''Action Directe'' (; AD, "

direct action Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to oth ...

") was a French

far-left Far-left politics, also known as the radical left or the extreme left, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single definition. Some scholars conside ...

militant group which committed a series of assassinations and violent attacks in France between 1979 and 1987. Members of Action directe considered themselves libertarian communists who had formed an " urban guerrilla organization". The French government banned the group. During its existence, AD's members murdered 12 people, and wounded a further 26. It associated at various times with the

Red Brigades The Red Brigades ( it, Brigate Rosse , often abbreviated BR) was a far-left Marxist–Leninist armed organization operating as a terrorist and guerrilla group based in Italy responsible for numerous violent incidents, including the abduction ...

(Italy),

Red Army Faction The Red Army Faction (RAF, ; , ),See the section "Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang (, , active 1970–1998), was a West German far-left Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla group founded in 1970. The ...

(West Germany),

Prima Linea Prima Linea (in English: "Front Line", literally "First Line") was an Italian left-wing terrorist group, active in the country from the late 1970s until the early 1980s. Context Following the 1969-70 large-scale series of industrial action ...

(Italy), Armed Nuclei for Popular Autonomy (France),

Communist Combatant Cells Cellules Communistes Combattantes (CCC; Communist Combatant Cells, also known as Fighting Communist Cells) was a Communist Belgian urban guerrilla organization. The cells were active for less than two years in the mid-1980s; primarily engaged i ...

Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions The Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions – LARF ( ar, الفصائل المسلحة الثورية اللبنانية , ''Al Fasael al-Musallaha al-Thawriyya al-Lubnaniyya'') or Fractions armées révolutionnaires libanaises (FARL) in French ...

Irish National Liberation Army The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA, ga, Arm Saoirse Náisiúnta na hÉireann) is an Irish republican socialist paramilitary group formed on 10 December 1974, during the 30-year period of conflict known as " the Troubles". The group se ...

et cetera.

Elisabeth Van Dyck Commando

The Elisabeth Van Dyck Commando was a branch of Action Directe that assassinated French Army General René Audran, on 25 January 1985. He was the Director of International Affairs (DAI) at the General Delegation for Armament (DGA). The team was named to commemorate

member

Elisabeth Van Dyck The Red Army Faction (RAF) existed in West Germany from 1970 to 1998, committing numerous crimes, especially in the autumn of 1977, which led to a national crisis that became known as the "German Autumn". The RAF was founded in 1970 by Andreas ...

. The Elisabeth Van Dyck Commando was originally named after a second-generation RAF (Red Army Faction) member, Elisabeth von Dyck. This commando was created as a combined extension of both the Action Directe (AD) and the Red Army Faction (RAF). The AD appeared to take care of the organizational side of this commando, and so naming it after a memorialized member of the RAF makes sense if they were seeking to at least publicly have a unified front. Both the RAF and the AD were actively pursuing their shared goal of

political autonomy Political freedom (also known as political autonomy or political agency) is a central concept in history and political thought and one of the most important features of democratic societies.Hannah Arendt, "What is Freedom?", ''Between Past and F ...

within their home countries, respectively with the RAF being based in Germany and the AD being based in France. These groups' goal of political autonomy did not stop with their own countries however, and they often fought against their own countries' governments in the pursuit of political autonomy, or political freedom, for the world's working class. This commando had only one claimed attack, the assassination of French Army General René Audran on January 25, 1985. At the time of his death, Audran was a senior-level official in the French Ministry of Defense--specifically the Corps of Armament. The Elisabeth van Dyck Commando took credit for the assassination via letter. In the letter the members explained that they had killed Audran because he was the head of French's foreign arms sales and they believed that his "military and economic function is at the heart of the strategic imperialist project". The "project" being referred to is what the AD and RAF believed to be NATO and its supporting European countries' goal of homogenizing the world into a capitalist culture, and that as they progressed along this goal it would widen the gap in power and money between the upper class and working class.

Arrests

In December 1981 an Action Directe member Lahouari Benchellal, called "Farid", was arrested for forging

traveler's cheque A traveller's cheque is a medium of exchange that can be used in place of hard currency. They can be denominated in one of a number of major world currencies and are preprinted, fixed-amount cheques designed to allow the person signing it to ma ...

s, which were an important income source for the organization, in

Helsinki, Finland Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...

. He hanged himself while in the custody of the

Finnish Security Intelligence Service The Finnish Security Intelligence Service ( fi, Suojelupoliisi, Supo; ), formerly the Finnish Security Police, is the security and intelligence agency of Finland in charge of national security, such as counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism, ...

in January 1982. Action Directe did not believe Benchellal killed himself, and they named a direct action group after him. There is an ongoing campaign by some sections of the French far-left that the Action Directe members still imprisoned, who consider themselves

political prisoners A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although nu ...

, should be

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

d. In December 2007, Jean-Marc Rouillan was allowed a state of "semi-liberty", able to leave prison for extended periods. In September 2008, a Parisian court called for the revoking of this status after he declared in an interview with ''

L'Express ''L'Express'' () is a French weekly news magazine headquartered in Paris. The weekly stands at the political centre in the French media landscape, and has a lifestyle supplement, ''L'Express Styles'', and a job supplement, ''Réussir''. History ...

'' that "I remain convinced that armed struggle is necessary at certain moments of the revolutionary process".

References

Bibliography

* * * ''Protestation devant les libertaires du présent et du futur sur les capitulations de 1980'', Jean-Claude Lutanie, (originally published in 1981 under the pseudonym Un Incontrole, no publisher, re-published in 2011 b
Editions Lutanie
*

External links

*Sites campaigning for the release of the ''Action directe'' convicts:
www.action-directe.net
(in French)
Campaign for the release of ''Action directe'' prisoners
(in French) * * https://socialhistoryportal.org/sites/default/files/raf/0319850125_0.pdf * https://books.google.com/books?id=yLH0BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA232&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false * https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/3119083/Terrorist-group-Action-Directe-founder-does-not-regret-murders.html
"Action Directe"
July 2018. Retrieved 10 May 2019. (The commando's one attack is listed under Action Directe in GTD.) {{Authority control Communist terrorism Communist organizations Defunct communist militant groups Defunct anarchist militant groups Anti-fascist organizations by country Anti-imperialist organizations Far-left politics in France Left-wing militant groups in France Terrorism in France Communism in France Defunct anarchist organizations in France Maoist organizations in France

Elisabeth Van Dyck Commando

Arrests

See also

References

Bibliography

External links