Left-Extremist Endeavours

the Federal Government was blamed for the alleged fact that all
measures agreed in the Coalition Agreement regarding the
planned opting out of nuclear energy had "by and by ended up on
the rubbish heap of unfulfilled promises" 157) .
"Sägen am Atomstaat" ("Giving the axe to the nuclear state")
was the motto under which "Autonomous Groups", in a letter
claiming responsibility for an attack on a powerline pole of Deutsche
Bahn AG (24 March, near Dietersdorf/Brandenburg; property
damage: about 500,000 DM), made clear what their anticonstitutional
aims were:
"We didn’t anyway indulge in the illusion that the announced
opting out process would be pursued in a resolute manner. ...
As before, it is the truth that only confidence in our own
fighting strength and in autonomous action can set anything in
motion. One of our major aims - and one of many others as
well - continues to be the shut-down of all nuclear plants [NPP]
worldwide, and make it subito!
With its various forms of action, ranging from sit-ins to militant
attacks, the anti-NPP movement has built up significant
pressure. We have the chance to decide the NPP issue in our
favour. To achieve this, it is necessary to develop and expand
a counter-power to the ruling structures. ... The path to a
liberated society is long and strewn with many stumbling
blocks. ... In pursuing this course, infraction of the rules set by
the opposing side is inevitable."
("INTERIM", no. 473 of 8 April 1999)
The prevention of CASTOR (Cask for Storage and Transport of Radioactive
Material) transports, as well as of intermediate storage
sites for nuclear waste, is seen by anti-nuclear activists as providing
a lever for enforcing the shut-down of nuclear plants
("blockage strategy") 158) .
Another priority - and starting point - proposed for the anti-NPP
movement was an intensified campaign against transports of
uranium hexafluoride (UF6) which is required as a nuclear fuel for
nuclear power plants 159) . However, the propagandized "UF6
Campaign" only met with little response in 1999. Nor did this
campaign gain any new impetus from the serious accident which
on 30 September occurred in the fuel element fabrication plant in
Tokaimura (Japan) where also uranium hexafluoride is
processed.
The activities of left-extremist groups against the use of nuclear
power was clearly parallelled by the growing commitment to the
movement against genetic engineering - which, however, is primarily
organized by non-extremist action groups. Left-wing extremists
respond with agitation and actions to the issue which is
the subject of controversial public debate; however, as declared
�����