Left-Extremist Endeavours

Rejection of hierarchies
and organization
connected mailbox systems and "info shops", autonomists nowa-
days also make ’matter-of-course’ use of the Internet 103) and
mobile phones.
Modern information and cryptographic technologies are favourable
to the largely clandestine activity of left-wing extremists,
heighten their manœuvrability and make intelligence operations
difficult for security authorities.
1.2 "Traditional" Autonomists
The majority of militant autonomists can be assigned to the "traditional"
category (as opposed to "organized", cf. sub-section 1.3
below). In line with their self-perception, "traditional" autonomists,
as a matter of principle, display a hostile attitude towards
hierarchies and organization; they reject authoritative decisionmaking
bodies and powers to give instructions.
Unlike most of the other left-extremist groups, "traditional" autonomists
do not engage in specific recruitment of new members.
Newcomers to the scene must on their own try to make contacts
and seek acceptance, subject themselves to "security clearance
checks" or name scene members as "references".
However, the rejection of organization and hierarchies by this
spectrum does not preclude planned and, in terms of substance,
co-ordinated violent action - which is deliberately "incalculable
and uncontrollable". Thus, for instance, a street party held in
Berlin on 11 September under the [English] motto "If you want to
change the city, you have to reclaim the streets!" entailed such
outbreaks of violence as the following:
Some 100 demonstrators, including members of the autonomous
scene, descended on a department store and kicked up a racket;
they knocked shelves down, stole clothes and cosmetics, hurled
bottles and stones and damaged the building. The police provisionally
arrested a total of 29 individuals; four officers were injured.
At varying sites, clashes between autonomists - using
small-group tactics - and the police continued until the evening
hours.
1.3 "Organized" Autonomists
In the early 90's, there was increasing criticism of the non-committal
nature of autonomous structures and of the ephemeral
approach taken by autonomous "politics". Subsequently various
approaches were developed for testing so-called organizational
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