Stripe, a major online payment processor, is running credit card payments for a fundraiser benefiting the white nationalist group Rise Above Movement (RAM) on an online merchandise storefront called “The Right Brand.”
RAM is a Southern California-based white nationalist gang that once boasted about 50 members who dedicate themselves to attending far-right rallies and seeking violent altercations with counter-protesters.
Four RAM members, dubbed the “Charlottesville Four” in white supremacist circles, were arrested and charged last year with inciting riots at the deadly Unite the Right gathering of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. The arrests were met with outrage from far-right media personalities. Four additional members of RAM have been indicted since the “Charlottesville Four” arrests, according to First Vigil, a website that tracks court cases brought against members of far-right movements for violence conducted against others.
The Right Brand is currently only selling stickers, priced at $10 each, with proceeds going into a legal fund to benefit those who were arrested. Although the website appears to be idle, credit card payments are still being facilitated by Stripe. Chauncey Alcorn at Mic reported on The Right Brand last year, writing that the apparel company funded “not only RAM’s mixed martial arts training sessions and their routine street brawls with antifa, but also their travels to their white Anglo-Saxon homelands.”
White nationalist Mike Peinovich, known in alt-right circles by his moniker “Mike Enoch,” wrote to patrons of the store, “This is more than just a sticker, this is a pledge of support for those that are being held as political prisoners. When you purchase this sticker, its funds will go to ensure that they have a better shot at beating the charges.”
Stripe processes payments for some of the world’s biggest tech companies, including Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft and Salesforce. The company has faced scrutiny before for facilitating payments to other blatant white nationalist offenders.
