Fwd: [COMMUNISM LIST]Armed Struggle in Western Europe

seyedjavad

From: "niall"

Reply-To: communism@lists.econ.utah.edu

To:

Subject: [COMMUNISM LIST]Armed Struggle in Western Europe

Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2001 09:10:22 +0100

Since the 1980s, the armed revolutionary struggle has almost

disappeared in Europe (except for the IRA and ETA). Action

Directe, GRAPO, the Red Brigades (BR), and the CCC all ended

their activities. Different groups stopped for different reasons. The CCC and AD, for example,

because they were military defeated. The BR because political

reorganization was made impossible by repression. The RAF because

they have politically degenerated and dissolved themselves.

Yet the PCE(r) and GRAPO are still active, and communist and

anti-imperialist guerrillas are very strong in Turkey and Greece, for example the DHKP-C.

But mainly, the revolutionary struggle never developed in a uniform and

linear way. It's a phenomenon of great complexity, subject to

conjunctural and local influences, etc. The end of the 60s and

the beginning of the 70s saw a big wave of struggle emerg in

Western Europe, although it started to collapse in the

mid-80's. But the next wave to

come (if one does) will be stronger, because of the rich heritage

of experiences and reflections from the previous wave.

The most important merit of the struggle of the RAF in the

70's, of the BR, the PCE(r) and GRAPO, and of the CCC, etc., is

the fact that the first steps have been made towards the

political orientation and the revolutionary strategy that are

presently needed in the Western European countries. Only by relying on

a critical and constructive balance of these 30 years of

struggle, and by valuing its decisive contribution, will it be

possible for the revolutionary movement to resume the offensive

for the overthrow of capitalism and the liquidation of the

bourgeoisie.

Is the armed struggle still an expression of the

revolutionary contradictions within the capitalist society?

The social and historical phenomena are dictated by the evolution of objective

circumstances, and in the last resort by the contradiction

between the development of the forces of production and the mode

of production. These contradictions dictate the necessity today

of the overthrow of capitalism and the arrival of socialism.

The central question is: How to bring about the step from

capitalism to socialism?

"Violence is the midwife of the entire old society that bears a

new society within. It is the means by which the social movement

will make it and by which it smashes fossilized and dead

political forms." (Engels)

A recent post on this list came to the view that the working class is not inherently

revolutionary. The working class, or sections of it, becomes revolutionary

as a result of the influence of the communist intelligentsia on it.

The practical question is: Which strategy has to be applied

for the struggle to accumulate the necessary forces to attain

revolution? The experience of the class-struggle in this century

and the characteristics of the situation answer: the continuous

revolutionary war, of which the first phase is armed propaganda.

Developing a strong united anti imperialist/communist front in the interior of imperialist states would surely create

enormous possibilities on the international scene as well.

Regards,

Niall Cullinane.