Mainly led by Raymond Luc Levasseur and assisted by Tom Manning, between 1975 and 1984 the UFF carried out at least 20 bombings and ten bank robberies in the northeastern United States, targeting corporate buildings, courthouses, and military facilities associated with "South African Apartheid, imperialism, and corporate greed.

[4] Four other members joined the group in the following years: Jaan Laaman and Barbara Curzi (another married couple), Kazi Toure (born Christopher King), and Richard Williams.

In March 1984, the group detonated a bomb after a warning call at an IBM building in Harrison, New York, in retaliation for the company's selling computer parts to the South African regime.

[7] The UFF's targets included South African Airways, Union Carbide, IBM, Mobil, courthouses, and military facilities.

While living outside Cambridge, Levasseur recruited new members Richard Williams, Jaan Laaman, Barbara Curzi, and Kazi Toure.

On December 21, 1981, New Jersey State Police trooper Philip J. Lamonaco was shot dead during a routine traffic stop of Thomas Manning and Richard Williams.

[17][18] The investigation of the group intensified after the killing of the police officer, leading a federal task force to be formed in 1983.

[19] Dr. Gus Martin notes that the UFF was "the most enduring of all New Left terrorist groups of the era," evading capture for almost a decade.