Left-Extremist Endeavours

Dominant position of
young right-wing extremists
in social hot spots
Publishing and distributing
firms as "liberated zones"
Relationship with neo-
Nazis and right-extremist
political parties
creased. A decisive factor would seem to have been the ban imposed
in July 1996 on the group "Skinheads Allgäu" 4) .
In a number of hot spots in East German regions, young rightwing
extremists hold a clearly dominant position - especially at
the classical meeting places of young people, such as youth
centres, the premises of railway stations, or market-places.
Media reports often call these places "liberated zones" and thus
put them into relation with a strategy paper issued by the "Nationaldemokratischer
Hochschulbund" (NHB - "National-Democratic
University/College Union"), which became first known in
1991. The unidentified author of that paper called for the creation
of a "counter-power from below" which should grow from
autonomous free areas for the right-extremist scene and from the
ousting of state power. By now, the term is increasingly employed
also within the scene. Thus, for instance, publishing or
distributing firms operated by right-wing extremists are also
called "liberated zones". Nevertheless, there has been nothing so
far to suggest systematic implementation of this strategy paper.
One reason would seem to be the fact that the unstructured
violence-inclined scenes lack the leaders who would be able to
initiate the relevant processes or to co-ordinate them on a longterm
basis.
As before, the relations of right-extremist skinheads with neo-
Nazis and with right-extremist parties are pursued on a varying
scale, ranging from integration efforts to mutual rejection. In
1999, there was an increase in the overall number of persons
who were affiliated both to the skinhead scene and to neo-Nazi
groups or right-extremist parties, especially the "Nationaldemokratische
Partei Deutschlands" (NPD - "German National
Democratic Party") and its youth organization, the "Junge Nationaldemokraten"
(JN - "Young National-Democrats"). This is
also due to the fact that individuals who have been members of
the skinhead scene for many years - often these are regional
leaders - engage in political activities with growing commitment
and join the NPD or the JN or one of the neo-Nazi ’comradeships’.
Members of their former clique will then follow them,
but nevertheless will stay attached to the subcultural setting. In
addition, the activities of NPD or JN activists have an effect at the
local level: they provide rooms for meetings of skinhead groups,
stage song recitals or concerts after electoral campaign events,
and organize the travel of participants to demonstrations, and
these activities are perceived by skinheads as an experience
conducive to building a sense of community.
In relation to the overall potential, however, the proportion of
skinheads who enter into close and sustained relations with
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