Left-Extremist Endeavours

Action priorities:
"Prisoner issue"
and individuals - mainly activists coming from structures once
near to the "Rote Armee Fraktion" (RAF - "Red Army Faction"),
who see commitment to the cause of "political prisoners" and
support for the militant "liberation struggle" of the PKK as their
priorities for action.
The set-up that for years has been the most active in this area is
the initiative "¡Libertad!" which draws, inter alia, on the support of
members of the Frankfurt group "Kein Friede" ("No Peace"). As
"¡Libertad!" sees it, the "prisoner issue" is the starting point for
building an international network of revolutionary forces. To this
end, "¡Libertad!" co-initiated an international working conference
on "Pacification or liberation? Perspectives of international
solidarity" held in Berlin from 1 to 5 April. On this subject, a
member of the Conference organization committee wrote the
following:
"An international movement, yet to be developed, for the
liberty of political prisoners, against torture, disappearances,
and repression by the state will not exist in isolation from
social resistance processes. ... Specific action must be taken
to organize it; the capability for political action at the
international level must be developed."
("Angehörigen Info", no. 219 of 16 April 1999)
In the summer of 1999, the newspaper "So oder So" which
originally was intended merely to provide a forum for the
preparation and follow-up of the Conference, was transformed by
"¡Libertad!" into its own mouthpiece. The fourth issue of this
irregular publication appeared in June - for the first time with the
sub-heading "Newspaper of the "¡Libertad!" Campaign for International
Co-operation and Solidarity for the Liberty of Political
Prisoners Worldwide".
"Kurdistan Solidarity" Another action priority in the anti-imperialist spectrum is support
for the so-called liberation struggle of the "Kurdistan Workers’
Party" (PKK). After the arrest of the PKK general chairman, Abdullah
ÖCALAN, in mid-February and the death sentence passed
against him at the end of June by a Turkish State Security Court,
the efforts of German Kurdistan activists have been focussed on
his release. Thus, in late March, an Action Committee ’Liberty for
Abdullah Öcalan' was founded in Hamburg; as stated in a flier,
the aim of these activists is
"to support the Kurdish struggle for liberation by publicizing
German participation (shared responsibility, complicity) in the
war in Kurdistan, the banning of the PKK, repression and
deportations, and by demanding the release of Abdullah
Öcalan."
In local "Kurdistan Solidarity Groups" under the umbrella of "In-
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