On Saturday, German police used batons, pepper spray, and water cannons to disperse a group of eco-terrorists who were staging a sit-in protest on a key train supply line in Hamburg.
Dozens of protestors headed by the eco-mob Ende Gelande (‘here and no farther’) sought to disrupt the important northern metropolis by blocking the Kattwyk Railway Bridge, which connects to the neighboring seaport. Extinction Rebellion, who were also engaged in the action, said ahead of time, ‘We are blocking a key node of German foreign commerce here to raise attention to the repercussions of contemporary colonialism.’
The bridge sit-in was part of a series of blockades involving over 1,000 individuals in several places, with the goal of ‘interrupting freight movement’ in protest of ‘the growth of fossil fuel infrastructure and colonial supply chains.’
The major issue for the demonstrators is a wave of planned LNG facilities that are scheduled to “cover the German coast.”
According to authorities, some of the eco-warriors on the bridge used pepper spray on cops who attempted to dislodge them, resulting in conflicts.
Police claimed they deployed pepper spray in response before breaking up the roadblock with batons and possibly water cannons. The activists added in a 5 p.m. local time update that the authorities were preventing drinking water from being provided to the demonstrators while also barring members of the press and medics from entering, adding that ‘parliamentary monitors are on site.’
The police’s stern posture contrasts sharply with British forces, where cops often just ‘observe’ while groups like Insulate Britain create nine-mile tailbacks on key highways with’sit-down demonstrations,’ or when Just Stop Oil fanatics glue their hands to priceless artworks at the National Gallery.
Despite the fact that protestors were supposedly the first to use pepper spray on Saturday, Ende Gelande claimed in a statement that the police reaction was a “new height in brutality and arbitrariness against our climate demonstrations.”
‘The climate problem is becoming worse and worse,’ said Charly Dietz, spokesman for Ende Gelände. Instead of eventually eliminating gas, the German coast will be lined with LNG ports. Among other things, the huge firms who are harming the planet are getting billions in subsidies, while growing costs and fossil fuel inflation are putting many people at danger of poverty.
‘This obviously demonstrates that we are not in an energy crisis, but rather a capitalism distribution problem.’ We are effectively rejecting corporate power and advocating for climate justice via our blockades at the port of Hamburg.’
Hundreds of people gathered in Hamburg this week for a “protest camp” in an attempt to “bring attention to the repercussions of climate change” by staging a series of disruptive acts and blockades, many of which were quietly dismantled by police on Saturday.
According to maritime operators and brokers, their move came as water levels on the Rhine plummeted further on Friday due to the dry weather, rendering some boats unable to travel.
Rhine freight transportation continues, although boats are occasionally compelled to sail three-quarters empty, and cargo owners are sometimes forced to pay for four vessels instead of one to deliver their contents.
Contargo, a container logistics business, said on Friday that it would essentially halt its barge operations on the Middle and Upper Rhine rivers, transferring what products it could overground to its Lower Rhine terminals, but warned that its trucking capacity were limited.
According to economists, the Rhine interruption might cut Germany’s economic growth by half this year.
Ende Gelände has been organizing mass civil disobedience against coal mines in Rhineland, Lusatia, and Leipzig since 2015.
On Saturday, police officers forcefully removed some of the disruptors, who were dressed in white safety clothes and yellow face masks, off the train lines on Kattwyk Bridge.
It is in sharp contrast to how British police have handled similar protests in previous months.
It comes after security personnel at London’s National Gallery stood by as eco-terrorists covered John Constable’s expensive painting The Hay Wain with their own rendition and glued their hands to the frame with adhesive last month. And it took police eight hours to disperse an eco-mob that had forced Lloyd’s of London to shut its City headquarters after the demonstrators had blocked all 25 entrances and climbed the exterior of the building.
Britons have also been delayed in nine-mile tailbacks and hour-long lines when environmental activists such as Insulate Britain climbed the gantries on the M25 and nailed themselves to the road.
Germany isn’t the only European nation where angry residents and officials have taken harder and faster measures to prevent protestors from interrupting events and causing traffic jams.
An Italian security officer yanked protestors’ hands off a valuable Botticelli artwork at a Florence art museum in late July and took them away. Shortly after they launched their brief demonstration in the Uffizi Gallery, a security officer went up to the teenage activists and yanked their superglued hands from the Renaissance masterpiece.
The unidentified man and two women were members of the climate activist organization Ultima Generazione (‘Last Generation,’ and they were carrying a banner that read: ‘Last Generation No Gas No Coal.’
The activists, who had paid for admission, were escorted out of the gallery by police when the security officer drew them away from the artwork.
A group of eco-protesters who were threatening to interrupt the historic cycle race by squatting in the middle of the road were ejected furiously by Tour de France supporters.
During the 20th stage between Lacapelle-Marival and Rocamadour, eight climate activists from the French campaign group Dernière Rénovation (Last Renovation) wearing T-shirts with the phrase ‘we have 978 days left’ to combat environmental decline attempted to halt the race.
Their efforts to cause mayhem on stage were prevented by spectators, who ran into the road and hauled them out of the way of incoming motorcycles even before police came to make arrests.
Authorities in Spain are retaliating against eco-protesters who have attempted to interrupt big events and vandalize public structures.
In June, hundreds of climate protestors daubed red paint on Spain’s parliament building in Madrid in protest of the government’s unwillingness to act rapidly on climate change.
Riot police came soon and dispersed the protests, with several cops grabbing up and carrying activists away. Following the incident, at least ten protestors were detained.