Attack! (publication)

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

The National Alliance was established by William Luther Pierce in 1974, renamed and restructured from another organization called the National Youth Alliance. Pierce was a former member of the American Nazi Party, and a long time associate of its leader George Lincoln Rockwell. 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. 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. Pierce renamed and restructured it in 1974. The group was white supremacist and neo-Nazi in orentation.

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. In 1985, Pierce moved his operations from Arlington County, Virginia, to a location in Mill Point, West Virginia, which he paid for with $95,000 in cash. At this location, he founded the Cosmotheist Community Church. 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. William Pierce was arrested in 1995 on charges of assaulting a female staff member on the grounds of the Mill Point headquarters.

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. McVeigh bought copies of the book (published by the National Alliance), sold them at gun shows, and otherwise distributed them.

In 1997, two National Alliance members were charged with committing bank robberies in Florida and Connecticut. 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. 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.

After Pierce's death

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. Membership declined after Pierce's death, and after a split in its ranks in 2005, became largely defunct.

In April 2005, prominent Alliance member Kevin Alfred Strom, then editor of ''National Vanguard'' magazine, issued a declaration calling for Gliebe to step down; 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. In January 2008, Strom pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography in exchange for the other charges to be dropped. He was sentenced to 23 months in prison on April 23, 2008. 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", 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."

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. By that year, paid membership for the Alliance had declined to fewer than 800 and the paid staff was down to only ten people.

Will Williams offshoot

In 2014, Will Williams became head of an organization which calls itself the National Alliance (NA). However, a rival faction disputes the claim that this group is maintaining continuity with the original Alliance which was founded by Pierce. 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.

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. He was convicted, briefly incarcerated, and placed on probation. Williams was banned from the NA compound in West Virginia pursuant to a court order stemming from his 2015 arrest. Williams claims that the National Alliance "(is) back. We are definitely back". 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'."

Business

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

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

Cosmotheist Church

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

See also

*Fascism in the United States
* Spokane bombing attempt
* Algiz
* List of white nationalist organizations
* Nationalist Front
* Neo-Nazi groups of the United States

References

Works cited

*
*
*

{{Authority control

National Alliance (United States)
Anti-Zionism in the United States
Neo-Nazi organizations in the United States
Organizations established in 1974
Organizations disestablished in 2013
1974 establishments in West Virginia
2013 disestablishments in West Virginia
History of racism in West Virginia
Separatism in the United States
White separatist groups