On one side stood the 'terrorists', who were inspired by the West German Red Army Faction (Rote Armee Fraktion, RAF) and who saw the strategy of urban guerrilla warfare as a path to follow to overthrow capitalism, and on the other the 'economists', who wanted to focus on socioeconomic struggles.
At the same time two other Red Youth branches broke away, Rotterdam and Nijmegen, alongside the existing one in Eindhoven, where the leader was Henk Wubben.
Red Youth members received military training at Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine camps in South Yemen from RAF instructors.
[3] In September 1972 they blew up the car of the Eindhoven police commissioner, J. Odekerken, and the residence of the mayor, Herman Witte.
[1] After these attacks, in December 1972, Van Hoesel was arrested and was later sentenced to two years in jail for possession of weapons and illegal explosives.