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Newsletter #48 - Good dates vs. bad dates
Ende Gelände shows everybody how it’s done: We’re ahead of times! The respiratory mask has ultimately arrived in the mainstream and is over everyone‘s lips.
Unfortunately this doesn‘t mean that we‘ve already won and that the masks are being worn as a symbol of the struggle for climate justice, but because of this virus – you might have heard of it…
Another crisis besides the climate crisis came along and is hitting those particularly hard, who are already underprivileged.
EG has therefore taken a look into the material storage and sent all respiratory masks, leftover from the last mass action, to the European external borders, where the health situation remains precarious and every help is needed badly.
Also in times of Corona we stand firm to our motto: coal exit is handwork – if necessary from the home office. And if necessary we will do our alliance meetings from home, too. And there is much to tell about our work
2. Calls for “#LeaveNoOneBehind” along with the “Seebrücke” movement
4. Corona justice: 24 necessary measures for a socially just handling in times of Corona
5. Ende Gelände goes Europe I: The Webinar Series
6. Ende Gelände goes Europe II: Shell Must Fall
1.#StopDatteln4
To put a new coal-fired power station on the grid in 2020 is hard to beat in terms of climate policy hypocrisy! On 20 May, Uniper shareholders called for an Annual General Meeting – and we called for a counter protest.
On May 17, more than 100 people protested at two registered vigils at Datteln power plant – with distance and mask, but finally back in real life. Further actions followed on May 20.
For months, numerous actors of the climate justice movement have been protesting. Also in Finland, people are protesting against the actions of the Finnish government, which owns the majority of the Finnish energy supplier Fortum – which in turn is a shareholder of Uniper – to which the coal-fired power plant brings big profits. Despite all this, the power station was connected to the grid on 30 May. But not quietly and secretly, as planned, but under loud protest: Together with FridaysForFuture, BUND (German branch of Friends of the Earth), local residents and many others we were on site – with boats on the canal directly in front of the power plant and also in other places there were protests, for example in front of the Uniper headquarters in Düsseldorf.
2. #LeaveNoOneBehind!
Ende Gelände calls for the “LeaveNoOneBehind!” campaign together with numerous other groups of the climate justice movement. Already at the day of action on April 5 and again on May 23, we left our mark on the city with our message: LeaveNoNoneBehind! For months, the lives and health of hundreds of thousands of people have been put at risk on Europe’s external borders. People are being held, not weeks, not months, but years. The Corona crisis was no reason to evacuate camps with life-threatening conditions. While 200,000 German citizens were immediately brought back from abroad and 80,000 harvest workers were flown in for the asparagus harvest, only 47 young refugees have been brought to Germany from Moria since April. This is a scandal! We must not leave anyone behind!
3. Legal Team
Repression – The justice system tries again
At the moment, many of those involved in various Ende Gelände actions are receiving hearing forms from the police or penalty orders. In most cases, the accusation is of trespassing, i.e. the unauthorized
entering of the open-cast mine. It is best to ignore police hearing forms or summonses; in the case of penalty orders, we advise you to object (within the deadline). For all mail you can usually contact legal_team_fuer_alle@posteo.de, for things concerning the Hambi eviction or the occupation in Datteln you can contact antirrr@riseup.net – then you can also network with other affected people. Please write encrypted, but better unencrypted than not at all.
More about the current procedures can be found in the Climate Anti-repression Newsletter No. 13.
You can find this and all previous newsletters with a lot of legal information and different key aspects here (only in german).
If you are planning meetings, take a look at the current Corona regulations of the federal states (only in german).
We would also like to draw your attention to a very special case of repression, in which the Verfassungsschutz (“Office for the Protection of the Constitution”) of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) is also involved: The NRW state secret service tried to force an activist into a drop-out program for “left-wing extremism” with the active help of the youth welfare office. How it came about, why this is particularly nasty and why the Office for the Protection of the Constitution protects anything but the constitution, you can read here (only in german).
Speaking of the Verfassungsschutz: In the annual report for 2019 (published on 19 May), the Berlin chapter of Ende Gelände, which was classified as ‘left-wing extremist’, also appears.
Not that after the scandalous not coming to terms with the entanglements of the Verfassungsschutz with the NSU and the neglect of the racist murders in Hanau and Halle, there is still a need for another reason: the Verfassungsschutz should be abolished!
Our press release to this (only in german).
4. Corona justice: 24 necessary measures for a socially just handling in times of Corona
More than 60 social and climate policy groups, including Ende Gelände, have jointly published 24 demands for a socially just and ecological management of the Covid 19 pandemic. The Alliance is working to link the Corona measures to other crises, such as the climate crisis and the nursing care crisis. “The corona crisis shows us the shortcomings of our current economic system,” says the list of demands. “This is the right moment to make our economy sustainable, fair and crisis-proof.” The catalogue of measures is intended to make a contribution to the current debate and to point out steps towards a non-capitalist, needs-oriented and solidarity-based economy and society.
Read here the joint press release of the signatories (only in german).
and the complete catalogue of requirements (only in german).
5. Ende Gelände goes Europe I: The Webinar Series
In recent years, the “Ende Gelände goes Europe” campaign (EGGE) aimed to mobilise people from Germany to act for climate justice throughout Europe and to promote exchange among activists across national borders. The Corona situation prevented our internationally planned networking meetings, but proved to be a chance to establish a new format: Since April 14, the international working group has been running a virtual webinar series. The topics include mass mobilisation, cyber security, press work, racism in times of climate change and Corona emergency or the history of the climate justice movement in Europe. We will draw on the experiences of Ende Gelände as well as the friendly groups from the Europe-wide network (e.g. Code Rood, Limity, Radiaction, Climaximo, XR and FFF), provide input as well as space for exchange and reflection.
The webinars take place every Tuesday at 8pm CET – always under the following link .
6. Shell must fall!
On 18 and 19 May, another annual general meeting took place, which we had marked in our calendars along with the entire European climate justice movement: that of the oil company Shell. Our friends of Code Rood had planned big mass actions, which due to Corona were unfortunately not quite as big in numbers, but just as strong. In Amsterdam, The Hague, Leiden, some Belgian cities, Cologne, Munich, Aachen, Berlin, Greifswald, Hamburg, Prague and Lisbon Shell gas stations were marked, banners hung up, bicycle demonstrations organized. Because: only if ALL fossil energies become history, i.e. if, in addition to the coal exit, no more natural gas and oil are burned, can we succeed in stopping the climate warming. In addition to the climate damage caused by Shell, the company is also responsible for massive environmental destruction and human rights violations in oil production, for example in the Niger Delta. Ultimately, the business model is based on neo-colonial practices that continue exploitation by the global North. Therefore we say: Shell must fall!
7. Next events
24-30 August: As far as the situation allows, we’ll see you at the RadiAction climate camp in Lyon. Please follow the updates here !
See you soon,
the newsletter team