Category: Squatting / Free Spaces / Protest Sites

October 17th, 2014

The daily madness continues.
This morning activists from the tree ocupation “Grubenblick“ reported about an unpleasent visit beneath their platforms:
RWE, Kötters Security and the Police with a cherrypicker. The occupation is directly at the edge of the clearcut, no more than 100 meters distance to the hole of the [open cast coal] mine. Some pictures from Grubenblick
The workers of the landmurdering company RWE cut down trees which had platforms on them. Soon after the police came by and examined the occupied trees of “Grubenblick“. Presumably they made preparations for an eviction.

Now it is quiet again, the activists of Grubenblick stay in the trees and have a hideous look on the deepest hole of europe and uncountable treestumps.

Today, on Oc­to­ber 1st 2014, the de­mons­tra­ti­ons against the on­go­ing cle­aran­ce of the Ham­bach Fo­rest con­ti­nue at the gates of Eu­ro­pe’s big­gest open cast mine.

At 09:25 am three bull­do­zers, one chain dredger and one truck were oc­cup­ied at the gate­way of the open cast mine Ham­bach.
The wor­kers of RWE and the hired se­cu­ri­ty re­ac­ted vio­lent­ly. They at­ta­cked the de­mons­tra­tors with metal pipes. Dig­gers which were oc­cup­ied by per­sons sit­ting on them con­ti­nu­ed to move, dis­re­gar­ding the fact that this was a se­rious threa[t] to the ac­tivists‘ lives.

Due to the vio­lence per­for­med by RWE’s wa­ge­wor­kers the ac­tivists were dis­pla­ced from the ter­ri­to­ry al­re­a­dy 15 mi­nu­tes later. They wi­th­drew to avoid fur­ther vio­lent esca­la­ti­on.

Is the pl­an­ned de­struc­tion of a fo­rest more im­portant than the health of human beings?

Fur­ther in­for­ma­ti­on on today’s events and pic­tu­res will fol­low soon!

UP­DATE:

De­s­pi­te the vio­lent be­ha­viour of the wor­kers no­bo­dy was in­ju­red se­rious­ly. Here are pic­tu­res show­ing the ac­tion: 01.​10. blo­cka­de ac­tion

UP­DATE:

One per­son was blo­cking the sho­vel of a chain dredger. The dri­ver star­ted the en­gi­ne anyhow and began to shake the sho­vel try­ing to throw down the per­son sit­ting in it. One of the truck dri­vers tried to re­mo­ve an ac­tivist from a ve­hi­cle vio­lent­ly using his hands. When this didn’t work he grab­bed a tool and at­ta­cked the ac­tivists.

UP­DATE:

The wor­kers at­a­cking the ac­tivists work for the de­con­struc­tion com­pa­ny H.B.-​Kai­ser Ab­bruch und Erd­ar­bei­ten. This com­pa­ny it at the mo­ment re­s­pon­si­ble for the de­con­struc­tion of the old Ham­bach Rail­way in the name of RWE. Se­ver­al ma­chi­nes were wor­king alt­hough peop­le were stan­ding close to them. The dri­vers de­clined to stop the en­gi­nes, even though they would have been ob­li­ged to do so for sa­fe­ty re­a­sons ac­cor­ding to Ger­man law.

The wor­kers at­ta­cked the ac­tivists not only with their fists but also using ham­mers and even a crow­bar. Hein Bert Kai­ser, the owner of the com­pa­ny, was on site as well. He was ac­tive­ly in­vol­ved in the vio­lence against the ac­tivists and even threa­tened them:  “Whoever da­ma­ges my dig­gers and cars is going to die.” Being asked, he con­fir­med: “This is a death thre­at.”

Also reported was a new canopy occupation:

Du­ring the night to Sep­tem­ber 30, ac­tivists oc­cup­ied a tree near the edge of the open cast mine Ham­bach. The tree is one of many that is sup­po­sed to give way for the brown coal mine Ham­bach du­ring the cut­ting se­a­son that starts on Oc­to­ber 1.
“This de­struc­tion is only one ex­amp­le em­pha­si­zing the value of en­vi­ron­ment and hu­mans in this eco­no­mic sys­tem!”, one of the tree oc­cu­p­iers says.
“The open cast mine, one of the big­gest pro­du­cers of CO2 in Eu­ro­pe, is not only re­s­pon­si­ble for the ex­pul­si­on of hu­mans and the de­fo­re­sta­ti­on of one of the last pri­me­val fo­rests in Midd­le and Wes­tern Eu­ro­pe. It is also ha­ving an im­pact on the world cli­ma­te. Thus, it is joint­ly re­s­pon­si­ble for heat­waves, droughts and floo­d[s]. The­re­by whole eco­sys­tems are col­lap­sing, es­pe­ci­al­ly in the Glo­bal South, and many peop­le lose their li­ve­li­hood.”
With this ac­tion the ac­tivists want to op­po­se the de­struc­tion of life and call ever­yo­ne to get in­vol­ved in the con­ser­va­ti­on of our li­ve­li­hood.
“We see our­sel­ves as a part of a glo­bal mo­ve­ment, which is ac­cu­sing the pro­fit of in­di­vi­du­als in di­sad­van­ta­ge of ever­yo­ne! We are in so­li­da­ri­ty with in­di­ge­nous peop­les all over the world, who are es­pe­ci­al­ly suf­fe­ring from the power of com­pa­nies and who in some cases ef­fec­tive­ly ma­na­ge to re­sist”, ano­ther ac­tivist says.