Which strategies are being employed just over the border in Germany, what are the commonalities, and the differences between the campaign, and how can activists in the Netherlands contribute?
In the German Rhineland, just 50 kilometer over the Dutch-German border near Roermond, an intense battle is being fought against Europe's largest open-pit brown coal (lignite) mines. During the Ende Gelande mass actions of last summer, over 1.000 people, united in a broad coalition that ranged from radical eco-anarchist groups to moderate NGO's, broke through police lines, flowing into and shutting down the Garzweiler mine.
A few kilometers away, a thousands years old forest has been occupied with treehouses, barricades and tunnels since 2012, in an effort to save this unique ecosystem and halt the expansion of the Hambach mine, the largest and deepest of all brown coal mines.
In this session, two activists involved in these struggles will explain which strategies are being deployed across the border, and how Dutch-based activists can help.