupted as the result of a civil lawsuit centered on its involvement in the death of Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian man who came to the United States to attend college. In 1988, Seraw was murdered by skinheads, who were convicted of the crime and sent to prison.

The Creativity Movement is a racist, anti-semitic, anti-Christian and white-supremacist organization which advocates a "White Religion" called Creativity. The group denies the Holocaust, embraces racial neo-eugenics and improvement through human genetic engineering, with a religious mission which is dedicated to the "survival, expansion, and advancement of the White Race exclusively." The Creativity Movement was formerly known as the World Church of the Creator or WCOTC from 1996 to 2002, and Church of the Creator from 1973 to 1996. The Creativity Movement is not related to the TE-TA-MA "Truth" Foundation's Church of the Creator which legally trademarked the name Church of the Creator in 1987, 14 years after half a dozen books had been published in the Library of Congress by Ben Klassen stating the name of his religious organization was called 'Church of the Creator'. The organization was initially founded as the Church of the Creator by Ben Klassen in early 1973 with the publication of his book Nature's Eternal Religion. It was later led by Matthew F. Hale, until his incarceration on January 8, 2003 for plotting with an FBI informant Anthony Evola to murder a federal judge.

Resistance Records is a white power music label which produces and sells music by neo-Nazi musicians, primarily through its website. Advertising itself as "The Soundtrack For White Revolution," Resistance Records also publishes a magazine called Resistance Magazine, and is a subsidiary of the National Alliance (itself a subsidiary of National Vanguard Books, Inc). The label was founded in Windsor, Ontario in 1993 by neo-Nazi George Burdi. In 1997 it was temporarily put out of business by a tax dispute and a prosecution for distributing materials that promoted hatred in Canada (Burdi was given a 2 year jail sentence). It was bought out by William Pierce, head of the National Alliance.Among the acts signed to Resistance was Burdi's own RAHOWA (short for "RAcial HOly WAr"), which disbanded after Burdi renounced neo-Nazism.

The Minuteman Project is an initiative begun in April 2005, by a group of private citizens to monitor the United States–Mexico border to identify the entry of illegal immigrants. Members help prevent illegal immigration by alerting the United States Border Patrol. Organizers state that more than 1,000 volunteers will patrol the U.S. border between Naco, Arizona and Douglas, Arizona in Cochise County, Arizona, a span of twenty-three miles (37 km) along the border. Senior law enforcement officers state that they fear the project will lead to vigilante violence. Most, however, welcome the assistance. The name comes from the minutemen who fought in the American Revolution. Its principal director is James Gilchrist, with Chris Simcox serving as spokesman. It describes itself as "a citizens' Neighborhood Watch on our border."