Hamburg, 15.08.2022

The alliance for climate justice Ende Gelände has been carrying out a variety of civil disobedience actions in northern Germany since Thursday. With this, the climate activists protested against the expansion of gas infrastructure and colonial economic structures. The police used massive violence against the demonstrators. With their actions, the demonstrators blockaded freight traffic in the port of Hamburg for nine hours.

There were numerous documented assaults by the police. Through the use of water cannons, batons, mace and irritant gas, as well as punches and kicks, numerous activists were injured – some of them seriously. Several activists had to be treated in hospital as a result of the police violence. In addition, the police repeatedly endangered the health of the activists by refusing access drinking water at temperatures of over 30 degrees, actively obstructing medical care by paramedics, and confiscating sun protection.

Luca Schöller from the team of protest medics: “The police left an unconscious person in the blazing sun for at least 20 minutes and insinuated faking it. The police massively obstructed our life-saving measures by continuing the forcible eviction without consideration for the injured person as well as endangering the rescue personnel in the immediate vicinity. Despite several requests to immediately alert the rescue service and an emergency doctor, the ambulance was only called after a considerable delay – the police ignored our assessment until the acute danger to life was confirmed by a police doctor. With their hesitant reaction they endangered a human life.”

Already in the days before the actions, the alliance criticized the police. On Friday, activists at the System Change Camp displayed a banner reading “Disarm police – four racist murders this week by police.” In the past few days, Jozef was killed in Cologne, Mouhamed Lamine D. in Dortmund, and two other people were killed by German police in Recklinghausen and Frankfurt. Ende Gelände and various BIPoC groups condemn these attacks as racist, classist and antiableist. The activists also link these incidents to European border policies. The European border authorities are letting people drown in the Mediterranean Sea, financing illegal pushbacks and thus showing their racist migration policies. On Sunday, the alliance therefore supported a demonstration on the rights of Black refugees from Ukraine organized by Asmara’s World.

“Germany is also not a safe place for BIPoC communities, especially for Black people, such as 16-year-old Mouhamed Lamine D., who was murdered by police in Dortmund. This is exactly why the BIPOC present are demanding from the German climate justice movement to put the fight for justice into practice and to pay attention during actions that BIPOC are worse affected by police violence. No more people should be hurt, no more people should be shot, and no more parents should have to grieve over their children. It is not acceptable for the police to control the police. We demand independent investigative committees, studies on racial profiling, transformative justice, and above all, a world without police. We remember all those murdered by police officers. We mourn for you. We fight with you. We will never forget you and we will never forgive Germany,” says Winta of BIPOC for Future.

Contact details

E-mail: presse@ende-gelaende.org
Charly Dietz: +49 163 681 1776
Luka Scott: +49 177 9705757

For contact to parliamentarian observers:

Heike Sudmann, Mitglied der Hamburgischen Bürgerschaft: +49 160 905 091 83
Miriam Block, Mitglied der Hamburgischen Bürgerschaft: +49 176 704 844 04

Website

www.ende-gelaende.org

Twitter

https://twitter.com/Ende_gelande

On the Ende Gelände flickr account you can find photos of current and past actions: https://www.flickr.com/photos/133937251@N05/albums