its not the highest prio of people living there to focus on that everybody feels safe, its important to try, but as its a open space there will always be people who will not prioritize this, and apart from this shitty things are simply happening, this here is a try to find a better way to deal with things happening in places like this, by getting more organised and framing the place as queerfeministic and anticalssistic so everybody whos coming here knows, that people here try to be aware and want to take responsibility for their action and will ask other people to take responsibility for their actions too.

This queerfeministic anticlassistic Forestoccupation is meant as a more collective project against state, capitalism, discrimination, ecodestruction, dogmatism and partriarchy.
But there is no possibility to avoid trigger and trauma. Needs will not always get met and our surrounding is not made to make needs always get met. People have to learn to deal with things, it could be the way of talking about it, of leaving the situation or of confronting it with yourself.
Conflicts are dailyday life, and not preventable as different people live together. It is a try to have space to unlearn our socialisation and structural things, and by this at the same time reflect and considered every action of people in their context and individuallity, not forgetting the situation and people behind the actions.

People here are not dogmatic, there is no awareness police, different opinons want to be tolerated and in a way of living together, compromisses have to be found. This works when people are interested to live as part of a collective in genereal. Like seeing conflicts not like beeing in a fight, or competition, but in a conflict of interests that is possible to find solutions for, even if its to accept that there are different opinions on this topic and value different perspectives.
Having a healthy feedbackculture, where it is okay to make mistakes, to take responsibility for them and try to avoid them next time. Staying in contact and communication whith each other…
After a day full of dailyday stuff etc, things will be reflected in the evening and individuals might state critic on other individuals. A try to see critic as a benevolent and collegial statement, to learn and grow and to get rid of our shitty socialised capitalist, sexist, mackerist, racist behaviour, that we all carry with us, whoever we are…

Its an invitation to be more empathic with each other and our blind spots, adding missing knowledge and classism to the analysis. Listening to each other and having understanding when people are angry & dont use antiviolent speech, and giving space for this, but also communicating borders and leaving when there is no space to hold the anger of the other person.
Its an invitation to learn to say stop and raise the voice for the own rights and needs
And its an invitation to feel not overwhelmed and alone/ isolated, but feeling the support of collective people standing behind you, and always have the possibility to ask for support by indiviuals being in the collective.
Its an invitation to find the own queerness and unlearn norms and confront the own speachlessness/emotionlessness
Its an invitation to learn to communicate more and better, to get more aware of the power of questions and speech/words.
And it is an invitation to ground people connections in friendships and loyality than in shortterm body contact/connections to fullfill own needs,
Its a invitation to cuddle collective in a clear communicated way than to do that isolated in a twoperson dependency, or isolated in a treehouse
Everything private is political, lets get out of our conform zone and confront our own behavior.
And everything happening in a forest occupation is a collective topic. Everybody holds this space, so when shit is happening it concerns everybody who is living there, its everybody collective task to take care together of this social room.
It is a invitation to crash hetronormative romantic two persons dynamics, rebellism needs independent handlungsfähige people
It is a invitation to strengths the collective mind and to strenghts gleichzeitig the individul independency
Its a invitation to get rid of identity culture, a big ego and fear, shame and guilt
Its an invitation to get as an individual selforganised and empowered, to get out of powerlessness and ovictimidentity, to learn to state needs and raise the own voice to others without needing institutions and powerstructures
and it is an invitation to listen to own needs and borders, like the need of resting, beeing alone, having lees stimulous, having a break and feeling independent and also the own need of feeling conected and familiar.
Its an invitation to share treehouses and things and to live without concretly private framed treehouses and to live with talking continously about sleeping places needs
Its an invitation of primary taking care of yourself, of the people around you and of our collective ressources. To free us from our own behaviour reproducing exploitation on us and others, by trying to be strategicly effective and efficient and through it altruistic and burning out.

Its an invitation to accept that there are no „forestoccupation decisons“ as there are always different people, people can state together wishes or needs, but there is no explicit orgagroup, who can force there deciciosn on others, on speedyrounds, sharingrounds, sleepinground, gumopartys, emorounds, people dont decide things…they share stuff
Its an invitation to trust people and to let people decide individually
Its an invitation to get to know the concepts of individual actions, if poeple dont like stuff they individually have to solve that, and not directly to delegate their needs to a „institutionalied powerstructure“. If the conflict gets continously bigger its a collective task to try to solve it, by sitting together and talk, but not by putting pressure on each other with repressions…
„Consens“ in decisions concerning everybody! is not the goal, diversity of opinions and indivuality is a big gift and enrichment
Its an invitation to be undogmatic with different perspectives on topics like communism, anarchism and not to shame/blame people because of their political startingpoints …

Its an invitation for a space where there is no throwing out possible by a „legitimated group that can make decisions“, because that does not exist, it would reproduce hierarchys etc
Its a invitation for a place that works autonom and decentralised,
without structures like police and prisons,
Its an invitation for a place where individual people are always able to state people that they wish that they leave, people don’t have to follow that wish as they act also individual

Tolerance of individual actions (as explicit me who is writing this sentence), stops with body violence and rape, activists ignoring basic security culture this means intentional talking with cops and giving infos to them, activists not stopping assaulting people in general, not stopping carrying heavy weapons with you like pistols and guns and people not stopping taking massiv powerpositions and repoducing hierarchic structures
individual people in such situation can organise themselves with others and go to the concrete person and state the wish again, if thats not working people can sit all together and talk and explain the situation to everybody, make transparent what happened and i am pretty sure individuals will find a way to get the person leave without big violence and police…

Its an invitation for all of us, we are as everybody invited and respected but have to consider that we bring baggage from the past and that troubles from the past will sooner or later pop up, and that there will be the need of processing and confronting it and also indiviudal people to explain what happened and process about it, and take responsibility for past conflicts.

And its a invitation for much more, all this what you personaly imagine in your utopia in the living with people…
as always people being there create the details of the room…
there is only the wish to do it carefully with each other (:

let be careful with each other, so we can be dangerous together,

—————————————————————————————————————–
And i take responsibility of writing this text, its a text of ideas and invitations, people might intepretate it as stable concept, i would wish to see it as starting point for discussions and an ongoing process of ideas filling the room of this imagined forest occupation.

An construction machine got occupied and police brutality was happening as often in these days. The activist was talking about breathing troubles because of a cophand covering the activist whole face. Indeed the activist got sentenced beacuse of the accusation of biting the cop in their hand. Court accounted them as guilty. Again a repression loaded on our shoulders.

Repression does’nt stop, and so will activism not stop, there is no end, let’s donate some money, if we have and let’s hold tight together, solidarity to be continued…

The struggle against a mining project in Gállok have been going on for many years now. In 2013 there was a protest camp where people were trying to stop the drilling and blowing up of the ground. They never managed to completely stop the mining company, but they managed to delay them and get people organised.

Right now it’s up to the so called swedish government to decide if someone will be allowed to start the mine or not. But we will not wait for their decision. We have already made ours – No mine in Gállok! Not now, not ever.

This struggle is closely connected to the struggle of the Sami people, the indigenous people of Sápmi. For 400 years, the so called swedish, norwegian, finnish and russian states have colonised Sápmi. With the use of cultural genocide they tried to wipe out the Sami people. They never succeded.

So in mid august we meet in the north. The main focus of this gathering will be to connect the different struggles in Sapmi. So we can stand united against the exploitation and contamination of our water, mountains, air and forests. Against mines, windmills, dams, industries, clearcuts, nuclear power plants, pipelines and so on. Let’s come together and share our skills and experiences. How can we support each other? How can we create a good and persistent culture of resistance?

If you want to contribute with a workshop, a talk, a discussion or whatever, contact us so that we can put it in the schedule.

You can read more here or on kolonierna.se
Contact us at kolonierna at riseup dot net

No mine in Gállok!

Please spread on other relevant websites.

Disclaimer: This article was written by a group of people and does not represent the whole occupation. There is no authorised group and no official body that could decide upon an ‘official’ group statement for the occupation. The people in the occupation and in their immediate environment have diverse and controversial opinions. This diversity of different stances is therefore not censored here, but differing opinions can be equally valid and have an equal right to be seen and heard. No text will speak for the whole occupation or is necessarily approved by everyone participating in the occupation

The fight for the Danni is far from over. It is true that we – by this I mean all living organisms, human and non-human animals – have suffered heavy defeats through the loss of various habitats, and many may still not be aware of the consequences for society. But more and more people are becoming aware of the need for a change in our mobility and an ecological way of life.

We may have lost large parts of the forest during the last year, but we have also gained a lot. A deeper understanding of our nature, a sense of belonging, empowerment, a broader understanding of society and being understood by the community. Furthermore, we had to realize that our state does not take climate protection seriously enough and portrays sustainable climate activism that tries to stop the massive destruction of nature as a criminal act.

Where do we go from here? – It is difficult to answer this question for such a diverse and sustainable movement. So many things are being planned, so many ideas are being discussed, so many people from different backgrounds are coming together, united by the desire for an alternative way of life contrary to the current exploitative society.

Due to the decentralised organisation and autonomous way of life of the movement, it is possible for everyone, locally and at home, to support and advance the protest in individual ways. Every day I hear about new initiatives, ideas and working groups, about photographers who work on and publish photo books to document the Danni, about people who take the protest to their families or who create a Danni podcast (‘Voices from the Forest’). People who dream of a travelling circus (‘Danni Musical’), who start a reading circle to educate themselves autonomously, who spend more time in nature now, find their purpose in their own garden or who mobilise their local group, expand their political education work and support environmental actions and occupations across Europe. The list could go on forever. The creative actions and forms of protest that were lived and tested in the Dannenröder Forest now offer us the opportunity to reflect on ourselves and the protest, to maintain and pass on what works, to improve what is outdated and to try out something entirely new.

Contrary to what is portrayed in the mass media, neither the clearing nor the resistance is over. The struggle for climate justice continues. Here and worldwide. The trees on the route through the Dannenröder forest have been felled, but in order to extend the A49, the tree stumps still have to be torn out of the ground, further construction steps have to be taken and the road has to be asphalted. For the Bechstein’s bat living in the forest and also for the protest camp, the people and the associated structures, the forest is still a home.

Until the end of the clearing season end of February, the camp is still officially registered and the structures, i.e. Awareness, Sanis, KüFa, Infopoint and various other task forces and projects remain in place. The guesthouse provided by local residents will continue to be used as a structure and is being transformed into a regeneration centre and research institute for everyone to use. In addition, work is being done on the possibility of extending or even make the protest camp permanent through 2021. The highway is far from being a reality. It is not built yet and our protest stands strong!

In addition, mobile structures and digital working groups are being created here and in many other cities. For example, Lantifa (Local Area Network Infrastructure Technology For All) is working on a mobile support structure for occupations, and Santifa is working on a paramedic network for demonstrations and protests that will provide activists with medical and psychological support. The political education project ‘Danni Bildungszweige‘ (‘Educational Branches‘) is currently planning, among many other projects, a ten-day climate camp in April with a focus on change in mobility and transportation. There is also a working group organising themed weekends, the Short.cut working group setting up an occupation networking structure, a working group on ecological construction monitoring and digital research parties to compile important information. In order to process the experiences from the Danni, some of the educational branches have also decided to carry on the protest in the Danni through art, music, theatre, story collections or mobile exhibitions.

Legally, the construction of the A49 can probably only be stopped by the argument of drinking water pollution. This risk, just like the destruction of trees and tree houses, is simply accepted by politicians. The pillars of the highway bridge that is to cross the Gleental are located exactly between several wells from which half a million people get their drinking water. One of these wells is even to be shut down completely. However, the bridge has not yet been built and cannot be built if the area is not cleared by the end of the clearing season.

The protest in Dannenröder Wald stands for a traffic and mobility transition. This goal has not yet been achieved. At the turn of the year, for example, the biggest infrastructure reform for decades in Germany, which according to the federal government is supposed to lead to faster, more efficient and more economical planning, approval and execution of construction projects, came into force. 136 construction projects are currently being managed by DEGES, and a further 4500 construction projects are now to be managed by Autobahn GmbH. A full 1.8 billion euros from the federal budget will be available for this in 2021.

What does that mean for us?

The Federal Highway Authority (FBA) will deal with sovereign law issues for the planning and construction of the 800 kilometres of motorways still planned. In line with the car lobby, transportation minister Andreas Scheuer guarantees the expansion of efficient motorways, which – in his opinion – are also expected by the citizens.

The fact that many more kilometres of motorway are to be built in the country with the highest density of motorways in the world is not the only cause for concern. With the shift of state competencies for transportation planning to the federal level, problems of constitutional law could also arise and the Autobahn GmbH, which was conceived as federal property, could be transformed into a privatised public limited company. As a consequence, the destruction of the environment in favour of fossil mobility on the one hand and the shifting of general interests into private hands on the other hand are to be expected.

For us, a mobility transition does not mean giving up our living space for outdated, environmentally harmful construction projects. A mobility transition means designing transport and mobility in such a way that they are sustainable, environmentally friendly and equally accessible and affordable for everyone. This is why fossil-fuelled individual transport, which in the long term does us more harm than good, must be replaced by new transport concepts. In order to give form to these thoughts, bicycle tours to various occupations in Germany are planned as one of many forms of action. More and more places of protest are emerging that are happy to receive support and are building platforms and structures in solidarity with Danni, creating spaces of sustainable and lively community and standing together with us against the capitalist exploitation of nature.

People are already cycling to other occupations, for example in Flensburg, Hamburg and Osterholz. But climate change doesn‘t acknowledge borders – there are construction projects destroying landscapes and nature in other countries too, and resistance movements fighting against them. That is why we strive to network and connect internationally. For example, we are in exchange with the ZAD (Zone a Defendre) de la Colline in Switzerland, which opposes the destructive expansion of the imperialist cement giant Lafarge Holcim and has created a place that defends biodiversity locally. Information about the occupation and ways to support it materially can be found here:

https://orchidees.noblogs.org/lafargeholcim-deut s che-version/

Change lives from sharing experiences and skills. Therefore: Network! Connect yourselves! Join forces and let’s fight together against the ills of our society. We can and must drive the mobility transition ourselves!

Danni remains! They may be able to take away our physical space, but never the energy that created it. The forest lives on in us and all the wonderful people and visionaries here will continue to defend our planet with their heart and soul against the destructive madness of the big corporations and against politics controlled by capital interest. The days are getting longer, a new year has begun and just as nature comes to life anew in spring, the climate movement will also flourish in Germany and worldwide. New system-critical movements and mass protests will arise to defend nature and its habitats. We will not stop fighting for a climate-just world!

Danni lives! With our ideas and visions we create a better world. Together

we can realise our utopia!

Ideas for actions (whether from the sofa, in the forest or on the street) can be found here:

https://aktionschlagloch.blackblogs.org/protestformen/

https://kreaktivisten.org/

http://organizingforpower.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/da_handbook.pdf

Thanks for the pictures! @pressmarcel

More and more „Nikolaus“- packages arrived at the Protestcamp
Dannenröder Wald in the last days.
We see that this was supposed to be a kind and lovely action, but even
due the fact it was nice to read the letters, we are not completely
happy about it.

With the appeal to send all the gifts, there are many points where we
saw some problems coming up. Different topics, people of the occupation
think about and try to live in a more reflected way than it is usual in
our society.
For example we think about capitalism, the consumption, waste of
ressources or the privileges we have. The packages are full of sweets
like chokolate with cacao from oppressed countries, packed in plastic
and it is mostly expensive stuff.
Don‘t we try to do it better?
Next to this we are dealing with other problems all around the world
like refugees that are often forced to live in horrible circumstances.
For example in the forests of Bosnia, not able to cross borders,
criminalized and with way to less help and support.

Its a big privilege here in Germany that especially the Danni gets a lot
of attention and so people are wiling to donate a lot of money for the
occupation. We would wish that this easiness of giving and sharing would
also reach other projects and people who fight against their oppression.
Often it is much more difficult for those people to get access to
ressources and they get less attention all in all. Besides refugees, we
think as well about the Black Movement or all support of
antipatriarchcial fights, just to give some more examples.

In our internationalist, hierarchy critical forest-occupation there are
living a lot of people who aren‘t from christian belief as well as
being critical about religions at all. Therefore the cause of St.
Nikolaus to send the presents is quite critical for us, especially that
it is highlighting a christian holiday over a non-christian one.

All in all, thanks to the „Danni Eltern“, who started this appeal, but
may it‘s possible for the next time to think about it in a more critical
way.
The whole „keineA49“-movement consists on more than just „kids“ that
simply climb on trees. Instead we are a diverse movement, where people
of every age live autonomously, collectivly and selfdetermined together.
That is also a reason why many of us can‘t identify themself with this
action.

Last weeks in the times of cutting and destruction of our home I am often remembering how was the life here over one year I had spent here, how much it changed and how much we lost. From my perception there were two etaps of the occupation. In the first one we have been very few people and we were thinking a lot about how we live and what are impacts of our actions. Then the second period which started in summer with lot of people ariving in short time without enough time to discuss all parts of the daily forest life and get used to live diferent life than in city and criticaly think about impacts of our actions.
As one part of this change was that the occupation abondoned its anticonsumerist aproach. When the occupation was smaller we used to dumpster dive most of our food and have been critical about food which was donated to us and tried to communicate to people to at least not buy for us colonial products and idealy to simply not buy things for us maybe with exception of oil which was usualy missing in dumpsters. With exception of one or two treehouses with stupid gas cookers we cooked just with wood. As well we tried to recycle lot of building material we needed. For example instead of using new nails we usually rather used reycled unstraight rusty nails, straighten them and used them again. Oh I hated straightening these nails so much in beginning but after some built treehouses it just became normal and I wouldn’t get an idea to take new nails when there were buckets of old ones standing around.

For some of us anticonsumerism was of a strong importance for others bit less but it was a present topic in our conversations and I think quite everyone was somehow reflecting on our consumption and understood that everything which was produced for us had certain impact on enviroment. Our occupation was never perfect and there would be always things to criticize but we were trying to use what we had and buying things rather rarely than as a normal rutine.
Summer and especially end of summer was a challenging time with a lot of people ariving from diferent places and with different backgrounds and often with being used to different kind of life than we lived here. The eviction was about to start and the need to build and prepare structures to resist it felt to be more important than to talk about what are actually the changes we want to achieve in society and how would our utopias look like.
One of the changes which was easy to spot was change of food which was eaten in the forest. Before it used to be mostly fruits, vegetables and different kinds of freegan products found in the dumpsters behind supermarkets combined with organic potatoes which we were getting from a local farmer who was supporting us and in summer you could see more and more often rice or quinoa being cooked as well as fancy vegan products being around. Coffee was not anymore just in dirty packages found in trash behind Rewe or Edeka but nice looking “fairtrade” coffee and so on. What I found worrying was not only that people in the forest were consuming these things but that there was by most people no motivation to change something about it. One example of this was when we got offered from already mentioned friend farmer that we can go on their fields and collect potatoes for ourselfes it was dificult to gather people who would be willing to go and make this work. I mean why to collect potatoes from field when we can eat rice or pasta from supermarket?
I was not verry happy about this changes but it was still haven’t seemed to be so bad but it normalized the consumption to certain extend so that crazyer things were being more and more bought and consumed. One example was abouth a month ago when people from one barrio bought new planks from sawmill while there were always enough planks from pallets and other recycled sources so there was never really need for that and in my opinion if we are struggling against deforestation buying new planks from a sawmill should be the last option. Other example would be the many kilometres of plastics rope we used for building in trees. I mean I as well used lot of the bought rope because I concider it neccesary for what we were doing but I tried always to measure how much I need and thought about if it is actually usefull to build certain traverse or whatever structure. Unfortunatelly these days I see people grabing roles of polypropylen rope to build and when I ask them what they are about to build they often say that they don`t know but theat they wanna build something.
While eviction cops often destroy structures and cut down trees with treehouses without removing them same day so you can almost every evening go to fallen trees and save lot of the material we used. I would expect that with this amount of people around that couple of people would go each night and save the stuff before it gets trashed next day but often I find myself alone pulling out from the ruins of the houses sleeping bags, collecting the food, unknoting the climbing ropes, carrying away stupid gas cookers and other valuable stuff. I am going now everynight to recycle broken treehouses but there are still so many valuable things left because there are usualy not enough people to do that and at some point I also have to go to sleep. I mean why to go to save the ropes if we can get new ones? Or why to carry the sleeping bags, clothes, isomats or climbing material in the night when we can just get new ones in freeshop and if something would be missing we can always ask our supporties to buy us all what we want and if not we have enough money to buy it by our own.
The peak of consumerist culture was the Saint Nicolaus day this year. Someone initiated that people who support the occupation should send presents for that holliday to activists. There were literally full post cars of packages regulary coming over couple of past days. I want to say that it’s really nice gesture from everyone who send us gifts and it is nice to see how many people are thinking about us but the form of the action was bit unlucky. We live in abondonce. We have freeshop too full of clothes and sleeping bags. There is plenty of food everywhere and basicaly evyrthing you might need is here and in big amounts. The whole present action was in my opinion a mistake but what I find really bad is how people here delt with this huge amount of unnecesary things. Some of us wanted that it get used in a sensefull way so people started to sort out some things like candies, warm sleeping bags, rainproof jackets and other usefull stuff to take it to Bosnia to distribute refugees who are survivinig there in shit conditions even in the winter outside. Other things like phones or power banks we thought to sort out for next political actions, next occupations and so on. Some stuff could go directly to new forest occupation which is starting in other country in next weeks and some people from here are going there. Well unfortunatelly this were the thoughts of minority of people here and many people wanted to open the presents, eat all the chocolate and get new nice things into their private posession. It was so big amount of stuff so some of the things got saved for these projects but a lot got just looted and privatized. There were crazy situations like person with a litle bit wet sleeping bags coming to the pile of stuff sort out for refugees, throwing away their sleeping bags and taking one of the new ones from the pile. Yesterday I was watching this absurd situation of people standing around the pile of presents and opening one after another. I couldn’t believe the situation so I ask if the people are really opening the packages for themselves or if they are opening them to sort out the things for other projects and someone from the crowd answered me that both. People open them take what they want and the things they don’t want we will donate to people who need it.

Fuck that, fuck that, fuck that! So thats how it goes? Fucking privileged people in Germany who have everything they need and much more take the good stuff and the things German activists don’t want we give to refugees? Fuck that! Fuck German “anarchist”! Fuck this camp! Fuck your unreflected “climate movement”! Fuck all this shits!

I want to scream and I want to rip down all the banners hanging around and talking about international solidarity, about anticapitalism, about enviromental protection, about climate change. It is all just emptry words. To be fair there was a little protest of few forest people hanging next to the huge pile of “presents” banner saying “This is what capitalism looks like.” and shouting the same words. There are quite some people who find this whole thing to be wrong but it seems to me that we are still in minority.
I am sad how this occupation end up. I loved this forest and I loved to be part of the community we’ve built. It was my home. Now I feel ashamed and I want to run far away from here.

The enviromental or the climate movement in Germany is big and can mobilize lot of people but I think it needs to reflect a lot on its own behaviour otherwise it can’t achieve enything else than maybe bit greener capitalism.

FRENCH VERSION OF THE TEXT  (For the english version, scroll down)

Un manteau blanc sur les arbres mort. Il a neigé ici à danni. Et il devrait neiger encore ce week-end. 

La lutte ne fonctionne pas pour protéger la forêt. Nous avons perdu 90% des arbres sur le tracet de l’autoroute. Il ne reste plus qu’un seul lieu de vie et une centaine de mètre encore boisé. Malgré les blocages plutôt efficace de Ende Gelände chaque dimanche, les autres jours de la semaine les arbres tombent. Nous échouons. Et nous avons eu le temps d’analyser cela, mais les mêmes stratégies sont utilisées. Un rituel qui amène l’énergie de révolte vers le sentiment d’impuissance puis la dépression. Pleins d’activistes partent, burnouts. Les tactiques des cabanes et de grimper dans les arbres ne fonctionnent pas complétement. Elles permettent de gagner du temps, pas de tenir hors de la forêt les machines et la police. Ou alors il faut réaliser des structure de 60 mètres de hauteur pour être hors d’accès des machines élèvatrices (une structure à 40 mètres s’est faites finalement expulser par une machine pouvant atteindre 51 mètres). Un exemple de lutte victorieuse pour sauver les arbres est celui de Julia Hill aux USA qui est resté 2 ans en haut d’un sequoia à 55 mètres de hauteur (“De sève et de sang” – Julia Hill, ed. Libre). Mais il n’y a malheureusement pas de séquoia à Danni. Un problème majeur que j’ai rencontré ici est le manque de perspective. Lorsque je demande à plusieurs personnes si c’est possible de gagner. On me dit souvent : “gagner quoi ?” ou “ça veut dire quoi gagner ?” Je précise : “Que les arbres restent”. On me dit alors dans 80% des cas que cela n’est pas possible, que l’on va perdre et que l’on peut simplement gagner du temps ou leur faire perdre beaucoup d’argent. Il est difficile de trouver des personnes qui ont l’objectif d’arrêter la découpe des arbres, de tendre vers ce but. 

C’est comme si à la ZAD de Notre-Dame-des-Landes on avait accepté que l’aéroport se ferait de toute façon parce que l’État et sa police sont plus fort, que si l’on devait lutter, ça serait simplement “pour leur faire perdre du temps et beaucoup d’argent”. Avec cet état d’esprit, il y aurait eu un aéroport.

L’autre problème lié à celui des objectifs est le sentiment d’impuissance. La critique de la police est faible dans le sens où peu de personnes se posent la question de savoir où est l’usage légitime de la force dans ce combat forestier. Est-il dans le fait de défendre ou de détruire cette forêt ? On ne pose pas cette question, on se met à la merci de la police qui nous tappe dessus pour ensuite se plaindre des violences policières. Il y a une telle considération de la fonction policière que l’on va même jusqu’à voir ce genre de chose apparaître sur le twitter de la police locale: 

Une chose intéressante à analyser et de voir que la police s’autorise à donner des conseils pour que la cause ne soit pas détruite. La cause militante est de sauvegarder les arbres, la cause policière est de détruire cette forêt. C’est un comble que la police (qui a un objectif opposé à celui des activistes) s’autorise à donner des conseils stratégiques pour pouvoir gagner la lutte. Pour saisir l’absurdité il faut s’autoriser un peu de réthorique. C’est comme si un militant disait à la police:

En suivant ce conseil militant, la police n’arrivera pas à détruire la forêt.
En suivant le conseil policier, les activistes n’arriveront probablement pas à sauver la forêt. 

Avant de passer au point suivant, attardons-nous sur les éléments de langages utilisés par la police:
– “détruire votre cause”. Oser utiliser le mot “détruire” alors que c’est justement ce que fait constamment la police ici. Détruire les cabanes, détruire la forêt. Cela permet d’aveugler la conscience sur la réalité en transposant la destruction du côté des “actions militantes.
– “délinquants violents” cela fait naître l’imaginaire de voyous, de voleurs. Et participe à une dépolitisation de l’action de confrontation ou d’affrontement avec la police ou les machines. Comme si ces formes de luttes n’avaient plus rien à voir avec la cause militante. 

Le dernier point est problématique car il met en lumière une dynamique de censure et de contrôle des esprits interne à la lutte. Je ne veux pas dire qu’elle est organisée pour autant, cela peut-être le cas d’individus isolés. Quelques jours auparavant, j’ai réalisé une banderole avec une citation de Nelson Mandela que j’ai accroché un petit peu plus loin que l’entrée de la forêt. J’ai grimpé en haut de 2 arbres pour la placer bien en haut. Un jour plus tard, elle a été arraché et a complétement disparu. Voici ce qu’il y avait écrit:

“La résistance passive non-violente est efficace tant que notre adversaire adhère aux mêmes règles que nous. Mais si la manifestation pacifique ne rencontre que la violence, son efficacité prend fin. Pour moi, la non-violence n’était pas un principe moral mais une stratégie. Il n’y a aucune bonté morale à utiliser une arme inefficace.”
– Nelson Mandela (27 ans de prison pour des actions de sabotage)

Cette citation a pu générer de vif débat quand des personnes passèrent à côté, souvent de la compréhension et un sourire qui se dessine sur les visages, même parmi de simple “citoyens” que le mileu militant a trop souvent l’habitude de ranger dans une catégorie de modéré qu’il faut carresser dans le sens du poil par des discours conscensuel la pluspart du temps plat et vide. J’ai donc prit le temps de réécrire la citation avec une partie suplémentaire en espérant que celle-ci restera:

“J’ai  retiré  la  leçon  qu’au  bout  du  compte  nous  n’avions pas  d’autre  choix  que  la  résistance  armée  et  violente.  Nous  avions  utilisé toutes  les  armes  non  violentes  de  notre  arsenal  –  discours,  délégations, menaces,  arrêts  de  travail,  grèves  à  domicile,  emprisonnement  volontaire  –, tout  cela  en  vain,  car  quoi  que  nous  fassions,  une  main  de  fer  s’abattait  sur nous.  Un  combattant  de  la  liberté  apprend  de  façon  brutale  que  c’est l’oppresseur  qui  définit  la  nature  de  la  lutte,  et  il  ne  reste  souvent  à l’opprimé  d’autre  recours  que  d’utiliser  les  méthodes  qui  reflètent  celles  de l’oppresseur. “

Il existe aussi d’autres citations méconnues de Gandhi, figure souvent mise en avant qui nous exhorte à des actions non-violente mais invite celles et ceux qui ne sont pas prêt à atteindre ce niveau d’efficacité à se tourner vers l’action violente. Voici un extrait d’un article d’un journal d’écologie radicale [1]: 

“Gandhi lui-même affirmait (avec sexisme) que « si nous ne pouvons nous défendre, nos femmes et nous-mêmes, et les endroits que nous tenons pour sacrés, par la force de la souffrance, c’est-à-dire la non-violence, nous devons, nous, les hommes, au moins être capable de les défendre en combattant [2] ».

Tout nous indique, aujourd’hui, que la « force de la souffrance, c’est-à-dire la non-violence » n’est pas adaptée, qu’elle ne suffit pas — nous ne parvenons pas à défendre les endroits que nous tenons pour sacrés, nous ne parvenons pas à défendre nos proches, chaque jour 200 espèces sont précipitées vers l’extinction, et partout le monde naturel part en fumée — et qu’elle ne pourra pas suffire dans notre contexte, notre lutte contre le désastre socioécologique en cours. Dès lors, d’après les conseils de Gandhi lui-même, nous devrions passer à l’offensive. Il insistait lourdement sur ce point : « Je le répète, et le répèterai encore et encore, celui qui ne peut se protéger lui, ou ses proches, ou leur honneur, en affrontant la mort non violemment, peut et doit se servir de la violence contre son oppresseur. Celui qui ne peut faire ni l’un ni l’autre est un fardeau. »

La non-violence de Gandhi était extrêmement exigeante. Il affirmait qu’elle ne pouvait « pas être enseignée à ceux qui craignent de mourir, et qui n’ont pas de pouvoir de résistance ». Elle versait même dans le suicidaire : « L’Histoire est pleine d’exemples d’hommes qui, en mourant courageusement avec la compassion sur leurs lèvres, ont changé le cœur de leurs opposants violents. […] L’auto-défense […] est la seule action honorable qui reste lorsque l’on n’est pas prêt à s’auto-immoler. » Sa non-violence impliquait le « courage froid de mourir sans tuer ». « Mais celui qui n’a pas ce courage, ajoutait-il, je veux qu’il cultive l’art de tuer [3]. » (On remarque, effectivement, une certaine binarité dans ces propos que nous n’approuvons pas, ils servent simplement à illustrer la véritable nature de la non-violence gandhienne). “

On pourrait repprocher et trouver déplacé le fait d’être prêt à mourir pour quelque chose. Car la situation de l’époque de Gandhi ne serait pas celle que l’on connait aujourd’hui. Cependant, lorsque l’on grimpe à danni et que la police coupe une corde ou qu’un arbre tombe sur une traverse où se trouve des activistes, on peut se poser la question lorsque l’on décide de continuer à grimper les jours suivants. Martin Luther King nous invite à se poser cette question de manière intemporelle : 

” Tant qu’un homme n’a pas découvert quelque chose pour lequel il serait prêt à mourir, il n’est pas à même de vivre. ” 

Je relativiserai Gandhi qui est à mes yeux trop violent dans ses propos lorsqu’il invite à apprendre “l’art de tuer”. Il est possible par exemple d’être efficace comme l’a fait Mandela à travers le sabotage en faisant attention de ne blesser personne, détruisant simplement les machines ou structures oppressives. Ou comme l’on fait des jeunes aux USA faisant sauter les structures du pouvoir sans faire de victime pour s’opposer à la guerre du Vietnam[4]. Dans un contexte d’affrontement avec la police sur un niveau de basse ou moyenne intensité (sans aller jusqu’aux armes à feu et “l’art de tuer”) il est possible de gagner avec des barricades et des pierres comme on l’a vu à la Zad de Notre-dame-des-landes pour ce qui est du projet d’aéroport ou plogoff et le projet d’implantation d’une centrale nucléaire. [5]

Ce texte n’a pas pour vocation à balayer les stratégies d’actions non-violentes. Il exhorte simplement chaque personne à s’approrier ses questions et y trouver des réponses propres. Il est problématique que pousser, détruire une machine et tuer quelqu’un soit définie par le même mot “violence”. Il faut briser l’interdit moral autour de la violence, analyser le spectre des possibles que l’on a caché derrière ce mot et y rechercher sa propre limite. Tout comme il faut anéantir les idées reçues entourant la non-violence. Ne pas limiter l’imaginaire à un sitting, une marche ou attendre que la police nous cherche dans un arbre mais comme cela à se fait à Danni, s’enfermer dans des lock-on avec cadenas et bétons, tenter d’échapper à la police en grimpant de branches en branches ou sur des traverses, construire des highpod plus haut que ce que peuvent atteindre les machines, ou encore pousser lentement une ligne policière. Il faut briser les dogmatismes de l’action non-violente, comme il faut briser ceux entourant l’action violente et tenter de joindre les 2 dans une stratégie commune afin d’arriver à cet objectif : danni bleibt. Avec, pourquoi pas, une exposition des différentes stratégies qui seront utilisées pour protéger la forêt sur une temporalité différente en mélangeant à chaque nouvelle graduation, les tactiques précédentes aux nouvelles.

1 – faire des câlins aux policiers
2 – tenter de résonner les policiers
3 – marche/manifestation
4 – sitting
5 – swing force, grimper dans les arbres
6 – s’échapper dans les arbres pour rendre difficile l’expulsion.
7 – sitting en s’enchaînant les uns aux autres
8 – se mettre dans des barricades
9 – lock-on, cadenas
10 – s’enterrer sous terre avec la tête qui dépasse
11 – marche, manifestation qui poussent ou passent à travers les lignes policières
12 – grimper sur les machines
13 – saboter les machines sans blesser
14 – défendre les barricades
15 – affrontements, émeutes
16 –  Enlèvement de responsable dans une ferme permaculturelle en échange de l’abandon.

Je conçois que ces quelques pensées n’arriveront peut-être pas à faire bouger les lignes des stratèges de l’action non-violente qui estime que c’est l’unique moyen de réussir. Je terminerai donc par cette citation de Martin Luther King, qui bien que persuadé de devoir agir par des marches non-violente pour gagner, ne s’est jamais désolidarisé des émeutes contre le racisme.

« Les barricades sont les voix de ceux qu’on n’entend pas. »
M.L King

Il savait être solidaire envers celles et ceux qui partagent la même cause que lui. Il n’écoutait pas les conseils de la police des USA qui demande de se désolidariser des émeutiers.

Solidarité avec tous les activistes en prison pour des actions violentes et non-violente.

[1]: Violence, non-violence : une réponse à La Décroissance (par Kevin Amara et Nicolas Casaux) – [dgr le partage]            
[2]: https://www.mkgandhi.org/nonviolence/gstruggle.htm
[3]: https://www.mkgandhi.org/nonviolence/phil8.htm
[4]: The Weather Underground Organization
[5]: youtube : plogoff, des pierres contre des fusils

ENGLISH VERSION OF THE TEXT

A white coat covers the dead trees. It snowed here in Danni. And it should snow again this weekend. 

The struggle to protect the forest has failed. We have lost 90% of the trees on the trail of the highway. There is only one barrio and a hundred meters of woodland left. In spite of the rather effective blockades of Ende Gelände every Sunday, on other days of the week the trees fell. We failed. And we have had time to analyze this, but the same strategies remained in use. A ritual that brings the energy of revolt to the feeling of powerlessness and then depression. Lots of activists leave, burnouts. The tactics of treehouses and tree climbing don’t work completely. They save time, but don’t keep the machines and the police out of the forest. Or one has to build structures 60 meters high to be out of the access of the elevating machines (a structure at 40 meters was finally evicted by a machine up to 51 meters). An example of a victorious struggle to save trees is Julia Hill in the USA who stayed 2 years on top of a sequoia tree at a height of 55 meters (“Of sap and blood” – Julia Hill, ed. Libre). But unfortunately there is no sequoia in Danni. 

A major problem I encountered here is the lack of perspective. When I ask several people if it is possible to win. I am often told, “Win what?” or “What does it mean to win?”. I say: “Let the trees stay”.In 80% of the cases I am told  that this is not possible, that we are going to lose and that we can simply save time or make them lose a lot of money. It is difficult to find people who still believe it is possible to stop the cutting of trees, or are working towards this goal. 

It’s as if at the Notre-Dame-des-Landes ZAD we accepted that the airport would be done anyway because the State and its police are stronger, that if we had to fight, it would simply be “to make them lose time and a lot of money”. With this state of mind, there would have been an airport.

The other problem related to that of the objectives is the feeling of powerlessness. Criticism of the police is weak in the sense, that few people question where it is legitimate to use force in this forest fight. Is it in defending or destroying this forest ? We don’t ask this question, we put ourselves at the mercy of the police who beat us up and then complain about police violence. There is such a consideration of the police function that we even go so far as to see this kind of thing appear on the twitter of the local police: 

“Distance yourself from violent delinquents and don’t let militant actions destroy your cause.” 
– Tweet from the Hessen police force

It’s interesting to analyze and to see that the police allow themselves to give advice so that the cause is not destroyed. The militant cause is to save the trees, the police’s cause is to destroy this forest. It’s ridiculous thing that the police (who have an objective opposite to that of the activists) allow themselves to give strategic advice to win the struggle. In order to grasp the absurdity it is necessary to allow oneself a bit of rhetoric. It is as if an activist were to say to the police: 

“Distance yourself from violent police officers, don’t let the action of deforestation destroy your cause. ” 

By following this militant advice, the police will not succeed in destroying the forest.
By following the police advice, the activists will probably not manage to save the forest. 

Before moving on to the next point, we could take a look at the elements of language used by the police:

– “destroy your cause”. They dare to use the word “destroy” when that is precisely what the police are constantly doing here. Destroying the treehouses, destroying the forest. This allows us to blind our consciousness to reality by transposing the destruction to the side of “militant actions”.
– “Violent delinquents”; this gives rise to the imagination of thugs, thieves. And depoliticizes the confrontation with the police or forestry machines. As if these forms of struggle no longer had anything to do with the cause of the forest. 

The last point is a problematic one because it highlights a dynamic of censorship and mind control internal to the struggle. I don’t mean to say that it is organized, this may be the case of isolated individuals. Some days ago, I made a banner with a quotation from Nelson Mandela that I hung a little into the entrance of the forest. I climbed to the top of two trees to place it high up. A day later, it had been torn down, and completely disappeared. Here’s what it said: 

“Nonviolent passive resistance is effective as long as your opposition adheres to the same rules as you do. But if peaceful protest is met with violence, its efficacy is at an end. For me, nonviolence was not a moral principle but a strategy; there is no moral goodness in using an ineffective weapon.”

This quotation generated a lively debate bypassers, often people showed understanding and a smile on their face. Even among “citizens” that the militant milieu too often has the habit of classifying as moderates, who must be caressed in the direction of the hair [french quote to say that you tell people things in a way that doesn’t hurt their feelings] by phrasing things conscensual, flat and empty. So I took the time to rewrite the quotation with an additional part in the hope that it would remain.

The quote continues:

“I learned the lesson that in the end, we had no alternative to armed and violent resistance. Over and over again, we had used all the nonviolent weapons in our arsenal – speeches, deputations, threats, marches, strikes, stay-aways, voluntary imprisonment – all to no avail, for whatever we did was met by an iron hand. A freedom fighter learns the hard way that it is the oppressor who defines the nature of the struggle, and the oppressed is often left no recourse but to use methods that mirror those of the oppressor.”
– Nelson Mandela (27 years in prison for acts of sabotage)

I also would like to show you some quotes from Gandhi, a figure often put forward who exhorts us to non-violent action, but invites those who are not ready to reach this level of effectiveness to turn to violent action. 

The following is an excerpt from an article in a journal of radical ecology [1]: 

“Gandhi himself affirmed (with sexism) that “if we do not know how to defend ourselves, our women and our places of worship by the force of suffering, i.e. nonviolence, we must, if we are men, be at least able to defend all these by fighting[2]”. 

Everything today tells us that the “force of suffering, that is, non-violence” is not adequate, that it is not enough – we cannot defend the places we hold sacred, we cannot defend our loved ones, every day 200 species are pushed towards extinction, and everywhere the natural world goes up in smoke – and that it will not be enough in our context, our struggle against the current social-ecological disaster. Therefore, according to the advice of Gandhi himself, we should go on the offensive. He insisted heavily on this point: “I have been repeating over and over again that he who cannot protect himself or his nearest and dearest or their honour by non-violently facing death may and ought to do so by violently dealing with the oppressor. He who can do neither of the two is a burden.”

Gandhi’s non-violence was extremely demanding. He stated that it could “not be taught to those who are afraid to die, and who have no power of resistance.” He even went so far as to be suicidal: ” History is replete with instances of men who by dying with courage and compassion on their lips converted the hearts of their violent opponents. […] Self-defence is the only honourable course where there is unreadiness for self-immolation.” His non-violence implied the “cold courage to die without killing.” He even put it more precisely: “But if one has not that courage, I want him to cultivate the art of killing.” [3] (There is, indeed, a certain binarity in these remarks that we do not approve of, they simply serve to illustrate the true nature of Gandhian non-violence). “

One might reproach and find it inappropriate to be willing to die for something. For the situation in Gandhi’s time would not be the same as it is today. However, when activists go to danni and the police cut a rope or a tree falls on a crossbeam with someone on it, one may wonder if they decide to continue occupying for the next few days. Martin Luther King invites us to ask this question in a timeless way: 

“As long as a man has not discovered something for which he would be willing to die, he is not able to live. ” 

I will relativize Gandhi who is in my opinion too violent in his remarks when he invites to learn “the art of killing“. It is possible to be effective through sabotage by being careful not to hurt anyone, as for example  Mandela did, by simply destroying machines or oppressive structures. Or as young people in the USA blew up the power structures without casualties, in order to oppose the Vietnam War [4]. In a context of confrontation with the police on a low or medium intensity level (without going as far as firearms and “the art of killing”) it is possible to win with barricades and stones as we have seen in the Zad of Notre-Dame-des-Landes with regard to the airport project or plogoff and the project for a nuclear power plant in France [5].

This text is not intended to sweep away strategies of non-violent action. It simply urges each person to ask themselves questions and find their own answers. It is problematic that pushing, destroying a machine and killing someone are defined by the same word: “violence”. It is necessary to break the moral ban on violence, to analyze the spectrum of possibilities hidden behind the word and to search for one’s own limit. In the same way, we need to break down the preconceived ideas surrounding non-violence. Don’t limit your imagination to sitting, walking, or waiting for the police to look for you in a tree, but as in Danni, lock yourself in lock-ons with padlocks and concrete, try to escape the police by climbing from branch to branch or on crossbars, build highpods higher than machines can reach, or slowly push a police line. It is necessary to break the dogmatisms of non-violent action, just as it is necessary to break the dogmatisms surrounding violent action and try to join the two in a common strategy in order to reach this goal: Danni bleibt. With, why not, an exposition of the different strategies that will be used to protect the forest. If actions on a lower level don’t work, actions on a higher level can be brought in and combined with the previous tactics to finally reach effectiveness that is appropriate to the situation. Some of these levels could be:

1 – hugging police officers
2 – trying to resonate with the police
3 – march, pacifist demonstration
4 – sitting
5 – swing force, climbing trees
6 – escape into the trees to make it difficult to evict.
7 – sitting in chains to each other
8 – to put themselves in barricades
9 – lock-on, padlock
10 – burying oneself underground with the head sticking out
11 – marches, demonstrations that push or pass through police lines
12 – climbing on machines
13 – sabotaging machines without injuring people
14 – defending barricades
15 – clashes, riots
16 – Removal of responsible of highway in a permaculture farm in exchange for abandonment.

I realize that these few thoughts may not be able to move the lines of non-violent action strategists who believe that this is the only way to succeed. I will therefore end with this quote from Martin Luther King, who, although he was convinced that he had to act through non-violent marches to win, never disassociated himself from the riots against racism.

“The barricades are the voices of those we cannot hear. “M.L. King

He knew how to be in solidarity with those who share the same cause as him. He didn’t listen to advice of the US police who asked him to disassociate himself from the rioter, just as we shouldn’t listen to the twitter advice of the police today.

We stand in solidarity with all activists in jail for violent or non violent actions.

[1]: Violence, non-violence: a response to the Decline (by Kevin Amara and Nicolas Casaux) – [dgr le partage            
[2]: https://www.mkgandhi.org/nonviolence/gstruggle.htm
[3]: https://www.mkgandhi.org/nonviolence/phil8.htm
[4]: The Weather Underground Organization
[5]: youtube: plogoff, stones against guns

Once upon a time in the barrio Drüben…

If you arrived at the Ground Kitchen in the late morning, unsurprisingly something was cooking already on the fire. A pot of coffee, or porridge or even already a colourful stew, that somehow always was really tasty. Had the food ever been completely messed up? Maybe once or twice, a burned something was served.

People moving around, not in a rush but steadily keeping on building something. Spirit Level got walls just lately, then a door and then even an oven for the upcoming winter.

People slept there close to one another, to share their warmth and maximise it.

Do you remember, when Spirit Level still existed? Before it got ripped down by the uniformed perpetrators from the state? Damn it yes, it just happened days ago.

Spirit Level had a couch. It was a living room and a bedroom, and on a rope, harnesses were placed to borrow spontaneously – to maybe climb up high to Cop Catcher or Baramborak.

Drüben was a home. Its people were creative and funny and international and anarchist. It was a fantastic, open space.

Then it got intruded by faceless civil servants, who do not like gender discussions, with their weapons and machines. And the inhabitants of Drüben’s tree houses got ripped down ruthlessly, risky and without hesitation. Then the rest got ripped down. And that was what they called work.

Work for a project so obviously fallen out of time. For a system threatening life and survival. And then you even get mocked by the grim people with their dark-blue helmets, while you are holding on in the trees. And so phony they talked about the whole destruction of homes and drinking water reservoirs – as a simple work assignment, that shouldn’t affect them closely in any case. So they stick stubbornly to their law-obedient ideals.

Self-righteously they work with “speed over safety” on this ridiculous order from the conservative/wannabe-green Landesregierung Hessen, that continuously talks its way out of responsibility when asked. Fucking hypocrites!

Damn it, this is about our future!

Actually, I’m not even angry in the first place, but sad.

Drüben is gone, and what remains? The people, no matter, where they are now.

Independent human being from the forest occupation Dannenröder Forst

Preparation: First, we did some scouting. A good location is a highway bridge where the next junction is far away and there is no other big road nearby where the traffic could go. The bridge should have a nice railing to ancher the ropes. We chose where exactly we wanted to hang from the bridge. For safety reasons we decided to hang on the side of the highway and on the middle above the small green path dividing the roads. Moreover, we planned to block both directions by having one climber in the middle of the highway.

Afterwards we gathtered the material. Two ropes, two harnesses and two swings (we could have also taken hammocks). It is very important to bring a hammock or a swing because the blood circulation of the body gets blocked if you hang too long in a rope and one could die.

During the prepartion we decided on the roles each one of us would take during the actions. Two people were the climbers and four others (two for each climber) were rope guards. Their job was to protect the rope and the climber from random people or cops cutting the ropes or otherwise endangering the climbers. One person acted as a communication person between the two groups as well as with the cops. We had another person who was not present in the scene but not too far away ready to rescue the climbers if they got injured or something else happenend.

Before the action we contated trustworthy press that something will happen. On the day: One person went first on the bridge to mark with cable ties the poles where the climbers went down as well as the position of the banner. Then the whole group went on the bridge. The climbers fixed the ropes and carefully started to go down.

Meanwhile one of the roap guards stayed with the climber while the other started to fix the banner on the railing with cable ties. When the climber was set, the guards handed over the swings and aftwerwards passed to the climbers ropes fixing the lower part of a banner and climbers fixed that in their climbing rope..

With our action phone we were able to twitter about the action from the bridge. When everything was set, we arranged to call the police so that they come and stop the traffic for us. They arrived very fast so we assume that one of the car drivers had called them beforehand. Police Interaction: We communicated in a deescalitive way and the rope guards repeatedly told the cops that they are there because of the safety of the climbers. Therefore, the guards could stay on the bridge almost until the very end of the action.

Shortly after the cops arrived they blocked the traffic on haghway in both directions. The police did not know what to do and had some troubles to deal with all the traffic. After more than one hour, the climbing cops arrived by helicopter. It took them one hour to decide in their cop plenum what to do with us. Then they drove under the bridge with a firefighter cherry picker and got down the climbers, while they also secured them on the bridge.

Safety: For safety reasons the two climbers as well as some people on the bridge wore orange reflecting wests. Moreover we were really careful to not having anything hanging too low or dropping something on the road. In addition, we chose the spots in a way, that none of the climbers was completely hanging over the highway but rather a little bit on the side.

Legal consequences: The whole group was prepared to refuse to give their ID. Anyway, the people on the bridge were allowed to leave without the cops even trying to get their ID. They only took polaroid pictures and searched their bags. The guards got an „Platzverweis“ for 24 hours. The climbers were brought to the „Gefangenen Sammelstelle (GeSa)“ where the police unsuccessfuly tried to take their fingerprints. Both of them very released the same day without giving their ID.

Police confiscated climbing equipment. In that case you should always demand to get a protocol about confiscation so that you can maybe get it back in future. Legal analyses of the action:

Strafgesetzbuch (StGB)
§ 315b Gefährliche Eingriffe in den Straßenverkehr
(1) Wer die Sicherheit des Straßenverkehrs dadurch beeinträchtigt, daß er
1.Anlagen oder Fahrzeuge zerstört, beschädigt oder beseitigt,
2.  HINDERNISSE   bereitet oder
3.einen ähnlichen, ebenso gefährlichen Eingriff vornimmt,
und dadurch Leib oder Leben eines anderen Menschen oder fremde Sachen
von bedeutendem Wert gefährdet, wird mit Freiheitsstrafe bis zu fünf
Jahren oder mit Geldstrafe bestraft.
(2) Der Versuch ist strafbar.
(3) Handelt der Täter unter den Voraussetzungen des § 315 Abs. 3 (d.h.
um andere Straftaten zu ermöglichen), so ist die Strafe Freiheitsstrafe
von einem Jahr bis zu zehn Jahren, in minder schweren Fällen
Freiheitsstrafe von sechs Monaten bis zu fünf Jahren.
(4) Wer in den Fällen des Absatzes 1 die Gefahr fahrlässig verursacht,
wird mit Freiheitsstrafe bis zu drei Jahren oder mit Geldstrafe bestraft.

Also an sich ist das ein Paragraph, wo U-Haft wahrscheinlich ist (u-haft
ist nur verhältnismäßig wenn haft wahrscheinlich ist, da hier auch mit
geldstrafe bestraft werden kann kommt es dann antürlich nochmal auf die
konkreten umstände an),(es gibt nach §113 StPO auch U-Haft bei
leichteren Taten, wird aber nicht so oft angewandt).

Jedoch gibt es Präzedenz Fälle, wo Gerrichte festgestellt haben, dass
nicht nach §315b (gefählicher Eingriff in Straßenverkehr)  verurteilt
werden kann, sofern mensch nicht die Höhe des Lichtraumprofiles
unterschreitet, welches aktuell für Autobahnen bei 4,70 liegt. D.H.der
"lichte Raum" welcher auf dem Fahrweg von gegenständen frei zu halten
ist, erst wenn dieser Raum unterschritten wird, stellt mensch ein
"Hindernis" dar.
Vorallem eine menge päzedenz Fälle gab es zu gefährlicher Eingriff in
den schienenverkehr, bei castor abseil aktionen (zu fidnen über RoWo
oder Ceciles Lecomptes Blog). Dort wurde nurnoch wegen
ordnungswidrigkeiten ermitttelt, die menschen waren auch außerhalb des
Lichtraumprofiles/Regelichtraum.

Bei dem Erkelenz Prozess 2017(das ging es um eine Abseilaktion 2015:
Ende Gelände menschen haben sich von Straßenschild abgeseilt, somit
konnte dannach ein finger, als verkehr angehalten war, die straße
queren) wurde erst gefärhlicher Eingriff in den Straßenverkehr
vorgeworfen jedoch im zuge des ersten verhandlungstages wurde die
anklageschrift verändert von gefährlicher eingriff in den Straßenverkehr
zu Nötigung, da Richteri selbst gemerkt hat, dass gefärhlicher eingriff
in den Straßenverkehr nicht haltbar ist. Mehr/genauer weiß ich dazu
leider nicht. Es gibt noch kein Urteil, die Verhandlung wurde ausgesetzt
und ist nicht über die entscheidung über Zulassung von Wahlverteidigern
hinausgekommen.