Rock Machine Motorcycle Club

"Rock Machine" redirects here. For other uses, see Rock Machine (disambiguation).

Rock Machine MC
Founded1986
FounderSalvatore Cazzetta
Founded atMontreal, Quebec, Canada
TypeOutlaw motorcycle club
Region
Worldwide - Canada, United States, Australia, Germany, England, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, France, Spain, Indonesia,
Membership
Estimated to have 2,000 active members across the globe, plus thousands of associates[1]
Key people
Websitehttp://rockmachinemotorcycleclub.com/index.html

The Rock Machine Motorcycle Club (RMMC) or Rock Machine is an international outlaw motorcycle club founded in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1986. It has eighteen Canadian chapters spread across seven provinces. It also has nine chapters in the United States and eleven chapters in Australia, with chapters also located in 24 other countries worldwide. It was formed in 1986, by Salvatore Cazzetta and his brother Giovanni Cazzetta. The Rock Machine competed with the Hells Angels for control of the street-level narcotics trade in Quebec.[2] The Quebec Biker War saw the Rock Machine form an alliance with a number of other organizations to face the Hells Angels.[3][page needed] The conflict occurred between 1994 and 2002 and resulted in over 160 deaths and over 300 injured. An additional 100+ have been imprisoned.[4]

Common nicknames for the organization include "R.M.", "Black & Platinum", "RMMC", and "1813". The official Rock Machine club motto is "A La Vie A La Mort", or "To the Life Until Death". The club also possesses a patch that reads "RMFFRM" which stands for "Rock Machine Forever, Forever Rock Machine", an extremely common tradition among outlaw motorcycle clubs.[2]

The Rock Machine Motorcycle Club gained the status of a "Hang-around" club in May 1999 and after eighteen months, became a probationary chapter of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club on 1 December 2000. Bandidos National Officer Edward Winterhalder was put in charge of overseeing the transition by Bandidos International President, George Wegers. The original version of the Rock Machine (1986–1999) in Canada changed their colors from black and platinum to red and gold in May 1999; their colors remained red and gold until they became "Full-Patch" Bandidos on 1 December 2001. In a "patch-over" ceremony at the Rock Machine's Kingston chapter clubhouse.[4]

A second version of the Rock Machine was founded in 2008 in Winnipeg under the leadership of Sean "Crazy Dog" Brown, adopting the original black and platinum colors as their patch.[4] The second version has no connection with the first version.

The club's racial policy is all-inclusive and possesses members from several different ethnicities around the world including African Canadian/Americans. Despite the group's use of the Waffen SS's double lightning bolt on one of their patches, it is mainly to show respect to the club's historical roots as opposed to the racial meaning of the symbol, due to large numbers of their founding members being a part of the SS Motorcycle Club. It is also worn due to its status in the motorcycle community. It is seen as an outlaw symbol, as society dictates people should not wear it, thus outlaws usually wear it as a sign of rebellion against societal standards as opposed to racial ideology.[citation needed]

Since 2007. The club has spread across Canada and throughout several other countries worldwide, including the United States, Australia, Germany, Russia, Switzerland, Hungary, Belgium, New Zealand, Sweden, Serbia, Norway, France, South Africa, England, Spain, Georgia, Hong Kong, Kosovo, Kuwait, Armenia, Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and Turkey. As of 2022, the Rock Machine Motorcycle Club has established over 120 chapters on 5 continents since its inception. In the 2000s, the Rock Machine allied themselves with fellow international Canadian motorcycle club the Loners Motorcycle Club.[5]

  1. ^ "Famous Motorcycle Gangs: Everything You'd Like To Know | Motorcycle Habit". Motorcycle Habit.
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference BikerWars was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Sher, Julian; Marsden, William (2006). Angels of Death; Inside the Bikers' Global Crime Empire. Knopf Canada. ISBN 0-676-97730-8.
  4. ^ a b c Edward Winterhalder & Wil De Clercq (2008). The Assimilation. ECW Press. ISBN 978-1-55022-824-3. Retrieved 14 May 2010.
  5. ^ "Biker gang Rock Machine trying to return to Canada". Canada.com. 30 September 2008. Archived from the original on 9 November 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2012.