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Newsletter #39 – Let’s go
Dear people,
You’ve noticed: we’re not “pacified”! Ha!
In recent weeks, people have protested with many courageous actions against the nonsense-consensus of the Coal Commission, whether with excavator occupations in Lusatia, Leipzig region and the Rhineland, the blockade of a coal-fired power station in Karlsruhe or art-performance demonstrations.
We will continue to fight with all our energy to make sure that this planet is not driven to the wall by narrow-minded, site-fixed, reality-denying rulers.
That’s why Ende Gelände calls up to a mass action in June in the Rhenish brown coal field. We will return to the pits until the last excavator stops!
Until then, it will definitively not get boring: We feel solidarity with the people in the endangered villages who fight dredging and the pupils who protest week after week and organize a global protest day on the 15th of March. In numerous cities, Ende Gelände groups already cooperate with Fridays for Future and that’s great!
Additionally, climate activists who are threatened by repressions of new extent need our support.
The hut is on fire! Drop everything and let’s get going towards climate justice.
In this newsletter, you find ways on how to act:
- Save the date: 19 to 23 June Ende Gelände mass action in the Rhineland
- Next alliance meeting: 15 to 17 March in Leipzig
- Star March “All villages remain!” on 23 March
- Two million and other scandals – repression against activists
- Schedule overview: climate camps and actions in summer 2019
1. Save the date: 19 to 23 June Ende Gelände mass action in the Rhineland
Mark the weekend from 19 to 24 June in your calendar and become a part of the Ende Gelände mass action 2019 in the Rhineland! We will block the dirty coal infrastructure and will state clearly: The result of the Coal Commission is no consensus! We need to put an end to coal immediately! Business as usual: Coal phase-out is manual work!
In doing so, we want to focus especially on the villages this year. Because RWE is not only destroying the Hambach Forest and most fertile farmland, it also destroys people’s homes – over here as well as on Pacific islands or in Bangladesh because of rising sea levels. We declare our solidarity with the local resistance on-site and all those affected by brown coal fields. Here, too, we say: “Ende Gelände” and call out for joint actions to stop all forced resettlements, all demolitions, all clearings, destruction of land and nature immediately! Our action is an expression of determination: All villages remain! Everywhere!
2. Next alliance meeting: 15 to 17 March in Leipzig
If you want to help preparing this action, come to the next Ende Gelände meeting from 15 to 17 March in Leipzig! There are a lot of things that need to be done, and we need you all. As always, we provide solidary accommodation and food. If you’d like to come, register please .
Detailed information will be available here before long .
3. Star March “All villages remain!” on 23 March
The people in the threatened villages resist with a big star march against the dredging. Their houses, their memories, their society: all of it is supposed to get destroyed by the excavators. On the 23 March at 3 pm, we start protest marches from different locations in the Garzweiler area to Keyenberg, the village which, according to RWE’s plans, will next give way to open-cast mining. At 1 pm already, a bicycle demonstration will start in Mönchengladbach.
The local residents will show – with broad support from climate movement: So far and no further!
On the brand new website of “Alle Dörfer bleiben” (all villages remain) you’ll find more information and dates about how you can support the resistance of the villages.
4. Two million and other scandals – repression against activists
The climate movement grew enormously and gained influence. RWE and the coal-friendly government don’t find this funny at all. In recent weeks we have seen how the repression against climate activists has reached a new level. In the Rhineland, for example, the new police law was “tested” for the first time by keeping climate activists in custody for several days.
Those involved in the excavator blockades in Lusatia were in custody for days, and three of them have already been sentenced to two months in prison. In 2016, the public prosecutor’s office had not classified entering the same open-cast mine as trespassing because the site was not fenced in. We consider the current decision of the district court Cottbus as obviously politically motivated and have already made it clear in our press release (german) that we will continue to fight for climate justice with actions of civil disobedience.
The latest scandal : RWE demands more than 2 million euros from five climate activists and one journalist. During the climate summit in November 2017, the small group “We Shut Down” blocked conveyor belts and excavators at the Weisweiler brown coal power station near Aachen, thus achieving the almost complete shutdown of the large-scale power station.
More information about the campaign “#WeDontShutUp – Solidarity with WeShutDown”
It is great how many people actively participate in the solidarity actions, write letters to the prisoners or simply join in with their thoughts and hearts. Let’s not forget Eule, who was sentenced to nine months imprisonment (without probation!) and has been in prison since the large eviction in the Hambach Forest. #FreeEule #FreeThemAll
These reactions show us: We are taken seriously – unfortunately not as people, but at least as a threat to this profit-driven economic system. And that is exactly what we want to continue together!
5. Schedule overview: Climate camps and actions in summer 2019
There are more and more action groups and already many nice plans. :)
Here is a first overview of the dates for this summer, without claiming to be complete:
April
- 6-7 April, taking root in Marburg, skill sharing and conference for local groups of the climate justice movement
May
26 May-2 June, Climate Camp near Vienna (Austria)
June
19-24 June, Ende Gelände mass action in Rhineland (Germany)
July
- 1-7 July, Climate Camp from Limity jsme me (Czech Republic)
- 17-27 July, Climate Camp near Poznan (Poland), Second Polish Climate Camp against brown coal
- 26 July – 4 August, Climate Camp “Camp for [future]” near Cologne (Germany)
August
- 3-11 August, Climate Camp in Pödelwitz (Germany)
- 17-25 August, Climate Camp in the Rhineland (Germany)
September
- 16-22 September, “Free the Soil” agricultural and climate justice camp + campaign against fertilizer company YARA, Brunsbüttel (near Hamburg, Northern Germany)
Moved greetings, your newsletter team