Fire and Flames: A History of the German Autonomist Movement

by Geronimo ., George Katsiaficas (Introduction), Gabriel Kuhn (Afterword)

Translated for the first time into English, the history of the German autonomous anticapitalist movement is traced back to the 1970s in this firsthand account. Battling police in riot gear, the early members of the autonomous movement used military tactics that included barricading and hurling Molotov cocktails in protest. Dubbed the “Black Bloc” by the German media, those tactics were soon adopted by scores of anticapitalist groups across the globe. The dawn of the autonomous faction spawned a movement in which average citizens can reclaim their lives from governmental control. Political activists and anticapitalists will find updated historical context to the movement and the current state of the German autonomous movement in this updated chronicle.

Genres: History, Politics

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[tout · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is held as being significant because it is the first attempt at a history of the German autonomist movement, legendary for being the birthplace of the black bloc, its hundreds of squatted spaces and diffuse militancy (taking a different course than the urban guerrilla of the revolutionary cells, RAF, etc, while still supporting them). That it was the first and was written by a partisan is its strong point. There are often brief glimpses at intriguing situations and ideas that should have been developed more, been less vague and critically engaged with on a deeper level. They were more often glossed over, leaving any particularity and nuance undeveloped. The book throughout is often scattered and repetitive - what you'd expect an attempt at a history to not be. Since the release of this book in the 90s there have been many more books released on the Autonomen in German, but as of yet this is one of the few to be translated into English. Lets hope that this isn't the high point in writings to be translated.

And despite all this. It's worth reading, if only because not much else exists on the subject, though it goes little beyond what was already said in 'The Subversion of Politics'.

[Adam Ford · Rating 3 out of 5]

This English language translation of a book long-considered a classic of autonomism provides a good introductory history of the German scene from the tumultuous year of 1968 to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. But despite its strictly chronological style, it manages to feel weirdly disjointed and dispassionate, and so fails to provide much of a guide for those of us seeking to organise non-hierarchically in the twenty-first century.

As ever for books on the left, there is a blizzard of acronyms, and if you are a non-German reader then almost all will be entirely new. A glossary is provided however, and if you keep referring back to it, this isn't too much of a barrier.

Another common left problem encountered here is the slipperiness of label definitions. This even applies to the term 'autonomism' itself, with wildly different ideologies and forms of activity all coming under the same umbrella term. For some this is a strength of 'autonomism', for others a weakness, but when trying to read a book on the subject, it sometimes feels like particular activities have been shoehorned into the 'autonomist' definition simply because they are in some way anti-mainstream politics, and not 'K-groups' (of which more later).

Geronimo adopts the eight part definition adopted in Italy during 1981: "we fight for ourselves", "we do not engage in dialogue with those in power", "we have not found each other at the workplace", "we all embrace a vague anarchism", "no power to no one", difference from the "alternative movement", "we are uncertain whether we want a revolt or a revolution", "we have no organisation per se".

So vagueness and lifestylist individualism appears to be all, and yet the 'autonomists' as identified by Geronimo did organise huge events, and they did experiment with workplace organising. Focuses changed as history marched on and changes in economics drove changes in society. This mechanism lies almost entirely unexamined, accounting for much of the 'this happened, then this happened' style.

This difficulty is evident from the very beginning when Geronimo deals the year when workers and students rose in Paris, there was upheaval in Czechoslovakia, the Black Panthers battled cops in America, and 'The Troubles' began in the north of Ireland. All this took place as the post-war settlements around the world were breaking down at their first major recessionary test. Instead of looking at this, Geronimo tries to explain nearly everything in terms of US imperialism's carnage in Vietnam. Beyond the immediate trigger for action, the deeper motivations are not considered, and so any thorough analysis of autonomism - or any movement - is impossible. Still, Geronimo notes that a sizeable layer of students broke from the liberalism of the social democratic centre-left.

The next section - and in my opinion by far the most impressive part of the whole book - is actually dedicated to a very decent study of Italian autonomism. It looks at the organic composition of Italian industry, before tracing the shift from Stalinism to operaismo ('workerism') which - in contrast to a left which now sought to integrate "the working class into capitalist development" - again sought "the complete negation of the existing system". As employers fought back by shipping out of operaist strongholds, the focus shifted to the "social field" - i.e. riots, "proletarian shopping" (organised mass looting), and the creation of a 'scene'.

And - aside from a few abortive attempts to organise factory workers - the "social field" is the only one on which Geronimo describes the various and diverse German autonome as playing on, following their formation in reaction to their own Stalinist 'Communist parties' (those K-groups again).

We are therefore given brief sketches of the rise and fall of the 'spontis' (anti-organisational individuals emphasising the 'spontaneous'), the insurrectionist Rote Armee Fraktion (Red Army Faction) and Revolutionäre Zellen (Revolutionary Cells) in the 1970s. And then through to anti-Reagan, anti-nuclear and mass squatting actions in the decade which was to catch the autonomen by surprise at its dramatic conclusion - the fall of the Berlin Wall.

When I put down the book for the final time, I was left with a sense that the sometimes massive numbers the autonomen pulled to their events, and the often ferocious intensity of their battles with state forces, very little had been achieved in the way of concrete gains. And this is the case whether you prefer - as I do - to talk in terms of gains or losses for contending social classes, or about individuals extending the reach of their own freedom (as do the autonomists in the 1981 Italian theses).

One prominent exception is the mass squatting of Hamburg's Hafenstrasse, which eventually led to the regional senate granting the squatters the right to stay in the buildings they had brought into use. These then became a prominent base for both a thriving counter-culture - including support of the world-famous FC St. Pauli with its unique supporter comradeship - and the autonomen's political struggles.

But apart from that - and the odd delay to this or that project of the capitalist class - it's difficult to point to much in the way of success. Of course, participants may well argue that I am being far too materialist, and the success was the emotional 'freedom' gained from taking part. Of course, that would be entirely their call. But perhaps that's almost the exact problem with the type of autonomism espoused within these one hundred and eighty five pages - it can be reduced to 'Did the individual have a good time while the world continued to burn?'

So if Geronimo wanted to show the German brand of autonomism as being a way forward for oppressed groups in the wider world - and I think he did - then Fire and Flames utterly fails to convincingly make that case. That's certainly not to say it's without merit - and as a bit of a politics geek I loved the many demonstration photos and posters included - but perhaps there is an even better book on the history of German autonomen just waiting to be written.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spare in parts, and more of a summary than a dive into individual events—also notably lacking in much of a feminist or anti-racist perspective, but that's to be expected given the author's focus on anti-nuclear politics—but still useful for my purposes. And definitely a good primer to use as a springboard into other texts. Not very thorough on theory, so better to start the book with an understanding of radical left politics than expecting to find that here.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has 201 pages, not 256

[6655321 · Rating 3 out of 5]

i like, really wanted this to be a better book; and like this isn't a *bad* book by any stretch of the imagination it's just that often Geronimo starts talking about something and it is interesting and he then just sort of unceremoniously drops it and moves on to a new thing and sometimes this is a thing he admits he doesn't really know about (like feminist/queer autonomist stuff) and so its either like a glorified footnote with some pictures or a throwaway line that could also be a footnote and like, i feel somewhat cheated that given there are 2 more companion volumes to this and PM isn't exactly a poor press they didn't just bother to translate all 3 and put them in a compiled volume (which like would probably help because english language stuff on Autonomists is like v. limited and frequently extremely musty & dated (i.e. the semiotext(e) issue & The Subversion of Politics) and this book *works* insofar as it is more or less a sketch of things but a good translator (or i guess a better translator who is more forgiving to their reader) would *add* information that would be helpful for non-german readers rather than assuming i have the time to go and google a bunch of events that the author didn't develop much *BECAUSE IT WAS WRITTEN IN GERMAN FOR GERMAN READERS WHO ARE FAMILIAR WITH THESE NEWS EVENTS* but like to really *understand this in a meaningful way* i am assumed to know events that *happened before i was born and it is not like the USA is a great place to learn international news*. Some of this is of course, not really Geronimo, PM Press or the translators fault, this book is *for what it's worth* well designed and Geronimo doesn't try to overexplain things (although sometimes you wish he gave the actual events more attention) and he doesn't bludgeon you with theoretical abstraction or self glorifying rhetoric but rather seems like a pretty bright dude who wants to talk about something as being distinct and having its own temporal space and its a shame that like (for whatever reason, possibly budgetary) the book this could have been and the book that were turned out were two totally different things (even if the book that was produced was certainly not a bad book but reading it on the bus was somewhat of an irritation because i had to keep googling stuff about German politics and Nuclear development and i'll admit i'm not an expert on either thing but i'm not like a total slouch).

[C M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fire and Flames is the English translation of a German book on the far left "Autonomen" (roughly translates as "Autonomous") scene in Germany. Written by an activist, who uses the name "Geronimo", it painstakingly chronicles the history of the Autonomonen movement in West Germany, from its origins in the 1970s to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Although the author is critical of many aspects of the movement, the book is unapologetically supportive of the movements and its goals and seems primarily written for his "comrades". Hence, the term "bourgeois" is used for virtually everything (equivalent of "smurf" among Smurfs). While Geronimo claims to analyze, he mainly chronicles and criticizes, based on his own ideological preferences and the benefit of hindsight.

I assume it is nice to read if you have been active in the moment and see yourself in the actions and events. For those interested in the movement as a political actor, and its relevance in German politics and society, like me, the book is tedious and very hard to get through. The endless stream of facts obscures the little analysis that is in the book, which is, on top of that, overly positive -- there are many "important" actions, which seem to have been fairly irrelevant t the rest of society.

All in all, a book with a very narrow and specific mission, chronicling the movement for the movement, that doesn't go beyond that.

[Subvert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was recommended by many people. I liked it a lot, but but as some other reviewers it mostly a recollection of all kinds events. There is not a lot of (theoretical) reflection and it's not put in perspective all that much. It's hard to see what was accomplished, which is always something that can´t be quantified and it is hard to say, but not much of an attempt is made besides some interesting suggestions that are not really worked out. So I´m very happy to have read it, but I read Bilwet´s Bewegingsleer about squatting in Amsterdam basically at the same time and thought it was a lot better than Fire and Flames.

[Magdalena · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting over view from a participant in the German social movements of the 1980's on. But it does not go in depth enough about any particular aspect. Still, hearing of the massive actions, tens of thousands of people in the street, the "sunday strolls" and other parts of this movement that are not so far in the past was pretty wonderful.

[RYD · Rating 3 out of 5]

An account of the radical German left, from the 1960s to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Unfortunately, though probably not surprisingly, it gets bogged down in pretty tedious descriptions of the different factions and their ideological and tactical differences, making the book a difficult slog.

[River · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good participant history of the autonomist movement. I read after finishing "Subversion of Politics" which I think was helpful as it gave more contextual information.