Red Army Faction

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Your views on this West German group?

Did it pursue the correct tactics? Would you have supported it and indeed become involved in its resistance?

Do you believe it was successful, and in what ways did it succeed/fail?

I was doing a bit of research on it last night, and also watched a film on the topic - The Baader Meinhof Complex. More for entertainment than education, but was still an enlightening experience.

[ComradeMan]

Did it pursue the correct tactics? Would you have supported it and indeed become involved in its resistance?

No, at best they were misdirected. I suspect it was more a giant ego-trip for some of the members.


Do you believe it was successful, and in what ways did it succeed/fail?

No, in fact they did more to damage the reputation of the Revolutionary Left in Europe than many other things. Them and the Brigati Rossi.

I also doubt the absolute sincerity of their motives ever since Horst Mahler "suddenly" turned far right and started denying the Holocaust etc etc.

They did not bring about any revolution at all and apart from a violent "teenage" rebellion element in their pyschology I don't think they had much to offer or say. It has been said too that their success in the 1970's was largely due to the German sence of guilt lingering on from events of the Second World War more than the actual ideology of the faktion.

[Spawn of Stalin]

The problem with RAF was that they were formed mainly out of frustration at a lack of revolutionary activity in West Berlin, the conditions weren't right for them to succeed so ultimately they fell flat on their faces. A real shame actually.

[ComradeMan]

The problem with RAF was that they were formed mainly out of frustration at a lack of revolutionary activity in West Berlin, the conditions weren't right for them to succeed so ultimately they fell flat on their faces. A real shame actually.

Do you mean a real shame for the left/revolutionaries/RAF or one and the same?

[Spawn of Stalin]

A shame for everyone really, they might have been able to achieve something if they had actually put their minds to it.

[ComradeMan]

But they didn't.... and I don't think they ever would have been able to.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Hmm, they have been said to have had 'anarchist' elements. However, I would say this does a disservice to the anarchist tradition, in all honesty. 'Archaic' may be a more apt description of the RAF.

IMO, they were a well meaning resistance movement that went down the completely wrong path. They had the relative sympathy from a moderate minority of the West German population, however they had no real political platform. Really, they would have had most success as a guerrilla front organisation for a political movement. A means to an ends. For them, it seemed the violence was an ends. They were not in the same stratosphere as the working people of West Germany, and did not have a realistic hope of achieving their aims.

However, I do believe that in the main, they were a well meaning little sect. Just hopelessly misguided and without a real understanding of revolutionary theory.

[RotStern]

The RAF were a bunch of brutal terrorists.
There idea was to expose to the West German public the fascism hidden im their government.
They had no clue what to do after that point.
Really they were simple terrorists.

[Tablo]

I like the effort the RAF put in and the passion they had, but it was an utter failure. I don't understand why they thought they could accomplish anything with such a small base of support..

[Che a chara]

I too admire their effort and stance on anti-capitalism. There's no doubt the actions of the RAF awakened a new generation of people opposed to oppression. Surely that is a good thing ?

Of course I can't condone all of their operations, but many can be seen as legitimate and got rid of some of the cockroaches and opened many eyes.

[RedFruit]

The only reason the RAF was called 'anarchist' is the fact that brutality in general was connected to anarchism by the right-wing media.

You can't start a revolution without the people. That's a fact the RAF failed to understand.

[blake 3:17]

Flashy style, lousy politics.

There's terrific book by Jeremy Varon called Bringing the War Home on the Weather Underground and the RAF. It actually made quite a bit more sympathetic to the Weather Underground, but was pretty appalled by the RAF.