LÜTZERATH – The village of Lützerath has been threatened with eviction for years. The hamlet of the city of Erkelenz in North Rhine-Westphalia is to be completely demolished for the energy company RWE in order to expand the Garzweiler opencast mine. The former neighboring town of Immerath has already been sacrificed to opencast mining.
Resistance arose against the demolition of the village and the destruction of the area by opencast mining. To this day, the place is resistant and lives in the village alternative and resistant culture and protests against the destruction of the place. Since 2021, the preservation of the site has been discussed several times at federal and state level within politics, but at the beginning of October the federal and state ministries finally decided that REW would use the coal located under the site of Lützerath as part of mining may.
Lütherath is to be evacuated by the police on January 9th. For several days, hundreds of police have been gathering around the site and preparing for the upcoming evacuation by entering barricades set up by the young activists, arresting the first people and creating a scenario of massive police repression.
Yesterday, January 3rd, the activists from Lützerath called for Day X with the following video:
The people from Lützerath are sticking to their demands and resolutely maintaining their resistance with creative methods. It’s not just about the village of Lützerath, but also about the protection of nature in general, against the destruction of business groups, the climate, alternative ways of life and the protest of young people against the capitalist system. In several statements, appeals and video contributions, the people from Lützerath invite people to come to Lützerath to protect the village from evictions or to take part in decentralized protest actions.
Solidarity has already come from various countries for the resisters in the village of Lützerath.
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