Left-Extremist Endeavours

II. Overview in Statistics
1. Organizations and Members/Supporters
In 1999, the structure and manifestations of organized left-wing
extremism did not change as compared to the previous year.
Membership gains have not entirely set off the losses of individual
groups; the overall number of members/supporters has
slightly fallen.
At the end of 1999, after deduction of multiple membership
cases, 34,200 persons (1998: 34,700) were reckoned among the
membership of organizations and other associations which have
been found to pursue left-extremist endeavours. This also includes
supporters of the Kommunistische Plattform (KPF - "Communist
Platform") of the "Party of Democratic Socialism" (PDS)
who are estimated to number up to 2,000. The PDS which - apart
from a number of openly left-extremist structures - also as a political
party, reveals endeavours against the free democratic fundamental
order, as defined by Sections 3 and 4 of the Federal
Act on the Protection of the Constitution (BVerfSchG), has -
according to its own figures - some 94,000 members (1998:
96,500).
At the end of 1999, as in the previous year, the spectrum of leftwing
extremists willing to use force - mainly in groups of anarchistic
orientation - comprised more than 7,000 persons, of whom
6,000 usually identify themselves as autonomists.
In the case of Marxist-Leninist, Trotzkyite and other revolutionary-
Marxist associations, developments took a different course: some
groups attracted new supporters while others had to face losses.
Altogether, these organizations had about 27,700 members. In
some sectors, they are supported by organizations under leftextremist
influence 100) , which numbered some 18,000 members
at the end of that year.
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