About 20 people stormed a Coastal Gaslink pipeline construction site in western Canada. They were armed with axes and incendiary devices, they threatened employees, hijacked heavy construction vehicles, damaging residential barracks and ultimately the vehicles themselves. Damage ran into millions. That was almost a year ago. Nobody knows yet who in the province of British Columbia sabotaged the work on the pipeline. The attackers were hooded and dressed in white overalls. Clothing that radical climate protectors like to wear.
Fracking gas will soon flow through the pipeline to the west coast and be shipped from there to Asia. The pipeline also passes through indigenous peoples’ land. It is highly controversial and there have been many demonstrations against it. But the highest courts allowed the company TG Energy to build it.
The action in Canada could be remembered as an act of severe violence by parts of the climate movement. After the clashes at the weekend in Lützerath during the protests against lignite mining in the Rhenish Revier, the question is also in this country: How radical will the climate protest be?
Thousands demonstrated in Lützerath against the continuation of coal mining. Mostly peaceful. There was unauthorized trespassing on the grounds of the RWE group. Stones flew at police officers, sometimes balls of mud. A few Molotov cocktails. But no comparison to British Columbia. But under the impression that the police were not very gentle with the activists at times, it was noticeable that the climate scene in Lützerath found it difficult to distance itself from violence.
At a press conference on Sunday, Indigo Drau, spokeswoman for the “Lützerath is alive” alliance, said in a trembling voice: “You’ve shown a whole generation – if we want to survive, then it’s not enough to appeal to you.” And: “We are angrier, we are more determined, we have become more, we will not leave you alone.” When asked whether violence was legitimate, the tenor was: the action alliance rejects it, but individuals felt so helpless and powerless that they decided to go this route. It sounded like understanding.
The “Fridays for Future” movement, for example, is characterized by its family character. If you skip one or two lessons on Friday or take an extended lunch break from the office, then you go to the demo with schoolbags, balloons and homemade posters. The group argues that the only way to reach the masses is through peaceful protest, which puts the greatest pressure on politicians. But conflict researchers have been warning for a long time that a small circle could form that would resort to harsher means.
“The ruling classes are out of control in an infernal and demonic way.”
A pioneer of the radical scene is the Swedish human ecologist Andreas Malm from the University of Lund. In his book How to Blow Up a Pipeline, Malm explains vandalism as a legitimate means of protest. He calls for the tires of SUVs to be deflated, and he also approves of the action in Canada. As justification, he cites record profits and expansion plans by fossil energy companies around the world and a policy that allows this. “The ruling classes,” he wrote in a guest post in mirror, “are completely and out of control in an infernal and demonic way.” Tadzio Müller, co-founder of the “Ende Gelände” group, is considered a German brother in spirit. He, too, advocates attacks against things like pipelines.
State authorities are looking more and more closely at what is going on. In the 2021 report for the protection of the constitution, “Ende Gelände” appears with the remark that it has been infiltrated by left-wing extremists who want to radicalize the protest and delegitimize the state and its institutions. The group “Last Generation” is also under observation. The members are known for their civil disobedience, sticking themselves on streets or damaging crude oil pipelines. In December, the Neuruppin public prosecutor ordered searches of eleven activists. The suspicion is “formation of a criminal organization”. Most lawyers consider this to be exaggerated; it is more likely to indicate increasing concern among the authorities. Because there is little or nothing to indicate that the fossil age will end as quickly as climate protectionists would like it to. Global warming is also likely to continue, and there is no sign of an easing of the conflict.
On the other hand, those who do business with fossil fuels are fighting back. In British Columbia, for example, a group of entrepreneurs did not want to be offered the property damage: They are offering a reward of 100,000 Canadian dollars for information about the capture of the saboteurs on the Coastal Gaslink pipeline.