Relay Call: www.castor-schottern.org
Call for Action "Trainstopping" ("Castor Schottern!") To be held between early and mid-November this year in northern Germany. Action promises to be both the most exciting anti-nuclear Germany for years and at the same time the "step up" the most promising development in this kind of action 'massive' civil disobedience (Block G8 Heliligendamm and blocking anti-Nazi Dresden earlier this year). But before looking at the appeal - and perhaps deciding to broadcast it in your network - I think an explanation of the meaning of what we hope to be able to stop it might be useful. If you like the call, broadcast as possible. And of course if you have questions about the action, please contact us.
The "nuclear renaissance"?
The nuclear lobby in Germany recently saw red. While for years it seemed as they rose slowly (too slowly, it is safe) nuclear power, the recent awareness of 'Peak Oil' and the future energy scarcity, linked to a debate technicist on climate change has led to what some have called a 'renaissance' of nuclear power. It seems that the industry feels that it could finally 'out' PR hole in which it was dropped after Chernobyl, as the world's governments look to nuclear power to their energy security needs. The result: a big boost for big energy companies and their allies in government to increase the influence of nuclear energy, with a government guarantee of profit in case of trouble.
This is both anti-social: why guarantee the profits of government business if the energy budgets of the social, education or health experiencing budget cuts? ; And anti-ecological A recent study of a government think-tank shows clearly that we want a 100% renewable supply in Germany. The time to stop the expansion of energy by coal or nuclear power is now, not in ten years. Government's argument that nuclear power is simply a transitional technology is clearly false.
Never! The anti-nuclear movement in Germany
Here we, movements, come in. For 30 years, the anti-nuclear movement was a social movement among the strongest in Germany: not only because it is continually able to create effective mass actions, over the years involving hundreds of thousands of people in direct action and civil disobedience, but also because it is rooted in "common sense" common, in a popular majority, clearly opposed nuclear, and for whom civil disobedience and collective exceedances of the law are legitimate when it comes to this form of energy.
Historically, the movement has identified the issue of storing nuclear waste as a key point to pressure. Organized around a particular location - the potential landfill Goleben nuclear waste, a small village in the Wendland region in northern Germany - the movement has sought to make the nuclear waste disposal and so difficult (politically as well as financially) costly than nuclear energy would ultimately unprofitable. Once every two years, with brutality, a train filled to the brim with highly radioactive waste - the Beaver (English Cask for Storage of Radioactive Materials, drum / container for storing radioactive waste) - going to Gorleben has been the breaking point for actions of disobedience major civil and Gorleben has become the epicenter of a movement is unique in Germany unites the radical left and autonomous groups with NGOs, residents and local farmers and scientists, and with them a majority of the population.
Whenever a train is on track, thousands and sometimes tens of thousands of people organize themselves to slow, making it more expensive to try to stop it.
Each time, the government should deploy more than 30,000 policemen to protect their dangerous cargo.
Every time they lose their legitimacy, we win.
Civil Disobedience: one step further
This year, another beaver will travel to Germany, probably as usual in the first half of November. But this year things will be different. Not just because we are in a period decision in terms of energy policy. But also because the radical movements have been in recent years in Germany, some resounding success thanks to mass actions of civil disobedience. Spurred on, among other things, movement Interventionist Left (Left Interventionist) - a network of groups that some have termed a 'post-autonomous' - the idea was for the wing most 'radical', 'militant' movement to clarify publicly that our actions are not intended to fight the police, but to accomplish specific goals (to stop a march Nazi block a G8 summit) . This commitment to transparency has allowed groups more 'moderate' to engage more readily in forms of action which they would otherwise be sidelined for obstructing collective law, civil disobedience, direct action. According to these tactics, movement organized in Germany, not only the effective blocking of the G8 in Heiligendamm, but also shutdown of the largest Nazi march in Europe, Dresden, in February. Not by confronting the cops, but simply by making it possible for thousands of people to a sit in the street in a serene atmosphere, and the police obviously did not feel ready to just clear the street (here, the keyword is 'legitimacy').
With these experiences in mind, we plan to go further action Beaver this year. Given the history and legitimacy of anti-nuclear movement, we call people to organize openly, not for 'just' occupy the railways, or the streets - but to sabotage the railway, to dismantle the infrastructure of outright madness permanent energy policies capitalists. On this fight, it is the nuclear industry. But if it succeeds, we have extended the concept of civil disobedience in Germany beyond the sitting occupation. This will mean, once again, resist.
The call in English:
Trainstopping! Shut down nuclear power!
Come to Northern Germany this November - lets stop the Castor train!
We call on those people who for many years have been active in the resistance against nuclear power; and the Castor-transports; on those who have demonstrated en masse against the governmentʼs savage cuts to social services; on the tens of thousands who have sat down on the street in order to stand up to the Nazis; on people in villages, in smaller and bigger towns and cities, who are no longer willing to accept governments and corporations riding roughshod over our opposition to nuclear power:
This year, together with you and hundreds, thousands of people, we intend to stop the Castor by taking out stones from under the train tracks, thus undermining them and making the railroad running to Gorleben unusable.
Enough is enough – together, weʼll stop this train
In November this year, yet another train will be transporting highly radioactive nuclear waste to Gorleben. Over the last decades, hundreds of thousands of people have over and over again demonstrated their ʻNO!ʼ to nuclear power in many different ways. There is still no nuclear waste dump, and countless accidents in nuclear power plants have once again highlighted the enormous dangers of relying on nuclear energy. In spite of all this, their mantra is: more of the same! In spite of all this, the government is extending the life spans of nuclear plants. In spite of all this, there are plans to expand the nuclear waste dump in Gorleben. It is time to go beyond taking our ʻNO!ʼ to nuclear energy to the streets. This year, it is time to take our resistance on step further.
Our action: Trainstopping!
Together with hundreds, thousands of people from different political and societal backgrounds, we are going to get onto the train tracks on the day the train is supposed to run there. We are determined to make the tracks unusable for the nuclear waste train, to en masse remove the stones from under the tracks, i.e. to undermine them and to make them impassable in creative ways. We will choose one section of the tracks for this action, where, on this day, no trains other than the Castor are scheduled to be running.
Itʼs all said and done: our action is legitimate
We know that our conscious interference with the Castorʼs route is not covered by the law. Still, our actions are necessary and legitimate in order to shut down this dangerous and inhuman technology. With our ʻTrainstopping!ʼ action, we want to pull the rug out from under the nuclear lobby, making it impossible for them to ferry their waste through the country against the will of the people. There will be no “more of the same!”. We will shut them down.
Together and en masse
During the action we will create a situation that is transparent for everyone involved, and where those participating in the action watch out for and support each other in a spirit of solidarity. In order to get to the tracks, we will together overcome, go around or flow through police barriers. We will not be stopped. The goal of our action is to make the tracks unusable, not to attack the police. Our most important protection is our numbers, our diversity, and our determination: while hundreds or thousands will be removing the stones themselves, other s will support them through the use of protective materials like air mattresses, cushions or tarps to shield them from repression. We will stay on the tracks until we have made them unusable.
Who we are
This campaign is the result of the coming-together of groups and individuals from the anti-nuclear movement, the climate movement, alterglobalisation networks, anti-Fascist contexts, from different areas of the left and wider society. We want to contribute our experiences from the successful mass blockades of the G8 in Heiligendamm, and of Nazi marches or events in Jena, Cologne and Dresden to the diverse and colourful struggles in the Wendland. We stand in solidarity with all other forms of protest and resistance against the Castor-transport.
Everyone can join! But what can everyone do?
In order for our action to succeed, we will have to be many.
You can announce that youʼll take part in Trainstopping! You/your group can support the action with your name/s.
You can form local groups and together prepare for the action. We will create resource to organise action trainings. Let us know if we can help
You-can organize local events. We Will be happy to come to you, tell you about The Beaver, nuclear power and o plans to stop the train.
Trainstopping!
Lets shut down nuclear power. After all, someones gotta do it ...
Contact: mail-an-beaver-schottern (at) riseup.net
Saturday, November 27: MC & ORTEGA PIZKO 