Berlin: news from Tesla and a second communique from the Volcano Group
A week after a high-voltage power line tower in Berlin caught fire at dawn on March 5, deliberately bringing Tesla’s European electric vehicle production plant to a standstill, the plant was only reconnected to the power grid on March 11. And two days later, on Wednesday March 13, it was finally able to start up again in the presence of its CEO Elon Musk, who came to Berlin-Grünheide to be cheered by his brave workers, before meeting local politicians. However, “it will still be some time before production resumes in full, but the most important step has been taken”, according to plant manager Andre Thierig. Knowing that each day spent without electricity or production cost between 50 and 60 million euros, we leave it to you to calculate Tesla’s losses for these eight days of shutdown.
While the 5,000 inhabitants of the Freienbrink district were reconnected the very same day, it was a completely different matter for grid operator E.DIS to be able to reconnect the Tesla factory, given the huge amount of energy required by the 12,500-strong gigafactory. A vast emergency worksite was therefore immediately deployed in the field where the burnt-out pylon was located. Firstly, to build a temporary access road from the adjacent forest in order to transport heavy machinery, then to dig out from under the muddy earth some of the cables linking this pylon to the Erkner transformer station, and finally to gradually install a structure parallel to the damaged steel giant after draining the soil beneath its feet. All this in an area that is now entirely fenced off, with work being carried out at breakneck speed in 3×8 shifts (day and night), under constant police protection backed up by private security guards.
After Elon Musk’s outraged reaction, in which he immediately tweeted, “These are either the stupidest eco-terrorists in the world, or the puppets of those who don’t have the right environmental objectives”, the authorities were obviously attempting to delegitimize the action, with the (Social Democrat) President of the Brandenburg region denouncing a “form of terrorism”, and the journalists calling the perpetrators of the sabotage “children of the RAF”. A few days later, the public prosecutor’s office of the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe took over the investigation, which was opened for “membership of a terrorist organization, unconstitutional sabotage and arson”.
Opponents of the Tesla factory’s 170-hectare expansion, which will double production to one million electric vehicles a year, have been occupying the forest around the future site with tree houses since February 29. The local authorities have given them until Friday March 15 to leave, while the “Stop Tesla” initiative has requested permission to occupy the site until May 20. The spokespersons for this movement are essentially highlighting the “theft of water” represented by this expansion project (Tesla already consumes 1.8 million m3 per year) and the increase in road traffic it will generate, as well as the sacrosanct respect for the will of the residents of the Grünheide commune, where the factory is located, who voted over 60% against Tesla’s project in a consultative ballot in mid-February. Needless to say, some were shaken by the March 5 sabotage, and released statements distancing themselves to the media, echoing the propaganda of those in power by insisting that they were not endangering human lives and were non-violent.
On Sunday March 10, Tesla’s opponents continued their demonstration against the site’s expansion (including the construction of a battery factory), which brought together around a thousand people in response to a call from environmental organizations.
Two days earlier, on the evening of Friday March 8, the same number of workers from the shutdown Tesla factory had gathered for two hours on the factory lawn in response to a call from the (yellow) work council, ending up… by making a collective light display in support of their company using their cell phones!
What about the Volcano group who carried out the sabotage at dawn on March 5, whose long communiqué we had already translated here? Well, they made a point of speaking out again in the feverish context of last week, issuing a second communiqué four days later (March 9), this time addressed to the various opposition groups on site (Grünheide residents who organized the referendum, the “Close the tap to Tesla” water coordination, forest occupants) as well as to local residents affected by the power cut.
[German press summary, March 5-14, 2024]
Open letter to the Grünheide citizens’ initiative and the “Turn off the tap to Tesla” alliance
To the various organizations and action groups. To the occupants of the forest
To the residents affected by the blackout
We, the “Switch off Tesla! volcano group”, speak only for ourselves. We do not speak for other Volcano groups. Nevertheless, we have taken inspiration from the attacks of other Volcano groups and used expressions and content that have resonated with us. We largely share affinity with the attacks carried out by all Volcano groups since 2011. So much for the many speculations that exist about our own “Switch off Tesla Volcano group.”
Nor do we speak on behalf of the Grünheide Citizens’ Initiative, the “Turn Tesla off” alliance, or other organizations and action groups which, for various reasons, are critical of Tesla, protesting and building resistance against it. What we have in common is the desire to set limits on Tesla and prevent the construction of the planned battery factory and other logistical activities, even if our perspective goes far beyond that. It’s not a problem for us. We see no reason to distance ourselves from your public groups, and we respect your work.
We are aware of the strong pressure some local groups were unable to escape after our attack and its far-reaching consequences. We read many statements as a sense of insecurity rather than taking distance. We also understand the concern about the status of the occupied zone in the forest, or the worry about its acceptance by the population. Why allow ourselves to be put under pressure and not react calmly to blatant demands for distance? There’s no reason to distance yourselves from our attack, since you’re not responsible for it. Distancing ourselves from each other is not very useful. Everyone is free to rejoice openly or secretly in our action and in Tesla’s shutdown. Anyone who feels compelled to distance themselves should ask why? And who has a vested interest in this happening?
Following the arson attack on Tesla
We don’t think we’ve harmed the “cause” either. On the one hand, the “cause” can be perceived differently. On the other hand, we offer another perspective:
We were able to implement “Stop Tesla” in a very short space of time. The total failure of a seemingly unassailable giant should, over and above the pressure on us, bring tears of joy to everyone’s eyes and give us courage. The aura of invulnerability has been shattered by this action. And if the regional level is important, so is the international context. The action put resistance against Tesla in the international spotlight, and also gave the local resistance attention andencouragement.
The greatest pressure is on us. The head of the Brandenburg CDU, for example, expresses the strategy of the investigating authorities at the highest level. According to him, the aim is to arrest the perpetrators and punish them with the utmost severity, in order to dissuade others from having similar ideas.
The charge of “unconstitutional sabotage” is answered by the “right of resistance”. The idea is present everywhere in the world, even if we risk arrest.
We are, of course, biased, and leave the further political assessment and qualification of the attack to other militant groups.
The scale and impact of the attack are already significant. Even before our communique on the arson attack had been released, Tesla shares had fallen by 3%. The market forgives neither vulnerability nor weakness. After all, a “global player” in the “technological attack” being carried out against society was hit hard and put on the spot. This signal was not only immediately understood by economically liberal state politicians, but was also assessed right up to the highest levels of economic and political representatives. In the hours following publication of the communique, various institutions tried to prevent the image of Brandenburg and Germany’s wonderful investment paradise from being tarnished, and took counter-measures. Jörg Steinbach of Brandenburg’s Ministry of Economics immediately telephoned Elend Musk. They assured each other of their common interests for the future.
We recommend that citizens and groups present at the site and in the occupation be less intimidated by our attack and less influenced by the pressure to distance themselves, but to study more closely the reactions of politics, the state and ultimately the economy. For it is here that we can see with what determination the adversary is trying to impose Tesla’s continued establishment. We can see the determination with which they cling to the societal model of “destructive progress”. We won’t go into the content of the latter here. Some older texts by other Volcano groups and many other militant groups have spoken to this.
We don’t just want to prevent something. Together, we are all capable of initiating a change of direction. Tesla can become one of the crystallization points of this confrontation with the global social model of “destructive progress”. The stakes therefore go far beyond the regional framework.
In this dark change of era, our action is a small lighthouse which, with old tires, has reached, according to our on-site measurements, around 1000 degrees. Sabotage groups like ours are an important part of the resistance, even if the priorities of other important groups are different. No small group of activists, no regional group, no non-violent action group can defeat this great enemy alone. We can only stop Tesla together.
We don’t distance ourselves.
For us, non-violent action and militant action are not contradictory.
To divide the movement against Tesla, politicians and investigating authorities resorted to familiar rhetorical tricks. “Left-wing extremists”, “green RAF”, “terrorism”, “the world’s stupidest eco-terrorists”, “children of the RAF”, “blind destructive rage”, “close to terrorism”, “gang of international criminals”, “terrorist association” are all attempts at stigmatization. They’re trying to break solidarity! This rhetoric misses the heart of the matter. We are not terrorists and we will not become terrorists. We don’t work for Rheinmetall. Our name is not Elend Musk. We don’t make people mine lithium in horrible conditions. We don’t destroy the earth. We don’t trade grain on the stock market. We don’t want to kill other people or shrug off their deaths to maximize profits.
We even rescue snails from electricity pylons before setting them on fire a few minutes later.
We have ruled out any risk to life and limb. The attack would never have been carried out if we had had the slightest doubt about it. We took the greatest risk. Here too, there was no room for error.
Unlike Tesla, hospitals and nursing homes with medical equipment, for example, are equipped with redundant electrical systems. As our action was clear in its purpose and consequences, the opposing party had to try everything possible to publicly discredit this successful arson attack. They complacently echoed “techno-fascist” Elend Musk’s instructions about “the world’s stupidest eco-terrorists”. In the space of a few hours, Brandenburg’s politicians tried to regain control of the ability to narrativize the attack. The reception of the action in the media was often revealing.
All of us who protest and resist have much to learn from this action. And above all: none of the substantive arguments presented publicly have so far been able to refute our position.
We can only laugh at Elend Musk’s anger. Of course, he has to call us “stupid eco-terrorists” because he’s defending his business model, against which we’ve inflicted a visible scratch on the bodywork. Last I heard, as he becomes a potential donor to the coup-monger Trump’s presidential campaign, we’re happy to have burned some of “his” money. He’ll miss that money elsewhere. For Elend Musk has no insurance. We’re pleasantly surprised by the amount of damage caused by the blackout. But honestly, 10 million, several hundred million or a billion euros is beyond our imagination. The longer the Gigafactory remains closed, the better for the planet. Switch-Off! Tesla.
There’s only one thing we’d like to apologize for. We saw no way of carrying out the action without nearly 5,000 homes and small businesses being without power for five hours. According to media reports, power was restored to all homes by 10:22 am. If we had seen any other possibility, we would have acted differently. Prior to the action, we were unable to verify whether only Tesla was connected to the high-voltage pylon specially set up for it, or whether additional homes were as well. We targeted Tesla, not the homes we live in. We apologize to all concerned.
Greetings and kisses
Your “world’s stupidest eco-terrorists”
of the “Volcano Switch Off Tesla! group”.
[From de.indymedia, March 9, 2024]
via: https://sansnom.noblogs.org/archives/20911
Translated by Act for freedom now!