Repression of the climate movement is “the new green”
Foto: TM
8.8.2024
Dear friends,
alerta! They're shooting the messenger!
It's just before 9am on 8.8.24, and right now cops are raiding at least eight flats connected to climate activists from the Letzte Generation (LG), Germany's A22-network affiliated group. The LG has this to say about the raids:
"In Berlin, Leipzig, Freiburg, Halle and Mannheim, 8 flats were stormed by the police at 6:30 am. The 8 LG activists in whose flats where the searches are taking place interrupted air traffic at Frankfurt Airport on 25 July 2024 together with the international campaign Oil Kills by sitting on the tarmac. They are calling for a fossil fuel phase-out by 2030."
Repression is the new green
This is of course not the first "shoot the messenger"-repression news that has emerged about the climate movement in the global North in recent weeks (list is non-exhaustive):
"A 32-year-old climate activist from the group 'Last Generation' (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)has been sentenced to one year and four months in prison (without probation) for several actions in Berlin." 16 months without parole for peaceful street blockades is, as far as I know, unique in the history of social movements in this country: it's not "normal".
"Five supporters of the climate campaign 'Just Stop Oil' (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), who conspired to block the M25 motorway in London, were sentenced to four to five years in prison. The sentences are believed to be the longest ever handed down in the UK for non-violent protests." By comparison, the maximum prison sentence for one of the fascist Rioters who carried out racist pogroms in England in recent days is three years.
“A 63-year-old climate activist and professional cellist (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) faces up to seven years in prison after being arrested on Thursday while performing a Bach solo outside the headquarters of Citibank”, one of the world’s largest fossil fuel financiers.
In England, we just saw a “mass pre-emptive arrest of Reclaim the Power activists in Yorkshire (Öffnet in neuem Fenster): 22 held as police foil plot to bring compost toilets and wheelchair track to Drax climate camp.”
And of course, unforgettable for me because I also felt it was rather flattering, the categorisation of Ende Gelände as a "suspected left-wing extremist case (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)" in mid-June.
Disbanding the Last Generation (Austria)
I have already explained this dynamic several times, but since an article in today's Guardian reminded me once again that cognition also and importantly relies on repetition (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) - in essence: lies are believed more easily the more often you hear them (in this case I hope that this also applies to truths ;)) - I thought to myself that this point bears frequent repetition: repression against the climate movement is that which a society that doesn't want to be reminded of its broken climate promises must do.
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To better explain this, it's worth taking a closer look at a statement from the Last Generation Austria, in which they announced their self-dissolution (as the 2nd climate network in the German-speaking world after the anti-airline penguins Am Boden Bleiben). They write:
"We no longer see any prospect for success. The government has shone with complete incompetence in the last two years. (The majority of the) population has decided in favour of fossil Verdrängung (psychological avoidance” or indeed “repression”). We realise that Austria wants to remain in fossil ignorance and is therefore accepting that it is partly responsible for the deaths of billions of people. Society has failed. This makes us infinitely sad.
We are making room for something new to emerge... Today marks the end of our protests and the 'Last Generation Austria'."
Insert: Chapeau!
Before we continue on the topic of Verdrängung and repression, here's a quick shout-out to the comrades of LG Austria: thank you for this strong statement, for your perseverance and your willingness to make sacrifices, and of course thank you for having the courage to disband, unlike so many organisations that simply stumble on like zombies through the political and movement landscape after the end of their relevance, and make it so difficult to navigate the new phase, the new cycle of struggle: "we make space for the new to emerge”, you write, and that's exactly how it has to work: the old makes space for the new, and the faster the old clears the space, the faster new can emerge, just as it always does at the beginning of a new movement cycle (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). We are just at the beginning of a new, long phase of social conflict which will be about justice within catastrophe (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). I hope that you will be there again and I look forward to meeting you again in the next cycle.
So, now back to the analysis...
Who's verdränging what here?
I've frequently spoken about the failure of the climate movement and the failure of society. In my narrative so far, both have failed in terms of “protecting the climate”, but that's not really true - in fact, the LG (A) captures this far better when they write that it is society and society alone that has failed its climate promises. Because despite all the "direct action gets the goods"-rhetoric, which I also liked to spread now and again, the assumption was that a few thousand left-wing radicals, later a few hundred thousand centrists, later again a few hundred climate radicals, could simply transform a highly tuned export capitalist externalisation and displacement society from the outside, in the transitive sense of: "we transform you".
Our, the climate movement's, task has essentially always been to act as a kind of reminder, at best as an alarm clock, at worst as a fire alarm, and to remind society and its rulers that climate protection is ethical or rational, that we have promised it (Paris), that there are laws codifying it, that there are reasons why we should protect the climate. Think of us as climate-reminder-push-notifications. And yes, we have failed to be the corrective to the Verdrängungsgesellschaft (society of avoidance) that we wanted to be, that we should have been. It was the Verdrängungsgesellschaft that defeated us, not the climate challenge.
It is society that has actually failed to protect the climate. And from there it's easy to understand: nobody wants to fail and/or be reminded of failure. That's why more climate catastrophe correlates with declining climate literacy/awareness, that's why every abusive boyfriend beats their partner when they're reminded of their own shitty behaviour. That's why the Verdrängungsgesellschaft is now locking up climate activists for a really long time, not to scare us off, but to make us invisible from their perspective: the rich societes of the global North now want to have their peace and quiet, thank you very much, and not be reminded of their world-historical failure.
That's why any “classical” climate activism (“Klimaschutzaktivismus”: climate activism aimed at emissions mitigation) will either be completely ignored in future (climate strikes, petitions, climate lawsuits), or receive a punch in the face: because the Verdrängungsgesellschaft simply wants to verdräng, to avoid reality – it's had enough of us.
The message is clear: “shut up, you annoying *****!”
And this fight, we can't win. But LG (A) shows the way: forwards, into the unknown. Into the new cycle of justice struggles within catastrophe. Because, as I will show next week: in the polycrisis, repression is on the rise because more and more political problems are becoming insoluble. We must be prepared for this. We must not fail again because of Verdrängung and repression.
In solidarity with all those affected by repression,
Tadzio
