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 money between the upper class and working class. Arrests In December 1981 an Action Directe member Lahouari Benchellal, called "Farid", was arrested for forging traveler's cheques, which were an important income source for the organization, in Helsinki, Finland. He hung himself while in the custody of the Finnish Security Intelligence Service in January 1982. Action Directe did not believe Benchellal killed himself, and they named a direct action group after him. There is an ongoing campaign by some sections of the French far-left that the Action Directe members still imprisoned, who consider themselves political prisoners, should be paroled. In December 2007, Jean-Marc Rouillan was allowed a state of "semi-liberty", able to leave prison for extended periods. In September 2008, a Parisian court called for the revoking of this status after he declared in an interview with L'Express that "I remain convinced that armed struggle is necessary at certain moments of the revolutionary process". See also Autonomism Elisabeth Van Dyck Commando Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions Revolutionary Front for Proletarian Action References Bibliography Protestation devant les libertaires du présent et du futur sur les capitulations de 1980, Jean-Claude Lutanie, (originally published in 1981 under the pseudonym Un Incontrole, no publisher, re-published in 2011 by Editions Lutanie) External links Sites campaigning for the release of the Action directe convicts: www.action-directe.net (in French) Campaign for the release of Action directe prisoners (in French) https://socialhistoryportal.org/sites/default/files/raf/0319850125_0.pdf https://books.google.com/books?id=yLH0BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA232&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/3119083/Terrorist-group-Action-Directe-founder-does-not-regret-murders.html "Action Directe" July 2018. Retrieved 10 May 2019. (The commando's one attack is listed under Action Directe in GTD.) Anti-fascist organizations by country Anti-imperialist organizations Autonomism Communism in France Communist organizations Communist terrorism Defunct anarchist militant groups Defunct anarchist organizations in France Defunct communist militant groups Far-left politics in France Left-wing militant groups in France Maoist organizations in France Terrorism in France