class war ~ touch of class #2

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f ACTioy$

EDITORIAL Welcome to the second issue of

Touch of Closs.

Three of the articles in th s issue focus on top cs aire,riag us in our everyday lives: communty poicng pjD: -:i. gentrif rcation Little has been written by anarch sts abcrt

the recent changes in neighbourhood po icing and Edward lYcKenna's piece goes some way towards remedying that.

Although not

as widely discussed as topics lil<e public order policing community policing gives most people their flrst unwelcome taste of the cops, and as such should receive

greater examination

- a fault remedied

here.

Leon Wilton takes Wetherspoon's to task The pub chain's certainly not received the attention it deserves despite being a high street staple up and down the country Although he doesn't mention the chain's antipathy to beermats, Leon gives the company a good going

over

and

CAIYRA aien't ignored either as their role in supportrng Wetherspoon's ls scrutinised,

Edward McKenna returns with a look at affordable housing,a motive force behind November's Bash the Rich demo,The spread of gentriflcation over the last few years has left only the rich in a position to be able to buy a house. But there's somewhat more to gentrifrcation and affordable housing than that, and Edward looks at both the theory and practice of gentrifrcation,which might be more honestly called social cleansing,

analyses the Red Army Faction's revolutionary potential, as well as the threat it posed to the West German state. Springing out of Germany's radical ferment at the end of the | 950s, the Red Army

And Paul Stott

only disbanding in

the

1990s.

the

970s and '80s, Strangely littles been written

Faction made headlines throughout

I

about them in English from a class struggle anarch st perspective something Paul sets right for us here.

The next issue ofTouch of Class will be out next Easter; and wrll comprise six or so articles on religion.To find out more, please email us at londoncwf@yahoo.co.uk

Sam Price September 2007

ClassWar PO Box 457 London E8 3QX enrai l: londoncwf@yahoo.co.uk www.classwar.org

CCNTENTS Return OfTheYuppies the Rich demonstration in November marks:he start of a new campaign for affordable housing ard ara ^rgentrifrcation. Here Edward McKenna r2.<ss a ll.:. 3t the issues behind the initiative. Page 3 The

Bash

What's Wrong with Wetherspoons I LeonWilton

takes a lcc< Page 7

NotWaving But Drowning In the last

louch of

Closs we looked at public order policing. ln this issue we examine the increasingly pervasive presence of the police in society. Page I

I

The Red Army Faction: A Revolutionary Threat to the German State?

0uRH00b$

htIt$Ha

,rilrti! v

Our Bock Cover

shows iwo pictures from Comden, north London. We used o ptcture of the 'Touch of Closs" mdssdge

porlour for our front cover /cst lssue, As it dld not hove o /icense, legolly the Ftre Brigode did not need to lnspect the premises. They become o deoth trop.

burnt to the ground, killing tvvo people

On I I Morch 2007 it

slf,, il [[AN5[hlLR

RETURN OFTHEYUPPIES The Bash the Rich demonstration in November marks the start of a new campaign for affordable housing and against gentrification. Here Edward McKenna takes a look at the issues behind the initiative. lt

is an aggressive manoeuvre in the class war And since Glass' description of gentrification it has become, if anything, even more forceful. original inhabitants.

What were prevously staunch working class areas

in

London have now suffered the blight of yuppie infestation.

From Limehouse to the Angel, yuppie flats are going up at

an unprecedented rate. &rt rt's not just in London: areas of Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham are all suffering the same fate. The social cleansing inherent in gentrification has never been such a threat to so many working class communities before.

The very term 'cornmunr|' is

indrcative

of

several

characterrstics: shared heritage, shared values, shared

and shared culture. lt isn't iust about l<eeprng an eye on your neighbours or helprng people, it's about the equivalence between people. Although we recognise that no community is free from conflict, and that few communities are homogenous, there is a tradition of worl<ing class solidarity which scares the middle and ruling classes: hence their attempts to divide us to rule us more easily. Like shipping working class people off to the new status

Gordon Brown recently said that affordable housing was one of the great causes of our time. For a change, he's right. Only his solution - shipping the working class out to the flood plains of the Thames gateway, out of sight and out of mind - is wrong. What we at Class War want is, affordable housing for the working class in worl<ing class

to the influx of yuppies who distort and socially cleanse whole districts of Britain's cities. Of course, gentrif rcation's no new thing: in | 964, Ruth Glass described the process of gentrification thus: areas and an end

One by one, many of the worling class quarters of London have been invaded by the middle classes upper and lower... Once this process of 'gentrification' starts in a drstrict it goes on rapidly until all or most of the original worl<ing class occupants are displaced and the who social character of the district is changed.l Gentriflcation,then, is a process driven by the middle

class,

in which they'invade' and conquer an area, expelling the 3

-

towns rn the past, or decanting people into soulless estates, gentrification is a tactic to disperse our communities and marginalise the class.

The pursuit of gentrif rcation is seen as laudable - from a middle class perspective. lt's a bit like moving abroad for them, as our class and the areas in which we live are effectively a foreign country to them.Thrs was rnade Pretty explicit in 1890, when the founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth, writing about the working class, echoed the title of Henry Stanley's book about explonng A'frrca, calling his own'ln Darkest England'.In this bookthe !',crking class are depicted as degenerate savages:

As there is a darl<est Africa is there nor arso a darkesl England? Civilization,which can breed rls o.'.'n barbarians,

does

it not

also breed rts own p;'gr"r"r:esi Yay we not

flnd a parallel at our own docrs. ano discover withrn a stone's throw of our cathedras z::c Dalaces similar horrors to those which Stanlel h:< r3-as existing in the great Equatorial forest?:

to screw two

Little has changed since Booth wrote. Indeed, for today's

managing

yuppies, moving into our areas is seen as a civilizing process, an uplifting process, and the modern equivalent of the imperialist 'white man's burden'. Areas in the first stage of gentrifrcation are said to have been 'discovered', as though no one had lived there before. Areas infes'red with yuppies are seen as 'up and coming', whene cnce they were'downmarket'.The entire exercrse is :cr:ed :. an excellent investment, which is preciseli' hor; lr-ci'sn.

French and Spanrsh colonial ventures ,",rere ces.-!e3.

Where once the middle and ruling classes chai'cec :'e' money on despoiling foreign lands, now'rhel' cfie^ --a<e the safer option of despoiling workng class are:<. 5c safe, in fact, that their latest wheeze is buying hcrnes 'r

case one in lslington and one in

the names of their children, often when their offspring ar-e barely out of nappies, as an investment for their ftnure.

Returning to the similarity between gentrifrcation and imperialism, the yuppies who invade our areas frequently live apart, regarding themselves as a superior casle, in the same way that colonial settlers in Africa l<ept themselves separate from the natives, They're quite happy to live among us, as long as we know our place. And, of course, the yuppies frequently have second homes where they can recharge their batteries: as one yuppie put it, about living in lslington's Barnsbury'it mighr. be more difficult to live here if we didn't have the escape to Somerset that we have,

the house down there'.3

So, at one fell swoop they're

worl<ing class communities, in this

theWest Country.

And,as colonisis sought out dominions fornatural resources

to explorL so yuppies follow not just the'up and

coming'

area. btrt also good state schools.A good school will attract y,uDpies

.

to

rts catchment area lil<e wasps

to jam.

: '-.a-.: n concrete terms s that the wor<ing

.' : :

-: - :, ,-- cf areas in which we gr ew up thatthe . -^: - :: - - -* or,lr- commun ties were founded shops, . -'- -'-:. - -:: .:-r-es are either so d olf lor yupp e - -: '.-..icrmed into hdeous caricatures '. ' r- i- : -: : -,r-.,: have been especially affected :. . - ' . ' .'' -t' _,r-ices for development as fLats .. a n pubs.And overthe past :::

'.

. p:bs have changed beyond

--' of

ri'-=-. " -i'-: . '. --r -.-,arl'Of

every 'gastropub' and One mofe COmmUntT

: . .-. -'' :cffeeshop means one less ., : =',. fc wor<ing C ass peop e, Wor<ing c ?-s) :,r:-.-:r . ' .,i :an be se f defeating as it can ead rc ;-i - -: r-rlCd e class, see<ing to capital se on cu cl- , :'- : , :..r-.re nts.And al thls adds i.=,-.

.ra space io .r :.: I i'ruo

up

to

a cultu-a

..1

='..

class area, whe-e ,",c.-l -. sLreeLs

we'.e no,.'

.'.-..! ,!as once a wor<ng -::: ,:,,,.-,i: lee excluded fron-t

I ?

*'r

Changing patlerns in land tenure also play a part in excluding

selected higher class t'rrata'.aThis is the dystopian end to

worling

which yuppie estate agents and property developers wish

class people. Private rented accommodation

is

bought up, reducing the housing stocl< available for locals.

The influx of yuppies also drives prices out of ordinary people's reach

-

effectually preventing locals affording

property they find.

lt's telling that this has

a

now gone so far

that many middle class people are no longer rn a posrtion to easily aflord to buy a house or flat in their own areas, which in turn fuels another cycle of gentriflcation.

But gentrification could not exist without a range of service providers, most obviously estate agents and property developers. Any campaign which focuses on affordable housing will have to address these facilitators, who smooth the path of gentrification and play a large part in mal<ing working class areas attractive for yuppie invasions. Estate agents like Foxtons, well-known for their crested minis, actively promote gentrif rcation.They seek to extend it throughout London - and beyond - probably without thinking, and certainly without caring, for the social consequences of their actions, What they desire is what Ruth Glass feared, when, in | 973, she warned that the real risk for Inner London is that it might well be gentrified with a vengeance, and be almost exclusively reserved ior

5

to take

us.

It is a vision which can be seen coming into example

as

realrty,

for

the yuppie colonies along the canal near Angel

spread further east to join up with the other colony in the

Limehouse Basin. ln north and east London this is creating

a lattice-work of gentrifled

areas which live alongside

sizeable working class populations, bLrt where the economic

force wielded by the yuppies exerls an influence out of all proportion to their numbers. ln these srtuations the gentrrfication process takes on a life all its own in which businesses catering

for the incomers survive while the

yuppies rarely spend any money in the local pre-existing independent supermarkets,tendingto drive instead to large

or Sainsburys miles away. So, when yuppies move in, there is, counterintuitivety, a reduction in the amount of money SPeri ': -- l : : -- : '- -: - i::eS nOt Catefing fOf the r-r,i dc :rr: -.-.'.---'- - , -uppie moving in often -. : : -- : tlese means, yuppies

Tescos

, - t - =- rtive fashion, simply by

'rorn nearby businesses. This is :'shoos which follow them into

a new area, which only in few cases cater for the local

FOOTNOTES

working class - boutiques, posh hair salons, gastropubs,

Ruth Gloss, lntroduction to London: ospec* of chonge (London: Centre for Urbon Studies, 1964). p xviii

winebars and so on.This reinforces the spiralling decline

of the invaded worl<ing class area as rents rise because

'

the

landlords see what they can get away with.Yuppie shops thus proliferate, and often with the connivance of ihe local council.

GenerolWilliom Booth,TheWoy Out', in Solly Ledger ond Roger Luckhursl

:

or honest

p I e,

leaping into bed with property developers

th e co

to

u n ci l's

l9A0 (Oxford:

and

Policies (London: Hetnemonn,

A subject we lookforvvord to returning to in the future

prof rt from

their greatest asset social housing and the other buildings

the council owns. ln recent years many buildings, formerly

council offlces

or

community amenities, have been

flogged ofl by -rhe council for changing into yuppie flats,

which is what happened to the old education services offices. Up the way in--Jslington, a

in the Angel was sold

to properly

top primary

school

developers, desprte

widespread opposition, including from Tory magazine The Speaotor. Breakrng up working class communities through

development of estates can be done in a variety of ways, which can clearly make large sums of money for someone:

and a bit of digging will frequently find councillors with their snouts right in the trough.5 To sum up, then.The workrng class

is, as

eve[ under attacl<

on a variety of fronts.These coalesce in two immediate threats:

to our

to our

health and well-being through a lack of affordable

areas and amenities from gentrif rcation, and

housing. Though this article's concentrated

on the role

yuppies buying property play,the public and prrvate rented sectors are also very importantThe'right-to-buy' scheme has seen stocks of social housrng decline, at a time when

the growing number of households mean there should be an increase in provision. The knock-on effect from thrs groMh in demand, and from the increasing yuppie property speculatron, has seen rents in the pni.ate sector

to an exorbitant level,Areas like Notting Hill see thrs tal<en to extremes: part of London which, well 'wrthrn living rise

memory, was a working class district, is now the home of chinless wonders, yuppie scum and

the ruling

class, with

the working class sidelined. Notl-ing Hill isn't where our campaign frnishes, but where it starts. lt will be continued in working class communities across Britain.

ln

G/css,'The mood of London',ln D. Donnlson ond D.Eversley (eds),

t973),p 423 5

I

-

p 46

London: Urban Poxerns, Problems

brol<ers in all this. They frequently actively support the gentrifi cati on p rocess. n Hackrey, for exam

Recderln Culturol History c 1880

Quoted inTim Buder'Living in the bubble: gentrificotion ond lts 'others' North London', in Urbon Studies 40.12 (2003), pp 2477-78

I Ruth

Councils are by no means neuiral bystanders

Fin de Sidc/e:A

Ox'1ord Universiry Press, 200Q,

.$s iltu$ DfInSUrt the auBIluB s UUHERE rho sGeltry Ltuo l:.' "

WHAT'SWRONGWITH WETHERSPOONSI Leon Wilton tal<es a look.

Since opening their f rrst pub

in 1979, J D Wetherspoon

that after a few ropy bevies

in

Wetherspoonsl) opened

in

friend overnight. But if we look behind the cheap fagade

their place. Unlike other chain theme pubs like O'Neill's, All Bar One,The Slug & Lettuce and so on,Wetherspoon's targeted their pubs at working class towns across England.

By doing this. they attracted a lot of working class people who had been priced out of other bars; and of course

and shabby furniture f rttings we will see some ugly dealings

Wbtherspoon's welcomed

and realise not all is rosy with Wetherspoon's.

arrns.

The local is a vanishing sight in the areas where we live, and for many people there is no longer anything very local, as we live rn an increasingly uniform, anonymous environment of identlkit shops, chain stores, multi-national fast food outlets and shopping centres. Now pubs can be added to this list of Legoland amenities. At the moment at least 20 pubs close every month, Half of those that remain are in the hands of pub corporations. Rural pubs are disappearing, leaving many villages empty, not just of a place to drink but of a focus for the community In towns, giant high street drinking sheds - known in the trade as 'high-volume vertical drinking establishments' (try saying

When Wetherspoon's moved in, not only did they offer

the UK's most popular and successful high street free house brands, and one of the biggest pub chains in England offering cheap prices wrth a no-frills pub has become one of

atmosphere; no wonderWetherspoon's became everyone's

7

their customers with

open

drink but they made sure that they undercut every local in the area, mainly the independent pubs.This has

cheap

been described by critics as the 'McDonaldisation' of the traditional pub.Tim Martin, founder of the Wetherspoon's empire, claims the late Sam Walton, creator of the Wal-

Mart retail giant, as his top hero:something which shouldn't surprise many people.

Wetherspoon's would notice that a lot of local pubs were already suflering a loss of trade as beer prices rocketed

each time there was

a budget and a lot of

people

decided

to

drinl<

at home with their contraband from

France and supermarl<ets. How could they compete with

Wetherspoon's prices? The tactic by Wetherspoon's was to approach little breweries all over England who, like the free houses, are suffering and demanded that ihey only sell

them beer closes to the sell-by date at knock down prices and they could afford to buy big amounis. The litlJe breweries, who are proud of the qualn-y of their beer; had

-

to give in to Wetherspoon's tac[ics, despire being disgusted at their devious ways.The same tactics are used with the big breweries by: all very 'well, br.rt again the customer is the one being ripped ofl. One former landlord recently reported how embarrassed he was when the food was delivered: it was always on the sell-by date, which is how they manage to keep food prices low.By renting and not buyrng their large pubs they can shut up shop when they

the sound on, or only on for malor football matches.They

be eve that they are losing out after their strct policy of o n^,,,sjc,1,/ or- footy's backfred as lncreas ng numbers of rniodle .;l;,--s peop e want to watch sport, This is irrrtating: but their ban on hats is a ridiculous tactic.

Take,

for example, the case of

Ch ristopher Wardel

boycottingWetherspoon's Wi iam Stead II

pu b

l,

who

is

in Darl ngton i

after being told he won't be served wearing his'beloved bowler hat. OAP cancer sufferer lYargaret Bartlett lost her hair during chemotherapy:Wetherspoon's Square Peg, in Birmingham, barred her

for wearing a hat. Bans on

have been imposed across entire

example

in an

effortto

towns

caps

tal<e Bolton,

for

mal<e sure'anti-social'people can

be caught on CCTV. Even in these

cases, Wetherspoon's

the competition in enforcing a ban on hats, no matter how ridiculous rt makes them lool<. is ahead of

want, putting profir before people "Most of the time,[customers] don'toctuolly know whotthey're drinking, most of the trme its

onother beer", according

,*.c iheir airit:Ce tc ihe rest of peop e's dress is lust as autho-itar-an anc'

ai

bitrary: a case n po nt is that of

to Tim Martin, showing his contempt for Wetherspoon's

was with his parents at a ie EI ott "';ho Wetherspoon's owned ! cyds Bar n Le cestel when

customers,

th-^ fam ly were approached by staff who demanded the

_1ust

todd

er

Char

removal of his England sh

Customers C.are

t

t

seems that a

two year-old's

footy top could provol<e tr-oub e, , , ln another daft decision,

Although Wetherspoon's make themselves out

to be a the Square

Peg

- againl oper-ates a ban on England or St

caring company, the way they treat their stafl is appalling.

George's sh rts on St George's day, wh lst be ng happy

Wetherspoon's workers are not allowed to join any kind of union and are paid the minimum wage despite working

to host St George's

long and often

antr-social hours.

The staff, who

mainly

consist of students. have a high turnover and are therefore

easily browbeaten

by

management.

Another

policy

Wetherspoons has introduced isTV in their pubs without

day drin<s p-omotons. Cther simiar

cases of nonsense include those of Clenys Steele, 50, who was hafway through a mea at her local Wetherspoons wth two elderly lad es with learning d fflculties when she

was banned from ordering a pudd ng because she was wear ng tracl<suit pants. She had been v'/or-< ng out at the

Elephant and Castle.A pub in which you can relax without appearing on camera for posterity is tncreasingly becoming a rarily.

The Gastro Experience ln the free Wetherspoon's magazines recently was a two-

page article praising

the smokrng ban and claiming that

they would like to attract more families for a great eating experience in a healthy smoke-free atmosphere - do we

see another dodgy tactic? Contrary to the impression they try to give, that all the food's freshly prepared by a chef in reality the food's along tlre lines of a pre-cooked, ready-frozen and heated-up baked potato shipped from a fadory in some other part of the country. Does that appeal to you that much? Add some frozen pre-packaged chilli, squeeze out some lrttle packets of foil-wrapped butter;

complemented with a bit of sogg'y lettuce ...The meals are nothing more than microwave meals, lrttle packets of frozen pasta dishes, frozen curries and rice, frozen everything.

the case of granddad-of-flve Eddie St leger,57, who was a regular at his local Wetherspoon's until he was asked to leave, again because of wearing

gym! There's also

sportswean

No-frills pubs operator JD Wetherspoon is considering allowing Ws in its bars in a bid to lure football-loving drinkers away from rival ale houses. Here we see a tactic by Wetherspoons that can only get worse when we see our locals disappear and all we have left are the pub-companies

telling us what

to

wean what we should drink and how

much we should drink even what we should say as we saw

when Wetherspoon's proposed banning swearing in their

Coventry pubs. And as for being told what to think who can forget when Tim Marlin, Wetherspoon's chairman, spent tens of thousands of pounds of his own money

to flllWetherspoon's pubs with anti-euro beer

mats and

posters? And at the same time maintaining that politics is

They only have to go in the microwave, so you cant even call it cooking

- so much for the healthy experience, but with a lot of pubs doing this, with two meals for a f rver you are certainly getting what you paid for: "We were chorged for two moin meols ond drinks with only the woiter offering ony opology, A very poor ond dongerous

[with the rtsk of food poisoning] experience. A totol disoster from stort to ftnish, Bod monners bod service ond, to boot, o heolth risk" - Customer from theWetherspoon's inWindsor

'And -uhcis befot'e irull,r

',,,,e

eien gea onto the subjed of the food.

rre Lcnclorci <nows /iftle of reol ole ond think o top-up

is sonrerhing to do with his mobile phone. "

- Sheffteld CAMM bronch onWetherspoon's

The Special Relationship

of lrttle interest to him.

The pub revolution wont be started by half hearted

Not allthe blame should be put ontoWetherspoon's as we see our locals disappear and maybe one day some of them will become a museum just to remind us what we have lost, as we see the government force a no-smoking policy on all pubs. Coupled with unnecessary noise restrictions and strict licensing laws, the place of the pub as a central focus of the working class community's disappearing.And just as we are surveilled at work, so we are at play all

campaigners like CAMRA (Campaign For Real Ale). Not only have CAMRA taken it upon themselves to invest in

Wetherspoon

s

pubs are festooned with CCTV, sometimes

also covering the toilets, as at the Wetherspoon's in the

9

the pub giant but at the recent7007 CAMRA beer festival in Earl's Court they invited Wetherspoon's to have a stall at the event. Recently a trend's developed where they praise Wetherspoon's outlets highly on their real ale guides. lt's a bit like invitingTescos to a farmers'

.

The Campaign for RealAle, producers of the'Good Beer Guide'for 30 years, must hold the record for the shortest time between public ignorance and public ridicule of a

British institution.The real-ale bore was an instant Britsh

over SO0.Thirty-three have closed since 2001 ,tal<ing more

stereotype. Bearded and lerseyed, he mutters darkly about nitro-l<egs and short measures -'o scandol thct co,<r nriilon-s

than 130 beer brands with them.With dwindling real ale drinkers the membership must have dwindled so much that they had to take sweeteners from Wetherspoon's, maybe to pay fortheir printing costs and beer festivals.We

of pounds o yeor tn /ost beerl as Roger Protz dll;.'r-un-rlle.

tn

this year's 'Good Food Cutde'.

"Con someone p/eose hove o word with the monogemen:

'

usu,c "'-!:?

--'

-

t,

corpanies

this pub,the beer ts constontly shlte, os is the sPoce monogers, / noticed on II',a

,r

ii

5 ie',', ae:.'

on eorth dld thls pub get i1 ore you Drcknc.o r!-

):,:'': -: ':q,,''t':

will not be gotng bock there ogoin, for onother 30p I con ge' o drtnk thot is in dote by friendly bor stoff'

-

has

started a relationshrp withWethersPoons

is anyone's guess. Maybe

it

is because

in

and also PunchTaverns, another of Britain's biggest pub

-

but they didn't reply.

-,-,. icr- people

who enloy their ocals where

j ::.,:3 cf community to start to realise that

... : : iappear ovemight

Brtstol CAMRA group

Why CAIYRA

did ask CAMRA why they have shares in Wetherspoon's

l99O there were

more than 5,000 breweries in the UK.Todaythere are jus:

unless some action ts taktng

''=.=^. .- Support your local, tell the big pub chains :=. r": not rarelcome and start organising. But don't eremies like Wetherspoon's will be lurl<ing :crer

t0

NOTWAVING BUT DRCWNING ln the last Touch of Closs we looked at public order policing. ln this issue we examine the increasingly pervasive presence of the police in society.

On 3 May ten yeanold Jordan Lyon saved his step-sister from drowning, and in doing so lost his own life.A recent inquest heard thattwo Police Community Support Offlcers - PCSOs had attended the scene but had done nothing to attempt to rescue Jordan. What's come out since has brought home just how poorly trained these so-called police really are, and how little most people know about them. This article aims to shed light on this neglected subject.

The last decade has seen an expansion in both the 'traditional' police and also in a range of auxiliary policing

There has been little comment on this in the anarchist - or socialist - media, perhaps because it isn't as sexy as looking at the growing arsenal of repressive technology to which the cops have access. However; the Territorial Support Group and its tactics are at one end bodies.

of a policing continuum, an end relatively few people ever

come into contact with. IYost people who encounter

the police do so at the other end of the spectrum, the end occupied by the likes of bog-standard plod, Police Community Support Offlcers and Special Constables.The changes made

to this area of policing have a far greater

effect on the lives of working-class people than the arcane details of the police's public order strategy, For many years the policing family simply consisted of cops and Special Constables, who were generally wannabe cops

or do-gooders like racing dnver Nigel Mansell.r Howevel the number of people prepared to join up as Special Constables - voluntary part-time police dwindled in the late 1990s and early 2000s:for instance,ThamesValley Police sawthe number of Specials halve between 1995 and )004.7 h seemed, briefly, that the penny had dropped, that finally everyone knew that being a Special Constable was a wanker's game.Yet just a year later; in 2005, the police were announcing the flrst rise in the number of Specials since 1945 after a successful recruitment campaign.3This was on

$rrEil r

SHncunxooo,

ER

iiEi,ixgouRHooDs Ylorking :ogaher for

il

a sal

the bacl< of the introduction of Police Community Support

Offlcers

h )a0).4

Police Communrty Support Offlcers, according to the North Yod<shire Police website, support the police by per

forming'primary roles of "eyes and ears" and "observe

and report"'.s ln otherwords,they aci as scourts alrd spies for

the traditional police. Bereft of proPer po'wers, PCSOs are

- to make up -Lhe nurnbers of ethnic minority cops,'targets folrvhich are impossible

there to mal<e up the numbers

for their'proper' cop colleagues have been ordered

I )

no-L

io

rneet. London's PCSOs

ro touch people, which rather

makes a mockery of them.6 However their complete and

utter worthlessness was highlighted by recent revelations abouttheir effecciveness. Figures released in August showed that PCSOs in West Midlands, Northumbria, Staffordshire, Dorset and Dyted Powys failed to detect any offences:and their colleagues elsewhere also perlormed dismallyTheir ability to 'observe and report' may be exaggerated. And the Met's 3,550 PCSOs managed to hand out a paltry 340 flxed penaliy notices between them in the past year - so far they don't appear a great asset to the police.T But appearances can be deceptive: criminologist Les Johnston has pointed out that while the Met are struggling to get

One troubling aspect of the new policing is the emphasis on recruiting council and NHS staff as Special Constables.

Last summe6 for example, the

flet

launched the Borough

Beat scheme, which aims to get council employees to sign up to become Special Constables. Although so far n has been remarkably unsuccessful - for instance, in Barking and Dagenham, only one person,Jason Britchford,

the Borough Beat scheme is the iaresl in a series of initiatives focussing on getting public

has so far signed up

-

sector workers to loin up.rl Elsewhere in the public secto6 HospitalWatch, a scheme in which the Met trained NHS

staffto become Special Constables so they could increase hospital security was piloted at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead in 2005, with the aim of rolling it out across the NHS.|2 Although little has since been heard of the project, the polices aim is clear: to recruit volunteers from the public sector - and, more, from services which can provide useful information to the police. However: if someone's working for both the police and an employer: where does their policrng role end? When someone serves two masters, one of them has to lose out.Would it be the Specials employer? Orthe police? Quite possibly the formen Howeven you don't need to be a Special to be working'with the police. Binmen, road sweepers and

to

people from black and Asian communities to join up as 'proper' plod, there is not such difficuliy attractrng ethnic

dog wardens in South Gloucestershire have agreed

minority PCSOs.s Police forces desperate io meet their ethnic minority recruitment targets by the 2009 deadlrne, and PCSOs appear to be the way they've decided to achieve this.This is not to say that they are giving up on recruit plod, or that they are going to flnd it easy, but it is a rather devious and underhand way of approaching the

follows a report frcr- gcrernment spending watchdog

act

as mobile Neighbou:rood Watch representatives.r3 This

problem, a policing version of creative accounting.

While PCSOs are supposed to act as'eyes and ears'for the'proper' police, Specials really are out there observing and reporting.The 14,021 Special Constables in England and Wales go out on patrol, deal with minor incidents and conduct house-to-house enquiries - the recruiting propaganda says they'get involved in all aspects of police work'.e Although anyone can loin the Specials, there are a number of schemes aimed at specific trades and professions. For the private sector in London, there is Employer Supported Policing. People who join up under this scheme patrol 'key areas' of the city and, depending on their job, around their workplace.r0Though the police identify a range of beneflts for the Special, these such as increased confldence, assertiveness, conflici resolution - could be better gained under othe[ more socially acceptable,

ci

i1;:--

lHEfira-iraa*rprtdlr,r}

[:.lL-= bhralt-rr -

rcumstances.

12

the Audit Commission, which said'front ine wor<ers' had role to play n mal<ing neighbourhoods safer:

a

The Specials and the PCSOs linl< together in the new Big ldea in community policing: Safer Neighbourhood Teams.

These are teams of one sergeant,two constables and three

PCSOs based in every council ward.They were launched

by former Met commissioner John Stevens in 2004 in London, and have since started being rolled out across the country. SNTs are meant to be the policing arm of the local community, prioritising the community's concerns.

For instance, it was reported in September that the Nags Head SNT in lslington, north London, was targeting the sale of counterfeit cigarettes using a sniffer dog, after'local residents and businesses' said they felt cigaretle sellers were their'number one problem'.la Yet there appears to be some confusion about the role of 'the community' in

the idea of a militarised force, albeit not pedorming the role of what

force. Yet these latter groups f rt easily into

PAJ.Waddington described as'the strong arm of the law'.r8 SNTs, PCSOs, Special Constables and so on scouts, aiming at

-

flllthe role of

if not yet fulf rlling - providing low-level

intelligence on the communities they operate within.The visible presence they provide is not really all that useful in

terms of preventing crime

-

SNTs are not 24-hour entities,

f nishing worl< forthe day in the early evening.And PCSOs and Special Constables don't get involved in public order worl<, essentially doing donkey work

the 'proper'

cops

don't want to. SNTs, too, are reslricied in the sort of worl<

they do, being exempt from policing football matches or demonstrations.le lns[ead of those areas, they concentrate on getting to know one area - ,yvhich will, in future, mean that there are local specialisls on call should a large public

of a member of a Citizens'Panel,the body which determines

order operation take place in unusual territory,The SNT role also link into 'polriical' and security policing: as Sir

the community's priorities, in Camden, north

lan Blair: rn his typically banal style put it,'national security

working with the SNTs. September also saw the expulsion London.rs

The vice chaiI one Beverley Gardner; was thrown out after speaking to the press without police permission, scandalous behaviour described by SNT leader Sgt Mark Harries as 'reprehensible, bordering on the criminal'. ln other words,

the Safer Neighboufiood Teams are the senior partners in any relationship with the community that should the community's interests coincide with the police'sthen all well and good; if not, the community's interests will be ridden

over roughshod ln any case, who are the community? In parts of the country,the part of the local population the SNTs listen to will be those who materially support them.

Take south London's Eltham for example, where a Co-

op supermarket is providing a police offlce for the locai SNII6 One would assume that rhe cops basec -,-Jren-e ,,,;ri take a stifl line on shoplifting frorn their benefacrcr s. a1c their prioritres may be skewed in more subtle way.s too.

Another lesser known para-police formation is the Police Cadets.The Metropolitan Polrce Volunteer Police Cadets caters for people

from l4 to

7l

and, according

to the

f"let's website, the cadets'often perform duties in support

of local policing plan objectives'.2rThese tasks are things like

'crime prevention initiatives, message/leaflet delivery, test purchase of alcohol, firework and knives and involvement

in

non-confrontational local events'. Other forces run

similar schemes, though the particulars vary from place

to

place.They have qurte a membership for such a litlle-

known organisation, claiming more than 1,000 members in London alone.The Police Cadets appear similar to the

with a more sinister agenda: among their proclaimed objectives is to'create a uniformed group of scouts, only

young men and women who have a suitable level of fltness'.

which aflect local residents.

But fitness for what?The question is not answered.

upon the public vision at every turn'.r7 On the other;there

is a range of new civilianised members of the policing family, supposedly serving the community by responding to their concerns more readrly than the tradrtional police 13

fl

depends on neighbourhood security'.2o

pursuing crimes which affect businesses more than 'ihose

There are two apparently divergent trends in British policing today. On the one hand there is 'a visible drift to a militarrslic domain .., surVeiliance, body armoun an increasing use of flrearms by armed response units, riot shields, CS spray, DNA databases, the introduction of longe6 side-handled truncheons, CCry systems, and a drift towards compulsory lD cards', all of which 'impinge

fl

I

I

As the famrly of jordan Lyon have found out to their cost, PCSOs are really just there to make up the police's numbers.Yet they are going to increasingly be a first point of contacl between working class people and the police

7

Doily Telegroph, August

8

lohnston,'Diversifuing Police Recruitmen?', p. 389

-

Stotrstrcol Bullettn 13107),F 2;hup:llwww.london.gov.ukllondonerl06julyl

p6opp?nw=sofe

many thousands are due

' htrpl lmetpolicelH

,l

t

to be augmented, ratherthan

- 'Street cleoners e

e n gJ o

diminished, which may

:

2 http: l l o rchiv e o r,

) a

nd I I ondon I 6 9 9 2 82

engJondl londonl 44

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1

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Berg 1999),

p 34

l99l)

on beot scheme lounched', englondllondonl 3 5997 5 I stm Bobbies

http: I I news.bbclH

go I prlfrl-l I I hi

'Locol police unit scheme extendedi htip:llnewslbbclcolukJgolprlfrl-l englo nd I lo ndon

)

Yorl.::

PAI Woddington,The StrongArm of the Low (Oxford: Oxford University

' '

I html

u4golprlfrlJ I lhil

in EngJond ondWoles', in KKP.lohnson ond Sl. Lennon (eds),Appeoronce

ond Power (New

2a

c.i,rnb,etl 200 5 l 4 / I 5

co

M.Young 'Dressed to commune, dressed to kill: Chongtng police imogery

Press,

http: I I www.gpncsters,canlDnversl bio_monsell.osp

to help tockle crime', http:llnews,bbc

Hompsteod ond Highgote Express, I 3 September,2007

-

tense times?

FOOTNOTES

3,2005

' "'Cop shop" opens in supermorket', hnp:llnews bbc.co.uklgolprlfrl-l I lhil

trouble? Or will they call in the heavier policing options in

- keep'em peeled.

I

ng o nd I bnnol I 6 7 0 B 2 6 9.stm

''Dog snffi out illegol

with their PCSO component, will be one facet of policing to watch in the ftrture, as the way they develop will affect the use of higher force options on the policing continuum.

Will they use their local loowledge to defuse potential

t

PersonnelTodoy, December

'

spark incidents in the future. Safer NeighbourhoodTeams,

Until the next trme

t

employersupportedpolici nglesp.htm

Bo*tng ond Dogenhom Post 20 August" 2007

require a name and address under certain circumstances, like suspecting someone of 'anti-social behaviour'. Plod can't do this: pseudo-plod can. Their powers are more likely

Simon Bullock ond Notc/le Gunning'Police Service Strength'(Home Offrce

'?

to be recruited in the next few years. And although their powers have been derided above, they do have some powers denied the normal cops - foremost airong which is the power to proper

20 2007

I4

59

7 00

| http: I lww.met.police

I

I

lhil

4 stm

uH codetsl

http:l lwww.cn.n' e.Ks.coq./ Feb25b2005 htm

LesJohnston 'D;,e,s#ng Polrce Recruitmen?The Deployment Communit:y Suppoe

ffiers

rn

London',

of

Police

in The Howord lournol 454

(2006),p 3BB 5 wvw.norlhyo rksh tre.ful rce.uH inrtjoWe-pcsos osp 6

The London Poper. Fefutnry

26,2007

'i'

a

14

THE RED ARMY FACTWON: A REVOLUTIONARY TH REAT TO T HE GERMAN STATE2 Paul Stott examines the Red Army Faction. ',r/

examine therr h stor:i actions, size, nf uence, and the the German srate to the group, I ma<e L-lse of

espor'rse of

commun qu6s from

the MF and some of the

boo<s on German left iv

standard

-rg

merely puppets in Cold War games? Here it is necessary

to

cite the views

Germany,

those events,

. Did the

RAF did not prosper in the newly unifled Germany.To find

out why, it is necessary to note the arrests of members following the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the groups frnal attacks and their I 998 closing statement, I will suggest that if a motrvating factor for the RAF was guilt about the Second World War, that issue remains, in different forms, in German politics today. Did the RAF articulate this, or merely reflect an on-going issue in Germany?

Given the workrng relationships with terrorist organisations

from the Middle

East,

those from elsewhere in Europe, and

more seriously the evidence that has emerged of support (and direction?) from wrthin the old GDR were the RAF

spymaster lYarl<us Wo f, and

revelations that have emerged from the breal< up of East

ternor sm. Please note it is not the nrention of this art c e to debate the deaths of RAF memDe s n prison, no - the various theories that surround

With the collapse of the German Democratic Republrc (GDR) in | 989, Germany was unifled in 1990 Whilst concerns existed, particulariy on the left about this the

of GDR

So the three questtons this article examines are: RAF constitute a genuine threat

to the

Federal

Repub rc of Germany (FRG)?

. Have the ideas and idea s ofthe RAI- endured in Germany, espec ally since reur f cat on?

. Can rhe

RA,F

be considered a trulv

revolutonarv

grouping?

lntroduction The Red Army Faction's story came to an abrupt end in l99B with the publication of a formal closing statement -'the urban guerilla in the form of the MF is history'.r This eight-page statement traced the groups course from 1970, explained failings but oflered no apology 'we stand by our his[ory'.Towards the close 26 names were respectfully listed, many familiar to most Germans, some, like Andreas Baader or Ulrike Meinhof probably known to all. lt was a list of RAF members who had not survived

to be a part

of the group's dissolution. Discussing her photographic memoirs of her time in the RAF, former member Astrid Proll commented 'they are witnesses of deaths in an undeclared war and witnesses of tragedy They show vividly how a ruthless and useless struggle developed from a spontaneous rebellion which the state answered with exaggerated severity'.2

Going Underground The RAF emerged from the street battles of the student left in the late 1950s. As Bommi Baumann argues in his memoirs of his time as an 'urtan guerilla', from taking part in riots there existed the potential to take things further: 'you can see the possibilrties, a small determined group can further conflict like that a little more, can throw terrible wrenches in the work'.3

t5

factor being a signif rcant, perhaps even the most significant

been lndividual RAF members aPPear to have willingness to radicalised by both the German police's of their shoot demonslrators and the speciflc history own country. After the June ), 1967 ' polic -'" '

student demonstrator Benno Ohnesorg' Gudrun commented'they'll kill us all'You kno

in atlracting people to the

En

-

' i l r'il :r r': L' l '-: ":it.i , in:' l-i''l |'' ,r-,: '1 t't1'11:illrl:l' i I l l" is being document goes on to say that if revolutionary war should waged against American imper:ialism, no territory '

Part Terrorism exPert Bruce l-'{offrnan sees the at that of the revolutionary spirit of left wing terrorists influenced time, but stresses -Jrat they were particularly that the Amencans had military bases in West as

to

,

.

be ruled out of this struggle' People are also warned I . ,-i- i:t re'isons of fa.t -r' tilng tnvo , ' . clear: twe I ,. ' j

- r.

by the fact

Germany, used

in the early years"6

The main RAF communiqud explaining the move from of the open to underground activity is 'The Concept in l97l ' This Urloan Guerilla', written by Ulrike lYeinhof

we are up against.Thrs is the Auschhantz -he1' can't argue with the people who rnade Ausch'rrra' arn'r ourselves"a have weapons and we haven'tWe musi

MF

MF

service the Vietnam Wan Once more

ness.The

,,' egal

hat indivr

and

i'rl'l

deathanddestructionwasbeingspreadfromGermany, Tom Vague but this time there was to be opposition' emerged as an argues the actual name Red Army Faction Air Force and Red anti-fascist joke, due to what the Royal

activity'.7

Army had done to the Nazis'

media targets' FRG, aimed at American, police, legal and Horchem sees such were killed. Hans

grouPs

-' - r'-''=r'trans

had

alr''-'l'

to ]:r-i.n for arm- l-"-r-r l-i "''tti' lhr: Palestil' 'p of ront r:sion, Joarr'-' J"vr'lll-tt ccrrments the years

1967

-7)

'

-'.i'''.leC

:

the ln May 1977 the MF detonated flve bombs across Four people

Fromtheseroots,small-scaleflrebombingsbegan'andby

19''..

TheTemperature Rises

!" "r"1r -'i :r

r-

as is recognised by most commentators

Josef

could ignore: violence as a threat that no sovereign state 'it challenges the state institutrons responsible for security' arguably They have to respond'.8The response had in fact Chief begun in l97l when Horst Herold was appointed

r6

cner of the FRG's cr minal investigation service, the B(A, -ie began reconstituting its worl<,and in particular Conrrr

ss

cgrrg surveillance and computer systems to record vast ar.rcunts of data. On lYay 3 | 197) the entrre police force cf tre FRG was mobilised for a nationa anti-terrorist sv/eeD search - Operatron Watersplash Such actions rn,ou C be unusual in any libera democracy, but in one with such weal< roots asWest Germany, ess than 30 years after the col apse of the Nazis, the,v r^aised serious questions, Prb shed n Germany tn l9f 5 Sebast an Cobler's Low,Order de',,e

ond Politics in West Germony expresses real concern at the expans on ofthe FRG's secur-1, apparatus, especially during

in a t me of industria peace and h gh levels of prosperity.

He sees a country uncc..'ortable with democracy to the

etert of banning the Ccn-rmunist Party in | 956 an act that other European de"'ccrac es wou d surely not have contemp ated, Joanne V'r -qr-t argues the FRG was on the fr^ont I ne of the Cc c ".,,: ( n fact Germany was lteral y divided by t) and th s co, d eas ly lead to a siege mentalty: 'the West Germans ie - -l.e t^ state under a more extren e threat than t acrL-:. .', ... e

As the police became increasingly militarised and the hunt was on for the RAF, instances emerged of innocent civilians being shot by jitl-ery offlcers.When terrorists were

arrested the meCia. police and politicians railed against sympathisers' who offered support to activists such as

the RAF, As some RAF members, lil<e Horst Yahler: came from lega bacl<grounds the lav,,yers of terrorist suspects wer^e soon seen as par t cu arly suspect, especially when t came to spread ng commun cat on between lailed and free members The government's most controversial legal measure, from 197),was known as Berufsverbote (roughly'to ban from

their profession'). This restricted jobs in the large public sector to those who were not members of groups considered a threat to the state. However Cobler sees this as being used in practice as a stigma, with people's friends and acquaintances coming under suspicion.

A

substantial

to examine candidates' applications and io interview people about their political opinrons. lnevirably it developed a life of its own, spreading through the privaie secronr0 Although Cobler bureaucratic apparatus developed

job

did not see this as fascisrn he argued'West Germany is on

the way to becoming a Big Broiher police state',rl

Peter Merkl contrasts, unfavourably, the West German to the size and nature of the actual threat. 'A good dozen RAF terrorists seemed to have the state over a barrel and the public in such a desperate state of mind that only the most extreme and often constitutionally dubious means were capable of calming the exaggerated fears of the moment', he wrote.12 Perhaps worse, IYerkl sees the RAF as becoming government's response

o, Gâ&#x201A;ŹkMAf-ilA

la nostra tortura e meglio: non lascia

i ,,:rtr:,r,.i!_{l}iiF

&raece

Sarii* ur a lrnyare hnder.I diehiara,,,

._:i

t ;i lt 4

E

t ffi ti}

fll

II

* )\

c H-.= 17

ffi

to its prisoners. Behind bars, a serious

a political football in the FRG's party system.The Christian

attention

Democrats looked forthe opportunity to abuse the Social Democrats (and any liberal intellecluals who dared speal<

was emerging.Varon sees the

terrorist sympathisers, whilst the Social Democrats and their coalition partners 'felt that it had to prove its dedication to the anti-terrorist campaign by building up the police apparatus and by a show oftoughness and quick up)

as

success'.13

This was a heady brew, but it did not translate into political

support for the RAF. Indeed, JeremyVaron argues that in terms of winning support to their already tiny numbers,

the state resPonse, were in fact a disaster for the RAF.The left found little to agree with ideologically in the RAF's description ofWest Germany as fascist, and was concerned that the grouP's violence would both encourage state repression and alienate the mass of

tlre events of May 1972,

and

Germans,

situation

RAF as having*a valid point

when it comes to political status for its members in prison - RAF suspects were treated entirely differently from all other prisoners, even pre-trial. Astrid Proll and Ulrike

Meinhof for example, were both placed in complete isolation for some months. Such conditions eventually led to a developing protest movement and hunger strikes, culminating in the death, by force-feeding, of RAF prisoner Holger Meins in l974.Ihe formation of prison support organizations like Red Aid and the Commit[ee AgainstTorture By lsolation brought the RAF into contact with wider activists again, although this was arguably not political activity that looked to reach out to the masses on the issues directly affecting them.'By the mid I 970s the

MF

had virtually ceased producing anything approaching

a systematic geopolitical analysis or Programme of action', one observer notes.lsThe group was turning inwards.

There was also more withering criticism for the RAF. Anarchists viewed the RAF as vanguardist, and having only one possible method of development an escalation of armed actions, which could not be expected to result in victory. Even if it somehow did, this argument insists 'you can't blow up a social relationship.The total collapse of this society would provide no guarantee about what replaced it'.r4 Eqbal Ahmed takes the view of the classic debate

Some support had been rekindled howeven especially by iconic (and deeply unpleasant) images such as the autopsy photograph of the starved body of Holger lvleins, who weighed under six stones at the time of his death.re Although still small,TomVague argues the MF's numbers were increasing:'from 1970 to 197) the cops were after about 40 people, by 1974 this figure had leaped to 300 and the BKA has 10,000 names on its sympathlsers file'.20 Marxists violence:'the on xists andAnarchists Yar between Perhaps the most unusual of these new activists were argued that the true revolutionary does not assassinate, the Socialist Patients Collective (SPK) a group of mental You do not solve social problems by individual acts of patients from Heidelberg, radicalised by their doctor: Dr violence'.ls Perhaps not surprisingly Varon concludes 'in Huber; who believed it was capitalist society making them the wake of the lYay actions, the RAF suffered a double

flrst from the mainstream of German society, and second from the very movement to which it marginalisation,

lool<ed for support',

r6

Round Two As serious as events had been, the German authorities had reasons to be satisfied. Most of the MF's core was in prison, wrth Albert Parry stating that'soon the police asserted that the MF was reduced from its former strength of 60 members to 20 or less'.17 tt is perhaps worth reading those figures again - whatever the RAF were, they surely could not be considered a mass revolutionary threat, as themselves, to the West German state. lndeed in numerical terms, they could probably have fltted into a railway carriage.

Given where mosi

of its number now resided, it

was

sr!fi ITAi{[tNIE

perhaps inevitable that the RAF and its supporters, turned

t8

As ter--or st actions began to be aunched

to

demand

commandos to storm the p ane.The murder of one of the

the re ease of RAF prisoners, in | 975 SPK member^s \^/ei e amongst those invo ved in a deadly s ege at tre Ce -m:-r'r

piors nd cated the threat to al involved, Cn Cctobe6 rhe plane was successfully stormed at lYogadishu n

Embass', n Stocl<holm,

with a I the passengers be ng liberated unharmed, and three of the four terrorists l<illed,

s c<,

of

Soma

to

a,

as the German autumn', were to bring to an end the lives of the several of

At

the RAF's founders, and to involve the West German state in arguably the greatest crisis it was to face.After an often farcical trial held at a specially constructed courtroom at

rmgard Yo ler was found, a ve, in he- own cell with four

The events

1977, often referred

or in the early hours of the morning, Baader: Enssl n and lan Carl-Raspe alleged y commtted sucde in their cels at Stammheim whilst some stage that night,

m Priso n i n Stuttgart,th e'f rst gen erati on RAF' was

stab wounds io the ches, Demonstrat ons brol<e out across

convicted of a range ofterrorist offences, including murde[

< ed by his captors, and there were angry scenes at the huge pol ce operations that surrounded the dead pr soners' lunera s,

Stam m

he

i

r

attempted murder and bomb attacks. On 5 September whatVague terms the'second generation RAF' l<idnapped

Europe, the hostage Sch eyer v",as

the German employers leader Hans lYartin Schleye6 killing three policemen and his driver

in

the process.2lThe release

lfthe RAF had hoped that provol<

ng

the government wou ld

to some form of susta ned revolt, they had however

of | 0 RAF prisoners was demanded.With the government of Chancellor Schmidt playing for time, on I 3 October a Lufthansa holiday flight returning from Palma de Ylallorca to Frankfurt was hijacked The hijackers,from the Popular Front for the Liberaiion of Palestine (PFLP) demanded the release of the RAF prisoners, plus $ l5 million. As the

lead

plane moved around a succession of airports with terrifled

strategy

crew and passengers, the German government prepared

vio ence which it hopes wi I provol<e enough government

*::

t9

been d sappo nted, Former German guer lla Hans ]oachim Kle n ar-gues ,hat the RAF's aims were always clear to nrai<e rhe fasc sm ^rh:.-

ri:

,.,

as atent in the FRG open.22 When

wou d ra ly 'ound. n heranalysis "hat happerei of the RAFs pr-cpaganda,]oanneWright concurs:'the RAFs -n;.sses

for revo uion s based on its continuing use of

l99os

their movements'intheper:iodfromthelate6ostothelate wilr regard the ooF as peopre of the 3'qp'28 To Katsrafrcas the that repression virtualry the entire lifespan cause'.23 their to ralry and thus that were challenging defenders and saviours

at Stammherm,the RAFs Whatever had happened

theory

emerged progressive political forces

the had run in Germany from such tr,e.onr".vatism that more recent Berufsverbet' wasnotprovedcorrect.Albertparrycomments,rnall days of Hitler to the extreme broad by is evidenced sympathy forterrorists toot' of Europe's current anti-caprtalist battres, appeared *" t*L; th"

schr"'-' Chancellor Schmidt Chanceilor 'ttle strata of West Germans,.2a

to

have won the

-rr-

il"JLril: l._:""jffilJ:J, ;::: rJT:f,:::

o"r.nr'.'o

ThegroupsclosingstatementoflggBadmitstheproblemsdirectaaion,werestaunchlyanti-fascist,andamongstmany theLufthansahilackrngcausedforbothitsreputatronandLn"t"t'lonssupportedsquattingcampaignsandtheantiand ;;;"' movement' When President Reagan visited West had gambled everything nnr ti" its actual exrstence put 5o'o0o people on the RAF had neither the politrcal g"tii" i" I 987' the Autonomen the a"r"'t ' ' ' huge a suffered

northemilitarymighttodirectthesttuationafterthen."",.,effectivetyclosingmuchofthecity.Theirpolitical to the extent that they often was mass based, even had arguably broken they fact, rn subsequent ."u.tionr.r, not drop out of society as in support of "J"n, group houses - they did ; violencJ il not was own with society as a whole'This to do polrtical work in their liberation struggles or even the RA; had' but sought or Palestinian lnstead the RAF's Palestinian communities' the German working class'

the Vietnamese

violence per :::t"r"*ardstheporticarmainstream'theGreenswere different to the *oF XU*.5r'":"il?t}";ili::,T,f:::""ffi but "u"n mi'ion do,ars. A more generous,

their hands on l 5

-German

comes fr_om tfre hardly different viewpoint

reiecting

,.n"or"

anti-

se'

for peace' healing and sustainability' und ,t."rring the need 1979'the German Greens o"r"x u"inclilmed in

r".ou",^ D;;n"

MF..",;;;"r

federal elections'Peter milrion votes inthe l9B3 tooktwo creating to adapt as Germany state had rr..""o"o in from its defeat in,77.The nn"tiit""t''o"t t1"^:::: *oF failed .n" gult between the guerilll"""o "a*

fascists Autonome Antifa:,The

a

*T;## r*i' :";".ffi[*ffi;:::il1ffi:1"';:"Jl;:"Jl[l

permanent

soridaritv par'amentary-reft, and of the question"2u was now completely out

not wrth this, pornting out that in a groove.Varon concurs

but that low level Thiswasperhapsaproblemthough,notofthestate,sonryiiatheleftcome}lgaininfluenceacrossthecountry after the G"ltun autumn'

propaganda' ih" ln her study of terrorist became a makng, butthe MF's' 'n such as May Day riots pubric '""t' viorence receive to grou? ioriticar any argues that for a loanne Wright polrtrcal environment' without German important the are of part obiectives its support it must ihow that 1977 'As German democracy and that olher gl""a ..i-, comparabre ro adopted has it tactics enough to justify the Varon i".u-" stronger; so the ooF became weaken Had the MF done so? available. not are methods its writings were fragmentary' thinks not'from the slart points' sroganistic and on important

""i,^il-fi

;;

*'

:::]"fII

:"Ir;H;"1"JY::'fft-[i3":il]:'" in Belgium'Vague argues Haig

,u.oo", Generar Arexander lnfluence to survive after lt;1:**:;';""3*: perhaps surprisingry the *oF was

The RAF's EnduranCe and

:1:fT;3;:JJffii:

u in his final statement' afterthe And'"u' Baader predicted things internationalrsed''2e began to lool< not deaths of the MF founders strongly anti-NATO perspective'They with the arms from RAF announced a pact palestinians, but to comrades in Come January 1985 the towards the concentrate it is organization terrorist qroups. Given this French Action Directe ::'::]" a nerghbouring European 'over the wider American imperialism' Within

Stammheim, and

necessary

to

re-emerge tn

the

l9B0s' with

to look at the MF's influence

with organisations like left,andto askwhetherties Actjon

oir".tt*J*-potentialty '"*lutionuty'

Francet

or merely

"

on fighting NATO and

frrst killing since 1977 '

out its ,.nonti the group had carried on this comments'the MF's concentration

lounn"wright

caseofsmall,isolatedgroUPSComlngtogetherforcomfortt"cticcoincldedwiththerisingtideofanti-Americanism to sweep many anti-nuclear feeling beginning and sustenance' ideological and link also developing countries inWestern Europe"'oW*h maior a out and carried Combatant Cells (CCC) The American Georgy Katsiarrcas ,Eu.op"l, autonomous sociar with Belgium's Commurrist to ,, 20 study of what he refers

',

an llal ar sD nter group from the Red Bngades, could a subsranr ,e intennationalist movement be built, on antmpe;-

a1

sl c ^ nciples?

The answe[ quite simply, was no. Firstly this was not internationalism as lYarx or Lenin intended rt, with the mass of workers or peoples unrting around agreed principles of solidarity or socialism.There is no evidence that the huge numbers of Europeans opposing US bases and nuclear deployment looked to these groups with any

November I 989 and on 3 October I 990 Germany was r-eL,n ted,These were difflcult times ideologically for many .. rhe eft in both parts of Germany, Some people in the East, ai least, had be eved n the idea of East Germany as a Dar f- er against any rel<indled fascism. ln the West the idea of a Greater Germany was one that worried many ant fascists, especially when reports emerged of racism and violence n the old east,Would a revanchist Germany lool< to regain even more terrtory further east?ll

the start the RAF had

their

serious degree of admiration or supporL ln fact the same

From

structural problems around size and influence remained,

credentials,Varon obser-ves how often RAF communiqu6s

whetherthe RAF had link to srmilarly based organisations in neighbouring countries or not.The Belgian police were able to sweep up the CCC's four-strong leadership in I 9BB, and the French atrrlrorhies did the same to Action DireCe ayear later:The RAF was alone again.

talked of 'fascsm', and their belief that Germany had not been properly de-nazifred after the wan In West Germany 'the RAF was f ghting a new behemoth that bore tracl<s of

The Collapse of East Germany Rapid political change .'r?s

to

come

to

Germany in the

late l9BOs, bLrt rt was to come from the East, not in the West.With significant numbers leaving East Germany,the economy s[agnant and the government wavering without clear direction frorn the USSR, the Berlin Wall fell on 9

MtlRDUERSUGH in Eerlin

10.000 DM BELIIHllul{G trir tlinrrt,'hlng" rllm I I' llnr lrl;lt' Fr:tn , i.rur I lrr . rxll xntii$lici d!.r lu.liihrrhs

Yet again however the RAF s military activities were arguably far in advance of the po itca reality. Germans who had been divided by the Cold War for some forty years were not lool<ing to put the wall bacl< up again.There was also a second reason why the RAF was not to lead any opposition to the prospect of a united Germany, and it was

to

raise ser ous questions about just what, and whom,

r.r

The RAF and lts lndependence Berween lune and )oy 990 a serious of arrests occurred of RAF members, by an emboldened BKA.As the authorities

ll,.rr

r, nlir*rlig i.t

t.lrihe ll eimho$

g,-drtsrl.'r'. lloHi-

had faied

,"' 1.,|t!!. ilr, rr tt..hr. r'id,' tr{'t .il, i{ ll.rl ir.\*ri.rr* t".ry.lruf"k irPr}ir. l !" rrrk*'n *rxl irtr rrik&'nr ftiir{r{ig, h"r lrnu llirr*, i.. rr:I iirr,*r irltipw.{uttnthtlt 4rixuY tirIlin-.'*,rtr, eur\r{Lliir+ngtil-}*rtnrr{nx,rrtalaurflrgr,ifrrylrlrrr* l,rt lx{. ikgt$ir l}r.nrrHer fiilrrw" hrt rlr"r l\dir*ipriiirh'nl inr l}"rlir, 'irrr" 'Lr ll" [,,lrnuns r.m tO.OOG- Efl aergxul. l]tu l&.$ohnnng iel usg'h [:ir"&ln:{t liir r-ryrr ru..&-r flrriillrrun# lx=liimt utrl rrft:ht

16r

lLtnr{c- r.t rl*,rrrr $r'

nr[1'fli.{rl.n rlr I erft;[ung tlrelb*m llaldlu*grngthiirL lhr,'7.nml"ruuuug usl I ert.ilung crfolgl unlrr {uu<ilu8 du l(rrlr$rrg*" llitt"iltsrE -rL ,f+ gul hurg* rtrlrsnli** h'lurrdr*t vrrdtr- rrhrren rlir vrglsnrrtt<hah ir [Frtie. I &din2l-'l'u"mntt 9l (frlefim i]5{}l I I}cari rE.r l'di*.ipi-r1rnl in B6liq I Ber{in {.!-'lcmp'lh*Is llema I'? { l.l.-t.s 1,9 llr!}} <Jrir jn$ aqlre Potlxitllrodatelle totgege'n. lk,rli*r in U+i lq;(!

{leneml.urlsa*uli bti &m l:ad6<ridl llrrlig

Li+r

signif rcant anyway, but

the mportance of the arrests of lgures such as Susanne Albrecht and Sigrid Sternebecl< is that they were al arrested n the old east, having been there for some time.

ln his major study of the Stasr lohn Koehler- devotes

a

whcle chapter to the Red Army Faction,ls Koehler sees three d stinct trA,Fs the one of the Andreas Baader/Ulr l<e Me nhof er-a .hose

:o

actve

n

the

9BOs (who often'retired'

Easi Ger--any) and -those comm fr ng acts following the

oi GDR ,-le ctes the cbvlous sl< ll' of this th rd gr-cup as nd cative of se ^ious m tary tra ning. cc ,apse

21

to convict a single RAF member snce.the

ea-ly l9BOs this would have been ll,rlh nll ll'{trn.rl-tb.lhr.,r ln:,.il !,nU -lrl,.'\ ln',dlrrlr. ln {.1[- l.rqr. rtrtr, llr.r",. llnnr

lr,. ,.,.,,,1'r, r,,r

l'.

the old',32 Given th s bac<ground, cou d the RAF stimulate resistance to a uniled Germany, or perhaps even lead such resistance? An August 990 statement threatened to launch an offens ,'e a.gainst a'Greater Germany'which wou d become a fcr-th Reich On November 30 l9B9 the BAF <lled Afr-ed Herrhausen, the head of Deutsche Banl<, Herr-hausen '"vas set to play an important economic role in the reunif cat on of Germany.

- v r;tl1r'farrgrrrro

ilislrc rn fic Tst drirqr*rd alttolx,r l$ill lu 'li, sle i" llkl. t['rrrs g,'1".r, n" Jn*ruli.tin I

anti-fascist

had motvated the group.

1\llq $Af n't'lllFllt irr lI,-rlir-l JrilLsrv" Yirltcl*lr, llt ,tril'i rlorr{r m"ftn n lt'*cfferl -. ,!i, r n"tr liil, r . rtnlul,,a llrkclto6 tl+r !r-tit*l-rrgr*t. IIIr, (ierre. ljskt I*n"h nr-lrrr r, *'i.tolrn*{rli* k'txnxErfshrlidr -rrl,'tzt t trr{r z*r"i Jrrdiredlalrln'arrte rrlitt, r 1r rlr.lr-urrgrn,

,1,

stressed

ln

April

RAF' although only counteFterrorist experts for aidrng the such behaviour one was eventually convicted'To Koehler of the offlcials was not private adventurism on behalf

Colonel Rainer

concerned. He quotes GDR defector training were the Wiegand on the RAF:'their asylum and by the East results of deliberate polrtical considerations

to

that preceded it Attacks after l98 I however: consideredadifferentmattensecondly'itisimPortant the to note that ideologically the RAF did not promote relationship Eastern regime.ll as Pohl andWolf suggest'any was one of mutual between the GDR and the later RAF the GDR provided irritatron, it may be stated that even if the RAF' it was much more than a 'port in a storm' for either party' lf not a particularly prof rtable relationship for the RAF to disrupt elements in the former GDR lool<ed to who read German uniflcation, they bacl<ed a losenThose have

Koehler concludes Using evrdence from plea bargaining' thatRAFmembersreceivedtrainrngfromStasiexperts in l9Bl' atthe Oblel4-74 camp in Briesen' East Germany srx former GDR 199 I charges were laid against

be

theRAF,sstatementshoweve[andsawcondemnationsof of the Soviet imperialism as also including the imperialism defectorVasili bloc surely cannot read Koehler or Wolf's revelations A similar viewpoint emerges from the KGB that with KGB leader without feelrng a sense of drsappointment' Mitrokhin. He makes the accusation

German state and PartY leaders''34

ally' East Germany

Andropov's knowledge, the Soviet's becameastateSPonSorofterrorism.Duetothissupport disasters of 1977" the RAF was able to regroup afterthe

documents 'with trainrng, weapons, funds and false identity launched a new provided bythe Stasi,the Red Army Faction Perhaps a deflnitive view offensive duringthe early l9BOs"3s known sPymaste[ could be expecled from the Stasi's best

As head of rts forergn intelligence division' to wreak havoc? lf he was he sending RAF members west Marl<us Wolf.

in his memoirs was, he drsguises it successfully

Further questions exist about

RAF's autonomy'

Baumann raises some Discussing its formatrve era, Bommi

state's attitude disturbing questions about the German to use violence' towards leftist groups who were willing

WhenabombwasfoundinaWestBerlrnsquatj|n1969' Baumann alleges prior to Richard Nixon's visit to the city' provocateu[ that it had been supplied by a polrce agent

36

tactics' arguing Wolf makes clear hrs distaste for the RAF's violence Having class-based polrtics left no room forrandom GDR security forces accepted that Department XXll ofthe his

he stresses looked after RAF members given sanctuary' in the East flrst concern was that any individuals arriving safety reasons' they may in fact be Western agents' For paradoxically

Perhaps were thus required to live quiet lives description of milrtary though,Wolf concurs with Koehler's Stasi control in and adds that this occurred under

trainrng,

He also admrts that SouthYemen as well as East Germany' iherr hosts the relationship between MF members and member Helmut Pohl: was somewhat fraught, quoting RAF us' By 'there was a climate of constant irritation between for them as they the end, we were probably as unbearable -

the

. f 7

were tor us'.''

weaPons were handed Peter Urbach. On another occasion

over:Thrsmanwentontoselldopewithamorphinebase

this as a deliberate police strategy to activists3s lf this was spread hard drug addiction amongst lt is worth noting' happening \n l969,did it happen later? that have emerged howeven that despite the allegations about secret state across Europe - some substantial -

- Baumann regardrng

Brrgades in ltaly manipulation of groups like the Red

as

evidence part of Cold War machinations' no comParable services guided or exists that the West German secret usual pattern was for a manipulated the RAF'3e lndeed'the lean years for those number of arrests to be followed by

involved in frghting German terrorism'

groups also The issue of the RAF and Middle Eastern existed from the deserves consideration These links crrtical history groups formative days indeed in her highly

Lf af," RAF Jillian Becker argues it was the Palestinian 'moral excuse' to commit cause that gave the MF a

here' Koehler safe haven in the East names the first MF memberto seek is' some erght years after as lngeViet, in March I 978 - that

'self-righteousness"40 J Bowyer Bell violence in the spirit of flrst and third world sees an ideological bond between dreams' and thus revolutionaries: 'they shared the same

the MF's foundation and, perhaps signifrcantly' of autumn 197/' months after the RAFs crushing defeat miles east is an indication Taking eight years to cross a few taken with the East' that the RAF were not ideolo$cally this they a creation of East Germany' lndeed

employed the same tactics, appropriate

Some other points need

to be considered

less than srx

nor were regime of any {meline would appearto absolve the GDR or the atacks direct involvement in the German autumn

or not' against

a

, lt

single enemY. "

Training was provided

by

Palestinians' and several acts

most of solidarrty occurred between the two parties hi-jacking'Was famously the unsuccessful l97l Lufthansa Klein suggests this a partnership of equals? Hans Joachim

22 j_

Wa: Jeremy Varon comments that 'historians generally were essential to the RAF, but Arab governments: 'for concur that post war Germany avoided systematically every action in support of the liberation of prisoners the confronting its fascist path'.aa Although the East German guerillas are dependent on others because they need srate talked up the German resistance to Hitlen in the countries where they can seek refuge. They depend on West ex-Nazls were to be found throughout the ruling others for their money and weapons.' a2 Speakin gin 1978, elite. When discussrng a meeting between Chancellor Schmidt and his intelligence chief Herold about the Klein's view is that the need for unmolested exile in Arab not, arguing that it was not Palestinian organtsations that

countries meant the RAF had become dependent on PFLP leaderWaddi Haddad, and that the pnce forthis was German involvement in PFLP attack - one's which Klein argues were sometimes unprincipled and anti-Semitic.

As

the l9B0s developed

though, the Palestrnian/German

Schleyer l<idnapping,Tom Vague points out'the two former

Wehrmacht offlcers agreed not SS man'.

to deal over the former

as

Sixties counter-culture had

a unique twist in

Germany,

Radical youths questioningthe rfamil es'values were notlust

RAF's move

question ng those who may have ved bourgeois lives, but

towards anti-NATO targeLs wiihin Germany arguably tool< them into the sphere of more suitable ideological bedfellows. lt is noticeable ihat when the RAF developed linl<s in the mid-BOs whh gncups from France and Belgium, it was as an openly deciared partnership, lt is such factors that lead Merkl to coiclrde that the RAF has not been led or manipulated: '-.ne RAF has always maintained its

often those who had run Germany during its darl<est days,

relationship appeared

to

fade. lndeed

the

. t41 autonomy. '-

What DidYou Do No discussion of poru

ln

the call of duty -hat is a heavy psychologica tn pei{c-ming rhe r- rrs<s,46 cui-den fcr- suD'=quelt gene-ations to bean

sad

stc enlo!^.renr clr:n

go ng beyond

Yerl< commenis ihat analys s of data on RAF and other eft w ng prisoners iound that they tended to come from 'good' bacl<grounds, and the immed ate post-war

TheWar Daddy?

i,,rar German politics, especially when

it concerns a group as overt in its statements as the RAF, can avoid discussing German conduct in the Second World

X'rl, lcr.l..lr rt.t7t

the ho ocaust and anti-Sem tism, iocelyn Hell g considers the rrrew that 'ordinary Germans, therefore, tortured ar-rd l<l ec ]e,.t,s ,''rthcut scrup e and indeed with Loo <ing at

gener-ation, i,e, born between l94l-55.47 Was gu

lt about

the war the motivating factor for the RAF? Certa nly the r actions were dominated by ta < of mperialism, fascism

6trl&xl,;rr. l t..LW

\^JIR. KAHPTEN

lodqJ tlttu(teaLLrl

wEt TER.

noticeably therr and avoiding a fourth Reich although of lsrael was one ideological position on the Jewish state with accepting this of unfaltering opposition'The difficulty racked with position is that many other Germans wete need their country's war record' and felt the guilt about

io avoid any repetition

of the Second World Wan Rather

the RAF

the than articulate views of gurlt concerning and issues within the arguably reflected on-going debates war:

country.

-[he peace activrsts of the Greens' and the antr-

prison

in

1993, proved

to be frnal blips'

before formal rn the terms of

dissolution in l99B,The RAF did endure time' At several times a terrorist group 28 years ls a long off - 1977' 1977 ' when the group could have been wrttten and attack its l9B2 or 1990 - it did continue to opet?t'e at a very perceived enemles. However this was endulance tnconsistencies in tow tevet -Wright points to some of the seem to vary from estimations of the group's size - which 5004e a low point of iO to a highpoint of

fascistAutonomenheldsuchopinions,buttheydidnot,on state as fascist' the whole, denounce the West German

May Day May 2005 I was in Leipzig for the Due io fierce commemoration and anti-fascrst protests' the police' a street clashes between anti-fascists and

On I

the F{AF that Although the FRG clearly felt thr-eatened by The is not the same thrng as actually being threatened' that \r;as at least in part crlsis that carne was arguably one Cold War fault line of of the government's malcing' On the its Nazi past' fwop., and having failed to properly address

after only a few planned marrh by neo-nazis was curtailed were Amongst those harrying the fascists

hundred yards, lsraeli flags' shouting a grouP of young Germans waving with Germany" the refr-ain 'nie mit Deutschland' -'never

a large' soft fo, uit it, prosperrty West Germany presented queslroned its values'The underbelly to sixties radicals who

I noted they When I met some of these activists at a squat and even lsraeli sported small Star of David lapel badges' xked whom they Defence Force pins' When I lokingly Cup' the answer would be supporting in the 2006 World

reac[ed so badly touchy nature ofWest German democt^acy how the FRG when chalienged' it is tempting to speculate greater numerical have survived if threatened by a

'England' came back immediately'This is the Anti-Deutsche

would

German democracy force than the RAF. ln tlme however elements proved itself less brittle, and as more Progressive who wet'e unable to emerged, it was the RAF themselves adapt and appeared rooted in Germany's Past'

the interviews and writings of former German Bommi Baumann' Guerillas, common themes emerge

Antifa - anti-German anti-fascists'

Reading

share the same position The Anti-Deutsche Antifa may not determined antion the Middle East as the RAF But their of of the country of their birth and fear

all stress how the Hans Joachim Klein and Helmut Pohl the individual activism of the terrorist Iifestyle separated to represent' guerilla from those he or she was suPposed that you observes,'to begin with you tell yourself

fascism, rejection

Radl<e articulates this' its militarrsm is equally striking Volker

punished and arguing that rather than being deservedly

was needed to f rght dismantled afterWorldWar 2,the FRG ended abruptly' and off the Eastern Bloc.as De-naziflcation Re-uniflcation the fascrst elite was given a second chance'

Germany credible was egually wrong, and worse gives ambitions to be a world power agaln'

War' certainly Over sixty years after the Second World that shapes their for these Germans, it remains the event today's Antipolitical identrty. That at least is something Red Army Faction Deutsche Antifa share wrth yesterday's

pistol master the pistol' but in trme its the German left'the which dominates you's0 Forthose on the not to struggle' RAF exists as an examPle of how

are going

to

AtoneleveltheRAFhasnootherlegacyinmodernGermany. grouP that traces There rs no political party, publication or disbanded the its lineage to the RAF The prisoners who in its g.orp *"r" not able to create a political organizatron Helmut Pohl had hoped as far back as itace, nnf prisoner from the RAF's 1992 1996 for an organisation to emerge wishes'sr This failure was cessation, but nothing came of his

to be expec[ed - for people rnvolved in concrete socialconfrontations,likeunemployedpeople,theLatin there was Amertcan solidarity movement or anti-fascists'

perhaps

The RAF's LegacY rebellion' The RAF's course ran from the days of student peaking in the through domestic and internationalterrorism hostage crises of the German autumn

As Klein

of

little common ground for discussion with

1977' Seerningly

in a series of atracks defeated, the RAF was to remerge weakened in the lg8Os before a fresh wave of arrests ended ln the group as the political division of Germany on Werterstadt 1992 cessation, and a devastating attacl<

Indeed only

two

linl<s

appear

tn"

RAF"52

to remain between the MF

Baader's and contemPorary German actlvrsm Andreas Horst Mahler former lawyer and eventual RAF prisoner

politics remains a controversial f rgure in German

- but on

24

At the 2006 Anarchist BooHair rn London, I met several German members of the Socialist Patients Collective. Whilst once the group laid siege to the German embassy in Stockholm, before blowing it up, today they seem more concerned with selling tapes of Dr its far right, not its left.

Huber's speeches, and the latest reprint of'Turn lllness lnto

AWeapon.'

'Vogue, op. cit. p.55

:

See Vogue, op. ciL p.74.

j2

See the interview

)3

joonne Wright, op. ciL p.l

2a

'75

Albert Porry, op. cit p.401

MF

c/oslng stotemenq op clt,

Autonome Antifo,The G uerrill o I Eu rop

FOOTNOTES

27

I Both quotes from Red Army Froctton,The Urbon Guerillo ls Htstory:The Finol Communique From the Red Army Froction (cl,F)' (Morch 1998)

ot

onIm

orch. I 9 9 B.comm uniqtte

I

r Bommi Boumonn, How

All Begon

-

993

i

loonne WrighT Terrorist Propogondo: The Red Army Foction ond the Provisionol lM, l968-86 (Bosingstoke: Mocmillon, lSql) p. l7B

]2 Voron,

I oflohn O Koehler,

Stcsi

't

Koehler. op. cit. p.400-40

I

Penguin,2000),p.51

Morkus Wolf with Anne McEvoy, op. cit, Wolf, op. cit.

Ages (NewYork Reed Press, 2004) p.l 68

18

See Bcumcnn op. cit,

Wright op cit, p.l 7 6

3q

'a

Anonymous,You Con't Blow up

Eqbol Ahmod,Terrorism Theirs

ond Ours (New York Seven Storles

Vomon op ctt

of

Col fo r n i o P ress, 2 0 0 4 ), p. 2 I 4

25

c8 t).

J Bowyer Bell 'ATime ofTerror

-

I

How Democrotlc Socletles Respond to

p.3 t

a1

Voron, op cit p,246

o5

Vogue, op cit p,7

ah

locelyn HelligThe Holocoust ond Anti-Semitism - A Short History (Oxford: One World Publicotions, 2003), p. 56

5

a7

Merkl, op cit p.2A2

a8

Rodke's ls one of dre few onti-Deutsch texts ovoiloble in L:glish thus for.

Volker Rodke Anti-Cermon For Beginners (llll12004) oi http:llwww.

p.223r

'e Reprduc& for excmp)e c,-, rhe front cover oflhe Germon Guerillo:Terror, Reoctroa ond Resisiorce (Orkney: Cienfuegos Press & Soil of lLberty. t

lillion Becker Hitler's Children -The Story of the Booder Meinhof Gong

Revolutionory Violence' (Columbio University: Bosic Books, I 97 8) p. 68

Press,

t: Albert Porry.Teoonstt. From Robespierre to the Weother Underground (NewYork'Dove. 2365,,t p 398 iE

Operotion Glodio ond Terrorism tn Western Europe

'3 Merkl, op cit p. 170

Jeremy Varnon EnogingThe Wor Home:The Weother Underground,The Redkrny FoCion ond RevolutionoryViolence in *re Slxtles and Seventles U niv ers,ty

'

A Sociol relotionship _The Anorchist Cose

200t) p2!

(London:

-

'2 Kein interview inThe Germon Guerillo:Terror Recctlon, ond Reslstcnce,

cit, p.208

AgoinstTerrorism (Tucson;See Shorp Press I 998), p.20

th

On the issues suroundlng the Red Bngodes, see Donlei Gonser; NATOs

(London: Gronodo Publishtng I 97 8), p.l

Merkl,'West Germon Left-WingTerrorism', in M Genshow (ed) Terroism ln Context (Penn Stote Press, I 995) p. I 65

r:

(on the bomb) p,56 (on drugs) ond p,95 on

(London: Fronk Coss, 200 5)

t Cobler op cit p.l 43

'!

p.l3

weopans

'0 Sebosticn Cobler Low Order ond Polittcs in West Germony (London:

MeN. op

p.279

Secret Armies

)2 Peter

Archive (London:

I

3t

e

ofthe Eost

.

Homos, ond OtherTerrorists From Around theWorld AndThroughout the

Hons Josef Horchem,'Wes't Germony's Red Army Anorchists', in Conflict Studies,46, (une I 974) p.l 2

Story

I 99 9)

)5 Christopher Andrew ond Vosili Mitrokhin,The Mitrokhin

3b

8

-The Untold

Germon Secret Po/rce (Boulder:Westview,

Army Froction,The Concept of the Urban Guerrillo, inWolter Loqueur

Penguin, I 97 B). See for exomple p.34

I

op cit p,245

rr 5ee Chopter I

(ed) Voices of Terror - Monifestos,Writings ond Monuals of Al Qoeda,

)

Press,

for their country see Morkus Wolf with Anne McEvoy Mon Without A Foce -The Memoirs of o Spymoster (London: Jonothon Cope, I 997).

See Vogue op cit

1

Europeon Autonomous

Mony of these concerns ore summorised in Reunrted Germony The New Donger - A Seorchlight Speciol tn Assoclotion With Antifo lnfoblott

(Edinburgh:AK Press, | 994) p. I 0,

wos omongst the second group. The trip wos not o with the behoviour of the Germons, including the rother foppish Booder, irritoting thelr hosts to the extent thot they were osked to leove.

Red

-

(London: Seorchlight 1995). On the fee/ings of Eost Germon communlsts

success,

/

Politics

3aWrightop citp.l l3

the Personol Account of o West

s Andreos Booder

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Cermon Urbon Guerillo (oncouver,Arsenol Pulp Press,2000) p,43 a

m-orticl e 1uly. I 9 9

Movements ond the Decolonizotion of Everydoy Life (Ooklond:AK

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lt

I Red.Army.F roctro n I ontifo

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Astrid Proll, Booder Meinhof -'Praures on the Run 67-77 (London: Scolo, te98), p.7

e

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hxp:l lwvw.etextorglPolittcsl Autonome,ForumlGuerrillolEuropelRed.

Army.F rocti 2

I

MF rs Decd - But the Struggle for Liberotion ls Not/ (/une I 998) ot hxp:llwww.etext.orglPoliticslAutonome.Foruml

)6

Times change, and people change with them.

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Resistonce

vo

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ke no d ke. I o o p I o b -o rg I so n d e rvv eg-<.nhtm

I

"

WrighT op cri p. I 90- ! 9 i

'

K/ein interview in'The Gem'rcn Gueillo:Terror. Reoctron. ond Resistonce'

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l9Bl)p.56

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sl Pohl's 1996 tnterview ot lnterviewWtth Politicol Prisoner Helmut OnThe Politics of the

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5

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lGuernllo lEuropelRed.Army.Frocttonl

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Manifestos, Writings ond Manuols of

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Army Froctton,The Urbon Guerillo ls History:The Finol Communtque

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PaliticslAutanome.ForumlGuerrillolEuropelRed

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Ages (New York Reed Press,2004)

From the Red Army Froction (Dl,F) (March

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Terror

Homos, ond Other Terrorlsts From Around the Wold And Throughout the

Army.Frocttonlmorch.I

99 B.

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Dcnger A Seorchlight

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:l--11;':

:l

r"e Ubon Cuerrtllo, tnWolter Loqueur

26