2023-12-16 15:28:00
The federal police arrested several activists from the Code Red movement on Saturday following their incursion into the grounds of Deurne airport (Antwerp). The climate activists were then transported on a bus from the Flemish public transport company De Lijn, the Belga press agency noted.
Airports fear blockage by Code Red activists: “We are not targeting normal citizens but the 1% who use the plane a lot”
Code Red is defined as a civil disobedience movement created by activists and supported by different organizations and action groups such as Greenpeace, Extinction Rebellion and Youth for Climate.
This Saturday’s action targeted the aviation industry, “an industry harmful to the climate, nature and social justice but which nevertheless benefits from millions of subsidies and tax gifts”, according to the movement. He therefore calls for the “end of aviation subsidies, a ban on private jets and more budget for public transport”.
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In a press release, the collective denounced a “mass arrest of Code Red movement activists” on the sidelines of the action, while many people were intercepted by the police on the way to the airport. In the eyes of the movement, these arrests threaten “the fundamental right to demonstrate”. “By arresting us like this, the police are siding with the big polluters in their desire to silence us,” he maintains.
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“This abusive arrest is part of a worrying context of criminalization of activists at European level, in which more and more activists are brought before the courts. But we are not the criminals; the criminals are those we denounce through our actions, those who in full conscience and only to continue their profit continue to destroy the planet, to contribute to climate change and to create social injustice”, indicates the spokesperson for Code Rouge, Chloé Mikolajczak, quoted in the press release .
Activists determined to block Bierset airport
The Code Red movement organized a civil disobedience action at Liège airport on Saturday afternoon. At around 3:30 p.m., climate activists entered the site of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, preventing planes from unloading. There were 600 of them taking part in the action, estimates the collective.
By this occupation, the activists intended to denounce the large-scale expansion of the Liège airport on agricultural land.
“Liège airport is the fastest growing airport in Europe,” said Louis Droussin, one of the activists of the Code Red movement, quoted in a press release. “Millions of euros of public money support this expansion, which comes at the expense of hundreds of hectares of agricultural land. In the case of Alibaba, more and more trucks and planes full of low-quality goods cause “ever more sleepless nights for residents. It’s simply unfair,” he lamented.
Code Red demands, among other things, an end to subsidies for the aviation sector, a ban on private jets and affordable public transport. With regard more specifically to Liège airport, the collective calls for “the abandonment of new expansions” and a “collectively concerted transition for airport staff”.
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