Europe's Red Terrorists

The Fighting Communist Organizations

Yonah Alexander,Dennis A. Pluchinsky

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781136294204
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Storia
• Subtopic: Storia militare e marittima

This unique volume explores Europe's most dangerous communist terrorist organizations and reveals how they use violence as a means of political communication and persuasion. It outlines seven terrorist groups from Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Belgium, Italy and Turkey and gives their modus operandi, rationale and political messages in translated communiqués never before available in English.

1

Contemporary Terrorism: An Overview YONAH ALEXANDER

Terrorism – the calculated unlawful utilization of physical force and psychological intimidation by sub-state or clandestine state agents directed against innocent targets, primarily intended to achieve social, economic, political, strategic, or other objectives – is not new in the history of humanity. The concept itself was integrated into the political lexicon during the past two centuries. For instance, Webster’s International Dictionary, published in 1900, defines ‘terrorism’ as ‘the act of terrorizing, or state of being terrorized: a mode of government by terror or intimidation’. Two other related terms are included in the Dictionary: ‘terrorist’ and ‘terrorize’. The former is defined as ‘one who governs by terrorism or intimidation; specifically an agent or partisan of the revolutionary tribunal during the Reign of Terror in France’, and the latter as ‘to impress with terror; to coerce by intimidation. Humiliated by the tyranny of foreign despotism, and terrorized by ecclesiastical authority’.¹

Tragically, the failure of the international community fully to recognize terrorism as criminal behavior and as low-intensity warfare has encouraged the expansion of terrorist activity in the last two decades. There are thousands of terrorist groups that have caused great damage, and many have frequently been exploited by state sponsors in the process. Terrorist operations have been cheap to activate and expensive to counter.²

This chapter describes terrorist actors and shows how they use violent means as a form of political communication and persuasion. It then presents a portrait of the terrorist network, and an analysis of terrorist modus operandi and targets.

The Actors

Although they are nourished by various political and social roots and sustained by wide-ranging ideologies, terrorist groups have, nevertheless, a common disposition: contempt and hostility toward the moral and legal norms of the domestic and international order and glorification of violent deeds for the sake of the causes they seek to advance. Terrorists regard themselves as beyond the limits of any society and system of government and, consequently, not bound by any obligations and constraints, except those they have imposed on themselves for purposes of sub-revolutionary and revolutionary success.

More specifically, these indigenous sub-national groups, mostly acting independently and sometimes as proxies of foreign governments, have proliferated throughout the world. Seeking to achieve ideological, nationalist, or other goals (such as single-issue political objectives as exemplified by animal-rights extremists), these groups have varying objectives.³

In the United States, some of the groups that have been involved in terrorist activities or have supported a policy of violence over the past two decades include the African Peoples Socialist Party (APSP); American Indian Movement (AIM); Animal Liberation Front (ALF); Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN); Aryan Nations; Black Liberation Army (BLA); Boricuan People’s Army (Macheteros, EPB); El Rukns; Jewish Defense League (JDL); Ku Klux Klan; May 19 Communist Organization (M19CO); National Black United Front (NBUF); New African Fighters League; Neo-Nazi Groups; New World Liberation Front (NWLF); The Order; Posse Comitatus; United Freedom Front; and the Weather Underground.⁴

These US terrorist groups represent a great variety of ideologies and political and social goals. For example, among the more active groups is the Aryan Nations, which is probably the most violent right-wing group in the United States. It provides an umbrella framework to maintain ties between affiliate groups, such as the Christian Identity Movement, The Order, the Covenant and the Sword, the Arm of the Lord, and the Ku Klux Klan. It is committed to white supremacy, including the elimination of Jews and all other minorities.

In Europe, a multitude of ideological and nationalist groups exist. They include, inter alia, the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA); Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA); Fighting Communist Cells (CCC); Corsican National Liberation Front (FLNC); Direct Action (DA); First of October Anti-Fascists Resistance Group (GRAPO); Iraultza; Irish National Liberation Army (INLA); Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide (JCAG); Popular Forces 25 April (FP-25); Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA); Red Army Faction (RAF); Red Army for the Liberation of Catalonia (ERCA); Red Brigades (BR); Revolutionary Cells (RZ); Revolutionary Organization 17 November (17 November); and Terra Lliure (TL).⁵

Some of these groups are currently dormant. A case in point is AS ALA, an ethnic Marxist-Leninist group (also known as Revolutionary Movement) formed in 1975. Its objectives are to pressure Turkey to admit responsibility for what it regards as the ‘genocide’ of the Armenians during the First World War and to pay reparations for its ‘crime’; to unite ‘historic Armenia’ in Eastern Turkey and Northern Iran with Soviet Armenia; and to put an end to ‘imperialism’ and ‘Zionism’. Operating in Europe, the Middle East, the United States, and elsewhere, AS ALA was led by Hagop Hagopian until he was assassinated in April 1988. It is expected, however, that ASALA will re-emerge again under new leadership.⁶

Among the major active European groups is the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA), also known as the Provos, an offshoot of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). PIRA was formed in 1969 to force Great Britain to evacuate Ulster and then to unify Ireland under a Marxist government. Acting as a clandestine armed wing of the Sinn Fein (the legal political arm of the IRA), PIRA operates not only in Northern Ireland, the Irish Republic, and Great Britain, but also in Western Europe.⁷

In the Middle East, the list of terrorist groups includes the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO); Al-Daawa; Arab Organization of 15 May; Atonement and Flight (Takfir wal Hijra); Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP); Fatah; Forghan; Grey Wolves; Hizballah (Islamic Jihad); Kurdish Worker’s Party (PKK); Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Faction (LARF); Organization of the Armed Arab Struggle (OAAS); Palestine Liberation Front (PLF); Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO); Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ); Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP); Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command; Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-Special Command (PFLP-SC); Popular Struggle Front (PSF); and Sai’qa.⁸

Three Middle East groups deserve to be singled out. First is the PLO. Founded in 1964 by Palestinian nationalists seeking to establish an independent Palestinian state in present-day Israel, the PLO serves as an umbrella organization for several constituent groups headed by Yasser Arafat. It consists of Fatah, PFLP, PLF, to mention a few. Despite Arafat’s renunciation of terrorism and his recognition of Israel, the PLO has not relinquished the ‘armed struggle’ strategy and the Palestine charter which calls for the elimination of the Jewish state. The PLO is headquartered in Tunis and operates from other bases in the Middle East and around the world.⁹

The second group is the ANO, a Palestinian movement outside the framework of the PLO. Formed by Sabri al-Banna in 1974, the ANO is also known by other names such as Fatah Revolutionary Council, Arab Revolutionary Council, Arab Revolutionary Brigades, Black September, and Revolutionary Organization of Socialist Muslims. It aims to undermine the diplomatic moves now developing for negotiating a peaceful settlement of the Arab–Israel conflict and to eradicate the ‘Zionist presence’ from the Middle East map. Currently based in Iraq where it was headquartered also in 1974–83, the ANO was also located in Syria (1983–87) and Libya (1988–90). Although it has recently undergone internal friction when 100 members rejoined the PLO mainstream Palestinian Movement, the ANO is still considered as the most dangerous group in the world operating in the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Latin America.¹⁰

The third Middle Eastern group, equally as dangerous as the ANO, is Hizballah, also known by other names including the Party of God, Islamic Jihad, Revolutionary Justice Organization, Organization of the Oppressed on Earth, and Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine. A radical Lebanese Shia group, it was formed in 1983 to realize the establishment of an Iranian-style Shiite Islamic Republic in Lebanon and to bring about the elimination of non-Islamic presence and influences from the Middle East. Closely tied to Iran, Hizballah operates from several bases, such as the Bekka Valley, Beirut, Southern Lebanon, Western Europe, and Africa.¹¹

The Latin American list of terrorist groups consists of Alfaro Lives, Damn It (AVC); Bandera Roja (Red Flag-GBR); Cinchoneros Popular Liberation Movement (MPL); Clara Elizabeth Ramirez Front (CERF); Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN); Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG); Lorenzo Zelaya Popular Revolutionary Forces (FBR-LZ); Lautaro Youth Movement (MJL); 19th of April Movement (M-19); Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front (FPMR); Morazanist Patriotic Front (FPM); Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR); National Liberation Army (ELN); Nestor Paz Zamora Commission (CNPZ); Popular Liberation Army (EPL); Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC); Ricardo Franco Front (RFF); Sendero Luminoso (SL); Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) and Tupamaros.¹²

Among the most dangerous of the above groups is Sendero Luminoso (SL) located in Peru. Formed as a Marxist ‘Shining Path to the Future’ in the late 1960s by Professor Abimael Guzman Reynoso, it initially became an Indian-based rural rebel movement. Its aim is to eliminate the current governmental structure and replace it with a peasant revolutionary regime. Since 1986 SL has also resorted to urban terrorism, particularly in Lima.¹³

Special mention should also be made of Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN). Unlike all other Latin American terrorist groups, FMLN, operating in El Salvador and in Honduras, serves as an umbrella organization for several entities. Formed in 1980 for the purpose of replacing the democratically elected regime of El Salvador with a Marxist government, FMLN consists of five left-wing oriented groups: Central American Workers’ Revolutionary Party (PRTC), People’s Revolutionary Army (ERP), Farabundo Marti Popular Liberation Forces (FPL), Armed Forces of National Resistance (FARN), and the Communist Party of El Salvador Armed Forces of Liberation (FAL).¹⁴

Among the Asian and African terrorist movements operating during the past two decades, those noted should include the African National Congress (ANC); Black Cats; Bodo; Chukaku-Ha (Nucleus or Middle-Core Faction); Dal Khalsa; Dashmesh Regiment; Gurkha National Liberation Front (GNLF); Islamic Action Organization; Japanese Red Army (JRA); Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE); Mozambique National Resistance (RENAMO); New People’s Army (NPA); Shanti Bahini; and Z-Squads.¹⁵

A classic example of an active group is the New People’s Army (NPA). Established in 1969 as the guerrilla arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines, NPA organized an urban infrastructure for the purpose of replacing the Manila regime with a Maoist government. Similarly, the Mozambique National Resistance (RENAMO) in existence since 1976 also operates guerrilla insurgency as well as terrorist missions for the purpose of overthrowing the current regime in Mozambique. Supported by South Africa, RENAMO is active in the country and the border areas of Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia.¹⁶

Finally, three other aspects about the sub-national perpetrators are noteworthy. First, some of the existing groups constitute bodies which provide a continuity to earlier bodies which had since completely disappeared. A case in point is the Red Army Faction (RAF). This Marxist-Leninist group is the successor to the Baader–Meinhof Gang which existed in Germany in the 1960s. One of the most dangerous terrorist groups in Europe, the RAF has been operating not only in Germany, but al...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1 Contemporary Terrorism: An Overview
• 2 The Fighting Communist Organizations
• 3 Red Army Faction
• 4 Revolutionary Organization 17 November
• 5 First of October Anti-Fascist Resistance Groups
• 6 Direct Action
• 7 Fighting Communist Cells
• 8 Red Brigades
• 9 Revolutionary Left
• Selected Bibliography