The citizens’ initiative Aschwarden northwest of Bremen is calling for a demonstration against the planned construction of a meadow farm fattening farm for about 30,000 animals on Friday, March 6, together with Fridays for Future Osterholz. Activists from our alliance will also take part!
Here the flyer for the demonstration only in german:
Below is the call for the demonstration:
In the village of Aschwarden in Schwanewede a chicken fattening facility is to be built! Nearly 30,000 animals will have an agonizing, unworthy life on our doorstep, condemned to death. 26 animals pumped full of antibiotics will soon be crowded together here on just one square meter. Not only an ethical disaster – in times of climate change a completely wrong investment. Money seems to be more important to the local head of Aschwarden and his partner Wiesenhof than animal and climate protection. Despite a citizens’ initiative and 750 signatures against it, he is pushing for the project to be implemented. They do not yet want to take us seriously! But not us!
The workers in the animal industry often suffer from exploitative working conditions. They have to perform physically and psychologically extremely stressful work. By employing them on work contracts, the rights of workers from South-Eastern and Eastern Europe in particular are disregarded and organising is made more difficult. They do not have a guaranteed wage, and fees for a wide variety of work equipment are deducted from their wages. Health and safety at work is virtually non-existent. In case of complaints and in case of illness they have to expect their dismissal.
In order to counteract this, the association “Aktion Würde und Gerechtigkeit” was founded. This non-profit association supports workers, especially from Eastern and Southeastern Europe, with the meat industry as its main focus.
On Friday (6 March 2020) at 15.00 hrs the association’s advisory centre in Rahestraße 29 in 49525 Lengerich will be officially inaugurated.
Workers will receive advice on site, by telephone and e-mail, from volunteers and lawyers.
On May 02, 2020, a large animal rights demonstration will take place in Hamburg under the motto “Hand in Hand for Animal Rights 2.0”. The demonstration is organized by the Animal Rights Activists Alliance, and many other groups are also calling for this. We also support the call:
This is the call from the Animal Rights League: WE SET A RECORD!
On 02.05.2020 it is to go in Hamburg around the Alster again media-effectively around animal rights and Veganismus.
We want to show society, politics and the media our strength, which we have through our unity in the overall goal and through our numbers. Together for animal rights. All together.
On 02 May 2020 something never before seen will take place!
Currently 21 German and international animal rights organisations, groups and initiatives are officially mobilising with us for the longest planned human chain for animal rights ever.
Together we pull together to reach as many people as possible and bring them to Hamburg!
The long-time animal rights activists and animal liberators as well as those who have recently become active and those who have never been on the streets before, the health as well as the pudding vegans and raw food vegans, the not-yet-vegans and the vegetarians with a constantly bad conscience, from the vegetable children with their vegetable parents to the elderly vegetable fans!
Today, the 1st edition of the Climate Plan from below, to which members of our alliance have also contributed, was published!
Here is the message from the just1 comma5 crew:
We
are facing one of the biggest decisions of mankind - a decision on
how to face the climate crisis.This
is both a huge responsibility and an opportunity. Our chance to
jointly initiate a comprehensive change towards a more just society.
Dear
friends* and climateists,
above
you have read a quote from the introduction of the climate plan from
below.Finally,
the time has come: Today we publish the first edition of the Climate
Plan from below!
Here
you can find all the big and small measures collected so far that can
help to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees:
We
decided against a print version at first, because, as you will
probably notice while browsing through it, the 1st edition is mainly
a construction site plan.
So
there can be no talk of a conclusion for a long time. And that is not
the idea. That's why you are all still invited and cordially invited
to get involved, write new measures, discuss and comment on existing
measures and to spread the idea of the climate plan from below!
After
this first phase of writing the climate plan from below, we invite
you to a larger planning meeting from April 3 - 5 to plan the next
phase. SAVE THE DATE! We are looking forward to welcome many new
faces! Together we want to spin further visions and paths of the
campaign - How can we make the climate plan more known? How can we
fill it with more content? How can we start implementing individual
measures?
Finally,
we want to say thank you! Thanks to all the hard-working and
supportive people who have contributed to this project! Together we
have laid a first foundation stone on which a world that is fair to
the climate can be built. Together - in cooperation with numerous
initiatives and groups - we have ensured that the word "system
change" does not remain an empty shell, but we are beginning to
examine the concepts, ideas and visions behind it and to fill it with
life.
We
are still at the beginning of a long journey. If we walk it together,
if we are organized and in solidarity, we can achieve great things.
Together with the Animal Rights Initiative Osnabrück, we are organising an open networking meeting in Osnabrück on 11 March. We want to get together in a relaxed atmosphere from 7 p.m. onwards and network with other active people from the city. We will report about our current planning status and talk about participation possibilities. There will also be room for your questions and discussions.
When: Wednesday, March 11, 7 pm Where: EW building 1st floor, room 15/130, Seminarstraße 20, 49074 Osnabrück (https://osm.org/go/0GablZs4?m=)
Below is our invitation text, which you are welcome to forward to interested parties:
Alliance “Gemeinsam gegen die Tierindustrie”: Networking meeting in Osnabrück on 11 March (7 pm)
The alliance “Gemeinsam gegen die Tierindustrie” is planning a protest camp in Visbek-Rechterfeld for 13th to 20th June 2020! This is where the PHW Group has its headquarters: with its brands Wiesenhof, Bruzzzler and Co. it is the largest German poultry breeder and processor. PHW and the animal industry are recording record sales and growth rates, while the workers* in the factories have to slave away under inhumane conditions, the Amazon rainforest is constantly burning for new areas of feed and fuels climate change, and undercover research in animal factories brings to light appalling conditions again and again. This is a scandal!
We are a broad alliance of groups and people who want to stand together in the way of the animal industry. You are also already active against the animal industry, for climate and environmental protection or against exploitation? Or you have been waiting for a long time for an opportunity to become active and you are curious what we have in mind? We would love to meet you at our open networking meeting in Osnabrück on 11 March! On this evening, starting at 7 pm, we will present the alliance and the current planning status. In a relaxed atmosphere we can talk about possible questions and participation possibilities.
When: Wednesday, 11 March 7 pm Where: EW building 1st floor, room 15/130, Seminarstraße 20, 49074 Osnabrück (https://osm.org/go/0GablZs4?m=)
Together with Ende Gelände Bremen, we are organising an open networking meeting in Bremen on 10 March. We want to get together in a relaxed atmosphere from 7 pm on and network with other active people from the city. We will report about our current planning status and talk about participation possibilities. There will also be room for your questions and discussions.
Below is our invitation text, which you are welcome to forward to interested parties:
Alliance “Gemeinsam gegen die Tierindustrie”: Networking meeting in Bremen on 10 March (7 pm)
The alliance “Gemeinsam gegen die Tierindustrie” is planning a protest camp in Visbek-Rechterfeld for 13th to 20th June 2020! This is where the PHW Group has its headquarters: with its brands Wiesenhof, Bruzzzler and Co. It is the largest German poultry breeder and processor. PHW and the animal industry are recording record sales and growth rates, while the workers* in the factories have to slave away under inhumane conditions, the Amazon rainforest is constantly burning for new areas of feed and fuels climate change, and undercover research in animal factories brings to light appalling conditions again and again. This is a scandal!
We are a broad alliance of groups and people who want to stand together in the way of the animal industry. You are also already active against the animal industry, for climate and environmental protection or against exploitation? Or you have been waiting for a long time for an opportunity to become active and you are curious what we have in mind? We would love to meet you at our open networking meeting in Bremen on March 10th! On this evening, starting at 7 pm, we will present the alliance and the current planning status. In a relaxed atmosphere we can talk about possible questions and participation possibilities.
Two comrades from Mobi AG visited Cira TV on Thursday evening – a Yazidi / Kurdish broadcaster – and presented our alliance there. The show was broadcast live and can now be found on the youtube channel.
Topics of the show include the self-image of the cross-movement, Germany-wide alliance, which was founded as part of an action conference in July 2019. The planned actions and events of the alliance are also part of the program. The general current political situation will also be addressed in the course of the program.
In Munich this weekend, the powerful from politics, the military, corporate leaders and the defense industry gathered again for the NATO Security Conference. Resistance to this war conference was also starting. At the evening demonstration “Keine Sicherheit diesen Verhältnissen” on February 14th. demonstrated about 1600 people against the SiKo. The demo has been supported by Ende Gelände, Karavane, Seebrücke München, Bündnis NoPAG, anti-racist and anti-fascist groups. The demonstration sees itself as part of the climate justice movement and resistance to the shift to the right and the authoritarian state restructuring. You can find the Alliance’s press release on the demo here.
you’re reading the second participation newsletter of “Gemeinsam gegen die Tierindustrie”!
Report from the last Alliance meeting
We have good news – our alliance is growing! At the last meeting in Berlin from 10-12 January, there were about 30 new people with different backgrounds, many of whom want to become actively involved. In order to welcome the “newcomers” well, there was an introductory round on Friday evening, which was very well received. During the following days we discussed, listened, talked, decided and got to know each other a lot.
Join in!
Such a protest camp requires a lot of preparation! We are already many committed people, but we are also still dependent on further support in many places – and we are looking forward to seeing more groups and people who would like to join our alliance! For all new people there is of course a detailed introduction to the alliance process.
All those interested are cordially invited to our Alliance meetings:
14-16 February: Hamburg (see below for further information)
20-22 March: Kassel
17-19 April: Cologne / Bonn area
15-17 May: not yet determined
You can get involved in the most diverse tasks. For example…
the working group Camp-Logistics is grateful for contacts to people with experience in light & sound engineering or with a truck driving licence;
the working group Mobilisation is ready to support people in all kinds of areas in self-organised mobi events;
the working group Program is happy about support in the preparation of the camp program;
the working group Antirepression is currently still looking for people who want to prepare legal texts for activists or who want to organise legal support during the camp;
and is the working group Finance is happy about solidarity events where money for the alliance is collected.
Our next alliance meeting: 14-16 February in Hamburg
Our next alliance meeting will take place from 14-16 February in Hamburg! We are looking forward to seeing new faces who would like to join us in the preparations.
Here are the outline dates for the program of the meeting:
Friday: For newcomers there will be an introduction at 7 pm to make it easier to get started. There will also be a joint dinner on Friday evening.
Saturday: On Saturday the meeting starts at 9 am and goes on all day – with breaks, delicious food and a nice evening program.
Sunday: Sunday the meeting ends at about 1 pm. Afterwards there will be lunch and if you want you can help cleaning up afterwards.
We now have a really nice logo as well as flyers and posters and would be very happy if you support us in distributing them! Just send us a mail with the desired amount of materials and your address to mail@gemeinsam-gegen-die-tierindustrie.de and we will send you a package soon. You will soon find digital versions on our homepage.
The
article presents a study recently published by Germanwatch and
MISEREOR, which shows clear deficits in respecting human rights in
the entire supply chain of food companies.
For the
study, the two organizations took a close look at 15 large German
companies from the poultry, milk, feed and agricultural chemicals
sectors with regard to “Human rights due diligence in the
agricultural sector”. The results are very indicative of a
profit-oriented capitalist economy. Not a single one of the 15
companies fulfills the requirements of the UN guiding principles for
business and human rights.
When
selecting the companies to be examined, Germanwatch and MISEREOR
concentrated on the most important sub-areas of German agriculture.
This includes the production of animal products and the associated
feed production, which represent the largest part of the agricultural
production value in Germany (BLE 2018). In the field of meat
production, the companies selected the 5 largest poultry meat
producers, including the PHW group (Wiesenhof) with the following
reasons.
From
the 2020 Global Agriculture and Human Rights Report: German companies
and politics put to the test p. 47:
“In
the meat sector, the scope of the present survey only allowed a small
selection of examinations. In the sense of a risk-oriented study, the
following factors were decisive in choosing the poultry sector:
1.) The
export share of poultry meat produced in Germany is around 50 percent
(Thobe et al. 2019: 3) and is therefore the highest in comparison to
the other meat sectors.
2.) For several years, reports on
poultry meat exports to markets in the global south have been
documenting human rights-relevant effects for small farmers (Maas et
al. 2015, Mari 2017).
3.) In addition, reports from poultry meat
production, slaughter and processing have been proving very
problematic working conditions, especially for migrant workers (see
box, p. 58f).
In addition, the exposure of poultry meat to
antibiotic-resistant germs is higher than for other types of meat
(BVL 2019: 52). This goes hand in hand with the fact that the
health-related exposure of employees in the poultry industry is even
higher than in other areas of meat production.
Overall,
these criteria led to the present report in the meat sector
addressing the five leading companies in the poultry industry. These
are the PHW group, Rothkötter, the Sprehe group, Heidemark and
Plukon. “
The
German poultry meat producers in particular performed particularly
poorly in the study. For example, none of the five companies are
committed to respecting human rights. The PHW Group is only expected
to do this by its suppliers.
According
to the study, there are considerable human rights risks associated
with poultry meat production:
For example, growing soy for
animal feed often leads to land evictions and toxic pesticide use in
South America. The massive use of antibiotics * in animal husbandry
also increases demand in the antibiotic production countries of India
and China. This also increases the risk of resistance. Exports of
poultry parts from the EU threaten the economic survival of local
producers in West Africa and endanger their livelihood. The experts
also see deficits in Germany. For example, the working conditions in
German slaughterhouses are sometimes inhumane.
The
study on pages 58 and 59 provides a detailed report on labor and
human rights violations in the Süd Oldenburg meat industry. Here the
unemployed self-help Oldenburg (ALSO) documented terrifying
conditions from their advisory work.
“Migrant
workers have to live in run-down apartments that are crammed with
usury rents with contract workers” (LCV 2018). The rent, which is
often completely excessive, is usually deducted directly from the
wages and in the event of termination, the workers also lose the roof
over their heads (ALSO 2018: 8). ”
“Many
workers work twelve hours a day, six days a week until they are
completely exhausted.”
“As a rule, employment
contracts in the meat industry are limited, often to the length of
the trial period. Terminations are possible at short notice and for
no reason. In addition, a large proportion of the employees are
employed through contracts for work or on loan. “
Current
legal proceedings show that human rights violations in the poultry
industry and especially in the slaughtering and cutting factories are
no exceptions. For example, a trial is currently taking place at the
Oldenburg Regional Court in which two men are accused of employing
foreign workers without a permit between 2007 and 2010 and thereby
making profits in the millions. They are said to have operated a kind
of intermediary between the meat processing company Wiesenhof in
Lohne in Lower Saxony and probably several Bulgarian companies. The
witnesses invited in the process speak of hourly wages of three to
four euros.
Representatives
of the “Oldenburger Geflügelspezialitäten GmbH & Co. KG”,
better known under their brand name Wiesenhof, also sit in the
courtroom. They are calling for the proceedings to be terminated,
including by referring to the Federal Constitutional Court. This has
not yet made a decision when asked whether the company has to pay the
illegally obtained profit even in cases that have already expired.
Already
in 2017, a process of illegal employment at the Wiesenhof subsidiary
Geestland of over 900 workers took place at low wages. In the end,
the two accused (Geestland managing director Norbert Deeken and the
former Wiesenhof authorized officer accused of subsidies and Pro Work
managing director Frank Diekmann) were acquitted by the Oldenburg
district court. The allegation has been proven, but the deeds have
already expired. Nevertheless, PHW / Wiesenhof has to pay the wage
costs saved by the dumping wages to the group account to the state
treasury. These are ten million euros that actually belong to the
exploited workers and not to the state, which then subsidizes huge
animal factories with this money.
Our demands:
We call for the end of exploitation of workers in the animal industry. We want good and fair jobs! We therefore call for an immediate, solidary structural change program financed by the assets of the PHW Group and the entire animal industry for regions that were previously dominated by the animal industry. We demand expropriation of the industry and continuation under worker control. This goes hand in hand with a conversion of the factories into ecologically compatible and solidary plant production facilities under the self-administration of the workers.
* From
the 2020 Global Agriculture and Human Rights Report: German companies
and politics put to the test / Box 3: Antibiotic production without
wastewater treatment as the cause of the spread of antibiotic
resistance p. 57: “Worldwide, 73 percent of all antibiotics
produced are used in intensive factory farming (Boeckel 2019: 1),
around half of these valuable medicines in Germany. Some corporations
such as B. the PHW Group, which also includes Wiesenhof and Lohmann
Pharma, produce meat as well as veterinary and human pharmaceuticals,
including antibiotics from purchased active ingredients (Lohmann
Pharma 2019)”
