Düren. In the night from October 13th to 14th, three anti-coal activists occupied a bucket wheel excavator in the opencast lignite mine Hambach between Cologne and Düren. Over several hours, they were able to stop the operation of the mine before they were evicted by the police and brought to the police station in Düren.
By their action, the activists not only wanted to counteract directly the destruction the mining causes, locally by dredging away entire villages and landscapes and the global destruction caused by climate change, but they also demonstrated solidarity with an activist who is in pre-trial detention since October 8, after having been arrested in a similar action, in which the main conveyor belt in the open pit was blocked. And it had to be a foretaste of the action on next Saturday (see below).
We want to make clear that we will not be intimidated and our resistance will not be broken, if you put even more of us behind bars. That way you just will make us angrier and more determined! Whether last night, on Saturday or when you least expect it: We will keep coming back to stop your machinery until it stands still once and for all!
The action took place during a skill-sharing camp which is taking place until next Sunday at the occupation in the Hambach Forest and a meadow next to the Forest. The Hambach Forest is being felled for the brown coal mining. To prevent this, it is occupied since 2012. With the skill-sharing camps, which take place twice a year, the occupiers want to provide a platform for the exchange of knowledge and skills.
The grubbing season of this winter in the Hambach Forest just started. Therefore, as a part of the campaign “fight for each single meter” is for next Saturday announced a “Party on the Hambach railroad”, with which the trains that bring the coal from the open pit to the power plants, have to be stopped.
We call upon all, who care a little for the future of this planet, for coming to the skill sharing camp and for celebrating a party with us on the Hambach railroad on Saturday!