Insurgency Overview

The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) is an international resistance movement founded in the United Kingdom in 1976 by animal rights activist Ronnie Lee. The movement’s main objective is to fight animal cruelty and exploitation. Guided by anarchist ideology, they are both decentralized and leaderless. The movement is composed of autonomous cells of one or more persons and each cell is anonymous and insular to protect the group from infiltration. Cells carry out clandestine operations of “animal liberation” and economic sabotage. For nearly 50 years, ALF has conducted operations to remove animals from laboratories, farms, factories, and related facilities. The animals are placed in safe houses, veterinaries, and sanctuaries. Despite their pacifist approach, critics and government authorities have labelled the group “eco-terrorists” due to its more controversial practices of harassment and economic sabotage — including arson attacks and bombings. ALF utilize sabotage and disruption techniques to affect the revenue streams of industries they believe contribute to the exploitation of animals.

History and Foundations

ALF has roots in an earlier resistance group known as the Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA). HSA activists, referred to as “hunt sabs,” set about sabotaging local hunts (hunters on horseback chase foxes or deer with a pack of hounds) by distracting hounds with meat and scent-dulling compounds, blowing hunting horns and whistles, laying false trails, locking gates, and blocking roads. These actions were often met with violence and hunt sabs were routinely assaulted and arrested. (1)

By 1971, HSA groups had spread throughout the UK. Two members of an HSA group in Luton, England — Ronnie Lee and Cliff Goodman — decided to form a new clandestine group of militant activists. That year, they founded the Band of Mercy, named after a 19th-century Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) youth group. (2) The group’s first operations involved slashing hunters’ tires and breaking car windows to prevent hunts from taking place. In 1973, the Band committed its first act of arson against a research laboratory owned by Hoechst Pharmaceuticals, whose experiments involved operation on live animals, a practice known as vivisection. After the operation, they released a statement to the press explaining who they were and the philosophy behind their actions. In 1974, the group set fire to two boats involved in seal culling. The boats’ owner subsequently went out of business. The operation put an end to seal culling in that area. Later, the group launched eight more raids against vivisection lab animal suppliers and carried out their first act of animal rescue — rescuing guinea pigs at a farm in Wiltshire, England. The raid put the guinea pig farm out of business. (3)

In August of 1974, following a string of successful operations, the Band were spotted by a security guard whilst raiding the Oxford Laboratory Animal Colonies in Bicester. Both were convicted and sentenced to prison. The press nicknamed the duo — the “Bicester Two” — and framed them as latter-day “Robin Hoods for the animals.” In prison, Cliff became an informant, but Lee grew more dedicated to the cause. In 1976, Lee co-founded the Animal Liberation Front with leftover members of the Band of Mercy and two dozen recruits. That year, ALF carried out 10 direct action campaigns against vivisectionists. (3)

According to the FBI, the ALF movement made its way to the United States in the 70s. Others attribute earlier animal liberation actions to different organizations. Regardless, by the 80s, the US became a primary front for the movement. The first wave of actions included animal rescues of “cats, dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, pigs, and primates from experimental labs at Howard University, Bethesda Naval Research Institute, various branches of the University of California, the University of Oregon, the University of Pennsylvania, Texas Tech University, the City of Hope, SEMA lab, the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, and elsewhere.” (3) The 1984 raid of the University of Pennsylvania’s Head Injury Laboratory was a major success for the movement. It caused $60,000 worth of damage and stole 60 ours of research footage. The stolen footage was sent to PETA who edited it and produced a film, Unnecessary Fuss, which garnered a lot of publicity and ultimately caused the lab to close. Encouraged to repeat these tactics, the group continued to be met with success. In another instance, PETA’s media campaign used footage confiscated from ALF and garnered so much public outrage that the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California lost over a million dollars in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In response to these raids, NIH director James Wyngaarden said, “Thefts of laboratory animals by animal rights groups should be considered acts of terrorism.” (4)

In the 80s and 90s, ALF began to emphasize arson and property damage over animal rescues. According to the FBI, the group’s economic sabotage campaigns against animal research facilities, fur companies, mink farms, and restaurants throughout the 90s resulted in a loss of $45 million. According to the Department of Homeland Security, ALF was responsible for 45% of 239 “eco-terrorist” related arsons and bombings between the years 1995–2010. (5) In 2022, the Southern Poverty Law Center in the US made a report on the ALF’s involvement in the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty political movement, which allegedly employed terrorist tactics. However, the SPD noted that no one had been killed during this campaign. In 2004, the UK began to monitor the group for accusations of domestic extremism. In 2005, the US Department of Homeland Security included ALF in its list of dangerous organizations. (3)

Following the September 11th attacks in 2001, governments began to crack down on what they perceived as “terrorist threats.” In 2006, an attempted firebombing near the home of UCLA researcher and the kidnapping and branding of undercover investigative journalist Graham Hall influenced US Congress’s decision to pass the Animal Enterprise Terrorism ACT (AETA). (6,7) The act increased maximum prison time by up to 20 years for anyone interfering directly with an animal enterprise. ALF was labelled the “number one domestic terrorist threat” in the US and “domestic extremists” in the UK. Critics refer to this time as “The Green Scare” — reminiscent of the “Red Scare” of the 50s. (8) The movement has never fully recovered from these crackdowns.

It should be noted that the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing by white supremacists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols — which killed 168 and injured 680 — was still fresh on the minds of the American public (9) Some argue that the FBI’s choice to name “eco-extremism” as the “primary domestic terrorist” threat was either an oversight or deliberate minimization of right-wing political violence. (8)

In 2005, a multi-agency criminal investigation known as “Operation Backfire” led to the convictions and imprisonment of several ALF and ELF members — including a cell known as “The Family,” who were responsible for over $40 million in damages from 96’ to 01’. (7) This crackdown drastically reduced ALF’s activities, leading to a significant decline in reported acts of eco-terrorism since 2012.” (10)

While ALF activity has significantly diminished, communiques continue to report small operations throughout the world. For example, in 2019, ALF launched a campaign against McDonalds’s in Colorado and Wisconsin and as recent as 2022, claimed responsibility for sabotaging 26 hunting towers in Belgium. The North American Animal Liberation Press Office (NAALPO) continues to post communiques left anonymously by ALF members and other animal liberation groups online. (11)

Objectives and Ideology

The Animal Liberation Front’s ultimate objective is to end animal abuse by organizations that profit from the cruelty and exploitation of animals. (12) Their practice of direct action is implemented with the “aim to save as many animals as possible and directly disrupt the practice of animal abuse.” Their targets include scientific laboratories, research institutions, zoos, circuses, fur farms, and factory farms. ALF believes that animals are not property and cannot be owned. They believe non-human animals are conscious beings who experience pain and pleasure and have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They attribute what they see as unethical treatment of animals as a form of bigotry they refer to as “speciesism.” The group considers itself to be akin to anti-Nazi resistance movements during World War Two and the Underground Railroad in 19th century America.

Historically, the movement has operated under several guidelines:

· To liberate animals from places of abuse, i.e., laboratories, factory farms, fur farms, etc. and place them in good homes where they may live out their natural lives, free from suffering.

· To inflict economic damage to those who profit from the misery and exploitation of animals.

· To reveal the horror and atrocities committed against animals behind locked doors, by performing direct actions and liberations.

· To take all necessary precautions against harming any animal, human, and non-human.

· Any group of people who are vegetarians or vegans and who carry out actions according to these guidelines have a right to regard themselves as part of the Animal Liberation Front.

(12)

According to ALF, violence can only be inflicted on human and non-human animals. Therefore, they believe property destruction is permitted because they do not believe destruction of inanimate objects is a form of “violence.” In their eyes, organizations being targeted are guilty of violence against animals. They refer to their campaigns as “extensional self-defense.” This recently coined term refers to humans acting in defense of animals who cannot defend themselves. (11)

Military and Political Capabilities

As with ELF, ALF’s precise numbers are impossible to configure. The cell’s autonomous and anonymous structure obfuscates any attempts to track membership. According to the CSIS Transnational Threats Project, the years the movement was most active occurred between the 90s and early 2000s. A conservative estimate of ALF and ELF raids number 1,100 — totaling $110 million in damages. (11)

ALF’s main tactic is sabotage. Arson is the most implemented and effective use of sabotage. Explosives and incendiaries have been the most common weapons. Some incidents involved Molotov cocktails and others used small, homemade incendiary bombs with timing devices strategically placed around flammable targets. According to the Department of Homeland Security, about two-thirds of ALF’s attacks were bombings, and one-third were arson attacks.

Due to increased security measures, government crackdowns, and long prison sentences, the movement has been greatly diminished. Currently, small acts of arson and vandalism are reported but nothing to the scale of previous campaigns. (11)

While ALF does not engage in the traditional political processes, its raids and espionage have exposed the public to animal cruelty which has led to policy changes, such as halting animal research projects or influencing funding decisions.

To this day, no one has been severely injured or killed by an ALF action. (14)

Approach to Resistance

Alf’s direct action campaigns target industries involved in animal exploitation with tactics involving sabotage, animal release, and espionage. After nearly five decades of actions, fewer than 40 activists have been arrested. Before initiating their assault, cells will often take time to plan out operations with intense surveillance of the target. Intel is gathered through open-source information, photographic/video surveillance, confiscated confidential information or sympathetic insiders. Information on potential targets can be found online. An example is FinalNail.com, which uses Google Maps to chart and compile information and locations of organizations involved in the fur industry. (14)

There is evidence that ALF’s actions have been effective. For example, Susan Paris, the president of vivisection front group — Americans for Medical Progress (AMP) — admitted, “Because of terrorist acts by animal activists like [Rod] Coronado, crucial research projects have been delayed or scrapped. More and more of the scarce dollars available to research are spent on heightened security and higher insurance rates. Promising young scientists are rejecting careers in research. Top-notch researchers are getting out of the field.” Another example includes an August 1993 Report to Congress on Animal Enterprise Terrorism which writes: “Where the direct, collateral, and indirect effects of incidents such as this are factored together, ALFs professed tactic of economic sabotage can be considered successful, and its objectives, at least towards the victimized facility, fulfilled.” (12)

Not all animal rights activists agree with ALF’s methods of resistance. In his essay, “A Personal Overview of Direct Action in the United Kingdom and the United States,” British animal rights activists Kim Stallwood condemns ALF’s engagement in property damage as “violence.” He believes the group should only engage in animal liberation and expose the animal industry with documents, photographs, and videos. In his opinion, engaging in sabotage has isolated the movement. (4)

Some folks don’t think the group is violent enough. During the 80s and 90s, several ALF cells targeted people with letter and car bombs. ALF condemned the group’s actions which goes against its policy of non-violence. Then, spin-off groups like the Animal Rights Militia (ARM) and Justice Department (JD) organized to carry out acts that involved threats and acts of violence against individuals with car bombs, letter bombs, and poison. Some people suggest ARM and JD remain affiliated with ALF and were only distanced from the movement for public relations purposes. Another held belief is that ALF created the side groups as scapegoats for plausible deniability in case an action goes wrong. Others believe these threats and acts of violence have been perpetrated as a form of psyops by the government or private companies to “bad jacket” the movement. (4)

There is no way of knowing if ALF will see another resurgence or drift into obscurity. While they have no doubt made an impact, it is hard to see the exploitation of animals going away any time soon. Regardless, you can’t kill an idea, especially when it’s made a footprint online and around the globe.

International Relations and Potential Alliances

ALF’s decentralized structure prevents it from establishing an official alliance with other groups but there have been cases of crossover and friendliness with the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). Both groups share a similar structure and guidelines. It is common for government agencies or media to refer to both under the “eco-terrorist” umbrella. It is obvious they share a sort of solidarity and comradery.

PETA has a history of providing support and public relations for ALF. On their website, PETA states they “will not condemn (ALF) for carrying out illegal actions in which no sentient being is harmed.” (15)

Support groups, such as the Animal Liberation Front Support Group (ALF SG), provide financial and practical support to incarcerated ALF members. (16) Press organizations like the North American Animal Liberation Press Organization (NAALPO) share communiques from anonymous animal liberation activists (including ALF). They also provide information about the group and how to get involved. (11) Peter Young continues to publish archived collections of ALF-related material including essays, guidebooks, communiques, and action reports through his publication, WarCry Press. (17)

Additional Content

· Dispatches: Inside the ALF (1999), Archive.org

Watch Here

Works Cited

1. Poole, Steven. “The History of the Hunt Saboteurs Association: 1963: From Protest to Resistance,” Archived April 8, 2008. Accessed March 20, 2024

Read Here

2. “Bands of Mercy,” The Exhibition, Be Kind: A Visual History of Human Education, 1880–1945)

Read Here

3. “Animal Liberation Front (ALF),” Other Groups, Influence Watch, accessed March 28, 2024
Read Here

4. Steven Best and Anthony J. Nocella II, Terrorist or Freedom Fighters: Reflection on Liberation of Animals (New York: Lantern Books, 2004)

5. “The Seattle Times: Education: Chancellor Taking Steps to Protect UCLA,” Seattle Times. Published August 27, 2006. Updated: March 30, 2024. Accessed March 30, 2024

Read Here

6. “TV Investigator Kidnapped and Branded ‘ALF,’” The Independent. Published: November 7, 1999. Accessed: March 30, 2024.

Read Here

7. Brown, Allen. “The Green Scare: How a Movement That Never Killed Anyone Became the FBI’s №1 Domestic Terrorism Threat,” The Intercept, published March 23, 2019.

Read Here

8. “Examining Extremism: Violent Animal Rights Extremist,” The Center for Strategic and International Studies, published August 20, 2021.

Read Here

9. “Oklahoma City Bombing,” Famous Cases, History, Federal Bureau of Investigation. Accessed: March 30, 2024.

Read Here

10. “Animal Liberation Front,” Far-Left Extremist Groups in the United States, Research Databases, Counter Extremism, Accessed March 28, 2024.

Read Here

11. “FAQ’s,” North American Liberation Press Office, accessed: March 28, 2024.

Read Here

12. “Animal Liberation Front,” Petside, Accessed: March 28, 2024

Read Here

13. ALF Primer (3rd edition)

14. “Home.” N.D. Final Nail. Accessed: March 30, 2024

View Here

15. “What’s PETA’s Position on the ‘Animal Liberation Front?’” FAQ. PETA. Accessed: March 30, 2024

READ HERE

16. “Homepage,” Animal Liberation Support Group, accessed March 28, 2024

View Here

17. “Warcry Communications,” Animal Liberation Frontline

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Insurgency Overview

The 19th of April Movement (Movimiento 19 de Abril), or M-19, was a guerrilla movement active in Colombia during the 70s and 80s. In 1990, they demobilized and transitioned into a political party named the M-19 Democratic Alliance (Alianza Democrática M-19), or AD/M-19. The movement’s name was a reference to the date (April 19th, 1970) when ex-army General and dictator Gustavo Rojas Pinilla of the National Popular Alliance (Alianza Nacional Popular), or ANAPO, was allegedly denied an electoral victory by the National Front. The National Front was a coalition of power-sharing liberal and conservative establishment leaders. Following the election, they imprisoned Pinilla and declared martial law, which inspired the founders of the M-19 to take up arms. (1) They declared themselves to be an urban armed protest movement for the people of Colombia. While most Colombian guerrilla movements identified with Marxist ideology, the M-19 “advocated a nationalist, Bolívarian, anti-imperialist, anti-oligarchic model and argued for ‘Socialism Colombian-style.” (2)

The movement began in the early 1970s as a clandestine group of urban cells operating in Bogotá and other major cities across Colombia. By the 80s, the movement had succeeded in building a military-political apparatus with mobile units on multiple fronts. They became the second largest and most popular guerrilla movement in the country. (1) They funded their operations by kidnapping landowners, drug traffickers, politicians, and oligarchs (including their family members) and holding them ransom for large sums of money. (2) Their weapons were either imported from overseas and smuggled into the country or stolen from military instillations or local individuals (2,3,4) Their strategy of armed propaganda and ‘Robin Hood-like actions’ made them very popular and garnered public support. On the other hand, they attracted negative attention from the military and paramilitary units such a Death to Kidnappers (Muerte a Secuestradores), or MAS, and the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia), or the AUC, whose “dirty war” led to the imprisonment, torture, and murder of guerrillas and anyone alleged to sympathize or support the movement. (2)

The M-19’s most notable actions include the theft of Simón Bolívar’s Sword, the siege of the Embassy of the Dominican Republic, and the siege of the Palace of Justice. M-19’s military operations were largely seen as political failures, but after a decade of failed peace negotiations, they successfully negotiated a ceasefire and peace agreement with the government. (2) In 1990, the group demilitarized in return for full amnesty and a path towards electoral politics. (1) The newly formed AD/M-19 played a significant role in the creation of Colombia’s modern 1991 constitution and paved the way for future peace negotiations between the Colombian government and other guerrilla organizations. While the AD/M-19 initially had popular support, the movement began to decline due to poor political strategy and decisions regarding unpopular economic and social policies. Many former members left to join other more successful leftist political groups, such as the Independent Democratic Pole (Polo Democrático Independiente), or PDI, and the Democratic Alternative (Alternativa Democrática), or AD, which merged in 2005 to become the Alternative Democratic Pole (Polo Democrático Alternativo), or PDA, the main left-wing opposition party in Colombia. In 2025, they fused with other leftist parties to form a single entity called the Historic Pact, which includes ex M-19 guerrilla and current President Gustavo Petro’s Humane Colombia (Colombia Humana). In 2022, President Petro became the first leftist president in the nation’s history.

History

Colombia has a long history of armed violence. Colombia’s civil war has roots in a time of conflict known as La Violencia. The decade-long conflict followed the 1948 assassination of Liberal party candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán. Following an historic riot known as the Bogotázo, military, police, and conservative political leaders encouraged conservative-supporting peasants to seize agricultural land from liberal-supporting peasants. La Violencia led to mass displacement and the deaths of over 200,000 Colombians. (5) During this time, rural self-defense groups formed and evolved over time to become the guerrilla movements of the 60s. These first-generation guerrilla organizations include the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberacion Nacional), or ELN, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia), or FARC, and the Popular Liberation Army (Ejército Popular de Liberación), or EPL. (2) In 1953, Lt. General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla mounted a coup d’état and ruled the country as a military dictator. He imposed martial law and implemented populist leftist policies. The coup put an end to the conflict, but Pinilla’s policies conflicted with those of the oligarchic establishment. The Liberal and Conservative parties formed a power-swapping coalition known as the National Front and deposed Pinilla. In opposition, Pinilla formed the ANAPO political party. (5)

On April 19th, 1970, Pinilla was allegedly denied the presidency by the National Front, in a case of electoral fraud. He was imprisoned and perpetual martial law went into effect, which gave the state forces unconstitutional powers to search and seize. For many, this reinforced their belief that Colombia’s government was not a true democracy. (1)

In 1973, Jaime Bateman, A FARC separatist, and Carlos Toledo, a physician and ANAPO representative in Congress, founded the M-19 with the goals of building a popular urban armed protest movement capable of challenging the oligarchy and established order. (1) They began establishing clandestine cells in urban centers across the country. Their first major operation occurred in in 1974 when a clandestine cell stole Simón Bolívar’s sword from the Quinta de Bolívar in Bogotá. The operation used armed propaganda as a strategy to garner public attention through media and encourage them to take up arms and join the movement. (2)

In 1976, the M-19 kidnapped and executed union leader, Jose Mercado. Mercado had been accused of “being a traitor to the interests of the working class.” The next year, the group took hostage the manager of an agro-industrial African Palm company. In this action, they were able to work out a peace negotiation that led to better working conditions for the employees while sparing the life of the manager. It was during this time that M-19 began to adopt a political-military organizational structure that oriented itself towards comprehensive political and military actions. (4,6)

In 1978, the group smuggled more than 5,700 weapons from a military arms cache by digging a tunnel into an army weapons depot. The arms provided the movement with the means to develop mobile units capable of large-scale actions across multiple fronts. In response, the military raided, arrested, and tortured many suspected M-19 guerrilla, including alleged “sympathizers.” (2)

One year later, M-19’s Jorge Marcos Zambrano Commando Unit laid siege to the Dominican Republic embassy in Bogotá. The main objective of the operation was to force the release of their political prisoners. The incident received international attention. After 61 days of negotiations, a non-violent solution was reached with President Julio César Turbay Ayala’s administration. The political prisoners were not freed, but the action did open a dialogue between the government and M-19 regarding amnesty and peace negotiations.

In 1981, the group kidnapped Martha Nieves Ochoa, the sister of the Ochoa brothers, founders of the Medellín Cartel. In response, the narco-traffickers funded a paramilitary group known as “Death to Kidnappers” (Muerte a Secuestradores), or MAS, to destroy the M-19 and other guerilla groups in revenge for the kidnapping of their families. They carried out assassinations against M-19 leaders and tortured and killed those perceived to “support” the guerrillas.

In the early 80s, a series of military actions were waged to promote a peace proposal that called for the “ending of the state of emergency, the derogation of the Security State, [and] an unconditional general amnesty along with a national dialogue.” (2) In 1983, M-19’s General Commander Jaime Bateman was killed in a plane crash while traveling to Panama for peace talks with then-President Belisario Betancur. (1) The next year, President Betancur and M-19’s then-General Commander Álvaro Fayad, signed an agreement of truce and national dialogue. But the dialogue lacked support from the rest of the government, including hostile sectors within the military. (2) In fact, during this period one of the largest battles between the Army and M-19 occurred in Yarumales. After the assassination of M-19 co-founder Carlos Toledo and a nearly fatal attack on Commander Antonio Navarro, Commander Fayad declared an end to the truce. (4)

In 1985, M-19’s Ivan Marino Ospina Company, a special forces unit consisting of 35 guerrillas, laid siege to the Palace of Justice in Bogotá to protest President Betancur’s failure to comply with the peace agreements. (4) Betancur refused to negotiate with the guerrillas and allowed the state forces to run an aggressive counter-siege operation. The counter-siege was led by tanks, helicopter, and troops with machine guns, grenades, and rocket launchers; it led to the destruction of the Palace of Justice and the deaths of over 100 people, including the entire guerrilla unite and half the nation’s Supreme Court. (7) The failed operation was a national tragedy and cost the movement a considerable amount of support. Following the operation, General Commander Fayad was murdered in a police raid. (2)

After the Palace of Justice, the movement was unable to continue the armed struggle due to loss of public support and political isolation. In 1988, General Commander Carlos Pizarro called for a truce with the military and initiated a peace process with the government. In 1990, the M-19 officially demilitarized and transitioned into politics. The success of the peace process paved the way for other guerrilla movements like the EPL, PRT (Partido Revolucionario de Trabajadores de Colombia), and Quintín Lame to follow in their footsteps toward peace agreements. (2)

In 1990, M-19’s political organization, the AD/M-19, was officially established. Pizarro ran for presidency but was assassinated by the Medellín Cartel before the elections could take place. (1) An estimated 160 ex-guerrillas were killed after demobilization. (2) Despite the murders, the M-19 did not take up arms but continued the peace process. The AD/M-19 saw some early success. Antonio Navarro was elected as the Minister of Health and the party won a significant number of votes for the National Constitutional Assembly. They played a key role in the forging of the Colombian Constitution of 1991. (1,2,4)

The AD/M-19 quickly lost momentum and faced a massive decline in political support due to a lack of political strategy and support for unpopular economic programs and several repressive pieces of legislation. Many of its members joined the coalition known as the Independent Democratic Pole, PDI, which merged into the Alternative Democratic Pole, PDA, in 2005. Current President Gustavo Petro recently combined his coalition party, Humana Colombia, with PDA and other leftist and liberal political organizations to form the Historic Pact (Pacto Histórico) coalition.

President Gustavo Petro is an ex-M-19 guerrilla. During his time in the M-19, he was jailed and tortured. As the first leftist president in Colombian history, he has championed peace negotiations with the remaining guerrillas and continued to lead investigations into ties between paramilitaries and politicians. For example, former president Álvaro Uribe faces allegations linking him to the AUC paramilitary organization, human rights abuses, and drug trafficking. (8)

Objectives and Ideology

I’m not a Marxist. Being a Marxist in today’s world is being dogmatic. I am not dogmatic” — M-19 co-founder/General Commander Jaime Bateman (1)

The M-19 considered itself the military arm of the ANAPO populist movement. They advocated “a nationalist, Bolivarian, anti-imperialist, anti-oligarchic model of “Socialism Colombian-style.” Their main objective was to open “true” electoral democracy in Colombia through armed protest. (2)

M-19 saw itself as distinct from internationalist-oriented models, such as those of the ELN (Cuba-oriented), FARC (Soviet-oriented), and the EPL (China-oriented). They did not consider themselves Marxist-Leninist, which they saw as dogmatic. Instead, the movement prided itself on its diversity of class, political orientation, and culture. Their ranks were made up of mostly middle-class students, college graduates and working-class youth from popular urban sectors across the country. Women were allowed to participate as militants and serve as commanding officers. They claimed their movement was for the “common people” united by Colombian identity, Latin American fraternity, and the revolutionary history of their ancestors. There was a concern with building unity amongst various guerilla movements and political groups, despite the prevailing mood of extreme sectarianism. (2)

Revolutionary movements — such as the Montoneros in Argentina and the Tupamaros in Uruguay — inspired the M-19 to build a political-military apparatus of mobile guerrilla units that could channel the will of the people to bring about revolutionary economic and social change. They believed democracy would only prevail after these revolutionary changes took place through armed rebellion. (6)

Political and Military Capabilities

The M-19 started as a small group of clandestine cells operating in popular urban centers. They established columns (units) in Colombia’s major cities. Each column was organized into independent cells. They financed operations mainly by kidnapping or “detaining” hostages and demanding ransom for large sums of money. (1) Undercover guerrillas ran safehouses to smuggle weapons and hostages. Their main military objectives were to carry out commando-like actions in urban centers as a form of armed propaganda (i.e. stealing the sword of Bolívar) and building a large-scale rural army capable of challenging the state to meet their demands for democratic and social reform. (2)

In the 1986 siege of the Palace of Justice, author Ann Carrigan writes, “[they had] boxes of hand grenades an some Claymore mines…two 50mm and 30mm Mack machine guns, ammunition for the 7.62mm Galil rifles, the 7.63 G-3 guns, the 5.56mm AR-15s, the Uzi 9mm submachine guns, the M-16s, the 9mm Browning revolvers — all piled up in sacks on the floor.” (2) Two successful operations reveal how the M-19 collected large caches of arms. In 1979, a guerrilla unit stole 5,700 small arms by digging a tunnel into a military armory in northern Bogotá. In 1981, Jaime Guillot Lara, a Colombian drug and weapons smuggler, helped smuggle 1,000 Belgian FN FAL combat rifles and one million rounds of 7.62 X 51mm ammunition by ship from Libya to Colombia in a mission known as Operation Karina. (3) Part of the arms were trucked to a clandestine airstrip and flown via a hijacked plane to the Oreteguaza River in Caquetá. The remaining arms were lost when the ship was sunk by a Colombian Naval vessel. The drastic increase in firepower led to an increase in large-scale operations and helped establish the M-19’s military apparatus on multiple fronts.

Formations of mobile guerrilla groups on multiple fronts began to take shape after 1978. They received training at Cuban military schools and learned technical skills such as “engineering trenches, pits, and tunnels, vaults, etc.” and tactical, operational, and strategic elements such as “radio communications, camouflage for infiltration operations, and mining for active defense operations.” In Argentina, the Montoneros taught them specialized skills like “jamming TV channels.” In Libya, they received training to develop a special forces unit capable of large-scale, complex operations, such as seizing the Palace of Justice.

In the mid-80s, M-19 was at its height. Its active membership was estimated to have between 1500–2000 militants. They ran hit-and-run style tactics and used artillery to attack police and army outposts. In 1984, multiple rural fronts were in in control of regional capitals and “freedom centers” in rural towns, such as Yarumales. These mobile units could hold their defenses against military attack. For example, during the Battle of Yarumales, the M-19 were able to sustain a fight against the army for 22 days and push them away from their position. (2)

The guerrilla army was powered by popular support. When the peace negotiation fell apart, their legitimacy and support began to significantly decline. The Palace of Justice siege was a desperate attempt to regain popularity and support but ultimately marked the group’s end as an effective military force. (2,4,7)

As a political organization, AD/M-19 had early successes in municipal elections and the National Constituent Assembly. They played a significant role in drafting the modern Colombian Constitution of 1991 but quickly lost public support due to strategic mistakes and support for unpopular policies. Despite the party’s dissolution, many leftist political movements in Colombia can trace their roots to M-19, including President Gustavo Petro and the Historic Pact coalition. (2,4)

Approach to Resistance

Since the days of La Violencia, violence has been a traditional political tool in Colombia. The M-19 took up arms in protest because they believed the oligarchy would not take them seriously unless they were armed. Their main objective was to create a military apparatus that would serve as a tool to channel social indignation and support the popular will. The movement was able to grow and spread throughout the country using “armed propaganda.”

Armed propaganda is the action of carrying out specific objectives to serve as propaganda material for mass communications. (6) For example, when M-19 stole the sword of Simón Bolívar it gained mass media attention. The sword carried historical, cultural, and revolutionary significance; its theft symbolized a “return to revolution” and a “call to arms.” The group shared communiques through sympathetic journalists or took control of radio stations and newspapers to communicate their messages to the masses. Other actions of armed propaganda included bank robberies, ambushes, stealing weapons, rescuing prisoners, executing corrupt union leaders, kidnapping, hijacking ships, planes, and trains, and seizing federal buildings such as embassies and the Palace of Justice. (2)

M-19’s more militarized approach was largely seen as a political failure. Their targets (i.e. the military, drug traffickers, police, corrupt union leaders, politicians, and oligarchs) led to the imprisonment, torture, and murder of many guerrillas and their “perceived” supporters and sympathizers. People grew tired of the conflict and opposition to the M-19 saw guerrilla violence as further evidence to support their stance against peace negotiations. The catastrophe that took place during the siege of the Palace of Justice further eroded already declining support for the guerrilla’s movement. The operation made many strategic mistakes, but most obvious was location. For example, when the group seized the embassy of the Dominican Republic, their hostages were foreign ambassadors, and the operation received international coverage. This forced the government to act diplomatically. At the Palace of Justice, the military was able to act without impunity or oversight. (2,7)

Another strategic mistake was targeting the cartels. For example, the kidnapping of Martha Ochoa led to the formation of the paramilitaries — such as the MAS. These paramilitaries began to target perceived “sympathizers” and “supporters.” They tortured and murdered thousands of innocent civilians in what is known as a “dirty war.” (5,8,9) This effectively killed popular support.

By the late 80s, people grew tired of war and wanted peace. The siege of the Palace of Justice was a catastrophic failure, and the movement faced isolation. Internally, the group lost support and the will to continue fighting. Meanwhile, the government was overwhelmed by fighting two fronts against the guerrillas and drug traffickers. This made President Barco’s administration more susceptible to negotiations. General Commander Pizzaro and Commander Navarro decided to commit to peace negotiations, demilitarization, and transition into politics. They reached out to the military and were able to reach a truce. They tried to reach out to the Medellín cartel but were ignored. (1,2,4,7)

Many guerrillas continued to be killed by the cartel following demilitarization, including General Commander Pizarro. Despite the killings, the group remained committed to the peace process. Their actions laid the foundation for other guerilla organizations to follow their own peace process’. As a result, leftist political power in Colombia can be traced back to the peace negotiations and early political actions of M-19. (2,9)

Relations and Alliances

The M-19 fostered relationships with many international socialist organizations. They received support from international revolutionary and socialist movements in Nicaragua and Cuba. Cuba provided the M-19 with guerrilla military training. Libya provided the guerrillas with special forces training. Logistical support came from Panama, Cuba, and Venezuela. Political support came from Mexico and Costa Rica. Argentina’s Montoneros influenced the M-19’s development of rural armed fronts (mobile guerrilla units) and the formation of joint operations with other guerrilla organizations. (2)

M-19 promoted guerrilla unity through bilateral actions with guerrilla movements throughout Colombia and Latin America. They played a leading role in the creation of several guerrilla coalitions, including the Coordinadora Nacional Guerrillera (CNG), the Coordinadora Guerrillera Simón Bolívar (CGSB), and the Batallón América. Before 1985, sporadic alliances with ELN, EPL, and FARC were limited due to ideological divides and competition for territory. In 1985, the CNG was the first formal alliance attempting to unify the EPL, ELN, FARC, and PRT under one front for political dialogue and joint action. In 1987, the CGSB formed a broader coordination of military and political strategy which included the FARC, ELN, EPL, M-19, PRT, and the indigenous movement Quintín Lame. It symbolized a national united insurgent front. That same year, a joint operational unit — the Batallón América — formed in solidarity with Latin American revolutionary causes. The unit included the EPL and Quintín Lame and trained in joint exercises in Ecuador and Colombia. The M-19 even made attempts to establish a guerrilla front with members of Peru’s Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso), Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (Movimiento Revolutionario Tupac Amaru) and Ecuador’s Alfaro Lives, Damn it! But the M-19 eventually grew disenchanted with trying to unite guerilla organizations when they realized ideological sectarianism proved stronger than guerrilla unity. (In 1990, the coordinations dissolved following the peace process and remaining guerrillas’ ideological realignments. (2,4)

Works Cited

1. The Story of the M-19, Colombian History X, Education Video, Published: 22 June 2019

Watch Here

2. Durán, Mauricio Garcia, Otty Patiño Hormaza and Vera Grabe Loewenherz M-19’s “Journey from Armed Struggle to Democratic Politics: Striving to Keep the Revolution Connected to the People,” Berghof Transition Series №1, Berghof Research Center for Constructive Conflict Management. Published January 1st, 2008.

Read Here

3. CIA. Director of Central Intelligence William J. Casey. Implications for the United States of the Colombian Drug Trade, Special National Intelligence Estimate Volume II — Annex E, SNIE 8/88–83, Published: 28 June 1983, Approved for Release: 2009/04/1

Read Here

4. Perdoma, María Eugenia Vásquez, My Life as a Colombian Revolutionary: Refelctions of a Former Guerrillera, Temple University Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2005

5. Murillo, Mario A., Colombia and the United States: War, Unrest, and Destabilization (Open Media Series), Seven Stories Press, New York City, New York, September 2, 2003

6. Marighella, Carlos, “Armed Propaganda,”

Read Here

7. Carrigan, Ana, The Palace of Justice: A Colombian Tragedy, Four Walls Eight Windows, New York City, New York, Published: October 1993.

8. “Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Blasts Impending Criminal Charges,” News: Crime, Al Jazeera, Published: April 10, 2024

Read Here

9. O’Connor, Francis, “Clandestinity and insurgent consolidation: The M-19’s rebel governance in urban Colombia.” Political Geography, Available online: 3 July 2023

Read Here

Intro:

Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), or “Basque Homeland and Liberty” was a Basque nationalist and separatist organization founded in 1959 with the primary goal of establishing an independent Basque state through armed revolutionary struggle.

The Basque country consist of 7 provinces in north-eastern Spain and south-western France. The Basque people share a common language, ethnicity, and socio-cultural history. Basque nationalism emerged in the 19th century with the rise of liberal centralism and modern industrialization. The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) was founded to protect and give power to the ethnic Basque and their way of life. General Francisco Franco’s brutal repression of the Basque during the Spanish Civil War and the decades of repression that followed only served to strengthen the Basque identity and nationalist sentiment. The ETA emerged out of frustration with the PNV’s passive resistance. Through confrontation, the ETA vowed to gain Basque independence by any means necessary, including violence.

The group became classified as a terrorist organization by France, Spain, the EU, the UK, the US, and Canada. This classification is due to ETA’s paramilitary tactics which include bombings, kidnappings, and targeted assassinations. Between 1968 and 2010, the ETA killed 829 people — including 340 civilians. (1) Following five decades of armed insurgency, a permanent ceasefire was declared in 2011. In 2017, the group disarmed and one year later announced their complete dissolution as an organization.

History and Foundations:

The Basque country, Euskal Herria, is a region of 7 provinces located across Northern Spain and Southern France. Most of the region resides in four Spanish provinces (Navarra, Guipúzcoa, Vizcaya, and Alava). The Basques are the regions indigenous population. They are ethnically, culturally, and linguistically distinct from the Spanish and French. In fact, historians believe they have occupied the territory for at least 7,000 years (potentially 40,000). They have remained fiercely independent despite millennia of threats from outside invaders. In the Middle Ages, they joined the French and Spanish Kingdoms. The Spanish Basque provinces were granted charters, or fueros, that granted each province a right to self-government. (1,2)

The discovery of the Americas led to an increased demand for commerce, trade, and industry in the Basque country. At this time, a class of bourgeoisie (jauntxos) began to develop and reshape Basque society. During the French Revolution, liberal ideas of a centralized government in Spain gained popularity, especially amongst the bourgeoisie. Following a series of civil wars in the 19th century known as the Carlist campaigns, the Spanish government eliminated regional privileges and thus the Basque provinces lost their autonomy. (1,3)

In the late 19th century, the Basque provinces became one of the most heavily industrialized area in Iberia. Massive migrations of non-Basque migrants entered the region looking for work. The Basque working-class found themselves working in sweatshop conditions and slum housing while competing with non-Basque for jobs. The Basque country was Spain’s economic powerhouse, but many felt their taxes weren’t being allocated fairly by Madrid. Many Basques felt their culture and way of life were under threat. In response, Sabino de Arana founded the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) for Basque independence in defense of Basque culture, language, and race. (4)

In the early 20th century, the PNV became a dominant political force in local elections and a vocal minority in the Spanish parliament. In 1923, Captain General Miguel Primo de Rivera became dictator of Spain and outlawed the PNV. The party was forced to go underground. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, a coalition of Basque nationalist and republican forces enacted the Government of Euskadi but were defeated by General Francisco Franco’s forces in 1937. The exiled Basque government, synonymous with the PNV, fled to Paris. For decades, Franco continued to rule Spain with an iron fist; he outlawed all Basque culture including Euskadi, the Basque language. The PNV believed the Allies, whom they collaborated with closely during World War 2, would rid Spain of Franco. Instead, the US made a deal with Franco in return for establishing military bases across Spain. In 1959, a group of Basque youths formed the ETA, which broke with the passivity of the PNV and called for a campaign of national liberation by any means necessary. (4)

ETA, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (Basque Homeland and Liberty), emerged out of a student group, Ekin, in the early 50s.(4) Their first major action occurred in 1961 when the group’s failed attempt to derail a train of Francoist supporters was met with immediate retaliation from Franco. More than a hundred eterras (ETA members) were arrested, tortured, and given lengthy prison sentences. Several key leaders fled into exile in France. (3). In 1962, the group held their first assembly and developed a structure of activist cells. The exiled leaders formed the Executive Committee which continued to give top-down orders to ETA cells in Spanish Basque from France. They also sent out a communique publicly declaring their intent of gaining Basque independence by “whatever means necessary.” In ’64 and ’65, the ETA held their third and fourth assemblies, adopting an anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist position combining Basque nationalism with Marxist ideas of class-struggle and Franz Fanon’s ‘Third-Worldist’ perspective on decolonization. In 67’, they reached a consensus on pursuing a strategy of armed struggle known as the ‘action-repression-action spiral theory’. This strategy would attempt to antagonize Franco into unbearable escalations of retaliation and repression that the Basque country would feel compelled to join them in their revolutionary struggle for independence. (1,2)

In 1968, the ETA assassinated Meliton Manzanas, a police commissioner known for torturing Basque nationalists. In response, Franco declared a “State of Exception,” suspending constitutional rights and arresting, torturing, and imprisoning Basques perceived to be affiliated with the ETA. The spiral theory did not account for the intensity and rapid development of Franco’s retaliation. (1,2)

In 1970, in the Burgos Trials, several ETA members were condemned to death. Coverage of the trials received negative international attention and was condemned by figures like the Pope and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. In response, those condemned to die received long prison sentences instead. (1)

ETA’s most infamous action, dubbed ‘Operation Ogre’, occurred in 1972 when an ETA cell assassinated Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, Franco’s second in command and Spain’s newly inaugurated Prime Minister. Blanco was notorious for his brutal counterinsurgent campaigns and crackdown on illegal labor unions. Following Franco’s death, Blanco was to continue to lead the regime. When ETA was informed of Blanco’s routine trips to and from mass, they seized on the opportunity to act. Originally, they planned to kidnap Blanco to leverage a deal to have ETA prisoners released, but they decided it would be easier to have him killed. On December 20th, an 80kg Goma-2 explosive planted in a tunnel beneath the road blew Blanco’s car several stories high, killing him instantly. His death is widely seen as the end of Francoism. (2)

On November 22, 1975, General Franco took his last breath. King Juan Carlos I declared an amnesty for all of Spain’s political prisoners and allowed a democratically elected parliament and Prime Minister. A new constitution was enacted in 1978 by popular vote. The constitution recognized autonomous communities and their ethnic nationalities. Basque culture and language were allowed to be practiced openly once again. For Basque nationalists, the constitutional changes weren’t seen as ‘true independence’. Many Francoist officials guilty of crimes against humanity continued to retain their post in judicial, military, and political administrations. During this time, the ETA increased their armed activity. Between 1978 and 1980, ETA claimed 227 lives, 213 casualties and 19 kidnappings. (2)

During the transition to democracy, the ETA split into factions. A faction known as ETApm (ETA politico-militar) wanted to broaden its strategy to include both political engagement and militant activities, but ETAm (ETA-militar) were committed to the armed struggle. ETApm began to regard violent actions as counter-productive and saw working within the new democratic system as more beneficial to the Basque cause. In 1977, they formed a political group known as Euskadiko Ezkerra (EE), or ‘Basque Left’, and won several seats in both the Spanish and Basque parliament. The success of EE convinced ETAm to form their own political group known as Herri Batasuna (HB), or ‘People’s Unity’. Both factions joined the Koordinadora Abertzale Sozialista (KAS), or ‘Socialist Patriotic Coordinator,’ a unified coalition of political parties and labor unions representing the interest of the Basque working class. (2)

In 1982, ETApm disbanded completely. Following their dissolution, the ETAm was simply known as ETA. By the late 80s and 90s, the movement began to grow weak. In 83’, the French government began to cooperate with the Spanish government by denying ETA members refuge and deporting them back to Spain. The Spanish government were also found to have ties to Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (Anti-Terrorist Liberation Groups), or GAL. GAL were a paramilitary coalition that illegally tortured and killed anyone they believed were connected to the ETA in what is known as a “dirty war.” (6) Political parties that supported Basque nationalism, such as HB, became outlawed. Most notably, public support began to decline following bombing campaigns across Spain that resulted in civilian casualties and the assassination of former ETA leader María Dolores González Yoyes.

In 1988, many ETA members began to sign a cease-fire agreement with the Spanish government. Four years later, three of ETA’s leading figures were captured. By this time, the movement had dwindled into bouts of youth-led street violence. Many saw this as a clear sign of their weakness. In 1995, an ETA cell committed a failed attempt to attack the Spanish royal family. That same year, they kidnapped and assassinated a Spanish political leader, Miguel Angel Blanco, beloved by both Spanish and Basque citizens. They were then met with a further decline in public support. (2)

Post 9/11, the United States’ “War on Terror” made it harder for ETA to continue to operate. In 2004, ETA was blamed for the Madrid Train Bombings that killed 191 and injured 1,800. Although the bombing was later revealed to have been orchestrated by an Islamic extremist group, damage to the group’s public image had already been done. ETA reached out for cease-fire talks in 2006, but the treaty broke down following ETA’s bombing of a parking garage at Madrid’s airport that killed two Ecuadorian immigrants. In 2010, the group decided to announce a ‘permanent ceasefire’, and the following year they announced an end to their armed campaign. In 2017, they destroyed their arsenal of weapons and two years later announced their complete dissolution. (5)

Despite no formal peace process, the ETA and Spanish government have remained dedicated to peace, but tension runs deep. Recently, an ETA affiliated political group known as EH Bildu ran forty-four ex-convicted ETA members for Spanish general election. A conservative Christian party known as PP, or ‘People’s Party’, responded with accusations that the “ETA is still alive” in the form of EH Bildu. Regardless of these accusations, Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, determined there is no legal basis for Spain to ban EH Bildu. EH Bildu insist that the days of armed revolution are over. Former ETA member and general coordinator of EH Bildu, Arnaldo Otegi, stated that ETA’s use of violence in the quest for independence “should never have happened.” (7)

Objectives and Ideology:

The ETA is strongly rooted within the Basque nationalist movement. They emerged out of frustration at the PNV’s passive resistance towards the Franco regime. The PNV saw cooperation with the Spanish government and coalition building as a pragmatic way to gain more autonomy for the Basque region. The younger and more radical ETA argued that only through direct action could independence be gained. (1,3)

The early ideological struggle within the ETA was concerned with the following:

1. Ethnicity vs class as an organizing principle for revolution.

2. Nationalism vs socialism as a guiding ideology

3. Conducting struggle based solely on ethnic Basques vs integrating non-Basque immigrants into the conflict.

4. Use of ‘direct action’ or ‘activism’ vs nonviolent organizing among masses of industrial workers. (3)

Periodically, the ETA held debates at collective assemblies and made decisions on the organizations structure, political ideology, operations, strategy, tactics, etc. At their first assembly (1962), the ETA asserted their identity as a “revolutionary Basque movement” for national liberation. The Executive Committee issued their declaration of purpose: “ETA is a clandestine organization whose only objective is to obtain as rapidly as possible and using all the means possible — including violence — the independence of Euzkadi.” They advocated for the creation of a federated Europe based on ethnonationalities, separation of church and state, and opposition of racism and dictatorial regimes, whether fascist or communist. They supported a Basque national front composed of all ethnic Basque political groups regardless of social class and emphasized the Basque ethnic and cultural struggle. (3)

By the third assembly (1964–1965), things began to radically change. Multiple factions who were focused solely on a pure ethnic or class struggle left the group. The remaining members were more ideologically homogenous. They defined themselves as anti-capitalist and anti-imperialists committed to the armed struggle for Basque independence. Inspired by Franz Fanon’s writings on the struggles of the Third World against Western European and American colonialism, the group saw the Basque ethnic struggle and working class-struggle as two parts of a larger struggle against Spanish colonization. Therefore, the ETA would wage an armed struggle against both the Spanish apparatus of domination (government, bureaucracy, economy, mass media, etc.) and the Basque bourgeoisie who refused to cooperate with the struggle. (3)

Between 1967 and 1968, the ETA split due to ideological and strategic differences between factions. The ETApm were closer to traditional Marxist-Leninism and chose to combine an armed mobile proletariat and joint political-military strategy like the Tupamaros in Uruguay. In contrast, the ETAm maintained the use of small clandestine cells and was influenced by the Palestinian militant group Black September. By the 80s, ETApm dissolved but remained active politically as the EE. The ETAm continued the armed struggle as the sole ETA. (3)

In 1978, ETA’s five conditions for total cessation of hostilities were the following:

1. Amnesty for all Basque political prisoners.

2. Legalization of all political parties including those espousing separatism.

3. Expulsion of the Spanish Guardia Civil and other police agencies from the Basque country.

4. Adoption of measures to improve conditions of the working class.

5. Recognition of the national sovereignty of Euskadi and the right of the Basque people to self-determination. (3)

The Spanish government refused to negotiate. In 2011, the ETA were unpopular, isolated, and weakened beyond repair. They decided the armed struggle was no longer a viable option and called for an end to hostilities in 2011. In 2018, the last remnant of ETA announced its dissolution. (3)

Today, many ex-ETA members continue to fight for the creation of a “Basque State”, but through democratic politics rather than armed actions (ex. EH Bildu). (7)

Political and Military Capabilities:

ETA militants, eterras, are estimated to have ranged somewhere between 300 to 2,000 active members at their peak. After five decades of operations, they killed 829, kidnapped 77, and wounded more than 22,000. (4) Their operations consisted of armed robberies, raids on weapons factories and depots, bombings, assassinations, and sabotage. Most operations were carried out in the Spanish Basque but included cities in Spain, France, and Catalonia. (2)

The ETA were organized along a three-tired, top-down pyramid-like structure. The Executive Committee, based in France, consisted of about 10 individuals. Their function was to recruit, gather and analyze intel, procure weapons, maintain finances, and handle publicity. The middle branch was a loosely operational committee that oversaw ETA activities in each of the Spanish Basque provinces. At the base of the organization were the commandos, cells of 3–5 members operating near the town or neighborhood they lived. They work in secrecy and stay isolated from the rest of the organization to prevent members from giving up any information under interrogation or torture. (2)

There are several classes of etteras within the organization. Liberados, aka ilegales, or fichidos, have a police record, or ficha, on file. They work full time for the ETA and earn a modest salary. Liberados carry out most of the armed actions such as bombings, bank robberies, and kidnappings. Legales are unknown to police and live conventional lives. Most ETA activists are young, single male legales from Vizcaya or Guipúzcoa. They are full time students, workers, and agriculturalist who could be sporadically activated for an ekintza (action) at any moment. They serve as enlances (links) and act as couriers of information, or buzons (mailboxes) which serv as drop off points for messages, weapons, or other items passing through ETA’s network. Information would be shared in secure locations such as local bars, movie theatres, restaurants, etc. Contraband was hidden in secret compartments with false bottoms to avoid detection. (2)

A recruiter scouts out new members at social clubs and hangouts and vets them for over a year. During the onboarding process, potential recruits play minor roles in operations and progressively took on more responsibility. Once admitted into the organization, they spend two weeks at a basic training camp in southern France where they receive training on weapons, combat, explosives, communication devices and channels, intel gathering, etc. (2)

ETA’s weapons and ammo cache were supplied via the international illegal arms market or stolen from arms depots in Spain, France, and elsewhere. Weapons were often smuggled across the Pyrenees or Bay of Biscay concealed within food crates or in vehicles/boats with false bottoms. ETA cells were as well equipped as a conventional infantry attachment in the Spanish Army. The preferred pistols includ the Belgian-manufactured Browning 9mm HP35 and the Basque-manufactured Star, Astra, and Firebird. The preferred submachine guns included the Belgian-manufactured 9mm Vigneron, Isreali/Belgian-manufactured 9mm Uzi, and the United Kingdom-manufactured 9mm Sten Mark II. Most ETA were given pistols rather than submachine guns. Pistols were least likely to result in accidental deaths or wasted ammunition. Specially trained commandos received automatic/semi-automatic rifles such as the American M-16’s or Belgian FALs. Rocket launchers were rarely used because they tended to be old and unreliable. The go-to explosive was Goma-2. It was manufactured across Spain and Portugal and used for construction and quarrying. There were plenty of major deposits in Basque country from which to steal. (2)

ETA was financed by donations, armed robberies, kidnapping, ransoms, and so-called “revolutionary taxes” aka (extortion) they learned from the Irish Republican Army. Basque industrialists and bourgeoisie essentially “made an offer they couldn’t refuse” under threats of violence. For perspective, in 1978 ETA robbed 50 banks for over 4 million dollars. That same year over 800 wealthy Basques were paying revolutionary taxes. Kidnapping victims were kept behind false walls or windowless rooms known as “people’s prisons” until a ransom was paid, or a political concession was granted. These same hiding spots were used to hide eterras from capture. (2)

The ETA’s main targets were members of the Spanish security state. Civilian casualties were mostly politicians and police informants although 9% were estimated to be innocent bystanders. Bombs and crossfire were responsible for most of the accidental victims. Operations tended to avoid direct assault. Eterras used hit-and-run tactics catching their victims off guard when they were most vulnerable. For example, most victims were assassinated while driving, sitting at a bar/restaurant, taking a walk, etc. (2)

Approach to Resistance:

The ETA’s primary approach to resistance was through armed insurgence. In 1967, there was a group consensus on applying the ‘Action-Repression-Action-Spiral Theory’ against Franco’s regime. In theory, cycles of escalating armed actions and retaliation would have led to such atrocious forms of repression that a civil war would break out and the general Basque population would join the ETA in its armed struggle for independence. In practice, the Franco regime cracked down swiftly and arrested, tortured, and imprisoned most of ETA’s leaders and hundreds of etteras. A ‘State of Exception’ (martial law) was implemented suspending constitutional rights for Spanish Basque and eventually the rest of Spain. There would be no civil war. Despite living under conditions of a constant police state, ETA continued armed operations against Franco’s regime until his death. Their assassination of Admiral Blanco arguably put the nail in the coffin of Franco’s regime and facilitated the emergence of a Spanish democracy. (2)

During Spain’s transition to democracy, ETA’s ideological split would precede both factions joining a workers’ coalition (KAS) and forming their own political parties (EE and HB). Both parties responded “no” to the Constitutional referendum. Regardless, the referendum was passed. During these turbulent years, ETApm and ETAm increased armed insurgency for “true” liberation. Later, ETApm ultimately decided to forgo the militant path. Their reasoning behind that decision was twofold. First, they believed through politics they could gain more autonomy and worker’s rights for the Basque people. Secondly, they believed armed insurgence might trigger a right-wing coup and a loss of their recently gained autonomy. ETAm continued their armed insurgency but ultimately dissolved due to increased counterinsurgency, French cooperation with the Spanish government, and a loss of public support. (2)

ETA was able to create a “spiral of silence” using street violence, intimidation, extortion, and a network of organizations within the Basque National Liberation Movement. The goal was to make their presence felt everywhere. Intimidation and extortion were leveraged to entice others to support the cause. There was a “fear of physical and (sometimes irreversible) damage or destruction of property, but also social marginalization or emptiness, including stigmatization as Spanish.” ETA encouraged supporters to occupy public spaces and show their support. It held symbolic power and attracted media attention which held the perception of legitimacy to ETA’s cause. (8)

Relations and Alliances:

It has been alleged that the ETA had links to an international terrorist network. In 1981, Spanish magazine Policia Espanola published an alleged foreign contact that claimed ETA was receiving weapons, explosives, and/or tactical training in South Yemen, Lebanon, Czechoslovakia, Ireland, Uruguay, Cuba, and Algeria. Spanish intelligence claims a small group of eterras were trained in kidnapping and sabotage in Cuba in 1964. They are also alleged to have ties to the IRA, Red Brigades, and the Baader-Meinhof Gang. Exiles were given refuge in France (until 1983), Belgium and Algeria. (4)

Political parties associated with the ETA were Herri Batasuna and Euzkadiko Ezkerra. EH Bildu, a Basque separatist party, is made up of many ex-ETA members, forty-four of which recently ran in Spain’s general elections. (4, 7)

ETA had a strong presence at home in the Basque Liberation Movement. Organizations within the public sphere that were a part of this movement included workers’ unions (LAB), youth groups (Jarrai), feminist groups (Egizan), ecologist groups (Eguzki), student groups (Ikasle Abertzaleak), internationalist groups (Askapena), media and cultural groups (Egin & Egin Irratia), human rights groups (Herriko Tabernas) and other groups which served as political and social apparatuses to create a counter society to run against the prevailing narrative of the state. (8)

Works Cited:

1. Watson, Cameron, Basque Nationalism and Political Violence: The Ideological and Intellectual origins of ETA, Center for Basque Studies, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada, 2007.

2. Anderson, Wayne, The ETA: Spain’s Basque Terrorists, Rosen Publication, New York, 2003.

3. Clark, Robert P., The Basque Insurgents: ETA, 1952–1980, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wisconsin, 1984.

4. Douglas William A., and Joseba Zulaika, “On the Interpretation of Terrorist Violence: ETA and the Basque Political Process”, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Volume 32, №2, pp. 238–257, Cambridge University Press, Published: April, 1990. Accessed: 6/23/2014

5. Who Were the ETA (Euskadia Ta Askatasuna)?, History With Hilbert, Educational Video, Published May 21, 2021.

Watch Here

6. Encarnación, Omar G., “Democracy and Dirty Wars in Spain”, Human Rights Quarterly, Vol. 29, №4, pp. 950–972, The John Hopkins University Press, Published November 2007

Read Here

7. Llach, Laura, Spanish Elections Re-Open Deep Wounds, as ETA Terrorists Run for Political Office, Euro News, Published: 5/19/2023

Read Here

8. García, César, “The Strategic Communication Power of Terrorism: The Case of ETA, Perspectives on Terrorism, Vol. 12, №5 pp. 27–35, Terrorism Research Initiative, October 2018.

Read Here

INTRO:

The American Nazi Party (ANP) was a neo-Nazi organization founded in 1959 by George Lincoln Rockwell, a veteran Naval Pilot, whose paranoia and racism fueled his obsession with what he believed was a Jewish international conspiracy to destroy the white race. In 1950, anti-Semitic and far-right propaganda led Rockwell to read Hitler’s Mein Kampf and experience what he described as a “spiritual awakening.” For years, he tried to secretly promote his newfound Nazi beliefs in far-right organizations and right-wing propaganda, but in 1958 he was exposed after an explosion at a Jewish synagogue revealed his connections to neo-Nazi’s associated with the terrorist attack. In response, Rockwell hoisted a Swastika banner at his home for all to see and went public as a Nazi. He started the World Union of Free Enterprise National Socialists (WUFENS) which transitioned to the American Nazi Party (ANP). In 1962, he co-founded an international organization of National Socialists named the World Union of National Socialists (WUNS). As leader of the ANP, Rockwell and his Stormtroopers aimed at using provocation through street demonstrations and propaganda to garner mass publicity and support in hopes of becoming a large political movement. Rockwell sought to exploit fears of the white Christian majority by emphasizing social tensions surrounding race riots and economic instability and offering the solution of the ANP. ANP’s solution involved deporting black Americans to Africa and sending “Jewish-traitors and their collaborators” to the gas chambers. In the mid to late 60s, Rockwell began to tone down the Nazi imagery and shift strategy from the dogmatic German-Nordic Nazism of Hitler to a pan-white movement based on “white unity.” This caused a rift within the ANP that would eventually lead to its dissolution. In 1967, the ANP rebranded as the National Socialist White Peoples Party (NSWPP). The same year a disaffected ANP officer, John Patler, assassinated Rockwell from the rooftop of a laundromat. Matt Koehl, Rockwell’s successor, would lead the NSWPP for a short period before rebranding it as the New Order with a focus on spirituality over politics.

History and Foundations

George Lincoln Rockwell was born on March 9, 1918, in Bloomington, Illinois. Both of his parents were famous vaudeville performers. His father, George Lovejoy “Doc” Rockwell, was a fun and charming man, but showed little affection to his children. His mother, Claire Shade Rockwell, was sweet but passive. Following their divorce, Rockwell would spend a school season in Atlantic City, New Jersey with his mother and domineering Aunt Arline and summers on the coast with his father in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. (1)

According to Rockwell, his Aunt Arline was physically and emotionally abusive. As a teenager, he began to turn his frustrations with her outward. For example, during his senior year he rebelled against a teacher he didn’t like by refusing to do any classwork. Consequentially, he was not allowed to graduate that year. He was sent to live with his grandmother in Providence, Rhode Island and re-due his senior year. Away from his aunt, Rockwell’s grades and attitude began to improve. After graduation, Rockwell completed another semester of high school followed by a year at Hebron Academy in rural Maine to bring his grades up and get accepted into an Ivy League school. This didn’t stop his rebellious behavior. He took pride in the memory of organizing a group of boys to terrorize a teacher he didn’t like until the teacher quit his job. (1)

He was finally accepted into Brown University for scoring high on his College Aptitude Test, despite mediocre grades. There he developed an interest in advertising, illustration, and media. He revived the college campus humor magazine, Sir Brown! and honed his skills as an illustrator and cartoonist while working as the arts editor for the school magazine. This was also the time during which he began developing a fascination with esoteric political tracts and conspiracy theories. He majored in philosophy and began to develop a pessimistic view of society and people. By his second year at Brown, he began to complain the university was a haven for “intellectual dishonesty” and “infected” with communism. (1)

Inspired by Charlie Chaplain’s film The Great Dictator, he dropped out of school and joined in the war “to defeat Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo.” In 1941, Rockwell joined the Navy as a pilot, serving in both the Atlantic and Pacific theatres. While in service he married his first wife, Judith Aultman. By 1945, he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and received special decorations for his service. (1)

Following the war, he enrolled at the prestigious art college, Pratt University, in New York City. While there, he won a prestigious illustration competition sponsored by New York Society of Illustrators for a poster he illustrated for the American Cancer Society. This came with a $1,000 cash prize and national notoriety. Instead of finishing school at Pratt, he dropped out and moved to Maine with wife and newborn child to begin an advertising agency called Maine Advertising, Inc. While the agency saw relative success, Rockwell was bought out of the company due to unsettled arguments. (1)

In 1950, the US Navy called him back up for service at the start of the Korean War. He again relocated his family to San Diego, California to serve as an instructor at the Naval Air Support School teaching Marine pilots on the F8F Bearcat. By this time, his marriage was in shambles. For Rockwell, women were to be completely submissive and obedient to their husbands. He felt his wife was too “strong-willed.” He began to develop insomnia, staying up late and following far-right politics. He attended meetings for the John Birch Society and became obsessed with Senator McCarthy and the Red Scare. He became paranoid that communist were infiltrating every American institution. This paranoia led him down an anti-Semitic, anti-communist rabbit-hole directly to Hitler’s Mein Kampf and a “spiritual awakening.” He was now a Nazi…in private. (1)

In 1952, he was transferred to Keflavik Naval Air Station in Iceland and promoted to Commander. With nothing to do, he spent his free time reading anti-Semitic literature of Gerald L. K. Smith and Conde McGinley, Hitler’s Mein Kampf, and The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. Following a divorce, he met Icelander Thora Hallgrimmson. They quickly married and spent their honeymoon in Berchtesgaden where they visited the site of Hitler’s Eagles Nest. (1)

In 1954, Rockwell returned to Maine with his new wife and child before relocating to Washington, D.C. to start a magazine designed for the wives of U.S. Servicemen called U.S. Lady. He believed his magazine could subliminally influence women into accepting traditional gender roles and avoid “race-mixing.” The magazine was relatively successful but due to arguments he was again bought out. Following this failure, Rockwell began freelancing as an independent contractor for right-wing publications. During these years, he faced enormous financial and emotional pressure trying to provide for a new and growing family while owing child-support to his ex-wife.

In 1958, he involved himself in John G. Crommelin’s campaign for governor of Alabama. Crommelin, a white supremacist and ex Naval officer, shared Rockwell’s anti-Semitism. In fact, Rockwell borrowed a lot of Crommelin’s anti-Semitic theoretical framework. His campaign was a magnet for far-right extremists like Connie Lynch, Edward Fields, James K. Warner, Matt Koehl, Emory Burke, Gordon Winrod, Wallace Allen, and George Bright. With these men, Rockwell co-founded the National States’ Rights Party, a far-right, white supremacist organization based in Georgia. (1)

The same year, Rockwell was introduced to DeWest Hoooker and Harrold Arrowsmith Jr. DeWest Hoooker, a wealthy businessman, was being investigated by the FBI for his pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic beliefs, but more importantly for the recruitment of New York City youth into his National Youth League (NYL) to picket “Jewish-Communism.” Hooker convinced Rockwell that mainstream right-wing groups secretly shared sympathies with Nazis but were too afraid to be open about it. He persuaded Rockwell that if he went public as a full-blown Nazi, many would follow his lead. Arrowsmith, a retired millionaire and extreme anti-Semite, offered to be Rockwell’s financial backer to start the anti-Semitic propaganda organization known as the National Committee to Free America from Jewish Domination (NCFAJD). Arrowsmith put a down payment on a house in Arlington, VA and lent him a second-hand printing press for printing and distribution of anti-Semitic propaganda. (1,2)

Rockwell’s first operation with NCFAJD was to picket the White House with anti-Semitic signs and hand out anti-Semitic literature with youth from Hooker’s NYL. In the literature, he claimed that the United States government was secretly being forced by “the Jews” to send marines to protect Israel’s puppet regime in Lebanon. (1,2)

On October 12, 1958, fifty sticks of dynamite went off at the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation synagogue in Atlanta, Georgia. Wallace Allen, one of the founders of The Columbians, the first openly neo-Nazi organization in postwar America, was indicted in connection to the bombing. Rockwell had been using his printing press to supply the National States’ Rights Party (of which Allen was a member) with literature and propaganda. Police found a cache of letters from Rockwell to Allen with ambiguous but suggestive phrases. News reports identified Rockwell as a suspect and radical Nazi. Arrowsmith no longer wanted anything to do with him. His house began to be assaulted with bricks and cherry bombs and his wife and children left for Iceland. (1)

Rockwell hit rock bottom. His 2nd wife asked for a divorce. His reputation was destroyed. And he was unable to find work. He began to drink heavily and became suicidal. His father became ashamed of him. His brother reached out with an ultimatum…go to therapy or their relationship is over. Rockwell made his choice and the only family member that didn’t ostracize him was his mother. Alone in a dilapidated house with no running water or electricity, he sank into complete despair. In that despair, he experienced another “spiritual awakening” that convinced him that he was the successor to Hitler’s Third Reich and had to start his own Nazi party to become America’s Führer. Thus, he created the World Union of Free Enterprise National Socialists, which later rebranded as the American Nazi Party. He displayed a large, well-lit Nazi banner for all to see and began recruiting young, disaffected men into his ranks of Stormtroopers.

In 1960, the Navy revoked his commission in the Naval Reserves. He had been charged with espousing race and religious hatred. He used the situation to publicize what he felt was persecution by “high-ranking Jews” in which he specifically named Anna M. Rosenburg, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower. He became ineligible for his pension with only six months from military retirement. (1)

The ANP began holding demonstrations and handing out leaflets in Washington, D.C. Eventually, riots broke out between Stormtroopers and the enraged Jewish community, particularly members of the Jewish War Veterans. Rockwell and his Stormtroopers were arrested for disorderly conduct and received their first major publicity. Rockwell was ordered to be cross-examined in a psychiatric hospital for 30 days to see if he was mentally fit to stand trial. The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith presented violent illustrations he had published in his college magazine, Sir Brown! as evidence of his insanity. He was released after 10 days and determined fit to stand trial. (1,2)

Rockwell sought more notoriety and publicity by aiming a demonstration in New York City, home to the nation’s largest Jewish population (many survivors of the holocaust) and national news media. Rockwell saw New York City as the “pulsing heart of Marxism in the USA.” (2) Jewish community organizers fought to keep Rockwell from speaking, but the ACLU came to Rockwell’s defense on the grounds of free speech. In response, a riot of over 200 anti-Nazi protesters broke out in the rotunda of the supreme court building of NYC. While Rockwell won the right to speak, he no longer felt it was necessary since he had already got the publicity he needed. (1)

In 1961, Rockwell and a handful of Stormtroopers drove a Hate Bus to New Orleans to mock the Freedom Riders struggle to integrate public transportation in the South. He also held music fundraisers he called “Hate-o-nannies” and began indoctrinating recruits in chapters nationwide such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and Dallas. (1)

In 1962, the ANP toured America in hopes of increasing their publicity and gaining new supporters. It was largely a failure. Quarantine, the strategy of persuading local media and Jewish organizations to ignore Rockwell (what he termed the ‘paper curtain’) was relatively successful in keeping the ANP’s tour largely unnoticed. In fact, when Rockwell attempted to speak in NYC on Hitler’s Birthday, April 20th, which coincided with Good Friday and the second day of Passover, the Jewish War Veterans and other organizations finally agreed on the strategy and ignored Rockwell. (1,2)

Rockwell began to look for new tactics to break through Quarantine. When the Nation of Islam (NOI) held a National Convention at the Chicago Temple of Islam, Rockwell exploited Elijah Muhammad’s desire for racial segregation by delivering a speech on the “Lincoln Plan”, a plan where the US government would spend $50 billion dollars over the course of 10 years to establish a settlement for black Americans in Africa. When he described Muhammad as the “Adolf Hitler of the black man,” he gained publicity again. (1,2)

Despite travel bans, Rockwell entered Gloucestershire, England for a meeting with National Socialists leaders from seven nations and laid out plans for a National Socialist world revolution in the Cotswold Agreement. This laid the foundations for the World Union of National Socialist (WUNS) of which Rockwell became the supreme commander. At this meeting he met for the first time with Savitri Devi, a Nazi mystic, Bruno Ludtke, an ex-SS officer, and Colin Jordan, leader of the British National Socialist Movement (NSM). All three would have a profound influence on Rockwell. (1)

By 1963, Rockwell would discover the lucrative college lecture circuit. It held no fertile ground for ANP recruitment but earned him a steady income for the first time in his life. He would continue to give lectures at universities until his death in 1967. He was able to sell out to crowds of 2–3 thousand students, but only as a spectacle with no actual political power. (1)

Rockwell hated Martin Luther King Jr. He believed King was a communist and part of the communist agenda. When stormtrooper, Roy James, punched MLK in the face in Birmingham, Alabama, Rockwell awarded him the “Order of Adolf Hitler Silver Medal.” In 1963, Dr. King was about to make his infamous “March on Washington.” Rockwell planned to hold a counterdemonstration, but only gathered around 90 men and women… “several of them undercover police, feds, and Jewish community organizers.” (1)

(There is exactly one way for us to win…and that is to fight on racial grounds; to think, to act, above all, to vote as whites and nothing else — George Lincoln Rockwell) (1)

In 1965, Rockwell ran for governor in Virginia. His campaign focused on anti-Segregation and toned down the Nazi imagery to be more palatable to a wider public. Stormtroopers became “campaign aides” and dropped the Nazi uniform for suits and ties. Race riots were erupting across American cities and Rockwell believed “white unity” should be the central motif of the movement. While 6,500 votes were inconsequential in the race for governor, Rockwell saw it as a win. (1)

(With a budget of $1500, with a total press blackout, and with a ‘Kosher conservative’ [splitting the vote] …I got 7,000 people to vote for a Nazi — George Lincoln Rockwell) (1)

In 1966, Stokely Carmichael, leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, coined the term “Black Power” to describe a growing movement of militant black Americans. Rockwell decided to promote “White Power” as a counter-slogan for militant whites. By mid-summer, the slogan gained nationwide popularity amongst racists. Rockwell believed this new concept of “race unity” was “fundamental to success.” (1)

Rockwell’s “white unity” was based on pan-white inclusion, which stood in stark contrast to Hitler’s Aryanism, which was exclusively Nordic-Germanic. He came to the belief that Hitler’s strategic mistake had been the exclusion of Slavs, Poles, Greeks, Turks, etc. Rockwell believed that “the dark peoples of the earth, led by the Jews” outnumbered them “7:1.” He preached the entire “white race” was in a fight for its survival. This caused a rift in the American Nazi Party between hard-core Nazis and those open to pan-white inclusion. The Aryan Unity faction within ANP was led by Matt Koehl and included William Pierce, Frank Drager, and Alan Welch. Others, such as John Patler (formerly Patsalos), son of Greek immigrants, welcomed the change. (1,2)

In 1966, MLK was preparing to march for open housing in Chicago, one of the largest and most segregated cities in America. Rockwell led a White Power faction to counter King’s march with the white working class, mostly Polish and Italian Americans that made up the area. He passed out “White Power” T-shirts and coalesced under a “White Power” banner. The crowd responded to King’s demonstration by throwing rocks and shouting racist vitriol. (1)

(I’ve been in many demonstrations all across the South…[and] I have never seen — even in Mississippi and Alabama — mobs as hostile and hate-filled — Martin Luther King Jr.) (1)

After the demonstration, King said it was one of the most violent and hateful responses he’d ever experienced. Rockwell’s counterdemonstration in Chicago was captured on television and received tremendous publicity, but the victory was largely illusory. Many who participated in the demonstration admitted they were caught up in the heat of the moment and embarrassed by their behavior towards MLK’s march and strongly rejected Rockwell. (1)

On January 1st, 1967, Rockwell rebranded his party as the National Socialist White People’s Party. He was no longer concerned with Nazi dogmatism and felt confident in this shift in strategy. He also got rid of John Palter who had become erratic and a source of tension within the party. But on August 25, 1967, Patler decided to assassinate Rockwell from the roof of a laundromat. Rockwell was pierced in the aorta while backing out of the parking lot and died at the scene. Patler was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison. The ANP found trouble attempting to give Rockwell a Nazi burial and even had a standoff at Culpepper National Cemetery, which gained publicity until the press lost interests. They decided to have him cremated and thus George Lincoln Rockwell became the first martyr in the American neo-Nazi mythos. (1)

Under Koehl’s leadership, the NSWPP shifted away from Rockwell’s political doctrine. Koehl’s vision of National Socialism was less political and primarily spiritual. He was profoundly influenced by Savitri Devi’s “Esoteric Hitlerism,” which reveres Hitler as a messianic figure. He moved the party away from the political theatrics of Rockwell, preferring an insular organization centered around Aryan purity and neo-paganism. This shift in orientation led most party members to split from the group and join or found their own organizations such as the National Alliance, led by William Luther Pierce and the National Socialist Liberation Front, led by Joseph Tomassi. Koehl was left with a small but loyal following and in 1982 moved the headquarters to Wisconsin to maintain a low profile. Following relocation, the party rebranded as the New Order. Koehl passed away in 2014. The party continues but remains obscure, avoiding media and information on its leadership or activities. (1)

Objectives and Ideology

(I am, and must be…the Apostle of Adolf Hitler, who was the greatest world savior in two thousand years…like Saint Paul…I once misunderstood, hated and fought. I must, like the early Christians, drive out the ‘evil spirits’ of materialism, greed, selfishness, short-sightedness and cowardice, and stand defiant, even in the midst of the ‘lions of the Coliseum’, if that be my fate, to give the world once more that ‘Polar Star’ of direction, purpose, hope, loyalty, and love which can no longer be supplied by the infiltrated religions — George Lincoln Rockwell) (1)

George Lincoln Rockwell and the American Nazi Party’s heritage can be traced back to the 1930s, when pro-fascist, pro-German groups like the German-American Bund, Silver Shirt League, and the Christian Front were preaching anti-Semitic and ultranationalist ideas in the pre-war era. During this time, anti-Semitism had made its way into the cultural mainstream via popular anti-Semitic publications, such as The International Jew: The World’s Foremost Problem by Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford. Ford’s book and newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, spread anti-Semitic propaganda and promoted the fabricated Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which claimed there was a Jewish conspiracy for world domination. While serving in the Korean War, Rockwell was heavily influenced by anti-communists like Senator Joe McCarthy and anti-Semitic propogandists like Gerald L. K. Smith and Conde McGinley which led him down a far-right political rabbit hole until he reached Hitler’s Mein Kampf. Rockwell’s political theories attempted to stitch together the fears brought by the Red Scare of the 50s and the racial tensions of the 60s with his anti-Semitic and racist beliefs. Rockwell’s National Socialist convictions were not just political but spiritual. He claimed to have re-occurring dreams of meeting Hitler’s ghost and was further encouraged by Savitri Devi and Bruno Ludtke that his spiritual destiny was to bring National Socialism to the world and save the Aryan race. (1).

In his book, “White Power,” Rockwell describes ANP’s thesis:

1. Western Society is sick.

2. The youth are spiritually empty.

3. This is not natural, but an effort conspired by “liberals” and “Chart-Foragers” aka Jews.

4. Those leading the nation are purposefully causing its collapse.

5. Those leading the nation are Jews.

6. There is an international Jewish conspiracy to smash Western Civilization because Jewish people are inherently paranoid and thrive in degeneracy and chaos.

7. Two segments are using “divide and conquer” strategy in order to conquer the world. The first segment, “Friends of the Captain,” promote conspiracy by “gathering up gold by fake speculation and unfair merchandising” …then buying media outlets and using them to brainwash people and promote a class war.

8. The other segment, “friends of the crew” promote violent class war from below. (3)

Rockwell goes on to describe the “ideal” society his party intended to create:

1. White America

2. White World Solidarity

3. A new social order based on racial values.

4. An “honest economy” that ends both economic freeloading (welfare) and economic exploitation.

5. White self-defense where all white citizens are allowed to keep and bear arms and “maintain vigilance against enemies internal and external.”

6. A government led by the strongest, smartest, and wisest men.

7. Spiritual rebirth centered around racial idealism.

8. Promotion of Aryan culture.

9. A healthy, clean, wholesome environment where pollution is eliminated, and resources conserved.

10. A better race where the best qualities are emphasized, and weaknesses and flaws eliminated (eugenics). (3)

(We will build our trained, hardcore Nazis into nationwide mass organizations…inflamed with a holy zeal as fired the American Revolutionist — George Lincoln Rockwell) (3)

The American Nazi Party had a five-phase plan. Fortunately, they never succeeded beyond phase one.

· Phase 1: Use provocative and shocking tactics to garner media attention and maximize publicity to raise awareness of the party.

· Phase 2: Gain political legitimacy by running for office and presenting the party’s ideas to the mainstream.

· Phase 3: Build a mass movement amongst disaffected white working-class and middle-class Americans. Rockwell believed race-wars and economic collapse were imminent and hoped to exploit these chaotic conditions to “use political power to fight and win back American heritage and enforce the Constitution for the benefit of the White Christian people.” (3)

· Phase 4. Achieve political power. Rockwell believed he would gain millions of ANP supporters that would elect him as President of the United States in 1972 along with stacking the Senate and House of Representatives with people from his party.

· Phase 5: The Final Settlement: Rockwell’s ultimate goal was to purge all Jews, leftist, queers, and non-whites from American society. (1,2,3,4)

(I’m going to completely separate the black and white races and preserve the white Christian domination in this country, and I’m going to have the Jew Communists and any other traitors gassed for treason — George Lincoln Rockwell) (3)

Rockwell believed Elijah Muhammed’s Nation of Islam would help organize and direct the ‘Lincoln Plan’ to send black Americans to a settlement in Africa. The plan would utilize $50 billion dollars supplied by the US government and payed out over the course of ten years to settle and colonize part of Africa. Those who refused to “voluntarily” leave for Africa would be stripped of citizenship, placed in concentration camps, and become wards of the state. (4)

(I’d also purge the queers. I despise them worst of all…They’re the ultimate symbol of a decaying civilization — George Lincoln Rockwell) (4)

Military and Political

Rockwell enlisted a small “revolutionary cadre of fighters” or “Stormtroopers” to implement ANP’s plans. While membership figures were never released, it is evident he never received the financial or numerical support to carry through with his objectives. Rockwell only gave the illusion that ANP was a large and growing movement.

Stormtroopers, Party Members, and Supporters:

No reliable sources place membership above 200 active members and a few thousand supporters. (1) However, Rockwell would claim in Playboy Magazine to have 500 Stormtroopers, 1,500 party members, and 15,000 correspondents (including thousands more abroad in the WUNS movement). (4)

Weapons:

Rockwell claimed he and the Stormtroopers only carried rifles and handguns for self-defense purposes. He claimed the party didn’t participate in terrorism not for moral reasons but because it didn’t serve the interest of the party.

(“I feel that terrorism is a valid weapon in guerilla warfare…if it would work. A hundred years ago, I’d have been a Klansmen with a rope and gun and the whole business…but today, it plays directly into the hands of Martin Luther [King]…it manufactures martyrs…” — George Rockwell) (4)

Funding:

Tony Ulasewicz, New York City Police Department monitored Rockwell from 58’ to 67’. He once visited Rockwell at his home and reported: [Rockwell’s] glowing, published accounts of his party’s progress had been nothing more than a pack of lies…I noticed that bullet holes punctured the walls of his house…I also saw a stack of unpaid bills high on the table. Rockwell’s electricity had been turned off, and he used kerosene lamps to light the place…whatever Hitler’s ghost had promised Rockwell, it hadn’t yet arrived.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, ANP’s annual income was no more than 20k. In fact, Stormtroopers had to find jobs and turn over their paychecks to the party. They were constantly on the verge of bankruptcy. Rockwell was selling his own valuables at local pawnshops to pay court-mandated child support payments. He lost a battle with the IRS and had ANP’s headquarters on Randolph Street in Arlington confiscated along with its belongings.

The ANP’s most notable contributors were the following:

· Harrold Arrowsmith Jr. provided him with $20k of support by putting a down payment on a house in Arlington, Virginia, providing a secondhand printing press, and $2500 in cash. The relationship ended abruptly following the Atlanta synagogue bombing. (1)

· Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Fleming of Arlington, VA bought ANP a new house on North Randolph Street (which got confiscated by the IRS). They spent about $30-$50k on the party despite earning a modest income as sign painters. (1)

· Mr. and Mrs. Robert Surrey of Dallas, TX “used…money for bails and fines for Stormtroopers…[and] raised better than $20k in a three-year period for the party.” Rockwell cryptically mentioned ANP’s “backers in Dallas” in public statements. He probably meant to give the allusion that oil money from right wing reactionaries such as the multi-millionaire oil baron and reactionary H. L. Hunt were donating to the party. To the contrary, the Surrey’s were middle-class. (1)

· Ray York of California, introduced to Rockwell by the Surreys, contributed around $25k in cash, services, and rent-free use of his property. (1)

· Other income came from ANP’s newsletter, Nazi and White Power merchandise (literature, stickers, shirts, etc.), initiation fees, small donations, and fundraising events like the racist music jamborees they called “Hate-O’-Nannies.” (4)

· From 1963 to 1967, Rockwell began to earn a steady income on the college lecture circuit reportedly earning around $350 a lecture by the time of his death. (1)

Approach to Strategy

Rockwell’s strategy was to exploit the chaos of what he believed was a coming ‘race war’ and ‘economic collapse’ to implement ANP’s platform. He thought he could win a mass following by provoking his enemies by antagonizing them in street demonstrations and passing out hate literature. Once he gained people’s attention, he planned to run for political office and use that platform to legitimize his party’s ideas. Rockwell believed with enough publicity, ANP would gain mass public support, attract financing from wealthy right-wing reactionaries, and establish political power for his party. He was wrong. His party’s publicity peaked in the early 60s and never gained legitimacy or a mass following. He never gained any significant political power and spent his entire career on the fringe of the far-right. (1)

Rockwell struggled to break through what he termed the “paper curtain” which he believed was a conspiracy by Jewish controlled institutions in media, banking, government, and commerce to silence him. In reality, Jewish organizations were organizing around the “Quarantine Strategy” developed by Dr. Solomon Anthill Fineberg of the American Jewish Committee (AJC). The strategy had been used years before to deal with anti-Semites like Gerald L. K. Smith. The strategy consisted of two components:

1. Coordination amongst major American Jewish community organizations to minimize public confrontation between the anti-Semite and their opponents to deny them a dramatic event and invite publicity.

2. The dissemination of back-ground information and tactics on the anti-Semite to media outlets to convince them the rabble-rouser had nothing newsworthy to say. (1)

(“Rockwell needed the publicity to get his contributions in…just the threat of him coming was good for a couple grand” — Tony Ulasewicz, NYPD) (1)

The quarantine strategy worked. The ANP were literally starving for attention.

([Stormtroopers] ARE EATING STALE BREAD AND 10-CENT-A-POUND MEAT INTENDED FOR DOGS!…they can’t fight because they are hungry and COLD…we have no money for the heat bill — George Lincoln Rockwell) (1)

White Power Strategy

In 1965, Rockwell toned down the Nazi symbolism for a “cleaner” image focused on “white unity” as the central motif. The strategic focus on white unity was meant to exploit racial tensions around desegregation. Rockwell’s emphasis on “white unity” broke with the dogmatic teachings fundamental to Nazi belief of Nordic-Germanic racial superiority. It also differed from the Ku Klux Klan whose members were anti-Catholic Protestants and Nativists. While this strategy had profound influence on the future of neo-Nazism and racists groups in the United States and elsewhere, it ultimately led to a rift in the party which contributed to its dissolution following Rockwell’s death. The American public remained uninterested. They decided that Martin Luther King’s dream was more noble than Rockwell’s white nationalist movement.

Holocaust Denial

Rockwell introduced Holocaust Denial into the American anti-Semitic Zeitgeist. He believed that pre-war, pro-fascist organizations like Christian Front, the German-American Bund, and Silver Shirt Legion, which had hundreds of thousands of followers, were evidence of his party’s potential. He believed the memory of the Holocaust was holding his movement back. His solution was to attempt to distort historic memory and remove the stigma from Nazism by sharing what today some might call “alternative facts.” Many of these “facts” and “arguments” were introduced to Rockwell by his mentor, the ex-SS officer Bruno Ludtke. Ludtke sent Rockwell writings from Harry Barnes, Charles Tansill, Fred Utley, David Hoggan’s The Myth of the Six Million and an article published anonymously in a German-language Argentinian magazine, Der Web. These writings came to mark Holocaust denial of the 20th century. They included conspiracy theories of “supposed Zionist control of Allied interrogation of German war prisoners, inflation of mortality data for purpose of increasing reparations, fabrication of confessions, eliciting confessions by torture, and manipulating prewar census data to create the illusion of genocide.” (1)

(“I don’t believe for one minute that any 6,000,000 Jews were exterminated by Hitler. It never happened. The photographs you’ve seen passed off as pictures of dead Jews are frauds, pure and simple — George Lincoln Rockwell) (4)

Rockwell promoted these ideas in an interview with Alex Haley in Playboy Magazine. In the interview, he bragged about having published an article for Sir!, a popular men’s magazine, titled “When Nazis Tried Human Vivisection” (1958) under the name Lewcor (Rockwel backwards). He admitted everything in the article was completely made up. For Rockwell, this was proof the media were out to discredit the Nazis. He is considered the father of American Holocaust denial. (4)

Alliances and Relationships

Christian Identity

Rockwell saw Christianity as weak, feminine, and Jewish, but long entertained the idea of a Christian front with a pseudo-Christian exterior with National Socialism at its core. In 1964, Rockwell met with Wesley Swift to discuss merging elements of National Socialism with Christian Identity. (1)

Christian Identity is the 20th century American variation of 19th century British Israelism. British Israelism is the belief that “the British are lineal descendants of the ‘ten lost tribes of Israel” which dates as far back as the 17th century. John Wilson, a 19th century millenialist, turned it into a religious movement and Joseph Wild, a Congregationalist minister in Brookyln made it popular in the United States by the last quarter of the 19th century. It experienced a resurgence in the 20s amongst White Supremacist and anti-Semites because it saw white, Anglo-Americans as “true Israelites” and “God’s Chosen People.” (1)

During the 1930s, Gerald Winrod and Wesley Swift shaped the first churches recognized as Christian Identity around a doctrine of racial purity which became successful in parts of California and the southeastern US. Richard Butler, a former Lockheed aerospace engineer and member of the fascist Silver Shirt Legion saw Nazi politics and Christian Identity as inseparable. Christian Identity holds that Jews are not the Biblical Israelites, but the “literal spawn of Satan.” It pitted Aryans as the true Israelites engaged in an apocalyptic struggle with Satanic Jews. (1)

Rockwell sent one of his trusted ANP officers, Ralph Perry Forbes, to join CI as a minister in California. Forbes built a large congregation and enshrined Rockwell into CI as “God’s latter-day apostle to America and all the lost sheep of the nations of true Israel.” Thus, CI became a haven for American Nazis and their ideological descendants. (1)

World Union of National Socialist (WUNS)

WUNS was an international network of Nazi organizations whose members included:

· United States: Rockwell’s American Nazi Party

· United Kingdom: Colin Jordan’s British National Socialist Movement

· Belgium

· West Germany: Bruno Ludtke’s underground movements

· Canada: Canadian Nazi Party

· France: Yves Jeanne’s French National Socialist Movement

· Denmark

· Austria

· Argentina: Horst Eichmann’s (Adolf Eichmann’s son) Argentine National Socialist Party

· Japan: The Greater Japan Patriotic Society

· Chile: Former SS colonel Franz Heinz Pfeiffer’s Chilean National Socialist party

· Sweden

· South Africa: Ray K. Rudman’s South African Anglo-Norman Union

· Rhodesia

· Iceland

· Spain

· Hungary

· Italy

· Switzerland

· Uruguay

· Puerto Rico (1)

The WUNS movement was stifled by legal and logistical challenges due to strict laws surrounding Nazi activities post-World War 2, but it planted seeds and influenced neo-Nazi and far-right extremist groups around the world. (1)

Schisms

NSWPP split off into several factions. Matt Koehl, Rockwell’s chief lieutenant and formal successor, retained the party name and headquarters, but later moved to the mid-west and changed the party to the New Order, embracing Hitler esotericism as a religion and losing interest in the political movement. Other schisms of ANP include the National Socialist Front, the National Socialist Party of America, the National Alliance, and the Christian Defense League. (1)

Former Members of ANP

· David Duke-Founder of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan organization.

· Frank Collin-founder of National Socialist Party of America

· Harold Covington-founder of Northwest Front

· James Mason-former convict, author of Siege, promoter of Fascist Terrorism, and former associate of cult leader Charles Manson

· Kurt Saxon-author of The Poor Man’s James Bond

· Joseph Tommasi-founder of the National Socialist Liberation Front

· William Pierce-author of the Turner Diaries

· Arthur Jones-Republican candidate for Illinois’s 3rd congressional district in the November 2018 midterm elections (1)

Cited Works:

1. Simonelli, Frederick J. The American Fuehrer: George Lincoln Rockwell and the American Nazi Party. Chicago, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1999.

2. This Time the World (pink) Rockwell, George L. This Time the World. Arlington, Virginia: Stormtrooper Publications, 1961.

3. Rockwell, George L. White Power. Arlington, Virginia: The National Socialists White People’s Party, 1967.

4. Haley, Alex. “Intervew: George Lincoln Rockwell.” Playboy, April 1966

(Bogotá, Colombia)

For nearly two weeks, over 200 rural peasant, indigenous, and Afro-Colombian communities from Colombia’s Amazon and Orinoquía, led by Corporación Ambiental Amazonia Verde, camped in the Plaza de Bolívar demanding security guarantees for their safe return home after being displaced by the armed conflict.

This demonstration is a part of a broader, nationwide movement of indigenous, Afro-Colombian and campesino communities to protect and advocate for themselves through non-violent and diplomatic means.

Historically, these remote regions have worked outside control of state institutions, creating a vacuum for the FARC guerrillas to take control. FARC then facilitated the regions exploding coca economy to help fund its war against the state.

Following the 2016 Peace Agreements between FARC and the state, a dangerous power vacuum was created. FARC dissidents, paramilitaries, and ELN guerrillas have fought over consolidation of FARCs previous economy causing displacement of communities caught in the cross-fire.

In 2022, Colombia’s first leftist president, Gustavo Petro, proposed that fighting had gone on long enough (more than 60 years), and his Total Peace Plan to negotiate with the armed groups and address the concerns of marginalized territories was the only viable solution to the conflict.

Guaviare is an important test case revealing the challenges the government has faced in implementing the Total Peace Plan. For example, the largest FARC dissident group, EMC (Estado Mayor Central), led by Iván Mordisco, continues to recruit, train, and traffic despite claiming to be in negotiation in peace talks. The government’s weak institutions and military violence against the local population continues to sew distrust. Illegal logging, mining, and land grabs have led to further displacement, deforestation, and disruption of local economies. And community leaders representing indigenous autonomy, land protection, and environmental justice have repeatedly been threatened and assassinated.

Following the demonstration, an agreement was made by the government promising to establish a formal negotiation table, guarantee a safe return to the displaced, and provide legal and institutional support for implementation of the peace agreement.

While these negotiations were seen as positive, time will tell if the state implements them in a timely and meaningful way. Until then, these communities remain vulnerable to conflict and exploitation.

May 21, 2025, Bogotá (Plaza de Bolívar)

¡Juicio Y Reparación Ya! (Justice and Reparations Now!)

Bang! Bang! Smash! The sounds of shattering glass filled the main entrance of Mexico City’s Judiciary. Bystanders watched in a curious daze as 25 members of the Mexican Alliance of Sex Workers (AMETS), led by Natalia Lane, smashed windows, destroyed furniture, and sprayed graffiti as they chanted “Justice and Reparations Now!”

On Twitter (“X”), GhostsofDurriti shared a video of the incident in a post that reads, “The protest took place on the 15th or 16 of January 2025. It’s in relation to the murder of Samantha Gómez Fonseca which was last January. When we received the initial info about the protest we were told it was in relation to an attempted murder.”

Samantha Carolina Gómez Fonseca, a 37-year-old trans woman, human rights activist, and hopeful Senate candidate for the ruling Morena party was shot and killed leaving Reclusorio Sur men’s prison on January 14, 2024. Journalist Carlos Jiménez reported that she was traveling via a ride sharing app when she was shot and killed by her assailant as the car was going over a speed bump. Fonseca had advocated for rights of trans women in men’s prison for years. The issue held a strong place in her heart as she was all too familiar with life in prison as a trans woman. In 2007, she spent three months in a men’s prison, experiencing rape and assault by other inmates. In 2023, Mexico City congress awarded her the Medal of Merit for Human Rights Defenders 2022 for her excellent human rights work. In 2024, she planned to run for Senate as part of the Morena party before her life was tragically cut short. Her murder followed the killing of another trans woman, Miriam Noemi Ríos, just 3 days before in Jacona, Michoacán. In fact, Fonseca was the fourth trans woman to be murdered within weeks of the new year. And just hours before her death, she had been promoting a protest “for the dignity of trans women” on her social media. The day following her murder, outraged LGBTQ groups held a demonstration at Mexico’s National Palace in Fonseca’s memory, spraying the side of the building with the words “Trans Lives Matter” and calling President Obrador a “man dressed as a leftist” in reference to an earlier remark in which he referred to a trans lawmaker as a “man dressed as a woman.”

The killing of trans women on account of their gender expression or sexuality is known as transfemicide. It is a hate crime. Lawmaker Ana Francis Loper describes it as “…an extreme manifestation of gender violence and discrimination.” According to the National Observatory of LGBT Hate Crimes of the Arcoíris Foundation, Mexico is the second (following Brazil) most violent nation for trans women. According to the civil organization Letre Ese, between 2021–2023 there were 231 members of Mexico’s LGBTQ community that were murdered of which 65% of them were transgender.

Last year, Mexico City legislature passed the “Paola Buenrostro law” making transfemicide a crime with a penalty of up to 70 years. The law is named after a trans sex worker who was murdered by a client in Mexico City in 2016. The killer was released from custody after 48 hours despite footage and witness testimonies of the act. Kenya Cuevas, friend and witness to the murder, became an activist after the incident and began fighting for justice for the countless unresolved cases of transfemicide. Regarding the law reform, Cuevas said, “For the first time, we can feel represented before the law, and that violence against us really carries a severe punishment.” Under the law, victim’s friends, not just relatives, can help drive the investigations. This is important because families in Mexico often disown their transgender relatives due to the stigma, leaving no one to force the state to take action. Aranza Villegas, the sister of Viridiana, a victim of transfemicide, said, “If a trans woman doesn’t have a family like ours, nothing happens. And so when they die in such a cruel and tragic way, they’re forgotten and they end up in a mass grave.” Many cases of transfemicide continue to go unresolved. In 2022, 95% of homicides in Mexico went unpunished. The number is likely much higher for trans women and sex workers.

Natalia Lane, a trans activist and director of CLAP (Coalición Laboratories Pvteril), a coalition of trans professionals, was the leader of the demonstration at the Mexico City Judiciary. Three years ago, she barely escaped becoming yet another victim of transfemicide. On January 16th of 2022, she was stabbed in the neck while staying at the Hotel Diana in the Portales area of southern Mexico City. In a video she posted on “X” of the incident, she can be heard screaming, “I was stabbed in the back of my neck, I’m feeling horrible…I have a really bad cut on my hand. Somebody please help me!”

On Thursday, Natalia and AMETS were confronted by a counterdemonstration of 20 members of the “No More Innocent Prisoners” collective. The group believes Alejandro “N”, Natalia’s alleged assailant, isn’t guilty of attempted transfemicide. In fact, he may soon be released. Following the incident, the attack was classified as an attempted femicide and Alejandro was placed in preventative detention. But in June of 2024, a federal judge determined Alejandro should be allowed to leave prison for house arrest. “The oral trial has not begun and there is fear that he will be released,” says Natalia, “so we will continue to demonstrate without falling into provocations.”

Due to stigmatization, trans women in Mexico are often ostracized from society. Unable to find work, they often end up as sex workers fulfilling the guilty fantasies perpetuated by the stigma. They are thus the forbidden fruit in society. Characterized as both a pleasurable sin and shameful abomination. Some of these men feel they have been deceived by their desires, against their will, and lured…like Odysseus to the song of the sirens. When they act upon their desires (sleeping with trans women), they can feel an intense guilt and shame. I believe this is the driving force behind most acts of transfemicide. But society is changing. Slowly. Maybe in a couple generations there will be less stigma towards trans people in Mexico. Until then, the Paola Buenrostro law is meant to serve as a clear warning against acts of transfemicide. But the law is only good as long as it is properly enforced.

I scan the room from left to right. It creates a panorama, leaving tracers behind like long-exposure photography. I refocus my eyes on the television. Top Gun. “That’s an odd choice”, I think out loud. Startled to hear my own voice. My thoughts lag and shuffle around like I’m switching between radio stations. I begin retracing them and notice I’m going in circles. Thought loops inside thoughts loops like Russian dolls. If I don’t snap out of it, I’ll be stuck like this for hours. I spin my head back and forth watching everything blur together. I notice that ever so often Smith’s eyes glance across the room with anger and disgust. “What did I do?” I ask myself. Smith’s usual charismatic and light-hearted character had transformed into something dark and menacing. “Well…” I announce, slapping my knees, “I’m gonna hit the head (restroom)”. I float like Casper out of the room. I feel anxious and self-conscious. “Dear god,” I think, “The head looks so far away. As I walk towards it, it appears as if it’s moving further away. I take long exaggerated strides. It feels like I’m moon walking. Not like Michael Jackson, but Neil Armstrong… walking on the moon. My body forgets to follow my legs and now I’m leaning, nearly falling backwards. I catch myself and wobble side to side. I stick out my arms for balance. I notice someone’s door is open and the people inside are watching me. “God damnit” I think out loud. I refocus. One foot at a time. “Act natural.” I warn myself. “Can’t afford being seen like this.”

I lock myself in the bathroom. “Which floor is this?” I wonder. “My room is on the sixth floor. I walked down three flights of stairs. This must be the third floor.” It’s early fall. 2008. Dusk. We are on the “USS Cole” a massive, labyrinth of a building named after the infamous ship that was attacked in the Persian Gulf 8 years prior. We are in Great Lakes Naval Base just outside Chicago, Illinois. I got here a week ago. Hornecker arrived earlier this morning. We were recently stationed in Pensacola, Florida. Both of us failed out of Rescue Swimmer School (RSS) around the same time. It was his first failed program. It was my second. After dropping out of BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/Seal school) in Coronado, California, I applied for RSS in Pensacola. We met in Aircrew School, a pre-req before RSS. I was finishing the last 6 hours of a 12-hour watch. Donning our dress uniforms, we scanned IDs and saluted everyone that came through the giant mahogany double-doors. We were cracking up. We couldn’t take any of it seriously. I never took anything seriously. In fact, the reason I was on a 12-hour watch was because I was being punished after running 15 minutes late to a 5 A.M. muster. (15 minutes early is on time/ on time is late/ 15 minutes late means you’re FUCKED). I spent the entire weekend doing 12 hours shifts on watch with 6 hours off. I figured the punishment had been well worth it to make such a good friend. But we wouldn’t see each other again until RSS.

In RSS, I kept failing my way back to the start. I went through three Hell Weeks. They say once you pass Hell Week you pretty much have it in the bag, yet I fumbled it over and over again. By the time Hornecker finished Aircrew school and started RSS, we were one class apart. He quit the first week. A week later, I failed out for the last time. In a simulated test, I spent 15 minutes in the pool securing an unconscious victim to a stretcher. I figured they were throwing a curve ball at me. I knew he was unconscious, so i figured he needed to be attached to a stretcher. I was so sure they were going to give me the most challenging scenario, and I had come prepared. I slowly and methodically made sure he was safely strapped in and ready to be hoisted into the “helicopter”. But I knew something was off. My instructors were all giving each other that look. I called for him to be hoisted up. No one did anything. I called again. “Harris you fucking moron he’s dead! Get out of the god damn pool you’re done!” He wasn’t just unconscious. He also wasn’t breathing and had no pulse. He should have been hoisted up, immediately. My face went pale. “Shit.”

For the third time, I stood before a council of instructors to ask for another try. “I’d like to have another shot…” I started. “Harris….” The head instructor interrupted, “son…I mean this, sincerely…are you retarded?” I thought about how to reply. “No sir…officer…chief petty officer I mean… sorry si…” “Get the fuck out of my office!”

Following RSS, Hornecker and I ended up in a sort of limbo, doing odd jobs around the base while we waited to be shipped out to our next command. As fate would have it, we were roommates. “I want to show you what I’ve been doing all week.” He said. Robo-tripping. Basically, you take way too much cold medication which causes you to trip. My first trip was terrifying. I thought I’d died. The next morning, I told Hornecker, “I don’t think I want to do that again.” “No worries,” He assured me. “I understand.” We then preceded to robotrip every night, consecutively, for two months straight. We also smoked weed, snorted coke, and drank vodka. We stayed up all night playing guitar hero, watching movies, and listening to house music with a strobe light we got from Walmart. (We were 19.). One of our mutual friends had a plug just behind the gas station right outside the base. He smuggled in girls, drugs, and liquor. It was surreal, we were completely unsupervised.

The other guy, Smith. I think he’s in his 30s. He’s going bald. I met him right before I started Air Crew school. One weekend, my friends and I scored some coke. That was the first time I ever got high in my entire life. I hadn’t even smoked weed before and here I was doing rails in the bathroom at a Firehouse Subs. We figured that coke doesn’t stay in your system for long so…it seemed safer than smoking weed. Although we did that too. I remember my friends began to call it a night. I wanted it to keep going. So did Smith. I’d never hung out with this dude in my life and here we were doing lines, watching Accepted on his portable DVD Player, and telling each other our life stories. He showed me the scar on his belly. “I got stabbed.” He told me. “I used to sell coke back in Miami and this happened. That’s why I joined the Navy. I had to get away from all that shit.” “For sure dude, yea,” I replied, snorting another key bump.

I thought I knew a guy who could get me stationed in Hawaii. Instead, I had been ordered to the USS Bonhomme Richard, in San Diego, California. First, I needed to fly out to Great Lakes, Illinois and attend a training for undesignated seamen. I was half considering sucking it up and going through with it. I also considered killing myself…if the drugs didn’t.

Dextromethorphan (DXM), “the poor man’s PCP”, is known to cause acute urinary retention. I can’t pee, but I’ve thrown up some blood. I stare at it in my hand. “I’ve got to stop doing this,” I tell myself. “This is my last time,” I lie to myself. I can hear them…the “ominous them”…laughing at me. Just outside the door. Mocking me. I can almost make out what they’re saying. Nobody’s there, of course, it’s all in my head. But then again…shhh wait…there they go again.

Earlier that day, all three of us made a trip to the NEX (Navy Exchange) and stole a couple boxes of Coricidon, Cough, and Cold medication (triple c’s) by emptying the packs in a clothing rack and sticking them in our jackets. Hornecker and I usually take a pack each (16pills), but since they were becoming less potent, we thought…fuck it lets try two packs(32pills). You know…to celebrate. I mean…where’s the line, anyway? How far can you go? We’d researched on Erowid that others had taken way more. Ungodly amounts. We’d be fine…probably.

Later that day, we ran into Smith at the mess hall. What are the odds? We told him our plans for the night. Smith had never robo-tripped before and decided he’d give it a try. What else was there to do? I would share the gospel of DXM. Robo-evangelism. Have you heard the good news? Of course, he’s the one who decided to put on Top Gun. Who puts on Top Gun before starting a trip? A fucking psychopath.

The WAILING WITCH

“Are y’all mad at me?” I ask as I enter the room. Hornecker shakes his head without taking his eyes off the television. His pupils were two black saucers, completely dilated. “Shut the fuck up,” says Smith, as he spits tobacco into an old coke bottle. I slump back into my chair. My mind enters a dark tunnel. The room itself fades from view. I am not my body. This is not happening. Nothing is real. I’ve hallucinated my entire life. My friends, my family, the Navy…they are only ideas my mind created to keep from going crazy. I’m not real. A chasm in my mind opens and I’m on the verge of dissipating into fragments of light around a yawning oblivion when I start hearing a loud moaning. It sounds like some dying animal. Some wailing witch. “Jesus Christ, what the fuck is that?” I wonder. “Hornecker, if he doesn’t shut the fuck up, I’m seriously going to fucking kill him,” Smith says. “Him, who him, me?” I ask, pointing to myself. They are both staring at me. Smith is giving the Evil Eye. “Uh…well…I have to pee.” “But…you just went,” Hornecker shouts at me as I float out the room.

The ELEVATOR

I’ve locked myself in the bathroom. Its going up and up and up. It appears to be an elevator. “What floor are we on now?” I ask myself. I look in the mirror. I’m red as a beet. I put my face in my hands. My face is on fire. “I knew we shouldn’t have taken this much,” I reason. Rapidly, I’m losing understanding of space, time, and reality itself. All is sucked into a maelstrom of thought fragments and vivid hallucinations as I hold the sides of the bathroom walls for dear life. And anything could be on the other side of these walls. Suddenly, the four walls open…just a crack. Well, more than a crack. Somewhere between a crack and “hey, that’s far enough!” Oddly enough, a calm settles over me. In fact, I’ve never felt so at peace. I feel…giddy. For some reason, a song comes over me…“I can fly twice as high…in a book…reading rainbow….I…can…do….anything”. I’m mesmerized. “Wow…like Charlie and the factory,” I think outload. I’m peering down at the city lights below. We must be like a mile up right now. I can feel the breeze. Where are we? Is this San Diego? I think I see Tinker Bell. She winks at me. I wink back.

Shut Me Up

While I’m off in Never Never Land, Smith and Hornecker stay fixated on the tv. By the time I arrive back to the room, I feel like I’ve been traveling through eons. “Like that 311 song” I think to myself. And these two aren’t even halfway through this fucking movie? “There’s no fucking way y’all are still watching Tom Cruise,” I mumble. Feeling insecure and bored, I put my headphones around my head and turn my laptop on. I log into Myspace. Scrolling through my friend’s profile page, I click on “Shut Me Up” by Mindless Self Indulgence. It begins playing at high volume. In a rage, Smith slaps my laptop closed, but it keeps playing. I pull the laptop open and desperately try to figure out how to turn it off. It feels like calculus. I failed out of calculus. Hornecker grabs the laptop and turns it off. “Your headphones aren’t even plugged in dude,” He laughs, showing me the headphone jack. He hands me his Zune and picks a song out for me. “Here, listen to this.” (Three Little Birds by Bob Marley). We’d been tripping together so long, he could tell when I was feeling outta sorts. Hornecker’s a good dude. Always there for me. “You know…I’m not gay but…” I think to myself. “If I were a woman…never mind that’s weird.”

“Every little thing…is gonna be alright.”

Red Alert

Suddenly, the fire alarm goes off. It has a strange doppler effect. It keeps coming in waves, snatching the thoughts out of my head. Red light strobes like an angry god. We all look back and forth at each other…so confused. “Are we under attack?” I shout. “Oh my god!” I realize. “World War 3 just started!” Without a second thought, I bolted out the door. Running down flights of endless stairs, I follow the stampeding herd. I feel the vibrations of thousands of footsteps reverberate down the stairwell. I notice sailors covering their ears, laughing and screaming over the sirens. I do the same. Not instinctively, but to blend in. I got to act natural. With both hands over my ears, I scream and run as fast as I can. “What the hell is going on?” I wonder. We squeeze out the exit and empty into a courtyard. There were two other exits on opposite sides of the courtyard with sailors filing out single file. All lines merge at the center of the courtyard before dispersing into the grassy knoll behind the building. It’s dark and foggy. It looks haunted. Is that Hornecker? I wave. He waves back. Yes, that is Hornecker!! “Hey Hornecker.” I say. “Hey Harris.” He replies. As our lines merge, I ask, “do you know what this is all about?” He shrugs. “I think they are mustering by the tree line over there,” He tells me. I look and see columns and lines forming. I turn back around and…he’s gone. “Where the fuck…” I think. I panic. Soon they are all going to be standing at attention and I’ll be wandering around, out of my mind and looking like an idiot. I felt like I had a sign above my head that read ON DRUGS in flashing neon lights. I know that if an Officer or Petty Officer of the USS Cole finds me wandering around fried out of my mind, they will make my life a living hell. These guys weren’t lax like they were in Coronado or Pensacola. These guys were the worst. The Navy was their religion. And I, its heretic. A “non-believer”. I wanted to die in a battle, not swab decks with a bunch of faggots under the auspices of my superiors’ condescending glares. “I should have joined the Marines.” I thought. I look around. Where was I? Am I still in Florida? My mind tells me the beach is just behind that building over there. “SEAMEN HARRIS.” “Oh shit!” I blurt out. I look around. I recognize all these guys. This is my group. “What are the odds of that?” I say. “Seamen Harris!” I shout, squeezing myself into the front row. I looked to my right. “hey…I know you…you’re my roommate!” He gives me a weird nod. I’d only known my roommate for a week. He was nerdy, quiet, and all he did in his free time was watch the Bourne Identity series. Sometimes, he asked me to watch with him, but I was always too high to sit through the whole thing. How he never figured out I was off my ass is beyond me. I’m just glad I haven’t done anything weird enough to give myself away…yet. The alarm is still going. I turn and ask my roommate “So…uh…is this World War 3?” He gives me a weird look. I look around at the rest of column. “is it?” “Are you drunk?” someone asks. I’m getting negative attention. Gotta play it off. “I’m just kidding,” I assure everyone. I probably shouldn’t speak. “Besides,” I reason, “if we are being attacked then there’s nothing we can do. It’s all out of our hands. It is what it is. I haven’t been properly trained for this.” After the muster, we are put at ease, but not yet allowed to enter the building. I notice some people are in “civies”(casual clothing) while others are in uniform. “Am I dressed properly?” I ask myself. “Are those swim trunks? Maybe we are in Florida. But, I don’t recognize this place. Oh wait…this is Chicago. Oh yea! I drove up here from Florida last week. I even stopped in St. Louis for a night.” I approach a group of sailors talking to each other under an oak tree. My shadow looming over them. They look up, startled by my sudden appearance. Tears begin to my well in eyes and through gritted teeth I ask, “Are we under attack or not!?” I’m guessing it freaked them out because they immediately left me there. I sat on the log for what felt like ages. “Maybe we were attacked and now I’m dead.” I reasoned. I felt like I was in a graveyard surrounded by tombstones. “I guess this is all there is now. Stuck out here. Alone. Forever.”

The Rendezvous

It’s eerily quiet. How long have I been sitting here in the dark? I’m freezing. I hear voices off in the distance. I follow the voices until I was back within sight of the USS Cole. It looks like everyone headed back inside. There are still several sailors filing back into the building. I realize the siren has stopped. “Its over!” I yell. I sprint to the double doors and squeeze my way into the building only to come face to face with…another muster. “God mother fucking damnit!” I think. And this time, I can’t hide my face. All anyone has to do is take one look at my dilated pupils and I’m fucked. I keep my eyes cast downward. We are crammed like sardines. Back into the grid lock. Literally stuck in the matrix. Beads of sweat pour down my face. “Play it cool. They can’t arrest you for being fucking weird. Can they?”

Hurry up and wait. Ask anyone who has ever served in the military what that means. It’s basically the DMV. I’ve been reduced to a nail and hammered into place. Best I can do is avoid sticking out. And right now…that’s very hard to do. I’m geeked. My face feels like it’s not on correctly. I’m surrounded by stormtroopers. “I really need to stop doing this,” I tell myself. My whole body is shaking in fear. I feel like I’m going to pass out. Someone in my division tries to make small talk. “Just ignore him,” I order myself. “He’ll eventually go away.” “Yea, apparently someone tried to cook ramen noodles without water again,” he tells me. I pretend to be too sleepy to talk, yawn, wave him off and close my eyes.

We have been standing at attention for so long, I feel like a terracotta warrior. Suddenly, all divisions are finally placed at ease and we are allowed to return to our rooms. What a relief! What an odyssey! Hundreds of sailors begin cramming into the stairwell. Two seamen are guiding foot traffic to keep people from crushing each other. As we shuffle our feet, I recognize somebody in the crowd. Wait, no I don’t. But he recognizes me. I’ve never seen this man in my life. He gives me a head nod. I head nod back. “Where do I know you from?” I ask him. He laughs. “Are you serious? We talked the other night for like three hours.” “Did we?” I ask, confused. “I’m tripping my balls off.” He burst into laughter. “Shhh…yo chill.” he tells me. “Follow me, alright?” I nod. It turns out that he’s one of Smith’s roommates. He leads me through the prison-like labyrinth of steel and concrete back to the room where it all began. I open the door and I’m completely baffled at what I see. Smith and Hornecker still watching Top Gun on the TV.

“Yeah, I know. I’m guilty. I understand. I knew it was a crime, and I did it anyways. Shit, why argue? I’m a fucking criminal, look at me.”-Hunter S. Thompson

My head cracked the pavement as two riot cops began folding me up like a pretzel. One of my arms bowed like a twig about to snap. “MOVE AND I’LL BREAK IT!” cried the pig. Well…I thought to myself…if it breaks it breaks. It is times like these you really have to come to terms with whatever life is throwing at you. How’s the saying go? If you stare into the void long enough, then the void will “threaten to snap your arm at the elbow?”

My probation ends in two days. Fucking hell. This all happened back the summer of 2020. You remember how it was. Unless you are reading this decades from now. If so…I’m sure it is much worse when you are so I won’t bore you with all the details. But let me rewind back for context.

It was a hot summer night. I’d finished work at round 4pm before gearing up and heading downtown to the Justice Center for another night of protesting. What were we protesting? Well…lots of things. Systemic racism. Police brutality and the over-incarceration of black people. The private prison industry and continuation of slavery and mistreatment of prisoners. The militarization and over-funding of law enforcement. The constant murder of unarmed black men and women who never see justice served (i.e. George Floyd, Brianna Taylor…etc.). And I’d be lying if it weren’t also about my generation discovering the “American Dream” our parents sold us was a lie. The MTV illusion of our lives began to wear off as we entered adulthood and found life to be a waking nightmare. It would seem the “dream” was a carrot…gone moldy. Now it’s all stick as the police batons reach out behind thick riot shields to smash our heads in as we are pushed into a haze of tear gas and corralled into the city’s maze of streetlamps, skyscrapers, graffitied concrete, empty fountains, homeless tents, boarded up businesses surrounded by metal fencing and security guards, smashed up bus stops and literal dumpster fires. Gotham city. The rest of the night will be spent trying not to get kettled by hordes of riot police shooting at us with rubber bullets, flash bangs, and tear gas. We kept our heads on the swivel. There was always the threat of right-wing nutjobs who want to play red rover with their Ford F-150. It felt like a bullfight. They would rev their engines menacingly before barreling towards us, comically large American flag waving in the wind. If we kept from getting kettled, ran over, or arrested, we would make our way back to the Justice Center and do it all over again. All for what? It doesn’t matter anymore.

I’d seen a lot of brutality that summer. Of course, it wasn’t covered fairly and getting into all that isn’t something I care to do anymore. Who cares? Congress, the media, whatever your feed shows you on social media…these are what determine our reality now. Not the people. The people are simply “antifa” or “rioters.” Some of these people lost their eyes or got permanent brain damage. Some were shot to death by far-right lunatics. Some were run over and killed or maimed by psychotic men in sports cars and trucks. I saw these things happen. I digress. Let’s go back to that night. A re-cap of what put me in jail and had me later pleading guilty to “assaulting a police officer” and “rioting.”

I watched an NFL sized “peace officer” pick up a college-aged girl a quarter his size and power drive her into the pavement like it was WWE Smackdown. It lit fires in my eyes. All I see is red. I’m holding a near empty beer bottle. Call it fate. I had traded someone a can of spray paint for it. Time slowed down. I felt jihad. My eyes bare down at the beast through the tear gas. The flash bangs rang through my head until it all went quiet. What happened next came naturally. I began to wind up for the pitch. I’d played baseball when I was younger. Outfielder. I’d been told I had a hell of an arm but the one time I was brought in from the outfield to pitch I threw the ball right into the batter’s head. It was that time again. I watched myself from the outside. It felt like being the coach, pitcher, and crowd at the exact same time.

And here’s the pitch>>>>>>>>

I felt the bottle leave my fingers as I began to realize what I had just done.

“Oh shit…I’m going to jail,” I thought to myself. In fact, I didn’t even try to run. I just stood there and waited.

((((Ping))))

“OHHH!!!” screamed the crowd.

I remember looking back at my fellow “comrades” as they all began to run away. “Cowards,” I thought to myself, “every one of them.” I shook my head and slowly turned my back to two linebackers charging at me. I remember slightly shrugging at them like…“but you understand why I had to do that ri…”

Then came the blow.

And my head meets the ground.

There was something spiritual in this. Some cosmic truth. Raw. Real. The taste of my blood on my lips beneath the boot of the police. This is true.

This is America.

“STAY DOWN!!! HANDS WHERE I CAN SEE THEM!!! MOVE AND I’LL BREAK YOUR ARM!!!”

In downtown Eugene, Oregon, on October 21st at approximately 3:15pm, a white, GMC Sierra 2500 pickup truck sporting a Gadsden flag pulled into the intersection at East 8th Avenue and Pearl Street blocking a protest march led by a pro-Palestine rally of around 200. The driver (looking like a dumbass) donned a Guy Faux mask, long trench coat, and appeared armed and dangerous. The man preceded to exit his vehicle, fire a couple rounds from what was later described by police as a “splatter ball gun” only to be pulled up on by two community defenders armed with real guns. I reached out and was able to get an interview with both community defenders after the incident.

Thousands of citizens world-wide have gathered at pro-Palestine Solidarity Demonstrations over the last two weeks to condemn Israel’s indiscriminate carpet bombing of Gaza where currently (as of October 23) the Gaza Ministry of Health reports that 5,087 have been killed (since October 7), with women and children making up 62% of fatalities. This doesn’t include the countless number of people missing, unreported, or trapped beneath the rubble.

The carpet bombing and blockading of electricity, food, fuel, medical aid, water, and other resources in Gaza remain ongoing as Israel prepares for a ground invasion. The current war between Israel and Hamas was initiated in response to the latter’s strategically planned attack inflicted on military personnel and Israeli citizens across the Gazan Envelope of Southern Israel. Hamas, a Shia Islamic political and militant organization, has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2006. On October 7th, what was considered an impenetrable security border was breached by Hamas forces, preceding the mass murder of at least 1,400 people, including the kidnapping over 200 hostages. It took nearly 72 hours for the IDF to re-secure the area.

Some governments, news outlets, and people have associated pro-Palestine demonstrations as siding with Hamas and excusing the horrible actions that took place on October 7th. There are others that perceive these rally’s as antisemitic.

Rally goers say that it has nothing to do with Hamas, but the genocide taking place in Gaza as Israel bombs them 24/7 with the support of Western governments including the United States.

There is a deep history, and the recent violence is only a chapter in one of the bloodiest, ongoing conflicts in the world.

In the United States, the tension is palpable.

In the northern suburbs of Chicago, a man fires a shot into the air while another pepper-sprays pro-Palestinian demonstrators near an Israel solidarity event.

In Minneapolis, witnesses reported a vehicle drive through the crowd of a pro-Palestinian rally as well as the sound of a gunshot.

In downtown Eugene, Oregon at a pro-Palestine Demonstration, two armed community defenders were invited by name by their community to deescalate any conflicts and respond to threats when needed. Within an hour of the demonstration, the two rapidly responded to a threat involving a man firing what the police later refered to as a “splatter ball gun” made to look real. As they ordered the perpetrator to drop the gun and remove his mask, it appeared to be none other than Johnathan James Wisbey, aka…Mr. Bones.

I reached out to both men who intercepted Wisbey’s threat to hear their side of the story. They both wish to remain anonymous so I refer to them as CD (Community Defender) 1 and 2.

RK: So according to police reports, the guy had a splatter ball gun?

CD1: It looked like a pepper ball gun to me when I was in the (police) cruiser looking at it. I didn’t see any ‘Splatter Ball’ markings. That’s a brand name. I’ve looked through their products and it does not look like one of their products unless the guy altered it to look more real.

But if you do look up the topic of “splatter ball gun” you do find a lot of stories about other justified beatings and killings where the receiver had a splatter ball gun. So that might have been police trying to pad the narrative with some more generic use of the word “splatter ball gun”.

RK: Can you walk me through your perspective from the moment the truck pulled up until after the guy was in custody? What exactly happened?

CD1: I was walking down the street in front of the procession when I noticed a Gadsden Flag bearing truck come to a stop at the interception in front of us, blocking the direction of the march. The driver donned a (Guy Fawkes) mask and put what appeared to be a pistol on the dash in a way that myself and those with me perceived as brandishing. He then stared at the crowd approaching and waited. Periodically, he lifting his gun up off the dash. It was at this point that I started to direct attendees to move over to the other side of the road and away from the front of his truck so that it would be harder for him to run people over if he reversed into the crowd. I also wanted people to be further away from his person. I saw an attendee pop his rear passenger tire with a Halligan so I began rushing to the front of his truck. As I did, the driver got out with his gun and started firing indiscriminately into the crowd. Then, myself and a comrade next to me drew our concealed pistols and rounded the front of his vehicle. We set a hasty L shaped counter-ambush. I took the truck’s B-pillar as backstop and began demanding that he drop the gun. He eventually did and I kicked it away from him

Police arrived so I dropped my magazine and threw it, then we laid spread eagle on the ground. The police detained everyone. I was prepared thanks to my concealed carry classes. After giving them my CHL and state ID the police put me in the back of a cruiser and informed me that it was an airsoft gun and that no one got shot. Then they put the driver’s weapon on the back shelf of the cruiser which I could see through the glass. The magazine appeared to be a pepper ball magazine judging by the internals, but the weapon looked like an MP Shield with a large barrel. Attendees somehow caught the notion that we were either cops or anti-Palestine and were yelling at us that we were terrorists, so that was nice. The police told us that we did a good job and let us go.

We are now seeking legal counsel in accordance with our training. There’s no telling what the driver will try to do. Libertarians are known for what’s called “paper terrorism”.

RK: Paper terrorism?

CD2: Like, jamming people up over frivolous legal action.

RK: Who was the passenger? His wife?

CD2: She hasn’t been publicly identified to my knowledge.

CD1: She has a part of his rap sheet.

RK: I read a report that somebody broke there leg during the incident due to being trampled by others in the crowd. Is that true?

CD1: Yes. She has a fundraiser, I think.

RK: Why did some of the protesters start calling you terrorists?

CD1: Various reasons, mostly because of an individual with a dog going around and cop/bad jacketing us. Dude was a wrecker.

CD2: I didn’t know they said that. I was in a squad car. When I was released, a small group had stayed to make sure we got out ok. They were very grateful.

The officer I spoke with said they had spoken to the crowd and explained we were the “good Samaritans”, in his words.

It definitely felt weird to be told by the cops I’d done the right thing!

RK: So legally, as of right now, you two are in the clear?

CD2: They can always go back and file charges, but I was released without charge and my pistol and ammo were returned to me in separate bags.

RK: Do you two have previous experience of armed defense at a protest?

CD1: Extensive. We are often expressly asked to attend actions due to our level of training. In some cases, some of us are hired as official contracted security, in other cases people just feel good when they see us. We are deeply connected to our community and have a good rapport with a majority of local leftist organizations.

CD2: This is my 2nd defensive display of a firearm. I don’t remember the exact date, but it happened only 2 blocks to the east at the intersection between Whole Foods and the Federal Courthouse. It was similar in some ways. It was a Black Lives Matter protest that had been counter protested by a group of men armed with wooden shields with screws sticking out, wasp spray, and a flag used as a spear.

One counter protester fired into the air. He quickly ran off and was chased down and detained by brave protesters until the cops arrested him.

After this all went down, the crowd began to march and was immediately confronted by a man and passenger in a truck with Idaho plates. He threatened to run us over if we didn’t move before the lights changed. Someone kicked his truck, and he got out with a gun and waived it around and threatened us.

RK: What kind of armed training do you have?

CD1: The same training that’s available to everyone else. Some from state certified defense carry instructors. Some from independent competition instructors. Some from independent tactical instructors. We also get regular medical and de-escalation training as well.

RK: How long have you been doing community defense? What inspired you to get involved in your community in that way?

CD2: I got my CHL and first pistol when I was 21 and I carried with the intent to prevent harm against myself and those around me. I think reading sci-fi and fantasy growing up gave me a strong sense of agency and responsibility to take action against injustices. I let my license lapse until the Portland MAX stabbings. That motivated me to get trained up. I know I would have done the same thing as those brave people who stood up to a violent racist, but I wanted to be hard to kill. After that I was privileged to train with Mia and her sibling Charles in 2017, and by chance I was reintroduced to Mia after the pandemic hit and began to train with her and her comrades and to protect marches from the violent right.

(Shameless Plug: In Popular Front Magazine (Issue 1), I interviewed Mia and spent a weekend with her Trans Gun Club and other armed community defenders. You can read and listen to the article at Patreon.com/PopularFront (must subscribe to read) or you can buy a hard copy of the magazine (if any are left in print).)

CD1: About 9 years ago, I realized how active white supremacists were in my area so I decided to take a more hands on approach to making a better world than I had previously.

RK: I’m sure you two have read about other pro-Palestine demonstrations being terrorized by gun fire, pepper spray, and attacks such as those seen in Chicago and Minneapolis in the last week.

CD1: Yes. It could have been like that here in Eugene. We’ve seen too many of our comrades shot, stabbed, clubbed, and killed by just being at these events or organizing. The stakes are really this high and your typical privileged liberal often fails to recognize that. It’s easy to chastise self-defense when you’ve never had to defend yourself from an existential threat.

RK: So, do you think all demonstrations should have armed community defense?

CD1: Yes, but you need to personally know and trust them. Community Defenders aren’t born, they are made. Made through not only a consistent and long history of training, but also a consistent and long history of building community relationships and trust. Community Defenders are never self-elected, they are designated. Community Defenders are teachers, they are friends, they are medics, they are mutual aid organizers. Most of what they do doesn’t involve walking around armed. It’s being a valuable resource to their community, whatever that community may need.

We saw during the BLM 2020 protests how much police will help fascists set traps and ambushes for protestors. Eugene Police Department were at their chilliest I’ve ever seen them that day only because we weren’t protesting THEM. They act with gang mentality, and I’ve seen both sides of that fence up close due to my position within the community. Rarely are they super down with whatever it is we are doing, which depends on the focus of the event. Most often they have the same attitude as some of our most toxic supporters and opponents, one that is looking for a reason to mag dump into someone.

Having heard the private conversations of so many police, be it by FOIA or in the back of the squad car, its painfully obvious to me that EPD police the public in strict accordance with their own personal and organizational politics. Saturday, they called us upstanding citizens and the
“good guys” because on that day we weren’t the communists, queers, and anarchists who were challenging their authority. If this had been a rally for black lives, I would have been dusted by those cops.

RK: Thanks for being down for an interview. Is there anything else y’all would like to add?

CD1: Look at the plans for Cop City in Atlanta, Georgia. The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) and multiple American police organizations have a training pact. We don’t need to give the IDF the world’s most advanced MOUT facility to train in.

RK: Are you referring to the GILEE program?

CD1: Yes.

CD2: Ultimately, my goal is for every community that’s under threat to have the tools, resources, and solidarity necessary to defend against whatever threats they face. I recognize it's harder for some communities more than others to achieve that, and it's usually the most oppressed that face greater consequences and higher costs to being armed. I’m committed to do what I can to help, whether it’s physical defense, finding resources, or providing training. John Brown Gun Club is a classic example of the kind of solidarity I’m interested in.

Johnathon James Wisbey is currently being held at Lane County Jail. He’s been charged with 1st Degree Menacing, 2nd Degree Disorderly Conduct, and Bias Crime in the 1st Degree.

Wisbey’s youtube account, @Mr.420Wholesalers, has a series of videos dating between 9–14 years ago. Under the pseudonym, Mr. Bones, he and his partner, Mary Ann (last name unknown) have shared quite the drug fueled, paranoiac adventures up and down the Pacific Coast. Mr. Wisbey see’s himself as a detective of sorts. A fan of Infowars, he sees the New World Order everywhere he goes. Whether he’s at a Safeway in Coos Bay, detecting Fukushima fall out in cheese or harassing medical workers over vaccines for the Swine Flu, Mr. Bones is on the case. In 2018, the couple were arrested after attempting to make a “citizen’s arrest”. In a youtube video, Wisbey is seen donning a chain-mail hood, black ski mask, and wraparound sunglasses while posing with a gun. This gun would get Wisbey into more trouble due to previous felonies that barred him from owning gun. (This might explain why he’s using a “splatter ball gun”).

In court, Wisbey’s lawyer, Heidi Larson, said, “My client’s bizarre behavior can be explained by other things, besides his addiction, your honor, but for the present we won’t be offering any defense to the charge.”

It is obvious that Wisbey is not of sound mind and struggles with drug addiction. He also appears to be impressionable to ridiculous conspiracy theories such as those espoused by Alex Jones on Infowars.com, which he repeatedly flashes on the screen in his youtube series.

If Wisbey had been armed with a glock instead of a “splatter ball gun” on Saturday, people could have been shot and killed. Fortunately, two armed community defenders not only stopped Wisbey, but de-escalated the situation from spiraling out of control. In a country known internationally for gun violence and mass shootings, the only injury sustained from this confrontation was a broken leg. And to that unfortunate lady, get well soon.

xoxo

(As I’m typing this, reports of a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine appear in a notification on my phone. Stay safe out there.)

Early in the morning, on New Year’s Eve, I finished work and began my drive home. As I drove down SE Hawthorne Boulevard, the anxiety inducing blue and red flash of police and firefighter vehicles came into view. SE Hawthorne Boulevard is no stranger to crime and car accidents, so I thought nothing of it. I simply took a detour to avoid the area.

As it turned out, the Bank of America on SE 37th and Hawthorne Blvd. had been targeted in an arson attack according to an anonymous Anarchist who claims to be responsible.

On Noblogs.org, the post reads:

“Last night I broke into the Bank of America in Portland, Oregon and started a large fire. According to news reports, the fire grew quickly and took firefighters more than an hour to extinguish.

I attack for revenge against capital for the hell it creates, to break the illusion of police control that usually protects it, and just because I can.

Bank of America funds the Atlanta Police Foundation and a thousand other projects of control. Earlier that day, the six friends in Atlanta charged with “domestic terrorism” were released from jail. May this fire bring them some warmth in the winter.”

The ‘six friends’ they refer to are the 6 forest defenders in Atlanta who were recently arrested and charged with domestic terrorism following a clash with police on December 13th. The location of the incident is the Weelaunee Forest in SE Atlanta where forest defenders have been camping out to impede destruction of the forest and construction of what’s been dubbed as “Cop City”. Cop City is the 90-million dollar, 85-acre “Atlanta Public Safety Training Center” funded by private corporations and the City of Atlanta.

The 6 forest defenders have been accused of throwing glass bottles and rocks at GBI Agents and Atlanta Police, resisting arrests, and possessing pipe bombs and trip wires.

In May, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at authorities trying to remove protesters from the site. 8 protesters were arrested, but none were charged as domestic terrorist.

In August, forest protectors set a contractor’s truck on fire.

After the December arrests, Georgia’s Governer Republican Brian Kemp released a public statement via Tweet:

“Stop Cop City” is a coalition of tree sitters, activists, and organizers standing against the construction of the largest police facility in the United States. The facility plans to build on 85 acres of forest. The remaining 381 acres are said to remain “green space”. (For comparison, NYPD’s training academy is 32 acres. LAPD’s academy is 20 acres).

On June 7th, 2021, Atlanta City Council member Joyce Shepard introduced legislation that would authorize a ground lease to Atlanta Police Foundation for the full 381 acres for the next 50 years. 17 hours later the legislation was passed. Among the City Council Members that passed this legislation include current Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens.

The Atlanta Police Foundation is a nonprofit organization claiming to “unite the business and philanthropic community with the Atlanta Police Department”. The nonprofit is backed by corporate donors including Delta Airlines, Coca-Cola, UPS, Cox Enterprises, Wells-Fargo, Bank of America, and more. APF CEO and President Dave Wilkinson claims that 95% of Atlantans approve of the project despite not producing evidence for the statistic. The foundation proposed to fund the training center through public-private partnership leaving the remaining $30 million for Atlanta taxpayers to pick up.

Tree sitters and members of “Defend the Atlanta Forest” Movement have created tree house shelters on site to prevent clearcutting of the Forest’s trees in preparation for constructing the center.

So…what is Cop City and why are people so determined to stop it?

The ‘Weelaunee Forest’ (South River Forest) is located in Southeast Atlanta. (Activists refer to South River Forest by its Muscogee name ‘Weelaunee’.) According to anthropologist Mark Auslander, the site used to be a prison farm. Long before it was converted to a prison farm, white settlers displaced the Muscogee Creek tribe off their ancestral land and established slave-based plantations. The land was not only stolen but continued to be used for oppression for many years. Many see ‘cop city’ as a continuation of that oppression.

Weelaunee Forest is a watershed that drains into the South River. Watersheds protect rivers by filtering out polluted run-off and acting as a buffer. South River has already been polluted by sewage run-off for decades. Despite the facility’s plan to replant trees it destroys, destruction of the watershed is an environmental concern. The watershed also surrounds neighborhoods with communities of mostly Black residents who strongly oppose the project.

The project’s plan includes military-grade training facilities, a mock city to practice urban warfare, dozens of shooting ranges, and a Black Hawk helicopter landing pad.

The Atlanta Police Foundation also funds “Operation Shield” and “Operation Aware”. The two programs sound like a story plot in an episode of Black Mirror. Operation Shield uses private funds to install cameras throughout the city and works with businesses to connect their cameras to the police surveillance system. Operation Aware uses a predicting policing platform and criminal analytics software designed by Microsoft to link the Operation Shield surveillance network to databases of recorded license plates, vehicle registrations, and criminal records. The software suggests suspects to a ‘real-time crime center’.

A 2017 study by Cornell university says the software may spark feedback loops that send police back into the same neighborhoods regardless of true crime rate. “It will increase unwarranted stops and searches, police presence in majority Black neighborhoods, and police brutality against Black people.” Recently, over 250 cameras were left dead for two months due to contracting and oversight issues, ultimately wasting taxpayer dollars.

Despite the recent arrests, activists say they have no plans to leave.

The 6 charged with domestic terrorism have a long road ahead of them as they wait to stand trial. They are currently out on bail.

The Anonymous Anarchist in Portland who set fire to the Bank of America has not been identified.

Stop Cop City: @stopcopcitylinks | Linktree

Defend Atlanta Forests: DefendAtlantaForest | Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok | Linktree