RAF & Action Directe Attack Against the Rhein-Main Air Base
"Communique # 1"
August 8th 1985
The strategists of imperialist war in Washington, Brussels, Bonn,
Paris... will no longer be able organize their war from within the
security of their military machines and their quiet planning centres.
Today, with the Commando George Jackson [1],
we attacked the Rhein-Main Air Base.
Proletarian internationalism is the fundamental consciousness necessary
for revolutionary struggle in the metropoles. It is the identification
with
the exploited and oppressed in the international struggle against the
rule
of capital, with the knowledge that the goal of completely destroying
the
imperialist system will only be realistic when this perspective is also
established
here, at the center of their power. That means we must confront the
imperialist bourgeoisie here with the goal of
revolution; we must sharpen
the politico-military attack against their power structure and,
thereby,
destroy the basis on which, using war, capitalist reconstruction and
repression
as means for solving their extensive crisis, they want, above all, to
erect
their unified system of domination.
The West European guerrilla develops, through action, the strategy by
which the selective and partial struggles against the reality of life
in the imperialist system express themselves as part of the process of
the liberation struggle, the strategy by which mass antagonism is
united with a political purpose through
the practice of revolutionary struggle and by which the front in the
war
of liberation is constructed here.
The revolutionary movement in West Europe must today bring its struggle
to a new level from which it can push forward the discussion and the
organization of the offensive against the imperialist apparatus in all
of its political, economic and military expressions on all levels.
The imperialist system is preparing the offensive. The "struggle
against international terrorism" is meant to create a consensus amongst
the imperialist states for military operations against liberation
movements throughout the world, as well as serving a denunciatory
propaganda function and creating splits via psychological war -
"directed from Moscow," "religious fanatics," "those who have it too
good," etc. - so as to achieve acceptance in the metropole for their
strategy of extermination, and to avoid again finding themselves faced
with the guerrilla struggle of the oppressed here.
And when Reagan propagated, before the European Parliament in
Strasburg, "a Europe from Lisbon to Moscow," he was formulating the
bourgeoisie’s bellicose goal of invading the Soviet Union - their dream
since 1917.
No means are too dirty for them if they create the conditions for
military intervention and retaliatory attacks, such as those currently
being planned against Nicaragua and against the resistance in Lebanon.
Terror actions carried out by secret service organizations (the bombs
in the Frankfurt Airport, Ireland, Tokyo…) are meant to get the people
used to
this "dirty war" (Schultz [2]) and
to create
a political climate in which anything is.acceptable. They will not
recognize
any limits in their efforts to wipe out our resistance.
The imperialist bourgeoisie can only oppose the sharpening of the
worldwide confrontation between revolution and imperialism, and the
fact that the struggle is becoming the standard in all areas, including
West Europe, by intensifying their project and accelerating the
formation of a functionally unified system.
But the price they are paying for their open military line is that they
have pushed the development of the international class war, in the
dialectic
of struggle, to a broader and higher level.
Every strategic anti-imperialist action and offensive alters the entire
relationship of power to the advantage of the revolutionary forces,
further
driving forward the process of destruction of the imperialist state
system.
The international revolutionary front can shatter the power of
imperialism. It is the concrete perspective for victory over the
imperialist machine.
The Rhein-Main Air Base, the largest military cargo airport of the US
forces outside of the USA, is an intermediary point for launching war
in the Third World from West Europe; concretely, transports of US
intervention troops and
their military advisors headed for the Middle East, the Far East and
Africa
leave from here.
The 435th Tactical Airlift Wing, part of the Military Airlift Command
(MAC), is integrated into the Commando Structure of the Rapid
Deployment Forces (RDF).
The transport of the French and Belgian paratroopers to Shaba[3] in 1978, everything the Yankees did about Iran in
1980,
and the transport of Special Units to the Middle East during the recent
TWA
hijacking[4] were all organized
from here.
The Air Base is a state security nest; the computers, aircrafts and
helicopters for Special Forces interventions are located there.
A major part of the supplies and provisions for all US troops stationed
in West Europe, the Middle East, the Far East and Africa come through
this
Air Base.
At the same time, it is meant to be the ''gateway to Europe" for the
war against the socialist states in the East.
The Air Base, the military purpose of which made the construction of
Startbahn West [5] indispensable,
also stands a s a symbol of the long, tenacious struggle of a
resistance movement, of their confrontation with the state's
concentrated apparatus of violence and of the
isolating maneuvers of the reformist left. It also represents their
experience of the fact that the struggle for quality of life, as
opposed to the alienation, destruction and exploitation offered by the
imperialist system, cannot be separated from the development of
revolutionary goals and counter-power, and
that imperialism can only be understood and struggled against as a
unified system.
"Never shrink from the incredible dimensions of your goals." [6]
UNITY IN THE STRUGGLE FOR INTERNATIONAL REVOLUTION!
Red Army Faction
Action Directe [7]
August 8, 1985
Footnotes
N.B. All footnotes in this document were
added by the translator and editor. None are originally from the RAF.
[1] George Jackson - black political prisoner and
member of the Black Panther Party, murdered in prison in August 1970. [return to text]
[2] George Schultz - US Secretary of State at the
time. [return to text]
[3] Shaba - site of PLO controlled Palestinian
refugee camps in Lebanon. [return to text]
[4] Refers to a hijacking, by a Palestinian
commando, in June 1985, demanding the release of Palestinian prisoners
of war held in
West Europe and the Middle East. [return to text]
[5] Startbahn West - a NATO runway in Frankfurt,
West Germany. It was the site of long-term, broad-based resistance for
anti-imperialist as well as ecological reasons. This long-term conflict
reached a new level on November 2, 1987, when two cops were shot and
killed during a clash with demonstrators. This runway is connected to
Air Base bombed by the RAF-Adtion Directe Commando. [return
to text]
[6] This slogan appeared in both French and
German in the original communiqué. [return to text]
