Two years of Switch-Off – an evaluation

April 2024

It has been two years since we first spoke. The call was made in the middle of the ongoing strategy debate in the climate movement. At that time, after Hambi, Danni and directly after Lützerath, the potential of mass actions seemed to have been exhausted for many. In the context of these and other climate protest and mass actions, we wanted to propose a project with a focus on decentralized and direct actions.

At this point in time, the view of and fear of the impending climate collapse made it clear to us that radical methods and an intensification of revolutionary practice within the climate movement were urgently needed.

We formulated anti-state, autonomous, anarchist perspectives on sabotage and wanted to incorporate these more strongly.

In terms of content, we focused on an anti-colonial and technology-critical analysis. We were inspired by indigenous struggles and their practices resisting against (neo-)colonial exploitation and the destruction of their territories. Colonial exploitation is not only part of the racist ideological history of the West, but continues to be part of the economic and imperialist expansion efforts of large corporations such as Deutsche Bahn with the Tren Maya megaproject. With our analysis and call, we stood in solidarity with international struggles. In the ongoing destruction of the earth, we saw the necessity of attacking industrial infrastructures and the possibilities of a strengthening international points of reference in these struggles.

At this time, the proposals for a Green New Deal and the propaganda from companies that proposed electric transport and digitalization as solutions and wanted to sell them to us as utopian perspectives dominated at the state level; those in power made the hypocritical promise to the climate movement that they would take the necessary steps to achieve the 1.5 degree target.

In this situation of climate collapse, increasing global authoritarianism and the change in strategy of the climate movement, we have called on people to relate to each other under the slogan “Switch-Off the system of destruction” and to place our struggles and actions in a shared context.

Looking back on 2 years of practice

A lot has taken place in these two years. The call was received quite widely and many people related to it with their actions. The spectrum of actions was diverse and ranged from attacks on the (e)-automotive industry and the sabotage of significant infrastructure such as railways and power grids, to actions against construction projects of the big profiteers of ecological destruction such as the cement industry, road construction, and lignite mining. In addition, major players and logistics corridors of the arms industry were targeted.

There were many actions in solidarity with struggles outside Europe. Particularly in relation to the Tren Maya project, there were attacks on vehicles, infrastructure and offices of Deutsche Bahn, Siemens and the Mexican consulate in Hamburg. The words and deeds of solidarity and joy were echoed around the world and related to each other in concrete terms under Switch-Off. Such inspiration and international relationships of solidarity can be found, for example, in:

The struggles against the cement and concrete industries that are plundering the earth and polluting the waters in Abya Yala. The attacks on concrete giants in France and Germany have shown that well-targeted actions can both fuel local struggles and have an international impact.

The actions against the major North Bothnia Line project in the north of Sweden on the territory of the indigenous Sami people, who are seeing their lands carved up and raw materials shipped on a huge scale to the factories of the green transition.

The ongoing protests against coal mining. Whether in the Sündenwäldchen at the Hambach open-cast mine or in the Yukpa areas in Abya Yala.

Or the attacks on the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline in the Wet’suwet’en areas and related attacks in Germany.

The text “The conflict in Abya Yala and its proximity to Switch-Off” states:

“Considering our similarities and particularities, as well as the urgencies and necessities that bring us together, we find it relevant to adhere actions against the machine of degradation on this continent and the world to the campaign Switch Off!, with the goal of strengthening our struggles and deepening the combat against the existent and its historically internationalist character, visibilizing on a global level the urgency of negating this reality in practice with everything we have at hand, demonstrating through action that its possible to fight, returning the pain to those responsible, the creators of these conditions, and that it’s possible to embrace a dignified life that breaks with the misery in which they want to suffocate and bury us.”

The fact that actions from German-speaking countries were noticed, that the call was also discussed internationally and that people took part in actions has given us an incredible amount of joy and courage. The last two years have shown us once again that the internationalist struggle against this misery is not an abstract matter, but finds its expression in concrete struggles and attacks.

As much as we have been pleased about the many and diverse actions, we can observe that the large climate protests and mobilizations, especially in German-speaking countries, have decreased in recent years. At the same time, repression against blockade actions and civil disobedience has become extremely severe, which has certainly played its part in this decline.

The ecological issue seems to have been pushed out of consciousness at various levels. Without wishing to ignore the exploitative conditions within Western societies, it is clear that we cannot expect “the masses” to start moving in the foreseeable future, as large sections of the population in the capitalist centers do not want to lose their privileges.

Nevertheless, it has been shown that continuous direct action can not only cause material damage but also fuel a force and dynamic that transcends (state) borders.

The aim was to start a debate – did it work?

Switch-Off called for the infrastructure of capitalism to be questioned, sabotaged and attacked sustainably. Sustainable in the sense of sustainable and long-term destruction of industrial infrastructures and diverse in the sense of diverse means. We note that some of the actions under the slogan were characterized by spectacular dimensions, great finesse and conviction, but hardly by a diversity of means and fairly simple reproducibility. The problem of the call and the subsequent practice was, and remains, partial isolation within radical struggles. The reproducibility of militant techniques is needed. The forms of action must not be withheld from an exclusive group that already possesses the knowledge and instruments to carry out these sabotages. Therefore, in our opinion, there needs to be an expansion of safe spaces to talk about militant forms of action, to give skillshares and to support each other. Knowledge about critical infrastructure and how to destroy it needs to be made more accessible. That is easier said than done. The moments of joint spectacular militant actions, mass movements and gatherings such as in Lützerath are important and formative and often create a hub for politicization, networking and diverse political practice. But we cannot wait for such major events. Our discussions must also take place outside of these moments.

The climate movements have become less and less prominent in recent years. The forest, village and street occupations were once the “number one excitement” and attracted defamation from politicians, corporations and the press. Climate change has been pushed out of the news and the collective consciousness by new wars, economic crises and the racist migration debate.

Nevertheless, there are current developments that show perspectives of resistance in the field of tension between ecological struggles and the rise of fascism. These include the protests in Grünheide against the Tesla Gigafactory and the arson attack by the Vulkan group, which certainly made it to many kitchen table discussions and once again proved how effective direct action can be. The worldwide attacks against Tesla, which have probably already taken hundreds of these cars out of circulation, currently demonstrate the enormous potential of putting direct actions, attacks, sabotage, texts and rebellious gestures of all kinds into conversation with each other.

To a certain extent, we have certainly succeeded in making direct action and sabotage more of an issue in the strategic debate of the climate movement as methods in the fight against the destruction of the earth. However, the effects of this are difficult to determine. Even beyond the movement, actions and communiqués have experienced a certain spread, but have met with a general social backlash.

Switch-Off in the context of the rise of fascism, militarization and border politics

The predicted intensification of a wide range of global crises arrived quickly.

Russia’s second invasion of Ukraine has been escalating since February 17, 2022. After the massacre on October 7, 2023, Israel began its devastating war against the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Syria. Together with other hot wars in Congo, Kurdistan, Yemen, Myanmar and Sudan, a general militarization and increase in armed conflicts is emerging.

Politicians are recognizing, using and fuelling this dynamic. Along the familiar lines of a lack of alternatives, people are offered a blunt perspective: in times of impending world war, it is more important to look after oneself, to be able to defend oneself and to secure one’s own supremacy. The rhetoric used here has clear parallels to the Cold War and attempts to divide the world into good and evil rulers. This military logic can also be found in the management of other crises. This is particularly evident in the securing of resources by military means. It is as effective as it is obvious that the “defense issue” is used to cover up all other social conflicts.

The second Trump government currently shows the speed with which (reformist) achievements that have been fought for over decades can simply be thrown overboard again. We are seeing a massive patriarchal backlash that wants to destroy everything that anti-racist movements, feminists and queers have fought for in recent decades. A few rulers in this world have the power to abolish “human rights”, such as the right to abortion, gender self-determination, the possibility of conscientious objection, asylum and so on. This fragility demonstrates the massive dependence of people on the state and makes it clear that there is not and cannot be such a thing as universal human dignity within the existing conditions. “Human rights” are simply concessions made by the state. Even if these were fought for bitterly and bloodily, the current situation shows all the more that civil rights are at best a temporary bet and cannot be the goal of our struggles.

This rise of fascism can be observed all over the world. Fascist and authoritarian forces are gaining strength and coming to power everywhere. Bourgeois parties are outdoing each other in their racist border policies and social repression against poor, stigmatized and disabled people is on the rise. The increasingly authoritarian governments have emerged from the “former bourgeois center”, which tried to overtake the right-wing populists on the right.

At the same time, the aforementioned militarization and armament of the military and borders is presented as having no alternative. The repression of people displaced by disasters is increasing everywhere. They are increasingly becoming the target of fascist propaganda and racist migration policies.

Conflicts over resources

The key sector of the chip industry

States and companies are increasingly openly calling for militarily securing resources. However, it is not just about lithium and rare earths, but also about the locations of valuable key industries. Artificial intelligence, in particular, is identified as a fundamental factor: a technology that would be inconceivable without the computing power of the latest microchips. Designed by Nvidia in Silicon Valley and manufactured by TSMC and others exclusively in Taiwan (with globally unique exposure machines from ASML in Eindhoven). The USA and the EU are currently spending a lot of money to build up a “domestic” chip industry – with the aim of securing their technological supremacy over their declared “system rival” China. The production of microchips requires rare earths and a lot of energy.

In order to reduce dependence on imports, nature on the periphery of Europe is also being increasingly exploited. The power imbalance within Europe became particularly clear in the local resistance against the Jadar mine of the British-Australian company Rio Tinto in Serbia. When the resistance against the mine was successful and the project was terminated, Olaf Scholz personally traveled to Belgrade to ensure its resumption – after all, German car manufacturers need the lithium for their electric vehicles. This dynamic can also be observed in lithium projects in Portugal and various mines in Sapmí. However, the increase in mining is by no means limited to the European periphery; on the contrary, deposits are also being sought in the centers, which means that the possibilities for our resistance are limitless.

An obvious example of the brutality of Western resource exploitation can be seen, for example, in the conditions for the USA’s continued military support for Ukraine:

“[Republican US Senator [Lindsey Graham] from South Carolina explained why the West absolutely had to win the war in Ukraine: The country is a “gold mine”, with twelve trillion US dollars worth of critical raw materials stored in the Russian-occupied territories alone. ‘I don’t want to leave these assets to Putin to share with China […] If we help Ukraine now, it can become the business partner we have always dreamed of’”

Chips have been an important military technology since their inception. The planned chip factories must therefore also be seen as part of the necessary economic disentanglement to prepare for war. However, key technologies do not only play a decisive role in the global political web of climate and war. More and more key technologies with “civilian” and “military” benefits are being produced by small start-ups. They often create a modern and progressive image for themselves on the outside. They advertise that they are making their contribution to an environmentally friendly and ecological future. However, they like to leave out the fact that their respective technologies are also perfectly suited to the arms industry and are used for killing.

Or armaments companies are immediately “woken up” and given a green coat of paint in a cynicism that can hardly be increased. There is already biodegradable ammunition, “sustainable” production of missiles and it seems only a matter of time before the first electric tank rolls off the production line. Where gas and coal were once the key industries, AI and high-tech are now the key resources. Various companies and start-ups are working together in an intricate network to form a technologically advanced defense industry made up of complex supply chains.

However, we also see this as a certain opportunity in the fight against this technological arms industry. Increasingly specialized key technologies also have increasingly diverse supply chains. This is precisely where we see the potential to disrupt them and attack the production of small start-ups.

AI as a key technology and weapon of war

Probably the biggest and most relevant of these key technologies is AI, which is the solution to all problems for today’s technocrats.

How else are the unimaginable amounts of data required to control autonomous vehicles in urban traffic – or even on a battlefield – to be processed? How is controlling the flow of electricity in a power grid with even more consumers and non-linear inputs supposed to work without AI? Or the analysis of image material that is recorded everywhere and all the time. Of course, what receives little critical attention is the fact that this technology consumes an enormous amount of resources. Chip production consumes a lot of water and the AI data centers so much energy that Microsoft was the first company to activate a nuclear power plant to supply them with energy.

The “Lavender” and “Where’s Daddy” programs used by Israel in the Gaza war take over almost the entire target selection process for air strikes for the army. Using a scale of 1 to 100, the machine rates the affiliation to militant groups for all residents of the Gaza Strip. All based on intelligence data. The software suggests targets and informs the user as soon as the victim is at home with their family. A quota for the military importance of a target and how many civilian casualties are accepted also plays a role here. Several tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed at the suggestion of a computer, approved by Israeli officers.

This example shows once again that AI can never be an emancipatory tool, because where one moment AI controls the destruction and destruction of life, the next moment it produces a promotional video in which a vacation resort is designed on the ruins of Gaza. The inherent vileness of this is hard to grasp.

Fear must change sides

We are afraid; afraid of fascism, of increasing repression, of war, of Trump and the madmen who rule this world. We feel paralyzed because things seem to be turning upside down, paralyzed in the escalating climate catastrophe. We know that those in power want to see us unable to act, powerless and impotent, but we will not do them this favor.

We want to abolish the state and its society. Yet the realities of our lives are so interwoven with statehood and industry that it is difficult to think outside this logic. And yet we also know that we should not allow ourselves to be led by this fear. Because it pushes us back to old certainties, because it is the fear of losing our privileges.

We also know that attack is the best defense.

We struggle to see a clear path for our projects, to identify a perspective that will take us to a better place. We feel weak and small in the face of circumstances, but we have learned that there is no point in appealing to the state because it reproduces the conditions of our powerlessness.

And despite all the misery, we know that we have each other, that we can find strength and power in each other, in our struggles, our solidarity, our diversity. We don’t need a unified line, but clear ideas and a feeling of each other. We seek reference, encounter, criticism, inspiration and connections between our struggles. Not because we want to become a party, but because we need each other and because we recognize the anger that flares up all over the world, again and again.

Love to everyone out there; in the chaos of the struggles, the actions, the plans; out there at night, in the prisons, in the underground, in the forests, the streets, on the seas and at the borders.

We have embarked on this path, who knows where it will take us. We have learned from indigenous fighters that the world has ended many times before.

Whatever may come, we will see you, out there.

“Forget about the vanguard, it has no use to us: generalised revolt, lacking leaders or a focal point, is exactly what no army or police force could ever hope to contain” – Total Liberation

Switch-Off the system of destruction

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via: sansnom

Translated by Act for freedom now!