Red Army Faction

[Comrade Walter]

Was RAF a Maoist or a pro-Soviet communist organisation at the time of Sino-Soviet split?

And was it funded by the Soviet government?

[Lensky]

I believe the RAF received very little support from the USSR or the DDR except for the housing of their members that no longer wanted to participate with the group. They did receive support from Palestinian liberation groups, but their main support base was West Germans, for the RAF the gain of a single militant member was a greater victory than the support of a thousand activists / leftists who were not willing to wage active warfare against the state.

This documentary / talk should assist you greatly. http://www.megafileupload.com/en/file/518356/What-ever-happened-to-the-Red-Army-Faction-mp3.html

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

I was under the impression that they got funding from the DDR (although the level of this cannot have been too high, given their penchant for bank robberies).

[Prometeo liberado]

They obtained funding directly from the DDR. From the writings of Ulrike Meinhoff were more about defensive strikes at the remnants of Nazi Germany and the staging ground for american imperialism.
They did get training from the PLO as well.

P.s. The proper translation would be "Fraction" not "Faction" as they considered themselves to be but a fraction of the working class.

[tachosomoza]

I'm quite sure that they weren't considered important or potentially successful enough to warrant a large amount of Soviet material support. East Germany and the PLO on the other hand supported them, probably as a matter of principle and solidarity.

[Prometeo liberado]

As for whether they were Maoist all I can say is that Ulrike was a member of the German Communist Party, not really a hotbed of Maoism.

[Brutus]

As for whether they were Maoist all I can say is that Ulrike was a member of the German Communist Party, not really a hotbed of Maoism.

They were certainly influenced by Mao, but so is our dear TAT, yet it doesn't make them Maoist.

[Geiseric]

They were closer to guevara esque foco theory than anything. Maoism is just Stalinism and they didn't actually do anything to really make them either. They didn't betray the world working class so they can't really qualify as Stalinists nor Maoist.

[SensibleLuxemburgist]

According to Wikipedia, the Red Army Faction was influenced by Maoist-Guevarist focoist theories and of course, Marxism, given their European orientation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army_Faction#Formation_of_the_RAF