Urban guerrilla warfare

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Urban guerrilla redirects here. For the Hawkwind song, see Urban Guerrilla.

Urban guerrilla refers to someone who fights a government using unconventional warfare in an urban environment. During the Cold War, many were on the left-wing of the political spectrum. However, nothing in armed struggle makes it inherently left or right-wing. In recent years, it has been used by right-wing Islamist forces or nationalists (i.e. insurgents in Iraq).

1 Theory of urban guerilla
2 Historical examples
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Theory of urban guerilla

The urban guerrilla phenomenon is essentially one of industrialised society, resting both on the presence of large urban agglomerations where hideouts are easy to found and on a theory of alienation proper to the modern society of mass consumption.

In contrast to guerrilla movements in rural areas, urban guerrilla movements have never been able to dislodge a preexisting government. The reasons for these is that the urban environment favors the established government, and makes it impossible for the movement to establish a base area. In classical decolonization or standard guerrilla movements, cities are to be avoided.

[edit] Historical examples

Historical examples include the Weathermen and the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) in the United States, the FLQ in Canada, the Red Army Fraction (RAF) in West Germany, the Red Brigades (BR) in Italy, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Northern Ireland, ETA in the Basque region of Spain, the Tupamaros in Uruguay, the Movimento Revolucionario 8 de Outubro(MR-8) in Brazil, the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR) in Chile and the Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo (ERP) in Argentina. The PLO and Hezbollah in Lebanon, groups such as Hamas in the Palestinian territories, and the insurgent forces in Iraq are other examples. However, not all urban political violence can be labeled as urban guerrilla. The Black Panther Party might not qualify, due to its public nature, although its policy of "self-defense" was interchangeable with a policy of armed struggle in "militarily occupied" African American communities. Similarly the Italian Autonomia movement, and the German Autonomen engaged in urban political violence, but not as urban guerrillas due to their policies of public, mass and non-deadly violence.

At the start of her trial in 1974, when Patty Hearst, involved with the Symbionese Liberation Army, was asked her occupation, she said she was an urban guerrilla.

In the 1970s BBC comedy "Citizen Smith" Wolfie Smith, the leader of the fictional "Tooting Popular Front" described himself as an Urban Guerilla.