Kempten demonstrators show solidarity with the occupiers of Lützerath

Created: 01/14/2023, 18:58

By: Susanne Lüderitz

Because the rally on Saturday was set up very spontaneously, the organizers were satisfied with the turnout.

Banners from "BUND", "Fridays for Future", "Kempten gegen Rechts" and "Last Generation" could be seen on August-Fischer-Platz.

© Luderitz

Kempten – While "Fridays for Future" were holding their big rally with Greta Thunberg in Lützerath, a crowd of demonstrators also gathered on August-Fischer-Platz.

With posters, music, yellow Andreas crosses and speeches, they expressed their solidarity with the squatters in the lignite mining area and called for a system change.

As some say, they would have liked to go to the big demo themselves.

Now they want to show their anger at home that the village is being cleared for coal-fired power.

"Down with the coal, up with climate protection," chanted the approximately 50 demonstrators of all ages.

To do this, they lowered and raised the yellow St. Andrew's crosses - a symbol taken from the protest against the nuclear waste storage site in Gorleben in the 1990s.

"Gorleben should live, that was the saying back then," explained Karl Braig at the demo.

"Lützerath should also live!"

Solidarity demonstration with Lützerath: activists ask system questions

In the speeches, an activist from "Kempten gegen Rechts" railed against the capitalist system.

It rolls out the red carpet for the corporations so that they can make their profits from the destruction of livelihoods – especially in the Global South.

Capitalism always needs new resources, regardless of whether the products produced are sustainable or not.

The “poor” fell by the wayside, whether because of the 9-euro ticket being lost or because of the hunger crisis in countries overheated by climate change.

The energy deals with the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, for which the Green Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck traveled to the Persian Gulf a few months ago, were criticized.

"Double standards and moral flexibility" can be seen in such trips.

With a text by the group "Lützerath Leben" the activists called for the "entire energy sector to be expropriated", to be socialized and instead to be set up for self-determined energy production.

Different opinions on the demonstration

The rally met with a mixed response from passers-by: "It's a shame about the color," comments a middle-aged man, whose name is not to be mentioned in the article, "they're doing whatever they want up there anyway." He spoke of a " double-edged sword”: the energy has to come from somewhere.

"Rather from here than from Russia," he said, "we dismantle it in a controlled manner."

Peter Schmidt from Kempten was also on the sidelines.

"They're absolutely right," was his opinion.

Profit and interests are paramount in the current system.

Horror scenarios and fears of a lack of energy would be fueled.

"It's the same with food.

There are four equally sized grain traders in the world right now making their biggest gains ever,” Schmidt said.