Leaderless Resistance

Leaderless resistance is a strategy advocated and used by some militant antigovernment groups in the United States. Each member is free to engage in whatever actions at whatever time or place he or she believes appropriate to further the organization's aims. The organization neither issues direct orders nor coordinates actions, thus avoiding legal responsibility for any criminal activity of individual members. Members act independently and secretly, in isolation from the group and from each other.

American militia leader and Ku Klux Klansman Louis Beam wrote and published a widely circulated essay advocating leaderless resistance as a strategy to counteract the destruction by law enforcement agencies of hierarchical U.S. militias. The essay, originally published in 1994 in Seditionist, a white supremacist magazine, was later widely distributed on the Internet. Beam's vision was one where “all individuals and groups operate independently of each other, and never report to a central headquarters or single leader for direction or instruction.” Beam recognized fairly early the opportunities the Web offered for dissemination of information and communication with far-flung fellow believers. In 1984, he created a bulletin board system for the Aryan Nations.

Jeffrey Kaplan traces the development of leaderless resistance to California in the early 1970s, where Joseph Tommasi, leader of the small National Socialist Liberation Front, was frustrated by the failure of the radical right to build a revolutionary majority. Tommasi was determined “to act resolutely and alone” against the state. The willingness to act alone was in contrast to the prevailing organization of contemporary terrorist groups, where a rigid, centralized command-and-control structure existed, with a top council directing the activities of individual cells and columns.

Radical right-wing authors have helped spread the concept of leaderless resistance. In 1989, William Pierce wrote a sequel to his more famous Turner Diaries, called Hunter, in which the hero, acting alone, sets out to assassinate the enemies of the white race. A year later, another radical right author, Richard Kelly Hoskins, wrote a fantasy entitled Vigilantes of Christendom, featuring an order of assassins called the Phineas Priesthood. Thus inspired, some right-wing radicals and prolife activists have styled themselves Phineas priests. Order member David Lane advocated a strict division between the political arm and the armed wing of an organization, thus freeing the political wing to disseminate propaganda and recruit new members without engaging in illegal activities. Lane envisioned the armed wing recruiting [Page 215]from the political wing, but, once active, having each member sever all connection with the political wing. These “Wotans” would act independently and secretly “to hasten the demise of the system.”

Timothy McVeigh appears to have been an example of leaderless resistance. McVeigh acted without direct orders from any organization in blowing up the federal office building in Oklahoma City in 1995. However, McVeigh was not a member of any right-wing militia group when he carried out the bombing; also, his knowledge of leaderless resistance is unknown. Literature found in his car advocated the creation of a mass revolutionary movement rather than individual acts of violence. He does seem to have acted in response to the vitriolic propaganda of the radical right on his own initiative, independently developing and carrying out his own strategy. His actions were thus consistent with the concept of leaderless resistance.

The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) uses an extreme form of leaderless resistance. No formal membership exists: anyone believing in the aims of ELF can carry out a terrorist act on his or her own initiative. A Web site offers advice on acts of economic sabotage and lists actions already taken. The site does not actually advocate criminal activity, and so operates within the letter of the law. Members-followers can use the Internet to communicate with each other anonymously.

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