Category Archives: News

news on online demonstration / online protest

Stop the East African Crude Oil Pipeline


We are suffering from record heatwaves and unprecedented wildfires in Europe. It is outrageous that fossil fuel companies are continuing to dig and drill in the face of intensifying climate disasters. And despite record temperatures, banks are continuing to fund new oil pipelines and gas fields. French oil company Total and majority state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) are on the verge of constructing the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), which will transport an estimated 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Kabaale, Uganda to the Tanga port in Tanzania. In order to transport the waxy crude oil, the pipeline will need to be heated to a temperature of 50 Degrees Celsius. The project threatens to displace thousands of families and farmers from their land. The land acquisition process has already begun, raising the question whether the rights of indigenous communities to Free, Prior and Informed Consent has been respected in accordance with international standards. Extraction of oil in Uganda generate up to 34 million tons of carbon emissions each year. EACOP will run along Lake Victoria, the African continent’s largest freshwater reserve which sources the Nile and which 40 million people rely on for drinking water and food production.

Building the world’s longest heated crude oil pipeline is incredibly risky business – especially when it runs through an active seismic zone, like the EACOP will. There is a great risk that an oil spill from the pipeline poisons Lake Victoria and millions of Africans will no longer have access to drinkable water. Without insurances to cover the risks, the project cannot go ahead. The world’s top four international reinsurers, Munich Re, Swiss Re, Hannover Re and SCOR have already stated that they will not reinsure the EACOP because of environmental and social concerns. We need to stop EACOP, here is what you can do:

  1. Tell insurer Lloyd’s to stay out off EACOP. You can either send them a comment on LinkedIn (requires a LinkedIn login), send a calendar invite or give them a call.
  2. Send a message to the CEOs of several insurers to abstain from providing (re)insurance to the EACOP project.
  3. Demand insurance broker Marsh to drop the EACOP project.

East Africa’s economic strength will come from recognizing the region’s biodiversity, heritage and natural landscapes not from reckless fossil fuel projects. Support the #StopEACOP campaign! Though lots needs to be done to limit climate change and create a better future for everyone, it is clear that stopping the East African Crude Oil Pipeline is a critical first step.

Bolsonaro accused of ecocide

Indigenous leaders Almir Surui and Raoni Metuktire have come together to present a formal request to the International Criminal Court (ICC), based in the Dutch city of The Hague, to investigate far-right Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro for committing crimes against humanity, specifically targeting indigenous peoples, within the broader context of environmental crimes. With the assistance of William Bourdon, a French attorney, they officially filed a request for preliminary investigation into Bolsonaro’s crimes to the ICC on January 22, 2021. They are accusing Bolsonaro of crimes against humanity, including also ecocide. Ecocide refers to a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, committed in the broader context of environmental crimes.

On August 5, 2021, the Brazil’s Indigenous People Articulation (ABIP), a coalition of Indigenous associations across the country, filed a second statement before the ICC, accusing Bolsonaro’s government of genocide and crimes against humanity due to its role in alleged crimes perpetrated against their community during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to claims by the indigenous tribes, Jair Bolsonaro was responsible for more than 1,160 deaths.

We also want to point to the Belo Monte hydroelectric complex in Brazil which has been approved in 2005 despite the absence of the legally required environmental impact assessment and consultations with affected indigenous communities. Netzdemo Portal protests against Belo Monte and other mega dams in the Amazon region – you can become a part of it:

http://kaltech11.bravesites.com/action

At the climate conference COP26, Brazil signed the Glasgow declaration on forests and pledged to rein in illegal deforestation by 2028. But critics noted the declaration isn’t legally binding and that the Bolsonaro administration has been effectively legalizing deforestation that was once considered illegal, undercutting its commitment. Deforestation has been on an upward trend in the Brazilian Amazon since 2012. It has accelerated sharply under the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, who campaigned for opening up the rainforest to loggers, miners, ranchers, and industrial agriculture.

We need to make Amazon pay in 2021

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Amazon became a trillion dollar corporation, with CEO Jeff Bezos becoming the first person in history to amass $200 billion in personal wealth. Amazon’s carbon footprint is larger than two thirds of all countries in the world. Amazon, with its expansion of the „smart world“, stands in all areas of everyday life for a vision of the future in which life is shaped through digitization and automation of one’s own generation of profit. Amazon wants to restructure existing labor standards and life habits entirely. Humans as a circumferential resource: customer, employee and data donor in one. To escape the future managed world of Amazon – with its monopoly attitude – will not be an easy path.

But the tide begins to turn. Participation of IT technicians at the global climate strike 2019 was followed by important concessions of the Amazon management. The Make Amazon Pay coalition, a cross-border alliance of more than four dozen social and environmental justice groups including UNI Global Union, Amazon Workers International, Progressive International, has managed to integrate the previously diffuse resistance of Amazon workers.

The Make Amazon Pay coalition staged a worldwide protest against Amazon on Black Friday, 27th December 2020, with actions in 15 countries: Brazil, Mexico, the U.S., the U.K., Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Italy, Poland, India, Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Australia. Workers at several logistics centers across Germany are engaged in a three-day strike meant to disrupt Amazon’s profitable holiday sales during the retail industry’s busiest period.

Left-wing economist Yanis Varoufakis called on consumers to participate in a Black Friday boycott of Amazon, which he described as „a gigantic, behavior modification machine,“ pointing to the relationship between its data services, algorithms, and policy-making. The coalition also seeks to protect Amazon workers‘ rights to organize as well as unions‘ rights to promote the interests of employees—without fear of surveillance and retaliation, throughout the company’s global supply chains.

On Monday 22th March 2021, in Italy the first national strike against Amazon took place. About 40,000 Amazon workers in Italy participated in the strike. The national strike was truly a novelty, because it involved all the different figures working in the Amazon supply chain – sorting and storage workers, drivers, security workers – in an overall rejection of the working conditions imposed by the algorithm. With the vast majority of Amazon’s employees in Italy (between 70 and 80%) hired on a temporary basis and with precarious contracts, this mechanism produces a constant increase in the overall average productivity and work rhythms, and thus an accelerated wear on health.

Solidarity with linksunten Indymedia

On August 14, 2017, the German Federal Minister of the Interior banned the Open-Posting internet platform linksunten Indymedia, by resorting to the association act („Vereinsgesetz“). The ban that was finally executed on August 25 is an act of internet censorship and an attack on freedom of media and press. The Ministry of the Interior constructed an association that operates the incriminated portal. It seems absurd that an online platform that only provides technology can be prohibited by association act – linksunten Indymedia was undoubtedly a platform that is subject to the special protection of press freedom.

The linksunten Indymedia platform was founded in southwest Germany during 2008/2009 and was part of the global Indymedia network (Independent Media Center). It worked according to the open posting principle, so it did not have a traditional editorial team, but it did have moderation criteria that excluded racist or antisemitic content. The majority of posts were calls and reports on left-wing and NGO events or demonstrations, but also statements in which militants justified illegal actions. Netzdemo Portal has launched several calls to online demonstrations on this platform because of the wide multiplication and diverse readership.

It took almost two and a half years for the ban on the constructed association linksunten.indymedia to be heard before the Federal Administrative Court (BVerwG) on January 29, 2020, in Leipzig. The lawsuit was dismissed with reference to the fact that the plaintiffs were not entitled to initiate proceedings. Contrary to what some reports suggest, the BVerwG did not declare the ban to be lawful, but dismissed the lawsuit without examining the reasons for the ban. The suspected operator team of the linksunten Indymedia will go to the Federal Constitutional Court.

Almost two weeks before the trial, it was announced that the linksunten Indymedia is online again as archive with over 200,000 posts and comments, preserving 10 years of movement history. The archive does not offer any possibilities for interaction or postings and is therefore not to be regarded as the successor to the internet platform. The static archive of the site is also available for download in the form of zip files. In April 2020 the archive of the portal inksunten.indymedia.org, which was declared illegal by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, became accessible via
https://linksunten.indymedia.org/.

We from Netzdemo Portal think it is about time for a broad and collective discussion about restarting the platform with new articles, posts and discussions.

We need independent media that belongs to us – not social media owned by the cloud-computing oligopolists

Fire survival plan

Year 2020 is going to have to be the year. The year we see carbon emissions stop growing and start falling. It’s a matter of survival. It’ll be the year we start taking on the big banks that are funding the climate crisis.

Global Climate Strike in September 2019 – in 38 countries in Europe, and on every continent across the whole planet, everyday people followed the striking kids out on the streets. A million people protested in Italy. 1,4 million went on strike across Germany. Hundreds of thousands of us joined protests in big cities and small villages across Europe.

We stood hand in hand in our rage and solidarity and we said “no more” to the destruction and oppression which has brought us to a global climate crisis. We spoke up against destruction, racism, patriarchy, and an economy which puts profit above people and planet. We dared to imagine a different future, and fight for it.

Amazon fires – record-breaking fires raging in Brazil during last August, September, and October. More than 80.000 fires were recorded in August. Over 900 thousand hectares were burnt between January and October due to fires. Who sets the rainforest fires? Fires were expanding along the borders of new agricultural development, which is what’s often seen in fires related to forest clearing. Unscrupulous land speculators cut valuable trees, burn the remainder, and sell the cleared land at a heavily marked up price to cattle ranchers or agribusiness.

Australia’s bush fires – set to keep burning into the coming weeks and months. Over 10 million hectares have now burned. A billion animals died in the flames. Reports show that the Australian government has buried response plans and even under-resourced firefighters in the months prior to the fires. Australian government clings to coal. They have ignored man-made climate change for years and expanded the fossil fuel industry.

Right now, mining company Adani wants to build one of the biggest coal mines of the world in Queensland, Australia. #SiemensFuelsFires campaign – a collaboration between #StopAdani campaigners and German Fridays for Future activists – is calling out the multinational’s business to cut ties with Adani. Sign the petition to urge Siemens to get out of the deal with Adani.

We are the change. And we are coming for those who stand in our way. The bosses of fossil fuel corporations. Banks who fuel the fire of climate breakdown by pouring money into coal, oil and gas projects. All who value money and profit over the survival of our planet and the future of the next generations.

Following the capitalist logic, raw materials have to be turned faster into monetary value, faster and faster, accelerating the speed of destruction of our planet. The faster the Amazon rainforest burns down, the more pasture land is available for cattle, and the faster it can be converted into hamburgers. Netzdemo Portal will be focusing on food companies involved in Amazon destruction. Fast Food Brands like McDonald’s Burger King, and KFC have looked the other way while buying beef from Brazil as the Amazon burns. We do not forgive. We do not forget.

New release of ZDEMO ATTAC

Netzdemo Portal proudly announces the new release of ZDEMO ATTAC protest software by KELLERASSELN. This small app runs on Windows PC and allows you to perform a simple DoS attack against a web server (=target) of a company that is found to destroy nature or violates human rights. The current target of internet protest is RWE Power AG and has been selected by the Netzdemo Portal community. By using ZDEMO ATTAC you join the online protests of the Netzdemo Portal community. It runs on Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows 10. The use of a VPN internet connection during online protest is highly recommended.

You can download ZDEMO ATTAC here.

The original Online Protest Software Kit was built for an online demonstration against lufthansa.com which took place on 20 June 2001. The goal of this tool was to send repeated http requests to the Lufthansa website. In addition it performed more complex transactions, such as creating a user profile, booking of flights, etc. The online demonstration „Deportation Class“ has been organised by Libertad! and „Kein Mensch ist illegal“.

Become part of the Netzdemo Portal Community!

Anonymous Germany blocks RWE website

We at Netzdemo mourn the death of the young journalist, who died on 19 September in the Hambach Forest. The accident happened in the threatening situation by
intervention of the police in the occupied forest. The journalist fell from a tree and died during a police operation. After a moratorium lasting several days, the police continue to clear the tree houses in the Hambach Forest.

Hackers paralyzed the website of RWE Power AG on Monday evening, 24 September 2018. The hacker attack happened on the same day that the police resumed clearing of tree houses in Hambach Forest.

A flood of controlled requests has significantly reduced server performance of the RWE company server. Before the attack, a video on YouTube with title Operation RWE switch off was uploaded. It is the first and so far only clip of a Youtube Channel called Anonymous German. „Hello world, hello RWE,“ reads in a computer voice: „If you do not immediately stop clearing the Hambacher Forst, we will attack your servers and shut down your pages, until your company bears any economic damage that you no longer recover from it.“ The Video can be viewed at BILD.de.

Please sign the BUND appeal for saving the Hambach Forest.

Take part in WWF’s Twitter Storm Stop The Madness. #StopptdenWahnsinn

Act before it’s too late

Aktion Unterholz calls for mass actions of civil disobedience

In 2017, the climate justice movement was able to stop the wood clearing of the Hambach forest for the mining pit for an entire clearing season 2017/2018 (October to March) by protests and legal complaints. It looks like RWE became afraid that the occupation of the forest by climate activists would prevent the wood clearing a second time. At the same time the coal commission started negotiations in Berlin to phase out coal mining and burning in Germany.

RWE together with the police started clearing works in the Hambach forest on 6 September. Police raids continued on 13 September and destroyed tree houses of the Hambach forest occupation. Aktion Unterholz (action underwood), supported by climate activists Ende Gelände, called for mass actions of civil disobedience on 15 September. Hundreds of people came for Aktion Underholz and rebuilt the destroyed structures and tree houses. On the same day, 20 activists of the action group „NiederAUSmachen“ started a blockade of the coal fired power plant Niederaussem operated by RWE. On Sunday, 16 September, 1300 people demonstrated with a forest walk for the preservation of the forest.

Only 10% of the Hambach forest remain. The remaining core of the forest still contains the diversity of the original Hambach forest that exists since the end of the ice age 12,000 years ago. The Hambach forest is an irreplaceable piece of nature, habitat of many endangered animals and trees. The preservation of the Hambach forest limits the open pit Hambach and the coal from this open pit plays a central role in the Rhenish lignite mining district. The rescue of the Hambach Wald is at the same time an important step towards phasing out coal and the closure of the entire area.

Every year new temperature records, more extreme weather events such as drought, heavy rain, flood and heat waves. The destruction hits people in the global south the hardest, but here in Europe, the consequences are becoming more and more noticeable. Everybody knows that the coal has to remain in the ground to avoid heating up the climate crisis. Its exploitation destroys the livelihood of nature and humans. The Rhenish lignite mining district is Europe’s largest carbon dioxide (CO2) source, with its three opencast mines and three coal fired power plants. Inhabitants of the region are resettled and agricultural areas are destroyed for the continued expansion of the mines.

Belo Monte will produce energy for mining

Belo Monte mega dam is being built on a river that runs almost dry a large part
of the year. This will be a very inefficient project – running at 10% of its
capacity during the driest months. The energy produced will go to mines that extract
resources that are then shipped to other countries. About 30 percent of the produced
energy will go to support the mining industry, while 70 percent of the energy produced
by the dam will go to households hundreds of miles away from the Xingu River. There is
no stopping this dam now. It has been approved by a short-sighted government that insists
this is the only solution to the energy needs of the country.

Norte Energia company, the concession-holder for the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam,
now control the water flow in the Volta Grande stretch of the Xingu River, a 100-km
area divided in three municipalities, with five indigenous villages along the riverbanks.
By opening or closing spillways and activating or shutting off its turbines, Norte Energia
dictates the water level downstream in the Xingu River. It’s clear that they do it without
considering the human and environmental impacts. Abrupt fluctuations in the volume of water
released in the Volta Grande due to the opening of spillways causes changes in the water
level in the river that confuse the aquatic fauna, disoriented by the availability of space
to feed and breed, according to ecologist Juarez Pezzuti, a professor at the Federal University of
Pará. Moreover, the reduced water flow has made navigation difficult in the Volta Grande,
the traditional transport route used by local people, increasing the need for land transport.

Vale, who owns aluminum and iron ore smelters nearby and is a 9% stakeholder in Norte Energia,
will purchase Belo Monte’s energy to fuel its mining expansion in the region. The energy would
also go to fuel the powerful industrial sector in south-east Brazil, which consumes 28.6% of
all electricity in the country, mainly in São Paulo and Minas Gerais.

Read more: Belo Monte Campaign blog by Netzdemo Portal.