update hambach forest
Wanneer: 17/11/2015 - 14:12
It is cutting season in hambach forest, wich means the trees are falling. Since there has been so many blog updates and it could get a little bit confusing, this article is meant to clearify what is actually going on at the moment.
In the last few weeks there has been a couple of occupations in the cutting area, to directly stop the cutting. one person wrote a diary fo the 8 days she was hangin in a tree in a hammock, wich i will put under this article. Right now there are no more occupations in the cutting area. but the cutting season is not over yet...
There are 3 people in jail right now, that are awaiting trial, there is no date for these courtcases yet, but when this happened when Jus was in jail it took about 2 months and we will not be suprised if it could take even longer this time.
Mr. Blue is in prison in Aachen and is remaining anonymous, he is being charged with aussualt, tresspassing. Florian and Marte where aressted the 22st of october, they are being charged with violent aussault ofcourse there are a few more charges, you could read about this on the new website
abcrhineland.blackblogs.org
All the people got severly hurt during their arrest, Marte has a broken nose and missing some teeth and mr blue had a red eye for weeks after and his wrist is broken.
In this time of repression it is very important to stick together and show solidarity, by doing a soli action, or writing letters to the peeps in jail. or come to the hambach forest and help resist RWE, show them we are not scared of their voilence.
Diary from Birds eye View
in the cutting area, a tree was occupied for the last 8 days by one activist. The person has now left the tree and has been arrested. You can read her diary here.
Day 1
after an exciting, tiring night of getting into the tree, I sleep like a baby and wake up to lots of confused security guards, constantly shouting, whistling and throwing big pieces of wood at me. They also sexually harass me. Despite this, I remain in good spirits. I feel empowered, and proud of successfully occupying a tree in the cutting area.
Day 2
feeling frustrated at the continuation of the cutting, so I pick myself up by chanting at the workers who have come to have a look at the person hanging in the tree, ‚RWE Murderers, shame on you, we are watching you from a bird’s eye view‘ pens and paper have been a total life saver (including toilet paper, pooping out of a hammock is really shit – take that security! haha)
a poem to pass the time
there is hate in my heart,
where I saw no hate before,
a scar of sadness from the wound that marks this forest floor,
the birds will sing no more,
the deer will dance no more,
the boar will grunt no more,
the foxes will hunt no more,
the bat will fly no more,
the squirrels will climb no more,
the mice will scurry no more,
the insects will hurry no more.
The leaves won‘t turn to flames and fall.
The plants won‘t burst out green at all.
No flowers will feed the buzzing bees
because we value money over all of these.
We rather have this hole instead of trees.
Drawing pictures and writing letters to our 3 Hambi friends in the cages they call prison has kept me going. And thinking of their strength gives me strength. I actually really enjoy the free time to just think and reflect up here, so far I have not felt bored. Yet.
Day 3
waking up to bird songs and sunrise is such a blessing (shame it’s soon interrupted by the sound of sad men and their macho machines destroying the animals‘ beautiful homes) I even saw the endangered middle spotted woodpecker this morning, it’s so beautiful, black and white with red tail feathers. (more info about the endangered species that live in Hambach Forest on our blog)
I pointed the woodpecker out to some of the security, which sparked up some genuine human conversation, and led to a apology from the young man who had thrown the wood at me the previous day, and spat at me at the train station once. I do feel he was genuinely embarrassed when he realised I was just a nice normal person, and it did dissolve my fear and some of my hatred towards them.
They said they would ask their ‚chief‘ if they could bring water up to me in a cherry picker. This would be funny, but I doubt it will happen.
Day 4
still entertaining myself with writing bad poetry, nothing much more to report.
They want to stay angry, they want us to stay dumb,
they want us bored at work, or to drink to have fun,
they don‘t want us to walk on the forest floor, look up at the sun,
realise we do not need anything more, they want us to think that their walls are self-defence,
enforcing their violence with more borders and more fence,
I am sick and tired of all the lies they yell, advertising you‘re are not good enough, condemning you to hell,
but the only true hell that exists is the detention cell, where they lock up human beings from their war torn country,
this is their reality and they can not just look away, we are lucky enough to have the privilege, voice and language to say:
No to their violence, no to their wars, no to their mind control, fences borders and walls,
we are sick of your hatred, murder and your lies, we are going to fight you because we see through your disguise. Together we are stronger then you could ever be,
’cause we have love on our side, and all you have is paper money.
Also, it is really hard to go to the toilet with security constantly watching me. I have been eating and drinking less in order to not have to do the possibly humiliating chore for more than once a day.
Day 5
More Poems
the forgotten bird,
hanging here in a hammock, for a while I‘m a bird, my dependency upon the trees,
my nest, my home, swaying in the wind,
waking with the sun, suddenly men with loud machines come,
the destruction begins, I am displaced, lost,
my home is destroyed, refugee of the sky,
without my wings I can not fly, without my home who am I.
Another poem
As long as they keep on having wars with other countries to make weapons, the cutting will continue
as long people keep consuming, the cutting will continue
as long as we value the shopping mall over the forest, the cutting will continue.
as long as we value profit more than life, the cutting will continue.
as long as we value humans over non-human life, the cutting will continue.
as long as we value the shopping mall over the forest, the cutting will continue.
its very windy up here, its like being on a boat at sea, the wind sounds like waves. I even thought I was getting motion sickness haha. I hope the dead trees around me won‘t fall on me,
did not see those when I was putting up my hammock in the dark, since I was trying to not put my hammock ON a dead tree haha.
Day 6
Today I saw The Digger of Doom, in the mine, moving very slowly towards me, bringing with it the gloom and clouds of blue sky turned grey. Doing more drawing for the prisoners is really getting me through, making me feel like I had a productive day. Which is hard to say when you are laying in a hammock all day (haha) ‚free the Hambi T(h)ree and throw away the key‘
security still not giving me the water in a cherry picker, so surprised…. as they look so bored, the only thing they can do to entertain themselves is harassing me, shouting at me, throwing things at me, sexually harassing me, turning their lights off and on at me, racing their cars and beeping their car horns and whipping the tree my hammock is on with sticks. I wish they would do something useful or nice for me, like bringing me some water, or engaging in a conversation instead of shouting, since they have been behaving like this for 6 days.
Day 7
as the trees fell, today so did my tears. There is so much grief. This is the first day I can see the trees fall. It hurts to see that so many people are not affected at all by this, and even making jokes about it, Like the security. Realising that it is not just the trees they are destroying but also the homes and lives of animals and plants. This forest is one of the oldest forests in this area, They look at this forest through capitalist eyes. It is not replaceable. Ecosystems are not replaceable like a old pair of jeans are.
so today was extremely eventful, I realised I almost completely ran out of water, and the security had still not fulfilled their promise of giving me some in the cherry picker. So I asked again, and they said that if I come down, I can get it myself. (they are very clever… so of course I came down instantly.. yeah right haha!) so I told them I do not have the right equipment to come down.
So they went and got the guy they call ‚chief‘ and he brought me a bottle of sparkling water which he sent up to me on my rope. No cherry picker to my disappointment. Then he said he called a ambulance for me. And before I knew it, there was a whole fire brigade team, a whole ambulance team, and at least 3 cop vans, so I was very confused. Was I being evicted? I thought I must be. And communicating with a very worried press team (sorry everyone!) I realized that they thought that me wanting water also meant me wanting to come down. After about an hour of their time and money, I told them I only wanted water and did not want to get down. They asked me if I was sure, and when I said yes they seemed somewhat relieved and somewhat annoyed, but they left – hooray!… maybe I should ask for soup tomorrow…
4.30 pm,
more sexual harassment, 4 to six security guards are shining the light in my face so I can‘t see them. When it gets dark they feel more more safe, since I can‘t see them, to terrorise me by throwing heavy objects repeatedly at me. Some of them even hitting me, at some point even very hard on the body and one time on my head. I became very scared, and realised that if they actually knocked me out, being unconscious in a climbing harness would be life threatening. I am very high in my hammock, Trying to hit a target, making my body and life into a game. They did not stop them until I shouted and cried at them. Only that seemed to scare them off. The fact that I cried, being a woman, made some sort of impression on them, and they left laughing. Saying ’sleep well‘. It’s getting tiring to be putting up with their sexist comments all day.
It’s nice to know I am not alone, and there are many more people in other areas of the forest in hammocks, more people that care about forests and life.
I have been thinking how blessed I actually am, sleeping in a hammock under the stars, waking up to the sun, and birdsong, while there are people directly suffering by capitalism and energy companies like RWE, like indigenous people fighting against the tar sands in Canada, people and animals suffering from floods in bangladesh due to climate change. and other indigenous struggles around the world. Hanging in this tree makes me feel blessed and reflecting my privilege of being able to have a voice that so many people and animals don‘t have in this world.