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(THREAD) China, Mao & Germany
There's more to this than meets the eye https://www.dw.com/en/chinas-cultural-revolution-and-germany/a-19249889
There's more to this than meets the eye https://www.dw.com/en/chinas-cultural-revolution-and-germany/a-19249889
1/
To gain power Mao conducted âguerrilla wars deep in the countryside.â
"It was in the context of fighting with the numerically superior and better-equipped Guomindang forces that Mao developed and applied his theories of guerrilla warfare."
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/china/mao_guerrilla_warfare.pdf
To gain power Mao conducted âguerrilla wars deep in the countryside.â
"It was in the context of fighting with the numerically superior and better-equipped Guomindang forces that Mao developed and applied his theories of guerrilla warfare."
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/china/mao_guerrilla_warfare.pdf
2/ His followers were revolutionary zealots that encouraged âanarchic insubordinationâ and âa pathological suspicion of the educated"
3/
"After the European protest movement of the late 60s petered out, Cultural Revolution-inspired radicalism bled into urban terrorism in West Germany â the Red Army Faction (AKA the Baader-Meinhof group) caused 34 deaths in the 70s alone" https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/mar/16/onward-march-maoism-julia-lovell
"After the European protest movement of the late 60s petered out, Cultural Revolution-inspired radicalism bled into urban terrorism in West Germany â the Red Army Faction (AKA the Baader-Meinhof group) caused 34 deaths in the 70s alone" https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/mar/16/onward-march-maoism-julia-lovell
4/ The Red Army Faction "was born from the radical student movement of that period, the RAF comprised mainly middle-class youngsters who saw themselves as fighting a West German capitalist establishment.... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35354812
5/ "....which they apparently believed was little more than a reincarnation of the Third Reich."
Sound familiar?
Sound familiar?
6/ "At the height of its popularity, around a quarter of young West Germans expressed some sympathy for the group. Many condemned their tactics but understood their disgust with the new order, particularly one where former Nazis enjoyed prominent roles."
7/ "It was the 1967 killing by police of a young activist during a demonstration in Berlin against a visit by the Shah of Iran that apparently persuaded Andreas Baader that the post-war authorities were little better than that which they had replaced."
8/ "Vowing to mount a violent campaign, he started off in 1968 by detonating home-made bombs in two Frankfurt department stores." https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/sep/28/germany.terrorism
9/ "Arrested and imprisoned, he escaped in 1970 during a library visit with the help of a left-wing campaigning journalist - Ulrike Meinhof - and the Baader-Meinhof gang was firmly established in the public mind."
10/ "Afterwards the gang, now growing in numbers, went to Lebanon for military training with Palestinian guerrillas."
BLM in Palestine (....without the military training?) https://vimeo.com/116675694
BLM in Palestine (....without the military training?) https://vimeo.com/116675694
11/ "Back in Germany, the shooting war began with a series of spectacular bank raids and clashes with the police"
12/ "A group calling itself the âRed Army Actionâ claimed re sponsibility for the three bombs that shattered the headquarters and officers club in Frankfurt on May 11. The group also said it bombed German police buildings May 12 in Munich and Augsburg." https://www.nytimes.com/1972/05/25/archives/blasts-at-us-base-in-germany-kill-3.html
13/ 1975: they occupied the West German embassy in Stockholm. 4 were killed (2 RAF members). http://germanguerilla.com/1975/04/24/occupation-of-the-west-german-embassy-in-stockholm/
14/ In 1975 the trial of the Stammheim three, plus Jan-Carl Raspe began its three-year course.
15/ In 1976 Ulrike Meinhof hung herself. Meinhof was a Maoist journalist that wrote for Konkret magazine for 10 years.
She drafted the RAF manifesto the Urban Guerilla Concept in 1971
https://socialhistoryportal.org/sites/default/files/raf/en/0019710501%2520EN_2.pdf
She drafted the RAF manifesto the Urban Guerilla Concept in 1971
https://socialhistoryportal.org/sites/default/files/raf/en/0019710501%2520EN_2.pdf
16/ the manifesto started with a quote by Mao
"I hold that it is bad as far as we are concerned if a person, a political party, an army or a school is not attacked by the enemy, for in that case it would definitely mean that we have sunk to the level of the enemy....."
"I hold that it is bad as far as we are concerned if a person, a political party, an army or a school is not attacked by the enemy, for in that case it would definitely mean that we have sunk to the level of the enemy....."
17/ "It is good if we are attacked by the enemy,
since it proves that we have drawn a clear dividing line between the enemy and ourselves. It is still better if the enemy attacks us wildly and paints us as utterly black and without a single virtue;"
since it proves that we have drawn a clear dividing line between the enemy and ourselves. It is still better if the enemy attacks us wildly and paints us as utterly black and without a single virtue;"
18/ "it demonstrates that we have not only drawn a clear dividing line between the enemy and ourselves but have achieved spectacular successes in our work."
Mao tse Tung
May 26, 1939
Mao tse Tung
May 26, 1939
19/ The RAF didn't fall apart after Meinhof's suicide. In fact despite the nickname Baader-Meinhof Group - Ulrike Meinhof was not in charge.
20/ Google seems to discouraging people from finding out much information about the cultural revolution that unfolded in China over a 10 year period.
What I can find today differs from what I could find years ago. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-07-24-mn-4710-story.html
What I can find today differs from what I could find years ago. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-07-24-mn-4710-story.html
21/ âAt the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, young Red Guards went from house to house, seeking to eradicate all vestiges of what they called âthe four âoldsâ ââold ideas, old customs, old culture and old habits."
Sound familiar?
Sound familiar?
22/ "Nothing better exemplified the four olds than books.â â Jim Mann of the Los Angeles Times, 1985
23/ Mao urged young people to rise up against their parents & teachers.....
....the result was 7.73 million "abnormal deaths" (Rummel, 1991: 253)
https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/chronology-mass-killings-during-chinese-cultural-revolution-1966-1976.html
....the result was 7.73 million "abnormal deaths" (Rummel, 1991: 253)
https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/chronology-mass-killings-during-chinese-cultural-revolution-1966-1976.html
24/ Mao was purging people who weren't adhering to his socialist ideals after the Great Leap Forward (1958 â 1962)
"Chief changes in the lives of rural Chinese people included the incremental introduction of mandatory agricultural collectivization."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward
"Chief changes in the lives of rural Chinese people included the incremental introduction of mandatory agricultural collectivization."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward
25/ "Private farming was prohibited, and those engaged in it were persecuted and labeled counter-revolutionaries."
26/ "The Great Leap Forward produced the greatest famine in human history. ... The Communist Government set impossible goals for grain production based off of military needs. In order to meet these goals, the people worked harder and lied about their actual production."
27/ "The famine that killed up to 45 million people remains a taboo subject in China 50 years on. Author Yang Jisheng is determined to change that with his book, Tombstone" https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jan/01/china-great-famine-book-tombstone
28/ So as you can imagine Mao would have to do some serious "convincing" to keep the population in line.
The ignorance of the wealthy young people that call themselves Maoists is staggering.
The ignorance of the wealthy young people that call themselves Maoists is staggering.
29/ So let's go back to the RAF "in 1977 they launched the crescendo of horror and tragedy which is now remembered as 'the German Autumn' - although it began in spring." https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/sep/28/germany.terrorism
30/ The period was kicked off by the kidnapping and eventual execution of Hanns Martin Schleyer (president of major industrial associations & a member of the SS during WW2). He was seen as a symbol Nazism in the West Germany
31/ The group demanded the release of 11 Baader gang prisoners.
"There would be no prisoner release in exchange for Schleyer's freedom." https://www.dw.com/en/germany-terror-casualty-hanns-martin-schleyer-sacrificed-by-the-state/a-40340024
"There would be no prisoner release in exchange for Schleyer's freedom." https://www.dw.com/en/germany-terror-casualty-hanns-martin-schleyer-sacrificed-by-the-state/a-40340024
