Watchman Willie Martin Archive



>LEADERLESS RESISTANCE

>by Louis Beam

>

>The concept of Leaderless Resistance was proposed

>by Col. Julius Louis Amoss, who was the founder

>of International Service of Information Incorporated,

>located in Baltimore, Maryland. Col. Amoss died more

>than fifteen years ago, but during his life was a tireless

>opponent of Communism, as well as a skilled intelligence

>officer. Col. Amoss first wrote of Leaderless Resistance

>on April 17, 1962. His theories of organization were primarily

>directed against the threat of eventual Communist take‑over

>in the United States. The present writer, with the benefit

>of having lived many years beyond Col. Amoss, has taken his

>theories and expounded upon them. Col. Amoss feared the

>Communists. This author fears the Federal government. Communism

>now represents a threat to no one in the United States, while

>Federal tyranny represents a threat to everyone. The writer

>has joyfully lived long enough to see the dying

>breaths of Communism, but may, unhappily, remain long enough

>to see the last grasps of freedom in America.

>

>In the hope that, somehow, America can still produce

>the brave sons and daughters necessary to fight off

>ever increasing persecution and oppression, this essay

>is offered. Frankly, it is too close to call at this

>point. Those who love liberty, and believe in freedom

>enough to fight for it are rare today, but within the

>bosom of every once great nation, there remains secreted,

>the pearls of former greatness. They are there. I

>have looked into their sparkling eyes; sharing a brief

>moment in time with them as I passed through this life.

>I have relished their friendship, endured their pain,

>and they mine.

>

>When we are falsely labeled "domestic terrorists" or

>"cultists" and suppressed, it will become necessary

>to consider other methods of organization‑‑or as the

>case may very well call for: non‑organization.

>

>One should keep in mind that it is not in the government's

>interest to eliminate all groups. Some few must remain

>in order to perpetuate the smoke and mirrors vision for

>the masses that America is a "free democratic country"

>where dissent is allowed.

>

>[I THINK WE KNOW TO WHOM COMRADE BEAM REFERS. ‑ HC]

>

>Most organizations, however,

>that possess the potential for effective resistance

>will not be allowed to continue. Anyone who is so naive

>as to believe the most powerful government on earth will

>not crush any who pose a real threat to that power,

>should not be active, but rather, at

>home studying political history.

>

>The question as to who is to be left alone and

>who is not, will be answered by how groups and

>individuals deal with several factors such as:

>avoidance of conspiracy plots, rejection of

>feeble minded malcontents, insistence upon

>quality of the participants, avoidance of all

>contact with the front men for the Federals‑‑

>the news media‑‑and, finally, camouflage

>(which can be defined as the ability to blend

>in the public's eye the more committed groups

>of resistance with mainstream "kosher" associations

>that are generally seen as harmless.) Primarily

>though, whether any organization is

>allowed to continue in the future will be a

>matter of how big a threat a group represents.

>

>Not a threat in terms of

>armed might or political ability, for there is

>none of either for the present, but rather, threat

>in terms of potentiality. It is potential the

>Federals fear most. Whether that potential exists

>in an individual or group is incidental. The Federals

>measure potential threat in terms of what might

>happen given a situation conducive to action on

>the part of a restive organization or individual.

>Accurate intelligence gathering allows them to

>assess the potential. Showing one's hand before

>the bets are made, is a sure way to lose.

>

>The movement for freedom is rapidly approaching the

>point where for many people, the option of belonging

>to a group will be nonexistent. For others, group

>membership will be a viable option for only the

>immediate future. Eventually, and perhaps much

>sooner than most believe possible, the price paid

>for membership will exceed any perceived benefit.

>But for now, some of the groups that do exist often

>serve a useful purpose either for the newcomer

>who can be indoctrinated into the ideology of

>the struggle, or for generating positive propaganda

>to reach potential freedom fighters. It is

>sure that, for the most part, this struggle is

>rapidly becoming a matter of individual action,

>each of its participants

>making a private decision in the quietness of

>his heart to resist: to resist by any means

>necessary. It is hard to know what others

>will do, for no man truly knows another man's heart.

>

>It is enough to know what one himself will do.

>A great teacher once said "know thyself." Few men

>really do, but let each of us, promise ourselves,

>not to go quietly to the fate our would‑be masters

>have planned.

>

>The concept of Leaderless Resistance is nothing

>less than a fundamental departure in theories of

>organization. The orthodox scheme of organization

>is diagrammatically represented by the pyramid,

>with the mass at the bottom and the leader at the top.

>This fundamental of organization is to be seen not only

>in armies, which are of course, the best illustration

>of the pyramid structure, with the mass of soldiery,

>the privates, at the bottom responsible to corporals

>who are in turn responsible to sergeants, and so on

>up the entire chain of command to the generals at the

>top. But the same structure is seen in corporations,

>ladies' garden clubs and in our political system itself.

>This orthodox "pyramid" scheme of organization is to be

>seen basically in all existing political, social and

>religious structures in the world today from the Federal

>government to the Roman Catholic Church. The Constitution

>of the United States, in the wisdom of the Founders,

>tried to sublimate the essential dictatorial nature

>of pyramidal organization by dividing authority into

>three: executive, legislative and judicial. But the

>pyramid remains essentially untouched.

>

>This scheme of organization, the pyramid,

>is however, not only useless, but extremely

>dangerous for the participants when it is utilized

>in a resistance movement against state tyranny.

>Especially is this so in technologically advanced

>societies where electronic surveillance can often

>penetrate the structure revealing its chain of

>command. Experience has revealed over and over

>again that anti‑state, political organizations

>utilizing this method of command and control

>are easy prey for government infiltration,

>entrapment, and destruction of the personnel

>involved. This has been seen repeatedly in

>the United States where pro‑government

>infiltrators or agent provocateurs weasel

>their way into patriotic groups

>and destroy them from within.

>

>In the pyramid type of organization, an

>infiltrator can destroy anything which is

>beneath his level of infiltration� and often

>those above him as well. If the traitor has

>infiltrated at the top, then the entire

>organization from the top down is compromised

>and may be traduced at will.

>

>An alternative to the pyramid type of

>organization is the cell system. In

>the past, many political groups (both right

>and left) have used the cell

>system to further their objectives. Two

>examples will suffice. During the

>American Revolution "committees of

>correspondence" were formed throughout

>the Thirteen colonies.

>

>Their purpose was to subvert the government

>and thereby aid the cause of

>independence. The "Sons of Liberty", who

>made a name for themselves dumping

>government taxed tea into the harbor at

>Boston, were the action arm of the

>committees of correspondence. Each committee

>was a secret cell that operated totally

>independently of the other cells. Information on the

>government was passed from committee to committee,

>from colony to colony, and then acted upon� on a

>local basis. Yet even in these bygone days of poor

>communication, of weeks to months for a letter to

>be delivered,� the committees without any central

>direction whatsoever, were remarkable similar in

>tactics employed to resist government tyranny. It

>was, as the first American patriots knew, totally

>unble to each committee, and each committee acted

>as it saw fit. A recent example of the cell system

>taken from the left wing of politics are the Communists.

>The Communist, in order to get around the obvious

>problems involved in pyramidal organization, developed

>to an art the cell system. They had numerous independent

>cells which operated completely isolated from one

>another and particularly with no knowledge of each

>other, but were orchestrated together by a central

>headquarters. For instance, during World War II, in

>Washington, it is known that there were at least six

>secret Communist cells operating at high levels in

>the United States government (plus all the open Communists

>who were protected and promoted by President Roosevelt),

>however, only one of the cells was rooted out and destroyed.

>How many more actually were operating no one can say for sure.

>

>The Communist cells which operated in the U.S

>until late 1991 under Soviet control could have at

>their command a leader, who held a social position

>which appeared to be very lowly. He could be, for

>example, a busboy in a restaurant, but in reality a

>colonel or a general in the Soviet Secret Service,

>the KGB. Under him could be a number of cells and

>a person active in one cell would almost never have

>knowledge of individuals who are active in another

>cell. The value of this is that while any one cell

>can be infiltrated, exposed or destroyed, such

>action will have no effect on the

>other cells; in fact, the members of the other

>cells will be supporting that cell which is

>under attack and ordinarily would lend very

>strong support to it in many ways. This is at

>least part of the reason, no doubt, that

>whenever in the past Communists were attacked

>in this country, support for them sprang up

>in many unexpected places.

>

>The efficient and effective operation of a cell

>system after the Communist model, is of course,

>dependent upon central direction, which means

>impressive organization, funding from the top,

>and outside support, all of which the Communists

>had. Obviously, American patriots have none of

>these things at the top or anywhere else, and

>so an effective cell organization based upon the

>Soviet system of operation is impossible.

>

>Two things become clear from the above discussion.

>First, that the pyramid type of organization can be

>penetrated quite easily and it thus is not a sound

>method of organization in situations where the government

>as the resources and desire to penetrate the structure;

>which is the situation in this country. Secondly, that

>the normal qualifications for the cell

>structure based upon the Red model does not

>exist in the U.S. for patriots.

>This understood, the question arises "What method

>is left for those resisting state tyranny?" The

>answer comes from Col. Amoss who proposed the

>"Phantom Cell" mode of organization. Which he

>described as Leaderless Resistance. A system of

>organization that is based upon the cell organization,

>but does not have any central control or direction,

>that is in fact almost identical to the methods

>used by the Committees of Correspondence during

>the American Revolution. Utilizing the Leaderless

>Resistance concept, all individuals and groups

>operate independently of each other, and never

>report to a central headquarters or single leader

>for direction or instruction, as would those

>who belong to a typical pyramid organization.

>

>At first glance, such a type of organization

>seems unrealistic, primarily because there appears

>to be no organization. The natural question thus

>arises as to how are the "Phantom cells" and

>ndividuals to cooperate with each other when

>there is no intercommunication or central direction?

>The answer to this question is that participants

>in a program of Leaderless Resistance through

>phantom cell or individual action must know

>exactly what they are doing, and how to do it.

>It becomes the responsibility of the individual

>to acquire the necessary skills and information

>as to what is to be done. This is by no means as

>impractical as it appears, because it is certainly

>true that in any movement, all persons involved

>have the same general outlook, are acquainted

>with the same philosophy, and generally

>react to given situations in similar ways. The

>previous history of the committees of correspondence

>during the American Revolution show this to be true.

>

>Since the entire purpose of Leaderless Resistance

>is to defeat state tyranny (at least insofar as this

>essay is concerned), all members of phantom cells or

>individuals will tend to react to objective events in

>the same way through usual tactics of resistance. Organs

>of information distribution such as newspapers, leaflets,

>computers, etc., which are widely available to all, keep

>each person informed of events, allowing for

>a planned response that will take many variations. No

>one need issue an order to anyone. Those idealist truly

>committed to the cause of freedom will act when they feel

>the time is ripe, or will take their cue from

>others who precede them. While it is true that much

>could be said against this type of structure as a method

>of resistance, it must be kept in mind that Leaderless

>Resistance is a child of necessity. The alternatives

>to it have been show to be unworkable or impractical.

>Leaderless Resistance has worked before in the American

>Revolution, and if the truly committed put it to use

>for themselves, it will work now.

>

>It goes almost without saying that Leaderless

>Resistance leads to very small or even one man cells of

>resistance. Those who join organizations to play "let's

>pretend" or who are "groupies" will quickly be weeded

>out. While for those who are serious about their

>opposition to federal despotism, this is exactly

>what is desired.

>

>>From the point of view of tyrants and would be

>potentates in the Federal bureaucracy and police

>agencies, nothing is more desirable than that those

>who oppose them be UNIFIED in their command structure,

>and that every person who opposes them belong to a

>pyramid type group. Such groups and organizations

>are an easy kill. Especially in light of the fact

>that the Justice (sic) Department promised in 1987

>that there would never be another

>group that opposed them that they did not have

>at least one informer in. These federal "friends

>of government" are intelligence agents. They gather

>information that can be used at the whim of a federal

>D.A. to prosecute. The line of battle has been drawn.

>Patriots are required therefore, to make a conscious

>decision to either aid the government in its illegal

>spying, by continuing with old methods of organization

>and resistance, or to make the enemie's job more

>difficult by implementing effective countermeasures.

>

>Now there will, no doubt, be mentally

>handicapped people out there who, while

>standing at a podium with an American

>flag draped in the background, and a lone

>eagle soaring in the sky above,

>will state emphatically in their best

>sounding red, white, and blue voice, "So

>what if the government is spying? We are

>not violating any laws." Such crippled

>thinking by any serious person is the

>best example that there is a need for

>special education classes. The person

>making such a statement is totally out

>of contact with political reality in this

>country, and unfit for leadership of

>any thing more than a dog sleigh in the

>Alaskan wilderness. The old "Born

>on the fourth of July" mentality that

>has influenced so much of the

>American patriot's thinking in the

>past will not save him from the government

>in the future. "Reeducation" for

>non‑thinkers of this type will take

>place in the federal prison system

>where there are no flags or eagles,

>but abundance of men who were "not

>violating any law."

>

>Most groups who "unify" their disparate

>associates into a single structurehave

>short political lives. Therefore, those

>movement leaders constantly calling

>for unity of organization rather� than

>the desirable unity of purpose, usually

>fall into one of three categories.

>They may not be sound political tacticians,

>but rather, just committed men who feel unity

>would help their cause, while not realizing

>that the government would greatly benefit

>from such efforts. The Federal objective,

>to imprison or destroy all who oppose them,

>is made easier in pyramid organizations. Or

>perhaps, they do not fully understand the

>struggle they are involved in and that the

>government they oppose has declared a state

>of war against those fighting for faith, folk,

>freedom and constitutional liberty. Those in

>power will use any means to rid themselves of

>opposition. The third class calling for unity

>and let us hope this is the minority of the

>three, are men more desirous of the supposed

>power that a large organization would bestow,

>than of actually achieving their stated purpose.

>

>Conversely, the last thing Federal snoops

>would have, if they had any choice in the matter,

>is a thousand different small phantom cells

>opposing them. It is easy to see why. Such a

>situation is an intelligence nightmarefor a

>government intent upon knowing verything

>they possibly can about those who oppose them.

>The Federals, able to amass overwhelming strength of

>numbers, manpower, resources, intelligence gathering,

>and capability at any given time, need only a focal

>point to direct their anger. A single penetration of

>a pyramid type of organization can lead to the

>destruction of the whole. Whereas, Leaderless

>Resistance presents no single opportunity for

>the Federals to destroy a significant portion

>of the Resistance.

>

>With the announcement by the Department of

>Justice (sic) that 300 FBI agents formerly

>assigned to watching Soviet spies in the US

>(domestic counter intelligence) are now to be

>used to "combat crime", the Federal government

>is preparing the way for a major assault upon

>those persons opposed to their policies. Many

>anti‑government groups dedicated to the preservation

>of the America of our forefathers can expect shortly to feel

>the brunt of a new federal assault upon liberty.

>

>It is clear, therefore, that it is time to

>rethink traditional strategy and tactics when it

>comes to opposing a modern police state. America

>is quickly moving into a long dark night of police

>state tyranny, where the rights now accepted by most

>as being inalienable will disappear. Let the coming

>night be filled with a thousand points of resistance.

>Like the fog which forms when conditions are right

>and disappears when they are not, so must the

>resistance to tyranny be.

>



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