A week after the police violently broke up a protest against the European Gas Conference in downtown Vienna, several organizations have called for a solidarity demonstration for today, Monday evening. The motto of the registered rally is: “Stop the criminalization of social movements!” This criminalization has reached a new level around the gas conference, criticized the “BlockGas” alliance. The demo starts at 5.45 p.m. at Ballhausplatz.
Organizations such as Attac, “Extinction Rebellion”, “Erde Brennt”, “Big Sibbling”, “Omas gegen Rechts” and “System Change, not Climate Change” take part in the rally. In addition to the “BlockGas” alliance, representatives of “LobauBleibt” and a French environmental protest alliance will hold speeches. Greenpeace also called for participation in a broadcast on Monday morning. “Peaceful and non-violent protest is one of the pillars of a functioning democracy and must be protected accordingly,” emphasized Adam Pawloff, program director at Greenpeace Austria.
Last Monday, the executive broke up an unannounced rally by the international alliance “BlockGas”. The police surrounded demonstrators, acted “very aggressively” and “disproportionately used pepper spray and batons,” criticized the human rights organization Amnesty International Austria.
The police justified the use of weapons by saying that two officers had been injured and that the activists had tried to force their way to the closed-off conference hotel on the Ringstrasse, with some allegedly getting stones and other material from a construction site. More than 140 people were arrested, and paragraph 274 of the Criminal Code “serious communal violence” was reported. With the dangerous criminal law paragraph 274, the police are trying to criminalize entire demonstrations and thus massively curtail their right to freedom of assembly, “BlockGas” warned in the demo call.