Communist terrorism

Communist terrorism (also revolutionary terrorism^{[citation needed]}) is terrorism committed by communist organizations or Communist states against state officials, police, military or civilians to achieve political or ideological objectives by creating fear.^[1][2][3] The term is also widely used by anti-communists to describe the political repression conducted by Communist governments against the civilian population such as the Red Terror and Great Terror in the Soviet Union.^[4]

History and ideology of Communist terrorism

Origin of Communist terrorism

German Social Democrat Karl Kautsky and other authors trace the origins of Communist terrorism to the "Reign of Terror" of the French Revolution.^[5][6]

Views of Marxism theoreticians and leaders

According to Marx, "There is only one way to shorten and ease the convulsions of the old society and the bloody birth pangs of the new - revolutionary terror."'^[7] Joseph Stalin wrote a nota bene "Terror is the quickest way to new society" beside this passage in a book by Marx^[7]. Marx also believed that "The present generation resembles the Jews whom Moses led through the wilderness. It must not only conquer a new world, it must also perish in order to make a room for the people who are fit for a new world."^[8]

Lenin, Lev Trotsky and other leading Bolshevik ideologists recognized mass terror as a necessary weapon during the dictatorship of proletariat and the resulting class struggle. In his book "Defence of Terrorism" Trotsky emphasized that "...the historical tenacity of the bougeoisie is colossal... We are forced to tear off this class and chop it away. The Red Terror is a weapon used against a class that, despite being doomed to destruction, does not want to perish." ^[9]. On the other hand, they opposed to individual terror, which has been used earlied by Russian "People's Will organization. According to Trotsky, "The damaging of machines by workers, for example, is terrorism in this strict sense of the word. The killing of an employer, a threat to set fire to a factory or a death threat to its owner, an assassination attempt, with revolver in hand, against a government minister—all these are terrorist acts in the full and authentic sense. However, anyone who has an idea of the true nature of international Social Democracy ought to know that it has always opposed this kind of terrorism and does so in the most irreconcilable way."^[10]

Many later Marxists, in particular Karl Kautsky, criticized Bolshevik leaders for terrorism tactics. He stated that "among the phenomena for which Bolshevism has been responsible, Terrorism, which begins with the abolition of every form of freedom of the Press, and ends in a system of wholesale execution, is certainly the most striking and the most repellent of all".^[11] Kautsky recognized that Red Terror represented a variety of terrorism because it was indiscriminate, intended to frighten the civilian population, and included taking and executing hostages.

Preparations for terrorism and sabotage operations against Western countries

Large-scale sabotage operations have allegedly been prepared by the KGB and GRU against the United States, Canada and Europe, according to the Mitrokhin Archive^[12], GRU defectors Victor Suvorov^[13] and Stanislav Lunev, and former SVR officer Kouzminov.^[14] Among the planned operations were the following:

• Large arms caches were allegedly hidden in many countries for the planned terrorism acts. They were booby-trapped with "Lightning" explosive devices. One of such cache, which was identified by Mitrokhin, exploded when Swiss authorities tried to remove it from woods near Berne. Several others caches (probably not equipped with the "Lightnings") were removed successfully.^[15]
• Preparations for nuclear sabotage. Some of the allegedly hidden caches could contain portable tactical nuclear weapons known as RA-115 "suitcase bombs" prepared to assassinate US leaders in the event of war, according to GRU defector Stanislav Lunev.^[16] Lunev states that he had personally looked for hiding places for weapons caches in the Shenandoah Valley area^[16] and that "it is surprisingly easy to smuggle nuclear weapons into the US" ether across the Mexican border or using a small transport missile that can slip undetected when launched from a Russian airplane.^[16]
• Extensive sabotage plans in London, Washington, Paris, Bonn, Rome, and other Western capitals have been reveled by KGB defector Oleg Lyalin in 1971, including plan to flood the London underground and deliver poison capsules to Whitehall. This disclosure triggered mass expulsion of Russian spies from London.^[17]
• FSLN leader Carlos Fonseca Amador was described as "a trusted agent" in KGB files. "Sandinista guerrillas formed the basis for a KGB sabotage and intelligence group established in 1966 on the Mexican US border".^[18]
• Disruption of the power supply in the entire New York State by KGB sabotage teams, which would be based along the Delaware river, in the Big Spring Park.^[19]
• An "immensely detailed" plan to destroy "oil refineries and oil and gas pipelines across Canada from British Columbia to Montreal" (operation "Cedar") has been prepared, which took twelve years to complete.^[20]
• A plan for sabotage of Hungry Horse Dam in Montana.^[19]
• A detailed plan to destroy the port of New York (target GRANIT); most vulnerable points of the port were marked at maps.^[19]

According to Lunev, a probable scenario in the event of war would be poisoning of Potomac River with chemical or biological weapons, "targeting the residents of Washington DC"^[16] He also noted that it is "likely" that GRU operatives have placed already "poison supplies near the tributaries to major US reservoirs."^[21] That was confirmed by Alexander Kouzminov who was responsible for transporting dangerous pathogens from around the world for Russian program of biological weapons in the 1980s and the beginning of 1990s. He described a variety of biological terrorism acts that would be carried out on the order of Russian President in the event of hostilities, including poisoning public drinking-water supplies and food processing plants.^[22]

US Congressman Curt Weldon supported claims by Lunev but noted that Lunev had "exaggerated things" according to the FBI.^[23] Searches of the areas identified by Lunev - who admits he never planted any weapons in the US - have been conducted, "but law-enforcement officials have never found such weapons caches, with or without portable nuclear weapons."^[24]

Shining Path

The Communist Party of Peru more commonly known as the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso), is a Maoist guerrilla organization in Peru that launched the internal conflict in Peru in 1980. Widely condemned for its brutality, including violence deployed against peasants, trade union organizers, popularly elected officials and the general civilian population^[25], Shining Path is on the U.S. Department of State's "Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations" list.^[26] Peru, the European Union^[27], and Canada^[28] likewise regard Shining Path as a terrorist group and prohibit providing funding or other financial support.

FARC

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) is a Marxist-Leninist organization in Colombia which has employed vehicle bombings, gas cylinder bombs, killings, landmines, kidnapping, extortion, hijacking, as well as guerrilla and conventional military. The United States Department of State includes the FARC-EP on its list of foreign terrorist organizations, as does the European Union. It funds itself primarily through extortion, kidnapping and their participation in the illegal drug trade.^[29][30] Many of their fronts have also overrun and massacred small communities in order to silence and intimidate those who do not support their activities, enlist new and underage recruits by force, distribute propaganda and, more importantly, to pillage local banks. Businesses operating in rural areas, including agricultural, oil, and mining interests, were required to pay "vaccines" (monthly payments) which "protected" them from subsequent attacks and kidnappings. An additional, albeit less lucrative, source of revenue was highway blockades where guerrillas stopped motorists and buses in order to confiscate jewelry and money. An estimated 20-30 percent of FARC combatants are under 18 years old, with many as young as 12 years old, for a total of around 5000 children.^[31]), Children who try to escape the ranks of the guerrillas are punished with torture and death.^[31][32]

Communist Party of the Philippines

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The Communist Party of the Philippines and it's armed wing, the New People's Army (CPP/NPA) is a paramilitary group fighting for communist revolution in the Philippines. It was formed on March 29, 1969. The Maoist NPA fights a "protracted people's war" as the military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). The NPA is classified as a terrorist organization by the Philippine Government, the US, EU and other countries. The NPA's targets often include politicians, military, police, criminals, landlords, business owners and occasionally U.S. agents in the Philippines. In its Second Rectification Movement, the group conducted a purge killing thousands of partisans and members on accusations of being deep penetration agent by the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine intelligence community. Former NPA fighter Robert Francis Garcia chronicled the wild murders in his book To Suffer Thy Comrades and organized the Peace Advocates for Truth, Healing and Justice (PATH), a group composed of survivors of the "purges" and the families of victims and their friends and supporters.

November 17

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Revolutionary Organization 17 November(also known as 17N or N17) is Marxist terrorist organization formed in 1973 in Greece and believed by many to be have been disbanded in 2002 after the arrest and trial of a number of its members. During its heyday, the urban guerrilla group assassinated 23 people in 103 attacks on U.S., diplomatic and Greek targets. Greek authorities believe spin-off terror groups are still in operation, including Revolutionary Struggle, the group that allegedly fired a rocket propelled grenade at the U.S. Embassy in Athens in January 2007.

Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front

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The Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front, is a militant Marxist-Leninist party in Turkey. It is in the terrorist organization lists in the U.S., the UK and the EU.

ETA

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ETA is technically a Marxist-Leninist paramilitary Basque nationalist organization, although it's more a secessionist than a Communist group. ETA has committed more than 825 killings since 1968 (an average of some 20 per year) and dozens of kidnappings. More than 750 ETA militants (known as etarras) are held in prison in Spain and France.

Revolutionary Nuclei

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Revolutionary Nuclei is a Marxist-Leninist group in Greece, formed in 1995. The group is on the U.S.Department of State's list of designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations and appears on the list of terror organisations of the European Union.

May 19th Communist Movement

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The May 19 Communist Organization, also referred to as the May 19 Communist Coalition, was a US-based, self-described revolutionary organization formed by splintered-off members of the Weather Underground. The group was originally known as the New York chapter of the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee (PFOC), an organization devoted to legally promoting the causes of the Weather Underground. Its name was derived from the birthdays of Ho Chi Minh and Malcolm X. The May 19 Communist Organization was active from 1978 to 1985.

In 1981 Kathy Boudin, together with several members of the Black Liberation Army, participated in a robbery of a Brinks armored car at the Nanuet Mall, near Nyack, New York. Upon her arrest, Boudin was identified as a member of the May 19 Communist Organization. From 1982 to 1985, a series of bombings were ascribed to the group.

By May 23, 1985, all members of the group had been arrested, with the exception of Elizabeth Duke, who remains a fugitive. At a 1986 trial, six group members were tried and convicted of multiple counts of domestic terrorism.

Red Army Faction (RAF)

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The Red Army Faction, was one of postwar West Germany's most active and prominent militant left-wing groups. It described itself as a communist "urban guerrilla" group engaged in armed resistance, while it was described by the West German government as a terrorist group. The RAF was formally founded in 1970 by Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, Horst Mahler, Ulrike Meinhof, Irmgard Möller and others.

The Red Army Faction operated from the 1970s to 1998, committing numerous crimes, especially in the autumn of 1977, which led to a national crisis that became known as "German Autumn". It was responsible for 34 deaths, including many secondary targets such as chauffeurs and bodyguards, and many injuries in its almost 30 years of existence.

Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist

The Communist Party of Nepal has been responsible for hundreds of attacks on government and civilian targets. After the UPF's Maoist wing (CPN-M) performed poorly in elections and was excluded from the election of 1994. The Maoists then turned to insurgency in order to overthrow Nepal's monarchy, parliamentary democracy and change Nepalese society, including a purge of the nation's elite class, a state takeover of private industry, and collectivization of agriculture.^[33][34]

In Nepal attacks against civilian populations occurred as part of Maoist strategy - Amnesty International states:

The CPN (Maoist) has consistently targeted private schools, which it ideologically opposes. On the 14 April 2005 the CPN (Maoist) demanded that all private schools shut down, although this demand was withdrawn on 28 April. Following this demand, it bombed two schools in western Nepal on 15 April, a school in Nepalganj, Banke district on 17 April and a school in Kalyanpur, Chitwan on 21 April. CPN (Maoist) cadres also reportedly threw a bomb at students taking classes in a school in Khara, Rukum district.^[35]

Until recently, the Maoist insurgency had been fighting against the Royal Nepalese Army and other supporters of the monarchy. They have since risen to power and began implementing reforms as the legitimate government of Nepal.

Malayan Races Liberation Army

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The Malayan Races Liberation Army (MRLA) was the name given by British security forces to a combatant in the Malayan Emergency, an insurrection and guerrilla war against the British and Malayan administration from 1948-1960 in what is now Malaysia.

MRLA is actually a mistranslation from Chinese, which the organization's leader Chin Peng has corrected to Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA). It was a guerrilla force created by the Malayan Communist Party and, to some extent, led and dominated by overseas Chinese communists.

The MNLA was a successor of the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army, another guerrilla force which the British had secretly trained and equipped with arms during World War II in the fight against the Japanese Occupation. The Communist Party, which had been banned in the pre-war years, was thereafter granted legal recognition by the British after the war as a reward for its wartime effort, but had secretly kept some of the MPAJA's weapons for future use.

The MCP used violence to support its union organisation, and the British used restrictions, including banishing key communist leaders not born locally, to restrict the MCP. This mutual antagonism climaxed with MCP plans for revolt in 1948, which the British pre-empted by declaring a state of emergency in June 1948.

Defeated in the first Malayan emergency (1948-1960) in the Malayan jungles, and outwitted in Singapore politics by nationalist politician Lee Kuan Yew, by the mid-1960s it was fragmented. a small group of insurgents continued to operate from the Malaysian-Thailand border, until they signed a peace agreement with the Thai and Malaysian Governments in December 1989.

This allowed some of the remaining MCP members to settle in 'Peace Villages' in southern Thailand, others to return to Malaysia. No agreement was signed with Singapore, and Secretary-General Chin Peng (in office 1947 to present) has subsequently been denied the right to return to Malaysia.

Communist Party of India (Maoist) and Naxalites

The Naxalite extremist Communist terror groups in India have effectively taken over large parts of the rural regions of the country in recent years. Advocating a violent, revolutionary Maoist ideology, they and their associates in the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and People's War are regarded as India's biggest and most pernicious security threat.^[36] Naxalite Communists have engaged in numerous terrorist attacks and human rights violations in India's "Red Corridor" (the regions in India that they have taken over)^[37][38].

A Frontline Cover Story calls the Bhamragad Taluka where the Madia Gond Adivasis live, the heart of the naxalite-affected region in Maharashtra.^[39]

Other examples of left-wing terrorist groups

• Brigate Rosse (Red Brigades).
• National Liberation Army (Colombia)
• Red Army Faction, also known as Baader-Meinhof Gang
• Shining Path
• Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
• Revolutionary Organization 17 November
• Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front
• Abu Nidal Organization, also known as Fatah Revolutionary Council
• Animal Liberation Front
• Black September
• Earth Liberation Front
• Irish Republican Army
• Palestine Liberation Front
• Weather Underground
• Sandinista National Liberation Front (prior to seizing power)
• Viet Cong
• Red Terror (Spain)

See also

• Active measures
• Poison laboratory of the Soviet secret services
• List of designated terrorist organizations
• State atheism
• Communist genocide

Further reading

• Deletant, Dennis (1999) Communist Terror in Romania, C. Hurst & Co, ISBN 1850653860
• Adelman, Jonathan (1984) Terror and Communist Politics: The Role of the Secret Police in Communist States, Westview Press, ISBN 0865312931
• Evgeni Genchev (2003) Tales from the Dark: Testimonies about the Communist Terror, ACET 2003, ISBN 9549320014

References

8. Pipes allegedly quotes Marx - where then is the reference to Marx's own writing? There is none - which is suspicious, is it not?

External links

• List of Communist and Socialist terrorist organizations by MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base.