Terrorism as Third Front: The Radicalization of the New Left in Italy and West Germany

Which factors were responsible for the radicalization of the 1968 protest movement? Why did Germans and Italians develop such a fascination with the notion of guerilla warfare? And why were the terrorist organizations that developed there so long-lived? The reasons are partly to be found in unresolved problems of postfascist societies. New Left activists criticized the lack of domestic democracy and idealized the “anti-imperialist” fighters in the global south. But as this chapter shows, radicalization also developed through transnational interaction in the European public spheres, specifically through a mixture of solidarity and rivalry between the Red Army Faction and the Red Brigades. The history of German and Italian left-wing terrorisms was, therefore, closely connected by multiple symbolic ties from the first shootings to the final showdown of the kidnapping and murder of Hanns-Martin Schleyer during the German Autumn of 1977 and of Aldo Moro just a few months later.

Secret Life versus Double Life: Modes of Clandestinity of Italian Terrorist Groups

This article presents two distinct modes of operating in a state of clandestinity adopted by Italian leftist terrorist groups, such as the Red Brigades and First Line, in the second half of the 20th century. The two modes of clandestine life are specified with the terms “invisibility” and “camouflage”. The invisibility mode of clandestinity imposes a regime of “secret life” on the group members, while the camouflage mode of clandestinity imposes a “double life” regime on them. The research aims to construct two simplified models, or, to use the Weberian terminology, two “ideal types”. Our primary sources are autobiographies published by former terrorists, official propaganda documents and pamphlets compiled by terrorist groups, and court rulings. Our secondary sources are journalist reports and research published by experts in political violence. From the theoretical point of view, the conclusion is, that for law enforcement, it is much more difficult to combat terrorist formations imposing the double life regime on their members rather than a secret life regime. Still, the double life regime is more stressful from a psychological point of view, as it requires an artificial split of personality. In the conclusions, the article expands the discussion to non-Italian terrorist organizations, with a different political or religious agenda.

PERGERAKAN KELOMPOK TERORIS THE RED BRIGADES DI ITALIA TAHUN 1968 – 2004

Tulisan ini bertujuan untuk membahas tentang pergerakan kelompok The Red Brigades dalam melakukan aksi terornya di Italia periode tahun 1968-2004. Banyak kelompok sayap kiri yang muncul karena adanya krisis ekonomi yang terjadi pada saat itu dan anggapan bahwa pemerintah Italia yang cenderung condong ke Amerika Serikat yang terkenal sebagai negara kapitalis. Red Brigades adalah salah satu dari sekian banyak kelompok sayap kiri yang muncul karena adanya krisis ekonomi dan juga kesenjangan sosial. Dengan berjalannya waktu, tujuan utama Red Brigades yang awalnya memfokuskan kepada kesejahteraan masyarakat menengah ke bawah lama kelamaan menjadi ambigu. Para pemimpin Red Brigades menjadikan kesempatan ini untuk menghancurkan pemerintahan dan menjadikan Italia sebagai negara yang menganut paham komunisme. Tulisan ini menjelaskan bagaimana awal kemunculan kelompok teroris Red Brigades mampu menggoyahkan pemerintah Italia sampai akhirnya mereka memutuskan untuk bubar. Penulis menggunakan teori rational choice dan konsep kelompok kepentingan untuk menganalisis kasus. Teknik yang dipergunakan adalah studi dokumen dan penelusuran literatur atau dengan menggunakan studi kepustakaan. Studi dokumen dan penelusuran literature ini merupakan suatu alat pengumpulan data yang melalui data tertulis. Hasil dari tulisan ini menunjukan bahwa bagaimana Red Brigades telah menjadi kelompok terorisme yang anarkis yang menjadikan kesenjangan sosial sebagai alasannya.

Revolutionary monstrosity

This chapter engages with the idea of terrorists “acting” as monsters. In contrast to the view that the shocking and apparently beastly behavior of some “terrorist” actors has no rational justification, it suggests that the performative construction of terrorist acts by impersonating some of the components of the prototype of monstrosity can be seen (in most circumstances) as rational. In fact, it argues that this pattern of behavior has a long history in terrorism through the concept of “revolutionary terrorism.” This chapter traces the origin and evolution of this concept by discussing the idea of the “Propaganda of the Deed” and by presenting the stages through which, from Sergey Nechayev to Che Guevara and then on to the Red Brigades, the ideologues of the anarchist and left-wing guerrilla movements perfected the idea that “terrorists” and insurgents should act as cold, unpredictable, and emotionless “killing machines.”

Types of terrorism: From the Red Brigades to Al Qaeda, from the Palestinian Brigade to ISIS

It is necessary to link the phenomenon of terrorism to the concept of information and communication. Information that comes from the propaganda that every terrorist organization makes of itself and from the communication produced by the media to inform the public opinion about the facts. In the 70's, in Italy, the Red Brigades used flyers as real ideological treatises, intended for the media. Thirty years later, the jihadist organization of Al Qaeda inaugurated the season of the new global terrorism; on 11th of September 2001, a new type of propaganda was born, which exploited the television channels and the web, reaching all the rest of society. Nowadays, we are faced with ISIS, which has managed to set up a very articulated and complex recruitment work based on online propaganda, through the diffusion of photos, audio and video messages on the Internet, succeeding in making proselytes even among Europeans. The aim of this in-depth study is to demonstrate how all terrorist movements are organised and lucidly determined to plan their actions and messages. The historical context that gave birth to the organizations, the internal structure, the ideology, the modus operandi and the media dimension; the role of women and children, the enrolment, the new scenarios and the extra-European measures of prevention in the fight against terrorism have been deepened.

State Martyr

The politician Aldo Moro was abducted and killed in 1978 by the terrorist organisation the Red Brigades. The media then stylised Moro as a ‘state martyr’. This volume deals with the highly topical question concerning the performativity of this concept in the tension between democratic states and terrorism and reconstructs a crucial phase of post-war policy in Italy on the basis of media sources on the Moro case. What role does a term from Christian antiquity play within modern sociopolitical discourses? What changes has the term ‘martyr’ undergone in European religious and cultural history? On the basis of these questions, this study opens up an interdisciplinary theoretical horizon in order to understand the role of religious motifs in sociopolitical contexts. It brings a central new dimension to the secularisation debate, which sees secularisation as a new configuration of politics and religion.