ABSTRACT
Terrorism was a subject of much debate among the congress participants because terrorism is, by its very nature, abhorrent to the goals of social democrats. Firstly, it is private power, be it at the highly publicized level of skyjackers, assassination squads and political kidnapping or at the less publicized level of protection rackets, loan sharks and the urban criminal terrorist when they usurp “public law” and become a law unto themselves. The second aspect of terrorism which is also inherently at odds with social democracy and that is, of course, violence. Violence not only begets immediate and, in the case of terrorists, indiscriminate cruelty, it also fosters the most undesirable and reactionary attitudes in society. Finally, it follows from this point of view that it is misleading to talk of terrorism as a “threat to civilization” — except in the sense that all violence, including war and state violence, is incompatible with a truly social and civilized condition.
