The April Eleven’s 3-day trial begins today in Lisbon. These climate activists have blockaded one of Lisbon’s main roads, calling for popular action because “governments and companies have declared war on people and planet”, as was written in their banner. Lisbon-based climate justice collective Climáximo denounces the process as a “political trial”.
Few days before the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution that took down Europe’s longest dictactorship in 1974, eleven Climáximo supporters will be on trial for the blockade of Eng. Duarte Pacheco Avenue in Lisbon, which took place in December 2023. According to spokesperson Maria Mesquita, “What is happening in this trial is not just about us, the eleven people who are being tried. It’s about how society, in 50 years’ time, will tell what people did to stop the war on life that is the climate crisis. We are facing the biggest organized crime humanity has ever seen: the destruction by governments and companies of the planet and of civilization’s material conditions for organized life. Who is in court today? Those who are fighting for our lives. A few days before the anniversary of the Revolution, we are forced to ask: what should those who defend freedom and life be doing today?”
António Assunção, also one of the April Eleven says that “today, while the struggles of the past are being celebrated, we are on trial for not consenting to the system that is killing us. Fifty years ago, normal people didn’t consent to an unjust regime, they resisted and won their freedom. Just like what we are doing today, resistance was considered criminal by the system. But we all have to act: delegating responsibility for stopping the climate crisis to governments and companies is like waiting for the dictator to put an end to the dictatorship.”
Climáximo has been pushing the climate crisis into the center of the debate in portuguese politics, despite the rise of the international far-right, which is also manifesting in Portugal. Climáximo’s bold actions have included road blockades, subvertising electoral campaign outdoors, painting and interrupted winning party AD’s rally on a 5 star hotel in Lisbon, breaking into golf courses and transforming them into urban vegetable gardens, disturbing normality at the Lisbon airport and interrupting the main electoral debate held on national TV.