Fire and Flames: A History of the German Autonomist Movement

Contents......Page 6
Introduction by George Katsiaficas......Page 10
Translator's Note and Glossary by Gabriel Kuhn......Page 18
Preface to the English-Language Edition......Page 22
Background......Page 26
I. THE EMERGENCE OF
AUTONOMOUS POLITICS IN WEST GERMANY......Page 32
A Taste of Revolution: 1968......Page 34
The Student Revolt......Page 35
The Student Revolt and the
Extraparliamentary Opposition......Page 37
The Politics of the SDS......Page 43
The Demise of the SDS......Page 44
Militant Grassroots Currents......Page 46
What Did ’68 Mean?......Page 47
What Happened in Italy in the 1960s?......Page 48
From Marxism to Operaismo......Page 49
From Operaio Massa to Operaio Sociale......Page 51
The Autonomia Movement of 1977......Page 52
Left Radicalism in the 1970s......Page 56
“We Want Everything!“:
Grassroots Organizing in the Factories......Page 57
The Housing Struggles......Page 61
Frankfurt......Page 62
The Ekhofstraße 39 Squat in Hamburg......Page 64
The Sponti Movement at the Universities......Page 67
A Short History of the K-Groups......Page 68
The Alternative Movement......Page 70
The Journal Autonomie......Page 72
The Urban Guerrilla and Other Armed Groups......Page 75
The German Autumn of 1977......Page 78
A Journey to TUNIX......Page 80
II. THE MAKING OF THE AUTONOMEN IN THE 1980S......Page 86
The Antinuclear Movement: 1975-81......Page 94
Brokdorf......Page 95
Political and Social Composition of the
Antinuclear Movement in the 1970s......Page 96
The Brokdorf Resistance, 1980-81......Page 99
A Short Summary......Page 106
The Squatters' Movement in West Berlin: 1980-83......Page 108
The Concept of Autonomy and the
Housing Struggle in West Berlin......Page 110
The End of the Housing Struggle......Page 114
The Struggle Against the Startbahn-West......Page 116
The Isolation of the Autonomen in the German Peace Movement......Page 120
III. A FEW SKETCHES OF THE AUTONOMOUS
MOVEMENT DURING THE
FINAL YEARS OF THE WEST GERMAN REPUBLIC......Page 128
Class Movements and Mass Movements......Page 132
Between Balaclavas and Birkenstocks: The Autonomous Movement and the Greens......Page 134
Autonomen, Anti-Imperialists, and the Urban Guerrilla......Page 136
The Antinuclear Movement of the 1980s......Page 140
Wackersdorf......Page 141
The Nuclear Disaster of Chernobyl......Page 143
In Hambrg There Is a Beautiful Hafenstraße......Page 150
In West Berlin There Is a Wonderful Kreuzberg......Page 156
The Kreuzberg Riot of May 1, 1987......Page 157
The 1987 Reagan Visit......Page 158
Autonomous Community Organizing......Page 161
Revolutionary May 1......Page 163
Wrong Shots at the Startbahn-West......Page 166
Attacks on the Autonomous Women's Movement......Page 174
The IMF and World Bank Summit......Page 176
1989......Page 178
Appendix: "Autonomous Theses 1981"......Page 182
Afterword by Gabriel Kuhn......Page 186
“Free Spaces” and Squatting......Page 189
Militancy......Page 190
Antisexism......Page 191