On February 11, a broad alliance consisting of different progressive and revolutionarist forces from Basel had called for the "Revolutionary Climate Demonstration". About 500 people from Switzerland, Germany and France took part in the demonstration, aiming to advance a revolutionary and anti-capitalist standpoint in the climate movement.
In its call, the alliance wrote: "The climate crisis is the result of social disproportions, it has responsible parties and these are also located in Basel. For example, the Syngenta corporation, which sells agricultural poisons and genetically modified seeds all over the world. [...] By means of greenwashing, many corporations, such as Tesla, try to take advantage of the increasing awareness of the climate crisis to promote their commodities, which are produced by exploiting people and nature, as it were, to increase their profits and to deny their own responsibility. The world is being destroyed and the profiteers are also sitting here in Switzerland and are supported by the Swiss state. Let's not accept this any longer, let's carry the resistance of the international climate movement into the center of this exploitative system."
Video from the twitter channel of Lotta - Organized Struggle
The demonstration began at 3:00 p.m. at De Wette Park and moved from there through downtown Basel. From the beginning, the unsanctioned demonstration was restricted by the police in the process, blocking roads and so on. When the demonstration finally tried to advance to Barfüsserplatz, a central square in downtown Basel, it was fired upon by the police with rubber shot and irritant gas. Here, the entire demonstration was covered with projectiles and the cops fired the shots in such a way that many of the rubber shot projectiles hit the demonstration at head level. Despite the massive efforts by the police to break up the demonstration, it managed to push them back several times and adjust the route so that the demonstration could still be successfully pushed through.
Throughout the demonstration had a pronounced militant expression and participants loudly shouted slogans, ignited pyrotechnics and carried out actions from within the demonstration. In addition to graffiti denouncing the police and the climate policies of the bourgeoisie, for example, a cardboard stand with a police car and different parties responsible for the destruction of the environment was burned when the demonstration was blocked for the first time. The demonstration was not impressed by the cops' attempts at intimidation, and in places went on the offensive itself, using various projectiles against the lackeys of the ruling class.
In addition to various progressive forces within the alliance and beyond, a joint contingent of proletarian revolutionaries from the FRG and Partizan also participated in the demonstration with a banner reading "No to deals and compromises - For the revolution!" and red flags with hammer and sickle.
At this point, we also want to emphasize our joy at a banner carried by forces from the alliance calling for solidarity with the agrarian revolution in the Philippines.
At the end of the demonstration, a joint retreat was coordinated to end the evening in a locale. Here there was medical care for the injured from the demonstration, info tables and plenty of opportunity to come together with food and some music and to exchange and further connect with each other after the success of the demonstration.
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