Speeches
Collection of Speeches of the Globabl Climate Strike in Göttingen on the 3th of March 2023.
End Fossil: Occupy! GöttingenAmnesty International Bovenden/Göttingen, Heidrun Kofahl-Langmack
Göttingen Zero & Climate Alliance Göttingen
End Fossil: Occupy!
Climate struggle requires class struggle.
In recent years, protests have erupted all over the world. From anti-racist struggles against police violence to feminist riots against femicides. From workers‘ strikes to the many movements in the struggle against the approaching climate catastrophe. That’s why today we stand in solidarity with our striking colleagues (who, due to rising inflation, increasingly have to ask themselves how they can pay their bills while companies and corporations rake in record profits).
We are making our voices heard – loudly – and the politicians are taking notice. They praise us and they agitate against us. But it doesn’t matter whether they praise or agitate – in the end, nothing happens. In the end, even in the best case, we are left with hollow phrases and empty promises.
We are allowed to protest, we are allowed to vote, but we are not allowed to change anything. The basic framework, the state and capitalism, must remain untouched. But in exactly this lies the problem: Capitalism shapes our labors in such a way that they serve the profit maximization of capitalists and their corporations. People and nature only play a role as a means to an end. Worse still, capitalism is a system of competition in which only those can survive who exploit people and nature even more than before.
And the bourgeois state? It is by no means there to enforce our concerns. Rather, it ensures that the exploitation of people and nature by the capitalists continues to function smoothly and that we, deceived by the illusion that we have a say, do not revolt too much.
All our diverse protests are united by the struggle against this murderous system. If we want to achieve something that really helps nature and people, we must unite! We have the same interests! We all want a world in which it is possible to live, in which we are not plagued by existential hardships, not threatened by wars and natural disasters.
So let’s unite our struggles and dreams! Only united and aware of our power as a working class, can we smash this system and build a world where the needs of the people and of nature play a central role.
Amnesty International
You know Amnesty International as a human rights organization, the largest in the world.
Some may wonder why Amnesty is represented here.
Amnesty is speaking out here because the protection of livelihoods is a human right.
The rights to life, health and food, for example, are being violated.
People are being displaced from their ancestral lands.
This violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, our working basis, our standard. It is 75 years old this year and is more topical than ever.
Climate justice needs human rights.
Heat waves, water shortages, famines: The climate crisis is a human rights crisis. It is a fundamental human rights challenge.
It particularly endangers people in the Global South and exacerbates existing inequalities.
That is why Amnesty International has long called for climate-just policies that respect human rights.
The German government shares responsibility for the climate crisis, which is mainly caused by countries of the Global North.
Due to historical emissions and colonial history, Germany has contributed massively to the current developments.
Therefore, the countries of the Global South must be adequately supported in coping with the crisis.
Responsibility also includes respecting the rights of people fleeing the climate crisis; as well as supporting the concerns of climate activists from the Global South.
The funds for climate financing must be increased.
The agreed compensation fund for climate damages must be implemented immediately in such a way that it makes a real contribution to climate justice.
Limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees is a human rights obligation. A roadmap must be presented immediately for implementation in all sectors.
All climate protection measures and the transition from fossil to renewable energies must be designed in accordance with human rights.
Any delay in climate change mitigation will lead to further human rights violations and threaten future generations as well as social peace.
Amnesty thanks the organizers – the younger generation – for their commitment to addressing the climate crisis.
Often we older people asked where the political commitment of the generation after us is, without questioning our own responsibility for the current situation.
Now you are on top of the issue. When I see what you are doing, what we can do together, I worry a little less about the world of tomorrow.
Thank you very much!
(Amnesty International, Heidrun Kofahl-Langmack)
Göttingen Zero + Climate Alliance Göttingen
True to the principle „Think globally – act locally“, we must drive the necessary change towards a climate-friendly world right here in Göttingen.
In our appeal we wrote: The transport turnaround is one of the crucial steps to save fossil fuels on an enormous scale. But, as we have just heard, especially in public transport: high workloads and route schedules that are too short meet salaries that are too low.
Why too tight route schedules? At the time they were introduced, the schedule could be managed. But that is no longer possible today because car traffic has increased dramatically. Everywhere in Germany, but especially in Göttingen. The bus drivers say they can no longer get through in the allotted time because there are always traffic jams somewhere.
But the city doesn’t want to know anything about it. And it can’t know anything about it either, because it persistently refuses to carry out any kind of traffic measurements. But it is clear that the number of cars in Göttingen alone has increased by one sixth in the last ten years. And these, whether stationary or moving, block the public space.
Traffic is a highly emotional topic in Germany, fuelled by money-grubbing corporations that try to resist any environmental regulations with criminal methods. With their promises of freedom and adventure, they send people into ever longer traffic jams and make people angry with this lie alone. If roads are then blocked for a short time to draw attention to this nonsense and the harmfulness of traffic to the climate, the blockaders are declared a criminal organisation. The criminal organisation is the car lobby. This has been confirmed several times in court.
When motions are put forward in Göttingen demanding a redistribution of traffic space towards bus and bicycle lanes, or to support public transport with higher parking fees in wealthy neighbourhoods, there is talk of pushing cars out of the city and of a culture war. With this policy, traffic jams are conjured up, public transport is displaced and cycling and walking become a dangerous undertaking.
In 2021, over 7,000 Göttingen residents signed the Göttingen Zero citizens‘ petition demanding that our city become climate-neutral by 2030. But here, too, the city vehemently refuses to implement this. The city’s politicians apparently do not have the courage to take the necessary steps. They prefer to let plans such as the cycling development plan gather dust in drawers rather than implement them. In reality, their so-called „Climate Plan 2030“ contains ideas for climate neutrality in 2045. And if implementation continues at the current pace, Göttingen will not become climate neutral until 2089.
The draft budget for 2023 and 2024 still contains too little money for climate protection. In addition, measures with little relevance to the climate, such as the renovation of the Brauweg open-air swimming pool, are sold in the budget as climate-protective. Accordingly, it is only logical that the city’s application for the EU funding programme „100 Changing Cities“ failed miserably. Here, their plans were exposed as hot air. Real climate protection looks different!
Yet Göttingen Zero has concrete proposals on how to think about climate neutrality in 2030 from the end, oriented towards the residual greenhouse gas budget.
We demand
- local value creation through PV and wind power plants, energetic neighbourhood redevelopment, and support for local citizens‘ energy cooperatives.
- Climate-friendly urban planning goes hand in hand with a higher quality of life: a car-free inner city creates space for more green areas. Both in turn bring better air and health.
- We need more space for cycling and walking, safe car-free routes so that children can also move around safely and independently. We need dedicated lanes for buses so that public transport becomes attractive again.
- We finally need a traffic turnaround, a new division of public space, especially roads, towards climate-neutral means of transport such as cycling and walking, as well as adequately financed public transport.
We ride together, because Tomorrow is too late.