One year last generation: Activist takes stock – and makes clear announcement for 2023

Germany

Their protest caused a sensation. It doesn’t matter whether they stick to the streets, throw food at masterpieces of art history or even steal the top of Berlin’s Christmas tree: The activists of the last generation know how to draw attention to themselves.

And has been for a year now, as the spokeswoman for the environmental group clarified on Twitter. Clara Hinrichs reviews the past year in a long thread – and draws a bitter balance for the climate policy of the traffic light coalition.

On January 24, 2022, the group, which was later referred to as “Climate RAF”, “Climate Glue” and “Climate Terrorists”, especially in conservative circles, carried out the first action on a motorway. Hinrichs writes that 24 people were there at the time. Today there are more. The actions are no longer limited to the Berlin city highway.

Glue shops followed the hunger strike

But the pasting on the city highway wasn’t the group’s first action. In her thread, Hinrichs recalls the year 2021. The summer before the general election. A group of young people had gone on a hunger strike. The condition for the termination: talks with the chancellor candidates: inside. The strikers wanted to talk about their concerns about the climate crisis.

“The hunger strike ended for some in the hospital. The conversation with Chancellor Scholz finally revealed that he has no plan to get the climate crisis under control,” Hinrichs wrote on Twitter. And that is the reason that ultimately drove the activists of the last generation onto the streets.

The protest camp in the Spreebogenpark.Image: watson / leonard laurig

Hinrichs writes:

The activist group, Hinrichs clarifies, has interrupted everyday life everywhere. And for one simple reason: “Because this crisis affects us all, we are all the last generation before the tipping points, the last generation that can still stop a catastrophe.” At least that’s how the activist sees it.

Hinrichs also explains how she herself reacted to the politics to the actions: Instead of listening, the politicians would have criminalized the group. “With increasing unignorability, the headwind increased,” writes the spokeswoman. She counts:

The last generation sees itself as an agenda setter

But the group carried on. And she has grown. The fact that the terms “climate glue” and “climate terrorists” appeared in the rankings of words and non-words of the year shows how strongly the last generation has steered public discourse.

And in the process, says Hinrichs, it is becoming increasingly clear whose behavior is actually criminal. And the activist sees the majority of Germans on her side. Finally, says Hinrichs, 60 percent of citizens state that the government is doing too little for the climate. The ignorance of the decision-makers makes the failure more and more obvious, writes Hinrichs.

She makes a devastating verdict:

What the past year has also shown: “Civil resistance works.” Through the actions in people’s everyday lives, the group manages to put the climate crisis on the agenda again and again. “Hardly anyone got past the last generation in 2022,” writes Hinrichs. No matter where, the question is always: “What is the last generation planning next?”

If Hinrichs had his way, nothing at all. But that is only possible, the activist clarifies, if the existence of humanity is no longer under massive threat. She makes it clear: “As long as we stand on the cliff in front of the abyss and the climate government wants to take another step forward, we will resist.”