Thanks to new, radical, action groups, XR can distinguish itself as the ‘reasonable activists’

On the Havenspoorweg in Pernis there are about twelve demonstrators on Tuesday afternoon. Some have chained themselves on the rails so that freight trains cannot run. Agents keep watch. The activists wear blue overalls, most have turned a keffiyeh. Even elsewhere in the port of Rotterdam, the same action group blocked, give counter gas that day the goods track.

One of the activists in Pernis, Nora Kimbele (21), tells what the activists of the group founded last year focus on: the ‘neo -colonial’ NATO, shipping of weapons by ‘the logistics sector’. “The message is a bit more intersectional,” she says – the actions focus on several overlapping world problems. “I wanted to go a little further,” she says to the question why she joined.

From chain activists on the track to noise protests in the city: Groups such as Giving Tidacing do not reconcile for confrontation

The two railway blockages were part of a series of protests in Rotterdam last Tuesday-always with a few dozen to a hundred participants-in which Pro-Palestina demonstrators went hand in hand. A sit-in was held on Stadhuisplein by the ‘Watermelon Crafting Rebels’, which hooked green-white-pink watermelons. In the center of Rotterdam, Give Tegas and ‘trade union members held solidarity with Palestine’ a ‘noise demonstration’. In the evening there was a protest march and a demonstration at Rotterdam Central of another four other Pro-Palestinian action groups.

Although the groups have different names and partly also operate solo – the railway blockade was organized by only Giving counter gas – they also pull together. It is no coincidence that the actions of Geefas were coincidentally with the NATO summit in The Hague, but in the overall the groups on Tuesday against mooring in the Rotterdam port of the Izmir, a container ship of the Danish shipping company Maersk. The ship, which Rotterdam also visited in May and is expected to return on Friday, transports aircraft parts that are used in the international F35 program from Israel, “wrote the Rotterdam alderman Robert Simons in a council letter at the beginning of June.

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The protests of Geefas have a different character than the massive red line marches that were held in The Hague in May and June. In an earlier protest from the group against Maersk, an Israeli flag of a flagpole was pulled and burned. But nor is it affiliated with the highway-blocking activists of Extinction Rebellion (XR), which also focuses more and more explicitly against genocidal violence in Gaza and global injustice.

There are also groups that go beyond counter gas. At the beginning of June, activists from Pal Action Nederland-another pro-palestin group-threw around twenty windows from the Maersk office in Rotterdam at night and smeared two Maersk offices with red paint. Four people were arrested. Give counter gas on Instagram that the ‘right behind’ is the actions of Pal Action.

What is the purpose of these new, small action groups that manifest themselves louder and have groceries that vary greatly? Give counter gas, which was only founded last year and in a name for protest against gas, takes more risk than making large climate movements, says spokesperson Isha Vogel (25). “We see that the climate is changing very quickly. We find it strange to respond in a soft, slow way when the economy moves so quickly.”

Give counter gas originated from climate action group Fossil -free NL. That movement, founded in 2013, calls on public institutions to break up with ‘fossil’ companies such as Shell and ING. Climate activists from, among others, Fossilvrij NL, among others, organized a protest camp in Pernis against the supply of LNG (liquid natural gas) in the port, under the name Give counter gas. From there the action group came into existence, to put more pressure and to become more directist companies, says Vogel.

“We thereby attempt to reduce a system instead of shifting,” she says. “Maersk is currently a very interesting target, because the symbol stands for what we are fighting.” She calls the international transport company a “place where capitalism, climate disrupting and genocide come together”.

Emergency debate

It was an American Palestine movement, she says, who pointed out the Rotterdam action groups in May that the Maersk ship would come to Rotterdam with flights. Ultimately, a colorful group of 61 action groups and council members of PvdA, GroenLinks and BIJ1 gathered for the town hall on Wednesday 21 May to order the mooring of the Izmir in the harbor earlier that day.

Alderman Simons said a day later in an emergency debate that the ship had no military charge, but later had to admit that that was the case anyway. The activists who gathered in Rotterdam on Tuesday hope that Mayor Carola Schouten will be the mooring of the ship with Israeli F35 parts this time.

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Give counter gas also blocked the Havenpoorweg in Pernis on Tuesday to propagate a wider message, says Nora Kimbele. In this way the activists want to emphasize the band between the logistics sector and the arms trade. Kimbele also finds anti-capitalism the common thread. “There are many things that go wrong, and for all those things you can take separate action. But capitalism is what 90 percent of all those problems caused.”

For climate activists, the question is: how do you get the climate in the heart of the debate?

Give counter gas hopes to touch companies immediately “where it hurts, in the wallet,” she says. In March and April, freight transport in the port was several times quiet due to the railway blockages of Geefas. Due to an promotion at the beginning of April, the Port Authority missed almost half a million euros, Het Nieuwsblad Transport reported.

Radical actions are also a matter of specialization, according to the Geefas demonstrators. “It can also help others that there is a more radical flank.” In other European countries, radical climate action groups, such as Just Stop Oil in the United Kingdom and Letzte Generation in Germany, were previously created. Give counter gas can be seen as a Dutch counterpart, which also declares solidarity with the Dutch Pro-Palestina movement that consists of numerous small groups. Activists from different groups often know each other, different activists say Tuesday. Why don’t they pull together within one organization?

Boycott

Niels Mink, who is organizing a noise protest on behalf of ‘collective’ on behalf of ‘collective’ trade union members with Palestine, thinks that Pro-Palestina protest is working broadly in various groups in society, (such as the student movement). According to Mink, the genocide in Gaza is a more tangible problem than the climate, which means that the bar to come into action with a new, small group is lower. “I work in the supermarket myself. There you have dates that come from Israel: that is easier to boycott than taking action against Ahold’s climate policy.”

The actions of Geefas do not stand in the way of the larger climate organizations, thinks Chris Julien, XR activist and philosopher. “They are both legitimate routes. For climate activists, the question plays: how do you get the climate in the heart of the debate? Not everyone is willing to stop a coal train. And in the case of Maersk their actions have led to truth finding.” When after the first service it turned out at the end of May that the ship of Maersk indeed shipped F35 parts from Israel to the US, the municipality of Rotterdam took a motion to further investigate the shipping.

Maersk is currently a very interesting target, because it is a symbol for what we are fighting against

In addition, XR, which is also campaigning in the port but specifically for making the port itself more sustainable, according to Julien by the presence of the ‘more radical’, are distinguished as the more reasonable group. “That is called the radical flank effect. Then people who do not recognize themselves in the heavier method will look for their own taste in the ice cream parlor.” Julien does not see that as a positive or negative phenomenon. “You also see it happening on the right. The more extreme the flanks are, the more accepted milder forms of action.”

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Mink van trade union members Solidary with Palestine also believes that the radical actions help the Palestine protests. “We are here to demonstrate ‘just’, but we support the people who want to destroy or occupy things. Because those escalating actions also contribute to achieving our goals.” He is referring to railway blocks of Geefas and the vandalism claimed by Pal Action at the Rotterdam Maersk office. “Some actions go against the law, not everyone wants to go that far. But even then we can now say to the municipality: people grab these means because you don’t act, listen to us. So it works.”

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