After a period of infighting that threatened the National Alliance's leadership and stability, the neo-Nazi group has refocused its attention on "core" activities. Although the national leadership still appears to be floundering at times, many local units, including those in Sacramento, St. Louis, New Jersey, and Boston remain strong and able to attract new members. The National Alliance, however, has lost a significant number of members since founder William Pierce's death over two years ago—its membership hovers near 1,000, a more than 33% decline from its peak. Nevertheless, it remains the largest neo-Nazi group in the United States.
Over the last year, however, the group has made a big effort to gain recruits and especially to attract publicity, mostly through leafleting campaigns and erecting billboards in select locations around the country. One National Alliance unit hosted a Holocaust denial conference, while others units have participated in events such as anti-immigration gatherings. Despite the group's numerous activities, significant problems remain. Many former National Alliance members, including some longtime veterans, have been outspoken about their mistrust of the motives and decisions of Chairman Erich Gliebe and Chief Operations Officer Shaun Walker. Accusations about the leadership's mishandling of finances and contributions abound on Internet bulletin boards and chat rooms. However, Gliebe and Walker, as well as Kevin Strom, Media Director, remain firmly in power.
Infighting and stabilization
Infighting continues to plague the National Alliance, though less so than in 2003. One of the primary white supremacist detractors of the group is a former board member, Robert DeMarais, who publishes negative accounts of the National Alliance in inserts in his magazine, Thunderbolt of Truth. DeMarais' accounts are not unbiased, since he is currently engaged in a legal battle with the National Alliance, which is trying to remove him from a lot on the property of the group's national headquarters in West Virginia where he has built a home. According to DeMarais, the National Alliance leadership has misused or pilfered money contributed to a fund set up to help the children of two white supremacists (one killed, the other jailed).
DeMarais also reports on a variety of problems with staff. In November 2004, he announced that David Pringle, who was the Membership Coordinator of the National Alliance, resigned from the group in August due to a salary dispute, but the organization has kept his departure quiet. According to DeMarais, Pringle could no longer accept Shaun Walker's excuses for not paying him and Erich Gliebe's inability to do anything about the situation.
Other former members of the National Alliance complain that the group is mismanaged and making poor decisions, such as selling the "Resistance 2004 Girly Calendar." Some have claimed the National Alliance is becoming a "populist" organization moving to the left. Many of the complaints have not been directed so much as Gliebe as at his subordinate, Walker.
However, with the exception of the ongoing DeMarais controversy, the very public battle between Gliebe and the now dismantled Board of Directors of the National Alliance and their supporters has died down. One reason is that Gliebe detractors are often ousted from the group. Although problems remain, there are several signs that the group has stabilized. After a period where the group's publications, including National Vanguard, Resistance, and the National Alliance Bulletin, were sent out late or not at all, they are now produced on a more regular schedule. The group has also moved key leaders, including Lewis Doherty, to its national headquarters in West Virginia. Its headquarters staff is still smaller than it was at Pierce’s death, but has been growing after an unstable period when many staffers left. The number of local units has also grown and has led to more activity on the part of members.
Aggressive leafleting
One of the areas where the National Alliance has been most active has been in the distribution of white supremacist propaganda. It carried out an aggressive leafleting campaign all over the United States. In many states, local units carried out multiple literature distributions. Leafleting was particularly frequent in Nebraska, Michigan, Massachusetts, Colorado, Maryland, Montana, Colorado, Arizona and Washington. Other states targeted included Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky, Wisconsin, New York, New Jersey, California, Nevada, Wyoming, New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, Texas, and North Carolina.
The Alliance often tied leafleting to particular events, such as Martin Luther King Day and Valentine's Day (when they distributed "Love Your Race" fliers), in order to attract more publicity. They also distributed flyers on William Pierce's birthday. Sometimes the National Alliance would also tie their leaflets to local events or issues—again with an eye towards reaping maximum publicity. For example, they distributed flyers tied to a "Reconciliation Walk" in Annapolis, Maryland, that highlighted the history of slavery and anti-immigration sentiment.
Buying billboards
The National Alliance also turned to bolder methods to gain publicity. Most noticeably, it purchased billboard advertising in places around the country designed to raise the profile of the National Alliance and its hateful ideology. Its billboards tended to feature a somewhat muted expression of its ideology, coupled with a reference to its Internet address.
National Alliance units have used the billboard strategy in Florida, Utah, and Nevada. In February 2004, for example, a local unit rented a billboard in Sumter County, Florida, to display a message that asked "WHO RULE$ AMERIKA?", a veiled reference to the neo-Nazi belief that Jews control the United States. The billboard was eventually removed after hundreds of complaints from community residents, along with a flood of media attention. This was the third time the Alliance had erected a billboard in Florida.
In July, western Alliance members used a billboard in Las Vegas, Nevada, to display the message "Stop Immigration: Join the National Alliance." The sign company removed the billboard after only five days, which has caused Las Vegas NA members to threaten legal action. In August, in Salt Lake City, Utah, a local unit purchased billboard space near Salt Lake Community College for a message promoting the group: "The National Alliance: Securing a Future for European Americans." The Alliance sees billboards as an effective method of attracting attention and has actually set up a "billboard fund" to raise money for billboards in more locations.
Courting lawyers and law enforcement
In 2004, the National Alliance also embarked on a campaign to recruit lawyers by purchasing state bar association member lists, which it used to send out mass mailings in Florida and Tennessee introducing the National Alliance to defense attorneys. Lawyers fall into the category of people the Alliance would like to attract—educated, middle or upper class professionals. In addition, the group has also boasted of mass mailings to law enforcement officers in Alabama to tell them that the Alliance is being maligned and misrepresented by watchdog groups like the Anti-Defamation League.
Other activism
The National Alliance has been active in other areas, particularly Holocaust denial. When an "International Revisionist Conference" planned for April 2004 in Sacramento, California, was cancelled at the last minute because the conference's intended venue refused to host the gathering, the National Alliance helped a notorious Holocaust denial group, the Institute for Historical Review, to cobble together a one-day conference dedicated to embattled Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel. The National Alliance also hosted a number of lectures around the country by British Holocaust denier David Irving.
In the fall of 2004, National Alliance members also confronted elected officials in Salt Lake City and St. Louis. In Salt Lake City, members appeared at a community meeting organized by David Litvak, a state representative and proponent of hate crime legislation who had helped organize a response to the National Alliance's billboard in Salt Lake City. In St. Louis, the local National Alliance unit held a counter-protest at the office of State Senator Mike Gibbons. Demonstrators had come to Gibbons' office to protest his role in the passage of a concealed carry law. National Alliance members showed up to counter the demonstrators. The protest was peaceful, although the two sides did engage in vigorous arguments.
Hate Music
The National Alliance continues to run Resistance Records, which remains one of the neo-Nazi group's most important sources of income, but the company has struggled in recent months. Resistance increasingly faces competition from other white power music companies, particularly the Minnesota-based Panzerfaust Records; moreover, it has alienated some customers through delayed orders and bad customer relations. Racist skinheads, the company's main customer base, are also still angry over anti-skinhead remarks Gliebe made at a national leadership conference. Some were also upset at the hiring of Chris Evans (now gone), who had testified at a criminal trial involving fellow racist skinheads in 1990, and who sold expensive "swastika" boots actually made in China.
Despite these setbacks, Resistance is still the National Alliance's primary means of attracting young people. In September, Alliance members even went to mainstream heavy metal concerts, including OzzFest and Metallica, in Washington and Florida to hand out leaflets and sampler music CDs.
The future
By continuing to market itself and through a dedicated core membership the National Alliance has survived the internal warfare of the last two years. For now, the strength of the group lies more with the local units and not the national leadership, something that would have been unthinkable under the autocratic rule of William Pierce.
