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National Alliance (United States)

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National Alliance
FounderWilliam Luther Pierce
Founded1974; 51 years ago (1974)
Split fromNational Youth Alliance
Headquarters
Membership2,500 (2002)
Ideology
Political positionFar-right
ReligionCosmotheism

The National Alliance was a white supremacist, neo-Nazi political organization founded by William Luther Pierce in 1974 and based in Mill Point, West Virginia. It was formed out of a split in the National Youth Alliance, an organization run by Pierce, a former member of the American Nazi Party, and Willis Carto. The National Alliance had several business ventures, including the record label Resistance Records, a book publisher, and several periodicals. It was the largest and most significant neo-Nazi group of its time.

Membership in 2002 was estimated at 2,500 with an annual income of $1 million. Membership declined after Pierce's death in 2002, and after a split in its ranks in 2005 and several power struggles, it became largely defunct, though some members still claim the name.

History

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National Alliance members protesting outside the Embassy of Israel, Washington, D.C. in 2001, alleging Israeli complicity in the 9/11 attacks

The National Alliance was established by William Luther Pierce in 1974, renamed and restructured from another organization called the National Youth Alliance.[1] Pierce was a former member of the American Nazi Party, and a long time associate of its leader George Lincoln Rockwell.[2] After Rockwell was assassinated in 1967, his successor Matt Koehl became embroiled in a power struggle with Pierce, which resulted in Pierce leaving in 1970.[3][4] Pierce then created Youth for Wallace, an organization supporting the bid for the presidency of George Wallace, the former Governor of Alabama. Alongside Willis Carto, Youth for Wallace became the recruiting organization for their National Youth Alliance. Carto and Pierce had a falling out and the group split; Pierce's side kept the National Youth Alliance name, while Carto's became Youth Action.[4][1] Pierce renamed and restructured it in 1974.[1] The group was white supremacist[5][6][7][8] and neo-Nazi in orentation.[5]

In 1978, claiming the National Alliance was an educational organization, Pierce applied for and was denied, tax exemption by the Internal Revenue Service. Pierce appealed, but an appellate court upheld the IRS decision.[9] In 1985, Pierce moved his operations from Arlington County, Virginia, to a 346-acre (1.40 km2) location in Mill Point, West Virginia, which he paid for with $95,000 in cash. At this location, he founded the Cosmotheist Community Church.[9] In 1986, the church applied again, this time successfully, for federal, state, and local tax exemptions. It lost its state tax exemption for all but 60 acres, which had to be exclusively used for religious purposes.[10] William Pierce was arrested in 1995 on charges of assaulting a female staff member on the grounds of the Mill Point headquarters.[11]

The Order was an offshoot of the National Alliance and modeled themselves after a similar group depicted in The Turner Diaries. Timothy McVeigh was in possession of a copy of The Turner Diaries at the time of his arrest following the Oklahoma City Bombing.[12] McVeigh bought copies of the book (published by the National Alliance), sold them at gun shows, and otherwise distributed them.[13]

In 1997, two National Alliance members were charged with committing bank robberies in Florida and Connecticut.[14] One of them admitted to channeling funds from the robberies to the National Alliance. He was charged with attempting to detonate a series of pipe bombs in order to divert attention from a future robbery.[15] The National Alliance was the largest and most significant neo-Nazi group of the time, and the most significant group to come out of the various schisms associated with the American Nazi Party.[16]

After Pierce's death

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National Alliance member with a Nazi flag at a rally in Washington, D.C., August 2002

A series of power struggles began almost immediately after Pierce's death, with high-ranking members either resigning or being fired. A boycott of the National Alliance's Resistance Records label resulted in a steep drop-off in generated funds.[17] Membership declined after Pierce's death, and after a split in its ranks in 2005, became largely defunct.[5][18]

In April 2005, prominent Alliance member Kevin Alfred Strom, then editor of National Vanguard magazine, issued a declaration calling for Gliebe to step down;[19] the Alliance's executive committee and most of its unit coordinators supported the action. Gliebe refused, claiming that the Alliance operated under the "Leadership Principle" and stating that he would not yield to any coup. Strom formed a new group called National Vanguard.[20] In January 2008, Strom pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography in exchange for the other charges to be dropped.[21][22][23] He was sentenced to 23 months in prison on April 23, 2008.[22][24][23] Strom told the court before being sentenced that he was "not a pedophile" and was "in fact the precise opposite of what has been characterized in this case",[22] saying he had been "unwillingly" possessing 10 images of child pornography and that those came from an online forum he had visited which had been "flooded with spam", which included "sleazy, tragic" pictures of children that he deleted. The judge of the case responded: "Mr. Strom, you pled guilty to charges that now you're saying you're innocent. I prefer people plead not guilty than put it on me."[24]

Shortly after the attempted coup by Strom, Gliebe resigned as chairman of the Alliance and briefly appointed Shaun Walker as his successor. However, following Walker's arrest in June 2006, Gliebe again assumed leadership of the organization.[25][26] By that year, paid membership for the Alliance had declined to fewer than 800 and the paid staff was down to only ten people.[27]

Will Williams offshoot

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In 2014, Will Williams became head of an organization which calls itself the National Alliance (NA).[28] However, a rival faction disputes the claim that this group is maintaining continuity with the original Alliance which was founded by Pierce.[29] In 2015, an accountant was hired to audit the NA's books by Williams. According to a lawsuit which was filed by a former Baltimore attorney against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), there was a confrontation between the accountant and Williams. The lawsuit further claims that after the accountant left the NA headquarters he released documents that he had scanned to the SPLC.[30]

In December 2015, Williams was arrested and charged with battery after he allegedly hit and strangled a female employee on the grounds of the Mill Point compound.[31][32] He was convicted, briefly incarcerated, and placed on probation.[33] Williams was banned from the NA compound in West Virginia pursuant to a court order stemming from his 2015 arrest.[34] Williams claims that the National Alliance "(is) back. We are definitely back".[35] He also said in a letter to a newspaper sent from Laurel Bloomery, Tennessee (allegedly the NA's headquarters) that "(The National Alliance does) not appreciate being called 'haters' or being associated with some 'hate movement'."[36]

Business

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The organization held a radio/internet show named "American Dissident Voices", and the organization also published a National Alliance Bulletin.[37] They distributed the National Vanguard periodical and maintained a website.[4] Its publication Attack! was started by Pierce to increase membership in the National Youth Alliance in 1968. He published and edited the publication.[38] It was later retitled National Vanguard.[39] National Vanguard Books, Inc. was the book publishing firm of the National Alliance.[37]

The organization ran a white power record label which was called Resistance Records.[37] In 2002, it released the video game Ethnic Cleansing.[40]

Cosmotheist Church

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The spiritual aspect of the National Alliance's ideology is espoused by the Cosmotheist Community Church.[41]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Sunshine 2024, p. 54.
  2. ^ Simonelli 1999, pp. 124–125.
  3. ^ Sunshine 2024, p. 25.
  4. ^ a b c Schmaltz 1999, p. 338.
  5. ^ a b c "National Alliance For Law Enforcement". Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved August 31, 2017.Hilliard, Robert L.; Michael C. Keith (1999). Waves of Rancor: Tuning into the Radical Right. M. E. Sharpe. p. 165. ISBN 978-0765601315.
  6. ^ Quarles, Chester A. (1999). The Ku Klux Klan and Related American Racialist and Antisemitic Organizations: A History and Analysis. McFarland. p. 146. ISBN 978-0786406470.
  7. ^ Richie, Warren (December 20, 2011). "Failed Martin Luther King Day parade bomber gets 32-year sentence". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved February 14, 2012.
  8. ^ "Bomb suspect tied to supremacist group". Boston Globe. March 10, 2011. Archived from the original on September 9, 2011. Retrieved February 14, 2012.
  9. ^ a b "Extremism in America: William Pierce". Anti-Defamation League. Archived from the original on January 16, 2013.
  10. ^ "The National Alliance: A History". Anti-Defamation League. 2007. Archived from the original on August 19, 2007. Retrieved July 18, 2007.
  11. ^ "NEO-NAZI CHARGED WITH HITTING, THREATENING STAFFER". scholar.lib.vt.edu.
  12. ^ Loewy, Tom. "Speak up in the face of fascism". Galesburg Register Mail.
  13. ^ Ludlow, Lynn (May 6, 2001). "Timothy McVeigh, an American patsy".
  14. ^ "Far-Right Organization Sets Up in Sacramento, ADL Reports / Report on extremism cites growth in recruits, violence". September 24, 1998.
  15. ^ "Extremist returns to face charge". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved July 28, 2024.
  16. ^ Sunshine 2024, p. 26.
  17. ^ Nyden, Paul (July 22, 2012). "Report calls Hillsboro-based National Alliance irrelevant". Charleston Gazette-Mail. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
  18. ^ Darby, Seward (March 31, 2021). "The father, the son and the racist spirit: being raised by a white supremacist". The Guardian.
  19. ^ "A Time for Leadership". www.nationalvanguard.org. April 22, 2005. Archived from the original on November 13, 2005. Retrieved April 21, 2019.
  20. ^ "White Supremacist Busted on Child-Porn Charge". ABC News. January 4, 2007. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
  21. ^ "Strom pleads guilty to child porn". C-VILLE Weekly. January 15, 2008. Retrieved April 21, 2019.
  22. ^ a b c Tasha, Kates (April 21, 2008). "White nationalist sentenced in child porn case". Charlottesville Daily Progress. Archived from the original on April 25, 2009. Retrieved April 23, 2008.
  23. ^ a b "Strom Sentenced". nbc29. April 21, 2008. Archived from the original on April 21, 2019. Retrieved April 21, 2019.
  24. ^ a b Provence, Lisa (April 21, 2008). "'I am not a pedophile': Strom gets 23 months". The Hook. Charlottesville. Retrieved April 21, 2019.
  25. ^ "White-separatists get prison time for "hate crimes"". The Salt Lake Tribune. August 14, 2007. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
  26. ^ "Neo-Nazi National Alliance leader indicted in civil rights conspiracy". Southern Poverty Law Center. June 9, 2006. Archived from the original on August 8, 2007. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
  27. ^ "Neo-Nazi National Alliance Experiences Troubled Times". Southern Poverty Law Center. December 2003. Archived from the original on July 14, 2007. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
  28. ^ The Kansas City Star (subscription required)
  29. ^ "Triumph of the Will: Will Williams and the National Alliance". Southern Poverty Law Center. December 17, 2014. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
  30. ^ Kunzelman, Michael (November 14, 2019). "Judge tosses lawsuit over article tying Baltimore lawyer to neo-Nazis". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
  31. ^ "National Alliance chairman arrested at Mill Point". Pocahontas Times. December 23, 2015.
  32. ^ "National Alliance chairman arrested at Mill Point". Pocahontas Times. Local stories. December 23, 2015. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
  33. ^ "Circuit Court". Pocahontas Times. February 13, 2019.
  34. ^ Beck, Erin (December 22, 2015). "Chairman of hate group arrested twice in Pocahontas County". Charleston Gazette-Mail. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
  35. ^ Hosenbell, Alex; Simon, Evan; Levine, Mike (October 6, 2020). "'My life as a hater': The dire warning from a white power leader's son". ABC News. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
  36. ^ Williams, William White (January 28, 2018). "National Alliance responds to Sullivan's column". The Gazette. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
  37. ^ a b c Morris, Travis (2017). Dark Ideas: How Neo-Nazi and Violent Jihadi Ideologues Shaped Modern Terrorism. Lanham: Lexington Books. ISBN 978-0-7391-9104-0.
  38. ^ McAlear, Rob (2009). "Hate, Narrative, and Propaganda in The Turner Diaries". The Journal of American Culture. 32 (3): 192–202. doi:10.1111/j.1542-734X.2009.00710.x. ISSN 1542-734X.
  39. ^ Durham, Martin (January 1, 2004). "The upward path: palingenesis, political religion and the national alliance". Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions. 5 (3): 454–468. doi:10.1080/1469076042000312212. ISSN 1469-0764.
  40. ^ Left, Sarah (February 21, 2002). "White supremacists create racist computer games". The Guardian.
  41. ^ Zeskind, Leonard (2009). Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement From the Margins to the Mainstream. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux. p. 67. ISBN 978-0-374-10903-5.

Works cited

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