Rhine coalfield (Germany): coordinated sabotage of three coal mines

Hot sabotage of cable ducts: cutting off the juice to RWE!

From de.indymedia, July 13, 2023

On the night of July 5 to 6, we carried out simultaneous acts of sabotage using incendiary devices on three cable ducts in the Rhine lignite mining area. The attacked cables supply, among other things, the coal silos in the Hambach and Garzweiler open-cast mines, as well as the coal silo in the Fortuna mine. The aim of the action was to interrupt the coal supply to the Neurath and Niederaußem power stations and possibly force them to shut down. Unfortunately, according to press reports, we didn’t use enough accelerant to cause serious damage. We’ll have more next time! Nevertheless, this action shows that fossil fuel companies like RWE are vulnerable. And who knows, maybe we indirectly contributed to the Hambach mine transformer fire on July 11, which paralyzed the entire mine.

In particular, coal silos are an important infrastructure for supplying power plants. Most of the power cables between substations and coal silos are open-air and easily accessible. Attached below are maps where the routes of the cables that supply these coal silos are shown in red.

For this attack, we drew inspiration from a similar action that took place in 2016 (see Autonomes Blättchen #25, p. 42). Back then, it was possible to cause damage with a “huge quantity of accelerant under the cables”, which brought operations at the Hambach open-cast mine to a standstill for almost three days.

Capitalist companies like RWE and the government work hand in hand, as the recent eviction from Lützerath showed. With their greed for profit and their attachment to fossil fuels, they are exacerbating the climate crisis, and time is running out: we need to shut down power plants and factories now – climate protection is still manual labor.

The coal infrastructure in the Rhine coalfield is a good target (you can see some of the companies involved in coal mining as subcontractors in the photos), but fossil fuel companies, factories and similar infrastructure are everywhere. The “Switch Off – System of Destruction” campaign offers suggestions and publicizes actions against the destruction of nature. Electricity cables, Internet cables or antennas are often easily accessible and easy to find with a little searching.

We greet “electric pylons” (1), “hooks [on catenary wires]” (2), “transformer fires” (3) and all the other saboteurs of this world. Let’s keep it up!

The resistance won’t stop: Lutzi is alive!

Note of Sans Nom:

  1. Reference to the sabotage of the electric pylon at the Garzweiler lignite mine in March 2023, see here.
  2. Last year, several train lines were sabotaged in Lusatia using hooks placed on catenary wires, see here and here.
  3. In early December 2022, an electrical transformer station and several cables were set on fire near Lützerath, causing RWE to cut the mine’s power supply. via: sansnom Translated by Act for freedom now!