By Joshua Sinai
Perspectives on Terrorism
This second volume provides a valuable historical overview and collection of manifestos and communiques by West Germany’s Red Army Faction (RAF) between 1977 and 1984, with many of them also translated into English for the first time. It also begins with a preface, a translators’ note, an acronym key, and an explanation of German terms. This volume consists of ten sections, with the first three providing the editors’ overview of the revolutionary left’s advocacy of international armed struggle against imperialism, including in what it considered to be “rear base areas” such as Lebanon and the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, and the struggle by the anti-nuclear movement, especially in Western Europe. In the other sections, the editors introduce each one with an overview that provides a context for its accompanying documents. The sections cover topics such as “The Guerilla, the Resistance, and the Anti-Imperialist Front (May 1982), a German guerrilla on the question of collective responsibility, and “Strategic Thoughts” (Brigitte Mohnhaupt, December 4, 1984). The appendices include documents such as “For Us It Was a Question of Learning Explosives and Shooting Techniques.” Like the first volume, it is also followed by a listing of individuals and their affiliations that are mentioned in the documents, a chronology of the armed struggle in West Germany, a bibliography, and an index.
