Sociology 3363F/G Chapter Notes - Chapter Chapter Five: Ultimate Victory, Counter-Terrorism, Red Brigades
27 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Chapter Five Martin Text
Opening Viewpoint: The Tupamaros
- Tupamaros was a National Liberation movement of the South American Marxist revolution in 1962
o Young, idealistic, middle-class rebels
o Enemy was the Uruguayan people and styled themselves as Marxists and sought to redirect government
policies to redistribute wealth and political power to the working class
o Sought broad-based politics
o They adopted Carlos Marighella’s strategy of guerilla war or terrorist war with immediate objective of
forcing the govern to adopt repressive measures thereby causing the general population to rise in revolt
o Targets government officials, police and security and did not use indiscriminate violence
o Their legacy becomes significant and become a model for other armed dissidents in the 1960s and 70s
- This chapter is about terrorism from below that is by nonstate movements and groups against groups other than
perceived enemies
- Political violence by nonstate actors has long been viewed as a necessary evil by those who are sympathetic to
their cause
o Revolutionaries, terrorists and assassins have historically justified their deeds as indispensable tactics that
are necessary to defend a higher cause
o Higher cause can employ variety of tactics
o People use violence to solve their grievances that are ignored by state officials
- Example of grievance-related political violence exemplified by Mexican rebellion Zapatista National
Liberation Front
o Zapatistas were leftist who championed the cause of Indians native to Mexico who were starved and
diseased
The Rebel as Terrorist: A Dissident Terrorism Paradigm
- Paradigm is a model, example or pater that is logically developed to represent a concept
- One model places dissidents in a large framework of three generalized categories of political action
o Revolutionary Terrorism: the threat of political violence aimed at effective complete revolutionary
change
o Sub-revolutionary Terrorism; the threat/use of political violence aimed at effecting various changes in
particular political system
o Establishment Terrorism: threat or use of political violence by an established political system against
international or external oppositions
- Other models developed specific types of dissident terrorism such as single-issue, separatist and social
revolutionary
- Insurgent terrorism has been defined as violence directed by private groups against public authorities that aims to
bring about radical political change
- Domestic terrorism: illegal violence threatened violence directed against human or nonhuman objects conducted
in 5 conditions such as:
o Undertaken trying to maintain a norm in a territory
o Had secretive or clandestine features that were expected by the participant conceal their personal identity
o Was not undertaken to further the permanent defense or some area
o Was not conventional war
o was perceived by the participants as contributing to the normative putative goal…by inculcating fear of
violence in persons other than the immediate target of the actual or threatened violence by publicizing
some cause
DIFFERENT CATEGORIES OF DISSIDENT TERRORIST
Revolutionary Dissident Terrorism: A Clear World Vision
- goal is to destroy an existing order through armed conflict and build a new society – resulting from religious,
ideological or nationalist aspirations
- they are not trying to build a separate identity but build on the existing one from the rubble
o for example, may islamist believe in building a new world based on Shirai law
- a practical matter, revolutionary dissidents are often outnumbered and outgunned by the established order
- their only hope for victory is through unconventional war to destabilize the central authority
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
- terrorism is a tactical found in Marxist revolutionary movements in Latin America in the 1950s – 1980s
o ie Cuban Revolution
Nihilist Dissident Terrorism: Revolution for the Sake of Revolution
- Nihilist was a 19th century Russian philosophical movement of young dissenters who believed that only scientific
truth could end ignorance
o they believed religion, nationalism and traditional values were bad
o they have no vision for a future society
o it is critical and negative
- anarchists adapt this view
- modern nihilist dissidents exhibit a similar distain for existing social order but offer no clear alternative for the
aftermath of destruction
o the define existing structures as regressive, corrupts and oppressive
- because they have no vision for the future they have never been able to lead broad based revolutionary uprisings
among the people and have never been able to mount a sustained guerilla campaign against security forces
o examples of leftist nihilist terrorists include Red Brigade in Italy and Weather Underground
Organization in the US each had Marists post-revolutionary visions
o Al-Qadea kind of fits because they never had a defined goal for the future but acted on behalf of Islam
Nationalist Dissident Terrorism: The Aspirations of a People
- They champion the national aspirations of groups of people who are distinguished by their cultural, religious,
ethnic or racial heritage
o Their goal is to mobilize a particular demographic group against another
o Motivated by the desire for some degree of national autonomy such as democratic political integration,
regional self-governance or complete independence
- Commonplace in the 19th and 20th century and usually in social or political environments
o They may be a minority among the greater social order such as Quebecois
- Although religious or ideological aspects in the ir agenda the core component of their activism is in their
ethnonational or other identity
o For instance, not all Vietnamese nationalists were communists
o Another example is Muslims fighting a holy war against India is more about regional domination then
religious takeover
- Terrorism is a tactic to achieve their goals
Revolutionaries, Nihilists and Nationalists: Freedom Fighters?
- Regardless of method, goal or ideology there is a self-perception of terrorist who a re members fo the enlightened
class
- They adopt organization names that characterize themselves as righteous defenders of a group or principle for a
‘higher purpose’ of the group
Liberation Fighters
Military Units
Defensive
Movements
Retribution
Organizations
Distinctive Alliances
Basque fatherland and
liberty
Irish Republican
Army
Islamic Resistance
Movement
Palestinian
Revenge
Organization
Middle Core Faction
Revolutionary People’s
Liberation Party
New People’s
Army
Revolutionary
People’s Struggle
Black Sept
Al-Qa’ida
CASE IN POINT: THE US PERSPECTIVES ON FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANZIATIONS:
- Policy makers must identify and organize specific terrorist organization and classify them as terrorist movements
- The US Department of State published Country Reports on Terrorism as an annual report on the global terrorist
environment
o Central part of this identifies and describes an official list of organizations designated by the State
Department as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOS)
- The Immigration and Nationality Act:
o Must be a foreign organization
o The org must engage in terrorist activity
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
This chapter is about terrorism from below that is by nonstate movements and groups against groups other than perceived enemies. Example of grievance-related political violence exemplified by mexican rebellion zapatista national. Liberation front: zapatistas were leftist who championed the cause of indians native to mexico who were starved and diseased. The rebel as terrorist: a dissident terrorism paradigm. Paradigm is a model, example or pater that is logically developed to represent a concept. Other models developed specific types of dissident terrorism such as single-issue, separatist and social revolutionary. Insurgent terrorism has been defined as violence directed by private groups against public authorities that aims to bring about radical political change. Nihilist dissident terrorism: revolution for the sake of revolution. Organization in the us each had marists post-revolutionary visions: al-qadea kind of fits because they never had a defined goal for the future but acted on behalf of islam. Nationalist dissident terrorism: the aspirations of a people.
