BREAD AND ROSES

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As soon as barricades are destroyed in the Hambacher Forest they have been rebuild often even right behind bulldozers and before cops left the forest. This friday was no exeption but for the fact that this time also bread and roses have been put up in the place of destroyed barricades protecting the forest. This is connected not just with not continuing the resistance on an empty stomach but also with "Stones Are Our Breads and Barricades Our Dinner Tables." action that happened during this cutting season. It was also inspired by 1912 Breads and Roses Textile Strike and Riots in Lawrence Massachusetts which were organized by women and united over 30 different ethnic groups and also used workplace sabotage. The striking mothers with their children were brutally attacked by police at a train station as the kids were being sent to live with supporters when due to the prolonged strike the families could no longer feed them themselves. This resulted in international solidarity and finally with congressional hearings, positive workplace pay increase settlements, changing of work conditions and eventual shortening of the work week itself.

100 years later is it possible for RWE's irreversible destabilization of the Planet's climate and pumping its atmosphere full of toxins responsible for killing over 7 million people a year, as conservative estimates by World Health Organization indicate, result in equally positive response on the part of today's politicians?

The latest police action of clearing the barricades opens up the Millenarian Hambacher Forest to destruction by RWE and its release of megatons of carbon and a long list of toxins that lay below its floor and its roots. To be pumped into the atmosphere in the name of profit and greed regardless of the consequences showing that this time as well there will be no response that has anything to do with social and ecological justice on the part of legistlators, politicians and cops all deeply co-opted by the special interests of the coal industry without more radical actions such as those at the Hambacher Forest.
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Bread and Roses was a title of a poem by James Oppenheim published in 1911 that a year later became a anthem of the strike to be performed through out the decades by numerous artists including a version with historical background by Utah Phillips.

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130 People show up on the forest walk despite the weather


This Sunday the walk in the Forest brought more than 130 people to the Hambacher Forest. After converging on the road to Buir and meeting each other and talking together for about 40 minutes with tea and coffee and info provided by Hambi Activists the group journeyed into the forest. The walk stopped at forest occupations of Oaktown and Gallien where Forest Defenders shared their experiences of living in the trees and the visitors brought numerous donations of food and supplies. Later food(followed by a loud applause for the cook/s) was provided in the forest at the edge of the meadow where photo exhibits were shown. Towards the end many new visitors witnessed for the first time the destruction of the cutting zone itself and saw the mine with its diggers. There were also two “contact” plain clothes police present on this community walk, who tried to ask activists about which part of the occupation they live in. No responses were given to these questions given the common experience of facing often violent and almost always large in number police presence in the forest. That is also what makes the monthly walk in the forest such a welcome break for many of the forest people as it allows one, for a change, to be surrounded by a large number of people who are not armed, aggressive and who do not blindly back the most ecologically destructive company in the region and world-wide.
Some of the photos from the Walk:

Newly added (3.23):

Bild 24

https://flic.kr/s/aHskWmcwjy

http://janlueneberg.tumblr.com/tagged/hambacher-forst

Continue Reading130 People show up on the forest walk despite the weather

Nesting „Season“

Forest Activists’ shoes do not die but continue the forest defence struggle by becoming a bird habitat.

This Rewilding*) Project has been put up to bring attention that the nesting “season” begins with habitat creation which is a process that in the Hambach Forest has taken over 12,000 years. It is especially older and standing dead trees that are crucial for its biodiversity in offering refuge to all life forms from microbes and insects to birds and mammals. As those and the younger trees are cut and forest is cleared it does not matter if it takes place during the off season for egg incubation as most birds are specialist which require a particular niche and territory to survive and are not able to move from the forest to the fields or to the fragmented patches of forest. Killing and destroying a forest and its inhabitants is just that, no matter what time frame it takes place in or what justification is used.
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*Rewilding is a direct-action, radical restoration of habitats by planting trees to replace asphalt and concrete and bringing back biodiversity and habitats to disturbed eco-zones. If you want to help please bring any hiking boots you might have laying around to the meadow.

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Cologne Coal Train Blockade, April 1st

The Day of action will begin at 11 am on the Marcel-Proust promenade with a climate festival and from 3 pm on the traintracks in the Municipal Forest of Cologne.

2017will be a busy year of actions against lignite mining. In August, thousands of people will enter the Rhine Coal Region and orchestrate massive actions of civil disobedience. In November, another action will take place during the climate summit in Bonn (COP23) with a Climate Camp being set up for the duration. In the meantime Ende Galende Action will be organized in Cologne. We will block the train, which brings the processed coal from the Rhine area from Frechen to Merkenich.

We are calling for an immediate switch to renewable energies from Rhine Energy and City of Cologne!

Rheine Energy is far behind time with a share of 4.9% renewable energies. With most of its energy still coming from coal. For this to continue, villages are relocated and forests are destroyed. What remains: “The Hole”, is bigger than cities of Aachen and Düren combined. Rheinenergie is 80% of the city of Cologne and 20% of RWE. We are calling on the city of Cologne to use its influence and to switch to renewable energies, as well as the conversion of the Merkenich heating plant to natural gas. We say: Back to the future! Get out of the coal!

We want the whole thing: the end of fossil capitalism!

We are fighting not only against coal, against fracking, against oil, but also question the profit logic and growth. These promote false solutions such as market mechanisms, large-scale projects and the continued exploitation of the global South. While few energy conglomerates earn splendidly and are assisted with subsidies, they alone disconnect power from 350,000 households annually in Germany – and make their own employees believe that the coal will last forever. We need a plan on how we, as a society, organize and finance social and ecological transformation – beyond capitalist profit logic. We all bear the consequences of energy policy – that’s why we want to play a part: for a democratically organized energy supply!

On to an obnoxious 2017!

We lined up in the diverse actions of climate activists and solidarize with the occupation of Hambacher Forst. We will not cease to interfere with the brown coal mining by our actions until our demands are met.

For more information in german, please visit: endegelaendekoeln.blogsport.eu

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