1978: A New Stage in the Class War? Selected Documents from the Spring Campaign of the Red Brigades, presents for the first time to English language readers a selection of documents on the strategic logic and conjunctural analysis behind the 1978 offensive of the Red Brigades which brought that organizations strategy of “attack on the heart of the state” to a climax and induced a national political crisis. The book includes:
- the February 1978 “Resolution of the Strategic Leadership” which presents the BR strategy of protracted armed struggle in the context of their analysis of the “imperialist state of the multinationals” and of the class composition of the Italian social formation.
- The nine communiques issued by the group during the captivity of Moro.
- The editorial “Achtung Banditi” from the June 1978 issue of the Marxist-Leninist journal Corrispondenza Internazionale which sharply criticizes the strategic line of the BR from a revolutionary perspective sympathetic to armed struggle.
- The March 1979 document “The Spring Campaign: Capture, Trial, and Execution of the President of the DC, Aldo Moro” which further clarifies what the BR meant by the “heart of the state”, criticizes the “anti-political” alternatives offered by elements within Autonomy and extensively discusses their understanding of how the national crisis developed as a result of their action.
Table of Contents
Acronym Key ......... 5
Introduction ......... 11
Chronology ......... 19
Resolution of the Strategic Directorate of the Red Brigades (February 1978) ......... 29
Part One ......... 31
The Imperialism of the Multinationals ......... 31
Imperialism and War ......... 33
The Imperialist State of the Multinationals ......... 35
Creation of An Imperialist Political Personnel ......... 36
The Rigid Centralization of the State Structure Under the Control of the Executive ......... 40
In the Imperialist State, Reformism and Annihilation Are Integrated Forms of the Same Function,
the Preventative Counter-Revolution ......... 42
The Imperialist State of the Multinationals Is
Neither Fascist Nor Social Democratic ......... 44
Industrial Restructuring ......... 50
Proletarian Violence and Imperialist Counter-Revolution ......... 55
A New Proletarian Figure: The “Political Criminal”
Or the Urban Guerrilla ......... 58
The Repressive Mutual Assistance Agreement
Between the Imperialist States ......... 59
From the Repressive Mutual Assistance Agreement to the Joint Organization of the Police ......... 62
Part Two ......... 63
The Apparatus of Preventative Counter-Revolution In Our Country ......... 63
The Way Out of the Crisis ......... 84
Stage and Conjuncture ......... 86
The Current Conjuncture:
Transition From Armed Peace to War ......... 87
Part Three ......... 90
On the Guerrilla’s Methods of Action In the Current Conjuncture ......... 90
The Metropolitan Proletariat and the
Proletarian Movement of Offensive Resistance ......... 92
The Working Class ......... 94
The Intellectual Reserve Army ......... 100
The Petty Bourgeoisie ......... 101
Women Workers ......... 102
The Guerrilla and Proletarian Power ......... 106
The Fighting Communist Party ......... 108
The Combat Fronts ......... 113
Italy Is A Weak Link In the Imperialist Chain ......... 114
The Guerrilla Is the Organizational Form of Proletarian Internationalism In the Metropole ......... 115
Note 1 ......... 119
Note 2 ......... 124
Moro Communiqués ......... 127
Communiqué #1 (March 18, 1978) ......... 129
Communiqué #2 (March 25, 1978) ......... 132
Communiqué #3 (March 29, 1978) ......... 137
Communiqué #4 (April 4, 1978) ......... 141
Communiqué #5 (April 10, 1978) ......... 145
Communiqué #6 (April 15, 1978) ......... 148
Communiqué #7 (April 20, 1978) ......... 151
Communiqué #8 (April 24, 1978) ......... 154
Communiqué #9 (May 5, 1978) ......... 158
Red Brigades #6 the Spring Campaign: the Capture, Trial, and Execution of the President of the DC, Aldo Moro (March 1979) ......... 163
The Spring Campaign ......... 165
The Ugly Intentions of the Imperialist Bourgeoisie
On the Eve of March 16th ......... 166
“Programmatic Agreement” Or the “Heart of the State” ......... 161
Two Lines On Building Proletarian Power ......... 168
Offensive Strengthening Or Defensive Contraction? ......... 171
Armed Propaganda, Combative Agitation, Mass Media ......... 173
“No Negotiation”—Or, the Policy of “Doing Nothing” ......... 176
The “Firmness” of the Jackals—Or, the Policy of the PCI ......... 182
Strategic Weakening of the DC ......... 185
Political Weakening of the BR ......... 185
On Some Words and Questions ......... 186
The Capture of Moro and the
Annihilation of His Escort ......... 186
The Trial and Imprisonment of Aldo Moro ......... 190
The Execution of Aldo Moro ......... 193
Build the Party and Strengthen and
Extend Revolutionary Political Power ......... 196
The Party and the Revolutionary Mass Organizations ......... 198
Achtung Banditi! by Saverio Plana, Corrispondenza Internazionale (June 1978) ......... 201
Even In Italy? ......... 203
Armed Struggle Is Enough? ......... 207
Crisis and Revolution ......... 210
Quantity and Quality ......... 214
The Corpse of Moro ......... 217
Barbara Balzeranni ......... 219
Appendix: Partial list of actions in Europe following the “death night” in Stammheim ......... 220