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Aktion Unterholz on the repressive police operation in #HambacherForest

Statement by Aktion Unterholz on the massive and very repressive police operation in the Hambacher forest.

Originally published by Aktion Unterholz Facebook page. Edited machine translation by Enough 14.

Note: Enough 14 is not organizing any of these events, we are publishing this text for people across the US and Europe to be able to see what is going on and for documentation only.

Yesterday (March 25, 2019) and Tuesday morning there was again a massive and very repressive police operation in Hambacher forest. For the first time there was a check of the Hambi vigil, where alleged violations of the right of assembly were found. In addition, according to the Aachen police, “non-forest material” had been removed from the forest. This resulted in a massive attack on the “crow’s nest” occupation against the tree house residents*, who legitimately defended themselves against police repression. From this, the police and the public prosecutor’s office constructed a reason for the eviction and personal identification of somebody who is accused.

The completely exaggerated police action that had been planned for this lasted until today’s noon and one person was arrested.

Trees were cut for the lifting platforms during the bird breeding season, a sand track was piled up and massive lighting technology was installed. So much for non-forest material.

It is not particularly surprising for us that such an action to restore “order” in Hambi has taken place: the embarrassment of the state government, above all the Minister of the Interior, is still deep after the defeat they had to accept last autumn after a police operation costing millions, at the end of which new tree houses were rebuilt in the peaks of the forest. Since then, the police, the state and RWE have been in the defensive. An effective needle-pick action like this should now signal that control over the Hambi, this symbol of the climate movement, has not been lost.

According to various sources, there are no plans for an immediate further eviction of the tree houses. However, this provocation should manifest the fact that the fight for the Hambacher forest has by no means been won by the climate movement.

But it has become all the clearer to all of us: after the coal commission disaster with its shameful concessions for a coal exit in 2038 and the bad deal to protect Hambi in return for the demolition of the villages at the Garzweiler opencast mine, the fight for the climate against the interests of RWE and an increasingly authoritarian state must be continued all the more resolutely. At the worldwide Fridays for Future demonstrations – and in the Hambach forest.

For the #Hambi to stay, our determined resistance must continue to be organized against capitalist profit interests! We stick to it: #SystemChangeNotClimateChange!

Aktion Unterholz, March 26, 2019

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