Berlin:the police equipment manufacturer Peugeot goes up in smoke
[Friday, April 21, 2023, shortly after 4 am, flames lit up the night sky of the Marzahn district in Berlin. Indeed, 37 new vehicles, 25 of which were completely destroyed, were set on fire on the parking lot of a Peugeot dealer on Landsberger Allee. The fire department fought the blaze for more than six hours, and the damage amounts to several million euros.
This attack against the French car manufacturer, official supplier of cars and vans for cops in Greece, Germany, Iran or the prison administrator ISS, was claimed the next day by the Aggressive Action Cell “Zineb Redouane” (named after the woman who was hit in the head by a tear gas grenade on December 2, 2018 in Marseille, while trying to close her window on the 4th floor, and who died the next day). A translation of this communique is below].
You are the crisis – Episode 17: the police equipment manufacturer Peugeot
de.indymedia, 22 april 2023
With a series of attacks worldwide against car dealers and authorized suppliers of certain vehicle brands, the outline of a strategic line has opened up in recent years: those who enable police mobility and transportation are treated as enemies. In the market of police equipment suppliers, a handful of groups compete for the attention of the state’s lethal squads.
We are up against them, alongside the rioters in the French state against the “pension reform”, in the suburban neighborhoods where the BAC and other units have been killing for decades, alongside our comrades in Sainte-Soline, among the insurgents in the French colonies … Everywhere that Peugeot, one of the leading French car manufacturers, is present.
Just to mention a few examples, we also see in Greece the same enemies of freedom helping the Greek police. Nearly four hundred Peugeot 308s have been delivered as new patrol cars. With tinted windows “to transport delinquents unobtrusively”, the group is promoting its product.
Peugeot Deutschland is supplying the Saarland police with everything the technocratic mind can desire, 120 patrol cars, 80 undercover vehicles, vans…
On the night of April 21, we burned twenty-five vehicles on the grounds of the Peugeot dealership on Landsberger Allee in Berlin-Marzahn. Among them were sophisticated electric SUVs and several vans (probably leasing vehicles) of the security company ISS. ISS is not only involved in the operation of prisons, but also in the destruction and privatization of parks in Athens through a holding in the company UNISON.
Our attack should be understood as support for targeting of those responsible and who profit from the crisis, which has been going on for some time under this name [Note of Sans Nom: “You are the crisis”] At the same time we participate in the call for anarchist action on May 1st in order to develop a long-term combative perspective for the next demonstrations in Berlin. As anarchists we support all LGBT people who will take over the streets on Walpurgis night, as well as on all other nights before and after. Our attack must be a complement to the call for the Take Back the Night protest, which we see as a necessary part of the growing radical anti-patriarchal struggle.
We support the anarchist call for actions in the context of the revolutionary May Day demonstration, as the insurrectionary perspective must at all times seek conflict. Without distancing ourselves, we see critically some of the authoritarian and reformist groups present in the May Day demonstrations. Our action can contribute to discussing our differences on theoretical questions.
Colonialism and destruction of nature
Peugeot sells electric cars whose production requires the plundering of raw materials in the regions of the South, which leads to the destruction of nature and the health of the workers is linked to the destruction of resources. The electronic waste is then sent back there. Peugeot, like other European companies, is thus using the mechanisms developed for centuries by the colonial powers to enslave other continents. Green capitalism is no less bloody than previous versions. As long as the cops can quickly reach any place at any time, capitalism manages to maintain the illusion of its invincibility in Western metropolises.
Cooperation with the Iranian state
Iran is one of the largest growth markets for car sales. In 2016, Peugeot was the first Western group to reopen factories there after the end of sanctions, which Peugeot boss Jean Christophe Quemard commented, “We are showing that we are really committed to the future of Iran and that we are ready to invest in the country.” Faced with the open misogyny of the Iranian regime, it is a clear position that is underlined there with the Peugeot 206 that serves as a patrol car.
From an anarchist perspective, there is no question of negotiating with the system to make its crises more bearable. We are supposed to feel the fear of “crime” in order to make room for the violence of the state. But let’s not kid ourselves, there are also murderers and rapists sitting in police cars and doing their jobs. Past and future outbursts are, among other things, also an expression of legitimate self-defense. Our solidarity goes to all those who fight the presence of cops in the street and with whom we can develop collective moments on this occasion. The May 1st demonstration can be a step towards social revolt.
Aggressive Action Cell “Zineb Redouane”
via: https://sansnom.noblogs.org/archives/16458
Translated by Act for freedom now!