red army faction

The following text was read by Ulrike Meinhof at her trial alongside Hans-Jürgen Bäcker and Horst Mahler. (M. & S.) This trial is a tactical maneuver, a part of the psychological war being waged against us by the bka, the baw, and the justice system: with the goal of obfuscating both the political ramifications of our trials and the baw’s extermination strategy in West Germany; with the goal of using separate convictions to create the appearance of division, by putting only a few of us on display at any one time; with the goal of erasing the political context of all the raf prisoners’ trials from the public consciousness; with the goal of forever eliminating from the people’s consciousness the fact that on the imperialist terrain of West Germany and West Berlin there is a revolutionary urban guerilla movement.[1]……… Read the rest

whose fault is it if oppression continues? ours! whose fault is it if oppression is not smashed? ours as well![1] Prisons, the military, and the police are the basic tools of the imperialist state. They are the basic tools of the state with which the bourgeoisie asserts, protects, and achieves its ruling class power—and they always have been.……… Read the rest

Our January/February hunger strike was unsuccessful. The baw’s promise to end our isolation was bullshit. We are again on hunger strike. We demand: that political prisoners be placed with all of the other prisoners! and free access to political information for all prisoners—including from the media of the apo.……… Read the rest

From the period between June 16, 1972 and February 9, 1973: The feeling, one’s head explodes (the feeling, the top of the skull will simply split, burst open)— the feeling, one’s spinal column presses into one’s brain the feeling, one’s brain gradually shrivels up like, like dried fruit, for example— the feeling, one is constantly, imperceptibly, flooded, one is remote-controlled— the feeling, one’s associations are hacked away— the feeling, one pisses the soul out of one’s body, like when one cannot hold water— the feeling, the cell moves.……… Read the rest

Proletarian Revolutions… are constantly self-critical, repeatedly come to a standstill, return to past undertakings to begin them anew, pitilessly and thoroughly mocking their own half-measures, and the weakness and shabbiness of their own preliminary efforts. They seem to throw down their adversary only in order that he may draw new strength from the earth and rise again, more gigantic, before them.……… Read the rest

Comrades, some of you still believe that you don’t have any reason to dialogue with the Red Army Faction. Some of you still believe that the cops will soon have a handle on the armed struggle in the metropole. Some of you still believe what you read in the newspapers: that the raf is on the run, that there are splits in the raf, that the raf has a hierarchical structure, that the raf is isolated.……… Read the rest

The two bomb threats pasted together out of letters cut from newspapers for next Friday, June2, in Stuttgart don’t come from the Red Army Faction. Genuine communiqués of the urban guerilla commandos can easily be authenticated by comparing their contents with other raf communiqués.……… Read the rest

On May 26, Willy Brandt said in his television broadcast that the bombings of recent weeks have no logical political basis, and that they have endangered innocent lives. The Federal Chancellor can deceive the people with these assertions because the West German press has almost completely suppressed the communiqués of the urban guerilla commandos.……… Read the rest

Every form of monstrosity will be abolished Mao Yesterday evening, May 24, 1972, two bombs with an explosive capacity of 200 kg of tnt, were detonated in the Heidelberg Headquarters of the American Armed Forces in Europe. The attack was carried out after General Daniel James, Department Head at the Pentagon, said, on Wednesday in Washington, “For the U.S.……… Read the rest

Yesterday, Friday May 19, at 3:55 pm, two bombs exploded in the Springer Building in Hamburg. Despite prompt and early warnings, the building wasn’t evacuated and 17 people were injured. At 3:29 pm, the first warning was given to number 3471, who was told to evacuate the building within 15 minutes because a bomb would detonate shortly.……… Read the rest