Urban Guerrilla Warfare Research Articles

Trăgători și Mistificatori: Contrarevoluția Securității în decembrie 1989

Trăgători și Mistificatori: Contrarevoluția Securității în decembrie 1989

One Man's Freedom Fighter on Film is Another Man's Terrorist During the Classroom Discussion: The Advantages and Unintended Consequences of Using Film to Teach Terrorism

People are often startled that I teach a course on terrorism. They half jokingly ask if I teach students how to commit it. Yet, the interdisciplinary study of terrorism has grown over the last decade and will continue to do so. Colleges and Universities have expanded their offerings on the subject. Terrorism is often cross listed with criminal justice, and intelligence studies. However, a constant challenge of teaching terrorism is the mixed audience of students and differing expectations of course content. The online course at Penn State is made up of traditional students, returning adults, active and retired military, and once I had an FBI agent who specialized in counter terrorism. Such a diverse audience begs the question of how are we to teach the course? Is there a difference between the academic studies and theoretical discussions on one side and the practitioner on the other? This problem has been exacerbated both online, and in the classroom by a generation of visual learners. Think about how powerful it is for students to watch news coverage of 9/11, or have students with combat experience in Afghanistan. These experiences are far more powerful than reading a quantitative study of terrorist activities and then finding the flaws in its methodologies. It behooves the teacher to find new ways to mix up the curriculum.This paper examines the pedagogical strategies of using fictional films in a course on terrorism (both in residence and online). It is the hope that these films can bring life to the abstract concepts that students wrestle with in their readings. In this paper I examine the use of three particular films: First, is the famous Battle of Algiers (1966), which explores the Algerian war of independence against France, and specifically addresses issues of urban guerrilla warfare, and the limitations of counter terrorism still relevant today. After all the French won the battle but lost the war. The film also helps visualize what David Rapoport (2002) calls the second wave of terrorism. The second chosen is the Palestinian film, Paradise Now (2005), about the journey of two suicide bombers heading to Israel. This film not only speaks to the literature of scholars like Robert Pape, but serves as a window to the study of psychology and religion. I use Paradise Now as the springboard for role of religion in terrorism (though it is important to point out that religion is not what necessarily drives these two Palestinian men). Finally, I examine In the Name of the Father (1993), while ostensibly about the wrongfully arrested Guilford Four and the United Kingdom's war against the IRA, the film allows a broader class room discussion of the problematic of fighting terrorism in a democracy that values civil liberties. A perfect illustration is how students react to Daniel Day Lewis as Gerry Conlon and compare that to young Arab men wrongfully arrested after 9/11.By examining these three films this paper also hopes to continue expanding the study of film use in the classroom. Films are a dynamic and interactive process over how social reality will be perceived. While most of these films are based on true stories, they have to some extent been fictionalized to suit the dramatic needs of the audience and the financial expectations of the industry. For Americans the war on terrorism has been fought in the modern 24 hour/7 days a week news cycle. I argue that if done properly, popular films about terrorism can serve as a stimulating jumping off point to illustrate the theories, concepts, and issues discussed in the course.

Влияние анархо-синдикалистских идей на Движение за национальное освобождение — Тупамарос в Уругвае (1962—1973)

Since the beginning of the 20th century anarcho-syndicalism have had a marked influence on the trade unions and public organizations of Uruguay. In the 1960s in Montevideo had emerged Tupamaros National Liberation Movement that undertook urban guerrilla warfare against the government. The Movement was ideologically heterogeneous. It brought together representatives of various left-wing groups and had numerous contacts with anarchists. This article is the first attempt in the Russian historiography that analyses the influence of the anarcho-syndicalist ideas on the Tupamaros National Liberation Movement (1962—1973). The author investigates the features of the anarcho-syndicalism that affected the theory and practice of Tupamaros and covers an interaction between participant of the Movement and representatives of the Uruguayan anarchism.

Terrorism and fear: do terrorists really want to scare?

ABSTRACTThere is a widespread tendency among academics, state institutions and international organisations to regard intention to cause fear and intimidation as a key definitional characteristic of terrorism. This article argues that such a conceptualisation of terrorism is unfounded. A survey of mainstream terrorist doctrines (propaganda by the deed, foco theory–urban guerrilla warfare and armed propaganda, and jihadist doctrines) and writings of several pre-eminent terrorist ideologues provides little evidence to suggest that the main tactical goal of terrorism is to spread fear and intimidation. Rather, regardless of their ideological orientation and the historical period in which they operated, terrorists seem to be preoccupied with similar goals: mobilising what they regard to be their constituency, avenging their fallen comrades, extracting retribution for their allegedly wronged constituency, or, simply, with the physical destruction of their perceived enemies. This survey is complemented with a number of “crucial case studies”, where “most-likely cases” of terrorist justification of indiscriminate attacks and a detailed analysis of terrorist literature, which explicitly deals with the question of “fear”, are used to test the validity of the claim that terrorists aim to cause fear and intimidation. In both type of cases the hypothesis is invalidated. In cases of justification of indiscriminate attacks, there is no evidence to suggest that the aim of the terrorists is to spread fear and intimidation. Moreover, in the case of one particular terrorist ideologue who explicitly addresses the question of fear, the analysis of the texts indicates that fear among a population is not seen as an aim to be achieved but as an obstacle for mass mobilisation: an obstacle, which can only be overcome by the terrorist tactics. Thus, in this particular “most-likely case” the aim of terrorist tactics turns out to be encouraging masses for insurrection rather than intimidating them.

A guerrilla odyssey: modernization, secularism, democracy, and the Fadai period of national liberation in Iran, 1971-1979

Emerging in the early 1970s, the Organization of Iranian People's Fadai Guerrillas (OIPFG) become one of the most important secular leftist political organizations in Iran. Despite their lasting influence and the way in which their efforts helped shape the history of Iran for decades to come, little is known about the group. A Guerrilla Odyssey presents the first comprehensive examination of the rise and fall of the Fadai urban guerrilla movement in Iran. Drawing on exhaustive analyses of the published and unpublished works of the Fadai Guerrillas, as well as of archival material and interviews with activists, the author demonstrates historically and sociologically the conditions that surrounded the debut and demise of the urban guerrilla warfare that defined Iranian political life in the 1970s Vahabzdeh offers a critique of various aspects of the Fadai's theories of national liberation in an attempt to reconsider the painful relationship among modernization, secularism, and democracy in contemporary Iran. In addition, the author makes a compelling case explaining why older revolutionary social movements of the 1960s and 1970s have transformed into the new democratic social movements that emerged from the 1980s onward in the form of today's women's, student, and youth movements in Iran. A Guerilla Odyssey is a meticulously researched and engrossing narrative that promises to be a major contribution to the field of Iranian history.

Violent Nationalism in Catholic Communities: The Provisional IRA and ETA

AbstractThis paper will examine how the Provisional IRA and Euzkadi Ta Askatasuna ‐ Basque Country and Freedom ‐ (ETA) sought to legitimise and gain support for a campaign of urban guerrilla warfare by casting themselves in the role of defenders of a Catholic community. The need to reconcile the acceptance of violent action and Catholic religious beliefs led to a strong emphasis on the morality of the struggle waged by both groups during the early years of their existence. Interestingly, this definition of morality was grounded in Catholic teaching, forcing both organisations to challenge the leadership of the ecclesiastical authorities.

The Strategic Impasse in Low-Intensity Conflicts: The Gap Between Israeli Counter-Insurgency Strategy and Tactics During the Al-Aqsa Intifada

Over the past 15 years Israel has been involved in a bitter counter-insurgency campaign against the Palestinians. Palestinian insurgency, particularly during the current Al-Aqsa Intifada, has posed serious challenges to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). Whilst being able to adapt successfully its tactics to Palestinian terror and urban guerrilla warfare in order to reduce the level of Palestinian violence, the IDF has not been able to achieve a battlefield decision or victory. This has been due to the nature of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, which ultimately necessitates the provision of a political solution by the Israeli political leadership, which has relied too often on the IDF as a panacea for its own strategic and political indecisiveness vis-à-vis the Palestinian national question.

Mexico under siege: popular resistance to presidential despotism

* 1. Background of the Resistance * 2. Mounting Labor Protests * 3. The Peasant Movement in Morelos * 4. The Revolutionary Teacher's Strike of 1958 * 5. The Railroad Workers' Strikes of 1958-1959 * 6. Launching the National Liberation Movement * 7. Assault on the Madera Barracks, 23 September 1965 * 8. Student Insurgency and the Tlatelolco Massacre * 9. The Guerrilla Movements in Guerrero * 10. Resurrecting the Student Movement * 11. Urban Guerrilla Warfare * 12. The Democratic Tendency of the Electrical Workers * 13. Peasant Land Seizures and Committees of Self-Defense * 14. Galvanizing the Indigenous Peoples of Chiapas * 15. Core Parties of the Resistance * 16. Why the Resistance Failed

While the City Sleeps: Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin

1. I leave the effort of dealing with the didactic aspect of Krzysztof Wodiczko's project to others. What interests me are the formal presuppositions of his guerrilla warfare. Guerrilla is a type of warfare that doesn't play by the rules, that can't be pinned down. Quick interventions. Incursions. No pitched battles. The essential thing is not to give the enemy the initiative in the field, not to go by his timetable, never to meet him where he is waiting for you, where he wants to lure you. A whole tradition of urban guerrilla warfare has been developing in art practice for nearly a century. On the fringe of debates about forms of representation (What does a work represent? Does it represent anything at all? How does it represent?), the questions of place are becoming more and more insistant: Where is it happening? The artist resists being neutralized, put in storage; and, in so doing, initiates public disturbances. No longer exhibiting in a place; rather, exhibiting a place.

Latin America in the era of the Cuban Revolution

Introduction Fidel Castro's Road to Power Cuba: The Making of a Revolution Fidelismo and the Radicalization of Latin American Politics U.S. Responses to Revolution Rural Guerrilla Warfare Urban Guerrilla Warfare The Peruvian Military Revolution, 1968-1975 Chile Under Allende: A Peaceful Road to Socialism? The Antirevolutionary Military Regimes The Nicaraguan Revolution Transitions of the 1990s Selected Bibliography Index

Revolution in the city: On the resources of urban guerrillas

Authors who address the topic of rural guerrilla warfare argue that the ability to engage in political violence is predicated upon support from the local population and the capabilities of guerrilla organizations. We examine the applicability of these arguments for modern urban guerrilla warfare. We find that the Provisional Irish Republican Army draws on individual, organizational and environmental resources, and that the impact of these resources on the IRA has changed over time. Of these resources, the most important appear to be a combination of individual and organizational resources. Organizing into a cell structure in 1977 made the IRA dependent on only the passive support of the Northern Irish Nationalist population, and a high level of political awareness among IRA guerrillas guarantees that the IRA maintains this passive support.

Post-Marxism

Since its inception Latin American Perspectives has recognized many Marxisms and a Marxist tradition of many contending theories and strategies. More important, the journal represents the view that no single tendency within Marxism should dominate its pages, and that Marxism is not reducible to the conceptualization of class, relations of production, or mode of production, but that all of these concepts are fundamental in understanding the problems of contemporary capitalist society. It is also evident that attention to individual, group, and class interests may be relevant to analysis of struggles that seek political equality, resolution of human needs, and a fair distribution of available resources. Marxism today, however, is in a period of crisis, provoking a rethinking of its premises and usefulness but also leading some left theorists to search for a new understanding as they move on to a post-Marxist terrain. This journal issue explores the implications of this crisis and the turn of some intellectuals away from Marxism in their retreat from analysis of class and class struggle in Latin America. The intent is not only to invite dialogue on this question, but also to challenge the premises of the new thinking. Among questions asked of contributors were: To what extent did Latin American intellectuals exiled in Europe associate with the thought of Gramsci, Poulantzas, Althusser, and others? Did Eurocommunism of the late 1970s influence their thinking? What has been the impact of dictatorship and repression upon the new thinking as discussion moves from rural and urban guerrilla warfare to issues of political culture, pluralist democracy, and reformism? What has been the significance of the split in the Communist movement since the 1960s, especially among currents that sought collaborative political arrangements and alliances with social democratic and liberal currents? What has happened to the political parties as they came to dominate

Carlos Marighela: The father of urban guerrilla warfare

Abstract Two decades ago Carlos Marighela, the Brazilian revolutionary, was killed by Brazilian security forces. Known as “the father of urban guerrilla warfare,” Marighela laid out his theories in his Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla. He is noted for espousing urban‐based revolution over a “rural foco,” militarization of the political process, and manipulation of the media. He broke with the Brazilian Communist Party, which historically wavered between cooperation with the government and rural‐based guerrilla warfare. With the failure to transplant a Cuban‐style revolution in South America, Marighela turned his attention to the growing urbanization of the continent. For him, the city would be the primary battleground. In his Minimanual, Marighela argued for the militarization of the political process. As violence was escalated, the forces of law and order would be forced to become more repressive. The “soft center” would be eliminated as the sides were polarized. Eventually, the masses would join the re...

The Northern Ireland crisis in perspective

Abstract The urban guerrilla warfare that has been taking lives in Northern Ireland for the past sixteen years cannot be regarded as an anachronistic settling of scores between “papists” and “prods” in an inferior remake of Europe's seventeenth‐century wars of religion. It is a conflict of our time and its distinguishing features cannot quite conceal a problem common to most divided countries, especially those—like Cyprus and Lebanon—which are shaken by similar convulsions.

Indonesia in 1984: Pancasila, Politics, and Power

The night of September 12, 1984, sawJakarta's worst street violence since the anti-Tanaka, anti-cukong Malari affair of a decade ago. Hundreds of Moslem youths fired up by inflammatory mosque lectures moved through the streets of Tanjung Priok (North Jakarta) in bloodly confrontation with the security forces. Yelling antigovernment and anti-Chinese slogans and epithets, they charged Indonesian army units and were dispersed by gunfire, forced to give way in a rampaging retreat. As many as 28 people were killed. The government quickly rounded up the suspected ringleaders and radical Islamic teachers. While clamping down on the political content of the da'wah (Islamic instruction and missionary information activity), the security elite quickly sought to shift the blame for the Tanjung Priok incident to underground communist elements. Even so, Jakarta and other centers in East and Central Java were flooded with underground pamphlets inciting the faithful to take up arms to defend their religion against those who would destroy Islam. A series of bomb blasts and incendiary fires, together with numerous bomb and arson threats, frayed already tense nerves. The pattern of terrorist events suggested to some a spreading threat of embryonic urban guerrilla warfare.' Senior officers of the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI), including the ABRI commander, General L. B. Moerdani, visited leading mosques and pesantran (traditional Islamic schools) to tell the ulama and kiyayi that ABRI was not the enemy of Islam. "I would like to assert," Gen. Moerdani told an East Javanese audience of about a thousand Islamic teachers, "that Moslems in Indonesia are not cornered and will never be cornered."2 But cornered is

Urban Guerrillas in Argentina: A Select Bibliography

Urban Insurgency has been used with Increasing Frequency and Effectiveness in many areas of the developed and less developed world during the past decade. In Latin America, this trend toward expanded urban guerrilla warfare has been most pronounced in Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. In the three nations, revolutionary forces have rejected completely the concept of the primacy of guerrilla activities based in the countryside, a theory adapted to the Latin American environment by Cuba's Ernesto “Che” Guevara and French Marxist Régis Debray. Instead, attention has been focused on organizing and developing guerrilla and terrorist operations in such population centers as Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Rosario, and Córdoba. (For a discussion of factors leading to the development of urban insurgency in Latin America see “The Urban Guerrilla in Latin America: A Select Bibliography,” LARR: 9: 1).

The Urban Guerrilla in Latin America: A Select Bibliography

During the Past Decade—more Precisely during the Last Five to Seven years—the increased use of urban guerrilla warfare and terrorism have characterized the activities of many revolutionary groups in the less developed world. High-lighted by the Olympic assassinations of 1972, this phenomenon has also been evident in various African and Asian states. It is in Latin America, however, that the change from the traditional rural base for guerrilla operations to an urban environment has been most pronounced. The years from 1962 to 1967 saw many Latin American insurgents copying the Cuban revolutionary model, with its emphasis on rural guerrilla operations and the peasantry as the ultimate motive force, but recent years have seen an equally strong pull toward either purely urban insurgency or a more balanced strategy according equal importance to both rural and urban activities. In either case, the identifiable shift away from a totally rural guerrilla strategy for most Latin American revolutionary groups seems an established fact.