Takeover

When the people of Rempang heard that they would be forced to leave the island, they immediately made it clear to the government that they could not agree to this. The authorities responded with a great show of force: more than 1,000 policemen and soldiers, equipped with weapons and vehicles, came ashore. The population immediately formed a blockade on the bridge that gives access to the island, but by brute force the units made their way through the crowd and eventually occupied Rempang.

Battle

Since then, a legal and social battle has erupted, putting the eviction plans off the table for now. But the National Strategic Project, of which Eco-City is a part, is still to be implemented. The activists we supported organized several actions, including a commemoration on the bridge where the army wreaked havoc on Sept. 7-11, 2023. Now the inhabitants laid flowers, rolled out banners and gave speeches emphasizing the right to Indigenous self-determination.

Investors

The events in Rempang show the importance of the energy transition being implemented from the bottom up, with local expertise. Instead, the protagonists are often foreign investors who could not care less about climate justice. Thanks to our donors, the Action Fund can continue to advocate for a different system, where saving the planet naturally goes hand in hand with social justice.

European goals, Polish reality

The European Union requires member states to strictly protect at least 10% of their land area by 2030 as part of the Biodiversity Strategy.  In Poland, only 1% is protected. In valuable forests there is plenty of logging: including trees with nests of protected birds, or close to the habitat of bears.

With the support of Het Actiefonds, Wild Resistance already organised forest occupations in 2022 and 2023. These left a big impression on the political opposition of that time – so much that protecting Poland’s primeval forests became a central theme in the 2024 election campaigns.

After the elections, a new coalition came to power that made forest protection a central theme in their policy. The new climate and environment minister announced that ten forests would be excluded from logging for the time being.

Forest occupations in Bukowa and Ślęża

While this is a first step in the right direction, it is a measure that is easily reversible, and the logging lobby in Poland remains powerful. Until the most important old growth forests have become protected nature reserves with clear management plans, Wild Resistance will continue to campaing. In 2024, with the support of Het Actiefonds, they organised three major actions.

First, they occupied the Bukowa Forest, in one of the country’s last natural forests. Major Polish TV stations reported, and politicians from five left-wing parties came to show support. Together with people from local towns, Wild Resistance activists scratched all the markings of trees that were to be cut down – a small but effective gesture that was replicated in several places in Poland.

The second action took place on Ślęża Mountain – a place of spiritual and ecological value for many Poles. There, with a forest occupation, they demanded the extension of the existing nature reserve, which currently covers only the top of the mountain, to the entire mountain and all its forests. This action also received a lot of media attention and led to the creation of a local working group that is now campaigning for the recognition as a nature reserve of the whole mountain, and for recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Blockade at the ministry

For the third action, the group went to the policymakers themselves: together with two other collectives, they blocked the Ministry of Climate and Environment in Warsaw. Using concrete barrels, chains and U-locks, they barred the entrance and demanded a halt to logging in all old growth forests. They also dropped a 20-metre-long banner from a Warsaw bridge for thousands to see.

Direct action works!

The fact that forest management is now such a central issue in Polish politics is because of bottom-up actions. The climate and environment minister has made a direct link between the continuing forest occupations and the proposed new plans for protecting Poland’s forests. These are the result of continual pressure, resistance and solidarity! Het Actiefonds is very proud to have supported these actions and remains in solidarity with all groups working for forest and biodiversity protection!

Barriers

Back in September 2023, Útera Casa Feminista — a feminist organization advocating for women’s rights supported by The Action Fund — held a sit-in outside one of the largest and most prominent hospitals in Pereira, Columbia. The protest aimed to denounce the persistent institutional barriers to abortion in the city. Despite having come to agreements with certain institutions, safe and dignified abortions remain inaccessible. Women, transmasculine, and non-binary people continue to face violations of their reproductive rights. This is why, on the second anniversary of the 2022 C-055 ruling — which decriminalized abortion up to the 24th week and recognized the barriers to accessing safe procedures — Útera Casa Feminista focused its campaigns on increasing public awareness and challenging the stigma surrounding abortion.

Education

To challenge the institutionalism surrounding  abortion access, Útera Casa Feminista has taken reproductive rights education to the streets, bringing crucial knowledge about the right to safe abortion directly to the people. On March 1 2024, they organized a powerful street demonstration, offering accessible information about the 2022 Court ruling C-055 and the broader right to safe and dignified abortion. The campaign was a success: it meaningfully engaged the local community in the park where it was held, and provided vital support services related to sexual and reproductive rights. The initiative was especially well-received by women, girls, and gender-diverse individuals involved in sex work.

Future Goals

Following this demonstration, Útera Casa Feminista aims to expand its educational efforts within healthcare institutions — particularly those that have been subject to criticism — in order to drive structural changes that ensure dignified abortion care.

The Action Fund is proud to have supported this initiative and remains committed to the fight for safe, accessible, and dignified abortion services for all.

Important nature reserve under threat 

The green woodpecker, badger, alpine newt, tubeworm, flatworm, European quail, alongside neighbours of the forest walking their dog – these are just some of the earthlings that feel at home in Graetheide, the green heart of Sittard-Geleen. For years, various nature and neighbourhood organisations have been calling for the whole area to be protected. In the municipality’s new proposal for the Omgevingsvisie (Area Environment Plan) 2040, however, the Lexhy forest, which is a large part of Graetheide, was not included as a protected nature area, even though it is part of the Natuurnetwerk Limburg, the plan that marks the local nature reserves on a provincial level, and has a high ecological value as a corridor for migrating animal species.

The municipality’s plan even states that parts of the Lexhy forest may be cut down in to make way for the expansion of the Chemelot campus, the petrochemical industrial and research site adjacent to the Graetheide. In addition, other parts of the forest be turned into a new high-voltage power plant, which would mainly supply power to the Chemelot industrial site, as the current one is obsolete. That new power plant could replace the old one on the same site or be built on the Chemelot territory itself. The Lexhy forest would not be the first forest in Sittard-Geleen to be cut down for the expansion of polluting industry: in 2022, part of the Sterre forest was cut down for the expansion of a car factory. In times of ecological, biodiversity and nitrogen crisis, this offensive and irresponsible – nature conservation should not give way for economic interests!

Mini forest occupation

That is why Lexhybos blijft Bos organised a successful demonstration and banner drop in March 2025 during the public participation evening on the new Omgevingsvisie 2040, which did not go unnoticed by the participants of the evening. They were the talk-of-the-town for days to come. In addition, they held a mini forest occupation, and gave climbing training to local residents. In doing so, they gave a preview and a warning of what lies ahead if the forest were to be cut down. Although the Area Environmental Plan unfortunately remained unchanged, the neighbours of the Lexhy forest are now ready to protect their forest at the time when the destruction of the nature reserve is set in motion.

Het Actiefonds is proud to have supported this pre-taste of forest occupation, and remains in solidarity with other forest occupations in the Netherlands and worldwide, and with everyone taking action against large-scale natural destruction!

Broken Promises

In 2019, the Zoo Review Committee visited the Dolfinarium in Harderwijk and determined that its zoo license needed to be strengthened, particularly due to concerns about undesirable and harmful animal behavior. Despite these findings, animal rights organization Bite Back captured video footage in 2023 and 2024 showing that this behavior continues to be encouraged. Given the repeated violations of the 2019 agreements, the organization is calling for immediate enforcement.

Dolphinarium-Free 

In response, Bite Back has filed an enforcement petition as part of their broader Dolphinarium-Free campaign. This campaign includes monthly protests both at the zoo and at businesses that collaborate with the Dolfinarium. Through this petition and ongoing protests, the organization aims to reduce the unnatural behavior imposed on the animals and to continue challenging the Dolfinarium.

Campaign Success

The campaign has already resulted in over fifty news articles that further discredit the Dolfinarium. Additionally, several companies, including NS, have severed ties with the zoo due to concerns over animal welfare violations. Bite Back is determined to expand the reach of this successful campaign in the coming year.

The Action Fund is proud to support Bite Back’s enforcement petition and the fight for improved animal welfare and stronger animal rights.

Frontex, disappearances and Palestine

Since 2014, hundreds of thousands of people have disappeared on their way to Europe. Frontex, the EU’s infamous border agency, and its cooperation with violent militias and authoritarian governments, are responsible for most of these disappearances. Since its inception, Frontex has become the best-funded and deadliest agency in the European Union. With a massive increase in its budget, it has established a fleet of drones and planes to monitor the Mediterranean, the Sahara, and the Atlantic without providing direct assistance in maritime emergencies.

Several surveillance technologies used by Frontex are Israeli-made. In 2020, the agency bought a drone fleet worth 100 million euros from Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries, companies that are know to use the occupied Palestinian territories and its people as a testing and developing ground. Both companies are pillars of Israel’s Occupation Force and are complicit in today’s genocide in Gaza. Additionally, as recent as 2024, Frontex listed BeeSense, another Israeli drone manufacturing company with deep connections to the IOF, as a viable partner for EU member states to buy equipment from.

Frontex is thus not only responsible for the death and disappearance of hundreds of thousands of people at Europe’s externalized borders, it also contributes to the ongoing offensives in Gaza and the West Bank and the current genocide on Palestinians through platforming and cooperating with the Israeli arms industry.

This complicity in surveillance and repression connects the suffering of migrants and Palestinians. Frontex’s actions, including illegal pushbacks and abusive detentions, worsen systemic oppressions and violate human rights, in the Mediterranean, the Sahara, the Atlantic and Palestine.

The Missing Voices group

Frontex’ operations are not limited to Europe’s geographical borders. Since June 2022, the agency is active on Senegalese soil and waters, in cooperation with the Senegalese government. The Missing Voices (REER) group was founded in October 2023 after more than 7,000 people went missing on the Atlantic route, departing from Senegal or Mauritania. The group aims to build an online database allowing the families of the missing to connect, share their stories, and draw attention to the often-overlooked consequences of these disappearances.

“20 Years of Frontex: An Anniversary Marked by a Tragic Record.”

On December 7^th 2024, marking the 20^th anniversary of Frontex, the Missing Voices group organised a major protest in front of the European Union Delegation embassy in Dakar to denounce the severe injustices committed by this agency and to express their solidarity with the Palestinian people. The event shed light on the history of Frontex, its relationships with the arm industry and its connection with Israeli companies and their role in surveillance systems used both against migrants and in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hosting a range of speakers and testimonials, the event also expanded upon Frontex’ and the EU’s influence on Senegalese citizens and sovereignty, exposing the complicity of African government in human rights violations by implementing European migration policies on African soil. Read more (in French) on Senegals current migration policies here.

During the event, police disrupted the gathering and ordered its end. The founder of the Missing Voices group, Ibrahima Konate, was arrested after refusing to dismantle the authorized event. His 2 weeks detention is a worrying sign of the deterioration of Senegalese democracy and the right to free speech.

Despite Kanote’s arrestation, the event was a success, addressing and explaining the link between the repression and genocide in Palestine, Frontex’ violent operations and Europe’s neocolonial migration policy enforcements in African states. Missing Voices group will continue to organize events and actions addressing these issues and calling for the abolition of Frontex! The goal is to demand that Frontex be held accountable, ceases supporting practices that contribute to the oppression of vulnerable populations, and be abolished permanently.

Het Actiefonds is proud to have supported this event and will continue to support Missing Voices group and any organization fighting Frontex, the arms industry, the genocide in Palestine. Don’t push back migrants, push back Frontex!

The Auction

Just months after the UN Climate Conference COP26 and the signing of a $500 million agreement to protect Congo’s rainforest, the DRC government announced plans to auction 27 oil blocks and three gas blocks. These extraction sites encroach on Virunga National Park, a biodiversity hotspot home to countless plant and animal species, as well as local communities and Indigenous peoples. This decision poses a devastating threat to local communities, biodiversity, and the global climate, as three of these blocks overlap one of the world’s largest carbon sinks.

The Action

In response, XR Rutshuru started to build awareness and mobilize local communities and Indigenous peoples living around Virunga National Park – people whose lives and livelihoods depend on these threatened ecosystems. As part of this effort, they organized a peaceful march in Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC, demanding the cancellation of the oil and gas tenders, accountability from major polluters for the loss and damage caused by their industries, and increased investment in renewable energy.

During the demonstration, activists held signs with resonant messages: Climate Justice Now! Free Congo! Fossil-Free Virunga!

The Action Fund is proud to have supported this movement and remains committed to the fight for climate justice.

Our Streets!

The march began at 4 p.m. at Rotterdam City Hall, where attendees were welcomed with a speech and a performance by Rhythms of Resistance. Half an hour later, they set off towards Rotterdam Central Station, where prominent speakers from the local feminist and activist community gathered to meet them. Speakers included Feministas en Rotterdam, Erev Rav, Resistance to War (Veto), Miryam Mejhed, Diana Salaymah, and Transexual Flame Princess, who shed light on the struggles of asylum seekers in the Netherlands.

Aftercare

After the speeches, participants walked to Roodkapje for an aftercare space, where the event concluded with spoken word, reflection, and the collective breaking of the fast. This closing moment provided emotional support and reinforced solidarity in the fight for liberation.

The Action Fund proudly stands in solidarity with this movement and remains committed to supporting the struggle for justice.

The Czech Anti-abortion Movement

The so-called Movement for Life is part of a broader international “anti-gender scene” that seeks to make access to abortion more difficult and to deny equal rights to LGBTQIA+ people. In the past, the Movement for Life has presented itself as a philanthropic organization in order to gain the support of politicians and institutions. They have not, however, refrained from public hate campaigns, as evidenced by the publication and distribution of books on the “treatment” of homosexuality, as well as their criticism of aid in the form of emergency contraception. The march on April 6th was yet another attempt to reinforce anti-abortion policies in the Czech Republic and further push conservative ideals.

The Blockade

In response to the Movement for Life march, several opposition groups joined forces and formed Koalice Neprojdou! (“Coalition: They will not pass!”). After months of mobilization, they gathered 500 people to occupy the Legií Bridge in Prague, forcing the march to be rerouted across the neighboring Jirásek Bridge. This led to a delay of several hours, causing people to leave the march early. Even the closing ceremony in Wenceslaus Square was shortened and disrupted, causing the march to lose much of its impact.

The success of this action was reflected in Czech media coverage, which referred to the Movement for Life as a “anti-abortion movement” , a label the organization has been trying to distance itself from by claiming they are, instead, “pro-family.”

The Action Fund stands in solidarity with Koalice Neprojdou! and is proud to continue supporting such actions towards the safety and dignity of women and LGBTQIA+ people.

The ruling coalition wants to restrict the right to protest. This goes against the European Convention on Human Rights and is a well-documented stage in the playbook of the far right to gradually gain absolute power. We must not let ourselves be divided and speak out against the frame of “anarchists” vs. “law-abiding citizens” used to justify the erosion of fundamental rights. Because we want to make clear that we will not just let this happen, we put up 300 posters in the center of The Hague with the texts “The right to protest is a human right!” and a line based on Niemöller’s famous sermon “When they came for the activists, I did not speak out— because I was not an activist”.

In the Netherlands, a conversation about the dangers of the extreme right quickly gets bogged down in the question of whether or not a right-wing extremist leader is the literal reincarnation of a National Socialist. In a context where the singularity of World War II is emphasized in education, this is understandable. In this case, however, we fear that it gets in the way of adequately responding to and preventing a multiplicity of repressive and colonial regimes as well as preventing us from really asking what the lesson of historical fascism could be. We live in the now, where repressive regimes founded in white-nationalist ideology are already active on the world stage. In an era of Big Tech, Trump and nauseating gestures by the richest man on Earth, curtailing the right to protest really is the last thing we need. “What we are witnessing now is the government trying to put all kinds of restrictions and that is extremely worrisome,” says attorney Willem Jebbink in De Nieuws BV on January 22nd, 2025.

The Action Fund is proud of the disruptive actions we have been privileged to support in recent years.

Also want to take action for the right to demonstrate? Order the posters and stickers here.