National Alliance | |
|---|---|
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| Founder | William Luther Pierce |
| Founded | 1974; 51 years ago (1974) |
| Dissolved | 2013; 12 years ago (2013) |
| Split from | National Youth Alliance |
| Headquarters | |
| Membership | 2,500 (2002) |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Far-right |
| Religion | Cosmotheism |
TheNational Alliance was awhite supremacist,neo-Nazi political organization founded byWilliam Luther Pierce in 1974 and based inMill Point, West Virginia. It was formed out of a split in theNational Youth Alliance, an organization run by Pierce, a former member of theAmerican Nazi Party, andWillis Carto. The National Alliance had several business ventures, including the record labelResistance 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. After a split in its ranks in 2005 and several power struggles, it became largely defunct; however, some members still claim the name.
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The National Alliance was established byWilliam Luther Pierce in 1974, renamed and restructured from another organization called theNational Youth Alliance.[1] Pierce was a former member of theAmerican Nazi Party, and a long time associate of its leaderGeorge Lincoln Rockwell.[2] After Rockwellwas assassinated in 1967, his successorMatt Koehl became embroiled in a power struggle with Pierce, which resulted in Pierce leaving in 1970.[3][4] Pierce then created Youth for Wallace, an organization supporting thebid for the presidency ofGeorge Wallace, the former Governor of Alabama. AlongsideWillis 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.[4][1] Pierce renamed and restructured it in 1974.[1] The group was white supremacist[5][6][7][8] and neo-Nazi in orentation.[5]
In 1978, claiming the National Alliance was an educational organization, Pierce applied for (and was denied)tax exemption by theInternal Revenue Service. Pierce appealed, but an appellate court upheld the IRS decision.[9] In 1985, Pierce moved his operations fromArlington County, Virginia, to a 346-acre (1.40 km2) location inMill Point, West Virginia, which he paid for with $95,000 in cash. At this location, he founded the Cosmotheist Community Church.[9] 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.[10] William Pierce was arrested in 1995 on charges of assaulting a female staff member on the grounds of the Mill Point headquarters.[11]
The Order was an offshoot of the National Alliance and modeled themselves after a similar group depicted inThe Turner Diaries.Timothy McVeigh was in possession of a copy ofThe Turner Diaries at the time of his arrest following theOklahoma City Bombing.[12] McVeigh bought copies of the book (published by the National Alliance), sold them at gun shows, and otherwise distributed them.[13]
In 1997, two National Alliance members were charged with committing bank robberies in Florida and Connecticut.[14] 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.[15] 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.[16]
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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'sResistance Records label resulted in a steep drop-off in generated funds.[17] Membership declined after Pierce's death, and after a split in its ranks in 2005, became largely defunct.[5][18]
In April 2005, prominent Alliance memberKevin Alfred Strom, then editor ofNational Vanguard magazine, issued a declaration calling for Gliebe to step down;[19] 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 anycoup. Strom formed a new group calledNational Vanguard.[20] In January 2008, Strom pleaded guilty to one count of possession ofchild pornography in exchange for the other charges to be dropped.[21][22][23] He was sentenced to 23 months in prison on April 23, 2008.[22][24][23] 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",[22] 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."[24]
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.[25][26] By that year, paid membership for the Alliance had declined to fewer than 800 and the paid staff was down to only ten people.[27]
In 2014, Will Williams became head of an organization which calls itself the National Alliance (NA).[28] However, a rival faction disputes the claim that this group is maintaining continuity with the original Alliance which was founded by Pierce.[29] In 2015, an accountant was hired to audit the NA's books by Williams. According to a lawsuit which was filed by a formerBaltimore attorney against theSouthern 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.[30]
In December 2015, Williams was arrested and charged withbattery after he allegedly hit and strangled a female employee on the grounds of the Mill Point compound.[31] He was convicted, briefly incarcerated, and placed on probation.[32] Williams was banned from the NA compound in West Virginia pursuant to a court order stemming from his 2015 arrest.[33] Williams claims that the National Alliance "(is) back. We are definitely back".[34] He also said in a letter to a newspaper sent fromLaurel Bloomery, Tennessee (allegedly the NA's headquarters) that "(The National Alliance does) not appreciate being called 'haters' or being associated with some 'hate movement'."[35]
The organization held a radio/internet show named "American Dissident Voices", and the organization also published aNational Alliance Bulletin.[36] They distributed theNational Vanguard periodical and maintained a website.[4] Its publicationAttack! was started by Pierce to increase membership in the National Youth Alliance in 1968. He published and edited the publication.[37] It was later retitledNational Vanguard.[38] National Vanguard Books, Inc. was the book publishing firm of the National Alliance.[36]
The organization ran a white power record label which was calledResistance Records.[36] In 2002, it released the video gameEthnic Cleansing.[39] As of 2025, Cosmotheist Books is also associated with the organization. The company sells Pierce's books.[40]
The spiritual aspect of the National Alliance's ideology is espoused by the Cosmotheist Community Church.[41]
