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214———Leaderless Resistance

Party for Democracy who had left armed resistance for United States. Each member is free to engage in
mainstream politics. In 1990, a foiled rescue attempt whatever actions at whatever time or place he or
turned tragic for the MJL. On November 14, guards she believes appropriate to further the organization’s
transferred Marco Ariel Antonioletti, a top MJL mili- aims. The organization neither issues direct orders nor
tant, from the public jail to a hospital for treatment. coordinates actions, thus avoiding legal responsibility
International human rights groups have said that Anto- for any criminal activity of individual members.
nioletti had been beaten and tortured by the police and Members act independently and secretly, in isolation
was taken to be treated for injuries. A MJL commando from the group and from each other.
team burst into the hospital and began firing at the American militia leader and Ku Klux Klansman
guards and police officers watching Antonioletti. The Louis Beam wrote and published a widely circulated
officials returned fire; the gunfight left four guards essay advocating leaderless resistance as a strategy to
and one police officer dead. Manuela Rodriguez, the counteract the destruction by law enforcement agen-
MJL member known in the right-wing Chilean press cies of hierarchical U.S. militias. The essay, originally
as the mujer metralleta, or “machine gun girl,” was in published in 1994 in Seditionist, a white supremacist
charge of taking Antonioletti from the hospital and magazine, was later widely distributed on the Internet.
driving him to a safe haven. In the exchange of bul- Beam’s vision was one where “all individuals and
lets, however, Rodriguez was shot in the back and groups operate independently of each other, and never
gravely wounded. Her companions fled, and she was report to a central headquarters or single leader for
arrested. Police later shot Antonioletti in the fore- direction or instruction.” Beam recognized fairly early
head, killing him. the opportunities the Web offered for dissemination of
Paralyzed by her injuries, Rodriguez underwent information and communication with far-flung fellow
multiple surgeries. In 1999, despite being confined believers. In 1984, he created a bulletin board system
to a hospital bed, Rodriguez was sentenced to 20 years for the Aryan Nations.
in prison. Appeals for her pardon by various human Jeffrey Kaplan traces the development of leaderless
rights groups and the Chilean Catholic Church moved resistance to California in the early 1970s, where
the Chilean government to allow her to serve her sen- Joseph Tommasi, leader of the small National Socialist
tence outside of the country. Liberation Front, was frustrated by the failure of
Many top leaders of the MJL are in prison, and the radical right to build a revolutionary majority.
members have scattered. In recent years, MJL mem- Tommasi was determined “to act resolutely and alone”
bers imprisoned in Chile’s high-security prisons have against the state. The willingness to act alone was in
engaged in hunger strikes demanding better condi- contrast to the prevailing organization of contemporary
tions for prisoners. terrorist groups, where a rigid, centralized command-
and-control structure existed, with a top council direct-
See also MANUEL RODRIGUEZ PATRIOTIC FRONT; MOVEMENT
ing the activities of individual cells and columns.
OF THE REVOLUTIONARY LEFT
Radical right-wing authors have helped spread the
Further Reading concept of leaderless resistance. In 1989, William
Pierce wrote a sequel to his more famous Turner
Coad, Malcolm. “Hospital Gunfight Halts Plan to Free Diaries, called Hunter, in which the hero, acting
Chile’s Prisoners.” The Guardian (London), November alone, sets out to assassinate the enemies of the white
16, 1990. race. A year later, another radical right author, Richard
Ensalaco, Mark. Chile Under Pinochet: Recovering the Truth. Kelly Hoskins, wrote a fantasy entitled Vigilantes of
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000.
Long, William R. “Terror Attacks Send Jitters Through Christendom, featuring an order of assassins called
Chile.” Los Angeles Times, May 6, 1991. the Phineas Priesthood. Thus inspired, some right-
wing radicals and prolife activists have styled them-
selves Phineas priests. Order member David Lane
LEADERLESS RESISTANCE advocated a strict division between the political arm
and the armed wing of an organization, thus freeing
the political wing to disseminate propaganda and
Leaderless resistance is a strategy advocated and recruit new members without engaging in illegal
used by some militant antigovernment groups in the activities. Lane envisioned the armed wing recruiting