An Interview With Monika Berberich Ex-RAF Member The following interview has been taken from the July/August (1991) issue of the Spanish magazine Area Critica. Monika Berberich, ex-RAF member, spent 17 years in Moabit prison in West Germany, accused of various armed actions. During this time she participated in 9 hungerstrikes with German political prisoners who have always struggled against isolation and for their regrouping. GRAPOMonika (2).jpg Area Critica: What have the living conditions been like in the prisons you have been in? GRAPOPic34Monika Barberich: Most of my time in prison I have been in isolation, totally isolated or in small groups. Only for a short period was I in normal prison conditions with common prisoners, but the last 8 years I spent completely isolated in a maximum security unit. AC: What can you highlight of the German prison regimen? MB: Isolation is the cruelest form of torture for the political prisoners. The German state tries to present an image of normal conditions but in reality, even though several prisoners may be in the same prison they can?t even see each other. All contact among them, even with the social prisoners, is cut off by the prison administration and moreso when there are guerrilla attacks on the outside, which shows that the political prisoners continue to be hostages of the state. As to our communications with the outside, all visits with our family members are monitored by prison officials as well as by the political police; our mail is censored as are all types of writings, be they books, newspapers or photocopies to the point that in Bruchal and Stammheim prison nothing gets in.GerPos8 (2) AC: You were in prison in 1977, during the so-called ?suicides? of the leaders of the RAF (they were Gudrun Ensslin, Jan-Carl Raspe and Andreas Baader ? ed.). What can you tell us about that? MB: With these murders the German government wanted to paralyse the guerrilla on the outside because, as the very government said at the time, the Schleyer kidnapping and other actions that year were the greatest challenge to the German state since the end of WW2. The murders were a response to the guerrilla?s attacks, a response which the German state hoped would annihilate, once and for all, revolutionary politics, as the prisoners that they killed were very important cadres, for the development of resistance on the inside as well as for the comrades on the outside who, precisely with that kidnapping were trying to free them. AC: After that was there any attempt by the government to finish off all the political prisoners by these means? MB: They never did so in such a strong manner or in a confrontation like that. The only comparison is what they did in 1981 during the hungerstrike when they killed Sigurd Debug. With that they wanted to set the prisoners back from their resistance posture. But in the end, we saw they didn?t get what they wanted with the massacre of 1977, as they didn?t try it again in that manner. They changed their tactics. Their goal with RAF militants was no longer to arrest them but to kill them before and thus avoid the problems of resistance in prison.GerPos32 AC: It is known that West Germany has ?exported? its prison system. Here in Spain the conditions of political prisoners are very similar to those in West Germany. What do you think of this? MB: I think it has its context in the economic restructuring of Western Europe before unification in 1992 and in the same measure that economic means are unified, so are repressive policies. The existence in Spain of collectives of political prisoners was very important for the German political prisoners because it was a living example of what was possible and how it was possible. And, on the other hand, for the German state, it?s very important that there be no visible resistance by prisoners either in their own country or elsewhere in the Common Market. For the 1992 project absolute passivity is needed on all parts and the prisoners? struggle has always been very important for the development of the revolutionary movements outside. That?s how it is in Germany and think that?s how it is in Spain as well. AC: What would you highlight of the struggle you maintained against the extermination policy? MB: The hungerstrikes, because they have been and continue to be the only way to struggle together despite being separated. And even though they have not gained their GRAPOPic30basic objectives of regrouping, conditions always improved after hungerstrikes, for us as prisoners as well as on the outside, because in each hungerstrike there was an important mobilization, each one of our hunger-strikes has been a political offensive which has allowed us to advance the resistance movement. AC: How have those positive results been seen? MB: First, in gaining the solidarity and the support of different social groups for the strike?s objectives, but also the fact that with the hungerstrikes we have raised awareness that isolation is torture, that the government can no longer justify the application of isolation and that they are isolating the prisoners, which has been denied by the government for many years. This is clear now for various collectives and social groups, including many people who reject the armed struggle but who recognize the demand for regrouping as a necessary response and politically just response to the isolation policy. AC: What do you think of the struggle that the prisoners of the PCE(r) and the GRAPO?s are realizing in Spain now?GRAPOPic1 (2) MB: I think that the struggle that is carried out in one country, as it is in Spain now, has a great importance for the conditions in other countries and I would like to quote what a German political prisoner said, referring to the struggle of the Spanish prisoners: ?If the German prisoners in the last strike had gained regrouping, the Spanish prisoners wouldn?t have to fight for it now.? From then the prisoners of the RAF and other resistance movements have supported the hungerstrike by the GRAPO and PCE(r) prisoners, with chain hungerstrikes of a week in duration and have actually restarted this initiative in view of the length of this struggle. AC: Why are you in Madrid? MB: Because since I got out of prison I have continued to struggle for the regrouping of the RAF prisoners and parting from the importance which the struggle here in Spain has for the situation in Germany, I have participated as part of an anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist resistance group which in Germany has developed various activities several 55137963times in support of the struggle of the Spanish prisoners. And coming here is part of that activity. AC: What message do you have for the resisting prisoners in Spain? MB: I don?t have a ?message? with chosen words because I know from experience that when you are in prison struggling with only your strength against so much adversity. Knowing that outside as well as inside there are people who support our struggle is the best message we can get. That is why we are here and I think that is how the prisoners on hungerstrike will understand it.
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