Cellules Communistes Combattantes

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
CCC logo

The Cellules Communistes Combattantes (CCC) (German: Fighting Communist Cells ) were a left- wing terrorist group active in Belgium in the mid-1980s . You were responsible for 24 attacks. They were ideologically Marxist-Leninist and anti - imperialist .

history

The CCC was founded in June 1983 with the participation of Pierre Carette , who had previously belonged to the French terrorist group Action directe . They first appeared in public on October 2, 1984 with an attack on a Litton Industries branch in Evere . In a letter of confession distributed by leaflet, the previously unknown CCC announced “an organized practice of armed politico-military struggle” in Belgium. The attack marked the start of a series of attacks against NATO and companies that the CCC had assigned to the military-industrial complex , which the CCC called the “anti-imperialist October campaign” . The CCC justified this with the NATO double decision and criticized the pacifism of the peace movement . The Belgian police responded unsuccessfully to the five attacks that had taken place on October 19 with "Operation Mammut", the search of 120 houses and apartments belonging to members of the left and far-left milieu. The CCC put an end to the campaign with an attack on a NATO facility in Stint-Stevens-Woluwee ( Zaventem ) on January 15, 1985.

On May 1, 1985, they published their ideological views under the title “On the armed struggle” and accompanied this with an attack on the Belgian employers' association, in which two firefighters died. As a result, the CCC found themselves facing an increasingly hostile public.

On October 8, 1985, the CCC began its second series of attacks, the “ Karl Marx ” campaign. To justify the attacks against companies, business associations and state institutions, they cited the social issue . At the same time, they started the "Pierre Akkerman" campaign, as part of which - as a continuation of the "anti-imperialist October campaign" - they carried out attacks against military institutions, NATO and a bank. They formulated their goal as the fight against "bourgeois militarism and petty-bourgeois pacifism". The campaign ended with another attack on NATO's Central Europe Pipeline System on December 6, 1985.

On December 16, four CCC leaders were arrested in Namur . This turned out to be a decisive blow against the CCC. Attempts to rebuild the CCC failed. In the summer of 1986, the Ligne Rouge support organization finally disbanded . The four detainees went on hunger strikes twice against their detention conditions . You were sentenced to life imprisonment in December 1988. Carette was released in February 2003 as the last incarcerated member of the CCC.

Ideology and orientation

The CCC represented an orthodox Marxism-Leninism , which they combined with the concept of urban guerrilla . Their attacks were aimed at property damage. In order to avoid deaths and injuries, a warning was given in the run-up to attacks by means of leaflets or telephone calls. In contrast to the Action directe and the German Red Army faction , the CCC did not commit any assassinations against leading figures in business or the state. The attacks were assigned to individual campaigns and were accompanied by detailed letters of confession.

The CCC maintained contacts with other left underground organizations in Europe and collaborated logistically with the Action directe and the Red Army faction. However, the CCC did not join an “Anti-imperialist Front of Western European Guerrillas” initiated by the RAF in 1985 because of ideological differences.

attacks

This article or section needs to be revised. Details should be given on the talk page. Please help to improve it , and then remove this flag.

time attack place
10/02/1984 Attack on the US company Litton Industries Evere
10/03/1984 Attack on the German company MAN AG Groot-Bijgaarden
10/08/1984 Attack on Honeywell Evere
10/15/1984 Attack on the neoliberal Paul Hymans Institute Elsene
10/17/1984 Attack on an office of the CVP party Ghent
10/26/1984 Attack on a barracks of the Belgian army Beer set
12/11/1984 Attacks on the NATO pipeline network Estival , Gages , Gastuche , Glaaien and Ittre
January 15, 1985 Attack on NATO's SHAPE subdivision Woluwe-Saint-Lambert
05/01/1985 Attack on the Belgian business association
05/06/1985 Attack on a Belgian police station Woluwe-Saint-Lambert
10/08/1985 Attack on the Belgian company Sibelgaz Laeken / Laken
October 12, 1985 Attack on the Belgian company Fabrimetal Charleroi
04/11/1985 Attack on the Belgian company BBL Etterbeek
04/11/1985 Attack on Manufacturers Hanover Corporation
04/11/1985 Attack on the Belgian bank 'Generale Bank' Charleroi
05/11/1985 Attack on the Belgian bank 'Kredietbank' Leuven
05/11/1985 Stop on Motorola Watermael-Boitsfort
December 04, 1985 Attack on the US bank Bank of America Antwerp
December 06, 1985 Attack on the NATO pipeline network Wortegem-Petegem

Actions in prison

  • May 1986: The prisoners started a hunger strike against their detention conditions. The hunger strike ended 43 days after the ministry promised to allow mail and visits, but failed to deliver.
  • September 1988: the prisoners' trial was imminent. They started another hunger strike. The hunger strike was accompanied by international protests in Switzerland , Germany and Denmark . The ministry gave in to the prisoners' demands at the time they were sentenced to life imprisonment.
  • In 1992 Bertrand Sassoye escaped from prison with other prisoners, but was soon caught again.
  • In 1995, under Belgian law, the possibility of parole began , and the relevant committees played for a limited period. Pascale Vandegeerde was at times the oldest prisoner in a Belgian prison. As an opportunity to be released, the prisoners were offered to publicly renounce their political positions in order to speed up the probation process. The prisoners refused.

literature

  • Barbara Fendt, Susanne Schäfer: Orthodox Marxism and Anti-imperialism: The Belgian Communist Cells. In: Alexander Straßner (Ed.): Social revolutionary terrorism. Theory, ideology, case studies, future scenarios. VS-Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2008, pp. 189–208.
  • Jos Vander Velpen: De CCC, de Staat en het terrorisme. EPO, Berchem 1987.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quoted from: Barbara Fendt, Susanne Schäfer: Orthodox Marxism and anti-imperialism: The Belgian Communist Cells. In: Alexander Straßner (Ed.): Social revolutionary terrorism. Theory, ideology, case studies, future scenarios. VS-Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2008, pp. 189–208, here p. 199.
  2. ↑ Quoted from: Barbara Fendt, Susanne Schäfer: Orthodox Marxism and anti-imperialism: The Belgian Communist Cells. In: Alexander Straßner (Ed.): Social revolutionary terrorism. Theory, ideology, case studies, future scenarios. VS-Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2008, pp. 189–208, here p. 204.