123-968: The United Federated Forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army (commonly referred to simply as the SLA ) was a small, American militant far-left organization active between 1973 and 1975; it claimed to be a vanguard movement . The FBI and wider American law enforcement considered the SLA to be the first terrorist organization to rise from the American left . Six members died in a May 1974 shootout with police in Los Angeles . The three surviving fugitives recruited new members, but nearly all of them were apprehended in 1975 and prosecuted. The pursuit and prosecution of SLA members lasted until 2003, when former member Sara Jane Olson , another fugitive,
246-479: A bandolier. When a security guard confronted him, Bill Harris brandished a revolver. The guard knocked the gun out of his hand and handcuffed William's left wrist. Hearst, on armed lookout from the group's van across the street, began shooting at the store's overhead sign. Everyone in the store but the Harrises took cover, and the couple fled the store, jumping into the van and escaping with Hearst. The SLA abandoned
369-915: A centre-left movement. The association of Marxism–Leninism with the Soviet Union also caused Eurocommunism to be developed as a democratic communist movement in Western Europe, but it only briefly saw electoral success in the 1970s. In the Years of Lead in Italy, far-left militants, such as the Red Brigades , justified the usage of political violence as a revolutionary means and defense against far-right terrorism and neo-fascism in Italy . The Chinese Communist Party had been active since 1921, but it did not seize power in China until its victory in
492-420: A closet barely large enough for her to lie down in; that her contact with the outside world was regulated by her captors; and that she was regularly threatened with execution. Hearst's lawyer said that she had been raped by both DeFreeze and Wolfe. Both men were among those who died in 1974 in a firefight with police, years before Hearst's capture and trial. The SLA publicly claimed to be holding Hearst according to
615-592: A cult of personality in his favor. This also entailed the Great Purge in the late 1930s, an interpretation of Lenin's revolutionary violence that saw hundreds of thousands of Stalin's opponents killed, often to be replaced by ambitious loyalists. By this time, Marxism–Leninism was seen as the definitive implementation of communism by most communists globally, justifying the Great Purge as an effort to eradicate fascist infiltrators, with state censorship obscuring
738-559: A decisive Israeli victory. In Jenin the battle was much harder and fierce. Unlike in Nablus, the forces who fought in Jenin were mainly reserve forces. The Palestinian militants booby-trapped the city and the refugee camp with thousands of explosive charges, some were very large and most were concealed in houses and on the streets. After 13 Israeli soldiers were killed in an ambush combined with booby traps, snipers and suicide bombers ,
861-444: A deputy superintendent in the system, said those who published the flyers had "irresponsible flapping at the mouth." In addition, he said "somebody didn't like this guy [Foster] bringing all these people together. They may have been jealous of the type of progress he was making." Robert Blackburn, who served for a time as acting superintendent, later discussed how wrong the SLA was: These were not political radicals, Blackburn said of
984-433: A famous, notorious place in the history of war, particularly urban warfare. It seems to encapsulate and personify it, to provide an instinctive yardstick by which urban warfare can be examined, understood, defined, and assessed" according to military historian Stephen Walsh. The Soviets used the great amount of destruction to their advantage by adding man-made defenses such as barbed wire, minefields, trenches, and bunkers to
1107-584: A ground-level tunnel similar to that between the first courtyard and the road. The larger, more expensive flats faced the street and the smaller, less expensive ones were found around the inner courtyards. Just as the Soviets had learned a lot about urban warfare, so had the Germans. The Waffen-SS did not use the makeshift barricades erected close to street corners, because these could be raked by artillery fire from guns firing over open sights further along
1230-506: A hostage exhibits apparent loyalty to the abductor. Hearst was later examined by specialist psychologist Margaret Singer , who came to the same conclusion. Terence Hallinan , the first attorney who represented her, was planning to argue involuntary intoxication, a side effect of which is amnesia. Hearst's attorney F. Lee Bailey used the Stockholm syndrome argument as part of her defense at trial. He claimed that she had been confined in
1353-692: A house the group was renting, the two were charged with Foster's murder. Both men were convicted of murder in 1975 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Seven years later, on June 5, 1981, Little's conviction was overturned by the California Court of Appeal. He was later acquitted in a retrial in Monterey County. Remiro remains incarcerated; his eleven parole requests have been rejected. Russell Little said later that in fact Soltysik had shot Foster, and Nancy Ling Perry had shot Blackburn, aided by DeFreeze. After Remiro and Little were arrested,
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#17327724891641476-976: A left-wing united front , and to live together peacefully. The group adopted a seven-headed SLA hydra -like cobra symbol, using it as a logo. The SLA featured this image on their publications. The SLA formed from people who met during prisoner outreach programs supported by the group Venceremos , active in the Palo Alto area, and the Black Cultural Association in Vacaville Prison , about 45 miles from Berkeley. Student volunteers from University of California, Berkeley , some recruited by graduate student and professor Colston Westbrook from his classes in African American linguistics, were encouraged to conduct prisoner outreach at Vacaville. Initiated in 1969 by black inmates,
1599-672: A myriad of structures, and mountains of rubble. Ferroconcrete structures will be ruined by heavy bombardment, but it is very difficult to demolish such a building totally when it is well defended. Soviet forces had to fight room by room while defending the Red October Steel Factory during the Battle of Stalingrad , and in 1945, during the race to capture the Reichstag , despite heavy bombardment with artillery at point blank range (including 203 mm howitzers ). It
1722-450: A public statement and knew it had cameras, but they shot and wounded two people in the course of the robbery. At 10:00 a.m., three armed SLA members rushed into the bank, including Hearst holding a rifle. Security camera footage of Hearst was carried internationally. In her memoir, Every Secret Thing , she denied having participated willingly in the robbery and said she was threatened by other members. The group took more than $ 10,000 in
1845-525: A short term measure, they deployed self-propelled anti-aircraft guns ( ZSU-23-4 and 2K22M ) to engage the Chechen combat groups, as their tank's main gun did not have the elevation and depression to engage the fire teams and an armoured vehicle's machine gun could not suppress the fire of half a dozen different fire teams simultaneously. In the long term, the Russians brought in more infantry and began
1968-689: A single, coherent definition; some scholars consider it to be the left of communist parties , while others broaden it to include the left of social democracy . In certain instances—especially in the news media — far left has been associated with some forms of authoritarianism , anarchism , communism , and Marxism , or are characterized as groups that advocate for revolutionary socialism and related communist ideologies , or anti-capitalism and anti-globalization . Far-left terrorism consists of extremist , militant , or insurgent groups that attempt to realize their ideals through political violence rather than using democratic processes. The definition of
2091-901: A small team of infantry soldiers should fight in close and built-up spaces). IDF's LASHAB was developed mainly in recent decades, after the 1982 Lebanon War included urban warfare in Beirut and Lebanese villages, and was further developed during the Second Intifada (2000–2005) in which IDF soldiers entered and fought in Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps. The IDF has a special large and advanced facility for training soldiers and units in urban warfare. Urban military operations in World War II often relied on large quantities of artillery bombardment and air support varying from ground attack fighters to heavy bombers . In
2214-458: A sophomore at the University of California, Berkeley , was abducted from her Berkeley residence at Apartment 4, 2603 Benvenue Avenue. This was less than three months after a November 1973 San Francisco Chronicle story announcing her betrothal to Steven Weed, which published their address. The SLA choice of Hearst was for maximum news coverage of their action. The SLA issued an ultimatum to
2337-520: A systematic advance through the city, house by house and block by block, with dismounted Russian infantry moving in support of armour. In proactive moves, the Russians started to set up ambush points of their own and then move armour towards them to lure the Chechen combat groups into ambushes. As with the Soviet tank crews in Berlin in 1945, who attached bedsprings to the outside of their turrets to reduce
2460-951: A three-dimensional environment, limited fields of view and fire because of buildings, enhanced concealment and cover for defenders, below-ground infrastructure, and the ease of placement of booby traps and snipers. Historically, the United States Armed Forces has referred to urban warfare as UO (urban operations), but this term has been largely replaced with MOUT (military operations in urban terrain). The British armed forces terms are OBUA (operations in built-up areas), FIBUA (fighting in built-up areas), or sometimes (colloquially) FISH (fighting in someone's house), or FISH and CHIPS (fighting in someone's house and causing havoc in people's streets/public spaces). The term FOFO (fighting in fortified objectives) refers to clearing enemy personnel from narrow and entrenched places like bunkers, trenches and strongholds;
2583-447: A total reformation of society and its functions. Proponents of the horseshoe theory interpretation of the left–right political spectrum identify the far left and the far right as having more in common with each other as extremists than each of them has with centrists or moderates . This theory has received criticism, however, by many academics. Communism has historically emphasized economics and class over social issues. In
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#17327724891642706-742: Is also difficult to destroy underground or heavily fortified structures such as bunkers and utility tunnels; during the Siege of Budapest in 1944 fighting broke out in the sewers, as both Axis and Soviet troops used them for troop movements. Analysts debate the scope and size of urban battles in the modern day, as they are unlikely to match the scale of battles in the Second World War. For example, professor Michael C. Desch states that while "enormous forces engaged on both sides in those battles may never be seen in high-intensity urban battles again", that "the large numbers of killed and wounded underline
2829-511: Is an ideological group that seeks the creation of a communist society . Modern communism is a form of revolutionary socialism based on support for the communist society described the theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels , known as Marxism . Offshoots of Marxism include Leninism , Marxism–Leninism (which was distinct from both of its eponymous ideologies), Maoism , Eurocommunism , anarchist communism , and others. Anarchism seeks to create an alternate form of society that excludes
2952-455: Is credited with first using the term communism , though his usage was unrelated to the ideologies that were later known as communism. Early anarchists emerged in the 19th century, including Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Mikhail Bakunin . These anarchists endorsed many utopian ideas, but they emphasized the importance of revolution against and complete abolition of the state for a utopian society to exist. Bakunin argued that peasants rather than
3075-450: Is generally considered to be a centre-left socialist ideology. Socialism seeks to create a socially equal society in which every individual has access to basic necessities and in which prosperity and knowledge are shared. It is derived from ideas of egalitarianism . Democratic socialism is generally considered to be a reformist left-wing or radical-left ideology, and it has historically been considered centre-left , though it
3198-436: Is generally regarded as a right-wing ideology. Far-left groups support redistribution of income and wealth . They argue that capitalism and consumerism cause social inequality and advocate their dissolution. Some far-left groups also support the abolition of private property . Scholars, such as Luke March and Cas Mudde , propose that socio-economic rights are at the far left's core. Moreover, March and Mudde argue that
3321-522: Is occasionally considered far-left. Democratic socialism is sometimes used interchangeably with social democracy in political rhetoric, but is often used to describe political movements to the left of or following radical social-democracy. Communists may also identify as democratic socialists to contrast themselves with Stalinists . Democratic socialists reject Third Way social democracy for its association with neoliberalism , and they reject communism for its association with authoritarianism . Communism
3444-818: Is seen as radical politics because it calls for fundamental change to the capitalist socio-economic structure of society. Radical-left politics, rejecting both neo-liberal social-democracy and revolutionary action, instead seeking to enact change from within government, prioritize equality of outcome over equal opportunity . Post-Soviet radical left-wing movements in Europe and the United States are associated with anti-globalization and anti-neoliberalism . Various courants and movements of socialism are considered far-left. Socialism has historically been divided into left-wing reformist socialism and far-left revolutionary socialism . Modern social democracy
3567-439: Is situated between the far-left and social democracy . Per Richard Dunphy, "the radical left" desires fundamental changes in neoliberal capitalism and progressive reform of democracy such as direct democracy and the inclusion of marginalized communities, while per March "the extreme left" denounces liberal democracy as a "compromise with bourgeois political forces" and defines capitalism more strictly. Far-left politics
3690-406: Is taken from the word symbiosis and we define its meaning as a body of dissimilar bodies and organisms living in deep and loving harmony and partnership in the best interest of all within the body. They intended the political symbiosis to encompass the unity of all left-wing struggles: feminist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, and others. They wanted all races, genders, and ages to fight together in
3813-729: The Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International and Non-International Armed Conflicts . Sometimes distinction and proportionality , as in the case of the Canadians in Ortona , causes the attacking force to restrain from using all the force they could when attacking a city. In other cases, such as the Battle of Stalingrad and
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3936-429: The Battle of Berlin , both military forces considered evacuating civilians only to find it impractical. When Russian forces attacked Grozny in 1999, they conducted a massive artillery and air bombardment campaign in an attempt to smash the city into submission. The Russian Army handled the issue of civilian casualties by issuing an ultimatum urging citizens to leave or be destroyed without mercy. Leaflets dropped on
4059-501: The Battle of Manila in 1945, General MacArthur initially placed a ban on artillery and air strikes to save civilian lives. Military forces are bound by the laws of war governing military necessity to the amount of force which can be applied when attacking an area where there are known to be civilians. Until the 1970s, this was covered by the 1907 Hague Convention IV – The Laws and Customs of War on Land which specifically includes articles 25–27. This has since been supplemented by
4182-532: The Chinese Civil War in 1949. As with the Soviet Union, the newly formed People's Republic of China carried out purges of political enemies, killing millions of land owners. The peasants were not targeted, however, instead using them as a base of political support. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, China under the rule of Mao Zedong distanced itself from the Soviet Union. Maoism then grew in popularity as an alternative to Soviet-style communism. At
4305-532: The Cold War brought an end to communism's political influence in most of Western Europe, and the development of post-industrial society caused many of the traditional sectors associated with communism to dissipate. Following Stalin's death, the workers of several Eastern European countries staged revolutions against communist rule, which were suppressed by the Soviet military. Many of these countries were led by Stalinist rulers, who were forced out and replaced by
4428-471: The European theatre of war , roughly 40% of battles took place in urban areas. In some particularly vicious urban warfare battles such as Stalingrad and Warsaw , all weapons were used irrespective of their consequences. Military historian Victor Davis Hanson noted the lethality of urban warfare in the Second World War, "When civilian met soldier in the confined landscapes, the death toll spiked, and it
4551-748: The First Chechen War most of the Chechen fighters had been trained in the Soviet armed forces. They were divided into combat groups consisting of 15 to 20 personnel, subdivided into three or four-man fire teams . A fire team consisted of an antitank gunner, usually armed with a Russian made RPG-7s or RPG-18s , a machine gunner and a sniper. The team would be supported by ammunition runners and assistant gunners. To destroy Russian armoured vehicles in Grozny , five or six hunter-killer fire teams deployed at ground level, in second and third stories, and in basements. The snipers and machine gunners would pin down
4674-666: The Russian Revolution emerged in 1917 amid political instability caused by World War I . The Bolsheviks seized power, under the rule of Vladimir Lenin and his ideology of Leninism. The state ideology developed during the Russian Civil War from 1918 to 1921, setting the preservation of Bolshevik power as the highest priority to assure the building of socialism as well as seeking to spread communist revolution to other nations. Some additional communist governments formed in Europe, but they lasted only months. Though
4797-490: The San Francisco Bay Area . Venceremos associates and future SLA members Willie Wolfe and Russell Little, concerned with the potential for exposure through surveillance at the high-profile Peking House, arranged for DeFreeze to move in with their associate Patricia Soltysik in the relative anonymity of Concord, California . DeFreeze and Soltysik became lovers and began to outline the plans for founding
4920-515: The Taborites , who attempted to create a social structure that resembled a communist society. Early examples of communist societies in fiction include Utopia by Thomas More , which proposed a society without personal property, and The City of the Sun by Tommaso Campanella , which proposed a society without the family unit . Modern far-left politics can be traced to Europe and North America in
5043-517: The Tupamaros movement in Uruguay , combined with Régis Debray 's theory of urban warfare and ideas drawn from Maoism , appealed to a number of people, including Patricia Soltysik , alias "Mizmoon". The SLA formed after the escape from prison by Donald DeFreeze , who took the name "General Field Marshal Cinque". He had been serving five years to life for robbing a prostitute . DeFreeze took
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5166-443: The macromanagement factor (i.e. sending troops, using of heavy armoured fighting vehicles , battle management), CQB refers to the micromanagement factor—namely: how a small squad of infantry troops should fight in urban environments and/or inside buildings in order to achieve its goals with minimal casualties. As a doctrine, CQB concerns topics such as: Military CQB doctrine is different from police CQB doctrine, mainly because
5289-448: The tactical levels. Complicating factors in urban warfare include the presence of civilians and the complexity of the urban terrain . Urban combat operations may be conducted to capitalize on strategic or tactical advantages associated with the possession or the control of a particular urban area or to deny these advantages to the enemy. It is considered to be arguably the most difficult form of warfare. Fighting in urban areas negates
5412-475: The "Symbionese Nation". On November 6, 1973, in Oakland , California, two members of the SLA killed school superintendent Marcus Foster and badly wounded his deputy, Robert Blackburn, as the two men left an Oakland school board meeting. The hollow-point bullets used to kill Foster had been packed with cyanide . Although Foster had been the first black school superintendent of any major public school system,
5535-413: The 1830s with the publications of British reformer Robert Owen , who self-identified as socialist. Owen, as well as others such as Henri de Saint-Simon , Charles Fourier , and Étienne Cabet , developed the utopian socialist movement, and these utopian socialists established several communes to implement their ideology. Cabet responded to More's Utopia with his own novel, The Voyage to Icaria . He
5658-544: The 1960s and 1970s, among them the CPI (Maoist) , Montoneros , New People's Army , Prima Linea , the Red Army Faction , the Red Brigades and the Tupamaros . These groups generally aimed to overthrow capitalism and the wealthy ruling classes. Urban warfare Urban warfare is warfare in urban areas such as towns and cities. Urban combat differs from combat in the open at both operational and
5781-509: The 1970s and 1980s, far-left movements in Western Europe were increasingly defined by the new social movements , which gave prominence to issues such as environmentalism, animal rights , women's rights , the peace movement , and promoting the interests of the Third World . These ideas as a singular movement became less prominent in far-left politics as they were subsumed by green politics, but they are still disparately supported by many in
5904-411: The 19th century. Most of those, thanks to housing regulations and few elevators, were five stories high, built around a courtyard which could be reached from the street through a corridor large enough to take a horse and cart or small trucks used to deliver coal. In many places these apartment blocks were built around several courtyards, one behind the other, each one reached through the outer courtyards by
6027-601: The 2020s. In 2023, analyst Mikael Weissmann claimed that it is widely agreed upon that urban warfare will be the "battlefields of tomorrow". The characteristics of an average city include tall buildings, narrow alleys, sewage tunnels and possibly a subway system. Defenders may have the advantage of detailed local knowledge of the area, right down to the layout inside of buildings and means of travel not shown on maps. The buildings can provide excellent sniping posts while alleys and rubble-filled streets are ideal for planting booby traps . Defenders can move from one part of
6150-689: The Bolsheviks identified as communist, the term socialist was often used interchangeably at the time. By 1922, as Russian SFSR became one of the founding countries of Soviet Union , it responded to widespread hunger and poverty with the New Economic Policy , which restored market enterprise for smaller industries. After Lenin's death, a power struggle between Nikolai Bukharin , Leon Trotsky , and Joseph Stalin ended with Stalin taking power by 1928. Stalin implemented his ideology of Marxism–Leninism, which reorganized society and created
6273-540: The Great Purge's extent. Anarcho-syndicalism was developed as a form of anarchism in the late 19th century, and it grew popular around 1900. It remained relevant in far-left politics through 1940. During the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s, anarcho-syndicalists seized control of multiple regions in Spain, but this ended when the nationalist faction won the war. This, along with the rise of communism, ended
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#17327724891646396-607: The Hearst family, namely, that they would release Patty in exchange for the freedom of Remiro and Little. Law enforcement rejected this. The SLA next demanded a ransom from the Hearsts in the form of a food distribution program. The value of food to be distributed fluctuated: on February 23 the demand was for $ 4 million; it peaked at $ 400 million. The Hearsts created an organization, People in Need (PIN), which distributed free food, though
6519-489: The IDF changed its tactics from slow advancing infantry soldiers backed by attack helicopters to a heavy use of armoured bulldozers. The heavily armoured bulldozers began by clearing booby traps and ended with razing many houses, mainly in the center of the refugee camp. The armoured bulldozers were unstoppable and impervious to Palestinian attacks and by razing booby-trapped houses and buildings which used as gun posts they forced
6642-513: The SLA condemned him in their flyers for his supposed plan to introduce identification cards into Oakland schools, calling him "fascist". Foster had already gained the support of the school board to change the proposal. Some SLA members had mistakenly believed that killing Foster would gain support for them in the Black community and help them recruit new members; instead they alienated most black people and other leftists by this crime. Harry Reynolds,
6765-552: The SLA had entirely lost sight of its goals. He believed they got sidetracked into a confrontation with the Los Angeles Police Department rather than educating the public in a political dialogue. On May 16, 1974, William and Emily Harris entered Mel's Sporting Goods Store in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, California , to shop for supplies. While Emily made the purchases, Bill decided to shoplift
6888-639: The SLA had ostensibly given her the option of being released or joining the SLA, she had believed she would be killed if she turned them down. She began using the nom de guerre "Tania", after Che Guevara 's associate " Tania the Guerrillera ". The SLA's next action was the armed robbery of the Hibernia Bank branch at 1450 Noriega Street in San Francisco, on April 15, 1974. The group needed money and chose this site, because they wanted to make
7011-440: The SLA. They were uniquely mediocre and stunningly off-base. The people in the SLA had no grounding in history. They swung from the world of being thumb-in-the-mouth cheerleaders to self-described revolutionaries with nothing but rhetoric to support them. On January 10, 1974, Russell Little and Joseph Remiro , also SLA founding members, were arrested during an armed encounter with police. After police found extensive SLA materials at
7134-411: The Soviets. Most of the central districts of Berlin consisted of city blocks with straight wide roads, intersected by several waterways, parks and large railway marshalling yards. The terrain was predominantly flat but there were some low hills like that of Kreuzberg that is 66 metres (217 ft) above sea level. Much of the housing stock consisted of apartment blocks built in the second half of
7257-460: The U.S. Army under Zachary Taylor invaded the town. The U.S. Army had no prior training in urban warfare and the Mexican defenders hid on rooftops, shot through loopholes, and stationed cannons in the middle of the city's streets. The houses at Monterrey were made of thick adobe , with strong double doors and few windows. The rooftops were lined with a two-foot-tall wall that acted as a parapet for
7380-644: The United States Marine Corps , Charles C. Krulak , and retired military officer and chairman of the urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute, John Spencer have predicted urban warfare to become the norm in wars. Spencer confirmed this to be true in an article in 2024, providing a list of numerous urban battles in the recent decades of the 21st century alone, those being Fallujah , Sadr City , Mosul , Raqqa , Marawi , and now Bakhmut , Mariupol , and Khan Yunis in
7503-745: The advantages that one side may have over the other in armor, heavy artillery, or air support. Ambushes laid down by small groups of soldiers with handheld anti-tank weapons can destroy entire columns of modern armor (as in the First Battle of Grozny ), while artillery and air support can be severely reduced if the "superior" party wants to limit civilian casualties as much as possible, but the defending party does not (or even uses civilians as human shields ). Some civilians may be difficult to distinguish from such combatants as armed militias and gangs, and particularly individuals who are simply trying to protect their homes from attackers. Tactics are complicated by
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#17327724891647626-414: The army needed to " mouse hole " through each house and root out the defenders in close combat. Worth's men used pick axes to chip holes in the adobe walls of the homes, in the roof of the house from where the soldiers could drop in, or used ladders to climb to the top of a rooftop and assault the Mexican defenders in hand-to-hand combat. The typical assault on a home would include one man who would run to
7749-545: The basic fact that such conflict is extremely lethal", referencing the battles of Stalingrad and Berlin. An article by the Modern War Institute states that while lessons may be taken from Stalingrad, ultimately "Stalingrad took place in a theater with a large number of army groups with a total of a million soldiers involved on each side; modern armies are unlikely to fight with these numbers." Many analysts, such as former American army general and Commandant of
7872-732: The black dude asked me my name and then introduced me to everyone. [When asked if Patty Hearst was there] Man, how can I tell? All white women look the same to me. The next day, an anonymous phone call to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) said that several heavily armed people were staying at the caller's daughter's house. That afternoon, more than 400 LAPD officers, under the command of Captain Mervin King , along with FBI agents, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD), California Highway Patrol (CHP), and Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD), surrounded
7995-502: The chance of voting radical left"; and second, radical-left voters tend not to share the social nationalism of the radical-right, instead having a socio-tropic, or other-regarding, bias based on the ideological concern for economic egalitarianism. Other characteristics may include anti-Americanism , anti-globalization , opposition to NATO , and in some cases a rejection of European integration . Many far-left militant organizations were formed by members of existing political parties in
8118-492: The city but it could not hit the well-hidden defenders any better than the U.S. soldiers could. Two days later the US again assaulted the city from two sides and this time they fought differently. Not wanting to repeat the mistakes of the 21st, General William Jenkins Worth listened to his Texan advisers. These men had fought in Mexican cities before at the Battle of Mier in 1842 and the Battle of Bexar in 1835. They understood that
8241-577: The city read: ' You are surrounded, all roads to Grozny are blocked...Persons who stay in the city will be considered terrorists and bandits and will be destroyed by artillery and aviation. There will be no further negotiations. Everyone who does not leave the city will be destroyed '. Fighting in an urban environment can offer some advantages to a weaker defending force or to guerrilla fighters through ambush-induced attrition losses. The attacking army must account for three dimensions more often, and consequently expend greater amounts of manpower to secure
8364-509: The city to another undetected using tunnels and spring ambushes . Meanwhile, the attackers tend to become more exposed than the defender as they must use the open streets more often, unfamiliar with the defenders' secret and hidden routes. During a house to house search the attacker is often also exposed on the streets. The Battle of Monterrey was the U.S. Army's first major encounter with urban warfare. It occurred in September 1846 when
8487-574: The conditions of the Geneva Conventions . The SLA subjected Hearst to indoctrination in SLA ideology. In Hearst's taped recordings, used to announce demands and conditions, on day thirteen of her capture, Hearst can be heard extemporaneously expressing SLA ideology. With each successive taped communiqué, as the group called them, Hearst expressed increasing support for the aims of the SLA. She eventually denounced her former life, her parents, and fiancé. She later claimed that at that point, when
8610-680: The damage done by German panzerfausts , some of the Russian armour was fitted quickly with a cage of wire mesh mounted some 25–30 centimetres away from the hull armour to defeat the shaped charges of the Chechen RPGs. Operation Defensive Shield was a counter-terrorism military operation conducted by the Israel Defense Forces in April 2002 as a response to a wave of suicide bombings by Palestinian factions which claimed
8733-464: The defending soldiers. Each home was a fort unto itself. On September 21, 1846, the U.S. Army which included some of its best soldiers, recent West Point graduates, marched down the city's streets and were cut down by the Mexican defenders. They could not see the men hidden behind walls, loopholes, or rooftops. They tried to march straight down the street until the intense fire drove them to hide in adjacent buildings. Taylor tried to move artillery into
8856-402: The dismantling of mines and wires; and the securing of footholds in enemy areas. Israel Defense Forces calls urban warfare לש"ב (pronounced LASHAB ), a Hebrew acronym for warfare on urban terrain . LASHAB in the IDF includes large-scale tactics (such as use of heavy armoured personnel carriers , armoured bulldozers , UAVs for intelligence, etc.), CQB training for fighting forces (how
8979-448: The door of the house and chip the door away with a pick axe under covering fire. Once the door showed signs of weakening, 3–4 other soldiers would run to the door and barge in with revolvers blazing. Worth lost few men on the 23rd using these new urban warfare techniques. The Battle of Stalingrad is largely seen as the defining battle of urban warfare, with the battle commonly studied and referenced in studies of urban warfare. The battle
9102-473: The early 19th century to describe the egalitarian ideas of redistribution promoted by writers like François-Noël Babeuf and John Thelwall . Inspired by the French Revolution , these writers objected to the existence of significant wealth, and Babeuf advocated a dictatorship on behalf of the people that would destroy those who caused inequality. Socialism was recognized as a coherent philosophy in
9225-410: The end of March. The FBI conducted an unsuccessful search for Hearst as the SLA took refuge in a number of safe houses. Hearst later claimed she was subjected to a series of ordeals while in SLA captivity; her mother later described these as "brainwashing". The announced change in Hearst's politics through the following months has been attributed to Stockholm syndrome , a psychological response in which
9348-501: The far left is to the left of the political left with regard to how parties or groups describe economic inequality on the base of existing social and political arrangements. Far-left groups are anti-establishment , opposing existing political and economic structures. Both anarchist and statist far-left ideologies may support disestablishment of traditional sociopolitical structures. They are opposed to liberalism and liberal democracy . They may be classified as radical , supporting
9471-543: The far-left and social-democracy) or far-left. At the same time, in the United Kingdom and the United States of America , populist movements formed around Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders . While left-wing populist parties were in power in the 2010s, they were often forced to put aside their strong anti-neoliberalism and accept neoliberal policies, either proposed by their larger allies or imposed due to
9594-575: The far-left declined after the dissolution of the Soviet Union , and it remained relatively subdued during the 1990s. In many Eastern European countries, communist parties were banned by the new governments. In others such as Moldova, they saw continued electoral success. Of the five communist states that survived into the 21st century, three of them — China, Vietnam, and Laos — had restored private ownership and reintegrated with global capitalist markets although state and public control continued as well. For instance, Peter Nolan argues that land in China
9717-494: The far-left varies in the literature and there is not a general agreement on what it entails or consensus on the core characteristics that constitute the far left, other than being to the left of mainstream left-wing politics . As with all political alignments, the exact boundaries of centre-left versus far-left politics are not clearly defined and can vary depending on context. Far-left ideologies often include types of socialism , communism , and anarchism . The radical-left
9840-507: The far-left. Societies resembling communist society have been postulated throughout human history, and many have been proposed as the earliest socialist or communist ideas. The ideas of Plato have been described as an early type of socialism. In medieval Europe, some philosophers argued that Jesus believed in shared ownership of property and that the hierarchy of the Catholic Church was contrary to his teachings. This included
9963-498: The house at the time was a 17-year-old neighbor named Brenda Daniels, who was sleeping on the couch. Daniels recalls the events that night: I went down to Minnie's every Thursday evening to play some cards and drink a little. I fell asleep early and when I woke up around two a.m. I saw four white women and three dudes—two blacks and one white. I saw guns spread out all over the floor, an' I asked them why they had guns, more than I'd ever seen in my life. They didn't answer, and, instead,
10086-532: The house, a member of the SWAT team fired tear gas projectiles into the structure. SLA members responded with bursts of automatic gunfire, and a violent gun battle began. The police were firing semi-automatic AR-15 and AR-180 rifles. The SLA members were armed with M1 carbines that had been converted to fully automatic fire. Police also reported that the SLA had made homemade grenades from 35 mm film canisters, and had thrown them at responding officers. During
10209-450: The house. Perry's body remained outside the house. The rest died inside, from smoke inhalation, burns and gunshot wounds. The coroner's report concluded that Donald DeFreeze committed suicide by shooting himself in the side of the head. Atwood, Willie Wolfe, and Patricia Soltysik died of smoke inhalation and burns. After the shooting stopped and the fire was extinguished, police recovered 19 firearms—including rifles, pistols, and shotguns. It
10332-627: The ideas of Japanese writer Kōtoku Shūsui , who was in turn inspired by Peter Kropotkin . This movement saw its greatest prominence in the 1920s in China. Communism in early 20th century Europe often gained power in countries with significant polarization between segments of the population on an ethnic, religious, or economic basis, and in countries that were destabilized by war. It was less prominent in industrialized nations, where social democracy maintained electoral success over communist parties. The first communist revolution took place in Russia, when
10455-690: The international context. In Europe, the support for populist left politics comes from three overlapping groups: far-left subcultures, disaffected social democrats, and protest voters—those who are opposed to their country's European Union membership. European populist left politics share many of the values of centre-left politics , including cosmopolitanism , altruism , and egalitarianism . They overlap in some areas with far-right politics concerning radicalism , economic nationalism , Euroscepticism , and populism . Two clear distinctions emerge: first, "education [...] tends to statistically significantly lower chances of voting for radical right but increases
10578-424: The late 18th century, when industrialization and political upheaval caused discontent among the working class. Socialists were those who objected to the changing social and economic structures associated with industrialization, in that they promoted individualism over collectivism and that they created wealth for some but not for others, creating economic inequality . The term socialism first came into use in
10701-817: The lives of hundreds of Israeli civilians. It was in part characterized by alleged usage of human shields by both IDF and Palestinian militants. The two major battles were held in Nablus and Jenin . In Nablus, the Paratroopers Brigade and the Golani Brigade , backed by reservist armour force and combat engineers with armoured Caterpillar D9 bulldozers , entered to Nablus, killing 70 militants and arresting hundreds, while sustaining only one fatality. The forces deployed many small teams, advancing in non-linear manner from many directions, using snipers and air support. The battle ended quickly with
10824-538: The local level and a one-party state at the regional level. In reaction to the neo-liberal turn of European social-democracy under the Third Way , populist left-wing parties and politicians emerged in the late 2000s and early 2010s as a Eurosceptic , anti-globalist response to the Great Recession . These parties and movements are qualified by various observers as either left-wing , radical-left (between
10947-404: The media at the time as "Cujo"). Perry's body was outside, but the others were all found in a crawl space under the house, which had burned down around them. Far-left politics Far-left politics , also known as extreme left politics or left-wing extremism , are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left . The term does not have
11070-416: The militants in Jenin to surrender. In total, 56 Palestinians and 23 Israeli soldiers were killed in the battle of Jenin. The term close-quarter battle refers to fighting methods within buildings, streets, narrow alleys and other places where visibility and manoeuvrability are limited. Both close-quarters-battle (CQB) and urban operations (UO) are related to urban warfare, but while UO refers mainly to
11193-499: The military usually operates in hostile areas while the police operates within docile populations. Armies that often engage in urban warfare operations may train most of their infantry in CQB doctrine. While training will vary, it generally will focus on what proficiencies each unit possess. This is in opposition to what units may lack in either strength or weapons capabilities. The fundamentals of muzzle awareness and weapons safety are of
11316-419: The name Cinque from the leader of the slave rebellion that took over the slave ship Amistad in 1839. DeFreeze escaped from Soledad State Prison on March 5, 1973, by walking away while on work duty in a boiler room located outside the perimeter fence. He had earlier been incarcerated at Vacaville, where he met some future student volunteers who joined the SLA. Some sources have suggested that DeFreeze
11439-438: The neighborhood. The leader of a SWAT team used a bullhorn to announce, "Occupants of 1466 East 54th Street, this is the Los Angeles Police Department speaking. Come out with your hands up!" A young child walked out, along with an older man. The man said that no one else was in the house, but the child intervened, saying there were several people and they had guns and ammunition. After several more attempts to get people to leave
11562-594: The operation was halted when violence erupted at one of the four distribution points. The crowds were much greater than expected, and people were injured as panicked workers threw boxes of food off moving trucks into the crowd. The SLA then demanded that a community coalition called the Western Addition Project Area Committee be given charge of food distribution. The committee organized the distribution of 100,000 bags of groceries at 16 locations across four counties between February 26 and
11685-491: The organization to his former neighborhood in South Central Los Angeles, where he had friends whom they might recruit. The SLA had difficulty getting established there. They relied on commandeering housing and supplies, generating resentment among the people who protected their secrecy and security. At this stage, SLA member Russell Little, who was being held in jail pending a trial, said that he believed
11808-456: The previously unknown SLA assassinated Marcus Foster , the black Superintendent of Oakland Public Schools, and wounded his deputy superintendent Robert Blackburn. This murder alienated the SLA from the local radical community. From the beginning, the small group was made up overwhelmingly of white members. After Thero Wheeler left in October 1973, disagreeing with plans for violence, DeFreeze
11931-623: The relevance of anarchism among the far-left globally after 1940. As mass production became more common, the traditional style of labor that anarcho-syndicalists objected to ceased to exist, preventing any significant resurgence in the movement. The Soviet Union's influence during and after World War II spread communism, directly and indirectly, to the rest of Eastern Europe and into Southeast Europe . New communist governments were formed in Albania , Bulgaria , Czechoslovakia , East Germany , Hungary , Romania , and Yugoslavia . The onset of
12054-425: The remaining SLA members considered kidnapping an important figure in order to negotiate the release of their jailed comrades. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) found documents at one abandoned safe house revealing an action was planned for the "full moon of January 7". The FBI did not take any precautions, and the SLA did not act until a month later. On February 4, 1974, publishing heiress Patty Hearst,
12177-505: The robbery. Hearst later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seven years in prison on charges related to this. After she served two years in prison, President Jimmy Carter commuted the remainder of her sentence. President Bill Clinton gave her an official pardon. The SLA believed it had to recruit new members and recognized that it had alienated the radical community in the Bay Area by assassinating Marcus Foster. Cinque suggested moving
12300-467: The role of the state. Some objected to the increase in the state's involvement, while others believed that the state was a stronger alternative to protect worker's rights than labor movements. Many of the former moved to anarchism, while many of the latter responded with the development of social democracy. East Asian anarchism developed in the 1900s during the Russo-Japanese War , based on
12423-485: The rubble, while large factories even housed tanks and large-caliber guns within. In addition, Soviet urban warfare relied on 20-to-50-man-assault groups, armed with machine guns, grenades and satchel charges, and buildings fortified as strongpoints with clear fields of fire. A Soviet combat group was a mixed arms unit of about eighty men, divided into assault groups of six to eight men, closely supported by field artillery. These were tactical units which were able to apply
12546-546: The same time, North Korea and North Vietnam were established as communist governments, triggering the Korean War and the Vietnam War against South Korea and South Vietnam , respectively. By the late 1970s, Maoism in China was replaced by the ideology of Deng Xiaoping , which restored the private sector and market pricing. The Cuban Revolution led to Fidel Castro becoming the ruler of Cuba in 1959. Though he
12669-401: The shootout, police continued to fire dozens of tear gas grenades into the house, attempting to force out the SLA members. About two hours into the shootout, the house caught fire, probably due to an exploding tear gas canister. As the house began to burn, two women left from the rear and one came out to the front (she had come in drunk the previous night, passed out, and woken up in the middle of
12792-408: The siege); all were taken into custody, but were found not to be SLA members. Automatic weapons fire continued from the house. At this point, Nancy Ling Perry and Camilla Hall came out of the house. Police later said they fatally shot Hall in the head as she aimed a weapon toward them; Perry was shooting at them, and they shot her twice. After Hall fell to the ground, Atwood pulled her body back into
12915-398: The state entirely. Anarchism incorporates elements of both socialism and liberalism , and it was a prominent ideology among the far-left globally from 1900 to 1940. Anarchist movements include classical anarchism , anarcho-syndicalism , social anarchism , individualist anarchism , anarcha-feminism , black anarchism , and queer anarchism , and green anarchism . Anarcho-capitalism
13038-600: The straight streets. Instead, they put snipers and machine guns on the upper floors and the roofs – a safer deployment as the Soviet tanks could not elevate their guns that high. They also put men armed with panzerfausts in cellar windows to ambush tanks as they moved down the streets. These tactics were quickly adopted by the Hitler Youth and the First World War Volkssturm veterans. To counter these tactics, Soviet submachine gunners rode
13161-507: The streets. They moved through the apartments and cellars blasting holes through the walls of adjacent buildings (for which the Soviets found abandoned German panzerfausts were very effective), while others fought across the roof tops and through the attics. These tactics took the Germans lying in ambush for tanks in the flanks. Flamethrowers and grenades were very effective, but as the Berlin civilian population had not been evacuated these tactics inevitably killed many civilians. During
13284-572: The subsequent Soviet government. Yugoslavia distanced itself as a neutral communist nation, aligned with neither the East nor the West. The New Left developed in Western Europe as an alternative to communism in the 1950s, taking positions on social issues and identity politics . Green politics developed as an offshoot of the New Left, but it was deradicalized by the end of the 20th century and became
13407-431: The supporting infantry while the antitank gunners would engage the armoured vehicle aiming at the top, rear and sides of vehicles. Initially, the Russians were taken by surprise. Their armoured columns that were supposed to take the city without difficulty as Soviet forces had taken Budapest in 1956 were decimated in fighting more reminiscent of the Battle of Budapest in late 1944. As in the Soviet assault on Berlin, as
13530-399: The tactics of house to house fighting that the Soviets had been forced to develop and refine at each Festungsstadt (fortress city) they had encountered from Stalingrad to Berlin. The German tactics in the battle of Berlin were dictated by three considerations: the experience that the Germans had gained during five years of war; the physical characteristics of Berlin; and the tactics used by
13653-405: The tanks and sprayed every doorway and window, but this meant the tank could not traverse its turret quickly. The other solution was to rely on heavy howitzers (152 mm and 203 mm) firing over open sights to blast defended buildings and to use anti-aircraft guns against defenders posted on the higher floors. Soviet combat groups started to move from house to house instead of directly down
13776-417: The utmost importance given the propensity for fratricide due to the confined spaces, as well as the limited avenues of approach. Armed forces seek to train their units for those circumstances in which they are to fight: built up, urban areas are no exception. Several countries have created simulated urban training zones. The British Army has established an "Afghan village" within its Stanford Battle Area and
13899-405: The van, but because of the shoplifting and shooting, police examined the vehicle. They found a parking ticket that had the address of the group's new location (their so-called safe house.) The rest of the SLA fled that house after seeing news coverage of the shooting at the sports shop. The SLA took over a house occupied by Christine Johnson and Minnie Lewisin, at 1466 East 54th Street. Among those in
14022-430: The volunteer program was intended to have college students help educate inmates in a variety of classes and prepare them for life after prison. It also sponsored cultural events that were open to community attendees. This program attracted chiefly white student activists, including those who promoted discussions of political and social justice issues. The idea of a South-American–style urban guerrilla movement, similar to
14145-541: The working class should lead a socialist revolution, and he popularized calls to violence among the anarchist movement. Anarchist ideology spread to the Americas shortly after its development. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels introduced Marxism in the 1840s, which advocated revolutionary socialism . As the state bureaucracy was developed in the late 19th century and labor rights were increasingly recognized by national governments, socialist movements were divided on
14268-737: Was an informant from 1967 to 1969 for the Public Disorder Intelligence Unit of the Los Angeles Police Department . DeFreeze had been active in the Black Cultural Association while at the California Medical Facility , a state prison facility in Vacaville, California , where he had made contacts with members of Venceremos. After escaping, he sought refuge among these contacts, and stayed at a commune known as Peking House in
14391-589: Was convicted in a plea bargain and sentenced for second-degree murder related to a 1975 bank robbery by the SLA in Carmichael, California . During its existence from 1973 to 1975, the group murdered at least two people, committed armed bank robberies, attempted bombings and other violent crimes, including the kidnapping in 1974 of newspaper heiress Patty Hearst . Its spokesman was escaped convict Donald DeFreeze , but Patricia Soltysik and Nancy Ling Perry were believed to share group leadership. In November 1973
14514-544: Was decollectivized but not privatized, with control of land remaining in the hands of the community. The Party of the European Left was established in 2004 as a pan-European political party for the far-left. The far-left parties during this time were rarely new creations, instead descending from earlier far-left parties of the 20th century. In 2012, the autonomous region Rojava in northwestern Syria established self-governance based on an anarchist direct democracy at
14637-413: Was no surprise that the greatest carnage of World War II—at Leningrad and Stalingrad—was the result of efforts to storm municipal fortresses". However, when liberating occupied territory some restraint was often applied, particularly in urban settings. For example, Canadian operations in both Ortona and Groningen avoided the use of artillery altogether to spare civilians and buildings, and during
14760-751: Was not a communist, he aligned the nation with the communist movement to seek Soviet support. Many other nations adopted socialism distinct from Marxism–Leninism during the Cold War, particularly in Africa and Latin America. Communism was rapidly replaced between 1979 and 1992, in which eleven of the world's sixteen communist states were disestablished. By the 1980s, the Soviet Union moved away from ideas of international communism as such efforts came to be seen as too inconvenient. By 1988, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had effectively abandoned communism. In Europe,
14883-529: Was one of the largest police shootouts in U.S. history with a reported total of over 9,000 rounds being fired (4,000 by the SLA and 5,000 by police). There were no casualties among law enforcement, firefighters, or civilians outside the house. The SLA leadership was decimated: Donald DeFreeze (General Cinque), Patricia Soltysik (Mizmoon or Zoya) and Nancy Ling Perry had all died. The other dead were also founding members: Angela Atwood ("General Gelina"), Camilla Hall ("Gabi"), and Willie Wolfe ("Kahjoh", misspelled by
15006-634: Was the SLA's only black member. Joe Remiro was Chicano , described as white in a February 1974 article in The New York Times . He had been active for a period in the Latino activist group Venceremos before it disbanded in 1973. In their manifesto "Symbionese Liberation Army Declaration of Revolutionary War & the Symbionese Program", co-founders Donald DeFreeze and Patricia "Mizmoon" Soltysik wrote: The name 'symbionese'
15129-528: Was the single largest and costliest urban battle ever, with it being seen as the worst and most extreme case of urban warfare. The Battle of Stalingrad saw all types of MOUT combat techniques. Historian Iain MacGregor states that the "evolution of urban, house-to-house fighting and defending these buildings and built-up areas was seemingly born in Stalingrad in the winter of 1942". The battle "occupies
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