YOUTH FOR WESTERN CIVILIZATION, ONE MORE THING BEFORE YOU GO…

Youth for Western Civilization’s future is uncertain, but we are more concerned about their past – or, to be precise why there seems to be some violations in their annual reports.

One People’s Project

In recent months, the white nationalist student organization Youth for Western Civilization (YWC) has been having a rough time of it, so much so the future of the group is quite uncertain. The YWC website has been down for several months now, with only a message that the organization is “is doing a top to bottom redesign” of the site. It’s chapter at Towson University has been shut down after only a controversial few months, due to losing its faculty advisor because in his words, “They [YWC] were using rhetoric in their arguments that I found were not appropriate.” According to a Southern Poverty Law Center article, while YWC is in what they termed a “hibernation”, its members are still active, with YWC Vice President Taylor Rose working with nationalist groups in Europe and Towson YWC leader Matthew Heimbach saying in a podcast produced by the Southern Nationalist Network (SNN), which is closely associated with the white supremacist League of the South, of which Heimbach is a member, that his organization will go underground. The biggest shakeup however came in February, when YWC CO-founder Kevin DeAnna left the organization to work as a writer for World Net Daily, a mainstream but often times fringe conservative publication that has been incorporating well known white supremacist groups and individuals into their work as of late.

While it is unclear what course YWC will take in the future, it may have to change much of how it works, if it is even allowed to. Recently issues regarding its legal status have been uncovered that may warrant an investigation into possible ethics violations.

According to the 2011 annual report, which is the current report filed with the Commonwealth of Virginia, YWC lists DeAnna, Craig Burgers and Luke Pelican as the primary officers, and all three of them share the same home address at 1401 N. Taft St., Apt. P116, Arlington, VA 22201. This address can also be found in its 2009 annual report, while the 2008 report lists them at 1415 N. Taft St., Apt. 596 in Arlington.

Pelican is a lawyer who had a fellowship with the Competitive Enterprise Institute. He now works for as an associate. Research has revealed that Luke Haydon Pelican (DOB 4/1984) may currently reside in Falls Church, VA. Craig Burgers, who like Pelican was a onetime chair of the Michigan State University chapter of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) that was designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, is listed on a Sept. 2011 blog entry as a member of the Ingham County Republican Party, suggesting he is now currently residing in Michigan. The 2011 annual report also lists a Reston, Va address for Kevin DeAnna. A visit to the Taft St. addresses on the annual reports suggests however that none of the officers listed appears to have any current association with either of them, although they might have at the time they first incorporated.

In order to form a corporation in Virginia—which is where YWC is incorporated—one must have three people who serve on the corporate board, but it is a Class 1 misdemeanor for the person to affirm the information in the document is true when it is not. If found guilty, a person can be punished with up to a year in jail and/or a $2,500 fine. 

Attempts to reach Kevin DeAnna has been unsuccessful, and according to Andy Farmer of the State Corporation Commission in Virginia, it would be the responsibility of YWC, a 501(c)(3) organization,

to validate their information. “It is the obligation of the business entity to ensure that its records on file with the Clerk’s Office are true and accurate,” he said in an email.  “If you suspect fraudulent activity, you should raise this issue with the local commonwealth’s attorney in the locality in which the business/individual is located.”

YWC was in the news recently when it was learned that former Rep. Tom Tancredo, who serves as the group’s honorary chairman, will speak at the Council of Conservative Citizens annual conference at the GuestHouse Inn and Suites in Nashville, TN on July 6, 7.