In Germany, police have raided the operations of direct action climate group Last Generation, targeting seven locations across the country. Police also froze the group’s accounts and shut down their website. The climate activists have been branded a criminal organization due to their high-profile protests, which include shutting down traffic on major roads by gluing themselves to the concrete. Last Generation is one of several direct action groups that have turned to public acts of disruption to draw attention to the spiraling climate disaster. Activists have also shut off pipelines and famously threw mashed potatoes on a painting by Monet in a museum. This is Last Generation member Aimée van Baalen speaking after Wednesday’s raid.
Aimée van Baalen: “This doesn’t mean that the resistance will stop. We will still continue to resist. … We have democratically agreed that we have signed the Paris Agreement. We have a Constitution in which Article 20 states that our livelihoods must be preserved, today and in the future. And, of course, it is absolutely democratic to defend that.”