revolutionary action movement (ram) - Michael Schwartz Library

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There are four main urban guerrilla techniques that have been exast
few years, and largely explain the success`
plored over the
of a group like the Tupamaros . They are (I) Armed propaganda ;
(II) Political idnapping, (III) Stiffening riots and strikes ;
and (IV) Subver ion of the security forces . 43
Armed propaganda was used in both the United States and in Latin America,
while political kidnapping was a major tactic used by the Tupamaros . In
Latin Amerrica,
urban guerrillas were more open usually admitting they were
members o' f the revolutionary organization, while in the United States urban
guerrilla s
were more clandestine, seldom if ever admitting they were part
of the organization .
For instance, no person inside the United States was
ever reps rted through the press or news media of being a member of the
Revolutionary action Movement .
The only public figure of RAM was Robert
F . Willi4ms, its chairman in exile, who was living in Cuba and China . Nor
were any
of RAM's activities or actions publicized .
The
Tupamaros
kidnapped the Brazilian consul, Dias Gomide and CIA
n Mitrions, demanding in exchange a hundred detained guerrillas .
ayan government refused to concede and a 'state of siege' occuruguay
.
Guillen criticized the Tupamaros for having an over censtruture
and incorrect tactics .
Instead, he leaned to the
Revolu-
opular Organization
(OPR-13) which combined armed struggle
to
sup-
e the Tupamaros supported the Broad Front, OPR-13 used its
d units to win the strike at the Portland Cement Company,
e workers with anarcho-syndicalist tendencies demanded
er wages . . . . The Broad Front lost the elections, while
workers at Portland Cement won the strike . 44
oes on to describe how successful
urban guerrilla war must be
43 Rob~rt Moss, Urban Guerrilla Warfare (The International Institute
for Stra egic Studies : Long, 1971), p . 9 .
44Don ld C . Hodges, Philosophy of the Urban Guerrilla (New York :
William nd Morrow and Company, 1973), p . 273 .