heavy protests/clashes around german nucluar transport

[Sasha]

tens of thousands of germans are resisting the transport of nucluar waste to gorleben in the biggest CASTOR (name of the transport containers) mobilisations ever.
the transport is already 12 hours late and wont be able to reach the end point before tomorow morning.
16.000 (!) cops are trying to push through the blocades but are met with fierce oposition.
reports i'm getting from friends is of an surreal experience, the forrests are full of clouds of teargas, hundreds of militants try to reach the train beds to remove the gravel supporting the tracks, armys of cops are airlifted in to beat them back as local farmers blockade the roads with tractors to prevent the cops reaching the protesters.
50.000 people where at an demonstration yesterday, thousands are still blockading through the night, very mixed coalition of locals, enviromentals/greens, farmers, radical autonomen etc etc.
this is getting really big it seems.

http://www.spiegel.de/images/image-148963-galleryV9-pnei.jpg

http://www.spiegel.de/images/image-148993-galleryV9-ycbo.jpg
an armoured verhicle of the cops got set on fire.


http://www.spiegel.de/images/image-148973-galleryV9-ikcv.jpg
http://www.spiegel.de/images/image-148992-galleryV9-rgjl.jpg

more pics and bourgois media report: http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=nl&sl=de&tl=en&u=http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,727706,00.html&rurl=translate.google.nl&usg=ALkJrhiPZAIXjoy9KSWJ-LJPlfc_2_v4pQ

protest ticker: http://castorticker.de/


any germans who can give an sense of atmosphere in the country?
are most people supportive?

[Widerstand]

any germans who can give an sense of atmosphere in the country?
are most people supportive?

CASTOR blockades have become rather ritualized, but overall I think most people are sympathetic. The struggle has gotten more intense this year, as many nuclear powerplants who were planned to be shut down are now allowed to run longer - yet every debated trash storage, including Gorleben, has grave deficits, and storing the nuclear waste can (and has) serious effects on environment and people living there. This has been a matter of public debate in the past months, which I guess helped to mobilize.

[Sasha]

cop chief says his filth is to tired to continue beating demonstrators so the transport has stopped for the night, they will continue tomorow at 09.00
lets hope the demonstrators have some energy left too take up new blockades and sabotage through the night.
its apperently very cold though, cops used watercanons througout the day, people are taken away by paramedics with hypotermia.

[Ele'ill]

I am interested in this as it progresses- don't hesitate to post updates as they come in

Edit- that's a pretty forest as well.

[Amphictyonis]

cop chief says his filth is to tired to continue beating demonstrators so the transport has stopped for the night, they will continue tomorow at 09.00
lets hope the demonstrators have some energy left too take up new blockades and sabotage through the night.
its apperently very cold though, cops used watercanons througout the day, people are taken away by paramedics with hypotermia.

Spray the cops with water.

[Eastside Revolt]

I'll be dissapointed if those tracks aren't dismantled by the morning!

[Amphictyonis]

OK maybe spray the cops with water with a little bit of LSD in it :)

(To the FBI- I'm kidding)

[Sasha]

train blocades did get cleared tonight, several thousand people are arrested and had to spend the night in an makeshift open air prison, the train reached the end station where it will take 12 hours to load the castor containers on trucks for the last 25 km to gorleben.
1,5 thousand demonstrators are still blockading the gates of the gorleben complex.

movie from one of the gravel removing groups

oK36c-Av57I

[Ele'ill]

This is a badass mobilization that has its shit together-- I am impressed.

These actions should not be forgotten any time soon- they need to be studied and replicated

holy dedicated...

[Sasha]

the blocade at the gates has grown to over 2.400 people and there are still blocades on the route there by farmers with tractors with people locked to them and there are even several hundred sheep and goats on the road :lol:
the last castor container has been put on a truck so its expected the convoy will depart soon.

[bricolage]

I'm completely ignorant here, can someone give me a rundown of what the campaign is about and the background to this action? thanks.

[Ele'ill]

there are even several hundred sheep and goats on the road :lol:


Eywa listened

[Sasha]

I'm completely ignorant here, can someone give me a rundown of what the campaign is about and the background to this action? thanks.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-nuclear_movement_in_Germany

[Widerstand]

I'm completely ignorant here, can someone give me a rundown of what the campaign is about and the background to this action? thanks.

It's about Germany's government flirting with nuclear power plants or should I say, getting sponsored by their providers? In spite of rather realistic plans to run Germany 100% on renewable energies by 2030, the government preferred to cut subsidizes of renewable energies and delayed the shutdown of various nuclear power plants by years. Meanwhile, the same old problems still arise - and arise anew as more power plants are being put (back) online: Waste. While Russia may have large empty areas in Siberia, Germany does not. In fact we don't have any suitable place to store our nuclear waste, and the ones we use have been shown unsafe by various studies - as have the ones newly proposed, which are needed to take care of the increasing amount of waste. Meanwhile the government continues to do what it's been doing for years: Dump nuclear waste de facto in some farmer's backyard.

There are several campaigns at work here. The blockades are coordinated by x-tausendmalquer, as far as I'm aware. The other big campaign is "Castor schottern", which seeks to remove the gravel supporting the tracks (can be seen in the video psycho posted).

I feel bad about being late for bus tickets now :(