Chronology

This chronology should not be considered exhaustive, nor definitive. It will, however, give the reader a rough outline of the development of revolutionary anarchist activism in Europe over the last fourteen years. Little mention has been made in this chronology of the activities of the Italian groups. As a result of fascist provocations in Italy it would be virtually impossible to prepare a reasonable chronology of groups such as The Red Brigade and The Partisan Action Group — GAP, as we have been able to do with the Angry Brigade, Red Army Fraction, the 1st of May Group and the Autonomous Combat Groups of the Iberian Liberation Movement.

1960

January

In the early hours of January 3/4th a battle took place between a 100 strong Civil Guard unit and an anarchist guerrilla group which had just crossed the Pyrenees heading for Barcelona. Four members of the group were killed as was one Civil Guard Lieutenant. The leader of the group, Francisco Sabate Llopart, Franco’s Public Enemy No. 1, was wounded but managed to escape the security net thrown around the area. He was killed the following day in the Catalan village of San Celoni by the cross-fire of fascist militia men and the Civil Guard.

February

The Revolutionary Directorate of Iberian Liberation (DRIL) announces its formation by a series of attacks on key government buildings throughout Spain and Portugal.

June 27/28/29

Another series of concerted bomb attacks begin in the Iberian Peninsula directed against buildings and installations of both fascist regimes.

1961

January

On the night of 21/22nd a DRIL commando group, led by the Portuguese captain, Henrique Galvao, took control of the Portuguese liner Santa Maria on the high seas to demonstrate to the world active resistance to the Dictatorships of Franco and Salazar. The commando group consisted of Spanish, Portuguese and South American activists.

July

Spanish police discovered a sabotage attempt on the railway line leading into San Sebastian shortly before a train load of fascist ex-combatants passed. They were headed for the yearly fascist victory celebrations in the capital of Guipuzcoa on the 18th. This was the first action in which the Basque activist movement ETA participated as an organization.

August

A guerrilla action in the Catalan Pyrenees took place between a libertarian action group and the Civil Guard. One Guard was killed and another seriously injured.

1962

April 7

Miners from the ‘Nicolas de Mieres’ coalmine in the Asturias call a strike in demand for a minimum daily wage of 140 pesetas (70p), the right to strike and free Trade Unions. (Since the beginning of the century approximately 50% of all coal extracted from the Spanish coal fields came from the 11,600 kilometers of the Asturias. All raw materials indispensable to industrial development and the growth of Capitalism, Coal, Steel, Manganese, Mercury, etc. were to be found here in abundance.

In the early 19th Century a large number of displaced farm laborers moved to the Asturias from Castille and the South. They quickly assimilated with the native Asturians early accepting their traditions and customs, and within a short period lost all traces of their origins.

Each industrial center, however, developed its own political leanings; Socialism in Mieres, communism in Sama and anarchism in Felguera and Gijon. The revolutionary tradition in the Asturias was very strong. It was the Asturian miners in 1930 who precipitated the downfall of the Monarchy and prepared the way for the ill-fated Republic. Four years later the same miners and industrial workers rebelled against the bourgeois Republic which had failed them and occupied the Provincial capital, Oviedo, declaring the social revolution. The Asturian Commune, as it came to be known, lasted from October 5th until the 19th when it was bloodily suppressed by Moorish soldiers and Legionaries on the orders of the Republic’s most prized general — Francisco Franco.)

Twenty-six years of fascist oppression had not broken the spirit of the Asturian working class. The torch of mass revolutionary working class opposition in Spain had been re-lit!

April 20

Virtually every coal mine in the Asturias was paralyzed by strike action and many factories closed down or on reduced output due to solidarity actions.

April 22

Two companies of Civil Guards and three companies of Armed Police rushed into the coal fields in an attempt to break the strike.

May 4

Martial law declared by Presidential Decree in the Provinces of Vizcaya, Asturias and Guipuzcoa.

May 6

Solidarity strikes take place in Barcelona. Workers and students distribute thousands of leaflets in support of the miners’ demands and declaring their solidarity with the Asturian workers.

May 11

Armed police occupy Barcelona University following large scale disturbances in the Catalan capital.

May 14

1200 strikers held in the four prisons of Oviedo

May 15

Silent demonstrations by women outside Security Headquarters in Madrid in solidarity with the strikers and demanding a total amnesty for all political prisoners. Police arrest eighty women.

May 26

Province Strikers

 Barcelona 17000 Asturias 15000 Vascongados 10500 Salamanca 750 Leon 5200 Jaen 3000 Madrid 1100 Total 52550 

June

On the 5th,7th and 12th there were attacks on the Madrid residence of a Papal dignitary, Monterolas; the Madrid HQ of the Falange; the Banco Popular de Espana (Opus Dei) and on the Barcelona HQ of the Falange. Assassination attempt on Franco’s life in San Sebastian on 18th. On the 30th further explosions took place in the Opus Dei college in Barcelona and in the Catalan Instituto de Prevision.

July

The Casas Consistoriales in Valencia was badly damaged by a powerful explosion on the 15th. This had been another assassination attempt on Franco. The bomb was intended to explode during a State visit earlier in the month, but the mechanism was faulty.

August

An explosion badly damaged the Basilica de la Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caidos outside Madrid. (This is a monument erected by Franco and built by forced prison labor to glorify the eternal memory of General Francisco Franco as a Christian gentleman). On the 19th, at a small distance from Franco’s summer residence, the Palacio de Ayete, a plastic bomb exploded as Franco, his wife and Ministers passed through the gate into the palace. No one was injured.

On the same day plastic bombs exploded in the offices of right-wing papers in Madrid, ‘Ya’ and ‘Pueblo’ and Barcelona daily ‘La Vanguardia’.

September

Barcelona Security HQ issued the following communique on the 18th:

‘As a result of recent investigations into the acts of terrorism carried out in Spanish territory, officers of the Brigada Politico-Social have arrested a number of militants of the ‘Young Libertarians’ (FIJL). These are:

Jorge Cunill Vals, Marcelino Jimenez Cubas and Antonio Mur Peron. These individuals operated under instruction from foreign elements who financed their activities aimed at disturbing the social peace and tranquility of the Spanish people.’ The three libertarians were tried within a few days of their arrest by summary court martial (Council of War) and for Vals the prosecutor demanded and was granted the death sentence. The execution was to be by Garottevil (death by slow strangulation).

Sept 23

Shortly before the opening of the Vatican Council two bombs explode close to the Pope while inspecting the seating arrangements in the Basilica Saint Peter in the Vatican.

Sept 29

The Spanish Monarchist paper ABC published the following report from its Milan correspondent: ‘The Spanish Vice-Consul in Milan, Sr. Elias, has been kidnapped by persons unknown according to a police statement issued tonight. Sources close to the police assume it to be the exclusive work of the Italian Communist Party.

October

Sr. Elias, the Spanish Vice-Consul in Milan, was released by his kidnappers on October 2nd with the following statement:

‘The kidnapping of the Spanish Vice-Consul was organized by a group affiliated to the INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF YOUNG LIBERTARIANS with the sole aim of drawing the attention of the world to the sad fate of three libertarians recently arrested in Barcelona and to prevent the execution of Jorge Cunill Vals. We return Sr. Elias to his family as promised to demonstrate our methods are vastly different to those employed by the Francoist regime. Sr. Elias will be able to embrace his family. How different to the fate of the political prisoners locked in the Caudillo’s dungeons!’

The following day the Italian police announced they had arrested those concerned with the kidnapping of Sr. Elias and the culprits were to be tried within a matter of weeks. (Incidentally, the police were informed of the identity and whereabouts of the anarchists by an Italian communist journalist who had interviewed the Vice-Counsul in the People’s Prison outside Milan where he was being held).

October 6

Julio Moreno, 28 year old electrician and militant of the Libertarian Youth Movement, is sentenced to thirty years imprisonment by a Military Council of War in Madrid accused of ‘contacting an illegal organization in exile’ and of ‘having participated in actions against the security of the State’ (Banditry and Terrorism).

October 7

A dynamite charge explodes in the residence of Cardinal Spellman in New York. These actions against the Church and Opus Dei formed part of a campaign to force these institutions to renounce their support of the Francoist dictatorship. The actions were claimed by ‘La mano negro’, who sent numerous letters explaining their actions to the Pope.

October 20

Eleven young Spanish workers and students, all members of the Libertarian youth Movement, sentenced by Military Council of War to sentences between six years and twelve years imprisonment.

November 17

Three militants of the Libertarian Youth Movement sentenced by Council of War in Madrid for editing and distributing ‘Libertarian Youth’: J. Ronco Pesina (23), 11 years imprisonment, Antonio Bayo Poblador (23), 11 years imprisonment, Rafael Ruiz Boroa (23), 3 years imprisonment.

Nov 22

The trial of the Italian libertarians accused of kidnapping Sr. Elias which had opened on the 15th, with all the defendants walking from the court in Varese free men. Sentences were nominal as the weight of Italian public opinion made any other sentences impossible. Jorge Cunill’s death sentence in Spain was commuted to life imprisonment.

Nov 29

Four militants of the anarcho-syndicalist National Confederation of Labor (CNT) are sentenced to various terms of imprisonment ranging between four, nine and eleven years by Madrid Council of War.

The charges were ‘Reconstituting the CNT’ and ‘illegal propaganda’. On the same day at another Council of War (again in Madrid) another three members of the CNT from Valladolid each received four year prison sentences for inciting industrial unrest.

In Barcelona another militant of the CNT, Antonio Sanchez Perez (51) was sentenced to thirty years imprisonment on charges of sabotage.

Dec 2

Bomb explodes in the residence of the Military Governor of San Sebastian. The following day another exploded in the Palace of Justice in Valencia and another which badly damaged the Treasury building in Madrid. On the same day a bomb exploded in the Spanish Consulate in Amsterdam and in the administration offices of two Lisbon prisons. All these actions were claimed by the Iberian Liberation Council (CIL).

1963

March 6

Concerted plastic bomb attacks on the offices of ‘Iberia’ in Rome and the Ministry of Technology in Madrid’

‘The Iberian Liberation Council has mounted ‘Operation Warning’ in its struggle for the freedom of the Iberian people. The object of this operation is to demonstrate to the international tour operators that they run a great danger in utilizing airlines of the fascist regimes of Franco and Salazar (Iberia and TAP) . Until the last vestiges of Nazi-fascism have been eliminated in the Iberian Peninsula there can be no peace in Europe. Down with Dictatorship! Viva la Libertad!’

(Iberian Liberation Council — Communique March 1963).

April 16

Three young French Libertarians, Bernard Ferry, Alain Pecunia and Guy Batoux are arrested in Spain and charged with Terrorism and Banditry. The accusations made by the police were that the three anarchists participated in the anti-tourist campaign mounted by the Iberian Liberation Council and were materially responsible for explosions in the offices of ‘Iberia’ in Valencia, the attempted sinking of a liner in Barcelona Harbor and an attempt to blow up the American Embassy in Madrid.

June 13

Firebombs explode in the luggage compartments of Spanish and Portuguese airplanes on the tarmac in Frankfurt, Geneva and London airports. These actions are claimed by the Iberian Liberation Council (CIL).

July 31

Two anarchists, Joaquin Delgado and Francisco Granados, are arrested by the Spanish Special Branch and charged with the two explosions which took place two days earlier on the 29th. One was in Security HQ at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid and the other, also in Madrid, at the chamber of Falangist Syndicates. Both these men were militants of the Liberation Youth Movement and had come to Madrid to carry out organizational activities.

August 7

Ramon Vila Capdevila (57) (Caraquemada), the last of those mountain guerrillas who had operated in the Pyrenees for over 23 years, was killed by a patrol of Civil Guard in the early hours of the morning near La Creu de Perello in Catalonia.

August 11

According to press reports two explosions took place in the Spanish Capital on July 29th of this year: one inside the offices of the General Directorate of Security, which caused light injuries, and the other in the Chamber of the Falangist Syndicates, at 17:30 hours and 24:00 hours respectively. Two days later, following a massive police mobilization, the Francoist police arrested Joaquin Delgado and Francisco Granados. The coincidence and proximity of these two events have no relation to each other—the first people to know this are the Francoist police themselves—but every effort is being made by the regime to present the two arrested men as the material authors of the July 29th explosions. This is absolutely false. The Iberian Liberation Council has always accepted responsibility for its action and we hereby declare to national and international public opinion the following:

1.

Joaquin Delgado and Francisco Granados were in no way responsible for the events in Madrid on July 29th this year.

1.

The arms cache attributed to Francisco Granados (as many others which exist in our country for specific purposes) had been unused and remained intact until its discovery by the police (The Brigada Politico-Social discovered two Colt .45s, a machine gun with two full magazines, a radio transmitter, hand-grenades and other material in the flat of Granados’s girl friend).

1.

Joaquin Delgado is completely innocent of the other charges made against him by the police.

1.

The author or authors of the events of July 29th in Madrid have not been arrested. If, in Spain, ‘justice’ were carried out with a minimum of legal normality then the truth of our affirmations could be easily proved in the interests of the defense of the two men. However, this is not the case. The Iberian Liberation Council holds the Francoist regime, imposed by force of arms, responsible both individually and collectively, for all victims who have fallen or may yet fall in the struggle for the freedom of the people of the Iberian Peninsula. We are the first to lament these victims, wept over with crocodile tears by the forces of reaction to justify their atrocities. Those who took part in the protest against the Falangist building and the Directorate of Security inform us that the former was carried out to expose the official Syndicates as the servants of the Bosses and the regime. The latter was a protest against the arbitrary arrest of the Asturian miners and their deportations. Also, because it was the building in which men and women are barbarically tortured for supposed political and social crimes (ie. opposing tyranny). The action group which carried out the two attacks acted on its own initiative. The Iberian Liberations Council declares its solidarity with that group and revindicates the acts as a protest of opposition to the regime.’

(Communique issued by the Iberian Liberation Council, 11th August 1963).

August 13

A Council of War of the 1st Military Region (Madrid) passes sentence of death by strangulation on Joaquin Delgado and Francisco Granados.

Aug. 18

‘.....In the early hours of this morning, subject to the formalities of Penal Common Law the two terrorists Francisco Granados Gata and Joaquin Delgado Martinez were executed in accordance with the sentence passed by the Council of War of the 1st Military Region......

(Official communique 18/8/63)

‘Joaquin Delgado and Francisco Granados denied having any knowledge of the events of July 29th in Madrid. The Iberian Liberation Council states that the Franco regime was afraid to reveal the real reason for their trial because it was considered that the accused would win the sympathy of world opinion if it became known that the mission in which they participated and the material found in their possession was intended for the execution of the Assassin of the Spanish Working Class: General Francisco Franco. This was the real reason behind the farce mounted in Madrid on August 13th behind closed doors in the Calle de Reloj.’

(Communique issued by the CIL).

Sept 12

‘ ......A series of police operations directed against Spanish Anarchist circles took place yesterday in Paris and the S.E. of France. A number of extremists are being interrogated and their homes searched. Thirty arrests have been made in the Paris region and the HQ of the Iberian Federation of Libertarian Youth (FIJL) in the rue Sainte Marthe have been searched. These operations seem to have been inspired by the discovery of documents in Perpignan detailing plans for aggressive actions and ‘attentats’ in Spanish territory.’

(Le Figaro).

September 21/22/23

Bombs explode in German Embassy, Moroccan Embassy and in the Church of Loyola in Madrid.

Sept. 25

Bomb explodes outside the home of American Ambassador in Madrid. A few hours later another explosion outside the home of the Chief of the Falangist Movement.

Sept. 27

Explosion at the home of Aramburu, Civil Governor and the head of the National Movement in Madrid.

Sept. 29

Bomb explodes outside the American Embassy in Madrid. (All the explosions in Madrid are claimed by ‘Colonel Montenegro’ of the IV Republican Army).

October 11

Francisco Abarca, FIJL militant, is arrested in Belgium accused of participating in the attack on an Iberian airplane in Geneva.

Oct. 18

Alain Pecunia, Bernard Ferry and Guy Batoux, the French Anarchist arrested on April 16th, are tried and sentenced by Madrid Council of War: Alain Pecunia (17), 24 years imprisonment. Bernard Ferry (20), 30 years imprisonment. Guy Batoux (23), 15 years imprisonment.

Oct. 20

‘The Ministry of the Interior announces that, in accordance with the Law of April 12th 1939 relating to foreign organizations, further modified by the Decree of September 1st, 1939: Art. 1. The legality of the foreign association known as the Iberian Federation of Libertarian Youth has been nullified...’

(Extract from the ‘Journal Officiel’, 20th October 1963).

Oct. 25

Bomb explodes at a stand in the Spanish Fair, Mexico City. A young anarchist is arrested after being wounded by one of the explosions.

1964

May 10

Bomb explodes in the Castellano Hilton in Madrid.

May 11

Four more bombs explode in Madrid and one in Gijon. The American Embassy, the Ministry of Commerce and the Institute of Immigration; until ‘Colonel Montenegro’ is arrested on May 23rd, bombs continue to explode in Madrid at the number of three or four per day.

August 11

Stuart Christie and Fernando Carballo arrested and charged with Banditry and Terrorism. The mission was to have been an attempt on the life of Franco during a football match in Madrid.

October 21

Bomb attack on Spanish Embassy in Copenhagen.

Nov 27

Two fire bombs gut Opus Dei seminary in Rome. Bomb explodes inside the Vatican, and another in the Spanish Pontifical College, Rome.

1965

January 2

Plastic bomb explodes inside the offices of the Spanish Consulate in Naples.

Feb 19

Plastic bomb explodes in the Copenhagen office of the Spanish National Tourist Office.

April 25

Bomb wrecks Iberia office in Milan.

August 1

The Iberian Federation of Libertarian Youth (FIJL) initiates its International campaign in support of the political prisoners of Spain and Portugal.

1966

April 31

Mgr. Ussia, the Ecclesiastical Counselor to the Spanish Embassy in the Vatican is kidnapped. The operation is announced simultaneously by Luis Edo in Madrid and the First of May Group in Rome.

May 12

Ussia is released but the 1st of May Group announce they will continue their actions in support of all political prisoners.

October 26

Five anarchists arrested in Madrid, among them Luis Andres Edo. They are accused of preparing a kidnap Attempt against the Commander in Chief of the American forces in Spain.

December

In New York Octavio Alberola gives a secret press conference in which he explains the intention of the kidnapping and distributes copies of the document which Edo was to publicize once the operation had been carried out successfully.

1967

April

1st May Group kidnap and hold hostage for a few hours the First Secretary and the Juridical Counselor of the Spanish Embassy in London to demand the immediate trial of Luis Andres Edo and his comrades arrested the previous October in Madrid. At the same time this is a warning as to the possible outcome of the trial. The trial was held two months later with surprising sentences for all the accused — the maximum sentence, for Edo, was nine years — a prison sentence previously unheard of for an anarchist in Spain.

August

The private cars of two Spanish diplomats in London are riddled with machine gun fire. Shortly afterwards the American Embassy in the same city is raked with machine gun fire as a protest against American imperialism (First of May Group).

November

Simultaneous bomb attacks against the Greek, Bolivian and Spanish Embassies in Bonn and the Venezuelan Embassy in Rome. (First of May Group — in solidarity with the Latin American guerrillas and against the fascist regimes in Europe). The same day a bomb destroyed the entrance to the Spanish Tourist Office in Milan and the Spanish, Greek and American Embassies in theHague, Holland.

Dec 26

David Urbano Bermudez arrested in Spain accused of supposed relations with the 1st May Group and the FIJL.

1968

January 3

Explosive rocket discovered facing Greek in London.

February 8

Octavio Alberola arrested in Brussels during negotiations between Spain and Belgium for the former’s admission into the Common Market. Alberola was preparing a press conference to denounce this maneuver and raise the plight of Spanish political prisoners to the attention of the world.

February 27

The Hornsey home of Stuart Christie raided by police led by Det. Sgt. Roy Cremer with explosives warrant relating to Greek Embassy and information received that other attacks were about to take place in London.

March 3

Six bombs damage the buildings of diplomatic missions in London, the Hague and Turin. The Spanish Embassy and the American Officers Club in London; the Spanish, Greek and Portuguese Embassies in the Hague, and at the US Consulate in Turin. These actions were claimed by the 1st May Group.

March 6

Incendiary bomb with timing mechanism explodes in the Moabit Criminal Court, West Berlin.

March 18

Three major American offices in Paris are damaged by plastic bomb attacks: Chase Manhattan Bank, the Bank of America and Transworld airlines.

March 25

American Embassy in Madrid bombed.

August

International Anarchist Conference, Carrara, Italy.

September

Seven young anarchists arrested in Spain accused of conspiring with 1st May Group and of having participated in a number of actions in the Valencia region, such as that of “preparing” bank robbery. Information leading to their arrest came from the Special Branch of New Scotland Yard, London.

October 15

Imperial War Museum, London gutted by incendiary device.

Towards the end of 1968 numerous attacks are made against large capitalist enterprises in France. These are attributed to “Gauchistes” and anarchists. A woman wounded in one of these attacks is arrested and another, Eliseo Gueorguieff, is named by the police as being suspected of participating and organizing the attacks.

On April 2nd and 3rd a warehouse in Frankfurt is burned down, causing more than £140,000 damage, as a protest against the war in Vietnam. Gudrun Ensslin, Andreas Baader, Thorwald Proll, Hans Sohnlein are arrested and charged. They are sentenced to three years imprisonment, but paroled under an amnesty for all political prisoners in 1969 on condition that they return to prison in 1970. While on parole Baader and Ensslin work together on the apprentice and borstal campaign in Frankfurt.

Nov 4

Dept. of Internal Affairs in West Berlin is attacked with molotov cocktails.

Dec 19

Rectorate of the Free University in West Berlin is firebombed.

1969

February 3

Unexploded dynamite charges discovered on the premises of the Bank of Bilbao and the Bank of Spain in London. FOMG.

Feb. 9

Bank of Spain in Liverpool bombed First of May Group.

March 9

J. F. Kennedy Library in West Berlin firebombed – more than £12,000 damage.

March 15

Two anarchists arrested immediately following a powerful explosion at the Bank of Bilbao in London. In their possession was a letter justifying the action on behalf of the First of May Group.

May 2

Six anarchists arrested in Italy accused of conspiring with Spanish anarchists and also being responsible for fifteen attacks on Francoist buildings in Italy. They were then charged with the attack which took place in the Milan Fair, an action which was subsequently proved to have been the work of fascists.

May 25

Bomb explodes in the Spanish Embassy in Bonn. It is claimed on behalf of the FAI in solidarity with the Spanish workers expelled from Germany on the insistance of the Spanish Embassy.

July 15

Local government office in Bamberg severely damaged. Blank identity cards stolen.

Nov-Dec.

Six bomb attacks in West Berlin.

December

On the afternoon of December 12 1969, almost at the

12

same moment, there were three explosions: one in the Bank of Agriculture, in Milan, with sixteen people dead and many wounded, and two in Rome, at the Labor Bank and at a national monument called ‘Homeland Altar’ with several wounded. A fourth bomb was found later, unexploded in another Milan bank: but the police blew it up, eliminating the most important evidence in the whole case. The police started to investigate immediately among the left militants: Calabresi, our CIA trained inspector, stated openly that “we have to look in that direction.” He had the support of the CIA — president Saragat, who made violent anti-left speeches, and of all the media controlled by the bosses. The whole revolutionary left was attacked, in a McCarthyist way: seizures, ‘questionings’, arrests, searches, raids, open threats, police terror. The main targets were the anarchists, indicated by everyone as directly responsible for the bombings: entire groups of them were arrested, interrogated, and beaten in the police stations.

Dec. 15

The anarchist railway worker, Giuseppe Pinelli “fell” from the 4th floor of the Milan central police station.

Giuseppe Pinelli was 41 years old. He worked as a railway worker in the Porta Garibardi station in Milan.

He married in 1955, Licia Rognini, a communist militant he met in an Esperanto school. They had two daughters: Silvia, 10, and Claudia, 8. Pino started to work very young, as a shopboy and as a warehouse-man — then he was hired by the railway company.

When he was 15, he participated in the armed struggle against the Nazis (1943–45), as a messenger for a people’s brigade formed mainly by anarchists.

His political commitment increased, after that first activity, soon becoming his basic concern. In 1965, he started, with others, an anarchist group ‘Sacco and and Vanzetti’ — in 1968, he participated in the students’ struggle as a member of ‘Bandiera Nera (Black Flag), which founded the club ‘Ponte della Ghisolfa’ – in 1969, he finally became responsible for the Milan area of the ‘Black Cross’, the anarchist organization which helps mainly financially, anarchists in prison, and maintains contact with the Greek anarchists struggling against fascism and the “colonels”.

He lived with his family, in a small apartment, in the suburbs; the £8 monthly rent was low, compared to the current Milan prices. His house was a real shelter for everybody: when some comrade was passing through Milan, he was sure to find hospitality and friendship in Pino’s house. As an anarchist, Pino was first of all a very humanitarian person.

Towards the end of 1969 Swiss police discover an arms cache in Geneva and arrest three Swiss anarchists.

1970

Jan 28

Bomb attack on offices of Spanish Cultural attache in Paris.

February

Baader, Ensslin, Proll decide not to return to prison and go underground.

Feb 28

Bomb attack on Bank of Bilbao and Spanish State Railways in Paris.

March 3

ATTEMPTED KIDNAPPING OF THE SPANISH DELEGATE TO U.N.E.S.C.O.

The Kidnappers Arrested.

“Spain’s permanent delegate to UNESCO, 57 year old Sr. Emilio Garriguez has been the object of an attempted kidnapping. The kidnappers have been arrested. Sr. Garriguez had been under police protection for some time, so that when 3 men, armed with ether pads surrounded him as he left the UNESCO building in the Avenue de Suffren, they were immediately over-powered and arrested. The men responsible for the attempt have been remanded in custody in the HQ of the Police Judiciaire, Quai des Orfevres. They are due to appear in court on Thursday. They are three Spaniards: Messrs: Juan Garcia Macarena, aged 24; Jose Cabal Riera, 21; and Jose Canizares Varella, 35, and have refused to name the political organization to which they belong.

“Our action had a solely political motive,” they said in statements, “we wanted to bring pressure to bear on the Spanish government in order to obtain the release of our comrades imprisoned in Spain.”

All three are of libertarian leaning and resident in France since last summer. They had no specific occupation. Various documents were seized at their residences and in the car they had hired, police found three guns, a flask of ether and glasses covered with sticky paper to darken them.”

(Le Monde, March 6th, 1970).

March

Germany: Mahler is convicted following a demonstration against the Springer Publishing concern. He receives six months suspended sentence.

April 4

Andreas Baader is arrested in West Berlin when stopped by police and found to be driving without a license. He is imprisoned in West Berlin.

April 22

Belgium: Ivo della Savia arrested in Brussels under an extradition warrant to Italy asked for by Italian government. He is accused of being a member of Italian 22nd March Group (Valpreda’s Group) and 1st of May Group.

May 10

Incendiary device discovered aboard Iberian Airliner shortly before take-off. At the same time in other European Capitals more devices of a similar nature are discovered on other airplanes belonging to Iberia. The action is a reminder that while Franco remains in power there can be no peace in Europe.

May 14

Baader is liberated from the library of the Institute for Social Research where he has obtained permission to work with Ulrike Meinhof on a book about the borstal situation in West Germany, following the intervention of his lawyer Horst Mahler. An armed group breaks into the library and frees Baader, who is under armed guard. Ulrike Meinhof flees with the group. Linke, an employee of the Institute, is wounded when he tries to intervene.

May 22

High explosive device discovered at a new police station in Paddington. This was later claimed by the prosecution in the trial of the Stoke Newington Eight to be the first action undertaken by the ‘Angry Brigade.’

July 3

Simultaneous bomb attacks in Paris and London against Spanish State Tourist offices, and the Spanish & Greek Embassies.

August

Germany: Formation of the Red Army Fraction.

August 18

London offices of Iberia Airlines, Spanish State airline badly damaged by a bomb. (First of May Group).

August 30

The London home of the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir John Waldron is damaged by a bomb blast. The bombing is not reported in the national press.

Sept 8

The London home of the Attorney General, Peter Rawlinson, in Chelsea, is bombed and once again the incident goes unreported.

Sept 26

Simultaneous bomb attacks against Iberia in Geneva, Frankfurt, Paris and London Airports.

Sept 29

RAF attacks three banks in West Berlin within a few minutes of each other. They get away with 217, 469.50 marks. (£26,500).

October 8

The police get a tip-off about a meeting of RAF members in West Berlin. They raid Knesebekstrasse 8. Horst Mahler, Irene Georgens, Ingrid Schubert, Monika Berberich, Brigifte Asdonk are arrested.

October 9

Simultaneous bomb attacks in Paris, London, Manchester and Birmingham against Italian State buildings. The letters sent following the attacks were claimed on behalf of Giuseppe Pinelli the Italian Anarchist murdered by the police in 1969.

Nov 16

Germany: Town Hall at Nuestadt is broken into. Thirty- one official stamps, fifteen passports, and one identity card stolen.

Nov 20

A BBC outside broadcast van covering the Miss World Competition in London is badly damaged by an explosion.

Nov 21

Germany: Town Hall at Lang-Gons (Giessen) is broken into. 166 identity cards, official stamps, 430 marks and a bottle of cognac removed.

Dec 3

Spanish Embassy in London machine-gunned, following international protests against the trial of the Burgos Six in Spain.

Dec 8

Day of large demonstrations against the Industrial Relations Bill. In the early hours of 9th December the Ministry of Employment and Productivity in London is rocked by a powerful explosion following an unsuccessful police search of the building. (“Angry Brigade”).

1971

January 12

Day of national demonstration against Industrial Relations Bill with strikes and protest marches against this blatant piece of class legislation. That night the home of the Minister responsible for the Bill, Mr. Robert Carr, is almost wrecked by two powerful explosions. The action is claimed by the ‘Angry Brigade’.

January 19

Jake Prescott arrested on a checks charge in Notting Hill and questioned by Det. Chief Supt. Habershon — the officer who was to take charge of the so-called ‘Angry Brigade’ investigation.

February 3

Prescott released on bail, but re-arrested 8 days later and charged with causing the explosions at the home of Robert Carr and the Miss World Contest. It was admitted in court by Chief. Supt. Habershon that he had refused the arrested man access to a lawyer for three days. During the ensuing months of the investigation the actions and activities of the police come in for a great deal of criticism from many different quarters, and numerous charges are brought against Scotland Yard for assault and harassment. These are waived aside by Supt. Habershon with the comment: “I am not concerned with legal niceties”. It becomes increasingly clear that capitalism in Britain has moved into the defensive by permitting itself to be panicked into allowing the police a “free hand” in its methods of investigation. This is reflected in the political sphere with the Industrial Relations Bill laying the foundations of a corporate state.

Feb 10

Germany: Exchange of fire between Manfred Grashof, Astrid Proll and the police in Frankfurt.

March 16

Ian Purdie arrested in London and charged, together with Jake Prescott, for the two ‘Angry Brigade’ bombings. Further reports in the liberal press of police excesses and Nazi-type tactics, in their investigations.

March 18

During a major strike of Ford workers in England the main offices of the Ford Motor Company at Gants Hill, Ilford, on the outskirts of London, is wrecked by a powerful explosion. A thousand word communique from the ‘Angry Brigade’ is delivered shortly after.

April 28

Bomb delivered to the Times newspaper with a message from ‘The Vengence Squad, the Angry Brigade, the People’s Army.’

May 1

Bomb wrecks the trendy Biba boutique, in Kensington. It is followed by a communique attacking consumer capitalism and the conditions of the sales girls and seamstresses.

May 5

Spain: Bomb attacks in Barcelona on the Palace of Justice, the Falangist HQ and a Capuchin Monastery. Claimed by the Catalan Anarchist Group ‘Libertad.’

May 6

Germany: Astrid Proll, one of the group which liberated Baader, is arrested.

May 18

Germany: Horst Mahler found not guilty of participating in the liberation of Baader. Ingrid Schubert receives 6 years, and Irene Georgens 4 years for participating in the liberation. Horst Mahler is held in prison under paragraph 129 — for being a member of an illegal organization, the RAF.

May 22

Bomb attack on Scotland Yard Computer Room at Tintagel House, London. This is accompanied by simultaneous attacks by the ‘Angry Brigade’, the International Revolutionary Solidarity Movement and the ‘Marius Jacob’ group against British Rail, Rolls Royce and Rover offices in Paris.

May 28

Spain: The arrest is announced of 9 people accused of belonging to the Catalan Liberation Front. Charges include sabotage attempts on T.V. stations, State Prosecutor’s offices and the right-wing newspaper ‘La Vanguardia’.

June 22

During a dispute between Ford management and the militant shop steward, John Dillon, in the Ford Liverpool plant, the ‘Angry Brigade’ blow up the home of Ford’s Managing Director, William Batty, in Essex. The same night a bomb damages a transformer at the Dagenham plant of the Ford Motor Company.

July 8

Germany: Thomas Weissbecker and Georg Von Rauch, both members of the Anarchist Black Cross, are tried for assaulting a journalist on the Springer magazine Quick. Georg is convicted and Tommy acquitted, but both police and press have confused them from the beginning of the case and, after the verdicts, they change places. Georg goes underground and Tommy has to be released.

July 15

Germany: Petra Schelm is shot dead by police following a check at a road-block in Hamburg. Werner Hoppe is arrested and accused of the attempted murder of a policeman.

July 20

Germany: Dieter Kunzelmann arrested for allegedly planting a bomb at a lawyers’ ball. Charged with attempted murder.

July 24

Germany: The Socialist Patient Collective in Heidelberg (SPK) is attacked by the police on the pretext of a connection with the RAF. (The SPK, the first self-organized group of mental patients, located the cause of mental illness as capitalist society itself.) 300 police armed with machine guns forced their way into the SPK rooms and the residences of 20 patients. 11 members of the SPK are put into 10 different prisons. 6 are still detained on remand.

July 31

Despite close police protection the home of the Secretary for Trade and Industry John Davies, in London, is badly damaged by a powerful explosion. This action followed close on Davies’s announcement of his intention to close ‘Upper Clyde Shipbuilders’, throwing thousands of men out of work. This is accompanied by the 11th communique from the ‘Angry Brigade.’

August 15

Following the announcement by the British Government that it intended to introduce internment in Northern Ireland there was a powerful explosion at the Army Recruiting Office in Holloway Road, London. This was claimed by a communique signed ‘The Angry Brigade: Moonlighters Cell.’

Aug. 20

House in Amhurst Road, London, raided by Special Branch and CID arresting Jim Greenfield, Anna Mendelson, John Barker and Hilary Creek. The four are taken to the HQ of the ‘Bomb Squad’ in Albany Street, London, where the two men are subjected to a brutal beating-up to extract a confession from them.

August 21

Stuart Christie arrested at Amhurst Road while visiting the house. One hour later Chris Bott is arrested at the same place. Both taken to join others at Albany St. Police Station. Incriminating evidence in the form of two detonators planted by police officers in Christie’s car. — Both men are also ‘verballed’.

Aug. 23

All are charged at Albany Street police Station with:

1.

Conspiring to cause explosions between January 1st 1968 and August 21st. 1971.

1.

Possessing explosive substances for an unlawful purpose.

1.

Possessing a pistol without a firearms certificate.

1.

Possessing eight rounds of ammunition without a firearm certificate.

1.

Possessing two machine guns without the authority of the Secretary of State.

1.

Possessing 36 rounds of ammunition without a firearm certificate.

1.

Jim: attempting to cause an explosion in May, 1970.

1.

Anna & Jim: attempting to cause explosion in Manchester, October 1970.

1.

Stuart: possessing one round of ammunition without a firearm certificate. (this dated back 2 years when a bullet was taken from his flat. No charges were preferred against him at the time).

1.

John, Jim & Stuart: Possessing explosive substances.

1.

Jim, John & Hilary: receiving stolen vehicle.

1.

Stuart: possessing explosive substances (the two detonators planted by police).

All are refused bail and remanded in custody to await trial.

Sept 24

Despite the fact that the police claim to have arrested all the Angry Brigade, the Albany Street Army barracks (near the Bomb Squad HQ) is bombed by the Angry Brigade in protest against the actions of the British Army in Northern Ireland.

Oct 20

Bomb blasts home of Birmingham businessman (building construction) Chris Bryant, while his workers are on strike. Communique issued by the Angry Brigade.

Oct 21

Following a confrontation between members of the RAF and the police, the policeman Norbert Schmid is killed. Margit Schiller is arrested and charged with the shooting.

Oct 30

Post Office Tower in London is bombed.

Nov. 1

Army Tank HQ in Everton Street, London bombed by Angry Brigade.

Nov. 6

Attacks against Lloyds Bank in Amsterdam; in Basle against the Italian consulate; in Rome against the British Embassy; and in Barcelona against the British Embassy, in support of the ‘Stoke Newington Eight’ and the Italian anarchists imprisoned on trumped-up charges of ‘conspiracy’ and subversion.

Dec. 1

Trial of Ian Purdie and Jake Prescott ends. Ian Purdie found not guilty on all charges and Jake Prescott guilty on charge of conspiracy — 15 years.

Dec. 4

Georg Von Rauch, a member of the Anarchist Black Cross, is shot dead by the police in West Berlin. He is unarmed, and is shot in the head when he’d already put his hands above his head. Between 5000 and 7000 people turn out the following day for a solidarity demonstration called by the Berlin Red Help.

Dec 18

Kate Mclean arrested and charged with Angela Weir, Chris Allen and Pauline Conroy, who had been arrested during the course of November of having conspired with the six people already arrested on conspiracy charges. Shortly before the opening of Committal proceedings against the ten militants, the Attorney General, Sir Peter Rawlinson, the victim of one of the Angry Brigade attacks decided he could not allow a case to be made against Pauline Conroy and Chris Allen due to insufficient evidence and they were released from custody.

Dec. 22

A bank is robbed in Kaiserslautern. £16,750 is stolen. A policeman, Herbert Schoner, is killed. There is nothing to directly connect this robbery with the RAF, but the Springer concern starts a big propaganda campaign on the assumption that this was the action of the “Baader-Meinhof Group”. Heinrich Boll, world- famous novelist, publicly attacks the Springer press for the hysteria it is constantly trying to whip up. Two weeks later Chancellor Brandt is forced to appeal to the West German public to remain calm. At the same time, Peter Bruckner, a radical psychologist, suspected of harboring members of the RAF, is suspended from teaching at Hannover University. Following his suspension there is a massive demonstration of solidarity from his students.

Dec 25

Switzerland: Attack on the Central Police HQ in Zurich. Police name an anarchist whom they are unable to locate.

1972

February

Bomb attack on Italian Embassy in Brussels in solidarity with Pietro Valpreda now on trial in Italy.

March 2

Thomas Weissbecker, another member of the Anarchist Black Cross, is shot dead in the middle of a street in Ausburg, when asked to produce his identity card. Although armed he didn’t draw his gun. The police had been watching the flat where he was staying, but as became clear later had no idea who it was they had shot until after the killing. Carmen Roll, who was with Tommy is arrested. Solidarity demonstrations take place in five cities the next day.

March 3

In Hamburg, the police raid a flat and open fire almost immediately on Manfred Grashof and Wolfgang Grundmann. There follows a gun battle in which Grashof is seriously wounded, and a police inspector receives wounds from which he later dies. Despite his serious injury, Buddenberg, the judge in charge of all people arrested in connection with the RAF, orders Grashof’s removal from the prison hospital to a cell where he has to administer medical treatment himself. Grundmann is put in the same prison.

March 24

Bomb alert in British Embassy in Brussels.

April

The not guilty verdict on Horst Mahler is quashed after the prosecution appeals. He is now to be re-tried on all charges.

May 11

A bomb destroys the officer’s club of the headquarters of the American Army in Frankfurt. An American colonel is killed and 13 other officers wounded. A Communique issued by the RAF said the attack was a response to the escalated American aggression in Vietnam.

May 12

The police headquarters in Ausburg, where Tommy Weissbecker was shot dead, and the headquarters of the Bavarian police in Munich are bombed, causing thousands of pounds worth of damage. Claimed by RAF.

May 15

A bomb explodes under the car of Wolfgang Buddenberg, the judge mentioned above. His wife normally drives him to work, but on this occasion she is alone, and is seriously injured. Claimed by the RAF.

May 19

In the publishing house of Springer’s concern in Hamburg, two high-explosive bombs are detonated. Three telephone warnings are given — two to the Springer House itself, one to the police. All are ignored. 17 people are injured. 5 other bombs fail to explode. Altogether the bombs contain 80 kilos of TNT. Claimed by the RAF.

May 20

Police open fire on Madrid students seriously wounding one of them. Students reply with Molotov Cocktails.

May 24

At the HQ of the American Army in Europe at Heidelberg, two bombs explode in the car park. A captain and two sergeants are killed, five others are wounded- Claimed by the RAF.

May 26

Bomb attacks on American Consulate and American Legion in Paris. At the same time the Spanish Consulate in Stuttgart is also wrecked by an explosion.

May 30

Trial of ‘Stoke Newington Eight’ opens at No. 1 Court at the Old Bailey, in London. This was to be the longest trial in the history of the British Legal System.

June 1

Andreas Baader, Holger Meins, Jan Carl Raspe are arrested when 250 police with machine pistols, tear gas, and a tank, raid a flat in the suburbs of Frankfurt. A fourth person arrested with them is later released by the police. They say he was a doctor at a local hospital, but after his release he mysteriously disappeared. In a gun battle with the police before the capture, Baader is wounded.

June 7

Gudrun Ensslin is arrested in a boutique in Hamburg, after a shop assistant spots her gun.

June 9

Bernhard Braun and Brigitte Monhaupt are arrested in West Berlin. They are two of the 19 people whose photos have been posted up all over Germany as members of the RAF.

June 12

Bomb explodes in Spanish Consulate in Munich.

June 15

Ulrike Meinhoff and Gerhard Moller are arrested in a flat near Hannover. The police have received a tip-off from a ‘left-wing’ trade-unionist in the ‘progressive’ wing of the SPD, living in the same block.

July 1

Spain: 800,000 pesetas robbed from a wages office in the Calle Majorca near the center of Barcelona. This is the first known action of the Iberian Liberation Movement. (MIL).

July 18

Bomb wrecks Spanish Tourist Office, Stockholm, on 34th anniversary of the Francoist victory.

August 14

France: Material worth over one million pesetas taken from a print-shop in the rue l’Esquille in Toulouse. (MIL)

September 9

Acting on ‘information received’ the French police raid an isolated farmhouse in Bessieres, near Toulouse, and discover an arms dump, printshop and a large amount of anarchist propaganda. In an official communique issued after the raid they say the place has obviously been used as an international meeting place for anarchist activists.

Sept. 13

Wage snatch fails at the Savings Bank of Igualada in Salou (Tarragona), 50kms. from Barcelona. (MIL)

Sept. 15

Armed robbery at the Savings Bank of Bellver de Cardana in Lerida netting the group over one million pesetas. (MIL)

Sept.17/18

French police halt a Renault 16 at a road block near Pau and identify two of the occupants as being responsible for the hiring of the farmhouse near Bessiere. A police raid in Toulouse later that night effects the arrest of two militants, a third managed to escape. Oriol Sole, one of the accused, is kept in custody, but his companion, Jean Claude Torres, is released for lack of evidence. (MIL)

Oct. 21

Layetana Savings Bank in the industrial city of Mataro robbed of over one million pesetas. (MIL)

Nov. 18

Savings Bank in Barcelona robbed of 200,000 pesetas; for the first time it is reported that the group is armed with Sten sub-machine guns. (MIL)

Nov. 20

Seven men, armed with sub-machine guns, rob the Central Bank of Barcelona of one million pesetas. A communique is left signed by ‘Autonomous Combat Groups, Iberian Liberation Front’. (MIL)

Dec. 6

The trial of the Stoke Newington Eight ends with four sentences of guilty of conspiracy against Jim Greenfield, Anna Mendelson, Hilary Creek and John Barker. Each was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, after a plea for clemency by the working class jury.

The four subsequently appealed against sentence but had it thrown out. The other four were found not guilty on all counts demonstrating that the jury accepted the defense allegation that most of the police case was a fabrication of ‘verbals’, misplaced and planted evidence — as in the case of two detonators being planted in Stuart Christie’s car — to secure conviction.

Dec 13/14

The printshop stolen by the police from the farmhouse at Bessieres is removed from police custody and put to social use again. (MIL)

Dec. 29

Layetana Savings Bank in Badalona robbed of 800,000 pesetas and a communique signed by the MIL is left commemorating the death of Francisco Sabate Llopart.