Communist terrorism

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Communist terrorism (or Communist terror) is terrorism committed by Communist organizations or Communist states against civilians to achieve political or ideological objectives by creating fear.^[1][2][3] After Islamic groups, Communist groups comprise the largest number of organizations on the U.S. State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.^{[citation needed]} The term is also widely used 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][5] Some scholars also treat man-made famines due to collectivization as a form of terror.^[6][5]

Leon Trotsky, a major theoretician of Communism, has stated, "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."^[7]

Contents 1 History and ideology of Communist terrorism 1.1 Origin of Communist terrorism 1.2 Terror campaigns within the Soviet Union 1.3 Promotion of terrorist organizations by Communist states 1.4 Preparations for terrorism and sabotage operations against Western countries 2 State terrorism and its death toll 3 Shining Path 4 FARC 5 Communist Party of the Philippines 6 November 17 7 Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front 8 ETA 9 Revolutionary Nuclei 10 May 19th Communist Movement 11 Red Army Faction (RAF) 12 Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist 13 Naxalites (India) 14 Further reading 15 References 16 External links

[edit] History and ideology of Communist terrorism

[edit] 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.^[4][8] Others emphasize the role of Russian revolutionary movements of the 19th century, and especially Narodnaya Volya ("People's Will") and the Nihilist movement, which included several thousand followers. "People's Will" organized one of the first political terrorism campaign in history.^[9] In March 1881, it assassinated the Emperor of Russia Alexander II, who twenty years earlier had emancipated the Russian serfs.^[10]

Important ideologists of these groups were Mikhail Bakunin and Sergey Nechayev, who was described in Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel "The possessed".^[10]. Nechaev argued that the purpose of revolutionary terror in not to gain a support of masses, but to the contrary, inflict misery and fear on the common population. He said:

A revolutionary "must infiltrate all social formations including the police. He must exploit rich and influential people, subordinating them to himself. He must aggravate the miseries of the common people, so as to exhaust their patience and incite them to rebel. And, finally, he must ally himself with the savage word of the violent criminal, the only true revolutionary in Russia".^[10] "The Revolutionist is a doomed man. He has no private interests, no affairs, sentiments, ties, property nor even a name of his own. His entire being is devoured by one purpose, one thought, one passion - the revolution. Heart and soul, not merely by word but by deed, he has severed every link with the social order and with the entire civilized world; with the laws, good manners, conventions, and morality of that world. He is its merciless enemy and continues to inhabit it with only one purpose - to destroy it."

Other authors emphasize importance of Marxist ideology. 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" ^[10] Historian Edvard Radzinsky noted that Joseph Stalin wrote a nota bene "Terror is the quickest way to new society" beside this passage in a book by Marx^[10] Historian Richard Pipes said that despotism and violence were the intrinsic properties of every Communist regime in the world ^[9] He also argued that Communist terror follows from Marxism teaching that considers human lives as expendable material for construction of the brighter future society. He cited Marx who once wrote 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" ^[9]

[edit] Terror campaigns within the Soviet Union

After the October Revolution Bolsheviks began the campaign of Red Terror. According to Marxist Karl Kautsky, "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. People were executed simply for who they were, not for their deeds. Martin Latsis, chief of the Ukrainian Cheka explained in newspaper "Red Terror":

"Do not look in the file of incriminating evidence to see whether or not the accused rose up against the Soviets with arms or words. Ask him instead to which class he belongs, what is his background, his education, his profession. These are the questions that will determine the fate of the accused. That is the meaning and essence of the Red Terror" ^[12]

The term "terror" was a normal working term, since the dictatorship of the proletariat was supposed to suppress the resistance of other social classes which Marxism considered antagonistic to the class of proletariat. The entire "ruling classes" have been exterminated, including "rich people", and a significant part of intelligentsia and peasantry labeled as kulaks. The numerous victims of extrajudicial punishment were called the enemies of the people. The punishment by the state included summary executions, torture, sending innocent people to Gulag, involunatry settlement, and stripping of citizen's rights. Usually, all members of a family, including children, were punished simultaneously as "traitor of Motherland family members". The repressions have been conducted by Cheka, OGPU and NKVD in several consecutive waves known as Red Terror, Collectivisation, Great Purge, Doctor's Plot, and others.

[edit] Promotion of terrorist organizations by Communist states

The neutrality and factual accuracy of this section are disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. (March 2008)

Later on, Soviet secret services worked to establish a network of terrorist front organizations and have been described as the primary promoters of terrorism worldwide.^{[13] [14][15]} According to Ion Mihai Pacepa, General Aleksandr Sakharovsky from the First Chief Directorate of the KGB once said: "In today’s world, when nuclear arms have made military force obsolete, terrorism should become our main weapon."^[16] He also claimed that "Airplane hijacking is my own invention". In 1969 alone, 82 planes were hijacked worldwide by the KGB-financed Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).^[16] George Habash, who worked under the KGB's guidance,^[17] explained: "Killing one Jew far away from the field of battle is more effective than killing a hundred Jews on the field of battle, because it attracts more attention."^[16]

Lt. General Ion Mihai Pacepa described the operation "SIG" (“Zionist Governments”) that was devised in 1972, to turn the whole Islamic world against Israel and the United States. KGB chairman Yury Andropov allegedly explained to Pacepa that "a billion adversaries could inflict far greater damage on America than could a few millions. We needed to instill a Nazi-style hatred for the Jews throughout the Islamic world, and to turn this weapon of the emotions into a terrorist bloodbath against Israel and its main supporter, the United States."

The following organizations have been allegedly established with assistance from Eastern Bloc security services: the PLO, the National Liberation Army of Bolivia (created in 1964 with help from Ernesto Che Guevara); the National Liberation Army of Colombia (created in 1965 with help from Cuba), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) in 1969, and the Secret Army for Liberation of Armenia in 1975.^{[18] [19]}

The leader of the PLO, Yasser Arafat, established close collaboration with the Romanian Securitate service and the Soviet KGB in the beginning of the 1970s.^[20] The secret training of PLO guerrillas was provided by the KGB.^[21] However, the main KGB activities and arms shipments were channeled through Wadie Haddad of the DFLP organization, who usually stayed in a KGB dacha BARVIKHA-1 during his visits to Russia. Led by Carlos the Jackal, a group of PFLP fighters accomplished a spectacular raid the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries office in Vienna in 1975. Advance notice of this operation "was almost certainly" given to the KGB.^[22]

A number of notable operations have been conducted by the KGB to support international terrorists with weapons on the orders from the Soviet Communist Party, including:

• Transfer of machine-guns, automatic rifles, Walther pistols, and cartridges to the Provisional Irish Republican Army by the Soviet intelligence vessel Reduktor (operation SPLASH) in 1972 to fulfill a personal request of arms from Michael O'Riordan.^[23]
• Transfer of anti-tank grenade RPG-7 launchers, radio-controlled SNOP mines, pistols with silencers, machine guns, and other weaponry to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine through Wadi Haddad who was recruited as a KGB agent in 1970 (operation VOSTOK, "East").^[24]
• Support of the Sandinista movement. The leading role here belonged to the General Intelligence Directorate of Communist Cuba.^[25]

[edit] Preparations for terrorism and sabotage operations against Western countries

Large-scale sabotage operations have been prepared by the KGB and GRU against the United States, Canada and Europe, according to the Mitrokhin Archive, ^[26], GRU defectors Victor Suvorov^[27] and Stanislav Lunev, and former SVR officer Kouzminov ^[28]. 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.^[29]
• 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.^[13] Lunev states that he had personally looked for hiding places for weapons caches in the Shenandoah Valley area^[13] 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 ^[13]
• 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 ^[30]
• 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".^[31]
• 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.^[32]
• 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.^[33]
• A plan for sabotage of Hungry Horse Dam in Montana.^[34]
• A detailed plan to destroy the port of New York (target GRANIT); most vulnerable points of the port were marked at maps.^[35]

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" ^[13] He also noted that it is "likely" that GRU operatives have placed already "poison supplies near the tributaries to major US reservoirs." ^[36]. 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 Rissian President in the event of hostilities, including poisoning public drinking-water supplies and food processing plants. ^[37]

US Congressman Curt Weldon supported claims by Lunev but noted that Lunev had "exaggerated things" according to the FBI. ^[38] 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."^[39]

[edit] State terrorism and its death toll

Stéphane Courtois’ The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression notes that communism killed between 85 million and 100 million people in the last century. Communism, as Courtois and his fellow historians establish, killed with brutal efficiency: approximately 65 million in China under Mao Zedong, 25 million in Bolshevik and Stalinist Russia, 2 million in Cambodia, and millions of others in Eastern Europe, Africa, and Latin America. Courtouis notes that this shockingly soaring count of the dead was accomplished by mass murders, town burnings, planned famines and other ruthlessly conceived methods. ^[40]

Writing in the Christian Science Monitor [2], Dinesh D'Souza maintained that violence perpetrated in the name of God pales by comparison with the violence committed by those who reject religion:

It is strange to witness the passion with which some secular figures rail against the misdeeds of the Crusaders and Inquisitors more than 500 years ago. The number sentenced to death by the Spanish Inquisition appears to be about 10,000. Some historians contend that an additional 100,000 died in jail due to malnutrition or illness. These figures are tragic, and of course population levels were much lower at the time. But even so, they are minuscule compared with the death tolls produced by the atheist despotisms of the 20th century. In the name of creating their version of a religion-free utopia, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong produced the kind of mass slaughter that no Inquisitor could possibly match. Collectively these atheist tyrants murdered more than 100 million people.

[edit] 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^[41], Shining Path is on the U.S. Department of State's "Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations" list.^[42] Peru, the European Union^[43], and Canada^[44] likewise regard Shining Path as a terrorist group and prohibit providing funding or other financial support.

[edit] 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. FARC has It funds itself principally through extortion, kidnapping and their participation in the illegal drug trade.^[45][46] 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. ^[47]), Children who try to escape the ranks of the guerrillas are punished with torture and death.^[47][48]

[edit] Communist Party of the Philippines

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.

[edit] November 17

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.

[edit] Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front

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.

[edit] ETA

ETA is a Marxist-Leninist paramilitary Basque nationalist organization. ETA has committed approximately 900 killings and dozens of kidnappings. More than 500 ETA militants are held in prison in Spain and France. On March 22, 2006, the organization declared a "permanent ceasefire." ETA broke the ceasefire with a car bomb attack on December 30, 2006 at the Madrid Barajas International Airport, killing two Ecuadorians.

[edit] Revolutionary Nuclei

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.

[edit] May 19th Communist Movement

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.

[edit] Red Army Faction (RAF)

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.

[edit] Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist

The neutrality and factual accuracy of this section are disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. (April 2008)

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 excluded from the election in 1994. The Maoists then turned to insurgency to overthrowing Nepal's 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. ^[49][50]

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.^[51]

Until recently, the Maoist insurgency has been fighting against the Royal Nepalese Army and other supporters of the monarchy.

[edit] Naxalites (India)

Naxalites 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) are regarded as India's biggest and most pernicious security threat.[3]. 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)[4][5].

[edit] 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

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• List of Communist and Socialist terrorist organizations by MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base.
• Leon Trotsky (November 1911). Why Marxists Oppose Individual Terrorism. Marxists.org.