The concept of Leaderless Resistance was proposed by Colonel Julius Louis Amoss, who was the founder of International Service of Information Incorporated, located in Baltimore, Maryland. Colonel Amoss died more than fifteen years ago, but during his life he was a tireless opponent of Communism, as well as a skilled intelligence officer. Colonel Amoss first wrote of Leaderless Resistance on April 17, 1962; his theories of organisation were directed primarily against the threat of eventual Communist take-over in the United States. The present writer, with the benefit of having lived many years beyond Colonel Amoss, has taken his theories and expounded upon them.
Colonel 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 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, 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 labelled “domestic terrorists” or “cultists” and suppressed, it will become necessary to consider other methods of organisation – or as the case may very well call for: non-organisation.
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.
Most organisations, however, that possess the potential for effective resistance, will not be allowed to continue. Anyone who is so naïve 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 newsmedia – 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 organisation 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 in a 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 organisation 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 organisation. The orthodox scheme of organisation is diagrammatically represented by the pyramid, with the mass at the bottom and the leader at the top. This fundamental of organisation 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 organisation 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 organisation by dividing authority into three: executive, legislative and judicial. But the pyramid remains essentially untouched.
This scheme of organisation, the pyramid, is however, not only useless, but extremely dangerous for the participants when it is utilised 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 organisations utilising 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 agents provocateurs weasel their way into patriotic groups and destroy them from within.
In the pyramid type of organisation, 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 organisation from the top down is compromised and may be traduced at will.
An alternative to the pyramid type of organisation 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 harbour 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 those bygone days of poor communication, of weeks to months for a letter to be delivered, the Committees without any central direction whatsoever, acted remarkably similar tactically to resist government tyranny.
A recent example taken from the left wing of politics is the Communists, who in order to get around the obvious problems involved in pyramidal organisation, developed the cell system to an art. The Communists 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 United States 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 were 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 organisation, 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 organisation based upon the Soviet system of operation is impossible.
Two things become clear from the above discussion. First, that the pyramid type of organisation can be penetrated quite easily and is thus not a sound method of organisation in situations where the government has 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 United States for patriots. This understood, the question arises “What method is left for those resisting state tyranny?” The answer comes from Colonel Amoss, who proposed the “Phantom Cell” mode of organisation, which he described as Leaderless Resistance.
This is a system of organisation that is based upon the cell organisation, but does not have any central control or direction, which is in fact almost identical to the methods used by the Committees of Correspondence during the American Revolution. Utilising 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 organisation.
At first glance, such a type of organisation seems unrealistic, primarily because there appears to be no organisation. 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 programme 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 shows this to be true.
Since the entire purpose of Leaderless Resistance is to defeat state tyranny, 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., 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 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. 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 organisations 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 belongs to a pyramid type group. Such groups and organisations 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 organisation and resistance, or to make the enemy’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 structure have short political lives. Therefore, those movement leaders constantly calling for unity of organisation 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 realising 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 organisations. 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 organisation 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 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 pyramid type of organisation 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 its 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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