by Julia Hell · Add a comment <http://www.telospress.com/main/index.php?main_page=news_comments&article_id=165&zenid=5639dae10b1c9760f530ef9dc90821c4>
/This is the first part of a comment on the difficulty that parts of the Left sometimes have in criticizing terrorism. The second part will be posted tomorrow, and a reply by Ben Robinson will follow./
In February 1989, Gerhard Richter exhibited his so-called /RAF cycle, October 18, 1977/, in Krefeld, West Germany. (The cycle consists of fifteen photo-paintings referencing the Red Army Faction, the primary terrorist group to emerge from the West German New Left.) In a press conference, Richter announced the cycle as a reflection on the history of the European Left, a history of failed utopian projects: 1789 led to the reign of terror, Richter stated, Bolshevism led to Stalinism, and the guerilla struggle of the Red Army Faction collapsed with the suicide of its leadership in Stammheim Prison on October 18, 1977. Richter, who had left East Germany in 1961, did not foresee November 9, 1989; neither did he foresee one of unification's side-effects, the interruption of the emerging discussion about the legacy of the RAF and, by implication, the legacy of 1968. But by the early 1990s, this debate resurfaced and has since continued unabated. ... http://www.telospress.com/main/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=165