National Alliance (United States)

National Alliance
Leader Will Williams [1]
Founded 1974
Headquarters Hillsboro, West Virginia
Laurel Bloomery, Tennessee
Ideology White nationalism,
Right-wing extremism,
White separatism,
National Socialism
Colours Black, white, red
Website
natall.com

The National Alliance was a white nationalist, anti-semitic[2][3] and white separatist[4][5] political organization. It was founded by university physics professor William Luther Pierce in 1974, and was based in Hillsboro, West Virginia. The group ceased operations, as a "membership organization," in 2013.[6]

Membership in 2002 was estimated at 2,500 with an annual income of $1 million.[7]

History

Pierce founded the group in 1974 at about the same time he created the pantheistic Cosmotheist Community Church. He was a former physics professor and the author of The Turner Diaries and Hunter, both novels about a white revolution in America, which he wrote under the pen name Andrew MacDonald. The National Alliance was reorganized from an earlier group: the National Youth Alliance (NYA) which in turn was formed out of the remains of an organization called Youth for Wallace which supported Governor George Wallace's 1968 presidential campaign. The NYA broke into factions as a result of infighting, and Pierce gained control of the largest remnant in 1970 and continued to lead the organization under that name until its reorganization in 1974. Pierce previously had been an associate of the assassinated leader of the American Nazi Party, George Lincoln Rockwell, and had been editor of the party's magazine, National Socialist World.[8]

Pierce died of cancer on July 23, 2002.[9] The Board of Directors appointed Erich Gliebe to succeed William Pierce as Chairman of the organization.[10] Power struggles within the organization began almost immediately.

Billy Roper, the Deputy Membership Coordinator, was fired for incompetency in September 2002.

In August 2003, another internal disruption occurred with two members of the Board of Directors, firefighter Fred Streed and former economics professor Robert DeMarais resigning.

In April 2005, prominent Alliance member Kevin Alfred Strom, then editor of National Vanguard Magazine, issued a declaration calling for Erich Gliebe to step down;[11] the Executive Committee of the National Alliance and most unit coordinators supported this action. Gliebe refused to meet the demand, claiming that the National Alliance operates under the "Leadership Principle" and stating that he would not yield to any coup. Strom then formed a new group called National Vanguard. In January 2007 Strom was indicted for possession of child pornography and for seeking to coerce a 10-year-old girl sexually.[12] Two of the three charges were dismissed in October 2007 and the third was pending trial in January 2008. Since then, Strom has pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography and all of the other charges have been dropped. He was sentenced to 23 months in prison in April 2008.[13] In March 2007 National Vanguard dissolved.

Shortly after the attempted coup by Strom, Gliebe resigned as Chairman of the Alliance stating that he needed more time to spend with his family, having married former stripper Erika Snyder. Gliebe briefly appointed Shaun Walker as his successor. However, in June 2006, Walker was arrested for conspiring to commit Civil Rights violations (in 2007 Walker was sentenced to 87 months in prison).[14] After Walker's arrest, Gliebe again assumed leadership of the organization.[15]

According to the SPLC, paid membership had declined to fewer than 800 and the paid staff was down to only 10 people as of 2006.[16]

In January 2013, prominent Sacramento Unit Coordinator Jim Ring resigned from the organization and issued a plea for Gliebe to resign.[17] At the same time, he expressed his willingness to take over the dwindling group. According to Ring, as of 2012 the organization consisted of less than 100 members, with no paid staff members other than Gliebe.[18]

In 2013 it was revealed that the organization's property in Mill Point, West Virginia had been put up for sale. This development, coupled with the organization's websites being down for much of 2013 and the end of the once-weekly American Dissident Voices broadcasts, suggests that the National Alliance may have ceased operating.

The end of the National Alliance, as a "membership organization" was confirmed by Erich Gliebe in September 2013.[6]

Business

Before the death of Pierce, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation called the Alliance the best-financed and best-organized white nationalist organization of its kind in the United States. Membership in 2002 was estimated at 2,500 with an annual income of $1 million.[19]

In the past, the organization ran a white power record label called Resistance Records, and its radio program, American Dissident Voices, was once heard on shortwave, AM and FM stations, and streaming audio on the Internet. At one point in the mid-1990s there were 22 radio stations, AM and FM, which carried the program. The original host was Strom until early 1997 when Pierce took it over full-time. Upon the death of Pierce in July 2002 it again was hosted until April 16, 2005 by Strom. Walker then became the voice for American Dissident Voices until his arrest in June 2006. At that time, Gliebe became the voice of the radio program. Broadcasts continued until 2012, when the frequency became erratic. At some time in 2013, Gliebe ceased broadcasting altogether, but programming was resumed by Kevin Alfred Strom in December of that year.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "TRIUMPH OF THE WILL: Will Williams and the National Alliance". Southern Poverty Law Center. December 17, 2014. Retrieved 2015-05-04.
  2. ↑ Hilliard, Robert L.; Michael C. Keith. Waves of Rancor: Tuning into the Radical Right. M. E. Sharpe. p. 165. ISBN 978-0765601315.
  3. ↑ 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.
  4. ↑ Richie, Warren (December 20, 2011). "Failed Martin Luther King Day parade bomber gets 32-year sentence". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 14 February 2012.
  5. ↑ "Bomb suspect tied to supremacist group". Boston Globe. March 10, 2011. Retrieved 14 February 2012.
  6. 1 2 Splcenter.org
  7. ↑ "William Pierce: A Political History". Southern Poverty Law Center. Winter 1999. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  8. ↑ "Beyond A Dead Man's Deeds: The National Alliance After William Pierce". Newcomm.org. Chicago: CNC: Center for New Community. 2002. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-03-08. Retrieved 2011-03-08.
  9. ↑ "William Pierce, America's leading neo-Nazi, dies". Southern Poverty Law Center. 2002. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  10. ↑ "Death of a Führer". Southern Poverty Law Center. Fall 2002. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  11. ↑ Nationalvanguard.org Archived November 13, 2005, at the Wayback Machine.
  12. ↑ "White Supremacist Busted on Child-Porn Charge". ABC News. January 4, 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  13. ↑ "White nationalist sentenced in child porn case". Charlottesville Daily Progress. 2008-04-21. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  14. ↑ "White-separatists get prison time for "hate crimes"". The Salt Lake Tribune. August 14, 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  15. ↑ "Neo-Nazi National Alliance leader indicted in civil rights conspiracy". Southern Poverty Law Center. June 9, 2006. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  16. ↑ "Neo-Nazi National Alliance Experiences Troubled Times". Southern Poverty Law Center. December 2003. Archived from the original on 2007-07-14. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  17. ↑ Splcenter.org
  18. ↑ Natallnews.net
  19. ↑ "William Pierce: A Political History". Southern Poverty Law Center. Winter 1999. Retrieved 2007-08-17.

External links

Citizens' Council FBI files obtained through the FOIA and hosted at the Internet Archive

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