Hambach Forest Blockade “Brutally Attacked”

from Hambach Forest

Today, on Oc­to­ber 1st 2014, the de­mons­tra­ti­ons against the on­go­ing cle­aran­ce of the Ham­bach Fo­rest con­ti­nue at the gates of Eu­ro­pe’s big­gest open cast mine.

At 09:25 am three bull­do­zers, one chain dredger and one truck were oc­cup­ied at the gate­way of the open cast mine Ham­bach.
The wor­kers of RWE and the hired se­cu­ri­ty re­ac­ted vio­lent­ly. They at­ta­cked the de­mons­tra­tors with metal pipes. Dig­gers which were oc­cup­ied by per­sons sit­ting on them con­ti­nu­ed to move, dis­re­gar­ding the fact that this was a se­rious threa[t] to the ac­tivists‘ lives.

Due to the vio­lence per­for­med by RWE’s wa­ge­wor­kers the ac­tivists were dis­pla­ced from the ter­ri­to­ry al­re­a­dy 15 mi­nu­tes later. They wi­th­drew to avoid fur­ther vio­lent esca­la­ti­on.

Is the pl­an­ned de­struc­tion of a fo­rest more im­portant than the health of human beings?

Fur­ther in­for­ma­ti­on on today’s events and pic­tu­res will fol­low soon!

UP­DATE:

De­s­pi­te the vio­lent be­ha­viour of the wor­kers no­bo­dy was in­ju­red se­rious­ly. Here are pic­tu­res show­ing the ac­tion: 01.​10. blo­cka­de ac­tion

UP­DATE:

One per­son was blo­cking the sho­vel of a chain dredger. The dri­ver star­ted the en­gi­ne anyhow and began to shake the sho­vel try­ing to throw down the per­son sit­ting in it. One of the truck dri­vers tried to re­mo­ve an ac­tivist from a ve­hi­cle vio­lent­ly using his hands. When this didn’t work he grab­bed a tool and at­ta­cked the ac­tivists.

UP­DATE:

The wor­kers at­a­cking the ac­tivists work for the de­con­struc­tion com­pa­ny H.B.-​Kai­ser Ab­bruch und Erd­ar­bei­ten. This com­pa­ny it at the mo­ment re­s­pon­si­ble for the de­con­struc­tion of the old Ham­bach Rail­way in the name of RWE. Se­ver­al ma­chi­nes were wor­king alt­hough peop­le were stan­ding close to them. The dri­vers de­clined to stop the en­gi­nes, even though they would have been ob­li­ged to do so for sa­fe­ty re­a­sons ac­cor­ding to Ger­man law.

The wor­kers at­ta­cked the ac­tivists not only with their fists but also using ham­mers and even a crow­bar. Hein Bert Kai­ser, the owner of the com­pa­ny, was on site as well. He was ac­tive­ly in­vol­ved in the vio­lence against the ac­tivists and even threa­tened them:  “Whoever da­ma­ges my dig­gers and cars is going to die.” Being asked, he con­fir­med: “This is a death thre­at.”

Also reported was a new canopy occupation:

Du­ring the night to Sep­tem­ber 30, ac­tivists oc­cup­ied a tree near the edge of the open cast mine Ham­bach. The tree is one of many that is sup­po­sed to give way for the brown coal mine Ham­bach du­ring the cut­ting se­a­son that starts on Oc­to­ber 1.
“This de­struc­tion is only one ex­amp­le em­pha­si­zing the value of en­vi­ron­ment and hu­mans in this eco­no­mic sys­tem!”, one of the tree oc­cu­p­iers says.
“The open cast mine, one of the big­gest pro­du­cers of CO2 in Eu­ro­pe, is not only re­s­pon­si­ble for the ex­pul­si­on of hu­mans and the de­fo­re­sta­ti­on of one of the last pri­me­val fo­rests in Midd­le and Wes­tern Eu­ro­pe. It is also ha­ving an im­pact on the world cli­ma­te. Thus, it is joint­ly re­s­pon­si­ble for heat­waves, droughts and floo­d[s]. The­re­by whole eco­sys­tems are col­lap­sing, es­pe­ci­al­ly in the Glo­bal South, and many peop­le lose their li­ve­li­hood.”
With this ac­tion the ac­tivists want to op­po­se the de­struc­tion of life and call ever­yo­ne to get in­vol­ved in the con­ser­va­ti­on of our li­ve­li­hood.
“We see our­sel­ves as a part of a glo­bal mo­ve­ment, which is ac­cu­sing the pro­fit of in­di­vi­du­als in di­sad­van­ta­ge of ever­yo­ne! We are in so­li­da­ri­ty with in­di­ge­nous peop­les all over the world, who are es­pe­ci­al­ly suf­fe­ring from the power of com­pa­nies and who in some cases ef­fec­tive­ly ma­na­ge to re­sist”, ano­ther ac­tivist says.