The Last Generation's City Shutdown is a success – now #WeAreAllTheLastGeneration!

Hi folks,

The Last Generation's “Stadtstillstand” (City Shutdown) is a success!

When I first heard about the "City Shutdown" plans, my reaction was a mixture of excitement and panic. Excitement because I finally had an activist plan in front of me, whose ambitious goals correspond to the scale of the challenge, whose dimension takes seriously the fact that politics and “the economy” (formerly called "state and capital", but never mind) are not stopping but actively driving forward the climate catastrophe. Panic because I feared an uncoordinated but already discursively legitimated explosion of car-fascist violence; because I was afraid that we might end up with the first dead climate activist in this country since the attempted eviction of Hambach Forest; because I was afraid of a flop, as often happens in climate actions, where we announce grand targets and end up achieving very little; and because I was afraid that the part of the climate movement that cannot, does not want to bring itself to be seen as standing in solidarity with the Last Generation (LG) might prevail, and the LG would stand on its own in the end.

Tactical Success

None of these fears have come true: as it enters its fourth day, the City Shutdown must be considered a tactical and political success. And as I write these words, I realize how rarely I can say this unreservedly about an action of the climate movement. Kudos, dear LG.

How do I justify this assessment? First of all, tactical success: although no more than 300 people participated in the actions at any time, there were significant disruptions to Berlin's traffic on Monday from 7:30 am to around 11 am through 33 blockades, which only "calmed down" shortly before noon. While the blockades seemed weak on Tuesday (also because the Berlin police were stationed closer to neuralgic traffic nodes), and paused on Wednesday, the Last Generation is back in action today, Thursday. As I write these lines, journalist Erik Peter tweets the following: "The #LetzteGeneration is blocking almost all major entry roads to Berlin today, the A100 is also massively affected. The traffic reports siuggest something like a city shutdown is happening." To intervene so drastically into Germany's “insanormality” for two days in one week is something that no protest movement has managed or even considered in a long time, and many did not believe the LG could do it, despite the enormous tactical skills they have demonstrated over the past 1.5 years. Again: Chapeau.

But the success of a political action can never be measured only materially, the political-symbolic, the discursive level usually remains the more relevant one. And here too, successes can be reported on several levels:

Movement solidarity

Rooted in the work being done in Berlin against the expansion of the A100-city highway, an unlikely and certainly hitherto unknown kind of cooperation emerged between the LG and other actors in the climate movement in Berlin, which led to the next anti A100-bicycle demo on April 23, starting from a classical concert on the “Highway to Hell”, combining with a large LG solidarity event in front of the Brandenburg Gate, showing that the Last Generation is not alone but part of the ecosystem of the climate movement. The solidarity blockade organised on Monday morning by a variety of radical climate groups, from Ende Gelände to Extinction Rebellion, as well as the mini-Critical-Mass organised by the Interventionist Left also testified to this new cooperative spirit, at least in the radical wing of the movement. The anticipated distancing by more moderate actors did not occur. Not because we are all Last Generation. But because more and more people in the climate movement are realizing that we are all the last generation (before the tipping points).

Counterpressure

While it is true that legal repression against the Last Generation is escalating, and judgments like that of a Berlin district court against Maja Winkelmann, who was sentenced to four months in prison without probation for 2 peaceful gluing actions far beyond the prosecution's demand for €900 fine, are certainly to be read in the context of the social reaction to the city shutdown. In addition, we have been able to detect a significant coarsening of the discourse against the Last Generation in recent weeks, for example in the haunting conversation about whether violence against peaceful climate activists could be self-defense, which is difficult to interpret as anything other than the discursive preparation and legitimation of a possible auto-fascist explosion of violence against the LG. However, this explosion did not occur, and although the mood towards LG at the blockades was more often than not tense and negative, there were also many examples of support, both verbal and emotional as well as practical, for the LG, such as in this video (Opens in a new window), which shows a brutal attack by a person against an activist, but immediately afterwards the intervention of several passers-by who tried to protect the comrade from the attack. There is certainly still room for improvement (#ChangeTheStory), but the fact that there were no serious injuries to activists, given the coarsened discourse, is on the one hand a fortunate coincidence, and on the other hand also a political success.

Power

I have argued before that the city shutdown is also a show for force, a contest of strength - how strong is the radical wing of the climate movement currently, can it pull something like this off, can it really effectively disrupt the insanormality? What is important here is not necessarily the real, material ability to disrupt, but whether the impression takes hold in society that the LG, that the climate movement is capable of something like this. My feeling is that right-wing and tabloid media are playing directly into the hands of the LG, and are reinforcing exactly this impression. When BZ, BILD and Tagesspiegel simultaneously position themselves against LG in their top stories, they convey above all the impression of a certain societal omnipotence, building which an activist group could otherwise spend decades on. Here is an anecdote, not from a lover or dealer this time, but from a friend whose coop house had to undergo a fire safety inspection. Because you apparently have to wait a long time for something like this in Berlin, the cooperative ordered an inspector from the conservative, nay, protofascist saxonian city of Dresden. The appointment was yesterday, but the inspector cancelled: he explained that he would not come to Berlin because it was under a "state of siege". Score Last Generation.

Come out, come out...

The question is: what next? The LG will continue to work on its city shutdown, and since even I, a LG cheerleader, still occasionally underestimate the LG tactically, I'll hold back on predictions here. But what I can predict is that the LG will need a lot of support and solidarity from the entire climate movement in the coming days and weeks. And if you now say "but I don't feel like/have time/can't glue myself to the street!", then I get that, I don't glue myself either. But the LG has already developed several action formats for those who do not want to glue themselves (such as the "slow march"), and is organizing a "public protest march" this Friday in Berlin at 3 pm at Alex in Berlin (Marx Engels Forum), on which we will show our support for, our solidarity with the brave and smart fighting Last Generation, who are under enormous pressure from German displacement society. I will definitely be there. Will you?

In solidarity, Tadzio

p.s.: Although it makes me a bit uncomfortable to keep mentioning it, it's even more uncomfortable to not be able to pay bills, or have an empty account before the end of the month. You may know that I have decided to become an institutionally unattached, aka "self-employed" full-time climate activism. If you appreciate my work and have the ability to financially support me, I would be very grateful. The easiest way to do this is by subscribing to this newsletter as a friend (€5 per month (Opens in a new window)), or friend plus (€10 p/m) (Opens in a new window). Solidarity must occasionally become practical. Thank you for your understanding and support.