The Red Army Faction, a Documentary History by J Smith Read Free Book Online Page A

march to the city center. The heaviest the action got was just before the rally began, when in nonviolent protest one man doused himself with gasoline and set himself on fire—suffering from third-degree burns, he was quickly rushed to hospital by helicopter. 21 That same day, tens of thousands gathered in West Berlin for a similarly peaceful demonstration.

    The Bonn demonstration against Ronald Reagan, June 10, 1982: “Atomic Death Threatens Us All.”
    The June 10 protests were carefully orchestrated by various church groups, the
Jusos
(the SPD’s youth wing), and the Greens—the same forces which had held the initiative at the Peace Congress in West Berlin the previous October—and made a priority out of avoiding any altercations with police. Due to the reformist nature of the Bonn demonstration’s demands (see sidebar on next page) many
Autonomen
and anti-imp groups in fact chose to stay away, the sentiment being that, “To form our own contingent in order to demonstrate our politics within the demonstration would probably mean that we would go under in the masses of people there.” 22
    This left June 11, the day of Reagan’s West Berlin visit, to the radical left. 23 In vain, the West Berlin Senate had imposed a total ban on all demonstrations for the day in question, and the day before police had raided a number of houses, confiscating dozens of banners and arresting would-be protesters. 24 Nevertheless,
Autonomen
and anti-imps called for an illegal demonstration in the city center; people were asked to bring helmets, as well as gloves and goggles to protect against tear gas, and were warned to travel in groups and to leave their children at home. Without going so far as to call for violent resistance, the Council of Delegates of the
Alternative Liste
voted to defy the Senate (to which it had just been elected) and threw its weight behind the June 11 demo. 25
    What Kind of Peace?
    It has been said that in the eighties in the FRG, “there was a booming peace movement on the one hand, and a weak antiwar movement on the other.” 1
    What this meant was explained in a document produced by
Autonomen
and anti-imps in the wake of President Reagan’s visit to Bonn and West Berlin:
    The anti-war movement is to be pacified by the offer of a zone without nuclear weapons. That means: the promise that a war is not going to take place here. This “inner stability” would be achieved in the centers of imperialism, the condition necessary to guarantee and to escalate plunder in the Third World, the “grey zones,” and to do this with the countries of Europe taking part in the plunder directly and militarily. […]
    It cannot be our aim to “secure peace,” meaning the status quo here, because we cannot see peace in this country or anywhere else in the world. We cannot pray for peace, we can only fight against the cause of the open and hidden wars and destroy them, in a fight against the system here and against NATO because NATO is the major instrument in the securing of imperialist interests. Our aim is our liberation and that of all people. 2
    Or as the Hamburg chapter of Women Against Imperialist War explained, “We are no ‘Women for Peace’ because we see that here and everywhere in the world we cannot conjure up peace and that there will be no peace unless we fight the material causes for war and destroy them.” 3
    _____________
    1 Geronimo, 113.
    2 Prairie Fire Organizing Committee, “Summary of a brochure by Autonomist and Anti-imperialist Groups,” in Prairie Fire Organizing Committee, 11-12.
    3 Women Against Imperialist War (Hamburg), “War on Imperialist War,” in Prairie Fire Organizing Committee, 20.

    June 11, 1982: rioting spreads through West Berlin as anti-Reagan protesters break out of the Nollendorfplatz kettle.
    Thousands answered the call, gathering at Nollendorfplatz, when suddenly the area was ringed by