Geef tegengas | Speech

Rotterdam, August 31 2024

Welcome to the Geef Tegengas mass action! We are currently blocking the main cargo entrance to the entire Port of Rotterdam! Thank you all so much for being here

We stand here today against genocide and climate breakdown, in solidarity with those struggling around the world against injustice and oppression, and for a Port of Rotterdam free of industries destroying our world and it's peoples. The Port of Rotterdam is the biggest port in Europe, the hub of fortress Europe's shipping of weapons, oil, gas and destruction around the world. We call for an end to complicity in genocide and climate breakdown, and for a just transition for all port workers. They shouldn't have to work in destructive industries to earn a living - there must be equal opportunities in other sectors that workers can transition to, and a transition fund for those who cannot transfer to other industries

We are sick of being told how to take action. We have marched, we have signed petitions, we have voted and lobbied politicians who claim to speak for us. And yet bombs are still dropped and sea levels still rise. Air is choked, either by toxic pollutants or by clouds of rubble and dust. The same companies pumping oil and gas out of the ground are the ones funding genocidal regimes, and the same systems and countries responsible for colonial conquest are once again mobilised for the death of millions of people of colour in the global south.

We stand on the shoulders of giants. Both here and around the world, people are rising up against injustice, oppression, genocide and climate collapse. We stand shoulder to shoulder with all our allies, in global solidarity against global crises. This is only the beginning. If the Netherlands, and the port of Rotterdam, continue to facilitate genocide and climate collapse, be it through their complicity in the arms trade or the expansion of the Gate terminal, we will be back. Bigger, stronger, bolder. If not us, then who? If not now, then when?

Who shuts shit down?!