This week, Deutsche Bahn infrastructure was the subject of arson attacks in Bremen, Hamburg and Berlin. The disruptions caused by these attacks will hopefully cause effective fractures in the capitalist routine. Like no other company, the state-owned DB forms the backbone and lifeline of the German economy and provides the fuel that keeps it running. Every day DB Cargo transports tons of raw materials looted around the world to the workshops and factories of the major steel, chemical and automotive industries, to satisfy the company’s insatiable hunger for consumer goods and building materials.
At the same time, we are in the midst of a vast transformation process, from the fossil fuel era to a high-tech and electrified world, which is being sold to us by the German government under the misleading term “energy transition”. DB logistics plays a key role in this process. Solutions for transporting hydrogen or lithium batteries, for example, are currently being developed to support the expansion of a “green” economy in Germany and make the area attractive to companies that set up there and invest in new technologies. Tesla in Grünheide is probably the most well-known and controversial example of this mendacious madness. This is accompanied by the emergence and expansion of extractive projects and new transit routes to transport coveted and disputed resources such as cobalt, lithium, nickel, copper and silicon, essential for so-called sustainable technologies, from mines to processing and production plants. While politicians and industry hope that this will open up new sales markets and lucrative business opportunities, this development means one thing above all for the Earth: progress toward total destruction. But now, with a green badge and in the name of climate protection, DB is absolutely ahead of the curve.
When the railway comes to a standstill, the finely timed processes of this system of exploitation and destruction are interrupted and slowed down.
But DB is much more than a civilian company that just transports goods and labor from A to B. DB’s rail network is a central component of military infrastructure and is used by the Bundeswehr and NATO for troop movement and, together with highways, is a backbone of transporting armaments such as tanks and heavy war equipment around the world and in active theaters of war.
This year, Germany is the starting point for several NATO exercises. These are mainly exercises for the deployment of tens of thousands of NATO soldiers and their war material on the “Eastern Front”. The Bundeswehr leads many of these large-scale military exercises, making Germany a hub for moving troops and military equipment from the North Sea and Western Europe to Scandinavia, the Baltic states, and the Balkans. With these exercises, NATO and Sweden intend to simulate the scenario of a Russian attack and give “a clear demonstration of our unity, strength and determination for mutual defense” (Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, Christopher Cavoli).
The DB railway network is part of NATO’s military infrastructure. By attacking the DB, you are attacking the infrastructure of war and armaments production.
However, DB is not only a military actor in this territory: DB profits from colonial and environmental destruction projects in the Global South. DB Consulting & Engineering advised the Mexican Ministry of Tourism on the “Tren Maya” project, acting as a shadow operator behind the scenes. The “Tren Maya” is a 1,500 km long railway project with highway infrastructure in southeastern Mexico, which connects several federal states with the tourist hell of Cancún and for which many hectares of jungle have already been deforested. In addition, for this construction work, many cenotes, interconnected caves with huge reserves of fresh water, are being destroyed and literally exploded. Such caves are not only important for the water supply, but also have great cultural significance for the local indigenous population. The project aims to bring tourists to areas that were previously little linked to tourism and little exploited, opening the region to mass tourism and new investments. The “Tren Maya” is also run by the Mexican army and serves to further militarize the region and the southern border.
DB is also involved in colonial projects in Brazil: a huge export port will be built on the island of Cajual, in the east of the Amazon, with a deep-sea station and a new private railway line (EF-317) 520 km long. This will be used to transport raw materials such as copper, iron ore, soybeans and hydrogen, from the interior of the country to the Atlantic coast, so that they can be exported more quickly to the North of the world. The “DB E.C.O. Group” is involved in the project and describes it as “sustainable”. The only sustainable thing is the environmental devastation caused by this project. Through this plan, DB profits from the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest and the subsequent brutal eviction of indigenous communities. The export port also threatens the enormous biodiversity of the nearby mangrove forests. The planned railway line passes through several indigenous communities, some of which are uncontacted. The Maranhão region, through which the railway line passes, is the area with the highest rate of violence against indigenous peoples and this construction project will intensify this violence and land grabbing.
Deutsche Bahn profits from global environmental destruction and colonial projects. These colonial projects mean militarization and land grabbing, i.e. war.
DB is therefore not only a military player in Europe, transporting troops, war equipment and exporting weapons and thus profiting from current and future wars, but also a global player in environmental destruction and colonial exploitation, land grabbing and militarization through its projects in the Global South.
We sabotage military and colonial infrastructure all over the world!
AGAINST CAPITALIST PEACE – AGAINST CAPITALIST WAR!
Greetings to France, to the unexpected delegation and to all the other saboteurs who lit the Olympic flame in the cable ducts of the SNCF and the internet operators.
[Posted in German in https://kontrapolis.info/13610/| Translated into Italian and published in https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2024/08/05/attacchi-incendiari-contro-linfrastruttura-dellazienda-ferroviaria-tedesca-deutsche-bahn-brema-amburgo-berlino-germania-luglio-2024/]