DON'T PANIC!

• What is terrorism?
• Who are the terrorists?
• Terror tactics
• When panic attacks
• Holidays in hell
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Political

From as early as the 17th century, some groups have been prepared to use terrorist tactics for political ends. In recent years, these groups have generally been left-wing and anti-capitalist. Examples have included the Red Brigades in Italy and the Red Army Fraction in Germany.

Groups like these grow out of splits in revolutionary left-wing groups. They justify their use of terrorist tactics on the grounds that this will weaken the capitalist state, mobilise the working class and help to bring about a socialist revolution.

Left-wing terrorist groups have varied widely in their size, their targets and their political perspectives. The Italian Red Brigades existed for 12 years and had over 400 members at one time or another. At the other extreme, the Symbionese Liberation Army – the American group that kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst – existed for two years and had only a few dozen members.

Left-wing terrorist groups typically attack individual targets chosen for political reasons, and announce their actions so as to gain publicity. Left-wing groups also tend to use relatively lower levels of violence. The Red Brigades carried out almost 500 actions but fewer than 100 murders. Two-thirds of the group's actions consisted of robbery or destruction of property rather than violence against individuals.

Political terrorism also has a right-wing face: neo-fascist terrorist groups. Unlike their left-wing counterparts, right-wing groups generally work in secret. Sometimes these groups kill prominent individuals. The plot by French right-wingers to assassinate General de Gaulle, famously fictionalised in The Day of the Jackal, is an example. But indiscriminate and unannounced attacks, killing large numbers of people, are a more common strategy.

The 1995 Oklahoma City bombing showed that American right-wingers were capable of this type of attack. The motive is often to create public support for an authoritarian clampdown. In Italy in the 1970s, banks, trains and railway stations were bombed. The groups responsible had covert assistance from the security services, making their actions a form of state terror.

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Aldo Moro

In March 1978, former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro was kidnapped by the far-left Italian Red Brigades. Although he was later murdered, left-wing terrorist organisations have often favoured highly publicised symbolic actions over acts of violence