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The images are impressive. The machinery and the police try to destroy everything. And the block of activists dressed in white put their bodies to defend the forest before the expansion of a coal mine that would disappear the town of Lützerath, Germany. They, guardians of life, have lived for more than two years in cabins hanging from the trees that the energy multinational RWE wants to cut down to expand one of the largest open-cast mines in Europe. But this beginning of the year the company and the police arrived together, meeting with the resistance of those who have decided that Lützerath Bleibt (Lützerath stays).
A Zapatista delegation was in Lützerath in 2021 as part of the journey through Europe to learn about the struggles below and explain their own, that is, to meet their equals. And there the resistances came together. Afterwards, a delegation from the German town toured part of the country with the Caravan for Water and Life, entering deep Mexico that resists the megaprojects imposed for the sake of a progress
that annihilates them
Solidarity is the tenderness of the peoples, wrote the Nicaraguan poet Gioconda Belli, and this beginning of the year the Zapatistas brought this phrase to life by sending a video greeting to the activists who have been under attacks by the German police who defend the interests of the mining company. The Good Government Board of Caracol 11, Seed that Blooms with the Consciousness of those who Fight Forever
was in charge of sending the hug, which was also joined by the Assembly of Peoples of the Isthmus in Defense of Land and Territory, which brings together the communities that oppose the construction of the Interoceanic Corridor on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and the Nahua peoples who defend their water against the Bonafont company.
Three hundred towns have been displaced under the protection of the Bergrecht law that justifies the eviction of communities to facilitate the extraction of energy resources for industry. But in Lützerath the last word has not been said.
