This article considers the strategic choices that radical activists face when a cycle of contention ends. It investigates the re-orientation of the autonomous anarchists or left-libertarian activist milieu in Sweden after the riots at the Gothenburg summit in 2001, which ended a cycle of anti-globalization protests in Sweden. The article identifies five strategies by which this activist milieu attempted to reconstruct collective agency, build a new alliance structure and renew the repertoire of contention: 1) rescaling and targeting of micro-politics; 2) moving from secluded to open communities; 3) rethinking collective agency with the help of a new movement theory; 4) reversing dominant discourses and opening up discursive space; and 5) redefining militancy and shelving of violent confrontation. The study builds on activist interviews and ethnographic research in Stockholm and Malmö.