# Symbionese Liberation Army

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/symbionese-liberation-army/110947>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [May 26, 2002, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/symbionese-liberation-army/110947 "2002-05-26T20:00:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![egregious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@egregious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/egregious)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2002, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/symbionese-liberation-army/110947/1 "2002-05-26T20:00:33Z")

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Dear folks  
Back in the dim and distant, I attended the University of Kent, Canterbury, England, where I studied politics.  
One of my lecturers there, a specialist in Chinese politics, whose name alas I cannot recall, claimed to have first coined the term ‘symbiotic insurgency’ referring to the practises the chinese communists used to gain power, and it was from this that the Maoist SLA took it’s name.  
PipPip!  
[http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/msymbionese.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/msymbionese.html)

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**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2002, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/symbionese-liberation-army/110947/2 "2002-05-26T21:08:02Z")

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The term “symbiotic” has existed for quite some time. Did your lecturer provide evidence that he personaly knew members of the SLA, or that they had heard of him?