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New World Liberation Front

The New World Liberation Front (NWLF) was a left-wing terrorist group active in Northern California in the United States in the mid to late 1970s.[1] The history Days of Rage by Bryan Burrough described NWLF as one of the "great mysteries of the underground era" and found that it was credited with twice as many bombings as the next-most prolific group, the Weather Underground.[2] Initially believed to be a cover for the Symbionese Liberation Army, the NWLF bombings continued long after the breakup of the SLA. Among their attacks was an attempted bombing of California politician Dianne Feinstein's house. (Feinstein's housekeeper and her teenage daughter discovered the incorrectly armed bomb in a flower box hanging on the exterior of the house.)[2]

The group claimed responsibility for bomb attacks on Hearst Castle, a Coors brewery, and the office of the South African consul in San Francisco.[3] Their most common target was Pacific Gas and Electric utility towers.[4] These attacks were followed with regular communiques that "demanded free utilities for the poor and elderly."[3] In addition to bombing power facilities, the New World Liberation Front is believed to be responsible for sending bombs packaged in See's Candies boxes to two San Francisco Supervisors.[3] Described as having a style similar to the Weather Underground, in 1975 alone they were believed to be responsible for at least 22 bombings, but they were active for the better portion of the 1970s.[4]

The main perpetrators were likely Ronald Huffman and his longtime partner Maureen Minton. Huffman, who was known around Santa Cruz as "Revolutionary Ron" and who was convicted of ax-murdering Minton, was indicted in 1983 on conspiracy charges related to several attacks for which the New World Liberation Front (and other 1970s revolutionary groups) had claimed responsibility.[5] Huffman and Minton's fingerprints were tied to 16 Bay Area bombings between 1972 and 1977, including the notorious candy-box bombs,[2] as well as attempted bombings, extortion attempts, and marijuana farming.[6] Per Days of Rage, the NWLF bombings seemingly fell into three categories: "Bill Harris and the 'rump' SLA," which carried out two bombings; the Emiliano Zapata Unit, which carried out eight; and the remainder 70-odd attacks were likely the work of Huffman and his very small number of associates.[2] The person who bought Huffman's house after Huffman was incarcerated found, buried in the backyard, "$30,000 in decomposed cash, along with hundreds of pages of NWLF literature: communiqués, codes, manifestos, surveillance rules, revolutionary tracts, and munitions manuals."[2]

The NWLF may have been aligned with, derivative of, or knockoffs of the Chicano Liberation Front, Americans for Justice, and/or the Red Guerrilla Family.[7][8][4]

  1. ^ LaFree, Gary; Dugan, Laura; Miller, Erin (2014-11-24). Putting Terrorism in Context: Lessons from the Global Terrorism Database. Routledge. p. 64. ISBN 978-1-134-71241-0.
  2. ^ a b c d e Burrough, Bryan (2015). Days of rage : America's radical underground, the FBI, and the first age of terror. New York, New York. pp. 309 (mystery, most prolific), 350 (post-SLA, Feinstein bombing attempt), 354–359 (Huffman), 360 (buried cash and docs). ISBN 978-0-698-17007-0. OCLC 906028786.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ^ a b c "FBI Probes Tie Between Huffman, Terrorist Group". Santa Cruz Sentinel. 1980-11-02. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  4. ^ a b c Terrorism, National Advisory Committee on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals Task Force on Disorders and (1977). Disorders and Terrorism: Report of the Task Force on Disorders and Terrorism. National Advisory Committee on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals.
  5. ^ "Bombings...convicted killer linked to 1970s acts". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 1983-06-08. p. 14. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  6. ^ "Why Huffman killed his comrade woman". The San Francisco Examiner. 1983-06-08. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  7. ^ Wolf, John B. (2013-06-29). Fear of Fear: A Survey of Terrorist Operations and Controls in Open Societies. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-1-4684-3995-3.
  8. ^ Times, Wallace Turner Special to The New York (1975-10-03). "F.B.I. Reported to Have Found Writings on Hearst Kidnapping by William Harris". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-04-26.

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