Inspired by a series of actions and sabotages against “the world of concrete” in France (2), Belgium and Switzerland, we visited the CEMEX concrete plant on Schleusenufer in Berlin-Kreuzberg in the early hours of December 27 and used fire to stop several concrete mixer trucks and bring the conveyor belt and a technical building to a standstill.
A master among the climate killers
The wasteland of concrete and asphalt continues to spread. In Germany alone, up to 30 hectares of living soil are buried under the most sought-after building material every day. Roads, squares, commercial areas, industrial plants and houses; huge parts of the earth’s surface are already sealed and infrastructure projects such as dams, freeways, bridges, airports etc. consume several billion tons of concrete every year.
All this is not without consequences. Concrete is considered the climate killer par excellence. Almost 10 percent of the carbon dioxide that this system currently blows into the air comes from the cement industry. That is almost three times as much as air traffic. At the same time, concrete production consumes enormous amounts of resources. Sand in particular, which is essential for production, is already in short supply, which is why coastal areas and sometimes entire islands are being dredged worldwide. With devastating effects on the surrounding ecosystems. The increasing sealing of soils also has catastrophic consequences. Urban areas are heating up more and more, while rainwater can no longer seep into the ground. Groundwater reservoirs are not filling up as before, which will lead to water shortages in many places in the long term or has already done so. Drought and aridity are the result of this on the one hand, while flooding and erosion are occurring elsewhere due to increasingly frequent heavy rainfall. More than that, every additional meter of concrete destroys habitats and food sources. The loss of natural ground areas and the lack of vegetation lead to a decline in biodiversity, which has an impact on many animal and plant populations and will result in the extinction of individual species.
Too bad concrete doesn’t burn
Concrete has become the symbol of an entire era. An era in which capitalism celebrates its expansion to the furthest corners of the earth and has cast this victory in concrete in the form of monumental buildings in the centers of power of the metropolises. The monster called “civilization” has eaten its way around the globe via a growing network of roads that paved the way for the exploitation and utilization of people and nature on an industrial scale.
However, there has always been resistance to it. In the Global South, where the effects of climate change have so far been felt most clearly and Western domination is being perpetuated through the exploitation of resources and labor, there are countless hotbeds of conflict. Revolts unleashed by existential threats, in which people oppose destruction with every conceivable means. Ironically, the causes of such conflicts often lie in the development of new markets for so-called “green technologies” and the hunger for raw materials that goes hand in hand with them. When we target those responsible for this misery, we do so alongside all those who have no choice. Because for many, the only alternative to resistance is flight or death.
It therefore seems almost cynical when parts of the climate movement in this country are characterized above all by making well-meaning pleas to the politicians who got us into this whole mess in the first place and show no interest in giving up their privileges and prosperity. These activists are falling into the trap of trying to please bourgeois moral standards with their mendacious commitment to renouncing violence. This was not always the case. During the anti-nuclear movement, for example, hundreds of electricity pylons were sawn down across Germany and Castor transports could not be carried out without massive sabotage of rail infrastructure. Protests against the Runway West in Frankfurt am Main or against the Wackersdorf reprocessing plant were accompanied by regular riots in which thousands of people took part. So why are these disputes so conformist and conformist now, when it is more necessary than ever? If we want to stop the destruction of the earth by the industrial machine in the long term, there will be no way around confronting this society, which emerged from merciless exploitation and has succumbed to the blind belief in progress. Too bad concrete doesn’t burn.
The dirty business with gray gold
With the attack on the CEMEX company, we have hit one of the largest concrete manufacturers in the world. CEMEX Deutschland AG is part of the parent company CEMEX S.A.B. de C.V., based in Mexico, and has 64 cement plants, 1,348 ready-mixed concrete plants, 246 quarries, 269 distribution centers and 68 ship terminals worldwide. The company is involved in infrastructure and major construction projects in over 50 countries. This includes the controversial expansion of Berlin’s A100 city highway. A 560 million euro grave that the government has thrown in our faces. With the production and delivery of around 170,000 m³ of concrete, CEMEX is one of the major beneficiaries of this monster, which is now cutting a swathe through the middle of the city and will soon be spewing out a noisy avalanche of traffic at Treptower Park.
In addition to the usual environmental destruction that is part of the daily business of this industry, CEMEX has another, particularly bloody history with regard to the Middle East, which we would like to mention now that a devastating war is once again raging in Gaza. In 2005, Cemex swallowed up the Israeli company Readymix Industries, which supplied concrete for the Israeli wall and was involved in the construction of military checkpoints in the West Bank, including the Hawara and Azun-Atma checkpoints. CEMEX earns money from the construction of illegal settlements and outposts in the West Bank and operates cement plants in Mevo Horon, Atarot and Mishor Edomim, as well as in Katzerin on the Golan Heights. This makes the company a stooge and ally of Netanyahu’s extreme right-wing policies and his religiously fanatical supporters in the settler colonies. These structures serve one goal above all: to make a dignified existence impossible for the Palestinians on this piece of land through harassment, oppression, violence and expulsion, which they pay for with their lives in the worst case. Nothing can justify the indescribable suffering caused by this policy.
Nevertheless, we will be wary of trying to understand this war in the Middle East according to a simple black and white scheme of good and evil. We are disgusted both by the heinous bombing terror of the Israeli army against the civilian population of Gaza and by the massacres of Hamas. Even if this struggle and the number of victims are very unequal, it is fatal to want to offset the suffering of the one against the suffering of the other. Instead of holding up “the one opinion” or flag that is seemingly free of contradictions, we turn our attention to those who draw economic profit from this warlike policy and enrich themselves through militarism and racist oppression. This is another reason why we are attacking CEMEX. And we do this with the greatest possible empathy for the suffering and pain of the people who have to live under the ongoing war and increasing militarization in the region. Always alongside those who are fighting for the freedom of all, everywhere. Beyond state, nation and religion, and their deadly borders and armies.
SWITCH OFF!
