WEST GERMANY-Creeping Authoritarianism

October 22, 1977 WEST GERMANY Creeping Authoritarianism Ramesh Jaura ARE the urban terrorists 'revolutiona- ries' himing at the liberation of the masses? Or, are they just Ordinary criminals' sheltering behind the thoughts of Marx, Mao and Marcuse? Are they 'rebels' frustrated by the snail's pace at which governments respond to the needs of the silent majority? Or, are they "Hitler's Children" willy-nilly paving the way for fascism? These questions have been debated in the Federal Republic of Germany ever since the Red Army Fraction (RAF), also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang, started making its presence felt. In fact West Germany is now in the midst of a verbal civil war in which a minority of the doubt- ting Thomases are pitted against the majority of hardliners on the question of terrorism.