Climate activists in detention after trying to brake into airport
The movement known as Klimax targeted airports throughout Sweden on Friday. Seven activists were put in solitary confinement, charged with “intent to sabotage air traffic”. In response, Klimax broke into a police station and vowed to step up its fight against accelerating carbon emissions.
On Friday, groups of activists connected to Klimax, Sweden’s direct action movement against the root causes of climate change, struck against the country’s domestic aviation industry. At Malmö Airport, seven activists were apprehended when trying to brake into the runway, some of them dressed as polar bears. They were transferred to a detention centre in another city in southern Sweden and kept in solitary confinement for more than 60 hours. The seven activists were interrogated throughout the days, charged with “intent to sabotage air traffic” and threatened with four years in prison if convicted.
– It’s totally absurd to place people in solitary confinement for more than two days when they’ve done nothing but attempting to cross a fence, in a peaceful, symbolic action. The activists did what everyone should do: they tried to stop climate change from accelerating. With their heavy-handed repression, the police are trying to deter us from further direct action, but we vow to step up our struggle. Since the police succeeded in nabbing the activists in Malmö this time, we will have to be more creative when planning our next actions, says Shora Esmailian, media spokesperson for Klimax.
Also on Friday, scores of activists entered the terminals at Bromma Airport in Stockholm and Landvetter Airport outside of Gothenburg. Many were dressed as polar bears and penguins. The demonstrations were followed by die-ins in front of queuing passengers. In Uppsala, a city north of Stockholm, yet another Klimax group staged a protest against a planned local airport. Pictures from the actions can be found at this website.
On Saturday, activists in Stockholm broke into a police station to demand the immediate release of their comrades in Malmö, and a solidarity manifestation was held in Gothenburg. All in all, more than a hundred activists were involved in the coordinated activities over the weekend.
On late Sunday, the last remaining Malmö-activist was released from the detention centre. All seven activists will face trial, as will another group of activists who successfully seized the runway at Bromma Airport in April last year.
Klimax is a rapidly growing movement in Sweden. In Stockholm, the group has focused on an upcoming decision to extend the premises of Bromma Airport to the year 2038, allowing it to increase traffic with at least 20 percent. The contract, due for final approval in March, will be impossible to abrogate if politicians elected in Stockholm in the coming decades wish to do so: it can only be annulled by the national government. This is considered deeply undemocratic by Klimax, but even worse, Bromma Airport is now poised to continue propelling domestic flights to Gothenburg, Malmö and other destinations well covered by railway connections, thus increasing unnecessary carbon emissions at a time when they have to be slashed. Already at this date, the aviation industry accounts for at least 10 percent of Sweden’s carbon emissions, according to estimates from the Royal Institute of Technology, and the share is growing. Klimax is determined to fight this wholly irrational development until Sweden’s domestic aviation is abolished in its entirety, as a first necessary step to a fossil-free society.
Other recent actions by Klimax in 2008:
9 February. Some 30 activists put up a blockade in the middle of the highway running through Umeå, the largest city in northern Sweden. Recent studies have found the highest concentrations of carbon dioxide ever recorded in Umeå, due to increasing traffic, while Sweden’s car park remains the most fuel-guzzling in the EU. Klimax-Umeå demands a rapid expansion of public transportation in the city and an end to subsidizing new roads. The blockade lasted for half an hour, wreaking considerable chaos in the inner city traffic. (Pictures)
5 February. Some 30 activists from Klimax-Stockholm and Green Youth staged a protest outside the office of Swedish Meat, a major meat corporation, to highlight the severe effects the industry is having on our climate. The activists were dressed as the bosses of Swedish Meat, while frying planet earth in a fire exhumed by a cow. Car traffic was blockaded for a while, before the activists enjoyed a vegetarian pick-nick in front of the office. (Pictures)
26 January. Some 50 activists from Klimax marched into the traffic on one of the major streets in inner city Stockholm, seizing it for 15 minutes. The action was directed against a planned mega-highway, to be built in the western parts of the capital. (Pictures)
19 January. Some 60 activists from Klimax-Malmö staged the third “climate collision” during the group’s short existence (it was formed in November last year), seizing a street in the central parts of the city. Some dressed as construction workers, they declared the street a “zone for climate work”. (Pictures)
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