Editing Action Directe (section)

== Elisabeth Van Dyck Command ==

The '''Elisabeth Van Dyck Command''' was a branch of AD that assassinated French Army General [[René Audran]], on 25 January 1985. He was the Director of International Affairs (DAI) at the [[General Directorate for Armament]] (DGA). The team was named to commemorate [[Red Army Faction]] (RAF) member [[Elisabeth Van Dyck]].{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

The command was created as a combined extension of both the AD and RAF. The AD appeared to take care of the organizational side of the command, and so naming it after a memorialized member of the RAF makes sense if they were seeking to at least publicly have a unified front. Both the RAF and the AD were actively pursuing their shared goal of [[political autonomy]] within their home countries, with the RAF based in Germany and the AD in France.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Direct-Action|title=Direct Action {{!}} French extremist group|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=2019-05-11|archive-date=24 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224212642/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Direct-Action|url-status=live}}</ref> These groups' goal of political autonomy did not stop with their own countries however, and they often fought against their own countries' governments in the pursuit of what they claimed was 'political autonomy', or political freedom, for the world's working class.<ref name=":0" />

The command had only one claimed attack, the assassination of French Army General René Audran on 25 January 1985.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_55BZmIJ9xd8C|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_55BZmIJ9xd8C/page/n54 44]|title=Terrorist Group Profiles|date=1990|publisher=DIANE Publishing|isbn=9781568068640|language=en}}</ref> At the time of his death, Audran was a senior-level official in the French Ministry of Defense, specifically the Corps of Armament. The Elisabeth van Dyck Command took credit for the assassination via letter.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://socialhistoryportal.org/sites/default/files/raf/0319850125_0.pdf|title=Kommando Elisabeth van Dyck|date=Feb 1985|website=Social History Portal|access-date=11 April 2019|archive-date=11 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190511040958/https://socialhistoryportal.org/sites/default/files/raf/0319850125_0.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> In the letter the members explained that they had killed Audran because he was the head of French's foreign arms sales and they believed that his "military and economic function is at the heart of the strategic imperialist project".<ref name=":0" /> The project being referred to is what the AD and RAF believed to be NATO and its supporting European countries' goal of homogenizing the world into a capitalist culture, and that as they progressed along this goal it would widen the gap in power and wealth between the upper class and working class.<ref name=":0" />