You are the Crisis – Episode 17: Police supplier Peugeot
A series of attacks around the world on car dealerships and authorized dealers of certain vehicle brands in recent years opened up the suggestion of a strategic line: anyone who provides mobility and transportation for the police is treated as an enemy. In the police equipment market, a handful of corporations compete for the favor of state death squads.
We are facing them, on the side of the mass unrest in the French state against the “pension reform”, in the hot neighborhoods of the banlieues where BAC and other units have been killing for decades, on the side of our comrades in Sainte-Soline, with the insurgents of the French colonies…. everywhere where Peugeot, one of the most important vehicle manufacturers in France, is in use.
To give just a few examples, in Greece we also see the same enemies of freedom helping the Greek police. Almost four hundred Peugeot 308s were handed over as new patrol cars. With tinted windows “to transport delinquents inconspicuously,” the group advertises its product.
Peugeot Deutschland GmbH supplies the Saarland police with everything the technocratic brain desires: 120 patrol cars, 80 undercover investigation vehicles, vans…
On the night of April 21, we burned twenty-five vehicles on the premises of the Peugeot dealership on Landsberger Allee in Berlin-Marzahn. Among them, fancy electric SUVs and several vans (presumably leased vehicles) of the security company ISS. ISS is not only involved in the operation of jails but also, through a share in the company UNISON, in the destruction and privatization of parks in Athens.
Our attack is to be understood as support for the identifying of crisis perpetrators and profiteers that have been taking place for some time under this category. At the same time, we participate in the Anarchist Call to Action for May 1st in order to develop a long-term militant perspective regarding the upcoming demonstrations in Berlin. As anarchists, we support all FLINTA* (women, lesbians, inter, non-binary, trans and agender people) who will take back the streets on Walpurgis night, as well as on all other nights before and after this date. Our attack is meant to be a complement to the call of the Take Back the Night demonstration, which we understand as a necessary part of the escalation of the militant anti-patriarchal struggle.
We support the anarchist call to action in the context of the revolutionary May Day demonstrations because the insurrectionary perspective must seek conflict at all times. Without distancing ourselves, we are critical of some of the authoritarian and reformist groups in the May Day demonstrations. Our action can contribute to discuss our differences in the theoretical questions.
Colonialism and destruction of nature
Peugeot sells electric cars for the production of which raw materials from the regions of the global south are plundered, which is linked to the destruction of nature and the health of the workers. Later, the electric waste is sent back there. Peugeot, like other European corporations, uses mechanisms developed by colonial powers for centuries to subjugate other continents. Green capitalism is no less bloody than the previous versions. As long as cops can quickly reach any place at any time, capitalism manages to maintain the illusion of its invincibility in Western metropolises.
Cooperation with the Iranian state
Iran is one of the biggest growth markets for car sales. In 2016, Peugeot became the first Western group to reopen factories there after the end of sanctions, upon which Peugeot chief Jean Christophe Quemard commented: “We are showing that we are really committed to the future of Iran and are ready to invest in this country.” Given the open misogyny of the Iranian regime, a clear position emphasized with the Peugeot 206 as the patrol car there.
In the anarchist perspective, there is no negotiation with the system to make its crises more bearable. We are supposed to feel fear of “criminality” in order to give space to its violence. But let’s not kid ourselves, it is the murderers and rapists who sit in police vehicles and go about their business. The past and future riots are, among other things, also an expression of legitimate self-defense. Our solidarity is with all those who fight the presence of the cops in the streets and with whom we can develop collective moments in the process. The demonstration on May 1 can become another step towards social revolt.
Aggressive Action Cell “Zineb Redouane”
(Zineb Redouane (80) was killed by police on December 2, 2018 in Marseille by shooting her in the head with a tear gas grenade as she tried to close her 4th floor window).
source: https://de.indymedia.org/node/274006
translated by Nae Midion