The National Socialist Liberation Front (NSLF) was originally established as a youth wing of the
National Socialist White People's Party in 1969. In 1974 it was reconstituted as a separate
neo-Nazi organization after its leader
Joseph Tommasi
Joseph Charles Tommasi (April 15, 1951 – August 15, 1975) was an American Neo-Nazi who founded the National Socialist Liberation Front. He advocated extremism and armed guerrilla warfare against the U.S. government and what he called its "Je ...
had been expelled by NSWPP leader
Matt Koehl
Matthias Koehl Jr. (January 22, 1935 – October 9, 2014) was an American Marine, neo-Nazi politician and writer. He succeeded George Lincoln Rockwell as the longest serving leader of the American Nazi Party, from 1967 to 2014.
Like the C ...
.
History
The NSLF was established in 1969 by Tommasi, with the backing of
William Luther Pierce
William Luther Pierce III (September 11, 1933 – July 23, 2002) was an American neo-Nazi, white supremacist, and far-right political activist. For more than 30 years, he was one of the highest-profile individuals of the white nationalist movemen ...
, as a campus-based revolutionary organization to compete with
New Left militant groups. Ideological as well as personal differences began to develop between Tommassi and Koehl. At the Party's second congress in 1970, Tommasi denounced the conservative old guard of the party and called for immediate revolution. Koehl expelled him from the Party in 1973, claiming that he was smoking
marijuana and entertaining young women at party headquarters, as well as misusing party funds. One of the NSLF's recruits during this period was
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...
student
David Duke
David Ernest Duke (born July 1, 1950) is an American white supremacist, antisemitic conspiracy theorist, far-right politician, convicted felon, and former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. From 1989 to 1992, he was a membe ...
.
The NSLF was reconstituted as a new organization on March 2, 1974 "in the presence of 43 National Socialist revolutionaries" in
El Monte,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
. The NSLF broke with established Nazi tradition, eschewing
brownshirt uniforms and abandoning attempts to raise a "
mass movement" of supporters to win power through legal means. Instead, Tommasi argued that it was best for small bands of "National Socialist revolutionaries" to arm themselves and conduct
guerrilla warfare. The new organization was structured with two tiers, a legal "aboveground" membership - which at most included forty members - and a smaller "underground" that was dedicated to violent, revolutionary action. This group included Tommasi,
Karl Hand, David Rust and
James Mason, the latter of whom was not an official member of the NSLF.
[Kaplan p.303]
Joseph Tommasi was killed at the El Monte headquarters of the NSWPP in August 1975 and was succeeded by his lieutenant David Rust, who was soon arrested on a weapons charge.
Units of the group were formed in
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
,
Buffalo, NY
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...
,
Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington (Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christina ...
and
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
. In 1982, James Mason took a splinter group to form the Universal Order, a group that promoted the ideas of
Charles Manson as a continuation of
Nazism
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) i ...
, and took with them the periodical ''Siege!'', though the parting was reportedly amicable. By that time Karl Hand headed the group and published ''Defiance''. Under Hand, the NSLF went back to the earlier model of uniformed political demonstrations and legality. However, the organization would come to an end with Hand's arrest on a weapons charge in the mid-1980s.
[Kaplan pp.195, 222-3]
Periodicals
*''The National Socialist liberator'' Arlington, Va.: National Socialist Liberation Front, May 1969 – mid 1970s?
*
National Socialist review'' Panorama City, Calif.: NSLF Jan 1975 – ?
*''Defiance'' Buffalo, N.Y.: M. Stachowski 1980 –
*''Siege'' Chillicothe, Ohio: National Socialist Liberation Front, mid-1970s – 1982 (became publication of Universal Order)
*''National Socialist observer.'' Kenner, LA: NSLF, Sept. 1984 – ?
*
The future belongs to the few of us still willing to get our hands dirty' NSLF poster
References
Notes
Citations
External links
Terrorist incidents ascribed to the NSLFon the START terrorism database
{{Authority control
Neo-Nazi organizations in the United States
Youth wings of political parties in the United States
Student wings of political parties in the United States
Student organizations established in 1969
1969 establishments in California
1980s disestablishments in the United States
White nationalism in California
Anti-capitalist organizations
Political youth organizations in the United States
Student political organizations in the United States
Youth wings of fascist parties