THE 1970S RAF SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT FROM A EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE

The main focus of my paper is the European dimension of the RAF solidarity movement that came into being in the 1970s. It deals with the international reception of the RAF hunger strikes and other elements of the RAF solidarity campaign and the transnational dimension of the creation of the RAF solidarity movement in West Germany and beyond. An analysis of a number of radical left wing publications from various European countries is presented. How were the arguments of West German RAF support committees received in countries like France and the Netherlands and what role did transnational networks play in this reception? Did the support committees’ actions provoke support for the RAF, for its members and maybe even for its political message?

Apart from that, a number of cases are presented, in which the RAF solidarity campaign in West Germany received assistance from outside of the country. These examples are meant to enhance our understanding of the RAF as a European phenomenon: in circles of the radical left all over Europe the RAF was understood as a crucial comment on the flaws of Western democracy and capitalist society. Solidarity with the RAF thus was a part of the greater ‘struggle’ for ‘freedom’ that dominated the political sphere in the late 1960s and the 1970s, not only in Germany but everywhere in Europe. More specifically the RAF solidarity movement was an important aspect of the ongoing trans-national debate in the ‘68’ protest era about the legitimacy and practical use of political violence – a debate that had great implications for all countries involved.

Jacco Pekelder (1967) studied history at Utrecht University, where in 1998 he finished a dissertation on the Netherlands’ relations with the German Democratic Republic (published in German: “Die Niederlande und die DDR: Bildformung und Beziehungen, 1949-1989”, Agenda Verlag: Münster 2002). After that he worked for three years as researcher at the Center for Parliamentary History (CPG) at Nijmegen University. Since 2002 he is research coordinator of the Duitsland Instituut (Germany Institute) at Amsterdam University, a national institute for research and education about Germany, which is subsidized by the Dutch government. Momentarily he is guest researcher at the Zentrum für Niederlande-Studien at Münster University, where he studies “Styles of political leadership in the Netherlands and Germany”.

Pekelder’s publications circle around three topics: history of international relations (especially the Cold War), Dutch and German politics and political violence and terrorism. Concerning the latter, he published several Dutch articles in academic and political journals and in popular magazines. In cooperation with professor Frits Boterman he edited a collection of academic essays about violence and politics in German history, “Politiek geweld in Duitsland: Denkbeelden en debatten”, Mets en Schilt: Amsterdam 2005. In his own essay he analyzed the way the German radical left reacted to the RAF, “Violent comrades: Peter Brückner, terrorism and left wing identity”.

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