ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the identity positions and narratives that surround the experience of being a committed militant in the context of a politically violent organisation. The literature on political violence provides a wealth of information on how and why people engage with and disengage from politically violent organisations, but very little on how they actually live as committed militants. The chapter shows that an individual's whole life becomes a political issue from the moment when a commitment to a clandestine organisation is made. Life within a politically violent organisation causes transformations within individual lives and identity systems. Life underground was represented as challenging, which is why the difficulties experienced and recounted by former clandestine militants to illustrate their daily routines as part of a politically violent organisation. The most frequently cited challenge of underground life was the absence of contact with family members.
