9. September, early morning: thousands of cities come to life, millions of people are woken from their sleep by the shrill beeping of their alarm clock, which heralds the beginning of another day of monotony and apathy – 15 minutes to drink coffee and then rush to work. An hour on public transport, few looks crossing each other, no:r talking, everyone staring at their screens. Tons of cars cross the streets, the noise of blue lights frightens the few birds circling over the city. The neighborhood is a little more desolate every day. Loneliness spreads among many, between concrete buildings, fences and cameras. Surrounded by police presence that threatens to suffocate us more and more. Advertising screens that encourage or invite you to consume and join the Bundeswehr. Yes, it’s that time again: „May the world recover from German nature“. The „turn of the century“ requires standing at attention for the fatherland and the ability to wage war so that the „people’s body“ comes together and makes sacrifices. Militarization is progressing and behind the neoliberal promise of prosperity, the fascist face is becoming increasingly blatant. Resignation and pessimism gain followers and sadness is breathed.
Constantly reporting disasters in the news. Wars and genocides do not stop. On the contrary: murder continues in Gaza, Congo, Sudan and Ukraine and those in power are rubbing their hands. Business is going well. New deals are constantly being arranged to exploit other countries’ resources and deprive people of their livelihoods. The neo-fascists: in more and more countries they are firmly in the saddle of power and capital is reliably at their service. The reactionary wave of anti-feminism and queer hostility is driven by the tech bros and AI continues its steep career of making the world more and more artificial. Their dystopian promise of progress: a fascist technocracy with extra-planetary aspirations in response to the collapsing planet. Everything seems as if this world has long been lost, that there is no possibility of action, that our actions are of no use anyway, as if the rebellious times were far in the past.
But today not everything works so smoothly. In Europe’s largest technology park in the eastern part of Berlin, for which there is usually a lot of activity, this normality seems to have melted away after a few minutes in the early hours of the morning. The darkness has been replaced by a glimmer of hope because apathy and frustration are not the only responses to this oppressive reality.
No, today is not a normal day. Hundreds of CEOs from various firms and research institutes in the IT, robotics, bio & nanotech, space, AI, security and defense industries have received the bitter news that their technology park in Adlershof has ceased to function. At least for a short period of time, but that’s enough to massively affect their sensitive super machines and processes. Two 110KV electricity pylons in Königsheide in Johannisthal were turned off by arson, causing a blackout in the technology park. We ask the residents: those who were affected by this in their private households, for their indulgence, this was by no means our intention. Nevertheless, we see this collateral damage as justifiable, in contrast to the de facto destruction of nature and the often fatal subjugation of people, for which many of the companies based here are responsible day in and day out. Their adherence to the pursuit of technological progress and the constant expansion of industrial exploitation in the face of current disasters have far more serious consequences. For everyone and permanently. The absolute will to enforce this with military force if necessary shows what it is actually about – profit and power. This fact cannot be covered up by funny drone shows in the night sky or football-playing AI robots, such as those occasionally presented to the technology-loving audience in Adlershof. Their melodious advertising slogans of innovation, sustainability and progress are nothing more than a misleading maneuver on the battlefield of discourse determination to distract from the fact that they are actually building instruments that bring death and destruction. Every conceivable business model from the above-mentioned areas of the high-tech industry, which is located in the Adlershof Technology Park, functions, in one way or another, to stabilize the system and is, among other things, a product of military interests. Their machinations are the guarantee for the continued existence of the capitalist death machine. They are all the real goal of our campaign.
However, it would go far beyond the scope of illuminating each of the more than a thousand companies and exposing all their atrocities. This list would be endless. We therefore limit this undertaking here to a few examples that exemplify the unspeakable entanglement of research, science and technology with war, environmental destruction and social control.
ATOS – One of the cyber giants that develops IT products and AI-based applications for military and policing, among other things. For the Bundeswehr, the group runs the HaFIS (harmonization of command information systems) project or builds fireproof functional containers with IT infrastructure For the warmonger Israel, Atos maintains a high-security data center for its defense and security authorities and is therefore jointly responsible for the war and genocide.
ASTRIAL – A company that, in addition to security infrastructure for smart cities, is particularly notable for its involvement in the border authorities’ global war against migrants*. Their command and control systems process massive amounts of data from land, sea, underwater, underground, air and space sensors to optimize manhunting at the outer borders of the Global North.
GERMAN AEROSPACE CENTRE (DLR) – Space is a highly contested area in the polycrisis and DLR is benefiting massively from the federal government’s special military fund. Defense technology research is an integral part of the DLR’s program. For example, DLR supports Air Force training flights or operates a competence center for aerospace medicine in Cologne together with the Bundeswehr.
EDAG – A long-standing partner of the security and armaments industry. The company develops wheeled and tracked military vehicles, maritime security solutions or manned and unmanned military aircraft. In short: all imaginable machines designed to kill.
EUROVIA/VINCI – One of the largest construction and infrastructure companies in the world, which is involved, among other things, in the contested construction of the French nuclear waste storage facility. But Vinci also builds (deportation) prisons, airports or motorways. With its countless subsidiaries, the company itself is active in the energy sector and is increasingly pushing into the defense market. The Vinci subsidiary Actemium recently announced the takeover of Wärtsilä SAM Electronics GmbH, which works for the German navy and naval shipyards in Hamburg, Wilhelmshaven, Elmenhorst, Bremerhaven and Kiel.
JENOPTIK – The technology company from Jena operates at the interface of internal security and military defence through products such as laser rangefinders, thermal imaging cameras, LEDs, infrared and polymer optics, which are used, for example, for military reconnaissance or to protect infrastructures. Their software „TraffiData” is currently relevant and is used, among other things, in the border area with Mexico and was expanded by „TraffiCatch” at the request of the US border authority to hunt unwanted people more efficiently.
ROHDE & SCHWARZ – The technology and defense company manufactures radio technology for military radio facilities and surveillance systems that are sold to major tech companies, governments and intelligence agencies around the world. R&S products are used, for example, for border security (e.g. in Saudi Arabia), in military vehicles, aircraft, ships, as well as for controlling missiles, etc. But also in police and secret service listening devices.
SIEMENS – There is hardly an area in the armaments and large-scale industries where Siemens products do not appear. Weapon systems, nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers, tanks, nuclear reactors, dams, wind turbines, prisons, airports and much more. Many of these mega-projects are highly controversial, such as TrenMaya in Mexico, Erdogan’s dam projects in Kurdistan and, most recently, the construction of the EuroAsia Interconnector underwater power cable that connects Israel with Cyprus and Greece. The group also supports other Israeli infrastructure projects in occupied East Jerusalem and in Israeli settler colonies in the West Bank.
TRUMPF – A company that is at the forefront of the international chip war for supremacy in the digital world. Whether smartphones with turbo data transmission and facial recognition, smart data glasses, artificial intelligence, self-driving cars or rocket, drone and weapon systems. Semiconductors are installed everywhere, in the production of which the German company Trumpf, in collaboration with Zeiss and ASML, plays a key role through its EUV lithography systems. Without its components, the high-tech world would stand still.
This sabotage not only aims to name and disrupt the enemy: within freedom, but also to be a call to expand offensive action in general, but especially of this form of action, which leads to an effective interruption of the system. It is a call to finally leave frustration and hopelessness behind. An outcry to proclaim that our anarchist ideas and drive are thriving and that the irresponsible actions of those in power will always have consequences. This applies above all to the complicity: within the weapons industry, because we will not stand idly by and overlook how people are massacred or condemned to starvation in their wars.
To attack critical infrastructure is to attack one of the main veins of man’s submission to man and nature. As such, the electricity grid represents the history of progress and is the basic prerequisite for the merciless development towards a high-tech society as we know it today. This society, which is pilloried by technology and capital, appears to be the earthly end product of civilization’s achievement for the time being and is causing an almost irreparable destruction of the earth, the extent of which is unique in earth’s history. Not to mention the bloody wars over power and resources that the rulers impose on their servants:inside. The insatiable urge for growth makes them, in the truest sense of the word, increasingly reach for the stars. Electricity is the main source of the energy that nourishes every machine and the „progress“ necessary to reproduce this current system. It is possible to switch it off and it is also possible to replace it with a life of freedom without domination and exploitation!
Sabotage the technological attack – cut off the juice of the military-industrial complex!
Always aggressive – Never capable of war!
Some anarchists
