The Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF) was an urban guerrilla group active in West Germany during the 1970s. Founded in 1970, the first generation was led by Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin, Andreas Baader, and a few others. They were responsible for multiple acts of bombings, homicide, and robberies. Here, we will use the name the group used to refer to themselves. They did not see themselves as a splinter group; rather, they saw themselves as part of a wider workers’ movement—a fraction. We will call them the Red Army Fraction henceforth.

This essay will not be a historical overview of the group’s work, nor will it be a summary of what they were or what they’ve done. Other people have done that work much better than I could. Instead, this essay will discuss the theory that guided the group’s strategy and actions. While their deeds are immortalized in the wonderfully paced film Der Baader Meinhof Complex, not much discussion takes place regarding their ideology, theory, and doctrine.

The RAF considered themselves a radical Marxist-Leninist liberation group. They were born in a time when the leftwing movement in West Germany faced violent reaction from both state forces and civilian forces. The leftwing of West Germany in the 1960s was also resorting to non-armed reactionary violence. They observed their milieu carefully, developing their theory according to the material conditions of that historical moment.

This way of forming theory serves as an illustrative example of Marxist analysis (especially the Marxist-Leninist kind). A Marxist will analyze the current historical moment by seeing the balance of forces between the proletariat, the bourgeoisie, and each social class’s allies. From there, the most precise strategy to breaking the ruling class’s hold on society is formulated.

Their analysis resulted in the publication of The Urban Guerrilla Concept, their first major manifesto, in 1971. We will discuss key ideas from this manifesto.

Part One: Shout Out to the Haters

The manifesto starts out with a passioned defense of their revolutionary activities to other members of the leftwing movement. The first section titled “Concrete Answers to Concrete Questions” begins with a quote from Mao that says, “I still insist that without investigation there cannot possibly be any right to speak.” This and the opening quote from Mao makes the group’s ideological allegiance a bit clear. A passage stands out from the first section:

We are not saying that the organization of armed resistance groups can replace the legal proletarian organizations, that isolated actions can replace the class struggle, or that armed struggle can replace political work in the factories or neighborhoods. We are arguing that armed struggle is a necessary precondition for the latter to succeed and progress, that armed struggle is “the highest form of Marxism- Leninism” (Mao), and that it can and must begin now, as without it there can be no anti-imperialist struggle in the metropole. We are not Blanquists nor are we anarchists, though we think Blanqui was a great revolutionary and the personal heroism of many anarchists is certainly above reproach.

Here, the RAF makes clear that their work does not aim to replace legal class struggle. Their actions, however, necessary for the legal work to be effective. Moreover, their praise of Blanqui and the work of anarchists is surprising given that Marxist-Leninists are well-known for being snobby toward any tendency that is not their own.

Part Two: Materialist Analysis

The next section titled “The Metropole: The Federal Republic” is a discussion of the socioeconomic conditions of West Germany up until 1971. The section is quite short, so I recommend the reader check it out for herself. I will mention the ending paragraph as a great summary of the group’s analysis: “The RAF’s urban guerilla concept is not based on an optimistic eval- uation of the situation in the Federal Republic and West Berlin.”

The next and third section titled “The Student Revolt” furthers the analysis by exploring the contradictions within the student protest movement of 1960s West Germany. The RAF also points out that the student movement moved past the old West German’s left’s obsession with electoral victories and lack of real praxis.

The fourth section titled “The Primacy of Practice” contains precise yet vicious attacks on the academic Marxists of other organizations who are lacking in their praxis. A quote choice illuminates the RAF’s frustration:

“Talking is their practice. The page numbers in their footnotes are almost always correct, the membership numbers they give for their organizations seldom are. They fear the accusation of revolutionary impatience more than corruption by bourgeois careers. It’s more important to them to spend years pursuing a degree with Lukacs than to allow themselves to be spontaneously inspired by Blanqui.”

Against this backdrop the RAF assert themselves as a serious Marxist organization that puts revolutionary theory into practice through their armed resistance against the repressive apparatus of the ruling class.

Part Three: What Is to Be Done?

Section 5 (“The Urban Guerrilla”) posits that US imperialism can be defeated through armed struggle in West Germany. While the legal proletarian organizations believe that the RAF is leading the revolutionary forces of Germany “down a blind alley,” the RAF believes that they are demoralizing those forces.

Here, we see that the RAF acknowledges that the urban guerrilla concept was developed in Latin America. The RAF also believes that like in Latin America the revolutionary forces of West Germany are weak in the sense that they fail to pose a direct threat to the bourgeois state’s monopoly on violence.

The takeaway from this section is that the armed revolutionary must continue the struggle no matter what the press says, even the socialist press. The socialist press is subject to market pressures like a bourgeois media organization, and they will influence people whom you called comrades. They quote Blanqui who said that, “the duty of the revolutionary is to always struggle, in spite of everything to struggle, to struggle until death.”

Section 6 (“Legality and Illegality”) begins with the anarchist slogan “destroy what destroys you.” The RAF assesses that the mobilizing power of this slogan and its understanding that any oppressor will represent the class interests of capital. However, the RAF goes on to critique this slogan by claiming that it will lead to false consciousness. The important thing, the RAF writes, is to work out the contradiction between legal and illegal organization to work out a response to heavy state repression.

The RAF calls out communist organizations that say that no communist organization would get themselves banned. The RAF rightly points out that this sentiment limits class struggle to the limits of the law, and the sentiment also shows a lack of solidarity with people who have no choice to resort to crime to survive.

The RAF argues in this section that socialists must not fetishize legality or illegality, especially the former. Legality, in fact, must be used to organize illegality. Illegality is an offensive position for revolutionary intervention. The urban guerrilla’s role is to serve as a bridge between political struggle and armed struggle, national struggle and international struggle, and so on. There’s something to be said for the importance of an armed struggle in the imperial core that will shift the balance of global forces in the favor of the proletariat.

Ending Takeaways

The RAF’s manifesto is unique because it reflects the thoughts and ideas of a leftwing organization that engages in illegal armed struggle against the ruling class. Most other manifestos I’ve seen that come from other organizations are not so clear and direct in their language. I didn’t even mention the tally of curse words in the text.

This organization in its heyday was not one to be trifled with, and the West German state had to resort to serious repressive measures to destroy their capacity for waging urban guerrilla warfare.

The analysis in this document can provide a perspective overlooked in today’s discourse on the best way to engage in class struggle in the imperial core. As of the publication of this essay, the Marxist-Leninist organizations in the United States are engaged in a different kind of struggle. They engage exclusively in legal means to obtain their goals, even one party shilling for the Democratic Party every time they have an election in their geographical domain. There are other organizations that pretend to achieve a socialist society in the US, but they are more akin to social clubs that do extracurricular activities that support reformist praxis. We need not concern ourselves with them.

The only groups I know that engage in praxis similar to the RAF are anarchist groups that operate without central leadership (much like the RAF). They have engaged with the police forces in the outskirts of Atlanta to prevent the construction of a police academy. One has lost their life in the process. How droll that anarchists act more in the spirit of a Marxist-Leninist outfit that got out of their armchair to rob some banks and kill some bourgeoisie.

Such are the times I suppose.