U.S. Nazis drop the Swastika in favor of the Odal Rune (November, 2016)
Off with the Old
On with the New
National Socialist Movement (United States)
The National Socialist Movement (NSM) is a neo-Nazi organization. It is a part of the Nationalist Front. The Party claimed to be the "largest and most active" National Socialist organization in the United States. It is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
... In November 2016, following the election of Donald Trump, the organization changed its logo, replacing the swastika with an Odal rune in an attempt to enter mainstream politics. The account of its leader, Jeff Schoep, was suspended by Twitter on December 18, 2017
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Movement_(United_States)
America’s white supremacists ban swastika in bold attempt to ‘go mainstream’
THEY burn crosses, worship the swastika and associate with figures in white hoods, but don’t tell America’s predominant neo-Nazi party it’s racist. “We are not racist, and I do not like that term,” Jeff Schoep tells news.com.au.
The commander of the National Socialist Movement — described as the party “for every patriotic white American” — has a brand new reason to protest the point.
His party is about to do something it has never done. It is making a run at the mainstream, and it is even banning the swastika. Gone. Banished from uniforms that haven’t changed since the 1960s, well before the commander joined the ranks as a 19-year-old.
... The Odal rune, a less-well-known Nazi Germany symbol, will take the place of the swastika on all official uniforms and banners. Mr Schoep says it’s a gentler approach to preaching the same messages.
(In a statement on the NSM website earlier this month, Mr Schoep called it a “slight re-branding”. “Your party platform remains the same, your party remains unchanged, it is a cosmetic overhaul only.)
https://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/americas-white-supremacists-ban-swastika-in-bold-attempt-to-go-mainstream/news-story/53f68100ba52a1e33b13cf25b794d028
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By the 1920s-30s the word "socialist" was mainly associated with the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). The far-right Nazis and the far-left "socialists" of the USSR were mortal enemies (see: Operation Barbarossa, Siege of Leningrad, Battle of Berlin, etc.). Did the Nazis try to co-opt the name because it was growing in popularity at the time? I've never understood it.
