Berlin (Germany): drilling machines set ablaze in solidarity

[In Canada, a struggle has been underway for several years on Wet’suwet’en territory against the Coastal GasLink pipeline project, being punctuated by numerous sabotages, occupations and incendiary attacks. During a raid in Calgary on the site of the company responsible for drilling under the Wedzin Kwa River, anarchists were able to make public in June 2022 the names of the two German manufacturers of the huge drilling machines used on site (Herrenkencht and Bauer). On August 3, 2022, Bauer construction machinery, including an expensive drilling rig, went up in smoke in the Bavarian region. And on the night of Sunday May 5 to Monday May 6, two more Bauer drilling machines were set alight on a construction site in the Wedding district of Berlin, in solidarity with the struggles of the Wet’suwet’en people, and more broadly against extractivist projects. Below is a translation from the German of the communique published the same day on indymedia.de]


Attack on Bauer drills and extractivist infrastructures! Solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en anti-colonial struggle!

Around the world, countless indigenous communities are fighting extractivist projects and infrastructures, such as mining projects, hydraulic fracking, deforestation and pipelines. In the territory occupied by the Canadian state, for example, a huge project is currently under construction: the Coastal GasLink Pipeline, designed to transport gas extracted by hydraulic fracking. This project not only destroys entire regions, but also threatens the Wet’suwet’en indigenous way of life. The pipeline is to be built on their territory, crossing the Wedzin Kwa River, which is essential to their way of life as a source of water and fish. That’s why the Wet’suwet’en have long opposed this project with fierce resistance, defending their land. Their resistance is met with strong repression, but also benefits from great solidarity.

We want to show that the fight against colonization, and therefore against industrialization and destructive extractivism, knows no borders. That’s why we have attacked a company that participates and enriches itself directly on the destruction of indigenous territories: the Bauer company supplies the drilling rigs needed for the Coastal GasLink pipeline. On May 6, we set fire to two of their huge drilling machines at a construction site in Berlin. To do this, we placed incendiary devices, accelerant and a tire on their cables.

The Coastal-Gaslink pipeline is just one of many extractivist projects on stolen indigenous lands in Canada and around the world. Whether it’s oil, gas, coal, gold, lithium or hydroelectricity and wind power (now expected to produce “green” hydrogen in Canada, of great interest to Germany), all these industrial projects are part of a colonial system that destroys the land and eliminates indigenous ways of life.

We stand in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en struggles against the colonial Coastal-Gaslink pipeline project.

Whether in Canada, Chile, Peru, the Hambach forest or northern Portugal, let’s fight destructive extractivist projects and connect our struggles!

Switch off the system of destruction and colonisation!

via: sansnom Translated by Act for freedom now!