The Awakener was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 right-wing anti-New Deal

New Deal

The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...

, anti-labor

Opposition to trade unions

Opposition to trade unions comes from a variety of groups in society, and there are many different types of argument on which this opposition is based.-Strategic strikes and social disruption:...

 publication.

It was founded in 1934 by Harold Lord Varney

Harold Lord Varney

Harold Lord Varney was an American author.Varney was an editor at The Awakener and The American Mercury. He was a member of the IWW, of which he wrote the account Revolt. Later he moved in the direction of fascism....

, and included as editors Lawrence Dennis

Lawrence Dennis

Lawrence Dennis was an mixed raced American diplomat, consultant and author. He advocated Socialist fascism in America after the Great Depression, arguing that capitalism was doomed.-Life:...

, Joseph P. Kamp

Joseph P. Kamp

Joseph P. Kamp was an American political activist who was jailed in 1950 for being in contempt of Congress stemming from 1944 campaign activities. He was acquitted of a second contempt charge in relationship with the lobbying activities of the Constitutional Educational League.Kamp was a...

 and Milford W. Howard

Milford W. Howard

Milford Wriarson Howard was a United States Representative from Alabama.Howard was first elected to the House of Representatives as a Populist in 1894. He was reelected in 1896 but did not seek another term in 1898. Howard returned to his hometown of Fort Payne, Alabama to practice law...

. Lawrence Dennis removed himself from the publication in 1935. The publication distanced itself from fascism, saying that "The Awakener has long been apprehensive that the planless and irresponsible economic experiments which the Roosevelt Administration is carrying out will reduce our national life to such hopeless social disorder that Fascism may be invoked by American conservatives as a last desperate expedient to save the country from Communist revolution. We deplore such a possibility."

Harold Lord Varney was, for some time after the Second World War

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, an editor of The American Mercury

The American Mercury

The American Mercury was an American magazine published from 1924 to 1981. It was founded as the brainchild of H. L. Mencken and drama critic George Jean Nathan. The magazine featured writing by some of the most important writers in the United States through the 1920s and 1930s...

.