Hvem er vi?
Vi er et internasjonalt nettverk som prøver å redde menneskeheten. Vi har oppskriften på effektiv sivil motstand. Støtt oss. Bli med. Vi trenger deg.
A22-Nettverket kriseerklæring
Vi er den siste generasjonen av den gamle verden. Vi er her i dag for å si at vi vil skape en ny verden – hvor menneskeheten omfavner seg selv, tilgir seg selv, elsker seg selv og forplikter seg til å fortsette vårt store eventyr.
Som siste generasjon vil vi gjøre alt som trengs for å beskytte vår generasjon og alle fremtidige generasjoner. Som er vår umistelige rett.
Den gamle verden dør. Vi er inne i den siste timen, den mørkeste timen. Denne verden blir desimert foran øynene våre. Vi er i mellom øyeblikkene. Det vi gjør nå avgjør skjebnen til både denne verden og den neste.
Så vi bestemmer oss. Vi bestemmer, vi hengir oss ikke lenger til vår frykt, vår fortvilelse, vår harme. Vi legger oss bak oss.
Sammen, i fellesskapet, tar vi tak i et høyere formål. Kilden til hva det er å være virkelig menneske. Den kaller til oss på tvers av tidene, og med sin kraft vil vi få ned de som dreper for å opprettholde utvinningsregimene deres. Dette er den gamle verden. Det kan ikke fortsette.
Vi er her for å gjøre det klart: menneskeheten er bedre enn å gi etter for utryddelse. Vi er her for å si at samfunnet ikke har vendt seg bort fra kjærlighet og sannhet; den har ikke omfavnet ondskap og død. Verden vi ønsker oss, den vi kan ha, er allerede innen rekkevidde. Men vi må strekke oss etter det.
Men vi er ikke her for å fremheve, bønnfalle eller for å underholde.
Vi er her for å strekke oss etter den endringen som skal til for at dette skal skje. Vi er her for å tvinge regjeringer til å kutte karbonutslipp, intet mindre. Vi er her for handling, ikke ord. Vi har en plan.
Vi mobiliserer i våre mange nasjoner og mange kulturer. Lagene skal kjøre prosjekter. Prosjekter vil stille krav til myndighetene. Vi henvender oss til alle som vil strekke oss tilbake og bli med hendene for å skape denne nye verdenen. Hvis vi blir nektet, vil vi forstyrre, uke etter uke, slik de som kom før oss gjorde mange ganger i kampen for menneskerettigheter.
Vi snakker direkte til publikum, og rekrutterer i hundrevis av åpne møter.
Vi forplikter oss til masse sivil ulydighet.
Dette er vårt høytidelige ansvar. Hellige rettigheter krever en hellig plikt til å forsvare dem. Og inntil alle er frie, er ingen av oss frie. Først da vil rettferdighet skje. Vi vil ikke falle i fellen med å hate den andre – den andre er en del av oss alle. Hendene våre holder ikke våpen og våre hjerter er åpne.
Vi er menneskeheten, og tror på menneskeheten. Vi er demokrati.
Vi er åpne og ikke-voldelige. Vi er omsorg og vi er frihet. Vi vil akseptere konsekvensene av våre handlinger og se vår skjebne direkte i øynene.
Kom med det. Mens det gjenstår pust i kroppen vår vil vi ikke stoppe. Dette er livet vårt nå.
Vi er den siste generasjonen. Men vi er også de første. Vi er overalt. Vi kommer.
Alt vil endre seg. Det gamle blir det nye. Og alle kan forandre seg.
OUR NETWORK, AT A GLANCE
Click on a logo to check out their site
TAKE A TOUR OF THE NETWORK
Here’s a brief introduction to each of the projects
Ultima Generazione, Italy
Ultima Generazione, Italy
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
Ultima Generazione has been active in Italy since December 2021. Our main goal is to pressure the Italian government to take action for the ongoing social and economic crisis due to climate collapse, by first establishing a Restoration Fund to help the population cope with the loss caused by floods, drought and landslides, just to name a few. In the past 6 months we witnessed major extreme climate events that destroyed villages, crops, and farms.
We do so by all nonviolent means possible. Despite that, we face huge repression: the government is passing bills directed at silencing our actions, while the media dismiss our demands. Yet, we know the only thing we can do is to keep raising our voice, mobilise people and gather in the streets to withdraw our consensus from an irresponsible government and ruling elite.
We demand the government to take its responsibility to provide and care for its population, as we do when we undergo trials for our actions. We will not stop until our demands are met.
Återställ Våtmarker, Sweden
Återställ Våtmarker, Sweden
Återställ Våtmarker (Restore Wetlands) started with highway blocks on March 28, 2022. Since then we have managed to vastly raise public awareness on the urgency of restoring wetlands. From being a question discussed in niche contexts, and a marginalised and underfunded point on the political agenda, our peaceful protests have brought restoration of wetlands to the fore.
Besides it now being part of the national climate tactic debate, and a question constantly featured in the media, Swedish politicians have been forced to respond. Although their responses so far have been nothing more than greenwashing budget proposals, and calls for more repression, their need to respond shows the efficacy of disruptive peaceful protests. Their failure to act shows the inadequacy of our current political system. And that’s why repression, ridicule and raging politicians can’t make us back down. The people want to live!
Climate Liberation Aotearoa, New Zealand
Climate Liberation Aotearoa, New Zealand
The climate crisis is here and now, and it’s shaping the rest of our lives. Our political and economic systems have failed us and now we face the collapse of our economy, ecology, and society, but together we can find ways to look after each other and the natural world on which we depend.
Our plan is to transform society by building people power. To do this, we demonstrate the effectiveness of working alongside each other in a systematic, well organised way that achieves results. It’s up to every one of us to decide. We can liberate ourselves and each other. Or we can live in distraction and powerlessness.
Our opponents have big money, sophisticated marketing, and technology which they are unleashing relentlessly to pursue their goals. In response, Climate Liberation Aotearoa is here to organise resistance to the destruction of our home, and to take back our power.
This year we are focusing on transport emissions and pollution. This means 1. Travel Less, 2. Travel Active, 3. Travel Public, 4. Travel Electric. Our first win will be to move the dial on cruise ships – a type of luxury emission worse than flying which we can all do without. Join us to find out more about how we plan to win. In action there is friendship, hope, and love. The first step is to show up.
Our Demands
- Count international shipping and aviation emissions in our climate targets and emissions reduction plans. We need to include cruise ship emissions at a local level and in our national emissions reduction strategy.
- No subsidies for the cruise ship industry. Ratepayers contribute to the profit of cruise ship corporations through subsidised on-shore transport including buses and rail, as well as sponsoring NZ Cruise Assn conference, promotion, and training and admin costs for cruise ship volunteers.
- No cruise ships in ecologically sensitive areas such as Milford Sounds, Marlborough Sounds and Hauraki Gulf Islands. Cruise ships run on heavy fuel oil which produces both greenhouse gases and high amounts of very small air pollution which contributes to smog, acid rain and health impacts of cancer, asthma/lung damage.
Liberate Switzerland
Liberate Switzerland
We are Switzerland's civil resistance for a nonviolent revolution to preserve life on Earth in the face of the climate emergency.
Liberate Switzerland is the second campaign of act now!, a Swiss civil resistance movement created in early 2023 in response to the success of its first campaign, Renovate Switzerland.
Liberate Switzerland is a campaign to free Switzerland from cars. To protect the climate and the living world, we demand that the Swiss Confederation ban the sale of new cars powered by fossil fuels from 2025 and invest massively in soft mobility and public transport.
We appear in the public sphere through non-violent actions, discussions, debates, training and other awareness-raising events. We create spaces in which we encourage cooperation between accountable and responsible people. We want to create a multi-faceted movement in which everyone can find their place, whatever their age or social background. Transparency and participation are at the heart of our concerns.
Last Generation, Canada
Last Generation, Canada
Last Generation Canada is demanding through civil resistance that the Canadian government implement a National Firefighting Agency that trains and employs 50,000 professional full-time wildland firefighters by summer 2024.
Canada made international headlines last summer when wildfires across the country engulfed an area larger than the size of Greece, forcing more than 200,000 people to flee their homes, releasing 2 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, and causing millions of dollars’ worth in damage. What was once unprecedented is becoming more common as climate change causes summers to become hotter, drier, and last for longer which, when combined with irresponsible forestry practices, results in longer and more severe wildfire seasons. Fire chiefs and federal party leaders agree that firefighters need more resources to face the front lines of the climate crisis.
Our second action phase starts Feb 6 in Ottawa. Join us.
Just Stop Oil, UK
Just Stop Oil, UK
Just Stop Oil is a nonviolent civil resistance group demanding the UK Government stop licensing all new oil, gas and coal projects.
Allowing the extraction of new oil and gas resources in the UK is an obscene and genocidal policy that will kill our children and condemn humanity to oblivion. It just has to stop.
Hundreds of independent scientists, MPs, NGOs and even the government’s own climate advisors agree — it’s time to take the basic first step and end the licensing of new dirty fossil fuels. Our job now? To make sure the corrupt politicans in power have no option but to do the right thing.
Folk Mot Fossilmakta, Norway
Folk Mot Fossilmakta, Norway
Folk Mot Fossilmakta was started in the summer of 2024 and came out of the previous A22 project in Norway: Stopp oljeletinga. We use non-violent civil disobedience to expose the entrenched power of the oil industry in Norway. We have 3 concrete demands to the government;
- Divest the Government Pension Fund Global out of fossil fuels
- Ban fossil fuel advertising
- Regulate the oil industry by working with other countries to develop a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.
We work to wake the Norwegian public up to the realities of climate collapse and to expose Norway's role as a major oil producing nation. Entrenched power like the oil industry does not listen to petitions and letters - it listens when people are prepared to put themselves in the way of it. Norway likes to present itself as a climate leader while it is not even doing the most basic things when faced with climate collapse. The Government Pension Fund Global is still the biggest investor in fossil fuels in Europe, even though the government has claimed they want to make it the leading fund in the world in terms of responsible investment and climate risk. At home, Equinor (our state owned oil company) advertises at many of the major sporting and cultural events as well as in all of Norway's biggest newspapers. We believe this is a threat to democracy because it means that they have free reign to own the narrative amongst the public and to shape policy around further development of Norway's oil reserves.
We aim to mobilise many ordinary people to engage in peaceful civil resistance against the entrenched power that is making Norway complicit in climate collapse.
Letzte Generation, Germany
Letzte Generation, Germany
The movement Letzte Generation was initiated in 2021 by a small group of activists who organized a hunger strike in front of the Reichstag building in Berlin. They made Olaf Scholz, then chancellor candidate, to meet up with them for a public discussion about the climate catastrophe and the political failure of an adequate response.
Now the movement is organized by several hundred people of all ages who stand up for their rights following the guide-lines of nonviolent civil disobedience.
They emphasize the necessity of an economy without fossil fuels, that should be accomplished by 2030 at the latest and demand honesty about the current dramatic situation and the necessary steps to avoid the total collapse of the biosphere and civilization as we know it.
They have been blocking city streets, highways and airports all across Germany, regularly backed by scientists, artists, legal practitioners and other groups. In summer 2023 they started spraying orange paint on symbols of excessive wealth and more recently on famous monuments and, joining in an international campaign to mobilize students, on university buildings.
Despite recurring police violence, penalties reaching from fees to yearslong prison sentences, and criminalization attempts in general the supporters of Letzte Generation plan to continue with their protest till the urgently required change – away from fossil fuels, towards an honest and socially balanced climate policy- is made.
Nødbremsen, Denmark
Nødbremsen, Denmark
Nødbremsen ("The Emergency Break") is a Denmark-based climate campaign, launched in September 2023, using civil resistance against the government's active and deliberate escalation of the ongoing climate collapse.
The Danish Government pretends to be spearheading climate action but is doing the opposite. One of the many examples of this is the decision to spend DKK 26 billion (3.5 billion Euros) on building 15 new highways before 2035. Denmark - a relatively small country - already ranks #7 in the EU when it comes to km highway per capita. Meanwhile, the prices for public transport are increasing and bus routes are closed down - especially in areas where people already are quite dependent on having a car. The 3.5 billion Euros that will be spent on building new highways could be spent on expanding public transport - and for the green transition in general.
The 15 new highways will not only emit more than 1.3 million tonnes of CO2 in their construction phase, but they will also create a lock-in effect for decades where the number of cars will increase. In addition to the climate effects of the highways, they are causing irreparable destruction of the sparse and vulnerable nature and biodiversity across the country.
The local campaigns against the highways and the NGOs are systematically ignored by the government - and the government has publicly said that they "have listened to the interest of private companies" when deciding on building the new highways.
In Nødbremsen, we are peacefully blocking roads & highway exits and disturbing cultural events with the simple demand to the government that they cancel the 15 new highways.
Ostatnie Pokolenie, Poland
Ostatnie Pokolenie, Poland
Ostatnie Pokolenie (Last Generation) was founded in January 2024 and started a campaign of civil disobedience in March 2024. The demands are to shift all the money planned for expansion of new highways and expressways (68 bln EUR up to 2033) to regional public transport to fight transport exclusion and to introduce a monthly ticket for all public transport for 50 zł (12 EUR).
In March, Ostatnie Pokolenie made headlines by disrupting a concert and throwing paint on the statue of Warsaw Mermaid. During that time a letter with the demands was given to the Prime Minister Donald Tusk with a 5 weeks deadline to accept it. After lack of response from the government, people began to block bridges in the capital for 2 weeks.
The transportation sector in Poland is one of the very few sectors in the economy where emissions keep rising (from 2005 to 2017 up by 77%). At the same time, there is a very substantial social problem with the lack, or very poor access, to public transport services in Poland. Over 10 million Poles (out of 38 mln) are affected. The current government is withdrawing from climate policies promised during the election’s campaign.
Ostatnie Pokolenie is there to make them stop. Until a livable future is in reach.
News
Latest developments, from across the network
- Opens in a new pageNewsletter October 2024
Have you had a nice spooky season this october? As frightening skeletons and horror clowns surely are, they could never be as scary as the fossil fuel industry. What gives us the creeps is how oil and gas are still being drilled for fossil profits while our livelihoods are being destroyed.
Does this give you the creeps as well? If so, support the resistance and we’ll do our best to scare the shit out of fossil fuel executives.
We are starting high up in Canada: On October 22, two Last Generation Canada supporters climbed Montreal's Jacques Cartier Bridge, halting traffic for 7 hours to demand a National Emergency Management Agency and support for the Fossil Fuel Treaty. Olivier Huard and Jacob Pirro, along with police liaison Michèle Lavoie, were arrested.
Unlike a similar action in 2019, all three have faced harsh repression and denied bail. Michèle was later released with severe restrictions, while Olivier and Jacob remain jailed under harsh conditions, with Olivier beginning a hunger strike on October 26 to demand his release. Jacob and Olivier have become political prisoners for telling the truth."Why must a young man give up his future, or another starve himself, just to be heard?” asks Olivier,47.”We know our government is incapable of saving us. That’s why we must stand up and take action alongside people like Jacob and Olivier”, says their colleague Gill.
In Poland, we launched local groups across five major Polish cities, mobilizing a record number of new supporters. One in six of our current contacts joined in just the last month.
We also announced a blockade of Wisłostrada in Warsaw, set to begin on November 25th. Recent court rulings recognized our street blockades as civil disobedience, hinting that future generations may view our actions as heroic.However, prosecutors are seeking up to 8 years in prison for activists who dyed the Warsaw mermaid statue, citing damages of 360,000 PLN. Interestingly, the color was made from food dye and cornstarch. Just imagine if the prosecutors were this angry with fossil fuel executives instead of peaceful protesters?
Last month, Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland received sentences of two years and 20 months for throwing soup at Van Gogh's Sunflowers—an action repeated shortly afterward on two paintings in the same series. In court, Just Stop Oil supporters challenged Shell’s anti-protest injunctions, which aim to suppress nonviolent resistance with government support. On November 2nd, we joined the Umbrella coalition as the "POLITICS IS BROKEN BLOC" (including Youth Demand, Assemble, and other groups) in a National Demonstration for Palestine, calling for systemic change. Meanwhile, 24 Just Stop Oil supporters remain in UK prisons.
In Denmark, we organized three more road blockades and disrupted the opening of the Danish parliament to demand urgent climate action. While our politicians have been enjoying leisurely holidays, the climate collapse has been escalating at an alarming rate.
And they still push projects like 15 new highways. We, the people, protest for a safe and fair future. Despite risks, including two participants being driven into during a protest, we continue our peaceful resistance. We stand in solidarity with campaigners worldwide facing severe repercussions, and we’ll keep pulling the Emergency Brake to protect lives and freedoms.“Accepting that anxiety and anger are part of our journey as climate protestors has softened my feelings, letting me finish this imperfect piece with a bit more peace”, says William who is taking part in the danish project.
For three weeks, hundreds of us gathered in Kassel, Germany, uniting in protest and community. Our focus: Kassel-Calden Airport, a local project costing millions in taxpayer money yet serving only a few flights. We turned it into a symbol of wasteful spending that harms our future. Our efforts gained traction, even prompting the Kassels’s Mayor to visit and discuss the issue publicly.
The major said: “‘The dogma of not being allowed to question the ongoing subsidisation of holiday flight operations is damaging the reputation of the entire business location, because anyone from the outside can clearly see the situation. People have been watching the airport and those who reflexively attest to its great future prospects with a certain amount of amusement for years now.”
Our protests sparked significant media attention and debate around the airport’s viability. One day we made a protest inside the airport building, even google noticing it, since it said that Kassel airport has more visitors ‘than usual’.
When the daunting darkness of fall is over us, some uplifting retrospection from Sweden might be in place. In April, we demanded protection for local wetlands and succeeded. So, we are moving next to ban peat mining—a destructive practice largely driven by Neova, a Finnish state-owned company.
In May, we blocked ditches meant to drain the Grimsås peat bog, delaying Neova’s mining plans by nearly a year. This summer, we returned, building a community-led nature reserve with 2 km of pathways, benches, and a bird-watching tower. If the state won’t protect our livelihoods, we need to do it ourselves! Our “Most Disobedient Nature Reserve” now protects the habitats of over 2,000 endangered species.
Come and visit the reserve if you’re ever around and don’t forget to pay us a visit as well!
Lastly, we’ll update you from the norwegian campaign: This October, we gathered 20 community members from across Norway to prepare for our goal: mobilizing 50 dedicated people for three weeks of sustained action in spring 2025.
We started with a two-day nonviolence training at a farm near Oslo, fostering trust and unity through shared experiences. Then, at a three-day strategy camp, we defined our core values—responsibility, courage, and community care—and developed a clear, sustainable plan to achieve our aims.
We left with renewed purpose, ready to grow our community of love and resistance and to challenge policymakers in the spring. We’ll keep them up and running - will you, too? Donate & support us now!
- Opens in a new pageNewsletter September 2024
Dear supporter!
It has been quiet around our newsletter for a few weeks, but we’ve been busy with unignorable protests. Today we’ll give you an update on what was going on during this resistance-summer. Can you imagine, we did what governments failed to accomplish for decades: An international coordinated, determined and serious action across several countries. But we’ll get to that later!
Support us. Join us. You are needed.
återställvåtmarker.se
elokapina.fiWe’re starting off with the news in Sweden and Finland: On Wednesday, 25.09., we joined forces with Elokapina (XR Finland) and sprayed the Finnish Parliament with blood red paint. With this protest, we demand an end to peat mining and fossil subsidies.
We created many heated discussions in Finland and the whole of Europe on whether this action is appropriate to shed light on the fact that the Finnish government owned company Neova mines peat in Sweden like never before, causing more emissions than all of Sweden’s domestic flights.
The action garnered support from Terike Haapoja, the grandchild of the designer of the House of Parliament, J.S. Siren. She defended us on her private social media account: She says we have "a great sense of aesthetics and the ability to draw an artistic parallel between the bourgeois power represented by the building and the life-destroying politics practiced by the Finnish state."
Bold, unignorable international action on climate collapse - that is the #oilkills campaign with Stay Grounded and we started on July 24th: We took action with 500 people of 19 groups in over 13 countries. With this campaign, we demand from governments to sign a fossil fuel nonproliferation treaty.
In Germany, people glued themselves to runways of several airports such as Munich, Leipzig or Cologne. In Austria, we spilled orange paint in one of the terminal halls at the Vienna Airport. 50 supporters of Students Against EACOP in Uganda were arrested and faced violent repression and horrific conditions in custody.
In the UK, the sole news of future action was enough for police intervention. Just Stop Oil experienced some of the most extreme repression with 15 supporters remanded to prison over the course of the campaign and 14 remaining inside to this day.
We’ve also sparked the public debate in Denmark and increased pressure on the government due to their inadequate reaction to the climate crisis.
With nine highway blockages, we protested the construction of new highways - which is a completely insane idea in the midst of an escalating climate catastrophe. Clotide attempted to extinguish the bonfire to commemorate Saint John's Eve, the national Midsummer festival in Denmark. Here’s what she says:“I find it astounding that the Danish government continues to approve extremely climate destructive projects such as our 15 new highways, when we already see mass hunger, conflict and migration driven by heatwaves, forest fires, floods and droughts all across the world. When our elected officials with open eyes continue to pour gasoline on the bonfire that is the climate collapse, we all have a duty to stand up and resist.”
In July, we started a new campaign in Norway! Our name translates to “the people against fossil power” and three of our brave supporters have participated in our first protest on the runway of Oslo’s airport, bringing air traffic to a halt with the international #oilkills campaign. We are now working on our second demand and are preparing our next protest phase that is coming up in october. We want to spotlight Norway's oil-fund, where the money from the oil and gas industry is collected, and which has a market value of more than 18000 billion NOK (thats more than 1,7 trillion USD). The people are the owners of the fund, and we will not have our pensions invested in the weapons of mass destruction that are wielded against our future.
The Norwegian oil and gas industry has so much power in our society that they control the entire narrative in the debate around climate- and oil policies and sponsor everything. They are able to sell the story of Norwegian oil and gas as “green and democratic” to such an extent that the majority of people believe it, and being in opposition to this story can feel incredibly alienating. We are here to turn the narrative and speak the truth!
In the UK, we’ve won! Five years ago, this was unimaginable, in July this year it became reality: The new government declared that they will stop licensing all new oil and gas projects. We know it's not the time to stop. We need an end to ALL fossil fuels by 2030 - and that's why we are calling with #oilkills for the UK government to sign a Fossil Fuel Nonproliferation Treaty.
At the moment, 25 Just Stop Oil supporters are imprisoned for taking nonviolent action in the face of climate collapse. The irony? UK prisons face an overcrowding crisis. People taking nonviolent direct action in defense of life are increasingly being smeared and treated as organized criminals. While perpetrators of violence are being released early from prisons, nonviolent supporters of our campaign remain in cells: Phoebe and Anna have been sentenced to 2 years and 20 months respectively for throwing soup over the glass frame of Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’.
That is why we are coming together with sister campaigns Assemble, Youth Demand, and Robin Hood for the Umbrella March on Saturday 2nd November. We will march on Parliament to tell Labour they can #BinTheBudget. Then we’ll decide what should be done with a properly democratic Assembly, and throw a party to seal the deal.
You might have heard the news from our Austrian campaign - we stopped our protests. Before that, we put up pools in front of the Austrian parliament in July - because the water is up to our necks - and it was incredible hot in Vienna, with several days up to 35°C, so a pool is all what you can wish for if the Austrian government is not taking action to tackle the climate catastrophe.
After us joining the #oilkills campaign and also protesting for two days at Vienna airport, we announced the end of Letzte Generation Austria in August. However, the resistance will continue. We will be back, in one form or another. We’ll keep you posted!
In Poland we started the August action phase with a bang. On the 28th, around 2pm, Ola and Andrzej used fire extinguishers to spray the glass facade at the main entrance of a very famous shopping center. A nearly record number of new people registered for our online open meeting, intrigued by the entire action. Read what Ola has to say about it:
“I was extremely scared about the action and worried about the legal consequences, but what terrifies me even more, and still does, is the vision of the world in a few decades: A world where wars over resources are constantly being fought, where people have to leave their homes in large numbers just to survive. The whole event was a really tough experience for me—I felt drained and exhausted. But I believe the action was valuable, and that I contributed, even in a small way, to reducing the worst impacts of the climate crisis.”
With the first days of school in September, we started the next protest phase and asked: "What will we tell our children?". We also published a letter from supporting parents of Ostatnie Pokolenie to other parents. Among the new supporters of our campaign was the well-known journalist Ewa Siedlecka, who joined us in the streets in an orange vest. "I am here because you are a generation that has been deceived by politicians. Your demands are the absolute minimum needed for this planet to survive."
In Germany, we’re in the midst of an action phase in Kassel. Here, the state subsidizes every flight ticket from the local Kassel-Calden airport with 130€ - money we need elsewhere: in childcare, our health system or renewable energy sources. We demand a social just transformation with no more state money for a bankrupt airport. On Saturday, several hundred people joined us on the street with 80 arrested and overstretched police.
We’ve also been involved in the international #oilkills campaign. Many of our supporters have taken action by going onto runways of airports, bringing air traffic to a halt for several hours. We shed light on the destruction of the airport industry by continuing our protests for several weeks. Our supporters are facing criminal charges as well as civil lawsuits worth millions, however, we believe taking action and joining the resistance is the only right thing to do at this exact moment.
- Opens in a new pageNewsletter February 2024
On February 19th, we launched our new demand for a constitutional right to climate protection in front of lots of journalists who communicated our words to the country. Then we got started with action…
First, we brought a band onto the highway during a roadblock and played a live concert there. People who got out of their cars started dancing instead of shouting, hitting or honking. It was great!
Then we started our current protest wave, beginning with massive disruption on the highway in the capital, Vienna. We needed to make sure we would not be arrested for actual crimes because we are under investigation for being a criminal organisation. So instead of gluing ourselves to the road with sand, we locked ourselves to cars with finger and arm locks. We held the spot for three and a half hours - a new record!
Then we dumped a pile of horse shit on a very pretty crossing right next to Schönbrunn and titled it as the Chancellor’s climate policies. The media loved it and copied the message we wanted to send very well.
The next day, we sat in front of the Parliament, which made conservative politicians act like we were storming the building. Even the police felt the need to clarify that we were nonviolent and did not storm anything.
Before ending with our biggest protest in central Vienna, we annoyed the Chancellor’s office with counless phone calls, mails, faxes, social media comments and letters. We asked him about the climate protection policies he is failing to implement, and we requested his opinion on our new demand. He should like it because it was actually a demand of his own political party in 2019!
In February, Nødbremsen (the Emergency Brake) organised its first simultaneous protests, with three road blockades happening at the same time on the E47 highway and in central Copenhagen, uniting 18 people - the biggest number we’ve had so far - to demand that the Emergency Brake is pulled to avoid climate catastrophe.
We also organised a cultural protest and interrupted the Danish Melodi Grand Prix, the annual Danish music competition that selects the country's artists for Eurovision. Two supporters jumped on stage with banners to ask a simple question: "Who Votes for a Future?"
The Melodi Grand Prix is a cultural event which joins over a million Danes together in song and dance, but the song contest has always been about more than just music. It is about bringing the people of Europe together through a language which we all share - music - in solidarity, diversity, justice and respect.
Climate collapse is putting all these values at risk, and the Danish government is actively escalating this collapse. Let the song we sing to our European neighbours be one of solidarity and climate justice.
This month, our group got involved with the farmers’ protest. At the beginning we were really unsure which position to take, but we quickly decided to take the farmers’ side.
Why? Since the beginning, politicians have tried to use this protest to push their anti green deal agenda, but they don’t have the right to become the farmers’ spokespeople.
We spoke to some committed farmers and even attended one of their protests. On TV, we said that we understood the root causes of the protest: huge inequalities, the need for fair compensation and the uncertainty brought by the climate crisis.
Yes, the farmers' movement is heterogeneous and at points contradictory, as some of their demands are incompatible with sustainability. Nevertheless, taking their side was the right thing to do. We shouldn’t let politicians turn citizens against each other: we are all only asking them to protect our future.
It’s only February, and Canada’s news agencies are warning us that “low snowpack and high temperatures forecast [are] already raising wildfire concerns,” with even right-wing newspapers warning of extreme danger come spring 2024.
We demand that the Canadian government creates a national firefighting agency that trains and employs 50,000 people to help us fight wildfires, and you would imagine that the government would agree given the context. However, every single politician in this fossil-fuel-addicted extractivist nation is keeping their head in the sand, so it’s up to young people to take action.
This month Last Generation Canada swung back into action in Ottawa and received a lot of media attention as Gillian set a stroller on fire on Parliament Hill and Etienne splattered pink paint on dinosaurs in the Nature Museum in Ottawa. Amy, Ben, Xavier, and others were arrested for peacefully sitting on the road. We also welcomed back Dan from prison - you can listen to his story here.
On Valentine's Day, two Declare Emergency supporters, Kroeger and Jackson, covered the case protecting the US Constitution with red powder in the National Archives. This was a hugely successful action in getting the media’s attention as dozens reported on us, including the Washington Post, Forbes, and the Huffington Post.
Kroeger, was put in jail for this and two other actions, where he remains until his next hearing in March.
This February, we have been taking over the public space with a new poster campaign.We included two posters with quotes from politicians: the climate minister stating that she’s the “world best at environmental politics”, set over an image of a community in Sweden that has been flooded since last year, and a quote from the prime minister saying “climate activists pretend to care about the climate”.
The third poster was made by a famous Swedish satirist, Max Gustafson, who made an original comic for us that pokes fun at Återställ Våtmarker and highlights the absurdity of complaining about peaceful disruptive climate activists while living in a highly destructive system.
The campaign has been a huge success, with more than 100 people signing up all over the country in just one and a half months. Our aim was to mobilise people and to cause disruption in response to current events and it’s working! We’ve already created breaking news in Karlstad, where 100 posters were put up in one hour on Tuesday night last week.
Not all the successes of our resistance are immediately clear. Sometimes, a huge victory doesn’t happen during an action but outside of it.
This is what happened in February. The supreme court of the state of Bavaria ruled that a lower court had unjustly imposed a two month prison sentence on four supporters of the Last Generation. Maja, Christoph, Karl and Max, for blocking a road once.
They had all taken part in other Last Generation protests, but had not yet been convicted for them. A lower court judge ruled that they must be imprisoned for two months as political offenders, but a higher court ruled overruled the previous sentence, giving us faith that the courts can still act responsibly when they look carefully at the facts.
You can read Maja’s words here…
“For months, I have been waiting for a letter telling me to immediately go to the nearest prison to serve two months' imprisonment. I adjusted my plans for the whole year. I started meditating again and asked friends for support during my incarceration. I felt prepared and ready. But every time I talked to my co-defendants about the preparation, my chest tightened, and fear and anger rose inside me.
When I received the news that our appeal had been successful against all expectations, I felt an enormous weight fall from my shoulders. What it meant for us was clear: it was confirmation that peaceful protest, even if it can be annoying, should not simply be put behind bars. The psychological pressure and threats that the court wanted to use to break us don't work. We know what is at stake.
Nothing can stop us from doing the right and least we can in the face of the climate catastrophe. We have learnt once again that it is worth continuing our resistance even in court.”
On Thursday 8 February, Eric splashed the Federal Palace (seat of the Swiss government and Parliament) with orange paint to make their responsibility in the unfolding climate catastrophe visible.
At the time, Nikoko was still in prison in Vaud for filming an action in 2021, and we organised more than 20 actions in support of his innocence. He was released on Saturday 10 February after almost three months, and went straight back to sticking posters on the walls of Vaud’s High Council only eight hours after he had been freed.
This month, undercover journalists pretended to expose our (already public) plans to hold politicians to account at their workplaces, in the street or at their homes. The plan to take power back from our “leaders” wasn’t a secret, but the outrage about our strategy brought us back into the national conversation.
Politics is broken, the British people know that. So we used the attention to announce our plans to support ordinary people in this year’s election, as well as the creation of citizens assemblies to give the public a voice to demand real action on the emergencies facing humanity.
Apart from our plans for the UK’s democracy, we’re preparing our biggest action plans yet. This summer, when the heat is unbearable, the grass is dry and water is rationed, we’ll be taking action at airports to shine a bright light on the biggest consumers of oil and gas and bring the people into resistance with us. More details are coming soon…
RESOURCES
Shared resources (Wikis) enable projects to build structure, share skills/experiences and cultivate alignment – making each project more efficient and effective! Here are some examples.
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