An
essay by Louis Beam, written 9 years before the
Clinton-inspired massacre of innocents in Waco,
McLennon
County,
Texas
The concept of Leaderless Resistance was
proposed in 1962 by Col. Julius L. Amoss, founder of
International Service of Information, Inc., Baltimore,
Maryland. Col. Amoss died more than 15 years ago.
During his life he was a tireless opponent of
Communism, as well as a skilled Intelligence
Officer.
Col. Amoss' theories of organization were
primarily directed against the threat of eventual
Communist takeover in the United States. The present
writer, with the benefit of having lived many years
beyond Col. Amoss, has taken his theories and expanded
upon them. Col. Amoss feared the Communists. This
author fears the federal government.
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 gasps 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, whether the country
still hosts these brave hearts is too close to call at
this point.
Those who love liberty, and believe in freedom
enough to fight for it, are rare today. Yet, within
the bosom of every once-great nation, there remains
secreted the pearls of former greatness. They are
there. I have looked into their sparking eyes; sharing
a brief moment in time with them as I passed through
this life. I've relished their friendship, endured
their pain, and they mine. We are a band of brothers,
native to the soil, gaining strength one from another
as we have rushed headlong into a battle which weaker,
timid men say we cannot win. Perhaps. But then again,
perhaps we can win.
It's not over until the last freedom fighter is
buried or imprisoned, or the same happens to those who
would destroy their freedom.
Barring any cataclysmic events, the struggle
will go on for years. The passage of time will make
clear--even to the slow witted among us--that the
federal government is the foremost threat to the life
and liberty of the folk. The government no doubt will,
in years to come, make today's oppressiveness look
like grade school work compared to what they have
planned.
Meanwhile, there are those of us who continue to
hope that, somehow, the few can do what the many have
not. We are cognizant that, before things get better,
they will certainly get worse. Government is showing
an increasing willingness to use ever more severe
police state measures against dissidents. This
changing situation makes it clear that those who
oppose state repression must be prepared to alter,
adapt, and modify their behavior, strategy, and
tactics as circumstances warrant. Failure to consider
new methods, and implement them as necessary, will
make uncomplicated the government's efforts at
suppression.
It is the duty of every patriot to make the
tyrant's life miserable. When one fails to do so, he
not only fails himself, but his people. With this in
mind, current methods of resistance to tyranny
employed by those who love our race, culture and
heritage must pass a litmus test of soundness. Methods
must be objectively measured as to their
effectiveness, and whether they make the government's
repression more possible or more difficult. Those not
working to aid our objectives must be discarded, or
the government will benefit from our failure to do
so.
Honest men sometimes have banded together into
religious or politcal groups or associations only to
be falsely labeled by feds and their minions as
"domestic terrorists" or "cultists". They have been
suppressed. In view of this suppression, 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. A 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. 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.
He should instead be at home studying political
history. The question of whom feds will leave
alone--and whom they won't--will be answered by how
groups and individuals deal with several factors:
- Avoidance of conspiracy plots,
- Rejection of feeble minded
malcontents,
- Insistence upon high quality participants,
- Avoidance of all contact with federal front
men--the news
media
- 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 generally seen as
harmless)
Whether any organization is allowed to continue
in the future will be a matter of how big a threat it
represents to federals. Not a threat in terms of armed
might or political ability, for there currently is
none of either, but rather a 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 only for the
immediate future. Eventually, and perhaps much sooner
than most believe possible, the price paid for
membership will exceed any perceived benefit.
For now, some existing groups 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 makes a
private decision in the quietness of his heart 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 can clearly be seen in
armies, which are of course the best illustration of
the pyramid structure. In the military, the mass of
soldiery, the privates, are at the bottom, responsible
to corporals. Corporals in turn are responsible to
sergeants, and so on up the entire chain of commend to
generals at the top.
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 in all existing political,
social and religious structures 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 the pyramidal
organization by dividing authority into three:
executive, legislative and judicial. But the pyramid
remains essentially untouched.
The pyramid organizational scheme, however, is
both useless and extremely dangerous for participants
when used in a resistance movement against state
tyranny. Especially is this so in technologically
advanced societies where electronic surveillance can
penetrate the structure, revealing its chain of
command.
Experience has repeatedly revealed that
anti-state political organizations using the pyramid
method of command and control are easy prey for
government infiltration, entrapment, and destruction
of personnel. 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 pyramidal
organization, an infiltrator can destroy anything
beneath his level of infiltration and often those
above him as well. If the traitor has infiltrated at
the top, the entire organization 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 13
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 Boston harbor, were an
action arm of the Committees of Correspondence. Each
Committee was a secret cell that operated totally
independently of other cells. Information about the
government was passed from Committee to Committee,
from colony to colony, and then acted upon in
geographically widespread localities all at once.
Even in these bygone days of poor communication,
where it took weeks or months to deliver a letter, the
Committees, without any central direction whatsoever,
used remarkably similar tactics to resist government
tyranny. It was, as the first American patriots knew,
totally unnecessary for anyone to give an order for
anything. Information was made available 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 the cell
system into an art form.
Communists employed numerous independent cells,
completely isolated from one another. Each had no
knowledge about the others. All were orchestrated
together by a central headquarters. For instance,
during World War II, in Washington, at least six
secret Communist cells operated at high levels in the
United States government (plus all the open Communists
who were protected and promoted by President Franklin
Roosevelt). Yet only one cell was rooted out and
destroyed. No one can say for sure how many more
actually operated in the nation's capitol.
Communist cells, which operated in the U.S.
until late 1991 under Soviet control, were commanded
by a leader who held a very low social position. He
could act as a restaurant busboy, but be a KGB colonel
or general. Under him could be a number of cells. A
person active in one cell would almost never have
knowledge of individuals active in another. This was a
valuable ploy. If any one cell were infiltrated,
exposed or destroyed, it would have no effect on the
other cells. In fact, members of other cells would in
many ways support the cell under attack. 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 from many unexpected
places.
The efficient and effective operation of a cell
system after the Communist model, is of course,
dependent upon central direction. That presupposes
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, so an effective
cell organization based upon the Soviet system of
operation is impossible.
Two things become clear from the above
discussion. First, the pyramidal organization can be
penetrated quite easily and is not a sound method of
organization in situations where the government has
the resources and desire to penetrate the structure;
which is the situation in this country. Second, the
normal qualifications for the cell structure based
upon the Red model does not exist for patriots in the
U.S.
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. He described
this as Leaderless Resistance: a system of
organization based upon cells, but with no central
control or direction. It is 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. They never report to a central headquarters or
single leader for direction or instruction. At first
glance, leaderless organization seems unrealistic,
primarily because there appears to be no organization.
The natural question thus arises as to how are the
"Phantom cells" and individuals 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. Each individual must
acquire the necessary skills and information as to
what is to be done. This is by no means as
impractical as it appears. 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
a similar way.
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 the usual
tactics of resistance.
Organs of information distribution such as
newspapers, leaflets, computers, etc.--widely
available to all--keep each person informed of events.
That allows for a planned response of myriad
variations. No one need issue an order to anyone.
Idealists 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. Alternatives to it have
proven unworkable or impractical. Leaderless
Resistance worked in the American Revolution. If the
truly committed put it to use for themselves, it will
work now.
It almost goes without saying that Leaderless
Resistance entails 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. For those serious about their opposition
to federal despotism, this culling process is highy
desirable.
From the viewpoint of tyrants, 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
has promised there would never be another group that
opposed them in which they did not have at least one
informer. 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
either to aid the government in its illegal spying, by
continuing with old methods of organization and
resistance, or to make the enemy's job more difficult
by implementing effective countermeasures.
No doubt there'll 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 anything 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.
"Re-education" for non-thinkers of this type will take
place in the federal prison system where there are no
flags or eagles, but an abundance of men who were "not
violating any law."
Most groups who "unify" their disparate
associates into a single structure have short
political lives. Therefore, movement leaders
constantly calling for unity or organization, rather
than the desirable unity of purpose, usually fall into
one of three categories.
First, they may not be sound political
tacticians. They're simply committed men who feel
unity would help their cause. They don't realize 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.
Second, they may 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 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's easy to see why. Such a situation is an
intelligence nightmare for a government intent upon
knowing everything 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 pyramidal organization can lead to
the destruction of the whole. Leaderless Resistance
presents no single opportunity for the feds 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 U.S . (domestic
counterintelligence) are now to be used to "combat
crime", the federal government is preparing the way
for a major assault
upon all persons opposed to their policies.
Many antigovernment groups dedicated to the
preservation of the America of our forefathers can
expect shortly to feel the brunt of new federal
assaults upon liberty never
seen before. 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.
--Louis Beam,
1983
"If every person has the
right to defend--even by force--his person, his
liberty, and his property, then it follows that a
group of men have the right to organize and support a
common force to protect these rights
constantly."---The Law. Frederick Bastiat, Paris,
1850.
