Left-wing terrorism
[6] Left-wing terrorist groups and individuals have been influenced by various anarchist, communist and socialist currents, including Marxism (and further, Marxism–Leninism and Maoism).
[12] David Brannan writes that left-wing terrorists and insurgents do not tend to engage in indiscriminate attacks on the public because doing so not only runs contrary to their socialist ideals of being the protectors of the working class, which they espouse, they also do not want to alienate large swaths of the working population, because such organizations and individuals seek to gain their support.
[3][18] According to David C. Rapoport, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the modern wave of left-wing terrorism began with the hijacking of the El Al Flight 426, operated by a Boeing 707-458C en route from London to Tel Aviv via Rome, committed by three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in 1968.
Asian groups have included the Japanese Red Army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, although the latter organization later adopted nationalist terrorism.
In Latin America, groups that became actively involved in terrorism in the 1970s and 1980s included the Nicaraguan Sandinistas, the Peruvian Shining Path, the Uruguayan Tupamaros, and the Colombian 19th of April Movement.
[22] Other terrorist groups such as the small New World Liberation Front resorted to death threats, drive-by shootings and planting of pipe-bombs in the late 1970s.
[24] Incidents of left-wing terrorism dropped off at the end of the Cold War (circa 1989), partly due to the loss of support for communism.
[25] In October 2020, the killing of Aaron Danielson was added to the CSIS terrorism database as a deadly "far-left" attack, the first such incident in over two decades.
[30] Stefan M. Aubrey describes the Sandinistas, Shining Path, 19th of April Movement, and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) as the main organizations involved in left-wing terrorism in Latin America during the 1970s and 1980s.
Businesses operating in rural areas, including agricultural, oil, and mining interests, were required to pay "vaccines" (monthly payments) which "protected" them from subsequent attacks and kidnappings.
An additional, albeit less lucrative, source of revenue was highway blockades in which guerrillas stopped motorists and buses in order to confiscate jewelry and money.
[37] Peru, the European Union,[38] and Canada[39] likewise regard Shining Path as a terrorist group and prohibit providing funding or other financial support.
[40] The National Liberation Movement – Tupamaros was a Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla group in Uruguay that operated between the 1960s and early 1970s and was inspired by the Cuban Revolution.
[43] Major attacks include the bombing of the Bowling Club in Carrasco, the Taking of Pando and the murder of farmer Pascasio Báez.
[50][51] A Frontline magazine article calls the Bhamragad taluka, where the Madia Gond Adivasis live, the heart of the Naxalite-affected region in Maharashtra.
They aimed to overthrow Nepal's monarchy and parliamentary democracy, and to change Nepalese society, including a purge of the nation's elite class, a state takeover of private industry, and collectivization of agriculture.
CPN (Maoist) cadres also reportedly threw a bomb at students taking classes in a school in Khara, Rukum district.
Their major terrorist acts included an armed attack on the Tel Aviv airport, hijacking planes to Libya and Bangladesh, kidnapping the French ambassador to the Hague, and bombing a United Service Organizations (USO) nightclub in Naples, Italy.
[60] Typically small and urban-based, left-wing terrorist organizations in Europe have been committed to overthrowing their countries' governments and replacing them with regimes guided by Marxist–Leninist ideology.
Although none have achieved any degree of success in accomplishing their goals, they have caused serious security problems in Germany, Belgium, Italy, Greece, France, Turkey, Portugal and Spain.
Its last attack was committed in 2006, when GRAPO militants shot dead Ana Isabel Herrero, the owner of a temporary work agency in Zaragoza.
High-profile attacks carried out by the INLA include the Droppin Well bombing, the 1994 Shankill Road killings, and the assassinations of Airey Neave in 1979 and Billy Wright in 1997.
During The Troubles, between 1986-1992, the group was responsible for the deaths of 22 people, including Loyalist & Republican paramilitary members, British security forces and civilians.
[75] The Popular Forces 25 April (FP-25) was formed in Portugal under the leadership of Lt. Col. Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, who lead the Carnation Revolution in 1974.
[78] The Red Army Faction (RAF), which developed out of the Baader-Meinhof Group in Germany, carried out a series of terrorist attacks in the 1970s and remained active for over 20 years.
The RAF was organized into small isolated cells, and had connections with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Carlos the Jackal.
[79] The Red Brigades were founded in August 1970, mostly by former members of the Italian Communist Youth Federation who had been expelled from the parent party for extremist views.
