Lecture 11: Left-Wing Groups

1. Lecture 11: Left-Wing Groups • Left-Wing (often Marxist/Communist) Terrorist Groups

2. Historical Context/Events • Cold War, Soviet commitment to spread of Communism • De-colonization conflicts, including: • French in Southeast Asia, Algeria • U.S. in Southeast Asia • British in East Africa • Successful revolutionary movements in Asia, Latin America, etc. • Mao Tse-tung and China in the 1940s • Ho Chi Minh and Vietnam in the 1950s, 1960s, & 1970s • Fidel Castro and Cuba in the late 1950s/early 1960s • Latin American civil wars • South Africa, Palestinian territories, Northern Ireland conflicts • Modern European terrorism emerged in the 1960s as an extreme reflection of left-wing activism Mao Tse-Tung

3. Frantz Fanon • Wretched of the Earth (1961): Western powers have dehumanized non-Western people by destroying their cultures and replacing them with Western values • The masses suffer a perpetual identity crisis, forced to deny their heritage. They can follow only one course of action: guerilla warfare revolution (achieving freedom is inherently violent) • Terrorism had a specific purpose: to terrorize Westerners and their followers into submission • Urban terror was to create mayhem, and all terrorism was to be excessively brutal to communicate fear. • Fanon’s guerrilla model thus uses terrorism as a strategy and deviates from typical guerrillas who try to build a military force

4. Ernesto “Che” Guevara • Argentine Marxist; traveled throughout Latin America and became convinced that the region’s economic problems were caused by capitalism, neo-colonialism and imperialism, with the only remedy being world revolution. • Published his lessons learned from success in Cuba (w/Castro) of ousting the Batista regime • Foco theory of revolution: • “Vanguardism” by cadres of small, fast-moving paramilitary groups can provide a focus for popular discontent against a sitting regime, and thereby lead a general insurrection. • Popular forces can win a war against the army • Immediate Action: It is not necessary to wait until all conditions for making revolution exist; the insurrection can create them • The countryside is the basic area for armed fighting; must mobilize and launch attacks from rural areas

5. Carlos Marighella • Authored Liberation of Brazil, and Mini-Manual of the Urban Guerilla • Practical guides for terrorism • The basis of revolution is violence • All violence could be urban-based and controlled by a small group of urban guerillas Two phases of Urban Guerilla model: 1) violence, and 2) give that violence meaning • The terror campaign must be accompanied by a mass movement of revolutionary sympathizers, to provide peripheral support for terrorists • A campaign of revolutionary terrorism in an urban setting can be used to destabilize government power • A terrorist campaign will force the government to reveal that repressive nature, thereby alienating the public • Governmental repression is the goal of terrorism at this stage.

6. Common Strategy & Tactics Strategy: Armed violence against the capitalist state; Provoke government into repressive response, antagonize population Common Targets • Symbolic targets • Policemen • Lawyers • Judges • University professors • Politicians • Union leaders • Industrialists • Military/security facilities • Common Tactics • Armed robberies • Operations against the military (snipers, planting mines, etc.) • Kidnapping (for attention and coercive bargaining) • Selective assassination (snipers, letter bombs, etc.) • Indiscriminate attacks in public places • Lots o’ bombings . . .

7. Other Common Themes Prominent role of academics, intellectual elites • Sendero Luminoso: University of San Cristobal de Huamanga (Abimael Guzman) • Red Brigades: University of Trento (Renato Curcio, Mara Cagol) • Red Army Faction: Free University of Berlin (Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof) • 17 November: Athens Polytechnic

8. Other Common Themes • Common reasons for the decline of left-wing terror groups: • Intellectual elites who controlled the movement got older and lost their ability to connect with increasingly younger student activist audiences. • Impatient leaders, members led to mistakes, counterproductive violence • Alienation of target audiences (instead of mobilization) undermined political objectives • Left-wing movements became more specific, focusing not only on certain political behavior, but on particular causes (e.g., ELF, ALF, Monkey Wrench Gang – spiking trees, arson attacks, lumber mills, etc.) • Government actions and improved police tactics certainly contributed to the decline of left-wing terrorism in the U.S. and Europe

9. Summary • Focused on fundamental, systemic change • Groups influenced by revolutionaries in other countries • Domestic, Marxist, some state support • Armed violence against the capitalist state; provoke over-reaction Mao Tse-Tung Frantz Fanon Carlos Marighella Ernesto “Che” Geuvara Mao: the guerilla should be likened to a fish in the sea - People’s War Che: a small dedicated cadre of fighters can create the conditions for popular revolution (cult of martyrs?) Fanon: political violence is a necessary instrument of liberation Marighella: urban violence will “systematically inflict damage on the authorities… (and)…the people who dominate …and exercise power”

10. Left-Wing Terrorist Groups • Action Directe (France) • Sendero Luminoso (Peru) • 17 November (Greece) • Weather Underground (United States) • Tupamaros (Uruguay) • Japanese Red Army • Red Army Faction (Germany) • Red Brigades (Italy) • Mujahedin-e-Khalq (Iran) • Popular Revolutionary Army (Mexico) • Nepal Insurgents (Maoists) • United Freedom Front (United States) • 25 April Movement (Portugal) • Revolutionary Movement of Tupac Amaru (Peru) • Irish Nationalist Liberation Army (IRSP militants) • Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Colombia) • May 19 Communist Organization (United States) • Evan Mecham Eco-Terrorist International Conspiracy (United States) • Others . . .

11. Red Army Faction/BaaderMeinhof • West German leftist group founded in 1968 and active until 1998; most core members were university students, led by Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof • Lots of bombings and armed assaults against police, U.S. military personnel and journalists • Assassinated several important individuals, including Germany’s Supreme Court President Gunter von Drenkman (1974) • Airplane Hijackings and Kidnappings (e.g., Hans Martin Schleyer) not for ransom but to coerce release of group members from prison

12. Red Brigades (Brigade Rosse) • Italian Marxist-Leninist terrorist group founded in Milan in 1970 and active until the late 1980s • Much larger than RAF (up to 1,500 by the end of 1970s) • Centralized structure with at least 6 local “columns” (cells or branches) • Mostly bombings, kidnappings to demand ransoms and the release of its comrades from prison • Aldo Moro, former Prime Minister • U.S. General James Dozier, Deputy Chief of Staff at NATO’s Southern European land forces

13. Action Directe • French group, established in 1979; active less than 10 years • Major bombings, • 1982 attack on the World Bank European Headquarters • 1984 attack on the European Space Agency • 1985 attack at the officers’ club at the Rhein-Main U.S. Air Force Base • Assassinations • French General Rene Audran (1985) • George Besse, the Chairman of Reneault (1986)

14. Weather Underground • U.S. group; extreme militant splinter of Students for a Democratic Society (anti-Vietnam War movement on college & university campuses) • Originally called “Weathermen” but later changed their name to The Weather Underground Organization (WUO) • Robberies, jailbreaks and nearly two dozen bombings throughout the early and mid-1970s • New York City Police (1970) • National Guard Armory (1970) • U.S. Senate buiding (1971) • Pentagon (1972) • U.S. State Department (1975)

15. Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia • La Violencia, the 1948-1958 Colombian civil war • 1964, FARC launched as armed wing of Colombian Communist Party • 1960s and 1970s, collected revolutionary taxes from landowners and peasants to raise money • Imposed taxes on narco-traffickers in exchange for the use of land for cultivation, labs, landing strips • Manufactured own military equipment and weapons, including mortars and landmines • Today its violent activities revolve much more around the fight to maintain control over part of Colombia’s drug trade

16. Sendero Luminoso • Maoist group established in 1969 as militant outgrowth of the Peruvian Communist movement • Occupied villages, established revolutionary governments, and trained members in guerilla strategy and the use of firearms and explosives • Car bombings, kidnappings and political assassinations; attacked the U.S. Embassy, Peruvian political officials, schools, police stations, middle class neighborhoods, and Lima’s banking center • Imposed “taxes” on businesses and individuals in occupied villages; Became increasingly involved in the Peruvian cocaine trade in the Upper Huallaga Valley

17. Communist Party of India-Maoist • aka “Naxalites”, established 2004 • Seeks complete overhaul of the Indian government in order to establish a Communist society • Imposition of “taxes” on villages and village officials • Estimated over 10,000 fighters • World’s #1 kidnapping group in 2010 • Ideological resonance among poor, rural indigenous communities in northeast India

18. Other Left-Wing Groups • Communist Party of Nepal • Purbo Banglar Communist Party of Bangladesh (PBCP) • Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) • Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) • Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) • Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) • Japanese Red Army • Irish National Liberation Army

19. Conclusion • For more, see: • Global Terrorism Database Profileshttp://www.start.umd.edu/start/data_collections/tops/ • National Counterterrorism Center Profileshttp://www.nctc.gov/site/profiles/index.html • Most left-wing groups failed to achieve their objectives • Some transformed into legitimate participants in the official political processes of their countries • Others moved away from emphasis on left-wing Marxist ideology and more toward criminal objectives

20. Questions?