for action days from 3rd to 6th September
The year 2019 was again one of the hottest years in the recorded history. Scientists agree that our planet is warming. They suggest that to avoid a catastrophic temperature increase of more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, it is crucial to radically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and keep at least 80% of all known fossil fuels under the surface. Nevertheless, fossil companies plan to extract and burn them.
The Czech Republic commits in its Constitution and other legal regulations to a sensible use of natural resources, sustainability, protection of the lives and health of its citizens and a principle of pre-emptive cautiousness. By signing and ratifying the Paris agreement in 2015 we as a state admitted explicitly the need for ‘an effective and progressive reaction to the threat of climate change’. We committed to, among other things, preventing average global temperature from rising over 1.5 degrees Celsius and immediately decreasing greenhouse gas emissions for this reason. Despite all this, the Czech government doesn’t take action and instead blocks progressive plans for protection of the climate.
After considering the urgency of the climate crisis and the long-term unwillingness of politicians to solve this problem, we again decided to take action. During the Action days, we are going to realize non-violent civil disobedience actions against one of the coal infrastructures in the region. For a moment, we will limit mining and coal burning – the most crucial sources of climate change and its dramatic consequences.
The planned action is a publicly announced act of civil disobedience that is directed against one of the local coal infrastructures. Anyone can take part regardless of their previous experience with similar protests. We are going to participate in legal demonstrations or in more daring non-violent actions of civil disobedience against one of the local coal infrastructures.
We will prepare for the action through training, we will learn to organize ourselves in affinity groups, to make decisions non-hierarchically and to block effectively. We will behave calmly and non-violently. We won’t provoke escalation in order not to put anyone in danger. We will block and occupy only with our own bodies or equipment for passive resistance, we won’t destroy or damage any equipment. We will go along the police lines or barriers and we will avoid any physical contact with the police and security guards. In all circumstances, we will follow the principles of nonviolence, we won’t react to any possible provocations. Our action is not directed against the workers of the coal industry, nor against police. The safety of all participants and workers will be our top priority. We will try to make the action as creative and accessible to the broader public as possible.
All together we take the responsibility for the success of the action, we will support each other. Should anyone consciously break this action consensus, they cannot claim the right to support from the others in case of any legal, financial and other consequences of the action.