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Germany: 16 000 Gather to stop the Castor transport

TrippinOnTheNukes | 09.11.2008 17:47 | Ecology | Social Struggles | World

8 November - A crowd of 16 000 people demonstrated against the Castor transport in Gorleben today, marching through the town and eventually settling just outside of it, near to the gates of the "Zwischenlager" - the temporary nuclear waste disposal site (also located in Gorleben) - to listen to speeches and music. Madsen, a very popular band, ended the event to a very lively and dance-happy crowd.

The protesters were accompanied by at least 400 tractors of nearby living farmers - a powerful testament to the sense of solidarity that exists around the issue of nuclear power and nuclear waste in this region. Gorleben is the 'ground zero' of the nuclear waste issue in Germany - it is the site of an old mine that the German government is hoping to turn into a permanent nuclear waste disposal site. For decades, the local people in and around Gorleben have been welcoming outside activists onto their land and into their homes, to help strengthen a movement whose aim is to force the German government and the nuclear industry to take responsibility for their decisions to propagate a dangerous and unnecessary power source.

The subject of nuclear waste disposal is a central one in Germany right now, and the anti-nuclear movement is arguably the strongest social movement in the country, with a histroy of public disobedience stretching back into the 1970s.

The rally in Gorleben was a family-friendly continuation of this tradition. Police presence was very pronounced, with police officers from around Germany, each with their own specific uniform, placed along the entire route of the procession. Upon arriving at its destination, the crowd found itself still surrounded by police - although in general the troops stayed outside of the festivities, watching the thousands from the sidelines, and patroling in the nearby forest rather than walking through the dense crowd.

The march began at 13:00, and began to dissipate soon after dark. As young families began to pull their children past the lines of officers, however, around 500 people stayed behind to blockade the main gate of the Zwischenlager. It is at this gate that the Castor transport will unload its toxic and radioactive cargo.

This action was organized beforehand by "X-tausendmal quer" - a non-violent action group focusing on the nuclear issue. The crowd of blockaders was supported by tractors, and a loud soundsystem played local radio reports of the action to the people sitting on the road. Over the course of the evening, the number of police patroling the blockade steadily increased, and special supply cars carrying riot gear, floodlights, and surveillance cameras also arrived.

As of late Saturday night, police had not attempted to remove the blockade. Organizers and activists do not expect police to make any attempt to do so until the Castor transport is nearer to its destination. This kind of delayed reaction makes it unlikely that participants will be available to blockade the gate as the Castor transport arrives. Blockaders will probably be removed from the area just before its arrival, so that the police can keep them in custody until the transfer of the waste is completed.

http://castor.de

http://contratom.de

http://nuclear-heritage.net

TrippinOnTheNukes

Additions

pics from the GORLEBEN BLOCKADE

09.11.2008 18:02

jenny

Students protest in Lüchow

09.11.2008 18:08

students...

...supported by local farmers...

...and pissed off police...

...protested in Lüchow against the deportation of nuclear waste.

On 7th November hundreds of protesters took to the streets of the town of Lüchow, Germany today to protest the transport of nuclear waste into the Wendland region. Their march was also in memorial of Sebastian Briaut, the French man who died while protesting the Castor transport in 2004.

After the hour-long march, tensions rose as the crowd approached the road leading to the local police barracks. As student organizers encouraged those attending the 'official demonstration' to return to it, around 150 people left the official march, which organizers had planned to have turn back at the roundabout at the Saaßer Chaussee towards the center of Lüchow. This 150 instead decided to continue on, walking down Salzwedeler Landstraße, toward the police barracks.

There were several altercations. Eggs were thrown towards the police. Eggs hold a special significance at the students' demonstration, because at the last Castor transport, the police were very heavy-handed with young protesters. This year's resurrection of the egg-throwing tradition showed that resistance will not stop in the face of repression against students.

Police made three unsuccessful announcements to the crowd telling them to disperse. In reaction, protesters gave the police three announcements telling them to leave the streets, and told them that they did not in fact have to protect the nuclear industry.

TrippinOnTheNukes

Castor: Blockades on the Tracks by Harlingen

10.11.2008 01:25

While the Castor transport takes more time than expected to arrive at its destination - because of a blockade with three people who were locked-on at a concrete block at the French-German border - several blockades of hundreds of people sitting on the tracks took place in the region of Harlingen tonight. Even huge amounts of police forces with tanks, water canons, hundreds of police officers and special supply couldn't prevent people coming on the railway. This is a report from one of those blockades near Harlingen.
At Kilometer 187,9 a blockade of what police estimated to be about 138 people sat on the tracks. Some minutes before, in the same region, at least two other blockades like this one happened. Hundreds of people were walking through the forests, showing their presence to the police, shouting, trying to reach the railway and so on. Hundreds of police officers tried to protect the tracks from being walked on and sart on by activists. But police couldn't prevent everything because there were too many people, and the railway is long and can't be protected completely.

An activist described how he and some others managed to reach the tracks. He said that people in the crowd made several atempts to get onto the railway with the intent to sit on it and blockade, and somehow they finally succeeded. At first the police tried to stop the steady stream of people who had found a weak point in the police lines protecting the railbed, but once several people had already succeeded in sitting on the tracks, the police stopped trying so hard to stop them. The situation among the blockaders seemed to be relaxed and without trouble. However, once the blockaders were settled in, the police very resolutely denied anyone who wanted to join or support the blockaders, access to the railbed.

Many people in the blockade declared their action to be non-violent and promised they wouldn't cause conflicts if police wouldn't give a reason for it. The officer in charge of handling the action spoke in a nearly ridiculous-sounding way to the blockaders and wanted them to leave the railway. He gave three announcements that this blockade is against the law and they had to go and announced that otherwise police would remove them from the tracks. He said he could say people "have to go" but wanted to beg them to do it. Later he said that this wouldn't be an order but a beg. He created the impression that police
would be friendly and only wants the best for the activists (they could be hurt by being transported from the wet and slippery tracks).

The first blockaders were taken away carefully after being asked if they wanted to go voluntarily. Later more and more aggressive police officers could be seen, twisting the hands of some activists and making them scream. At least one activist could be watched when a police officer again and again tried to grab his testicles and to cause pain on him. Not every police officer was this brutal but their were many blockaders who were dragged over the gravel, some carried headfirst and many screaming because of pain caused by police grips. Obviously, the nice and friendly words of the police chief were untrue. They used violence against people to achieve their aims if they wanted to, without regard to peoples' health.

After this blockade was removed by the police there were new attempts on other places.

http://castor.de

http://contratom.de

http://nuclear-heritage.net

TrippinOnTheNukes