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Marxism–Leninism

2025-11-24T16:40:53Z

71.64.27.238: matched expansion of acronym

[[File:Marxism-leninism symbol.png|thumb|Image representing [[Karl Marx]], [[Friedrich Engels]] and [[Lenin|Vladimir Lenin]], the main contributors to Marxism–Leninism]]
<onlyinclude>'''Marxism–Leninism''' is an ideological framework that originated in the application of [[Marxism|Marxist]] theory to [[revolution|revolutionary]] practice by [[Vladimir Lenin]] and the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]. It is based on [[dialectical materialism]], the [[Historical materialism|materialist conception of history]], and [[Labor theory of value|Marxist political economy]] including the Leninist conception of [[imperialism]].

After the success of the [[October Revolution|Russian revolution in 1917]] and the establishment of the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics|Soviet Union]] in 1922, many [[Communist party|communist parties]] around the world began to adopt Marxism–Leninism as their political line, and Marxism–Leninism was the main theoretical framework which guided the [[Korean revolution|Korean]], [[Vietnamese revolution|Vietnamese]], [[Cuban Revolution|Cuban]], [[Laotian Civil War|Laotian]] and [[Chinese Revolution|Chinese]] revolutions as well as other successful national liberation and revolutionary movements in [[Africa]] and [[Asia]].

Today, Marxism–Leninism is one of the theoretical foundations of governing communist parties in actually existing socialist ([[Actually Existing Socialism|AES]]) states, including [[Communist Party of China|China]], [[Communist Party of Cuba|Cuba]], [[Workers' Party of Korea|Korea]], [[Lao People's Revolutionary Party|Laos]] and [[Communist Party of Vietnam|Vietnam]]. This is the political line of many communist parties waging [[class struggle]].</onlyinclude>

==Development==
=== Origin of the term ===
In the 1920s, the term Marxism–Leninism was first formulated and defined by [[Joseph Stalin]] based on his synthesis of orthodox Marxist theory and [[Leninism|Lenin's thought]].

Lenin never used the terms "Leninism" or "Marxism–Leninism"; however, his ideas, which developed upon classical Marxist thought, were viewed by the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Bolsheviks]] and many later communists as a major advance in Marxism.

===Early texts===
Major founding texts of Marxism–Leninism are Stalin's ''[[Library:The foundations of Leninism|The Foundations of Leninism]]'' (1924) and ''[http://www.marx2mao.com/Stalin/CQL26.html Concerning Questions of Leninism]'' (1926), these two are the most important texts from the compilation of ''Problems of Leninism'', a compilation of texts written by Stalin that synthesize almost completely Marxism with Leninism; and ''[[Library:History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|The History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolshevik)]]'', which was produced by a commission of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1938.<ref>Ferenc Feher (1991), "Soviet Marxism", in Tom Bottomore, [https://comun.ourproject.org/documents/tom_b_dict/bottomore-a-dictionary-of-marxist-thought.pdf ''A Dictionary of Marxist Thought''] . (Anti-Soviet but informative).</ref>

== Characteristics ==

=== Dialectical and historical materialism ===
{{Main article|Dialectical materialism}}
By virtue of being a Marxist ideology, Marxism–Leninism concurs with the core Marxist tenets of dialectical materialism. Dialectical materialism serves as an essential form of analysis for any Marxist ideology and thus is a core component of Marxism–Leninism.

=== Critique of imperialism ===
{{Main article|Imperialism}}
Imperialism as seen and described by Lenin is the highest stage of [[capitalism]],<ref>[[Library:Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism|Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism]]</ref>
involving the domination of the economy by [[monopoly capital|monopolies]] and the [[export of capital]] as the principal form of [[exploitation]] and [[capital accumulation|accumulation]] engaged in by the leading capitalist countries. Imperialism in the Leninist sense is essentially limited to the capitalist era.

Imperialism entails savage competition between the leading capitalist countries for colonies and spheres of influence, culminating in imperialist wars (such as the First World War, which Lenin witnessed).

=== Party organization principles ===
{{Main article|Democratic centralism}}
Marxist–Leninist parties usually adhere to the principle of [[democratic centralism]] which involves free debate within the party and democratic development of party policies by the party members and their elected committees and leaders, but strict adherence by party members to those policies once the policies have been chosen.

=== Strategy and tactics of revolution ===
{{Main article|Revolution}}
Marxist–Leninists hold that successful revolutions involve more than spontaneous, elemental action by the masses but require a [[vanguard party]] to provide them theoretical guidance and, in the revolutionary moment, tactical leadership. The vanguard (communist) party is based on full-time revolutionaries and is a repository of revolutionary experience.

=== Theory and practice of the dictatorship of the proletariat ===
{{Main article|Dictatorship of the proletariat}}
Marxist–Leninists adhere to Marx's two-stages model of communism, involving an initial, "lower" stage, often termed "[[socialism]]", which is transitional between capitalism and "higher" stage [[communism]] in which the state, money, and other vestiges of capitalism and class society no longer exist. In the lower stage a state, controlled by the [[proletariat]], remains necessary to defend against [[Counterrevolution|counter-revolution]] and to guide society away from capitalistic behaviors and toward cooperation and the "free association of the producers" which characterize true or higher-stage communism. The lower stage is also known as the ''dictatorship of the proletariat'' since it involves control of society by the proletariat.

Belief in the necessity of the dictatorship of the proletariat distinguishes Marxism–Leninism from more [[anarchism|anarchist]] tendencies within social liberation theory.

==Classification==
The term Marxism–Leninism generally includes parties which took the Russian Revolution of 1917 as foundational, while rejecting other socialist formations, usually those who are either [[Opportunism|opportunistic]], [[Dogmatism|dogmatic]], or [[Revisionism|revisionist]] and reject the Russian Revolution including but not limited to [[libertarian socialism]], [[eurocommunism]], [[Austro-Marxism]], [[Bernsteinianism]], [[syndicalism]], [[Anarcho-communism]], [[Daniel De Leon|DeLeonism]], and [[social democracy]].

== See also ==

* [[Marxism-Leninism-Maoism|Marxism–Leninism–Maoism]]
* [[Hoxhaism]]
* [[Anti-revisionism]]
* [[Quotes:Marxism–Leninism|Quotes on Marxism–Leninism]]

== References ==
<references/>
[[Category:Marxism]] [[Category:Communism]]
[[Category:Left-wing ideologies]]
[[Category:Marxism–Leninism]]
[[Category:Communist ideologies]]

Commodity

2025-11-18T21:27:25Z

71.64.27.238: Spelling in the section of Historical origins of commodity trade

A '''commodity''' is a [[Social relations|social relation]] for any good or service or resource produced for the purpose of exchange.<ref>{{Citation|author=Karl Marx|year=1867|title=[[Capital, vol. I]]|chapter=Commodities and money|section=[https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch01.htm Commodities]|page=|quote=Whoever directly satisfies his wants with the produce of his own labour, creates, indeed, use values, but not commodities. In order to produce the latter, he must not only produce use values, but use values for others, social use values. (And not only for others, without more. The mediaeval peasant produced quit-rent-corn for his feudal lord and tithe-corn for his parson. But neither the quit-rent-corn nor the tithe-corn became commodities by reason of the fact that they had been produced for others. To become a commodity a product must be transferred to another, whom it will serve as a use value, by means of an exchange.)|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> The commodity has two aspects, its [[use value]], its qualitative physical and useful properties, and its [[Value|exchange value]], which is its quantitative properties, the proportion in relation to the exchange of other commodities.<ref>{{Citation|author=Vladimir Lenin|year=1915|title=Karl Marx: a brief biographical sketch with an exposition of Marxism|chapter=Marx’s economic doctrine|section=|page=|quote=A commodity is, in the first place, a thing that satisfies a human want; in the second place, it is a thing that can be exchanged for another thing. The utility of a thing makes is use-value. Exchange-value (or, simply, value), is first of all the ratio, the proportion, in which a certain number of use-values of one kind can be exchanged for a certain number of use-values of another kind.|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1914/granat/ch03.htm|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref>

==Difference in Marxist and non-Marxist usage==
The term ''commodity'' is used differently in [[Marxism|Marxist]] and non-Marxist economics. In Marxist economics it means a ''marketed'' good or service – one that is bought or sold. Goods or services that are not produced for sale, although they may be physically the same, are not termed `commodities'. Commodities are characteristic of [[capitalism]], whereas goods and services in non-capitalist economic systems such as socialism or feudalism are generally not commodities.<ref>Karl Marx, "A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy" contained in the ''Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 29'' (International Publishers: New York, 1987) p. 269. 
Karl Marx, "Outlines of the Critique of Political Economy" contained in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 28 (International Publishers: New York, 1986) p. 80.
</ref>

In non-Marxist economics, eg. the language of capitalist businesspeople, `commodity' means a good or service that is not differentiated in the market from other goods or services of the same general type. One unit of the commodity is regarded as being as good as any other, regardless of the details of its origin. The term mainly applies to bulk goods such as iron ore, coal, and wheat.

==Marxist theory==
In classical [[political economy]] and especially [[Karl Marx]]'s critique of political economy, a commodity (in German: ''Kaufware'', merchandise, ware for sale) is any good or service ("products" of "activities")<ref> Karl Marx,
"Outlines of the Critique of Political Economy" contained in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 28 (International Publishers: New York, 1986) p. 80.)
</ref> produced by human labour<ref>Karl Marx,
Capital: Volume I (International Publishers: New York, 1967) p. 38 and also "Capital" as contained in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 35, p. 48.
</ref>
and offered for sale in a market.<ref>Karl Marx, Capital: Volume I, p. 36 and also in "Capital" as contained in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 35, p. 46.
</ref>
Some other priced goods are also treated as commodities, e.g. human labor-power, works of art, and natural resources, even though they may not be produced specifically for the market, or be non-reproducible goods.

Things which are not commodities include those produced for one's own use, for one's family, as gifts, or for distribution according to rules of tradition. The important point is that in none of those cases is the thing bought and sold in a market.

Example: If I knit a sweater to keep myself warm this winter, it is not a commodity, but if I knit it to take downtown and barter for potatoes (or money) it is a commodity.

Marx was particularly concerned with commodities because they are characteristic of the [[capitalist mode of production]]. Under capitalism, most items produced are commodities. That was not the case in pre-capitalist societies where, for instance, people grew their own food, or grew it under slavery or feudal conditions where it was taken from them and distributed in traditional [[Alotment|alotments]] or by [[fiat]] – the majority of the product was never bought or sold.

Marx used the commodity as an entry point to tackle the problem of what establishes the economic value of goods; and from there the problem of exploitation of labour under capitalism – that is, that the labourer does not receive the full value of the goods she produces.<ref>This is the order of presentation in the first three Parts of Capital, Volume 1.
</ref>

The problem of what establishes the economic value of goods had earlier been investigated by [[Adam Smith]], [[David Ricardo]] and [[Karl Rodbertus-Jagetzow]] among others.

===Characteristics of commodity===
*It has a ''[[value]]'', which according to the [[labour theory of value]] is proportional to the quantity of human labor needed to produce it.<ref>Karl Marx, Capital: Volume I, (International Publishers: New York, 1967) p. 38 and "Capital" contained in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 35 (International Publishers: New York, 1996) p. 48.</ref>
*It has a ''[[use value]]'' which is its capacity to satisfy some human need or want, physical or ideal.<ref>Karl Marx, "A Contribution to the Critique of Political Enconomy" contained in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 29 (International Publishers: New York, 1987) p. 269.</ref> By nature this is a social use value, i.e. the object is useful not just to the producer but has a use for others generally.<ref>Karl Marx, "A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy" contained in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 29, p. 270.</ref>
*It has an ''[[exchange value]]'', meaning that a commodity can be traded for other commodities, and thus give its owner the benefit of others' labor (the labor done to produce the purchased commodity).<ref>Karl Marx, "Outlines of the Critique of Political Economy" contained in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 28 (International Publishers: New York, 1986) pp. 167-168.</ref> ''[[Price]]'' is the monetary expression of exchange-value.<ref>Price is the expression of exchange value in a purely capitalist, fully commodified economy, but in other contexts exchange value could also be expressed as a direct trading ratio between two commodities without using money, and goods could be priced using different valuations or criteria. 
For more on exchange value, see Karl Marx, "Outlines of the Critique of Political Economy" contained in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 28, p. 148.</ref>

===Goods versus services===
<blockquote>
"Up until now, one might have had the impression that when the term "commodity" is used, it refers solely to physical objects. But what is relevant here is the act of exchange, not the fact that physical objects are being exchanged. Services can also be exchanged and therefore become commodities. The difference between a material product and an "immaterial" service consists solely of a different temporal relationship between production and consumption: the material product is first produced and subsequently consumed (a bread roll should be consumed on the same day, but an automobile can remain by its manufacturer for a few weeks or even months before I have a chance to use it). In the case of a service (whether we are talking about a taxi ride, a massage, or a theater performance), the act of production is concurrent with the act of consumption (as the taxi driver produces a change of place, I consume it). The difference between services and physical objects consists of a distinction between the material content; the question as to whether they are commodities pertains to their social form, and that depends upon whether the objects and services are exchanged. And with that, we have sorted out the matter of the frequently stated argument that with the "transition from an industrial to a service economy" or in the left-wing variant of Hardt and Negri-- the transition from "material" to immaterial" production--Marx's value theory has become outmoded--"
<ref>Michael Heinric (2004) "An Introduction to Karl Marx's Capital"</ref>
</blockquote>

Consider the humble barber. They sell haircuts whose use-value is the shortening of a person's hair and exchange this haircut for money, or if they are a grandpa, perhaps for candy. The same holds for baristas, live performers (singers, dancers, poets and so on), teachers and many other professions.
===Historical origins of commodity trade===
Commodity-trade, Karl Marx argues, historically begins at the boundaries of separate economic communities based otherwise on a non-commercial form of production.<ref>Karl Marx,
Capital: Volume I, p. 87 and "Capital" as contained in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 35, p. 98.
</ref>
Thus, producers trade in those goods of which those producers, have episodic or permanent [[surplus]]es to their own requirements, and they aim to obtain different goods with an equal value in return.

Karl refers to this as "simple exchange" which implies what Frederick Engels calls "[[simple commodity production]]". At first, goods may not even be intentionally produced for the explicit purpose of exchanging them, but as a regular market for goods develops and a cash economy grows, this becomes more and more the case, and production increasingly becomes integrated in commodity trade. The division of labour becomes more complex, a class of merchants emerges which specializes in trading commodities, buying here and selling there, without producing goods themselves, and parallel to this, property owners emerge who extend credit and charge rents. This process goes together with the increased use of [[money]], and the aim of merchants, bankers and renters becomes to gain ''income'' from the trade, by acting as intermediaries between producers and consumers. "The product becomes a commodity" and "exchange value of the commodity acquires a separate existence alongside the commodity".<ref>Karl Marx,
"Outlines of the Critique of Political Capital" contained in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 28, p. 102.
</ref>

Modern capitalism according to Karl Marx involves a mode of production based on generalized commodity production (Marx's German term is ''veralgemeinte Warenproduktion''), a universal market. (See also [[capitalist mode of production]].) This means that both the inputs and the outputs of most production in society have become priced, tradable goods (including the [[means of production]] and human [[labour power]]), and that what and how much is produced is largely determined by the response of producers to the "state of the market". Production is now explicitly engaged in for the purpose of market sales only, which implies both that its whole organization is reshaped for this aim, and that people can meet their own needs by purchases in the market (rather than producing goods directly for their own consumption).

===Commodification===
{{Main article|Commodification}}
The transformation of a labor-product into a commodity (its "marketing") is in reality not a simple process, but has many technical and social preconditions. For example, it often involves a considerable ''practical'' accomplishment in trade, and the commodification process may be influenced not just by economic or technical factors, but also political and cultural factors, insofar as it involves property rights, claims to access to resources, and guarantees about quality or safety of use. Some of the preconditions to commodification include:

*the existence of a reliable supply of a product, or at least a surplus or [[surplus product]].
*the existence of a social need for it (a market demand) that must be met through trade, or at any event cannot be met otherwise.
*the legally sanctioned assertion of private ownership rights to the commodity.
*the enforcement of these rights, so that ownership is secure.
*the transferability of these private rights from one owner to another.
*the right to buy and sell the commodity, and/or obtain (privately) and keep income from such trade
*the (physical) transferability of the commodity itself, i.e. the ability to store, package, preserve and transport it from one owner to another.
*the imposition of exclusivity of access to the commodity.
*the possibility of the owner to use or consume the commodity privately.
*guarantees about the quality and safety of the commodity, and possibly a guarantee of replacement or service, should it fail to function as intended.

The [[Reification |reifying]] effects of universalised trade in commodities, involving a process Karl Marx calls "[[commodity fetishism]],"<ref>Karl Marx,
Capital: Volume I, pp. 71-83 and "Capital" as contained in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 35, pp. 81-94.</ref>
mean that social relations become expressed as relations between things;<ref>Karl Marx,
Capital, pp. 71-72 and "Capital" as contained in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 35, pp. 81-82.</ref>
for example, price relations. Markets mediate a complex network of interdependencies and [[supply chains]] emerging among people who may not even know who produced the goods they buy, or where they were produced.

Since no one agency can control or regulate the myriad of transactions that occur (apart from blocking some trade here, and permitting it there), the whole of production falls under the sway of the [[law of value]], and economics becomes a science aiming to understand market behavior, i.e. the aggregate effects of a multitude of people interacting in markets. How quantities of use-values are allocated in a market economy depends mainly on their exchange value, and this allocation is mediated by the "cash nexus".

<blockquote>
"Man really attains the state of complete humanity when he produces, without being forced by physical need to sell himself as a commodity." 
— [[Ernesto Guevara|Che Guevara]] <ref>A letter from Che Guevara to Carlos Quijano, published as [http://www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/1965/03/man-socialism.htm "From Algiers, for Marcha : The Cuban Revolution Today"]] (12 March 1965) "Socialism and Man in Cuba"</ref>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
"How can it be 'mutually beneficial' to sell at world market prices the raw materials that cost the underdeveloped countries immeasurable sweat and suffering, and to buy at world market prices the machinery produced in today's big automated factories?" 
— Che Guevara <ref>[http://www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/1965/02/24.htm "At the Afro-Asian Conference in Algeria"] speech by Che Guevara to the Second Economic Seminar of Afro-Asian Solidarity in Algiers, Algeria on February 24, 1965.</ref>
</blockquote>

"To trade or not to trade", that may be the question. The modern debate in this regard focuses often on intellectual property rights because ideas are increasingly becoming objects of trade, and the technology now exists to transform ideas into commodities much more easily.

===Pseudo-commodities===
Marx acknowledged explicitly that not all commodities are products of human labour; all kinds of things can be traded "as if" they are commodities, so long as property rights can be attached to them. These are "fictitious commodities" or "pseudo-commodities" or "fiduciary commodities", i.e. their existence as commodities is only nominal or conventional. They may not even be tangible objects, but exist only ideally. A property right or financial claim, for instance, may be traded as a commodity. [[Cryptocurrency|Bitcoins and NFTs]] as well as many financial products, like mortgages and shares act this way.

===Forms of commodity trade===
The 7 basic forms of commodity trade are summarized below. The letter M stands for money and C for commodity.

*M-C (an act of purchase: a sum of money purchases a commodity,or "money is changed into a commodity")
*C-M (an act of sale: a commodity is sold for money)
*M-M' (a sum of money is lent out at interest to obtain more money, or, one currency or financial claim is traded for another. "Money begets money.")
*C-C' (counter-trade, in which a commodity trades directly for a different commodity, with money possibly being used as an accounting referent, for example, food for oil, or weapons for diamonds)
*C-M-C' (a commodity is sold for money, which buys another, different commodity with an equal or higher value)
*M-C-M' (money is used to buy a commodity which is resold to obtain a larger sum of money)
*M-C...P...-C'-M' (money buys means of production and labour power used in production to create a new commodity, which is sold for more money than the original outlay. "The circular course of [[capital]]")<ref>Karl Marx,
Capital: Volume I, pp. 147-155 and "Capital" as contained in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 35, pp. 155-61. 
On M-C-P-C-M see Karl Marx, Capital: Volume II (International Publishers: New York, 1967) p 56.</ref>

The dots in the last-mentioned circuit ("...") indicate that a value-forming process (production, "P") occurs in between purchase of commodities and the sales of different commodities. C-M-C' and M-C-M' are the circuits in [[merchant capitalism]]. The final circuit (M-C...P...-C'-M'), which involves capitalist production, is characteristic of fully developed capitalism.

===Cost structure of commodities===
Karl Marx claims that the value of a commodity is reducible to four components:

*[[variable capital]] (labour costs)
*[[constant capital]] (costs of materials and equipment)
*[[faux frais of production]] (incidental expenses which cost labour-time)
*[[surplus value]] (revenue going to the capitalists – profit, interest, rent).

In capitalism, Marx argues, commodity values are commercially expressed as the [[prices of production]] of commodities (cost-price + average profit). Prices of production are established jointly by average input costs ''and'' by the ruling profit margins applying to outputs sold. They reflect the fact that production has become totally integrated into the circuits of commodity trade, in which [[capital accumulation]] becomes the dominant motive. But what prices of production simultaneously hide is the social nature of the [[valorisation]] process, i.e. how an increase in capital-value occurs through production.

Likewise, in considering the gross output of capitalist production in an economy as a whole, Marx divides its value into these four components. He argues that the total new value added in production, which he calls the [[value product]], consists of the equivalent of variable capital, plus surplus value. Thus, the workers produce by their labor both a new value equal to their own wages, plus an additional new value which is claimed by capitalists by virtue of their ownership and supply of productive capital.

By producing new capital in the form of new commodities, Marx argues the working class continuously [[Reproduction |reproduces]] the capitalist relations of production; by their work, workers create a new value distributed as both labour-income and property-income. If, as free workers, they choose to stop working, the system begins to break down; hence, capitalist civilisation strongly emphasizes the [[work ethic]], regardless of religious belief. People must work, because work is the source of new value, profits and capital.

=== Commodity production under socialism ===
Commodity production continues under [[socialism]] as collective farms sell their produce to cities. It does not exist in the final stage of [[communism]].<ref>{{Citation|author=[[Joseph Stalin]]|year=1952|title=Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR|chapter=Commodity Production Under Socialism|chapter-url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1951/economic-problems/ch03.htm|mia=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1951/economic-problems/index.htm}}</ref>

==Further reading==
*Most of Marx's works can be viewed for free at [http://marxists.org/archive/marx/works/subject/economy/index.htm Marxists.org] . Of particular relevance are:
** ''Contribution to a Critique of Political Economy''
** Commodities - from the first chapter of ''Das Kapital''
* A useful commentary on the Marxian concept is provided in: Costas Lapavitsas, "Commodities and Gifts: Why Commodities Represent More than Market Relations". ''Science & Society'', Vol 68, # 1, Spring 2004
* See also Jack P. Manno, ''Privileged Goods: Commoditization and Its Impact on Environment and Society''. CRC Press, 1999.
* Marxists.org, ''Encyclopedia of Marxism'', [http://marxists.org/glossary/terms/c/o.htm#commodity "Commodity"]

==Notes==
<references/>
== References ==
<references />
[[Category:Marxist terminology]] [[Category:Political economy]] [[Category:Marxian economics]] [[Category:Capitalism]]
[[Category:Articles containing information from Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Marxist terminology]] [[Category:Political economy]] [[Category:Marxian economics]] [[Category:Capitalism]]
[[Category:Articles containing information from Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Capital volume I concepts]]

Red Army Faction

2025-02-18T18:22:06Z

71.64.27.238: spelling

{{Infobox guerilla organization|name=Red Army Faction|native_name=Rote Armee Fraktion|logo=Red Army Faction.png|founders=[[Andreas Baader]] [[Hans-Jürgen Bäcker]] [[Ingeborg Barz]] [[Monika Berberich]] [[Gudrun Ensslin]] [[Irene Goergens]] [[Wolfgang Grundmann]] [[Peter Homann]] [[Horst Mahler]] [[Ulrike Meinhof]] [[Astrid Proll]] [[Ingrid Schubert]]|dates=14 May 1970 – 20 April 1998|opponents=[[File:Flag of Germany.svg|20px]][[Federal Republic of Germany|FRG]] [[File:Flag of NATO.png|20px]][[NATO]]|ideology=[[Communism|Revolutionary Socialism]] [[Anti-fascism|Anti-Fascism]] [[Marxism-Leninism]] [[Mao Zedong Thought]]|allies=[[File:GDR flag.png|20px]][[GDR]] [[2 June Movement]] [[Revolutionary Cells]] [[Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine]] [[Black September Organization]]|leaders=Horizontally organized - prominent members at different points included: '''First Generation''' Ulrike Meinhof Andreas Baader Gudrun Ensslin Horst Mahler [[Holger Meins]] [[Jan-Carl Raspe]] '''Second Generation''' [[Brigitte Mohnhaupt]] '''Third Generation''' [[Wolfgang Grams]] [[Birgit Hogefeld]]|war=[[Guerilla Conflict in the Federal Republic of Germany]]}}

The '''Red Army Faction''' ([[German language|German]]: ''Rote Armee Fraktion''; '''RAF'''), alternatively translated as Red Army Fraction, was a [[Communism|communist]] [[Urban guerrilla warfare|urban guerrilla]] organization in [[West Germany]].

They participated in many actions against Imperialist and Capitalist forces, including the bombings of US Army bases and police stations, an attack on the West German embassy in Sweden, the killing of Nazi lawyer and federal prosecutor general Siegfried Buback and prominent Nazi Hanns-Martin Schleyer.

After the imprisonment of many of their leaders, many of their allies and supporters around the world took action to try to free them, including the hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 181, in which the freedom of RAF prisoners was a demand. In order to stop these efforts, the West German government, possibly with the help of allies in Nato, murdered Ulrike Meinhof in 1976 and later on 17 October 1977 murdered Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe, with Irmgard Möller surviving. These deaths were all called suicides.<ref>{{Citation|author=Jutta Ditfurth|year=2007|title=Ulrike Meinhof: The Biography|pdf=https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.jutta-ditfurth.de/ulrike-meinhof/Presse/Goeteborgsposten-engl-Ditfurth-Meinhof-20071110.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwikxZvino2FAxWaQzABHYPEA2QQFnoECBYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1QDfxAz_bYpzOh2NQs7yuK|trans-title=Ulrike Meinhof: Die Biographie|trans-lang=German}}</ref>

After the deaths of these members the Red Army Faction continued to carry out attacks until it was dissolved in 1998.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Britannica|title=Rise and Fall of the Red Army Faction|url=https://www.britannica.com/video/180279/Red-Army-Faction-rise-prominence-West-German}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|author=Kate Connolly|newspaper=The Guardian|title=Terrorist chic or debunking of a myth? Baader Meinhof film splits Germany|date=2008-9-10|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/sep/25/germany#:~:text=Baader%20Meinhof%20film%20splits%20Germany,-This%20article%20is&text=The%20bloody%20legacy%20of%20the,myth%20of%201970s%20terrorist%20chic.}}</ref>

== Background ==

=== West German student sovement ===
''See main article: [[West German Student Movement]]''

The [[Socialist German Students' Federation|Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund]] (Socialist German Students' Federation, SDS) was founded in 1946 as the youth wing of the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democratic Party]] (SDP). It moved towards the left, away from the mainstream SDP, beginning in the late 1950s, with the group adopting stances against nuclear weapons, calling for the withdrawal of France from Algeria, and opposing militarism at its 1958 conference. This move to the left was countered in May of 1960 by the forming of the [[Social Democratic Student Federation|Sozialdemokratischer Hochschulbund]] (Social Democratic Student Federation, SHB) by supporters of the SPD party line. In response to this move the left of the SPD formed another organization, [[Society for the Promotion of Socialism]] (SF), in October 1961. In order to stop the leftward and anti-party-establishment drift of the student groups, the SPD expelled SF and the SDS from the party in late 1961. The SDS continued to be a powerful force in student politics in the years to come, while continuing to pull the SHB and other pro SPD groups left.<ref name=":0">{{Citation|author=Red Army Faction - compiled and translated by J. Smith and Andre Moncourt|year=2009|title=The Red Army Faction: A Documentary History - Volume 1: Projectiles for the People|title-url=https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:The_Red_Army_Faction:_A_Documentary_History_-_Volume_1:_Projectiles_for_the_People|chapter=The Re-Emergence of Revolutionary Politics in West Germany|chapter-url=https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:The_Red_Army_Faction:_A_Documentary_History_-_Volume_1:_Projectiles_for_the_People#2_-_The_Re-Emergence_of_Revolutionary_Politics_in_West_Germany}}</ref>

Young people in West Germany were drawn to the growing radical left movement for several reasons. Repressive and socially conservative laws and still ever present antisemitism and pro-Fascist sentiments in the older generations, as well as the growing worldwide resistance to United States imperialism and imperialist wars.<ref name=":0" />

In December 1964 [[Moise Tschombe]], Congolese dictator and leader of the coup that resulted in the death of Socialist and anti-imperialist leader [[Patrice Lumumba]], visited West Berlin. This visit was met by large protests, with the SDS playing a major role. The protests faced police repression, and the protesters fought back, setting the scene for the later anti-imperialist movements of the decade.<ref name=":0" />

As the left grew more popular, the SPD further alienated younger and more progressive sections of society by entering into the [[Grand Coalition]] with the [[Christian Democratic Union]] (CDU) and the [[Christian Social Union]] (CSU), two reactionary parties with many former Nazis in their ranks. In response to this, the [[Außerparlamentarische Opposition]] (Extra-Parliamentary Opposition, APO) was created.<ref name=":0" />

On 2 June 1967, thousands of demonstrators protested against a visit by the Shah of Iran. They wore masks of the Shah and his wife and pelted the pair with rotten tomatoes. In response the police, as well as the Iranian intelligence agency [[SAVAK]], attacked protesters, leading to a battle which ended with 44 arrests, 44 injuries, and one student dead, [[Benno Ohnesorg]], who was shot in the back of the head by Karl-Heinz Kurras.<ref name=":0" />

The police murder sparked even larger protests, with between 100,000 and 200,000 students taking part. The SDS and other left organizations grew rapidly and began to experiment with new organizational strategies and chapters outside of universities.<ref name=":0" />

Demonstrations were banned in West Berlin on 3 June, with eight protesters being arrested the next day. Then on 5 June, the [[Zionist Entity]] attacked Egypt's air bases and soon destroyed it and its allies militaries in the [[Six-Day War]]. This solidified the Anti-Zionist sentiments in the SDS and further cemented its anti-imperialism.<ref name=":0" />

On 17 and 18 February 1968, 5,000 people attended the International Congress on Vietnam in West Berlin. After the congress a demonstration of more than 12,000 people took place.<ref name=":0" />

The West German press, largely controlled by businessman [[Axel Springer|Axel Springer's]] corporation, increased its attacks on the left. This culminated on 11 April, when right-wing worker named Josef Bachmann attempted to kill [[Rudi Dutschke]], shooting him three times, once in the head, nearly killing him. He later confessed that his information leading to the act was taken from [[Bild Zeitung|''Bild Zeitung'']], a Springer outlet.<ref name=":0" />

The attack, less than a week after the murder of [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] in the United States, radicalized many, leading to increased protests, with 300,000 people participating in marches the next weekend in favor of peace and now against the Springer corporation. Two people were killed by police during the wave of protests, and the Springer corporation began to become the target of direct attacks. By the end of it more than 250,000 dm of Springer property was damaged or destroyed, a serious blow to the propagandists.<ref name=":0" />

On 31 May the [[Notstandgesetze]] (Emergency Powers Act) was passed. It gave the state additional power to suppress protests and allowed increased tapping of phones and stealing of mail. The passing of the act led to even more protests, with tens of thousands demonstrating and tens of thousands more staging a one-day strike in opposition to the law.<ref name=":0" />

Further protests broke out with the attempts to disbar left-wing lawyer [[Horst Mahler]]. These protests culminated in the [[Battle of Tegeler Weg]], where about 1,500 protesters, with cobblestone and wooden two-by-fours, and police with water cannons, tear gas, and clubs, fought throughout the night on 3 November. Ten police and 21 demonstrators were hospitalized and 46 were arrested. Mahler was not disbarred.<ref name=":0" />

In October 1969 the Grand Coalition ended and the SDP, with [[Willy Brandt]] as Chancellor, came into power. Some demands of the student movement were given in to, but the tensions continued.<ref name=":0" />

In March 1970 the SDS dissolved after a congress in Frankfurt.

=== Konkret ===
''See main article: [[Konkret]]''

''[[Konkret]]'' was a Hamburg based magazine published by [[Klaus Rainer Röhl]]. It began publishing in 1957 and was funded in part by the remnants of the KPD based in exile in the GDR. The magazine focused on the left wing issues of the time and became popular within the early student movement. It's chief editor was leftist journalist and later leader of the Red Army Faction [[Ulrike Meinhof]]. She had been active in the SDS from 1957 and had joined the KPD in 1959. In 1961 she married Röhl in 1961.<ref name=":0" />

In 1964, amidst the Sino-Soviet Split, the magazine faced serious challenged and drastic changes. Meinhof and ''konkret'' as a whole took the side of China, despite their funding from the Soviet aligned KPD. This led to them losing its funding from the KPD and the GDR. <ref name=":0" />

In 1969 Meinhof left konkret.<ref name=":0" />

=== West Berlin ===
West Berlin, due to its status as technically part of the Federal Republic of Germany, while being disconnected socially and politically, as well as physically, grew to be a center of the left in Germany. Organizations like [[Kommune 1]], the Republican Clubs, various women's communes and student groups began to further the left movement, though not without flaws.<ref name=":0" />

=== Problems within the student movement ===

==== Male supremacy ====
Chauvinism, male supremacy, and misogyny, though opposed by many, were prevalent within some elements of the student movement. This led a decline in the number of women in the SDS and APO and the growth of smaller feminist groups.<ref name=":0" /> In addition to this, the Kommune 1 movement and other similar Anarchist-oriented groupings within the student movement containing male-oriented and chauvinist distortions of the sexual revolution.<ref name=":1">{{Citation|author=Red Army Faction - compiled and translated by J. Smith and Andre Moncourt|year=2009|title=The Red Army Faction: A Documentary History - Volume 1: Projectiles for the People|title-url=https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:The_Red_Army_Faction:_A_Documentary_History_-_Volume_1:_Projectiles_for_the_People|chapter=Taking Up The Gun|chapter-url=https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:The_Red_Army_Faction:_A_Documentary_History_-_Volume_1:_Projectiles_for_the_People#Taking_Up_The_Gun}}</ref>

==== Division ====
The student movement was divided along ideological lines, like most of the left in the world at that time. Anarchist groups grew apart from Marxist-oriented groups, forming the ''Sponti'' left. Division over the issue of the German Democratic Republic led to little growth within the newly founded [[German Communist Party]] (DKP), a re-establishment of the [[Communist Party of Germany]] (KPD). Division stemming from the [[Sino-Soviet Split]] also was prevalent, with groups following [[Marxism-Leninism-Maoism]] and [[Mao Zedong Thought]] feuding with pro-Soviet sections of the movement.<ref name=":0" />

==== Lack of working class representation ====
The most serious problem of the student movement was the class makeup of the students in the FRG at the time. University students were overwhelmingly from [[petit bourgeoisie]] or [[Labor aristocracy|labor aristocratic]] backgrounds, with only 7% being from working class families. This led the the FRG being able to buy out many within the movement with ease: two months after the dissolution of the SDS, amnesty was granted to most protesters in prison. This led to the near complete destruction of the student movement. The student movement was not entirely from these backgrounds. In the protests against the Springer corporation after the attempted murder of Rudi Dutschke only a minority of those arrested were university students, with most being working-class youth living in West Berlin.<ref name=":0" />

=== The move to violent action ===
In September 1968 student movement political leaders Rudi Dutschke and [[Hans-Jürgen Krahl]] first proposed the idea of building left-wing urban guerilla, though this would not be further developed for some time.<ref name=":0" />

==== Early Anarchist actions ====
The first organized revolutionary violence was carried out by individuals within Kommune 1. They formed the Anarchist 'Central Committee of the Roaming Hash Rebels'. The group carried out actions under several different names over its existence. Under the name [[Tupamaros-West Berlin]], a firebombing attempt on a Jewish cultural center was carried out and widely criticized from both within and without the movement, and the group essentially dissolved soon after.<ref name=":1" />

The short-lived grouping eventually evolved into the [[2nd of June Movement]] in 1972, which was closely aligned with the RAF.<ref name=":1" />

==== Frankfurt firebombing and trial ====
''See main article: [[1968 Frankfurt department store bombings and trial]]''

On 3 April 1968, the most important development of the revolutionary struggle in relation to the Red Army Faction occurred. Future RAF members [[Gudrun Ensslin]] and [[Andreas Baader]], along with [[Horst Söhnlein]] and [[Thorwald Proll]], who were in Frankfurt at for an SDS conference, firebombed two department stores. They were all arrested 2 days later on 5 April.<ref name=":1" />

The attack was poorly planned; there was no communiqué, little attempt to avoid arrest, and after their capture, little unified strategy in court. Gudrun Ensslin stated that the attack was "in protest against people’s indifference to the murder of the Vietnamese." She also echoed a core belief of the later RAF, that "words are useless without action."<ref name=":1" />

In court they were represented by fellow future RAF leader Horst Mahler, who at that point was well-known as a leftist lawyer.<ref name=":1" />

They were sentenced to three years in prison each in October. They appealed the sentence, but were imprisoned until June 1969. They were then released until the court came to a decision on the appeal. Ensslin, Baader, and Proll began to work within the 'apprentices' collectives', which consisted of runaways from state homes. In November the court denied their appeal. Söhnlein turned himself in, the other three went on the run. Proll soon left the group, but his sister [[Astrid Proll]], who later became a prominent member of the RAF, joined Baader and Ensslin.<ref name=":1" />

They travelled to France and then to Italy before returning to West Berlin, and reconnected with Mahler. He was trying at that point to create a guerilla movement, and joined forces with the three to pursue this. They lived in various safehouses with sympathetic, sometimes prominent, people. One of these people was Ulrike Meinhof.<ref name=":1" />

On 3 April 1970, Andreas Baader was recaptured in West Berlin, set up by longtime informant [[Peter Urbach]]. The subsequent actions by his comrades served as the beginning of the Red Army Faction.<ref name=":1" />

== Early Days of the RAF ==

=== The action to free Andreas Baader ===
''See main article: [[Action to free Andreas Baader]]''

Immedietely after Baader's capture planning to free him began. Eventually it was decided that Ulrike Meinhof would use her reputation to have Baader allowed out to meet with her in a library. This was done with the pretext of research for a book on youth homes, which was a subject Meinhof had covered extensively. Once they were there a group would storm the building, threaten the guards with weapons, and finally make their escape.<ref name=":1" />

On 14 May Baader was allowed out, escorted by armed guards. He met Meinhof at the Institute for Social Issues Library in West Berlin. Once they were there [[Irene Goergens]] and [[Ingrid Schubert]] entered the building, followed by Gudrun Ensslin and an unknown man, both masked and armed. A librarian attempted to intervene and was shot in the liver. After this the guards opened fire, but missed all of them. The four, now joined by Baader and Meinhof, jumped out of the window and into the getaway car waiting for them.<ref name=":1" />

The action gained widespread media attention very quickly, and Meinhof, who before was not fully involved with the underground of the group and had been continuing her public life until then, was forced to go underground.<ref name=":1" />

In response to the action the West Berlin police were supplies hand grenades, semiautomatic revolvers, and submachine guns, in an precedented and shocking move for many on the left.<ref name=":1" />

The group published [[Library:The Red Army Faction: A Documentary History - Volume 1: Projectiles for the People#Build the Red Army!|Build the Red Army]] in the radical magazine ''[[883]]'', explaining the purpose of the action and denouncing those on the left who criticized revolutionary violence.<ref name=":1" />

Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin, Horst Mahler, Ingrid Schubert, Astrid Proll, Irene Goergens,[[Monika Berberich]], [[Hans-Jürgen Bäcker]], [[Ingeborg Barz]], [[Wolfgang Grundmann]], [[Peter Homann]] were known founding members of the Red Army Faction.<ref name=":1" />

=== In Jordan ===
After the action to liberate Baader, more than a dozen RAF members travelled to Jordan to receive training from the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]]. At this time the PLO in Jordan, which had a large Palestinian presence in the aftermath of the [[Nakba]], trained many leftist guerilla organizations throughout the world, including even some West German groups previously. By the end of the summer of 1970 the RAF members travelled back to West Berlin through the GDR.<ref name=":1" />

=== Back in West Berlin and early arrests ===
Soon the RAF began to obtain weapons, cars, and safehouses, as well as new members and supporters. On 29 September 1970, three banks were robbed by the RAF in collaboration with the Roaming Hash Rebels grouping. More than 220,000 dm (about 60,000 US dollars then, more than 480,000 US dollars in May 2024<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=CPI Inflation Calculator|title=CPI Inflation Calculator|url=https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=60000&year1=197009&year2=202405}}</ref>) were stolen by the group.<ref name=":1" />

On 8 October, RAF members Monika Berberich, Horst Mahler, Irene Goergens, [[Brigitte Asdonk]], and Ingrid Schubert were arrested in West Berlin after an anonymous tip about two RAF safehouses was received by police. Hans-Jürgen Bäcker was suspected as having been the source of the tip, and was confronted by other members. He denied the claims, but left the RAF.<ref name=":1" />

After the arrests the RAF moved out of West Berlin. Once arriving in West Germany, they burglarized the town halls of two small towns, stealing ID cards, passports, official stamps, and other needed materials.<ref name=":1" />

On 20 December RAF members [[Ali Jensen]] and [[Beate Sturm]] and non-member [[Karl-Heinz Ruhland]] were stopped by police along. Ruhland surrendered, but the others fled. The next day they were arrested along with fellow member [[Uli Scholze]]. Ruhland would later cooperate with the police.<ref name=":1" />

On 10 February 1971 Astrid Proll and [[Manfred Grashof]] were stopped by police. The police opened fire unprovoked, but the two managed to escape.<ref name=":1" />

The trial of Mahler, Goergens, and Schubert began on 1 March in West Berlin. They were charged in relation to the action to free Baader, with Goergens and Schubert charged with attempted murder and Mahler with accessory to the action and illegal possession of a firearm.<ref name=":1" />

=== Early anti-RAF propaganda campaign and further arrests ===
Around this time the first psychological warfare campaign against the RAF began. In February, the police announced that the RAF planned to kidnap FRG Chancellor Willy Brandt. This claim was quickly refuted by the RAF.<ref name=":1" />

On 25 February, a seven-year-old boy was kidnapped, with one of the ransom demands being the release of Mahler. Mahler denounced the kidnapping and called for the boys release. The lawyer who delivered the ransom money to the group reported that the kidnappers were not leftists at all, let alone members of the RAF, and were rather a right-wing group.<ref name=":1" />

On 25 April, it was reported that a university professor and his friend were kidnapped. The alleged kidnappers demanded the release of Mahler, Schubert, and Georgens, and threatened to kill them if they were not released. Two days later, the two alleged victims were found, with no kidnappers nearby. They admitted it was staged in the hopes of turning public opinion against the RAF and the nominally left-wing SPD. The leader of the plan was [[Jürgen Rieger]], a fascist militant who was imprisoned for six months for the plot.<ref name=":1" />

While the trial was occurring various members of the RAF were arrested. On 12 April, [[Ilse Stachowiak]], likely the youngest member of the group, who joined at 16-years-old, was arrested in Frankfurt. One day later [[Rolf Heissler]] was arrested during a bank robbery attempt in Munich. On 6 May Astrid Proll was arrested at a Hamburg gas station.<ref name=":1" />

In late May the trial ended. Goergens were sentenced to four years and Schubert to six. As the trial ended rioting broke out in West Berlin. The defendants would have additional sentences added on in relation to the bank robberies and other RAF actions, with Mahler eventually receiving 14 years in prison by 1974.<ref name=":1" />

Around this time Horst Mahler released a document titled ''Regarding the Armed Struggle in West Europe''. It was portrayed as being an official Red Army Faction statement and published in a radical left magazine under the title ''New Traffic Regulations'' in order to avoid immediate suppression. In response to this document, which the majority of the RAF leadership opposed, ''The Urban Guerilla Concept'' was published widely, both in radical and mainstream publications. The document formed the basis of the RAF's urban guerilla strategy and served as their most important theoretical document, being widely read, translated, and used by revolutionaries around the world.<ref name=":1" />

== Organized state repression and first RAF deaths ==
The first Red Army Faction martyr was [[Petra Schelm]] , who was murdered by police on 15 July 1971. The West German government sent three thousand armed police officers to patrol cities and set up checkpoints on roads across the north of the FRG. These state repression efforts were named Operation Cobra. Schelm and a comrade, [[Werner Hoppe]], were stopped at one such checkpoint in Hamburg. Hoppe surrendered and was captured, Schelm was shot in the head and killed at the age of 19.<ref name=":2">{{Citation|author=Red Army Faction - compiled and translated by J. Smith and Andre Moncourt|year=2009|title=The Red Army Faction: A Documentary History - Volume 1: Projectiles for the People|title-url=https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:The_Red_Army_Faction:_A_Documentary_History_-_Volume_1:_Projectiles_for_the_People|chapter=Building a Base and Serving the People|chapter-url=https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:The_Red_Army_Faction:_A_Documentary_History_-_Volume_1:_Projectiles_for_the_People#4_-_Building_a_Base_and_%22Serving_the_People%22}}</ref>

The murder led to widespread support among the German working class and especially among proletarian youths for the RAF, with 40 percent of respondents in one survey stating that the RAF's actions were political rather than criminal in nature. This led to an abundance of sympathizers among the general public who were willing to harbor RAF fugitives.<ref name=":2" />

Around this time, many former members of the [[Socialist Patients Collective]] (SPK), a Radical [[New Left]] therapy and medical group, joined the RAF after the arrest of the groups leader and the groups subsequent dissolution in Summer 1971. Many former SPK members would become prominent members of the RAF.<ref name=":2" />

==== First RAF killings ====
The first police death was on 22 October. Former SPK member [[Margrit Schiller]] was being attacked by two police officers, and two RAF members including [[Gerhard Müller]] came to their comrade's defense. Police officer Norbert Schmid was killed in the fighting, and soon after Schiller was captured as well, with her arrest broadcast on live TV.<ref name=":2" />

Two months later, on 22 December, a second police officer, Herbert Schoner, was killed during a bank robbery in Kaiserslautern. He knocked on the window of the getaway vehicle outside of the bank during the robbery and was shot three times. The killing was quickly exploited by bourgeoise media to demonize the RAF.<ref name=":2" />

=== Unprovoked murders by police ===
The first was on 4 December, when police stopped a car carrying two guerillas of the [[2nd of June Movement]] Anarchist group, [[Bommi Baumann]] and [[Georg von Rauch]], in West Berlin. Von Raunch was murdered by police immediately with no provocation.<ref name=":2" />

Then, on 1 March 1972 a seventeen-year-old in West Berlin named Richard Epple was murdered by police machine gun fire after he ran through a police checkpoint. He was not a member of the RAF or of the radical left at all, but instead was driving without a license.<ref name=":2" />

On 25 June, Scottish businessman Ian Macleod was shot by police as he stood behind his bedroom door. He was either a non-member of the RAF or a British spy attempting to infiltrate the group, and either way he was killed without any provocation.<ref name=":2" />

The three police murders led to widespread protest and additional support for the RAF.<ref name=":2" />

=== Further police repression ===
In March 1972 another propaganda effort against the RAF began. Karl-Heinz Ruhland, who was arrested several months before, began to work for police after his trial ended that month, leading to leniency for him in sentencing. He was only loosely connected to the group, but provided evidence, sometimes real, but most of the time fabricated. This included testifying against RAF members in trial and publicly support police narratives, changing his story as the police story changed.<ref name=":2" />

On 2 March 1972 [[Tommy Weissbecker]] was murdered by police in Augsburg at 23-years-old. His comrade [[Carmen Roll]] was captured during the same engagement. The killing occured as the pair left Weissbecker's apartment. Weissbecker was under surveillance at the time. In response the 2nd of June Movement bombed the police headquarters in West Berlin was bombed. Roll was drugged while imprisoned in an effort to force her to provide information. This almost lead to her death on 16 March.<ref name=":2" />

RAF members [[Manfred Grashof]] and [[Wolfgang Grundmann]] feared their cover was blown, as the safehouse they were staying at had been rented out by Weissbecker. They were correct. They returned to the building to collect materials they had left there before planning to flee to another safehouse, and when they returned three police were waiting. One officer shot Grasof three times, and in response Grashof, aiming blindly in the dark building, shot and killed police commissioner [[Hans Eckardt]]. Both were subsequently captured.<ref name=":2" />

=== Crackdown on the legal left and broader police repression ===
The [[Federal Criminal Bureau]] appointed [[Horst Herold]] Chief Commissioner in September 1971. He led the creation of the Baader-Meinhof Special Commission in order to combat the guerilla and created a computerized database of fingerprints, names, organizations, photographs, and other information.<ref name=":2" />

On 28 January 1972 the Anti-Radical Act was passed. Supported by all three major parties in the FRG, the act prohibited known Socialists, Communists, and other leftists from working in the public sector, which included 14% of the workforce. The Verfassungsschutz, the FRG's political police force, also increased its operations, which included wiretapping and informers.<ref name=":2" />

=== ''Serve the People'' and early traitors ===
In April 1972 [[Library:The Red Army Faction: A Documentary History - Volume 1: Projectiles for the People#Building a Base and "Serving The People"#Serve the People: The Urban Guerilla and the Class Struggle|''Serve the People: The Urban Guerilla and the Class Struggle'']], it's longest theoretical document up to that point, which analyzed the events within West Germany in in 1971 and 1972, particularly the failed chemical worker's strike of 1971.<ref name=":2" />

The document also denounced traitors to the group including Karl-Heinz Ruhland, Beate Sturm, who provided information to the media which portrayed the RAF poorly, and Peter Homann, who kidnapped Ulrike Meinhof's children and brought them to their father Klaus Rainer Röhl.<ref name=":2" />

== May Offensive ==
''See main article: [[May offensive (RAF campaign)]]''

The May offensive of 1972 was the first major Red Army Faction campaign. It was in opposition to global imperialism, and the West German interests supporting it.<ref name=":3">{{Citation|author=Red Army Faction - compiled and translated by J. Smith and Andre Moncourt|year=2009|title=The Red Army Faction: A Documentary History Volume One: Projectiles for the People|title-url=https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:The_Red_Army_Faction:_A_Documentary_History_-_Volume_1:_Projectiles_for_the_People|chapter=The May Offensive: Bringing the War Home|chapter-url=https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:The_Red_Army_Faction:_A_Documentary_History_-_Volume_1:_Projectiles_for_the_People#5_-_The_May_Offensive:_Bringing_the_War_Home}}</ref>

The first attack occurred on 11, May, when the "Petra Schelm Commando", named after the RAF member martyred the year before, set off three bombs at the U.S. Army V Corps headquarters and the National Security Agency headquarters in Frankfurt. The attack resulted in the deaths of one soldier, Lieutenant Colonel Paul A. Bloomquist, as well as thirteen injuries and 300,000 dollars in damage.<ref name=":3" />

The second attack occurred the next day on the 12 May. The "Thomas Weissbecker Commando" bombed the outside of the police headquarters in Augsburg, Bavaria, resulting in one minor injury to an officer. In Munich, Bavaria's capital, a police building was car-bombed. The warning delivered by the Red Army Faction in the second bombing was not received by police in time to evacuate, and due to this twelve people were injured. The second bombing resulted in 150,000 dollars in damages. The bombings were in retaliation to the murder of Thomas Weissbecker that March.<ref name=":3" />

On 16 May, the "Manfred Grashof Commando" planted a bomb in Federal Supreme Court Judge Buddenber's car. The judge had been in charge of RAF cases. The bomb went off when his wife, Greta, went to pick up the judge from work. She was seriously injured, but survived the attack.<ref name=":3" />

On 19 May, the "2nd of June Commando" bombed the Springer Press building in Hamburg. Three bombs went off in total, one in the proofreaders' room and two in bathrooms, resulting in seventeen injuries. The bombings were in response to Springer newspaper's publishing of anti-left and imperialist propaganda. Springer ignored three warnings, which resulted in the injuries of workers. The fact that workers were injured led to infighting within the RAF and criticism of the RAF from the left at large.<ref name=":3" />

On 24 May, the "July 15 Commando", named after the date Petra Schelm was murdered, bombed the headquarters of the U.S. Army in Europe in Heidelberg. Two car bombs were set off near the data processing center and the officers' club at the Campbell Barracks, set to go off while most people at the barracks had finished work and were away from the area. The bombing resulted in three deaths and six injuries of soldiers. The attack also destroyed a computer used to calculate carpet bombings of civilian areas in Vietnam.<ref name=":3" />

=== False bomb warning as a support tactic of the RAF ===

=== Reactions to the May offensive ===

== RAF in Prison and Outside Action ==

== German Autumn ==

== Stammheim Murders ==

== References ==
<references />
[[Category:Communist underground movements]]
[[Category:Socialism in Germany]]