FRidays for Future no longer demonstrates alone. Activists have formed alliances with other parts of the climate movement, parties and unions to bring thousands onto the streets. But as in any large movement, there are rivalries and disputes among climate activists about what serves their own cause and what harms it. Nevertheless, many activists from Fridays for Future stuck with the Last Generation for a long time – even when many had long been annoyed by their blockades and attention-seeking actions.
Nowadays it often sounds different. “We don’t need the more radical form of protest, we need radical effectiveness,” said one of the speakers for Fridays for Future, Pit Terjung, to the “Tagesspiegel”. A “social backlash that you produce yourself and then don’t catch again will eventually become a problem for all of us,” criticized Fridays for Future activist Luisa Neubauer in “Stern” recently.
But since activists on both sides see the climate crisis as a problem for everyone, there are still efforts to take action together. The Last Generation also called for a “climate strike” in Berlin this Friday. Several thousand demonstrators gathered in Berlin at midday and marched from different directions to the Brandenburg Gate. In the afternoon, the police spoke of around 12,500 participants in a protest march through Berlin.
“Meadows and forest instead of asphalt”
At the opening rally, Neubauer said: “It is a historic time. Do we allow it to continue like this or do we stand against it?” For five years, climate goals have been “frayed” and “they are being trampled on.” This is “a scandal”. Apparently addressing the supporters of the Last Generation, Neubauer said: “We don’t have to agree on which form of protest is best, we just have to agree that protest is needed.”
Mainly young people and many families took part in the demonstration. On posters they called for a “turning point for climate protection”, a halt to motorway construction, a new agricultural policy or “meadows and forests instead of asphalt”. Flags and banners of the environmental protection movements Greenpeace, BUND and Nabu could be seen at the demonstration.
The demonstrators criticized the fact that instead of taking effective measures for climate justice, the federal government wanted to weaken the climate protection law and was not implementing measures such as the climate money that was included in the coalition agreement. After five years of “climate strikes,” during which the climate protection law and the coal phase-out were fought for and millions took to the streets, “we are disappointed,” wrote Fridays for Future in the call for the demonstration. The country has “slid into a standstill” from climate policy progress and there is now a risk of regression in climate protection.
Demonstrations were planned in around 250 locations in Germany on Friday. Depending on the local group, the “climate strikes” look very different. A concert by Herbert Grönemeyer was announced in Hamburg. The district executive of the Green Party called for a classic demonstration at the “fountain in the old town” of Schwarzenberg in the Ore Mountains.
The meeting with the Last Generation in Berlin was “a special situation,” Fridays for Future told the FAZ. It was always nice when others joined their own “strike.” “Basically, we want to stick with mass street protests. This is our form.” The last generation had already announced that it would not just settle for a “climate strike”. Their supporters have been gathering in the capital since Wednesday. Three weeks of major actions are planned in the capital. The last generation in Berlin wants to continue their protest from Monday. Alone – and probably with other means too.
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