George Burdi (also known by the pseudonym George Eric Hawthorne; born June 1970) is a Canadian musician, publisher, and a former white power musician who became known for his role in white nationalist organizations. He led the Canadian branch of the Church of the Creator. He was also the co-founder of the influential white power record label Resistance Records; Burdi edited their Resistance magazine.

Burdi established the white power band RaHoWa, of which he was the frontman. They released two albums, including 1995's Cult of the Holy War. Burdi was convicted of aggravated assault in 1995, and was sentenced to one year in prison. Upon his release from prison, Burdi claimed to have renounced racism, and created a non-racist band, Novacosm.

Early life

Burdi was born in June 1970, and grew up in Toronto. His father was a businessman, and he has a younger brother. His family was upper-middle class; in his youth, Burdi attended private boys' schools.

He went on to attend the University of Guelph.

RaHoWa

Using the stage name "George Eric Hawthorne", Burdi formed the racist band RaHoWa with three other COTC members in 1990.

RaHoWa was one of the biggest hate-rock bands throughout the 1990s; The New York Times said they were "one of the most popular white power bands". They released two albums, Declaration of War (1993) and Cult of the Holy War (1995). In 2017, scholar Kirsten Dyck noted that both albums were considered "major classics of the white-power music genre". Scholar of extremism Jeffrey Kaplan described the former as "the most important CD to emerge from the post-Skrewdriver white-power movement".

Resistance Records

In 1993, Burdi co-founded the white power music label Resistance Records, which was the distributor for RaHoWa, and other white nationalist bands. The company was based in Detroit, rather than Canada, due to the United States's lack of hate speech laws.

Reckzin incident

In Ottawa, on May 29, 1993, after a RaHoWa concert which was picketed by Anti-Racist Action protesters, Burdi and the leader of the White nationalist Heritage Front, Wolfgang Droege, led their supporters on a march to Parliament Hill, chanting "sieg heil", making racist remarks, and giving the Hitler salute. Burdi then led a charge across the street to confront protesters. During the charge, Alicia Reckzin was struck on the head while running from Burdi's supporters. and sentenced to 12 months imprisonment. Burdi was arrested in Windsor, Ontario, for contravening the Canadian Criminal Code provisions against promoting hatred.

Convicted in Windsor, Burdi was able to avoid a jail sentence with the condition that he not be involved with RaHoWa or Resistance Records. Burdi then renounced white nationalism, much to the shock of other members of the white nationalist movement.

In 1998 Burdi founded the multi-racial band Novacosm. Other former members of RaHoWa went on to play for other white power bands. Novacosm, with Burdi on vocals and guitar, B. Valentine on bass and Sy Sylver on guitar, began performing publicly in 2001, and released some recordings as mp3s. Novacosm released one compact disc, Everything Forever, in 2003. Despite his renunciation of racism, RaHoWa continued to be popular with white supremacists even decades on.

Discography

With RaHoWa

  • Declaration of War (1993)
  • Cult of the Holy War (1995)

With Novacosm

  • Everything Forever (2002)

With Überfolk

  • Music For Nations (2021)

References

Works cited

  • Novacosm band website