Stopping the heart of the mega-machine
Fire to the microchip producer
Last night, on the site of the Berlin-Wuhlheide Technology Innovation Park, we set fire to electrical cabinets, power cables and a ventilation system at Micro Resist Technology. At a time when Germany is once again mobilizing unashamedly for military power and war-fighting capacity, with special budgets and compulsory military service, we are targeting the heart of the technological mega-machine with our sabotage, and also hitting one of the most sensitive points of civil-military collaboration – the production of microchips. This attack is a contribution to the protests against next Sunday’s National Veterans’ Day [in the context of massive rearmament in the country, Germany inaugurated its first “Veterans’ Day” since the end of the Second World War on June 15, to pay tribute to its veterans]. “Fire and flames“ rather than ”Glory and Honor” for militarism and the fatherland!
Miniscule giants at the crossroads of technology and warfare
The network of capitalist domination weaves ever tighter around us. As it does so, technological progress is the driving force that enables the destructive mega-machine to function and to penetrate ever more deeply into the most intimate aspects of our existence. Inert objects made of plastic and metal, equipped with sensors, microphones, lenses, microchips, etc., are increasingly becoming prostheses for social interaction, replacing genuine relationships and atrophying our cognitive capacities. At the same time, social networks, voice assistants, Artificial Intelligence, so-called “smart” appliances, facial recognition and many other surveillance instruments are tracking us, enabling the capitalist value-creation chain to absorb all our activities to an ever greater extent. Big Data makes Big Money. The implementation of such technologies in our daily lives shapes our very being, and the resulting algorithmic calculations increasingly decide and determine our future. Once we’ve become accustomed to them, these mechanisms operate with such omnipotence that most people can scarcely imagine extricating themselves from the digital grip. For many, the very thought triggers anxiety attacks. All that’s left, then, is a crowd of slaves to the machine, dependent, controlled, alienated and, most of the time, not even aware of this relationship.
Yet this is only one aspect of the technological onslaught. For technology can and must not only manipulate our thoughts and actions, it must also kill. Almost all major technologies are the result of military research and development, designed to gain advantage on the battlefield. Not only against enemy nations, but also in the social war against the exploited, the superfluous and the precarious. From atomic power to the Internet, from cybernetics to Artificial Intelligence – our daily lives are criss-crossed by objects fundamentally derived from a military logic. In the worst-case scenario, this can mean that applications that accompany us today for leisure feed and train the same machines on the basis of which tomorrow an AI-driven drone will identify and annihilate its target. A practice sometimes employed by the Israeli army, notably with AI programs such as “Lavender”, in its campaign of unbridled destruction against the Palestinian population of Gaza, and with the friendly support of its Western accomplices.
What seems like a scene from a dystopian sci-fi movie is the gruesome reality of technological “achievements”, which are summarized under the term “dual-use” and inherent to most technologies. Companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Siemens, Telekom or Tesla are just some of the better-known players operating at the crossroads of civilian and military applications. Far less well known are companies producing highly specialized key technologies such as microchips, without which none of today’s technical devices would work. Not smartphones, computers, cars, tanks, guided missiles or military drones.
Having been more or less unnoticed for a long time, this manufacturing sector is increasingly attracting the attention of world public opinion due to the growing geopolitical tensions between China and Taiwan. Indeed, more than half of all microchips are manufactured in Taiwan, and in some areas of complex high-performance chip production, the market share of the Taiwanese TSMC group exceeds 90%. This is what the EU and the US want to change as quickly as possible, as access to high-value microchips is decisive and can determine the outcome of a war, while the global economy also directly depends on it. What’s more, due to the high degree of specialization and the fragility of global supply chains, production is extremely sensitive to disruption and interruption. During the Covid pandemic, this has already led to supply shortages and consequent shutdowns of hundreds of factories worldwide, including automotive manufacturers. This is why several microchip plants are currently under construction in the European Union and the US. But dependencies exist in all directions, and the sector is characterized by reciprocal sanctions and a policy of protectionism, which is why it is also referred to as a “chip war”. For example, some high-performance microchip photolithography machines can currently only be produced by the Dutch company ASML, which has transferred a significant proportion of its production to Berlin, making the city an important location for the microchip industry. ASML, like all other producers in the semiconductor industry, in turn is dependent on a large number of specialized subcontractors.
One of these suppliers is Micro Resist Technology, a research and high-tech company located in Berlin’s Köpenick district, which manufactures and controls special chemicals enabling the production of microchips. Given that this technology is essential for economic power and military clout, and that the ability to wage war seems to be the maxim of our time anyway, the microchip industry is currently booming in Europe. That’s why the company we attacked is considered a “Hidden Champion”, which says it all.
However, microchip production is also an ecological disaster in many respects. For the regions where the factories are located, and everywhere else where the rare raw materials needed for their manufacture are plundered. If, as the EU plans, 20% of all the world’s microchips were to be produced in Europe, emissions from this sector could even exceed those of the European chemical and steel industries. What’s more, the current craze for AI points to an exponential growth in demand for microchips, which will inevitably increase the level of destruction of nature in the same proportion.
But many other products that make the technological monster even more powerful, and whose use has a significant impact on all our lives, also come from Micro Resist. They are used in all possible key technologies, such as microsystems technology, microelectronics, optoelectronics, micro- and nanophotonics, micro- and nanotechnology, as well as the life sciences. In addition, Micro Resist is currently working in R&D cooperation with Google on a new version of virtual glasses, designed to provide data and information in the visual field. Once again, this technology has its origins in the military, enabling soldiers to be transformed into cyborgs and combat robots through human-machine interaction. It remains to be seen whether another round of field testing to standardize such monitoring and control instruments in the civilian domain will fail again, due to the strong arguments of its opponents against the technology yuppies. Even if, on the whole, these times inspire little hope, we can only hope.
For all the rest, we continue to regard sabotage, with its centuries-old tradition, as an appropriate response to the push for war, the technological onslaught and the destruction of the planet.
Bring the mega-machine to a halt!
Fire and flames instead of glory and honor for militarism and the homeland!
Attack the war profiteers – sabotage Veterans Day!
Good luck and strength to those on the run and in custody – Freedom for all!
A bunch of M.R.M.D (micro resist – mega damage) anarchists
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[Note of Sans Nom: On Wednesday June 10 in Berlin, at around 3 a.m., flames broke out at the rear of the Micro Resist Technology building in the Wuhlheide technology park. The communiqué claiming responsibility for the arson states that the company is a key subcontractor for the Dutch company ASML, one of Europe’s main players in the manufacture of microchips, which never ceases to fuel militarism and the destruction of the planet… Here is a translation of the claim published the next day on de.indymedia, and signed by “anarchists”…].
Translated by Act for freedom now!