A-Infos (en) Italy, Galatea FAI: A village cleared for coal. The defense of Lützerath in Germany (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Free transcription and translation of "A village to be evicted for coal - the 
defense of Luetzerath in Germany". Anarchistisches Radio Berlin - 7 January 2023. 
Interview with an activist of the Lützerath occupation. ---- 2023 has arrived for 
a few days and we are already dealing with the first eviction of a radical 
occupation. But we are not just talking about the eviction of an occupation, but 
about the eviction of an entire village: the village of Lützerath. ---- This 
village is located in an area rich in coal deposits, close to the Dutch border. 
---- We talked to a media-activist member of Radio Aalpunk ---- What is Lützerath 
and why is he being attacked by the police? ---- Lützerath is a village next to a 
lignite mine in Germany. It is located near the surface mine called Garzweiler 
II. A few years ago there had already been protests in the area, against the 
destruction of the Hambach forest, near another mine in the same region. It is 
one of the regions in Europe with the richest deposits of lignite.

In recent years the village of Lützerath has been occupied by activists who have 
tried to prevent the planned destruction of the village to allow for the 
expansion of the mine. A citizens' protest has been going on for about two years. 
The company that owns the mine is RWE AG[1]and has started the destruction of the 
roads around it; people from the region have started protesting and occupying 
abandoned houses or building tree houses.
Lützerath is important because it is in a strategic position. The government 
decided that it would not destroy any other villages beyond this one to build 
lignite mines. Lützerath is located on top of a large brown coal deposit.
If Lützerath is destroyed and excavations begin in the surrounding area, Germany 
will certainly not be able to meet the climate commitments made in Paris (Paris 
Climate Agreements of 12 December 2015. The goal is to avoid that temperatures 
will rise by 1.5° Celsius by 2030, ndt). The amount of coal under Lützerath would 
emit more CO2 than all trees do in a year. So we talk about a lot of CO2. It is 
important that the lignite remains in the ground and is not mined. The use of 
this coal would lead to a further disaster.
But beyond a clear ecological struggle, Lützerath has become a space where people 
live together in a political way. Lützerath explicitly characterized itself as an 
anarchist occupation, where people tried to live together following anarchist 
principles. It was also an experiment in community life.
So there is a struggle, both symbolic and concrete, against lignite mining, but 
also this communal way of living together and building our utopia of an 
alternative way of life.
Now it's being attacked. The Green Party has signed an agreement with RWE banning 
the use of coal by 2030 but allowing the destruction of the village of Lützerath 
for the expansion of the lignite mine. This is the usual bullshit that the fight 
against climate change is being put off for the future. But that won't help us 
because we no longer have time to waste waiting for the years to pass.
Lützerath is attacked by the police so that they can evict everyone and destroy 
the village, and then start digging for lignite

Well being attacked by the police already says it all. Can you tell us what is 
happening now and what has happened in the last few days?[the interview is from 
January 7th, the eviction started on the 9th, ndt]
Starting January 2, a lot of police arrive in the village and they start 
destroying the outer barricades to fix their infrastructure and start the 
clearing out, thus isolating the village and preventing more people from coming. 
So they want to build a barrier around the village. It is a show of force and the 
use of scare tactics, as there have been confrontations by police arriving in 
riot gear to deter people.

So for many people it seemed clear that they would be confronted with the police 
who would try to clear the village. How did people prepare for the eviction and 
how did they plan to defend the place?
There is a physical part of post defense, like building barricades, but there is 
also a non-physical part, a psychological part. We held many assemblies to share 
experiences of past evictions so that we could be psychologically prepared. But 
we also discussed communication strategies, and that too was a lot of work.

I think the two years of living there kind of prepared us for the eviction 
because you live with other people, you take care of other people, you form 
strong connections with them. Affinity groups have formed, and how people in the 
occupation intend to defend Lützerath.
There is no single answer on how to defend the village; we realized that seeking 
a consensus level of actions to take was not working, we tried to promote a 
variety of defense tactics, and one of the defense strategies was to get as many 
people as possible into the village.
There was a lot of variety in the people who arrived: one of our photos shows 
people standing holding a Christian cross and others in black bloc attire next to 
them. We are open to different tactics. We think that everyone decides 
independently and as they see fit according to their own morals. There are common 
practices in the occupation, such as refusing to identify oneself[to the 
police]to try to slow down[the repressive actions]; but no one is pressing for it 
to be done, it is simply done by people.

In recent years there have been major evictions, such as the occupation of the 
Hambach forest or the ZAD in France. What do you think will happen in Lützerath 
in the next few days or months?
Until January 9, the protest is still legal, so people can come and support. We 
think that from January 14 the police will try to enter the village. Disclaimer: 
This is what the cops themselves told us, so we don't guarantee the information 
is correct because cops tend to lie.
From what we have heard, the strategy is to try to divide the interior of 
Lützerath, then put fences between the barrios and they will clear out and 
destroy one by one. one. They will try to take us individually or make people 
come down from the trees. We think this process will last around 4 weeks, but we 
will try to make it last as long as possible, and of course we would like to make 
it impossible for the police to clear out the village. We think that if there are 
enough people it will work. If we look at Hambach's occupation, the forest is 
still there, so I think there is a chance of winning if we are enough.

You are part of an independent media collective. What role do you have in the 
fight against the eviction?
I am part of Radio Aalpunk, the Lützerath anti-eviction support team. As in the 
case of Indymedia, or independent media in general, we are on the activist side 
and want to show the rest of the world what is happening in Lützerath. When the 
mainstream media talk about these protests they focus on small details they find 
"amusing" (e.g. when in the occupation of Hambach one person threw a bucket full 
of manure on the policemen). Yes it is funny, but the independent media should 
talk about why there is this struggle going on, what we are fighting for, what 
the enterprise we are fighting against stands for, and also highlight the 
anarchic aspects of the village, such as community life.
I think our role is twofold: we want to collect information to get it to as many 
people as possible; so we collect updates from people in the village about, for 
example, the police's moves, but we also want to keep company with people who are 
facing the eviction.
Evictions are usually very boring or very stressful: you can sit and wait or face 
the eviction. People can ask us to air songs, podcasts, stories etc. So they have 
something nice to listen to in an emotionally difficult situation.
I speak for myself: I would like to make known the love I have for Lützerath, and 
the love I received in Lützerath, and make it known to the whole world.
This is also a way to support my friends in the eviction and this would also 
allow us to understand why people care so much about defending the village and 
why they are fighting for it.

What can people do to support Lützerath and where can they find more information?
If you want to support Lützerath you can first come to the village, and we 
recommend that you come before January 9th. But if being inside an eviction is 
too stressful an experience, the eviction of the occupation is not just about the 
village itself. There are activist camps in the nearby villages and from there we 
organize ourselves to provide support to people in Lützerath, for example in 
community organizing to prepare food for everyone. Cutting carrots to make lunch 
for everyone is just as revolutionary as gluing yourself to trees. I think it's 
important to avoid creating hierarchies in actions.
There are also donations, both monetary and of goods: long-term food, batteries 
in case the electricity cuts, power banks, battery-operated radios and the like. 
But also cute gifts like chocolate. Sharing information on social media is also 
an important thing that anyone can do from home.

For more information about Lützerath see our website
We have lots of legal information on how to behave in the village, what to bring 
if you come to the village and links to our social media channels.

FOR MORE EMPLOYMENT INFORMATION
-Links to various social channels (German-English): 
https://luetzerathlebt.info/ticker
-Donations: https://luetzerathlebt.info/en/donations

For donations: if you want to support us with a donation, you can do so using the 
following bank account details:
IBAN: DE24 4306 0967 1204 1870 01
Reason: Lützi Lebt
Donations on Paypal*: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=3DST4V8TZSR2W

*We are aware of Paypal's use of funds

Note from the Galatea Anarchist Group
[1]Acronym of "Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk". It is a German 
multinational electricity supplier. The 2021 turnover was 24.5 billion euros, an 
increase of 79% compared to 2020 caused "by the sharp increase in the price of 
electricity recorded[in 2021]". See "RWE. Focus on growth. Annual report 2021", 
p. 53. Link: 
https://www.rwe.com/-/media/RWE/documents/05-investor-relations/finanzkalendar-und-veroeffentlichungen/2021-GJ/2022-03-15-rwe-annual-report- 
2021.pdf?sc_lang=en

https://gruppoanarchicogalatea.noblogs.org/post/2023/01/15/un-villaggio-sgomberato-per-il-carbone-la-difesa-di-lutzerath-in-germania/
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