Sunday, October 23, 12.00: Forest Instead of Coal – Action Red Line A4

DIY or die

“The Hambach forest – or what is left of it and perhaps can be saved?
(Further dates November 13, December 11, January 15…)

The 31st monthly guided tour in the Hambach Forest, during the current grubbing season, surely will be the largest one ever in this forest: 3842 large and small people have been there, today many, many will come.

So far all appeals have been useless. This year RWE wants to destroy irrevocably 80 hectares of this unique forest again. We are not willing to accept that. We want to send a signal. The rest of the Hambach Forest can be preserved without stopping the lignite mining. Up to the route of the former A4 motorway can be dug, in the large area between the motorway and the mine are still immense coal seams. Our appeal to RWE:

Continue ReadingSunday, October 23, 12.00: Forest Instead of Coal – Action Red Line A4

Blockade of the Hambach railway on 10/07/2016

Today, on 10/07/2016, some activists have blocked the Hambach railway. The declaration of action has been published externally:
https://linksunten.indymedia.org/de/node/192963

Ticker – most recent on top

10/08

03:20 All activists are free. They partly report massive abuse, including food deprivation, the threat of breaking their fingers, and violent pulling of earrings. Some injuries are visible. In addition, sexually explicit language was used against feminine read activists. Shoes and clothing were partly destroyed.
All have come out without giving their personal details. The ticker is now closed.

02:00 The last two activists have arrived at the cops’ station. Unlike the previous transports, police do not want to be seen how these people are brought from the van into the police station. It is therefore to be assumed that massive violence is applied.

00:50 Three activists are in the cops’ station, two still in the fire station.

10/07

22:30 All activists are detached from the rails, but partly still chained together. They are first taken to the fire station Aachen Nord, afterwards probably to the main police department.

21:20 Short call by the detached person, all activists are fine so far.

20:45 One person was detached, 4 are still blocking.

17:10 No more contact to the blocking people, presumably their phones were taken away.

16:30 The Hambach train is standing still, both in front and behind it activists block the rails.

Press:

http://www.rundschau-online.de/region/rhein-erft/kerpen/an-die-gleise-gekettet-fuenf-aktivisten-demonstrieren-gegen-kohleabbau-in-hambach-24865420

http://www.radioerft.de/erft/re/1393531/news/rhein-erft-kreis

http://www1.wdr.de/nachrichten/rheinland/hambach-braunkohle-protest-100.html

Continue ReadingBlockade of the Hambach railway on 10/07/2016

Campaign against the deforestation 2016/ 2017

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The Skill Sharing Camp in the occupations of the Hambach Forest is going on. This camp is the beginning of the campaign against the deforestation 2016/ 2017 which is starting in the days to come.

Some important things to know before:

Continue ReadingCampaign against the deforestation 2016/ 2017

Fire at a signal box of the coal railroad

This letter was published a few days ago at indymedia. By publishing it here too, we want to spread this information a bit wider.
(Interesting background information on how the coal railway system works:
http://hambachforest.blogsport.de/join-in/actions/the-coal-railroads/)

On the evening of September 10th, we have started a fire under one of two free-standing large transformers at the interlocking Neurath, located between Neurath and the hamlet Vanikum. For this we used several dozen liters of gasoline. This interlocking is unoccupied, thus there was no threat for humans.
The signal box is indispensable for the operation of the North-South coal track, which connects the open pit Garzweiler with the power plant Niederaußem, the Hambach railway and with the engraving tracks that supply the power plant Neurath with coal. At the signal box the switches and signals are changed and power is fed into the overhead line of the coal tracks.

RWE neither the cops had published anything about it. Probably because they do not want to openly admit the increasing number of actions that might jeopardize the mining operation (which by the way also brought us the idea to commit ourselves in this field in this way) and because they don’t want to give rise to a public debate. Actions such as this one demonstrate the vulnerability of a supposedly invulnerable energy giant. They also show that there are people who are willing to take substantial personal risks to bring an end to this miserable destructive nonsense.

Apparently RWE lacks a public relations strategy that is able to provide an answer to such an action. Let’s go on preventing them to have even one peaceful moment, as long as the excavators stay running.

Continue ReadingFire at a signal box of the coal railroad