Posts Tagged ‘Bayer AG’
Attempted Molotov attacks against vehicles of techno-industrial company Bayer AG (Germany)
Sunday, October 5th, 2014
Translated from linksunten.indymedia.org by anarchist comrade Marco Camenisch. Translated from Italian by act for freedom now.
In the night between 26th and 27th July 2014 we tossed molotov bottles at several ‘Bayer AG’ vehicles – and with this action we started off our Tendency of Eco Struggle.
Poisoning and exploiting
During the first world war ‘Friedr. Bayer & Co’ (which later became ‘Bayer AG’) produced explosives and chemicals for war purposes. Their troubles in getting supplies were not due to humanitarian scruples but to security risks and lack of labour force. As soon as the war turned into trench warfare gas begun to be strategically used as a weapon, and Bayer begun to supply the army with tens of thousands of tons of various types of gas.
Not content with their turnover, ‘Friedr. Bayer & Co’ also formed alliances with other chemical companies in a ‘community of interest’ following the example of the American Trusts of the time.
The economic crisis that followed the war didn’t last long, and in 1925 nine chemical companies led by ‘BASF’ formed ‘JG Farben’.
At the beginning (1926), ‘JG Farben’ didn’t embrace the aspirations of the national-socialist party, but then they realized that their production of synthetic petrol couldn’t function without funding. Back in 1932, a year before the electoral victory of NSDAP (German National-Socialist Workers’ Party), the company made contact with Hitler and obtained his support. In order to guarantee stability in their profits, ‘JG Farben’ thought it useful to contribute to the electoral expenses of the NSDAP with about 400,000 Reichsmark (German marks). Since then their cooperation with the Nazi regime flourished almost without frictions.
Almost the entire board of directors of the company became members of the NSDAP, while monopolization made ‘JG Farben’ the fourth most important company in the world.
During the Spanish Civil war, the company provided financial support to Franco’s troops, while in Guernica the Luftwaffe had the chance to test an incendiary bomb produced by ‘JG Farben’ on civilians. During the second world war ‘JG Farben’ was committed to the production of war weaponry and was one of the responsible for the murder and exploitation of prisoners in concentration camps.
As soon as ‘JG Farben’ discovered a suitable site for production near Auschwitz, they started to seek for a hard labour force. In February 1941 Carl Krauch, an important member of ‘BASF’/‘JG Farben’, wrote a letter to Hermann Goring asking him to convince Himmler to use prisoners in concentration camps as slave-workers in the plant of Buna. From the collaboration with ‘JG Farben’ Himmler expected the supply of materials necessary to expand the concentration camp in Auschwitz. In this regard he ordered Karl Wolff to forge a strict alliance with ‘JG Farben’. (more…)
Tags: Arson, Bayer AG, Biotechnology, Germany, Molotovs
Posted in Direct Action