For the Unity of Revolutionaries in West Europe

From our point of view, it is now possible to launch a new phase in the development of a revolutionary strategy in the imperialist centres and to create, as a condition for this qualitative leap forward, the international organization of proletarian struggle in the metropoles, with its politico-military nucleus, the West European guerrilla. We arrive at this conclusion as the result of objective circumstances:

• the central role of West Europe for imperialist reconstruction in the period following the breakdown of the international relationship of forces, as a result of the liberation struggles in the South and the conflict between growing productive capacities and the world market. This led to the global political-economic-military crisis for the chain of imperialist states and affected the whole imperialist system;
•  our experiences in the last years, during which a revolutionary armed policy has been established in the metropoles and new struggles have developed around different focal points of the conflict between imperialism and liberation. These experiences have led to the development of a common discussion, which is consciously conducted, about revolutionary strategy and tactics in the metropoles.

This led to the question of how we can establish a communist perspective in West Europe on the basis of these experiences. In other words, as a result of the unification of the imperialist strategy, the communist guerrilla in West Europe has the following tasks if it is to make the historical project of the struggle against imperialism concrete:

• LEADING A DISCUSSION ABOUT THE REVOLUTIONARY POLITICAL LINE THAT WILL MAKE UNITY POSSIBLE IN THE OFFENSIVE AGAINST THE IMPERIALIST MACHINE;
• DEVELOPING, THROUGH A PRACTICAL PROCESS, A PROLETARIAN POLICY IN THE CENTRES THAT IN A DIALECTICAL MANNER SUMMARIZES THE UPRISING AGAINST THE DESTRUCTION DAILY EXPERIENCED EVERYWHERE WITHIN THE IMPERIALIST SYSTEM AND WHICH BUILDS UP THE POLITICO-MILITARY FRONT IN WEST EUROPE AS PART OF THE WORLDWIDE WAR BETWEEN THE PROLETARIAT AND THE IMPERIALIST BOURGEOISIE;
• DEVELOPING AN OPEN PROCESS DIRECTED TOWARDS A COMMON ATTACK THAT AIMS TO UNDERMINE THE IMPERIALIST STRATEGY IN ITS OWN CENTRES, BECAUSE IT IS HERE THAT THEY MUST PREPARE THEMSELVES MILITARILY AND ECONOMICALLY TO PROTECT THEIR GLOBAL POWER.

In the present phase, the central project of the imperialist strategy is to try to weld together the West European states into a homogeneous structure, into a strong bloc, that is totally integrated into the nucleus of imperialist power, into NATO, the most advanced imperialist power structure. The bourgeoisie wants to fortify itself in this political-economic-military structure in order to roll back the development of the offensive and of the liberation struggles, and in order to impose its structure onto all national or economic contradictions, to have absolute power that penetrates all social relationships, with the globalization of war as the solution for its overall crisis.

Militarily:

• externally, by the ability to wage war against the liberation struggles in the South, by rolling back the victorious struggles of the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America and by the concrete preparations for war against the socialist states in the East.

The “new NATO doctrine” means nothing other than:

• the offensive strategy, by which the European states are meant to relieve pressure on the American military machine, because they need the concentration of all forces and means for war on all of the fronts;
• the stationing of atomic missiles is only one step, albeit a decisive one;
• the reactivation of the WEU [1], the building up of the FAR [2] in France, the debate around German participation in the discussion regarding the “force de frappe” and its inclusion in NATO.

These are really steps towards military development.

• internally it means the reaction to the resistance of a revolutionary front in the centers and its prevention, because it could create real resistance to their strategy. Counterinsurgency, the unified state policy of the imperialist chain, defines the reality here and is the condition from which all revolutionaries must start today.

Economically:

• with the goal of forming a European industry under the absolute domination of US capital, concentrating on research and production in strategic areas such as new technologies, electronics and weapons, to safeguard the position of the imperialist bloc (USA, Japan, West Europe) and the worldwide conditions for the realization of profit for multinational capital. That is, a war economy as a means to overcome crisis.

The pillars of capitalist rule and ideology in the metropoles – “prosperity”, “social security” and “the right to work” – are already destroyed because of the brutality of restructuring; the elimination of millions of people from the productive process through the new international industrial organization and through automation. It is clear that for people here this will mean even more exploitation, misery and mass manipulation through the ruling ideology and social control.

Because of their substantial instability and increasing loss of legitimacy, the only thing the imperialist states have to show is their power to rule. Today, they are confronted with the fact that they do not enjoy passive consent, not for a single one of their measures. Political agony; that is the other side of their power. This is the result of the antagonism that has developed worldwide through the struggle of the proletariat and the oppressed peoples against imperialism, and it is the terrain on which the offensive for proletarian power in West Europe can become the decisive factor for sharpening the deep crisis of the system.

The attacks against the multinational structure of NATO, against its bases and strategists, its plans and propaganda, were the first big mobilization under these new political conditions towards a strategy for proletarian politics in West Europe. This mobilization develops and reinforces the struggle against the system of exploitation and war, as one can see in the attacks in Spain, Portugal, Belgium, France and the FRG [3]. From our point of view, in contrast to all ideological debates and abstract programs “about internationalism,” the strategy of the West European guerrilla, with its determination to function as part of the international class war and, through practice, to create the political unity of communists in West Europe to organize and attack the entire imperialist system, is the material transformation of proletarian internationalism that the situation today demands.

Authentic revolutionary strategy will evolve in West Europe by attacking the central imperialist projects, just as the collectivity and coherency of the combatants will evolve from their specific conditions and prospects.

Unity:

• which wins the space for the development of proletarian consciousness and power by destroying the imperialist structures.

THE WEST EUROPEAN GUERRILLA IS SHAKING THE IMPERIALIST CENTRE!

Action Directe [4]
Red Army Faction
January 1985

[1] WEU – West European. Union; after the fall of the Berlin Wall  thsi became the European Union. [return to text]

[2] FAR – Rapid Deployment Forces. [return to text]

[3] FRG – Federal Republic of Germany, West Germany. [return to text]

[4] Action Directe — French anti-imperialist. guerrilla organization. [return to text]