Bruce Allen Scharlau PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

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using unbelievable amounts of energy to separate the group from the
masses. That the public was not waiting to join the group was only a
sign that the concept of the armed struggle would arise in the
collective class struggle when people were not demoralised but acted. 45
Partly this is due to the "trail of the politics of the RAF" f
whereby
many people change their position towards the state because of state
measures against the group. Now people began to realise the state was an
imperialist repression machine against the people. 46
The 'identification machines' of the media were enacted by the
second phase of left-wing West German terrorism after the Red Army
Faction founders were arrested and imprisoned. Through the help of their
lawyers imprisoned RAF members were able to portray themselves as
isolated and held in poor conditions in order to gain the support and
sympathy of further young and idealistic people. By 'terrorizing'
themselves through hunger strikes the terrorists could use public
reaction for recruitment. 47
The RAF founders took this even further on 18 October 1977 when they
used 'pseudo-terrorism', with themselves as victims, to imply that the
government was guilty of murder when they committed suicide after
hearing about the Mogadishu rescue. The result was that many believed
the state to be guilty, and the press was filled with speculation about
their deaths. 48
RAF group activities were less identifiable for the public. While
the bombings of 1972 may have been clearly interpreted by the public,
the murders of 1977 were less so. The murders in the eighties were even
more difficult to explain and justify to the RAF's far left audience as
confirmed by the discussion that arose after the murder of Pimental in
1985 f as mentioned in chapter two, and their search for new allies in
their development of a West European anti-imperialist front between them
and other groupS.49
None of these measures by the group brought greater public
identification with them. Their activities have been less understood by
the public as only those who developed a personal connection to the
group were recruited, as discussed in chapter five. They do not appear
to recruit others without this direct contact to either a member or
45 Red Army Faction, !IDem Volk dienen: Stadtguerilla und
Klassenkampf ll (1983) f 401-2.
46 Original emphasis, Red Army Faction, "'Wir werden in den
Durststreik treten'" Der Spiegel 4 (20 January) 1975,52-7,55.
47 Hozic, 47.
48 ibid., 49-50.
49 Red Army Faction, "Guerilla I Widerstand und Antiimperialistische
Front" (1983), 608.