From the Tupamaros to the Red Brigades, Common Tactics, and Strategies of the Urban Guerrilla
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Date
2019
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Publisher
Universal
Abstract
Starting from the irregular fighter and the use of guerrilla warfare as an unconventional weapon used by the weak against the strong, we quickly rediscovered its history and the enormous use of it over time. The guerrilla technique has become a symbolic tool for the oppressed to fight against the oppressor. It was the European wars, after the French revolution, which exacerbated the conflicts by precipitating the war into a new global dimension, not only because of the enormous human resources available but also for the overcoming of the limits between civil and military, between regular armies and irregulars. It is the figure of the partisan and defender of his homeland, who emerges in this new context, in which he finds himself, fighting fierce, bloody wars to defend his land, his nation, his family from the invader. The partisan manages to find an advantage over his enemy through a profound knowledge of the terrain and with popular support; this would be one of the winning strategies that led Mao to outline guerrilla tactics as did other strategists such as General Giap to bring heavy defeats to French colonial troops. The real turning point occurred with Mao Zedong and his resistance to the Japanese invasion; Mao had brilliant intuition; he abandoned Soviet orthodoxy, shifting attention from the urban proletariat to the peasant one. Even before Mao Zedong's definitive success in the Chinese civil war, his theories had spread throughout Europe and overseas. In Italy, the first revolutionary uprisings arose at Universities around the 1960s and immediately afterwards in factories. They were places where important events were discussed, such as the Cultural Revolution of Mao and the exploits of "Che" Guevara, Casto, and the Uruguayan Tupamaros were admired. The revolutions, before being military, were cultural and ideological. The events in the sixties in Latin America had a profound effect in Italy and provoked in-depth debates, as well as a notable diffusion of news, essays, solidarity campaigns, marches, demonstrations, and above all a widespread guerrilla culture, which would shortly after that lead to armed struggle with terrorist groups such as the Red Brigades.
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Keywords
Tupamaros, Red Brigades, Tactics, Urban Guerrilla
Citation
III International Symposium for Young Scholars in the Humanities (Symposium proceedings)