Our speech at the Global Strike on September 20, 2024: ---- The climate
movement is in crisis. We don't want to demoralize, but it's no use not
talking about it. The climate movement has lost strength and activists
all over Germany. ---- In 2019, Fridays for Future groups emerged in
many parts of the world. They had an unexpected influx of people and
quickly became a mass movement with demonstrations that also broke the
10,000 mark in Osnabrück, supported by young people who demanded a
consistent fight against the climate crisis. All kinds of actors, from
universities and NGOs to trade unions and bourgeois parties to the
radical left, were all interested in the newly formed movement. FFF
successfully managed to put the climate crisis on the agenda, put
pressure on politicians and at least temporarily push through a shift in
the discourse. What was interesting at this point was that parts of FFF
came to the realization that it was not just individual decisions by the
government or politicians that were to blame and that one simply had to
stick to the findings of science, but that capitalism as an economic
system is fundamentally incompatible with a climate policy that prevents
or at least mitigates the climate crisis, and that this did not lead to
demobilization. However, this practice of mass demonstrations reached
its limits: the political relenting that many participants expected did
not occur. There was a relatively large amount of media fanfare from
parts of the bourgeois parties, but this was aimed at recapturing the
shift in discourse. The corona pandemic did the rest. As for many other
groups and organizations, it became a challenge to maintain organization
at all - a movement that relies primarily on mass mobilization and
campaigns was hit even harder by this.
A section of FFF and the new climate movement then abandoned this form
of protest and moved on to actions of civil disobedience, such as
Extinction Rebellion (XR) and the "Last Generation". Above all, however,
the battles over the Dannenröder Forest and around Lützerath became
central crystallization points for the radicalization of parts of the
new climate movement. The determination of this section was and is
impressive. And the battles were not pointless! Many experienced what
they can achieve when they join forces; without the occupations, climate
policy would hardly have been discussed so widely. Last but not least,
it was precisely the resistance that disenchanted the Greens for large
parts of the climate movement, as they were directly involved in pushing
through the construction of the motorway in the Dannenröder Forest and
the evacuation of Lützerath. But one of the things that these battles
were, measured against their actual goals, defeats. A fight against the
capitalist state with its highly armed police cannot currently be won by
means of militancy that is very limited in space and time.
Added to this is the ever-intensifying agitation from the right against
the climate movement and massive state repression. Some people are
imprisoned for sit-ins or receive a criminal record, and raids have
taken place regularly. The new police laws that we demonstrated against
years ago and that were "only" intended to be used against terror are,
as predicted, being used against leftists.
In order to actually bring about the necessary social change to contain
the climate crisis, we have to reach large parts of the population, the
working class. Some may now find this outdated, but the point is simply
this: we live in a class society. One part owns the means of production,
factories, raw materials, etc. The other part, the working class, has to
sell its labor to somehow get by, and if not, they fall into the Hartz4
machine. The latter part generates all the wealth, but we have no say
anywhere. The capitalist class decides what is produced, how and how
much. If we want to implement a change in the mode of production, and
that means going against the state, then it cannot be done by a few people.
At the moment, however, we have the impression that voices are becoming
louder again in the climate movement that are relying on the state and
the EU, who cling to the illusion that if we just demonstrate long
enough and have the better arguments, then the politicians will
implement sensible climate policy. But it is not a question of having
the better arguments when it comes to the ruling class; what matters is
convincing people from the working class, with whom we have an interest
in a needs-oriented and environmentally friendly mode of production.
When it comes to the ruling class, it is a question of power and that
can only be posed by as many people as possible, organized as
egalitarian as possible. The same applies to reforms; they too are
enforced and not achieved in a "fair competition of arguments".
Unfortunately, we do not have the master plan, and it probably cannot be
drawn up in one meeting. But there are a few key points and lessons that
can be learned. We must not provide templates for the agitation of
fascists and right-wingers. We are currently faced with the problem that
the political right has framed everything that has to do with climate
policy and the climate crisis as part of the elite that wants to get its
hands on people's wallets. And with regard to the Greens, this cannot
simply be brushed aside. It is just not the climate movement. But that
must be made clear. For example, it is about demanding and, in the best
case, enforcing that the costs of a consistent climate policy are borne
by those who cause it, i.e. the capitalists. We need a perceptibly
antagonistic left that is irreconcilable with the prevailing conditions
and that is able to politically classify the often initially diffuse
anger at "those at the top" together with the people. If the right are
the only ones who are perceived as the opposition, which they are in no
way, we will not be able to stop them.
That is what we mean when we say that climate protection means class
struggle.
The joint actions and support of strikes with colleagues in the
transport companies as part of "We travel together" are pointing in the
right direction. We must work to advance an often fragmented
organizational process. Neither we at Likos nor FFF can do this alone.
https://likos.noblogs.org/2024/09/21/gsd2024/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
movement is in crisis. We don't want to demoralize, but it's no use not
talking about it. The climate movement has lost strength and activists
all over Germany. ---- In 2019, Fridays for Future groups emerged in
many parts of the world. They had an unexpected influx of people and
quickly became a mass movement with demonstrations that also broke the
10,000 mark in Osnabrück, supported by young people who demanded a
consistent fight against the climate crisis. All kinds of actors, from
universities and NGOs to trade unions and bourgeois parties to the
radical left, were all interested in the newly formed movement. FFF
successfully managed to put the climate crisis on the agenda, put
pressure on politicians and at least temporarily push through a shift in
the discourse. What was interesting at this point was that parts of FFF
came to the realization that it was not just individual decisions by the
government or politicians that were to blame and that one simply had to
stick to the findings of science, but that capitalism as an economic
system is fundamentally incompatible with a climate policy that prevents
or at least mitigates the climate crisis, and that this did not lead to
demobilization. However, this practice of mass demonstrations reached
its limits: the political relenting that many participants expected did
not occur. There was a relatively large amount of media fanfare from
parts of the bourgeois parties, but this was aimed at recapturing the
shift in discourse. The corona pandemic did the rest. As for many other
groups and organizations, it became a challenge to maintain organization
at all - a movement that relies primarily on mass mobilization and
campaigns was hit even harder by this.
A section of FFF and the new climate movement then abandoned this form
of protest and moved on to actions of civil disobedience, such as
Extinction Rebellion (XR) and the "Last Generation". Above all, however,
the battles over the Dannenröder Forest and around Lützerath became
central crystallization points for the radicalization of parts of the
new climate movement. The determination of this section was and is
impressive. And the battles were not pointless! Many experienced what
they can achieve when they join forces; without the occupations, climate
policy would hardly have been discussed so widely. Last but not least,
it was precisely the resistance that disenchanted the Greens for large
parts of the climate movement, as they were directly involved in pushing
through the construction of the motorway in the Dannenröder Forest and
the evacuation of Lützerath. But one of the things that these battles
were, measured against their actual goals, defeats. A fight against the
capitalist state with its highly armed police cannot currently be won by
means of militancy that is very limited in space and time.
Added to this is the ever-intensifying agitation from the right against
the climate movement and massive state repression. Some people are
imprisoned for sit-ins or receive a criminal record, and raids have
taken place regularly. The new police laws that we demonstrated against
years ago and that were "only" intended to be used against terror are,
as predicted, being used against leftists.
In order to actually bring about the necessary social change to contain
the climate crisis, we have to reach large parts of the population, the
working class. Some may now find this outdated, but the point is simply
this: we live in a class society. One part owns the means of production,
factories, raw materials, etc. The other part, the working class, has to
sell its labor to somehow get by, and if not, they fall into the Hartz4
machine. The latter part generates all the wealth, but we have no say
anywhere. The capitalist class decides what is produced, how and how
much. If we want to implement a change in the mode of production, and
that means going against the state, then it cannot be done by a few people.
At the moment, however, we have the impression that voices are becoming
louder again in the climate movement that are relying on the state and
the EU, who cling to the illusion that if we just demonstrate long
enough and have the better arguments, then the politicians will
implement sensible climate policy. But it is not a question of having
the better arguments when it comes to the ruling class; what matters is
convincing people from the working class, with whom we have an interest
in a needs-oriented and environmentally friendly mode of production.
When it comes to the ruling class, it is a question of power and that
can only be posed by as many people as possible, organized as
egalitarian as possible. The same applies to reforms; they too are
enforced and not achieved in a "fair competition of arguments".
Unfortunately, we do not have the master plan, and it probably cannot be
drawn up in one meeting. But there are a few key points and lessons that
can be learned. We must not provide templates for the agitation of
fascists and right-wingers. We are currently faced with the problem that
the political right has framed everything that has to do with climate
policy and the climate crisis as part of the elite that wants to get its
hands on people's wallets. And with regard to the Greens, this cannot
simply be brushed aside. It is just not the climate movement. But that
must be made clear. For example, it is about demanding and, in the best
case, enforcing that the costs of a consistent climate policy are borne
by those who cause it, i.e. the capitalists. We need a perceptibly
antagonistic left that is irreconcilable with the prevailing conditions
and that is able to politically classify the often initially diffuse
anger at "those at the top" together with the people. If the right are
the only ones who are perceived as the opposition, which they are in no
way, we will not be able to stop them.
That is what we mean when we say that climate protection means class
struggle.
The joint actions and support of strikes with colleagues in the
transport companies as part of "We travel together" are pointing in the
right direction. We must work to advance an often fragmented
organizational process. Neither we at Likos nor FFF can do this alone.
https://likos.noblogs.org/2024/09/21/gsd2024/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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