JOSEPH TOMMASI TRIBUTE
JOSEPH CHARLES TOMMASI 1951-1975
THIRD POSITION - LEADERLESS RESISTANCE - WHITE REVOLUTION
FROM TOM METZGER:
I knew Joe Tommassi personally back in the early seventies. I met him and some of his NSLF soldiers at the New Christian Crusade Church convention headed by James K. Warner. I was still wet behind the ears and pretty naive at the time. Actually the first physical meet was when the hotel elevator door slid open into the meeting hall and there he was. Dressed in Levis, a sweat shirt and army fatigue jacket plus combat boots. In fact all his men were dressed like 60's left wing radicals. There was one very beautiful girl in the group also and she dressed the same. I talked to Joe for a few minutes but it was obvious he was way out front of what I was into. But he was very gracious and polite as we spoke.
And then they were gone like people on a mission. Later when Joe rolled a surplus smoke grenade down the isle of the Hollywood theater that was premiering the big budget Film "Holocaust" I laughed and laughed. On the smoke bomb he had attached a note. "HELLO THIS IS A FREINDLY GIFT FROM YOUR LOCAL NAZI PARTY". The theater was packed with hundreds of big shots, politicians, Hollywood Jews etc. The poured into the streets and were not allowed back in the theater for 2 hours. Next day the Los Angeles Times headlines screamed "Nazi's bomb premier of the film "Holocaust".
Up until a short time before Joe was a spit and polish uniform wearing National Socialist who went by the book? Joe told me he had been National Socialist since his early teens. Joe inherited a house in Elmonte, Ca. Which he turned into a headquarters for the old Rockwell party now being led by Mat Kahl. Joe recruited a lot of people in the L.A. area and performed many marches. Joe was a natural leader of men and did not believe in going completely by the book.
He allowed some beer drinking in the headquarters and an occasional female companion into his room.
This was one of the things that led to his downfall. Mat Kohl was unmarried bachelor type, that like many National socialist were at the time what could be considered tight asses. Not all by any means but Kohl wanted to run the headquarters like a monastery which didn’t fit well with Joe. He was a working class guy who knew how to handle working class people. He was evolving through a Brown shirt stage into a Freebooter which was the foreunner of the street action NS.
Commander Khol called for a nation convention in the Midwest. So Joe and a few others attended. A trap was sprung at this meeting. A couple of officers like Joe owned the building that served as headquarters for the party in Elmonte and I believe Chicago. They were talked into signing their headquarters over to the national party, i.e. Mat Khoel. Not long after National headquarters using the excuse that Joe was allowing parties beer and women into his Elmonte headquarters Khoel kicked Joe out of his own Headquarters.
From there, Joe seeing the folly of right wing membership organizations, created the NATIONAL SOCIALIST LIBERATION FRONT. An Order style loose cell type group wearing street clothes, surplus military jackets much like the left wing. They grew hair long and many had beards. They could move through the streets of L.a with out notice. No armbands, badges or any other identifying trinkets. They trained in the mountains and the deserts. They attacked Marxist book stores and meetings, rumors are the bombed a couple of porn shops. The published a very slick magazine with big pictures with captions such as "POWER COMES FROM OUT OF A BARREL OF A GUN" and many more revolutionary mottos and articles.
But as all this was going on Joe festered at the idea that his home and headquarters had been swindled from him. Every few days he drove past his old home. It was now run on the total Hollywood version with full uniforms and spit and polish. Even with armed sentries in front of the building. One day Joe went past and a young security guard yelled at him in a disrespectful way. Joe slammed on the breaks and exited his car heading towards this young guard. The young guard only 16 pulled his gun and shot Joe in the chest. Joe died at the scene in front of his own house.
I was running a book sales booth at the Pomona gun show when Joe’s wife approached me. She was pregnant with Joe’s child. After giving her a big hug, she told me she was going back to Joes parents home to live and have the baby. Joe was from Italian background and his parents had operated an Italian restaurant in Kansas. Some where in my archives I have a picture of the sign for the family restaurant. One of his closest comrades was named Rust. 25 years or so ago I tracked him down. He told me he had a trunk full of records and pictures. I thought this should be made into a book about Joe but after agreeing at first, Rust kept giving me the run around after that and I never was able to get those papers. Joe’s boy would be in his thirties by now but I never heard from them after they went back to Kansas.
It is my opinion that if Joe’s NSLF ideas of organization would have spread across the nation we would be in a much better situation than we are now in. Unfortunately, Joe Tommassi like Robert Mathews did not have enough time to get it really rolling big time.
From David Pringle:
Joseph Tommasi was the founder and leader of the National Socialist Liberation Front (NSLF). The NSLF was focused on armed struggle. He was the Western District leader of the National Socialist White People's Party and broke with Matt Koehl and the NSWPP in Fall of 1973. James Mason wrote quite a bit about him in the newsletter turned book Siege. Tommasi was killed during a brawl at the Los Angeles NSWPP headquarters on August 15, 1975. I have met a few former NSLF members and all of them have a reverent tone when speaking of Tomassi. In my opinion he is one of the most quotable American Nazis, the quote in my signature was featured on a flyer the NSLF used to distribute.
While I am in no way an expert on Tommasi. I admire his militancy, willingness to fight to the death and his ability to organize and inspire White men and women. I also love his straight forward no BS style of writing; here is a sample:
STRATEGY FOR REVOLUTION
On March 2nd, 1974, forty-three National Socialist Revolutionaries met in a hall in El Monte, California. At the meeting the National Socialists declared their lack of faith in the losing strategy of the mass movement idea. The National Socialists abandoned the mass strategy and adopted the revolutionary concept of the guerilla underground.
-- No longer would we think in terms of obtaining political power through the electorate; but instead, of hurting the Enemy through force and violence. We would build the armed struggle.
-- We would no longer adhere to a mass strategy but would instead cultivate those already committed to the National Socialists World View. We have limited ourselves to only the best among the Movement.
-- We have abandoned petty bourgeois, bureaucratic hang-ups and have developed the idea that the end justifies the means. What works is good!
-- We recognize that women have played a vanguard role in most revolutionary efforts and involve them in every aspect of the NSLF.
-- We recognize the fact that the masses of Whites will never rally around radical politics. White people no longer have the ability to even recognize the enemy, so how could Movement adherents think the masses could ever involve themselves in revolution? The White masses don't recognize their enemies, they don't even care, and they don't have the guts to shed their bourgeois hang-ups.
-- We view armed struggle as the only effective means of forcing political change.
The White man has lost! We are an occupied people in our own land who must now develop a totally different outlook on revolution.
We must build the underground. We are making it an effective, hard-hitting National Socialist Revolutionary Army.
Obviously he put the extreme in Extreme Right. Here are a few more quotes from his writings:
"Leadership in the struggle has to do with making things happen. Leadership is the people who are doing it, cutting through diversionary debate, smashing forms and familiarities that hold us back, and through developing and acting on a clear line of how we move to win, redefining the context, content, and meaning of the National Socialist Movement and the Revolution. That's what we call SEIZING THE TIME!"
"We DO NOT wish for 'Law and Order,' for law and order means the continued existence of this rotten rip-off Capitalist Jew System. We wish for anarchy and chaos which will enable us to ATTACK the system while her Big Brother Pigs trying to keep the pieces from falling apart. We wish for a situation so confused and mixed-up that we can go after those bastards responsible for the anti-White policies and attacks against our people which now exist. Such chaos would allow us to so intensify our assaults that we could very well plunge the entire system to its death. For us to support those (the police) who maintain the 'rules the wise men make for the fools' is absurd and suicidal."
Joe Tommasi was a man ahead of his time and deserves to be remembered.
From "Muller" at Stormfront:
On March 2nd, 1974, forty three National Socialist Revolutionaries met in a hall in El Monte, California. At the meeting, the National Socialists declared their lack of faith in the losing strategy of the mass movement idea. The National Socialists abandoned the mass strategy and adopted the revolutionary concept of the guerilla underground.
The NSLF was started by Joseph Tomassi after he left the NSWPP, due to what I have heard was jealousy over his effectiveness at organizing. The NSLF engaged in a number of low key actions including tear gassing a memorial rally for Jewish spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and bombing a number of Communist Party targets. Other actions by the NSLF have not been confirmed, the NSLF was still in it's infancy and like many guerilla groups designed to strike at soft targets in the beginning and expand in operations.
In August of 1975 Tomassi was killed at the NSWPP party building after another guard had "flipped off" Tomassi as he was driving by. Tomassi exited his vehicle attacked the guard who had insulted him, while another guard drew his pistol and shot Tomassi in the head. From there the leadership passed to Karl Hand, who was imprisoned and the NSLF fell apart. Muller
"A GIFT FROM YOUR LOCAL NATIONAL SOCIALIST LIBERATION FRONT"
Above: Gas masked policeman questions rally staff (Michael Glass - center; Robert Carl Cohen - far right)
That evening approximately 3,000 people filled the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Roscoe Lee Browne had just begun the performance when a riot control projectile of a type normally available only to police departments exploded in front of the air intake above the proscenium - quickly filling the hall with an aerosol powder irritant. Choking, vomiting & fainting, the crowd fled outside - into a severe thunder storm. As if forewarned, within minutes Santa Monica police & firemen wearing gas masks & equipped with portable ventilator fans appeared - telling the dazed & sickened crowd huddling for shelter in the outer lobby: "The show's over - go home." Despite being urged to leave, over 2,000 waited more than an hour until the gas had cleared, then reentered the hall. All 26 performers, including Henry Fonda who, wearing a pacemaker, after being assisted out of the auditorium by Michael Glass, remained and went on with the show. An anonymous caller claimed the "Provisional Wing of the National Socialist Liberation Front" was responsible.
BUILDING THE REVOLUTIONARY PARTY - Joseph Tommasi
POLITICAL POWER STEMS FROM THE BARREL OF A GUN
Winning the hearts and minds of the people takes intense organizing activity and a willingness on the part of the people to get involved and be organized. Both at this time do not exist. Since a mass movement cannot be "pulled off" in America because of the anti-mass movement nature of the American people (which stems from their ever-growing apathy), the only recourse for National Socialist Revolutionaries is to go underground and build their own armed struggle to wage war against the state.
National Socialist activities have never produced one significant political result in the U.S.A. Any mob resistance our people have ever been engaged in has always been a spontaneous eruption (like Boston) with the participation and agitation of no political party or National Socialist activist. They did it themselves and without our help. Organizationally, the Movement has failed to exploit the opportunities available to create "mass" mob violence against the enemy, even when such opportunities have lingered on. Publicity stunts have always supplanted effective political action. There has been no arming the students, no burning of school busses except by mobs totally disconnected with National Socialism, no organization of mass violent demonstrations, and no effort to communicate with the people and provide the necessary National Socialist Political Leadership to gain direct National Socialist successes.
In Boston, contrary to claims of the old Party, the people rejected the Party and if anything desired help from the Ku Klux Klan, an embarrassment for the Party. This situation occurred because of a complete lack of proper leadership and leadership activity on the part of the Party. The Party with their stagnant Prussian tactics were incapable of identifying with the revolutionary youth. Special propaganda and mass organizing did not occur. Just a few stunts for the newspapers and no solutions for the problems of the people.
As National Socialist Revolutionaries we must always keep in mind that nothing we do against the System can ever be conceived as "adventuristic". Militant struggle is the key to heightening contradictions. It not only strikes concrete blows against the State but also builds revolutionary consciousness among those involved in the struggle, which is what must happen before we can attempt to build our outside power bases from which to operate while building a popular base of support. Building a popular base of support will become more and more of a necessity and an easier goal to achieve as conditions in the country become worse and worse.
Our greatest weakness is our belief in our weakness. We have to communicate to all National Socialist Revolutionaries our strength and to show them our strength we have to show them the strength of fighting. We must build confidence within the entire Movement before we can hope to help people and lead those people in revolution. That confidence must be based on the idea that as National Socialist Revolutionaries we cannot be stopped by anyone: the System; the Reds; or the Reaction! This confidence must project the image and reality that only confrontation politics, force and violence, can change the anti-White actions of our enemies. Only by fighting, by any means necessary, will we be able to effect political change. We cannot effect political change by projecting a phony, bureaucratic, Prussian image and constantly spouting unrealistic daydreams, such as imagining the masses would ever wish to emulate Stormtroopers. It just won't happen.
All revolutions, the actual assumption of power, are instigated by the effort of a tiny few. Those who could possibly participate in such a revolution among the White people in America are not like those who participated in past European struggles. Americans tend to go against the "grain" on practically anything. We are not Europeans and won't respond as Europeans. If a revolution occurs in America it will most likely be a violent one sparked by one lone incident and not by a prepared dialogue of political euphemisms. Until that one lone incident occurs, White people will never flock to the voting booths to place their physical support to the direction of helmeted Stormtroopers. They will instead continue to play the present Republican and Democrat party politics no matter how bad things get simply because of their complete apathy towards getting involved with their neighbors' problems. They don't recognize those problems as their own. The old Party could not offer any proof of their ability to provide solutions to the problems facing the country, especially when the Party had only one or two real leaders. With such a situation, how could the Party make claims of having the answer? Their past performances give no guiding light at this time.
"The future belongs to the few of us willing to get our hands dirty." --Joseph Tommasi, Founder, National Socialist Liberation Front
NSLF (The National Socialist Liberation Front) believes that it is necessary to begin development of an armed struggle immediately. We now understand the futility of maintaining the fight for social change within the framework of civil debate. Instead of trying to educate and organize people who don't see it our way, we write them off as enemies and neutralizers of the National Socialist Revolution. This has marked the ascendancy of the purely militant point of view in NSLF thinking. We now confine our outreach to the small group of Movement people we consider potentially militant National Socialist Revolutionaries. The NSLF feels that since these National Socialist already know that the System "sucks" all they need is a revolutionary example in order to move into armed struggle themselves. The NSLF will lead these National Socialist through a series of rigidly defined steps, from the lowest levels of armed struggle to the highest levels. The levels are determined by the violence of the weapons used. Rocks and "trashing" are on one level, molotov cocktails are higher and bombs are higher still. The highest level is, of course, guns. This tactic of levels includes no political guidelines or flexibility and almost completely disregards mass participation. Levels are defined solely in terms of the weapons used. A mass action involving hundreds using only rocks is defined as a lower level of struggle than a bombing carried out by a few.
Leadership in the struggle has to do with making things happen. Leadership is the people who are doing it, cutting through diversionary debate, smashing forms and familiarities that hold us back, and through developing and acting on a clear line of how we move to win, redefining the context, content, and meaning of the National Socialist Movement and the Revolution. That's what we call SEIZING THE TIME! NSLF is building an underground army. We must spread our efforts to trouble spots in the country, exploiting racially troubled areas and establishing bases of support. At these times we will continue to fan the fires as long as we can, using this chaos to launch armed attacks against the enemy.
Since our militance is obviously going to lead to a military confrontation (probably with the U.S. Army that is growing ever Blacker), maybe not for the next few years, then the fact that most of the Movement has no consistency of armaments makes us fools. So we must build internally during the new few months. Therefore we should state publicly that we believe in, support, and are preparing for armed struggle; For that is what we must do to effect political change.
In times of revolution, just wars and wars of liberation, we must love the angels of destruction and disorder as opposed to the devils of conservatism and law and order. To hell with all those who block the Revolution with rhetoric - revolutionary rhetoric or counter � revolutionary rhetoric! We will not make our most eloquent statements in courtrooms and at press conferences, but in the streets of Jew-Capitalist America! The choice of weapons belongs to him who moves; and NSLF moves into the streets and we have made our choice of weapons and tactics. The weapon of criticism will never equal the criticism of weapons. NSLF prefers a paralyzed enemy to a well-criticized one. Those who can't stand the sight of blood, especially their own, should stay home and pray for those who come outside the master's rules to "move", to DO IT, and pray for victory and not an end to the slaughter. Pray for us to succeed for if we do succeed you will be safe. If we don't, then kiss the baby good-bye. Muller
STRATEGY FOR REVOLUTION - Joseph Tommasi
On March 2nd, 1974, forty-three National Socialist Revolutionaries met in a hall in El Monte, California. At the meeting the National Socialist declared their lack of faith in the losing strategy of the mass movement idea. The National Socialist abandoned the mass strategy and adopted the revolutionary concept of the guerrilla underground. No longer would we think in terms of obtaining political power through the electorate; But instead, of hurting the Enemy through force and violence.
We would build the armed struggle. We would no longer adhere to a mass strategy but would instead cultivate those already committed to the National Socialist World-View. We have limited ourselves to only the best among Movement people. We have abandoned petty bourgeois, bureaucratic hang-ups and have developed the idea that the end justifies the means. What works is good!
We recognize that women have played a vanguard role in most revolutionary efforts and involve them in every aspect of NSLF. We recognize the fact that the masses of Whites will never rally around radical politics. White people no longer have the ability to even recognize the enemy, so how could Movement adherents think the masses could ever involve themselves in revolution? The White masses don't recognize their enemies, they don't even care, and they don't have the guts to shed their bourgeois hang-ups.
We view armed struggle as the only effective means of forcing political change. The White Man has lost! We are an occupied people in our own land who must now develop a totally different outlook on revolution. We must build the underground. We are making it an effective, hard-hitting National Socialist Revolutionary Army. We have already begun to launch armed assaults against the Enemy. More assaults will continue, whether the Enemy be the Right Wing Reactionaries, the System, or the Communists. National Socialist Ideological and Political training, additional training in guerrilla warfare, explosives and demolition, military assault weapons and gas warfare, along with electronic communications and electronic surveillance techniques are taking place. Classes in first aid, police evasion, techniques of being a POW and escape are also taking place.
The NSLF is divided into combat units. A combat unit consists of three liberation fighters and a unit leader. No one combat unit knows who constitutes another combat unit. An NSLF combat unit member is trained as an efficient guerrilla fighter dedicated to destroying the Enemy, no matter who that enemy may be. On the surface he has no uniform. He could be the bearded long-hair sitting next to you on the bus, or the clean-cut store clerk. He could be anyone anywhere.
The NSLF has the best elements gathered together from the past twenty years of National Socialist activity in the United States. It has gathered experienced communications experts, military firearms experts, along with the finest liberation fighters available. Each member understands the new concept, the new strategy and tactics needed in order to effect political change. No longer willing to play the games of Movement bureaucracies or associating with bald-headed idiots who have no concept of realities, the NSLF will undoubtedly emerge the vanguard fighters in the National Socialist Revolution!
From "HailKlassenBKS" at Stormfront:
If you can get ahold of Siege, that will tell you a lot about him. I don't have the first addition, but I know the second edition which I have (limited to 500, so kinda hard to say if it is even available anymore) has a ton of information on Tommasi. Theres everything from articles influenced by him written by Mason, to various newspaper photocopies on Tommasi. He essentially went from a Rockwell-style Nazi in a uniform to a long haired revolutionary with a more 'leftist' slant to things, at least as far as his rethoric went. All in all a good fellow, who probably could have made a real difference, if he hadn't had his life cut short so soon. What is probably the most interesting thing about his death is that it wasn't by a "red" or an "antiracist" or a jew, but rather by another member of the movement. I guess it just goes to show that we are our own worst enemies...if we aren't killing eachother or testifying against eachother, we're spreading rumours or what have you. Things haven't changed much.
From Wikipedia:
Joseph Charles Tommasi (1951-August 15, 1975) was an American National Socialist who founded the National Socialist Liberation Front (NSLF) in 1974. Breaking with the conservative image of American Nazism and its "mass strategy," he advocated an armed guerrilla struggle against the "System."
Tommasi was a young leader in the National Socialist White People's Party in southern California. The Party splintered, following George Lincoln Rockwell's death, and Tommasi, one of most radical of the leadership, founded the National Socialist Liberation Front (on March 2, 1974) and began publication of a periodical called 'Siege.' He was assassinated in 1975.
INFLUENCE
Tommasi became an inspiration of James Mason's, who later (in 1980) revived the NSLF and 'SIEGE.'
REFERENCES
'Encyclopedia of White Power: A Sourcebook on the Radical Racist Right' by Jeffrey Kaplan (Rowman & Littlefield Pub Inc, 2000, ISBN 0742503402)
'Siege: The Collected Writings of James Mason' by James Mason; introduced by Ryan Schuster (ISBN 0972440801)
'Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity' by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (2001, ISBN 0814731554)
EXTERNAL LINKS
'The Post-Rockwell Period 1967-1978' (http://www.alphalink.com.au/~radnat/usanazis/chapter3.html) chapter three of 'American Nazism In The Context Of The American Extreme Right: 1960 - 1978' (http://www.alphalink.com.au/~radnat/usanazis/index.html) by Jim Saleam
'Who was Joseph Tommasi?'(http://www.stormfront.org/archive/t-108733), posted in the Stormfront lounge. Includes a number of Tommasi's proclamations.
'A Brief Histtory of Post-Rockwell National Socialism'(http://hacovington.blogspot.com/2002_05_01_hacovington_archive.html) by John Steele
'The Post-War Paths of Occult National Socialism' (http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/app/home/contribution.asp?wasp=bav097bqrn5wtmccekdw&referrer=parent&backto=issue,3,5;journal,14,21;linkingpublicationresults,1:300354,1): from Rockwell and Madole to Manson by J. Kaplan
From the website of the English magazine 'The Scorpion' (http://thescorp.multics.org/)
Excerpt from the article 'Siege Mentality' by Dominic Hampshire:
The Party [The National Socialist White Peoples' Party in the early 70's] subsequently splintered and Joseph Tommasi, one of the more successful and certainly more radical of the leadership, formed his own group, the National Socialist Liberation Front. As a vehicle for the NSLF, he began publication of a periodical he called Siege, high on invective, not so high in intellectual content. Tommasi, a self-proclaimed political terrorist, was assassinated in 1975. The following year Mason left the NSWPP' out of disgust for that group's follies and lack of any tangible progress. In 1980 he revived the by then defunct NSLF together with Siege as a monthly newsletter to "develop the philosophy" of revolution.
[James Mason authored the book 'Siege: The Collected Writings of James Mason' (1992)]
From the website of the English occultic-anarchist society "Synthesis," in their 'Journal Du Cercle De La Rose Noire' (http://www.rosenoire.org/):
Excerpt from the article 'Paranoia in the Pews - A Further Statement on the International Third Position' (Issued by the National Revolutionary Faction' by Dominic Hampshire):
We are accused of stealing other people's ideas because we have used the late Joseph Tommasi's popular NSLF slogan: "the future belongs to those willing to get their hands dirty." But this is not theft - about which the ITP could probably teach us a great deal - it is a fitting tribute to a man who in revolutionary terms broke the conservative mould and took the agenda forward. After all, we do not regard the ITP as ideological and theological copycats simply because they use the expression "distributism" and employ the term "Catholic."
From the website of the "Australian Nationalist" - Ideological, Historical, and Legal Archive (http://www.alphalink.com.au/~radnat/):
Two excerpts from the article 'American Nazism In The Context Of The American Extreme Right: 1960 - 1978' (Jim Saleam; 1985; Chapter Three: The Post Rockwell Period 1967 - 1978; Section One: The National Socialist White People's Party (NSWPP)]:
************
In 1967, the issue was clear for the American Nazis. United as the NSWPP, they had to overcome the effects of the murder of Rockwell and professionalize the organization under the leadership of Matt Koehl, Rockwell's designated successor. The immediate result of Rockwell's murder was a confused period of schism, mutiny and general disorganization in American Nazism. In Los Angeles, James K. Warner re-emerged to trumpet the "rebirth" of the American Nazi Party. (1) Certain "stormtroopers," dissatisfied with their second-rung status in the new NSWPP, set up rival Nazi parties in Dallas and California. However, Koehl managed to surmount the crisis; it was in the words of a later Nazi publication "his finest hour". (2)
1 'The Free American,' No. 1, November, 1967.
2 Joe Tommasi, 'The Crisis in American National Socialism,' NSLF leaflet, 1975.
************
Of course, the NSWPP had already contended with two potentially dangerous splits: Frank Collin's foundation of the National Socialist Party of America in Chicago in 1970, and Dr. Pierce's defection, also in that year. The schismatic days of 1967-68 could also be mentioned. However, the desertion of Joe Tommasi, Western District Leader, in October 1973 made it clear that there was a leadership crisis in the NSWPP. Tommasi resigned just as the oil crisis was getting underway and raised the question of Koehl's infirmities of leadership. Further, according to a Nazi source there was supposed personal rivalry between Koehl and Tommasi of an obscure nature, which festered throughout 1973. The Nazi Commander, anxious to "discipline" his subordinate, further exacerbated the division. (70)
In October 1973, the greater part of the Los Angeles unit of the NSWPP, along with sections of other units, seceded under Tommasi's leadership to establish the National Socialist Liberation Front. While other schismatics had been largely isolated, many NSWPP members had sympathy for Tommasi. As the months rolled on, and the NSWPP failed to capitalize on the oil crisis, many Nazis abandoned Koehl for Tommasi. Even so, the NSLF began its life as a Nazi sect with some regret for it wished to patch up differences with the NSWPP. (71) Koehl would not yield. In its journal, 'Siege,' the NSLF expressed its dissatisfaction with the NSWPP, the "old party." The NSWPP was dismissed as an unsuitable political vehicle since its leaders were "bureaucrats," and not "mass propagandists". Koehl was personally reproached for using the "leadership principle" to run the party himself. It was argued that the NSWPP held to the illusion that violence was not necessary to achieve Nazi goals. The NSLF also charged, that the NSWPP was foolish to wait for the masses to rush to the party for salvation. It claimed that the NSWPP was dogmatic rather than pragmatic in its tactics and ideology, and that the middle-class leaders did not understand the psychology of the ordinary man. Nor was the party administration efficient. (72)
There was something to the NSLF's charges. From October 1973, the NSWPP was in a state of siege, surrounded by new schismatics. Koehl's method of dealing with schismatics was ineffective. In 1967 he ignored their arguments, denounced them as "psychopaths" and built the party. They usually faded from the scene. By 1974, this stratagem was moth-eaten for the heretics had become too numerous, and, if Koehl opted to build the party he risked the creation of new regional centers of opposition. The initiative was slipping from Koehl's hands and his immediate answer to the crisis - centralization - would also prove disastrous.
Koehl was no Rockwell. In Koehl's taped address The White Man's Viewpoint, the style of oratory and debate was deliberate but uninspiring. Rockwell had expressed fervor, militancy and intelligence. Koehl appeared humorless and certainly doctrinaire.(73) He had turned Rockwell's creed into a near-religious revelation, and consequently he addressed Americans in an aloof manner. In his 1977 pamphlet, Some Laws Of Revolutionary Development, Koehl admitted that many Nazis directly compared the U.S. and German Nazis and asked why the American party was not at a stage of development comparable with German Nazis in the 1920's. (74) Koehl however, insisted on his orthodox position that the party was still in Phase Two and must retain its sobriety - even though this was clearly not what many American Nazis wanted to hear. As Tommasi had contended, Koehl often restricted activities to conform with his vision of Phase Two. His objective leadership style and the destructive effects of his ideological revisions of Rockwell would be illustrated in the history of the NSWPP after 1973.
The Cleveland Congress of the NSWPP, held in 1973, and coinciding with the Tommasi crisis, marked the zenith of the party. Yet in "the largest stormtroop demonstration in the party's history," a mere 120 troopers marched through downtown Cleveland. (76) Although the Tommasi schism was an ulcer, the NSWPP continued on its course The Cleveland Congress laid down that the major issues of 1973 and 1974 were Watergate and Israel. In these years, White Power reported extensive Nazi activity on the oil crisis. Nazis picketed Hubert Humphrey at a Zionist function in San Francisco, with a "Dump Israel" theme, while new leaflets were issued calling for support for the Palestinian cause against "the bandit state of Israel." In an article entitled "The Honeymoon is Over," Koehl wrote that "the real picture of the Enemy behind all our problems was now visible in America." (77) Of course, this enemy was the Jewish community. Koehl's attacks on America's Jews took place at a time of a substantial shift in public and political support for Israel. Senator Fulbright denounced the Jewish lobby in Washington and General Brown, former chief of the U.S. Army, attacked Jewish-owned newspapers for their irresponsible attitudes towards the Middle East conflict. Jewish publications denounced these men for "anti-Semitism." (78) The Nazis were therefore not operating in a vacuum, yet they clearly failed to make much headway. In pursuing the question of the oil crisis, the NSWPP differed from its rival Nazi party, the National Socialist Party of America, which continued to stress racial issues. The NSWPP opted for "agitation," as distinct from making mere propaganda. However, whatever outbreak of anti-Semitism took place in the years 1973-75, it was directed more by organizations like Liberty Lobby than by the NSWPP. (79) (Further, the oil crisis agitation also left the NSWPP little time to agitate around Watergate, though the Nazis drew the inevitable parallel between the "corruption" of Weimar Germany and contemporary America.)
Throughout 1974 and 1975, the NS Bulletin encouraged its readers to be exceptionally active on behalf of the cause. The NS Bulletin encouraged newspaper sales, and the distribution of anti-busing leaflets to build the movement. (80) An appeal, launched in 1974, which aimed to raise $40,000 was fully subscribed by April 1975.
But split after split took place in the NSWPP. In early 1974, Casey Kalemba, leader of the Cleveland unit, seceded from the party to establish the United White People's Party. The new organization ceased to use the swastika, changed into blue uniforms and dubbed itself a "White Nationalist" party. (81) Kalemba became the "Commander" of the new party, which remained restricted to Ohio. Kalemba had been a trusted Koehl aide and had engendered substantial publicity for the party through opposition to busing. The reason for his desertion cannot be traced. The NSWPP which had hoped to make Cleveland its "Nuremberg," that is, the site for the annual party congress, was forced to relocate its 1974 Congress to St. Louis. In any event the 1974 Congress never took place, because of further internal division.
The 1974 split with the St. Louis unit cost the NSWPP dear. Dennis Nix, leader of the unit, had been commissioned to organize the Congress when Koehl, as trustee for NSWPP property, requested that Nix transfer the ownership of the local headquarters to him. This Nix refused to do. (82) Shortly afterwards, the St. Louis unit of the NSWPP, joined the National Alliance.
Koehl's inability to trust local organizers is striking. Every time the NSWPP won publicity in a city, Koehl's efforts to centralize power appear to have caused a split. This trend, already evident in 1974, continued in 1975. Early in 1975, the Detroit unit abandoned the NSWPP for reasons that remain obscure. Then a South Carolina section, under the direction of Frank Brasswell, defected to Tommasi's NSLF. Brasswell apparently preferred the NSLF's commitment to violent action. (83)
70 James N. Mason, letter to author, August 31, 1979.
71 "Joseph Tommasi: his last interview," Los Angeles Free Press, August 22-28, 1975.
72 'Siege,' No. 1, Third Quarter, 1974, passim.
73 Matt Koehl, 'The White Man's Viewpoint,' NSWPP tape recording, 1974.
74 Matt Koehl, 'Some Laws of Revolutionary Development,' Arlington, 1977, pp. 3-4.
75 Matt Koehl, 'Some Laws,' passim.
76. NSWPP members' leaflet.
77 'White Power,' No. 53, July 1974, p. 5.
78 NSWPP members' leaflet, 1974. The leaflet reproduced Jewish Press, October 11-17, 1974. The leaflet reproduced other cuttings reporting Jewish Defense League leader, Rabbi Meir Kahane, predicting a rise in U.S. anti-Semitism.
79 Liberty Lobby published the weekly, Spotlight, in 100,000 copies during this period. Spotlight was vehemently anti-Israel and was armed with a multi-million dollar budget.
80 NS Bulletin, No. 168, 1 December, 1974; 'NS Bulletin,' May, 1974, wrote: "this involves hard and sometimes persistent work..."; NS Bulletin, No. 176, April, 1975.referred to a picket of a "conservative anti-busing rally."
81 'What is the United White Peoples Party?,' UNWP leaflet, Cleveland, 1975.
82 'Siege,' No. 2, 1975. Though Siege was the journal of the NSLF, it abounded in gossip about the NSWPP.
83 NS Bulletin had mentioned Brasswell several times. His violent actions were praised by 'National Socialist Review,' January, 1975, 'NSLF Newsletter.'
Excerpt from the article 'Leaderless Resistance' by Jeffrey Kaplan (1997):
Following the assassination of Rockwell in 1967, the party began to fragment. Matt Koehl succeeded the Commander, soon renamed the American Nazi Party the National Socialist White People's Party (NSWPP), and initiated the endless round of purges that would soon cost the Party it's bare handful of capable adherents. Two of the victims of these purges and angry resignations, William Pierce and Joseph Tommasi, figure prominently in the development of the leaderless resistance concept.
Of Pierce much more will be said later. Joseph Tommasi concerns us first. Tommasi ironically was a Koehl loyalist almost to the day he was unceremoniously purged from the NSWPP and subsequently assassinated by an NSWPP member in 1975. [5] Tommasi was one of the young West Coast party members whose radicalism thrilled a few and appalled the majority of American National Socialists. Addressing the Second Party Congress in 1970, his ringing call for revolutionary action NOW brought him to the attention of William Pierce--then in the throes of his own bitter dispute with Matt Koehl. [6] Tommasi, like Pierce, was acutely aware of the bold actions undertaken by the Weathermen and the Symbionese Liberation Army to name but two of the left wing combatant organizations of the day. They were determined to create a campus-based revolutionary movement of the right on the same model. Thus was born the National Socialist Liberation Front (NSLF).
In 1973 or 1974, Tommasi published his now famous poster, "THE FUTURE BELONGS TO THE FEW OF US WILLING TO GET OUR HANDS DIRTY. POLITICAL TERROR: It's the only thing they understand," and his seminal pamphlet, 'Building the Revolutionary Party' to announce the formation of the NSLF. The NSLF's revolutionary ideology was based on the rejection of the conservative theory of mass action which Tommasi correctly believed was paralyzing the NS movement. For Tommasi, the mass action doctrine meant in reality that no serious anti-state actions were possible given the patent impossibility of creating a mass based National Socialist party in the U.S.
Tommasi gathered some 43 adherents to the foundational meeting of the NSLF in El Monte, California, on 2 March 1974. But this number is somewhat deceiving. Few of these young National Socialists were sufficiently suicidal to act on Tommasi's rhetoric. [7] In the end, only 4 NSLF "members" undertook revolutionary action, Tommasi, Karl Hand, David Rust and James Mason (Mason had not officially joined the group, only receiving his membership card after Tommasi's assassination). As James Mason recalls:
Yes, the N.S.L.F. of Tommasi had four persons who carried out the illegal activities. The remainder, the majority, weren't that much different from the N.S.W.P.P. members except they were a lot more forward thinking. [8]
The NSLF soldiered on at least in name for another decade. In that time however, Tommasi was murdered, Hand and Rust were incarcerated for acts of racially motivated violence and firearms charges, and James Mason found a new avatar in Charles Manson. But the NSLF's contribution to the leaderless resistance concept is incalculable. [9] The NSLF was the first to act on the theory that, regardless of the dearth of public support, a blow could be struck against the hated state, provided that the determined revolutionary was prepared to act resolutely and alone. Tommasi was among the first to fully grasp the truth of the strategic situation--in the milieu of the radical right, no one is to be trusted, anyone could be (and probably is) an informer for the government or for one of the many watchdog organizations monitoring radical right wing activity, and short of divine intervention, public support would not be forthcoming no matter what tactical approach the movement was to adopt. Yet in this state of weakness, there is ultimate strength. With nothing left to lose, a man is totally free to act as he will. For while the state had proven over and over again that it could effortlessly penetrate any right wing organization, it had yet to develop the capability to thwart the will of one man acting alone!
This revelation would do the NSLF little good. The group actually died with Tommasi. [10] The actions of Hand and Rust were in reality pathetic outbursts of pointless violence which succeeded only in bringing them into the care of the state's prison system. But the example, once proffered, could not be erased. Although it had yet to be given a name, leaderless resistance was born.
At the same time, it is important to remember that the conservative majority of the far right did not approve of the unauthorized actions of leaderless resistors. Their well grounded fear was of precisely the sort of pointless and undisciplined actions which landed the tiny NSLF combatant cadre in prison. Rather, between mass action's impotent dreams and leaderless resistance's antinomian reality, there was a third path which would become a model for the more extreme fringes of the present day militia movement. Borrowed from Leninist theory, the cell structure under a centralized command was the mark of the 1960s era Minutemen under the leadership of Robert Bolivar DePugh. R.N. Taylor recalls of these days:
The Minutemen never advocated leaderless resistance "per se." In fact where such did occur, where an individual or small group, did in fact take some action on their own, it was generally a cause for concern and created trouble for the National organization. We did our very best to maintain a certain discipline among the members.
Originally the structure of organization was in "bands" [that] pretty well conformed to the classic guerrilla band of from 6 to 12 people. Later for security reasons, we began to reorganize along the lines of "cells" of three people. When all the members, in a geographical proximity to one another had been made a part of a cell, then we instituted a dispersed cell system for members who lived at too great a distance from other members. Where three people from 500 or more miles apart would be members of a dispersed team. This was on the understanding that, if directed to do so, they would all meet at a given time and place. When they had fulfilled whatever function they were called upon to accomplish, they all would then return to their respective locations. Only one of the three would even know the identity of the other two members, and that party would be the only one directly in touch with the National Organization. This is like an underground or resistance war type of structure. In addition to these modes of organization, the national organization had what they termed the "Defense Survival Force." The DSF was a group of inner core members who had expertise and training in such skills as surreptitious entry, lock-picking, electronic eavesdropping and proficiency in weapons, tactics and all else that might apply to specialized para-military operations. The DSF to my knowledge never consisted of more than 50 members. This small sector were of course under control of the National Organization. There was nothing spontaneous or thrill of the moment about this inner corps' activities. So, from the very beginning the Minuteman Organization was always attempting to maintain leadership and some sense of discipline and restraint among it's members. [11]
The decade which followed Tommasi's death and the fall of the NSLF were, from the perspective of the far right, both eventful and deeply disheartening. Most notable, a true revolutionary movement, the "Silent Brotherhood," more popularly known as "the Order," under the leadership of Robert Mathews arose and after a brief but incandescent revolutionary career, was smashed by the state. It was not until the Order was nearing its inglorious end that many in the radical right were able to accept that the group could be anything other than a diabolically clever federal entrapment scheme. [12]
5 Interview with James Mason, 28 November 1996.
6 Ibid.
7 On the meeting, and for reprints of Tommasi's writings, see James Mason, 'Siege' (Denver, CO: Storm Books, 1992). On the formation of the NSLF, letter from James Mason, 16 December 1996.
8 Letter from James Mason, 16 December 1996. Mason was responding to the suggestion that this core/peripheral membership was at the root of differing claims by Tommasi of the level that NSLF support was either more than 40 or only 4.
9 One such contribution is provided by the special double issue of the NSLF's newsletter which offered a--how to' manual for those seeking to organize their own NS combatant organizations. See Karl Hand, 'Special Double Issue: How to Organize a Local Unit,' 'National Socialist Observer' (February & March 1985).
10 James Mason, 'Siege,' p. 104. Interview with James Mason, 28 November 1996.
11 Interview with R. N. Taylor, 11 June 1997. Even today, however, Taylor does not completely discount the utility of the leaderless resistance concept, given the unlikely possibility that the right person may emerge to carry on the fight: As for it's (leaderless resistance's) effect on "demonstrating resistance-however doomed it might appear." This might be the case, and perhaps the only case in which something effective would be accomplished. It brings to mind the Catalan Nationalist, Francisco Sabata, who conducted a one-man guerrilla war against Franco's government, for decades. He became something of a mythic Robin Hood figure in Spain. I'm sure his activities and the publicity generated by them, helped to serve as a sort of torch or beacon. What made Sabata the legend he was? I'm sure it was based on his daring, his determination and flair. He wasn't a madman, he wasn't a pervert--he was an idealistic patriot and nationalist of the highest order. So, if someone like that were to conduct some one man war, it might well capture the popular imagination. But nothing less than that.
12 On the Order, see Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt, 'The Silent Brotherhood' (New York: Signet, 1990). On the movement's suspicion of the Order as a federal government sting operation see Rick Cooper, 'Warning,' NSV Report (Jul/Sep 1984), p. 6. Too late, Cooper would realize his mistake and publish a eulogy to the Order. See NSV Report (Apr/Jun 1985), pp. 1-5.
Two excerpts from weblog entry 'More Boring Spiritual Stuff' by Winston Smith (1996):
I was very fortunate in that I was able first to become involved in a structured organization rather than the present---jeez, what can I call it? Let's be charitable and say the Movement is now in a kind of "stream of consciousness" mode. At any rate, when I first came in I was assigned a bunk, a uniform, a weapon from the El Monte HQ armory, and a list of daily responsibilities ranging from literature distribution quotas to when it was my day to wash dishes and clean the toilets. My first commanding officer in the NSWPP, the late Captain Joseph Tommasi, was an instinctive leader. He kept us busy and while aware of the fact that he was handling young men in a state of high morale and adventurous spirit, he tolerated no BS. He put it to me like this on one occasion: "The Party doesn't accommodate you, trooper. YOU accommodate the PARTY."
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The best people we have ever had were those who SERVED our cause, not used it, served it with their whole hearts and minds and wills, served it unselfishly, with no thought of reward or gain in their mind. Commander Rockwell, Joe Tommasi, Bob Miles, Bob Mathews, and a whole slew of others still alive whom I will not embarrass by naming--because they WOULD be embarrassed to be praised for doing what is to them their simple, quiet duty. They have that grace. And by the by---men and women like that are far, far more common in our ranks than the wretched boy and our other detractors would have you believe. Not common enough--but there is always enough of the good to keep us alive and fighting in the face of all the bad.
Excerpt from the article 'A Brief History Of Post-Rockwell National Socialism' by John Steele:
"On March 2nd, 1974, forty three National Socialist Revolutionaries met in a hall in El Monte, California. At the meeting, the National Socialists declared their lack of faith in the losing strategy of the mass movement idea. The National Socialists abandoned the mass strategy and adopted the revolutionary concept of the guerilla underground." So began the manefesto of the National Socialist Liberation Front, without a doubt the most militant of all post Rockwell National Socialist organizations. To this day, many (if not most) of the underground 'strikes' committed by this small but brave band of Comrades remain unknown or are only vaguely suspected. Strong evidence does suggest that activists involved in the N.S.L.F. were responsible for tear gassing a memorial rally for Julius and Ethyl Rosenberg (Jewish spies executed for selling U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviet Union) as well as the torching of at least one communist bookstore. Sadly, the courageous life of Joseph Tommasi came to an end on August 15, 1975 at just 24 years of age. Fingers were pointed on both sides, but the story essentially is that Tommasi and another comrade were driving past the then N.S.W.P.P. building when one of the on duty guards flipped a middle finger at him. Tomassi then stopped the car and confronted the on duty trooper. After a brief scuffle, another guard on duty drew a gun and fired one shot into Tomassi's head, killing him then and there on the porch of the N.S.W.P.P.'s headquarters. (It is unclear whether or not Tommasi was himself armed at the time.)
From the website of the "National Socialist Movement" (http://www.nsm88.com/):
Two excerpts from the article '100 Years of Madness':
The 1970s were a decade of political corruption. Nixon and Watergate is the primary example, but this was worldwide reality, and people started to view all politicians as lying swindlers--none too soon, we might add. Things in the economic sector were no better: by 1977 the top 10% of the populace had an income thirty times that of the bottom 10%; the top 1% owned 33% of the wealth; and the richest 5% possessed 83% of personally owned corporate stock. Unemployment rose, and people were disgusted, which caused many to become demoralized and apathetic, feeling like nothing could be done, and limiting their political participation to voting for the lesser evil. None of this should surprise anyone, since honest and honorable leadership has a positive effect on the majority of the populace, while poor leadership is guaranteed to produce the opposite result. Of course not everyone sat on their hands. In National Socialist circles a man named Joe Tommasi realized that you can't beat the system at its own game. He began to discuss the armed struggle, and the need to conduct political operations in the same manner as the IRA/Sinn Fein (both legal and convert). Tommasi put his money where his mouth was, and lived for about a year after choosing this path. During that time he had more than one or two of our enemies scared out of their skins, which just goes to show what a few dedicated individuals can accomplish (making one wonder what a few hundred serious-minded men and women might be able to achieve). Tommasi also terrified another group: self-proclaimed white leaders. It's a fact that Hitler came to power legally. Unfortunately, this is often used as "proof" that the same thing can be done here. Vote, write your congressman, buy books, send cash, etc. People who play this nowhere game see a man like Tommasi as a dangerous boat-rocker. They've had 25 years since Tommasi's death to show us that their way works---and they haven't managed to take a single step forward. It would be false to claim that Joe Tommasi has had the same amount of influence as Lincoln Rockwell, but it would be absolutely correct to say that National Socialism won't be going anywhere in this country until he does.
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On a positive note the '80s saw a significant rise in racial awareness. The seeds planted by men like Rockwell and Tommasi had started growing. This was best seen in the widespread skinhead movement.
SIEGE
'Siege: The Collected Writings of James Mason'
The Entire Book 'Siege' Free Online (in regular text)
The Entire Book 'Siege' Free Online (in PDF)
Geoff Beck 'Siege' Audio Book Project
'Siege' is currently out of print. The Insurgent (Tom Metzger; resist.com) is selling 'Siege' in notebook form. An actual copy can be purchased, but it's very pricey.
WHITE REVOLUTION IS THE ONLY SOLUTION