Joseph Tommasi

Joseph Charles Tommasi (1951 – August 15, 1975) was an American National Socialist who founded the National Socialist Liberation Front (NSLF) in 1974. Breaking with the conservative image of American Nazism and its "mass strategy", he advocated an armed guerrilla struggle against the "System". Tommasi advocated a radical form of the leadership and after founding the NSLF on March 2, 1974, began publication of a periodical titled Siege. Tommasi was derisively nicknamed "Tomato Joe" behind his back by rival neo-Nazis because of his Italian heritage and somewhat swarthy features.

Tommasi first rose to prominence as a young leader within the National Socialist White People's Party (NSWPP) in Arlington, Virginia. The NSWPP began to splinter following George Lincoln Rockwell's murder in 1967 and Tommasi frequently found himself at odds with Rockwell's successor, Commander Matt Koehl. Koehl, a strait-laced Hitlerist, objected to Tommasi's radical viewpoints as well as his personal habits which included smoking marijuana, wearing long hair, listening to Rock N Roll and inviting a girlfriend to sleep with him at NSWPP headquarters whenever he was the overnight duty officer. Tommasi remained with the NSWPP until he moved to California and founded the NSLF. The new group attracted many of the younger and more radical members of the NSWPP and as a result, the NSLF's membership grew rapidly while the NSWPP's influence went into steep decline. This only served to deepen the dislike Koehl and his more loyal followers felt toward Tommasi. Tommasi also sought membership among white college students who felt alienated by both the radical leftist movement as well as the mainstream conservative right. NSLF recruiting posters frequently depicted images of guns and warned that America was facing an impending race war. Today, many neo-Nazi groups continue to espouse this belief.

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