Bruce Allen Scharlau PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

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hierachical RAF and its indoctrination attempts. The RAF reinforced the
differences between itself and other groups. For example, this occurred
between the congress participants and a group against Startbahn West
which wanted to organise an information meeting. 67
This position was reiterated in the RAF communique after their
failed attack on Neusel in July 1990, when they praised the selfdetermined
free-space of groups like those in the Hafenstrasse. Their
communique after Rohwedder's murder repeated this and also directed
itself towards the workers in former East Germany. Rohwedder's murder
was to be their contribution to the East's freedom from Westerm
imperialism at both strategic and tactical levels. 68
Unlike the RZ, which appear to have slowed down in the late
eighties, the Autonanen maintained a high level of acti vi ty , and
conducted most of the terrorist attacks in the country. This is possibly
because the other groups have provided an example to the Autonomen, who
see problems and directly respond without the ideological issues and
concerns of the RAF and the RZ.
4. Sl.1IIII\aIY
This chapter highlighted the source of left-wing terrorists
identifications. The original source was the left-wing search for viable
opposition to the conservative governments which had ruled since 1949,
and a desire for a change from the previous generation's linkage to the
National Socialist past. Internationally the desire to support and
assist Third World governments efforts towards independence, was their
reaction to perceived US guilt in its betrayal of democracy in Vietnam.
These larger social concerns formed a backdrop to immediate
situations mnongst the Left in the late sixties. These concerned how to
reach the public with their message of social criticism, and how to
respond to the death of one student and the attempted assassination of
another. Later a group response to a member's arrest resul ted in the
beginning of a major terrorist organisation. After the terrorist groups
formed in the seventies they sought different identifications according
to their needs and goals.
67 Horchem (1987 I), 14i n.n. "Zur Ausseinandersetzung ueber den
Schutz! Ueber die Schweriegkeit revolutionaere Politik zu machen und
nich in Konkreten Situationen ein taktisches Verhaeltnis zu entwickeln",
in: Jean Paul Marat (ed.), Widerstand Heisst Angriff! erklaerungen,
redebeitraege, flugblaetter und briefe 1977-1987 (Amsterdam: Bibliotheek
voor Ontspanning en Ontwikkling, 1988), 269-273.
68 Red Army Faction, "Documentation: RAF about the Attack on
Neusel", Clash: Newspaper for/of Resistance in Europe 1 (October 1990),
37-8, 38i Red Army Faction, Clash 3, 40-2.