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SEMA News—April 2012
By Steve Campbell
Technology Disruption and Future-Proofing Your Business
A Few Words With John Waraniak
Technology constantly creates changes to automobiles and automotive businesses. In response, SEMA's vehicle technology programs and displays help members understand the disruptive nature of technology and how to protect their businesses in the face of technological changes.
Waraniak's resume began in an aerospace off-the-grid hangar where some of the industry's most brilliant renegades got their start, including Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford Motor Company. But it also encompasses a range of industries where his innate curiosity and knack for systems thinking and vehicle technology made him one of the most respected executives in the automotive world—and well beyond. Waraniak is equally at home in an aerospace skunkworks in Pico Rivera, California, a boardroom in Mumbai, India, on a motocross track in Buchanan, Michigan, or on the Vehicle Technology Center stage at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas.
As part of our annual look at where automotive technology currently stands and where it is heading, SEMA News again engaged in a wide-ranging conversation with Waraniak, delving deeper into the impact of technology on SEMA members' companies and the four megatrends central to the future of the automotive performance aftermarket: Driving Green, Driving Connected, Driving Safe and Driving Cool.
SEMA News: Technology constantly creates changes to automobiles and, consequently, to automotive aftermarket businesses. What should SEMA members understand about the disruptive nature of technology and how to protect their businesses in the face of technological changes?
John Waraniak: Technology is disruptive by design. A disruptive technology is one that helps create a new market and value chain and eventually displaces an existing or established technology. Disruptive technologies drive innovation, and innovation drives growth. Innovation and growth for SEMA members don't lie in disrupting large, over-served mass markets but in finding ways to provide products and services that meet the wants and unarticulated needs of under-served emerging markets for automotive and performance enthusiasts.
Disruptive technologies are not necessarily disruptive to customers, and they are often difficult for companies to recognize or acknowledge. Even if a disruptive technology or innovation is recognized, most businesses often ignore it, deny it or discount its impact because it threatens their existing technological expertise and understanding. Disruptive technologies are integral to both the relevance and the future of SEMA and the performance aftermarket. To ignore their impact is a fundamental mistake.
Disruptive technologies are not a new phenomenon. They have been around since the beginning of the industry. Cadillac introduced the first starter in 1912; Oldsmobile introduced the first automatic transmission in 1939; Chrysler offered the first production power steering system in 1951 and antilock brakes in 1970. Each of those disrupted what had been in place previously, and the list goes on with fuel injection and many other body, chassis, powertrain, interior and electrical system technologies.
Today, we have voice-activated infotainment, electronic stability control, drive-by-wire, Internet radio and cars that tweet. Just last year, Google introduced a fleet of autonomous vehicles, one of which drove itself from Carson, Nevada, to the SEMA Show and parked itself in the Vehicle Technology Center! And Neil Young is integrating many of the latest self-driving technologies into his '59 Lincvolt, which was introduced at the 2010 SEMA Show.
Disruptive technologies don't totally eliminate existing technologies, but they do often eliminate businesses and companies. Television did not eliminate radio; automobiles and planes did not eliminate trains; the Internet has not eliminated print media. But many companies that failed to acknowledge the impact of these disruptive technologies on their businesses no longer exist. Kodak is a contemporary example of a company whose core competency was chemical photography. It ignored and failed to future-proof its business by understanding the impact of digital-photography technology on its future.
Disruptive technologies don't totally eliminate existing technologies, but they do often eliminate businesses and companies. | |
Many companies, organizations and associations create strategic business plans; however, relatively few create technology roadmaps to assess the impact of technology on their future. In today's hyper-competitive performance aftermarket, you need both a strategic business plan and a technology roadmap. A technology roadmap is a plan that aligns your short-term and long-term business objectives with specific technology developments, innovations, applications and solutions to help you achieve your strategic, tactical and operational goals.
Developing a technology roadmap for your business has two major benefits: It helps you develop a common understanding about a set of goals and the technologies impacting those goals, and it provides a framework to help you link those
technologies to your products and markets and create your preferred future.
Brian Smith, vice president of marketing at Lexus, participated on our panel entitled "The Future of Performance and Customization" at the 2011 SEMA Show and introduced an excellent series of videos that sum up technology disruption and how Lexus is future-proofing its business. SEMA News readers can view the videos at http://www.lexus.com/Engineering_Amazing/?A-Future-Proof-Approach.
SN: SEMA has been working with the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) on advanced-vehicle technology and a performance aftermarket education program. What are the latest developments in vehicle dynamics and the Clemson partnership with SEMA?
Last year, Google introduced a fleet of autonomous vehicles. This one drove itself from Carson, Nevada, to the SEMA Show and parked itself in the Vehicle Technology Center!
JW: SEMA's partnership with CU-ICAR is an excellent example of the association's innovative approach to vehicle technology and generative thinking. SEMA and CU-ICAR teamed up three years ago to offer SEMA members special access to world-class resources and engineering talent. SEMA held its quarterly Board of Directors meeting last November at Clemson in Greenville, South Carolina, to help communicate the benefits, resources and opportunities available to members. For many, it was a step into the future and a better understanding of the technologies driving the automotive industry. It also included an interactive discussion on how SEMA companies can help future-proof their businesses.
September 1, 2011, marked the date when the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 126, which requires all motor vehicles with a gross vehicle weight of 10,000 pounds or less to have an electronic stability control (ESC) system that complies with specific design, performance and diagnostic requirements. Original-equipment manufacturers must now have ESC as standard equipment on all applicable vehicles. Thanks to the efforts of SEMA, the aftermarket was granted a one-year exemption, and the regulation for aftermarket companies goes into effect on September 1, 2012.
ESC monitors vehicle motion. When loss of driver control is imminent, ESC strategically applies the brakes to help stabilize the vehicle. Similar requirements for the rest of the global automotive community are contained in the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe 13H regulations. While performance purists may not want ESC on their vehicles, I think they welcome the technology for their families and the distracted drivers on America's roads.
SEMA's Vehicle Dynamics Program and member companies have made great strides in understanding how performance products such as suspension, brakes, wheels, tires and steering as well as engine modifications may interact with ESC systems. As part of our comprehensive effort over the past five years, members were invited to attend the Vehicle Dynamics Forum presentations, demonstrations and solutions regarding FMVSS 126 and the ESC performance of aftermarket-modified vehicles at the SEMA Show. The hardware-in-the-loop technology available to members is the same as that used by all OEMs and major suppliers around the world to develop, test and simulate vehicle dynamics, new chassis system components, engines, powertrains, drivelines, suspensions and vehicle electronic control systems.
The collaborative approach developed by SEMA has minimized cost while establishing unique capabilities for members that are interested in evaluating the impact of their products on vehicle dynamics and ESC performance. ProComp, Superlift, Hellwig, Tenneco and Eibach as well as Ford Motor Company have participated in this effort, while SEMA technology partners such as dSPACE, Mechanical Simulation, Morse Measurements, Link Engineering and Clemson have provided their expertise and equipment to the program. The SEMA Vehicle Dynamics Program continues to expand with several new members beginning in the spring of 2012.
SN: Ever-increasing vehicle complexity is obviously a concern to SEMA members, not only as it applies to the development of original-equipment systems within vehicles but also in how the carmakers permit or limit aftermarket participation and innovation with those systems. What should members know about the newest systems?
JW: Disruptive technologies are driving automakers and aftermarket companies to new levels of collaboration and profitability—particularly in the area of integrating consumer and automotive electronics. Growth and innovation are all about connecting vehicles to consumer's lifestyles, brands and experiences through vehicle performance, connectivity, dynamics and personalization.
Technology and open innovation are central to profitable growth. When combined with what I call the Aftermarket X-Factor and collaborative business, revenue and organizational models, they are rapidly democratizing traditional product, service, marketing and branding strategies. Together, these technologies, collaborative practices and megatrends have the power to make, move and reshape markets and are leading the automotive industry to one of the most exciting times in history for both OEM and aftermarket industry players.
SN: The Vehicle Technology Center (VTC) was introduced at the 2011 SEMA Show and included seven Technology Briefing Seminars (TBS) with 55 leading industry experts as well as a host of interactive displays, vehicles and exhibits to help attendees understand emerging automotive technologies. What have you got in store for the SEMA Show this year?
The Technical Briefing Seminars program provides SEMA members with in-depth information and networking opportunities with leading industry experts. Speakers at the sessions held during the 2011 SEMA Show included Paul Mascarenas, chief technical officer and vice president for Ford research and innovation.
JW: The VTC and the continued expansion of our TBS program are great examples of SEMA's commitment to member education. The VTC was located in the upper South Hall in the Las Vegas Convention Center last year. The purpose of the VTC and the TBS program is to educate SEMA members and to introduce them to the programs, tools, resources, partners, solutions and benefits available to them at affordable costs.
The association's vehicle technology programs and initiatives are an investment in SEMA's collective future. The VTC and its four tech zones focused on vehicle performance, dynamics, connectivity and personalization and were designed to be relevant to today's enthusiasts as well as to appeal to tomorrow's next generation of performance and technology enthusiasts by bringing greater focus to current and emerging aftermarket opportunities.
The TBS program provides members with in-depth information, hands-on and networking opportunities with leading industry experts to help them understand the impact on their businesses today as well as to prepare them with the knowledge and information to leverage tomorrow's technologies and business opportunities.
Last year's speakers included Paul Mascarenas, Jim Campbell and Brian Smith from the OEMs; Beau Boeckmann, Chip Foose, Myles Kovacs, Tony Vanillo, Melanie White and Wilfried Eibach from the SEMA community; nonendemic leaders such as Anthony Levandowski from Google, Justyn Amstutz from NPA, Roland Sands from Roland Sands Designs and Alex Striler from XplayNation. This year's roster of speakers will be equally impressive and will include an even wider range and depth of speakers representing a who's who in the performance aftermarket as well as experts in the technologies, trends and opportunities that are driving the automotive specialty-equipment industry. Members can view videos of Paul Mascarenas' keynote address and the performance branding panel session at the SEMA website's vehicle technology landing page (www.SEMA.org/vehicletechnology).
The VTC and TBS program this year will focus on the impact of advanced vehicle technologies on the aftermarket, the future of performance and customization, brand democracy, youth sourcing and marketing to enthusiasts, design and social thinking. We'll also focus on designing for customization, vehicle dynamics of aftermarket-modified vehicles, connected-vehicle technologies and a new race series, Global RallyCross.
"Future-proofing" is the process of anticipating emerging and future technology developments in order to mitigate potential negative consequences and leverage new opportunities for your business. |
SEMA is developing a pilot program with A2Mac1 to help support our members with vehicle benchmarking data and information for product development, installation, service, customization and marketing. A2mac1 is the leader in providing benchmarking services to the automotive industry. It is an independent, family-owned company with a team of 100 staff based in France, Detroit and Shanghai.
A2Mac1 supports nearly every OEM and more than 50 suppliers in their benchmarking needs. The company's portfolio of services includes auto-show coverage, vehicle teardown, 2D, 3D, body-in-white and special studies. By working jointly with OEMs and suppliers, A2mac1 has the potential to add significant value and benefits to our vehicle technology, Tech Transfer and Measuring Session programs.
SN: Musclecars have made a dramatic resurgence over the past few years. Describe some of the technologies that are going into performance vehicles that also make them environmentally and economically cutting edge while increasing the Driving Cool factor.
Hellwig, ProComp, Superlift, Tenneco, Eibach and Ford Motor Company have worked with SEMA in a collaborative approach to establishing the capability for members to evaluate the impact of their products on vehicle dynamics and electronic stability control systems.
JW: The musclecar and performance vehicle market segments are alive and well. Jim Campbell, General Motors vice president of performance vehicles and motorsports, invited me to a special preview where he introduced the new Hot Wheels Camaro and Chevy's new Central Office Production Order (COPO) crate engines, and he elaborated on the ZL1 and new technologies at the SEMA Show.
The COPO nameplate pays homage to the iconic high-powered 1969 Camaros created back in the day through a loophole in Chevy's special-order program. The ZL1 Camaro features a supercharged, intercooled 6.2-liter V8 engine with an estimated 580 horsepower and 556 pounds-feet of torque, a six-speed manual transmission, a dual-plate clutch, active suspension, 20-inch tires with aluminum wheels and 14-inch brakes. The ZL1 is expected to be available this month. Campbell was quick to point out that 60% of the 50 new Chevys featured at the SEMA Show were Sonics and Cruzes and represent the company's emphasis on making small cars cool with personalization and performance upgrades.
Jamie Allison, Ford's director of racing for North America, and Darrell Behmer, designer of the 2012 Ford Mustang Boss 302, also provided a very interesting presentation at our Technology Briefing Session at the Show. The Boss 302 comes with two keys. Ford's Track Key technology is an innovative solution and excellent example of the technologies powering today's performance vehicles.
Track Key adds powertrain control software and gives the car full race calibration and two-stage launch control without negatively affecting the warranty. The software is installed after the car is purchased and is accessed through a separate key. Use the black key, and you get typical street performance from the 444-horsepower Boss. Use the red key, and the track programming takes over. Switch back to the black key, and the car goes back to street mode.
The idea is that weekend racers can simply use a key to switch up the car's performance, using the black key to get to and from the track and using the red key during track time. There are over 200 engine parameters that can be adjusted, including spark maps and engine braking. Ford created a dual-patch powertrain control module to avoid the complexity and cost issues with using two powertrain control modules. This is a truly innovative approach to performance, and I wouldn't be surprised to see SEMA tuners developing similar solutions and products.
Ford also announced that enthusiasts who think that the 2.0-liter engine from the 2012 Ford Focus would be a fine fit for their project vehicles will be able to buy one from Ford Racing's crate-engine program. While the need for speed is not going away any time soon, horsepower is competing with the computing power of today's vehicles. Your future-proofing strategy and technology plan depends on the market segment your company is focused on.
According to Deloitte's recent study of young car buyers, Gen-Y—the 80 million people born in the U.S. from 1980 to the early 1990s—prefers vehicles packed with safety and connectivity technology. On the other end of the demographic spectrum, performance often trumps connectivity for many Baby Boomers born between 1946 and 1964. I often tell companies that if it's too connected, you're too old. By old I
do not mean age; I mean your world view of technology and your perspectives on optimization.
Friends and family influence over 60% of young people's brand and technology decisions. Earned media is quickly replacing paid media as the top driver of youth consumer behavior. Almost nine of 10 Gen-Y consumers surveyed say that fuel efficiency is a key factor in choosing a vehicle. Half of them say that they are willing to pay an additional $300 per vehicle for each one mile per gallon of improvement.
Onboard, instrument-panel technology is the most important element of a vehicle interior for 59% of Gen-Y buyers. Nearly three-quarters prefer touch screens, and nearly as many rate smartphone applications as highly desirable. Most young buyers also want to be able to customize their vehicle interiors with accessories and upgrades after purchase. Deloitte says they are willing to spend an average of $3,000 on vehicle hardware for connectivity, and they would pay an average of $2,000 per vehicle for safety systems such as collision avoidance, blind-spot detection and sleep alerts to offset the dangers of driver distraction.
Following and integrating with Gen-Y, there is also a cohort called Generation-O by my friend Graham Brown, principal of mobileYouth and author of All is Social. This is the generation of 10- to 29-year-olds known as optimizers. Gen-O will be the generation that shows the industry the way forward in how new technologies, apps and products will be used to optimize the customer experience.
SN: Connected-vehicle technologies are providing drivers with increased navigation, safety and infotainment options but also need to balance consumer demand with the risks of distracted driving. What is the latest in the Driving Connected megatrend and OnStar's FMV aftermarket program?
The Hot Wheels Camaro is one of several Chevrolet projects that include Chevy's new Central Office Production Order (COPO) crate engines as well as new technologies that General Motors Vice President of Performance Vehicles and Motorsports Jim Campbell spoke about during the SEMA Show.
JW: Cars aren't smartphones on wheels yet, but they will be soon. More than 100 million people in the U.S. have smartphones and want their phones to work with the head unit in their vehicles. Alan Mulally, Ford Motor Company CEO, recently stated that, "The car is a mobile application. If you want to be connected, use your own smartphone in the car, have it voice-activated, hands on the wheel and eyes on the road—that's the Ford strategy."
Mulally was one of the first auto industry executives to recognize the disruptive technologies and new business opportunities of connected vehicles and the importance of connectivity to car buyers. Ford is doubling the infotainment applications available on Ford vehicles to 14, including applications with National Public Radio, an online coupon vendor called Roximity and a custom Internet radio service called Slacker.
Applications, or apps, are programs that operate web and Cloud services such as iTunes. The technology and ability for companies to send apps and software updates to vehicles by satellite or over the Internet allows automakers and aftermarket companies to greatly reduce the complexity of onboard vehicle systems. Taking the complex technology out of built-in embedded vehicle systems and putting it in the Cloud not only reduces complexity but also accelerates the adoption and commercialization of brought-in and beamed-in services and products provided by aftermarket
Ford is not alone with SYNC AppLink in recognizing the potential of connected-vehicle technologies and telematics opportunities for navigation, infotainment, diagnostics, maintenance, crash notification and many other features and conveniences demanded by consumers. Mercedes has mbrace2; Chrysler has Uconnect; Kia has UVO; Hyundai has Blue Link; Toyota and Lexus have Entune and Enform, respectively; and the industry's first connected-vehicle technology—now in its ninth generation—was GM's OnStar.
OnStar is offering its safety, security and connectivity services for non-GM and older GM vehicles already on the road through the aftermarket. A standalone rearview mirror known as FMV (For My Vehicle) packs all of OnStar's core technology and is now available through consumer electronics and automotive aftermarket retailers. OnStar FMV offers key features, including automatic crash response, turn-by-turn navigation, stolen-vehicle location assistance, one-button access to emergency and roadside services, and hands-free calling, including Bluetooth connectivity.
Gen-O will be the generation that shows the industry the way forward in how new technologies, apps and products will be used to optimize the customer experience. |
OnStar FMV is currently certified to work on more than 90 million of the 100 best-selling non-GM vehicles sold over the last 10 years, which equates to more than 75 models. OnStar expects to certify additional models in the months ahead and is giving selected app developers access to its application-programming interface for OnStar products and vehicles. Nick Pudar, OnStar's vice president of business development, will present the latest aftermarket strategies for in-car mobile apps at the SEMA Show this year.
Distracted driving is obviously a major concern. Automakers want to build vehicles that can download apps, games, music and movies from a smartphone to a car's entertainment system. But for every potential distraction automakers and aftermarket companies add, they find themselves having to build in ways to prevent drivers from crashing their new smartphone on wheels—automatically applying the brakes at a traffic light; alerting drivers when a car is in a blind spot; or reading traffic signs and slowing a car as speed zones change.
"We can't stop the prolific growth of consumer technology," said Paul Mascarenas, chief technical officer at Ford. "We can't stop people bringing phones in their cars. We endeavor to make sure people do it in the safest way possible."
Track Key adds powertrain control software to the 2012 Ford Boss 302 Mustang, giving the car full race calibration and two-stage launch control without negatively affecting the warranty. The black key provides typical street performance tuning, and the red key switches to on-track programming. |
Many automakers offering in-vehicle technologies already use voice-based interfaces, but Apple's approach goes beyond voice recognition to enable app interaction and task completion, such as "make appointment at noon." It will be a natural fit for navigation apps, enabling the user to verbally update routes or check road conditions by voice rather than by touching a screen or device.
One of the latest technologies is being introduced by Delphi. It uses a camera to track the orientation of your face. Take your eyes off the road for more than two seconds, and a yellow light flashes in the heads-up display, drawing your attention back to the road. Keep your eyes off the road for five seconds, and your smartphone screen dims.
Connected-vehicle technologies have the potential to avoid up to 80% of crash scenarios. David Strickland, head of NHTSA, recently said that federal safety regulators will decide next year whether to begin making rules governing technology that enables vehicles to electronically avoid collisions. NHTSA is completing several pilot studies, some of which included Denso's aftermarket safety device presented at last year's SEMA Show, to provide enough data to decide whether the government should mandate communication technology in cars. NHTSA also recently issued a set of voluntary guidelines for automakers to disable applications that allow drivers to manually access social media, surf the web or send text messages while on the road. The recommendations urge that OEMs seek to prevent any in-car technologies that require drivers to use both hands or take their eyes off the road for more than two seconds.
There are 250 million vehicles on the road in the United States today, and OEMs sell only 14 to 15 million new vehicles a year. At that rate, it will take decades to get to a critical mass of new cars that can talk to one another to achieve the vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications network effect. But we could reach critical mass years sooner while simultaneously increasing sales for aftermarket manufacturers, retailers and installers by adding V2V communication capability through personal navigation devices, specialized aftermarket devices and smartphones—which is the Aftermarket X-Factor.
SN: How are social media affecting—or being affected by—advanced automotive technologies? What is the difference between "design thinking" and "social thinking"?
JW: Design thinking is focused on product content, problem solving and logic. It is a top-down, focus-group, expert-driven product development process that gives you things like a cleverly designed vacuum cleaner. Social thinking is quite the opposite and is focused on product context, benefit optimization and emotion. It is a bottom-up, frontline, crowd-driven innovation process that gives you things like Facebook.
Growth and innovation are all about connecting vehicles to consumer's lifestyles, brands and experiences through vehicle performance, connectivity, dynamics and personalization. |
Advanced vehicle technologies combined with social media have democratized traditional design, marketing and branding models. Disruptive technologies have the power to make, move and reshape markets and have led the auto industry to one of the most exciting times in history for consumers, endemic and new aftermarket industry players.
Performance branding isn't about choices in media but choices in mindset. Brand management is old school. The future of performance branding, brand democracy, designing for customization, youth sourcing and social networking is all about connecting vehicles to consumer's lifestyles, brands and experiences. From vehicle dynamics and performance accessories to smartphone applications that interact with consumer vehicles and onboard technologies, successful designing and marketing to automotive enthusiasts today requires strategies that make customers part of your brand through design, movements, storytelling and advocacy.
Your company's ability to deliver a superior, personalized customer experience will set you apart from your competitors, inspire fans and advocates and drive spending on your products or services. Customers buy your stuff but, more importantly, they buy what your stuff does for them. You need to sell the benefits of your products and services to your fans and enthusiasts.
Disruptive technologies are integral to both the relevance and the future of SEMA and the performance aftermarket. To ignore their impact is a fundamental mistake. |
SN: Of all the ideas and insights we've discussed here, what are the one or two most essential takeaways that SEMA members should keep on top of? How is SEMA helping them to increase their awareness and take advantage of emerging and disruptive technologies?
JW: Never stop questioning and learning. Go to the Gemba—the place where value is created. There is an old Chinese proverb that says the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago; the second best time is today.
OnStar is offering its safety, security and connectivity services for non-GM and older GM vehicles already on the road through the aftermarket. The standalone OnStar FMV rearview mirror packs all of the core technology and is now available through consumer electronics and automotive aftermarket retailers. |
SEMA's vehicle technology programs and partnerships are designed to provide members with relevant information, knowledge and solutions to help them compete today and prepare for tomorrow. The SEMA Vehicle Technology Center provides members with valuable resources, and the association's Technology Briefing Seminars are must-attend education sessions for serious technology enthusiasts and performance professionals committed to developing technology roadmaps and business plans focused on future-proofing their survival and growth.
The automotive specialty-equipment industry has been and will always be challenged by complex vehicle technologies, federal regulations, systems integration and safety considerations. SEMA is continually working to provide unique benefits and value to members by developing vehicle technology solutions and building relationships that foster collaboration between automakers, suppliers, retailers, research organizations, industry associations and member companies.
It may be tough, but the grid is set for the next few years to be podium years for many specialty-equipment companies. The question is, are you prepared to win? Like many of the successful racers I have known, you have to ask yourself if you have done everything you can do to future-proof your success and give your company the best possible chance of winning. Do you have a technology roadmap? Does your organization understand the impact of emerging technologies on your core competencies, future product development plans and new business opportunities?
Clint Eastwood provided excellent insight and great advice to those SEMA members committed to facing the challenges and leveraging the opportunities of disruptive technologies. In the gritty "It's Halftime in America" commercial that Chrysler aired during the Super Bowl, Eastwood essentially said that if you can't find a way through tough times, make one.


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Cynthia Nixon
Cynthia Nixon has been performing on stage and screen since her teen years, but it was her role as Miranda Hobbes on TV's Sex and the City (1998-2004) that made her a star. Nixon has worked steadily since her feature film debut in the teen comedy Little Darlings (1980). She has had small roles in the films Amadeus (1984), The Manhattan Project (1986), Addams Family Values (1993, with Christina Ricci) and, more recently, Igby Goes Down (2002, with Claire Danes) and One Last Thing (2005). On television she was the teenage daughter in the political satire mini-series Tanner '88 (written by Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau). Nixon has also appeared on Broadway and was Tony-nominated for her performance in Indiscretions (1995); she won a Tony for her role in 2006's The Rabbit Hole. On Sex and the City (with co-star Sarah Jessica Parker), she played a work-oriented single mother with an on-again, off-again relationship with her child's father, a role that earned her an Emmy in 2004. Her other roles include the films Little Manhattan (2005, starring Josh Hutcherson) and Sex and the City (2008), and the TV series The Big C (2010-11).
Cynthia Nixon married her longtime girlfriend, Christine Marinoni, on May 27, 2012. Marinoni gave birth to their son, Max Ellington Nixon-Marinoni, in March of 2011… Nixon also has two children from her previous relationship with photographer Danny Mozes… Tanner '88 had an unusual lifespan: The first season appeared in 1988, the second season in 2004. Cynthia Nixon appeared in both seasons.
Copyright © 1998-2017 by Who2?, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Lignite mining, express highways, gravel mining, parking decks, lime pits, and candy factories all have something in common that might not be obvious at first glance. Capitalists need to cut down forests to make way for them. But all around Germany, people are mobilizing to stop them. Over the past decade, forest occupations and forest defense actions have proliferated to such a point that we can now reflect on the movement as a whole.
The red text in this report is adapted from the book Klimakämpfe—Wir sind die fucking Zukunft.
All Around Germany
Since February 26, 2021, people have been occupying a forest near Ravensburg called Altdorfer Wald. A gravel pit is threatening the forest's existence and some activists who had earlier built climate camps and tree houses in the inner city of Ravensburg decided to live in the forest to protect it. At the moment this occupation is not facing eviction.
On the day of the occupation near Ravensburg, all the way at the other end of Germany, police began the eviction of an occupied inner-city forest. In Flensburg, in October 2020, people had begun building tree houses and platforms to save the trees, which were slated to be cut down to make way for a hotel and parking deck. A matter of days before the end of the legal cutting season, the investors sent cold-blooded mercenaries with chainsaws to attack the trees despite the risk to activists. The city politics rewarded the investors' misdeeds by ordering more police to attack and evict the occupation at the very moment that Flensburg was one of the COVID-19 mutation hotspots in Germany.
Speaking of the pandemic, the Green Party in Hessen has lost support even among middle-class people, as they not only argued for the new express highway A-49 and as a result for large cuttings in Dannenröder Forest, Herrenwald, and Maulbacher Wald, but additionally initiated an eviction that lasted weeks in November 2020 even though the region was a COVID-19 hotspot, as well. The occupations in these forests had started in 2019; some protesters still remain nearby, as the highway is not yet constructed even though the trees on the future trail have been hacked down. On of the most spectacular actions involved a 300-meter-long traverse of rope connecting Danni and Herri.
Likely to the surprise of many of those involved, another occupation has been successful: On February 21, near Halle (Westfalen), demonstrators occupied the Steinhausener Forest where the candy factory Storck intended to expand. Less than a week later, while the occupiers were awaiting eviction, the company decided to change plans. At least for the present, the forest is safe.
In Wuppertal, at Osterholz, five hectares of forest are endangered because of a lime pit. The Kalkwerke Oetelshofen aims to store the earth that they excavate where there are trees. People have been occupying the area since August 2019. Just as occurs everywhere else, the capitalists who are profiting from destroyed forests seek to frame their propaganda as "objective discussion," they complain about alleged "defamation" and emphasize that their business is of systemic importance. Indeed, any capitalist business is of systemic importance—but as the system itself is the root of the problem, this argument is not convincing for those who want to change the system. In any case, at the moment, they are not being permitted to cut down the forest.
In Wilhelmsburg, in Hamburg, in a forest called WiWa (Wilder Wald, wild forest), people constructed tree houses because the city declared the area a potential development area. The activists in the forest developed platforms in the trees—but this is probably not the kind of development politicians appreciate.
Furthermore, people are maintaining forest occupations in two villages in Rhineland that are threatened by lignite mining. The occupation in Keyenberg dates to September 2020, while the one in Lützerath just began on January 16, 2021. The resistance there is closely connected to those people who are trying to save the villages by occupying houses that the coal company RWE wants to destroy or by squatting construction equipment.
Finally, the most famous forest defense occupation of all, in the Hambach Forest, is still occupied. First squatted in 2012, it has been evicted and reoccupied several times. In January 2020, politicians decided that Hambi should not be completely destroyed—after most of it already had been—but the occupation still remains. Recently, some people from Hambi published issue number 5 of the bilingual zine Shitbarricade.
And for those who like to travel internationally, there are occupations in Poland, Switzerland, and France as well as fights in Sweden and Belgium that are networked with the fights in Germany. But a closer look at these would exceed the scope of this article.
Spreading Seeds, Taking Root
Forest occupations seem to be spreading throughout Germany. At Hambach Forest, which is being destroyed to make way for corporate lignite mining, at the zenith of the occupations before the eviction in 2018, forest defenders constructed more than 70 tree houses. Families came to the forest to build barricades together. At Dannenröder Forest, where developers cut an aisle for a highway, protesters built more than 500 barricades, tree houses, and other constructions between 2019 and 2020. The eviction at Danni took more than two months with up to 2000 cops involved each day and more than 2000 charges pressed against activists.
What are the reasons for this? Fifteen years ago, very few people were climbing trees to save the forests, raise awareness about airport expansions or lignite mining, and oppose the destructiveness of capitalism. Today, hundreds of people are engaged in the fights at Hambach Forest, at Dannenröder Forest, and even in some tiny urban woods.
In 2003, I got to know Lakoma, a small Sorbian village near Cottbus. The inhabitants had already been resettled in GDR times [German Democratic Republic, popularly known as East Germany], but the demolition of the houses was delayed by the reunification and artists had decided to revive the place. A cultural barn had been built and a "Wagenplatz" [an occupied trailer park]. Some of the houses were occupied. I spent the night in a wagon, participated in tree occupations, took walks through the remnants of the village. Passing wooden sculptures of resistance, demolished houses and half-demolished bathrooms, I began to realize that the ruthless displacement of minorities for resource extraction was not just happening far away, but right here.
Years later, I learn that in the GDR there was even a children's song about coal, the oven-song (Ofenlied): "Good morning dear oven, we freeze so much. Therefore burn dear stove, so we don't freeze anymore. I have no coal, I'm cold myself. Ask the digger for coal, in the valley behind the forest. Good morning, dear digger, in the valley behind the forest. Give us coal, for we are freezing and the stove is cold. I have no coal, my buckets are empty, ask the earth for coal in the shaft black and heavy. Good morning dear earth, in the shaft black and heavy. Give us coal, for we are freezing and the buckets are empty. Just grab it says the earth, bring the digger. Stoke the fire in the oven, then you won't freeze anymore."
But coal was and is also deeply rooted culturally in West Germany. Borussia Dortmund fans in the stadium and boys' choirs still sing the Steigerlied (coal miners' song) today, and many families proudly tell of their relatives who labored or even perished in hard coal or lignite mining. Phasing out coal is not only a technical issue and a climate policy necessity; it also requires a cultural rethink.
Why Forest Defense? Why Now?
Why there so many people getting involved in forest defense in Germany?
It's not scientific knowledge about climate change.
The club of Rome published "Limits to Growth" in 1972. Since then, scientists have renewed urgent calls for change constantly.
It's not the failure of politics.
Some of those who are engaged today report that they joined the struggles because of the failure of politics. Certainly, the fact that political efforts to achieve reform have failed is a good reason to search for more efficient and fulfilling strategies. But politicians have always failed to come through on their promises—this is not new. Is the failure of politics more obvious today than it was in the past?
Rather, the discourse has changed, and this has made its failure clear.
Who changed the discourse?
Without question, this change of discourse is a positive development—in contrast to many others, such as spreading right-wing beliefs and anti-Semitic tendencies. It is not only a matter of increasing awareness of climate or environmental issues, but also of the spread of emancipatory ideas, such as the idea that it is effective and legitimate to employ direct action to change society.
Who changed this discourse? Activists appearing on talk shows on TV? The arson attacks on cables leading to the coal mines? "Fridays for Future"? The mass protests of Ende Gelände in the coalmines? Sabotage on the railway tracks to the coal power stations? The NGOs? Local initiatives? The early activists who believed in direct action against seemingly insurmountable odds? All of these together?
Let's have a closer look.
Local Initiatives
Local initiatives from those who are directly impacted by the things they are protesting are a crucial element in the success of large movements. Local expertise and continuous work over years and decades can neither be provided by activist groups nor by NGOs focused on nationwide work. BIs ("Bürgerinitiativen"—citizens' initiatives) are indispensable for rooting resistance in regions. In phases of little interest, they are often the only ones working on issues for years. When questions arise, large NGOs often rely on their knowledge—often, unfortunately, without adequately valuing their work—and yet these initiatives are often forgotten, because during phases when a lot is happening, they are not necessarily in the spotlight.
For example, the Buirers for Buir regularly organize "red line" actions in which they form symbolic red lines between the Hambach open-pit mine and the threatened forest with red banners, flags, and T-shirts. They show films and hold educational events, they participate in rallies and marches and in alliances against the demolition of more villages for coal. It may seem insignificant, but it is important—especially in these fast-moving times—that some people are continuously mobilizing around the issue.
Fridays for Future
In December 2018, three and a half months after Greta Thunberg started striking in Stockholm, the first actions referring to her happened in Germany. Only two months later, regional groups in more than 150 cities all over Germany organized school strikes on Fridays. On March 15, 2019, some 300,000 people took part in actions in more than 200 cities nationwide; this number had grown even bigger by summer 2019, with actions in more than 500 cities.
It is remarkable that so many students are organizing with such commitment and perseverance. It is to their great credit that they have put the debate about climate policy clearly on the social agenda. Angela Merkel has responded with a transparently mendacious strategy of pretending to embrace the protests. "A very good initiative," she said, claiming that she "very much supports students taking to the streets and fighting for climate protection" and that the protests have "certainly driven the federal government to accelerate."
The Fridays for Future protests are heterogeneous. While in some places, participants express solidarity with the Hambacher Forest occupation and critically position themselves against demand-based politics, in other places, they let mayors speak at their demonstrations or sit down with politicians at round tables.
Jakob Blasel, one of the spokespersons of the German branch of Fridays for Future, describes how he went to the office of Peter Altmaier, the German minister of economy and energy. He knew that Altmeier had issued the invitation to the demonstrators to come to the ministry's courtyard in order to exploit the whole thing as a PR event. So instead of giving Altmaier the opportunity to speak to the strikers, they announced that the students wanted to explain to Altmaier what they were fighting for. The Fridays for Future spokespeople had a conversation with Altmaier in his offices lasting about half an hour, whereupon the minister's secretariat expressed the expectation that Altmaier would surely be allowed to address the demonstration. The strikers said no. Altmaier nevertheless appeared and was booed, drowned out, and sent away, told to go to the ministry and do his work there. And yet the photograph of the conversation in his office also ended up in many media reports. Although Blasel emphasizes that Altmaier obviously "didn't get the message," he nevertheless shows a certain pride in having talked to the minister.
The relationship between Fridays for Future and the political class is ambiguous. FFF has presented demands, justifying this with the claim that politics needs a clear line of action. Although participants often name politicians as part of the problem, many demands are directed specifically at them. Participants accuse the politicians of failure, but at the same time, they assume—sometimes explicitly, sometimes implicitly—that this failure is due to a lack of information. I consider the latter to be naïve wishful thinking. If destructive behavior were due simply to lack of information, we would find an unusual number of pitifully uninformed people in high political offices. In that case, education alone would be enough to remedy the problems.
But the decision-makers are not uninformed. Rather—as inconceivable as this may be to some—they are consciously and knowingly opting for short-term profits, doing so in full knowledge of the consequences. They are doing this simply because it is beneficial to their careers—in short, out of pure egoism.
In addition to the risk of appropriation by external actors, another great danger of the FFF is pacification from within. While at the beginning, there were more radical demands, in mid-2019 I read on fridaysforfuture.de that a German coal phase-out should be implemented by 2030. It is sad how quickly the demands softened due to the supposed necessities of realpolitik. Of course, this should not be surprising when one of the spokeswomen is also active in the Green Party. Fortunately, however, this is internally controversial, and she is accused of personality cult and career politics.
Mass Protests: Ende Gelände
What started out as more of a unifying slogan and an alliance of different groups quickly became the brand name for an association of initiatives and individuals capable of putting on a very specific kind of mass action: Ende Gelände ("Here—and no further"). The image is undoubtedly impressive: thousands of people, dressed in dust masks and white painting suits, entering the huge open pit mines and blocking the diggers. Their presence paralyzes operations, making it impossible to continue excavating. At the same time, elsewhere, just as many people block the rails on which coal is transported from the mine to the power plant. Because the power plant does not have enough supplies, it has to reduce its output.
Ende Gelände has been organizing mass actions since 2015, mostly in the Rhenish lignite mining area. Already that first year, around a thousand activists were participating; in the summer of 2019, according to their own figures, as many as six thousand people took part in the blockades and blockade attempts.
Ende Gelände is a participatory action—explicitly intended to enable people with little or no experience of action to take part. Days in advance, people organize themselves into affinity groups so that they can look out for each other during the action. They simulate breaking through police lines and practice rinsing pepper spray from their eyes. They pack straw sacks as seating pads for hard rails. When they set out on the day of the action, the atmosphere is thick with expectations, with determination, with fear—or at least respect—and deafening chanting. Many people and groups from other countries attend. People exchange experiences; debates take place.
In preparing the actions, Ende Gelände develops an "Aktionskonsens" (action consensus) describing the intended framework of the actions. This typically includes a commitment to openly announced mass actions and a description of the prescribed behavior.
In 2019, this framework included the following:
"We will behave calmly and courteously, we will not endanger any people. We will block and occupy with our bodies. The goal is not to destroy or damage infrastructure. We will not be held back by structural obstacles. We will flow through or around police or plant security. Our action will convey a picture of diversity, creativity, and openness. Our action is not directed against RWE workers, companies commissioned by RWE, or the police. The safety of the participating activists, the workers, and all those involved is our top priority. We are preparing well for a safe journey to our places of action."
Ende Gelände is gratifyingly clear in its criticism of the existing economic system, stating online, "Without a turn away from fossil capitalism, neither a serious fight against the climate crisis nor global social justice is possible. A profound, socio-ecological transformation is needed to achieve a good life for all."
Ende Gelände works on shifting the discourse of society as a whole, that is, what is sayable and thinkable. This is precisely where the great merit lies.
And yet, after the action weekends, I am not only overwhelmed by the many people who are willing to take personal risks, but I ask myself questions. I ask myself whether the assembly line-style action format leads to the fact that people simply blindly consume this model without understanding themselves as a formative part of the action. I wonder to what extent people understand the action framework as a negotiated consensus of the participants, or if many only perceive it as something immutable, external to themselves.
In my opinion, a movement is not particularly powerful when it does the same thing over and over again in an almost traditional way. It is better to be unpredictable, incalculable, uncontrollable. This is what is missing from Ende Gelände. Although it is important to offer a certain security to new activists, ritualized and predictable events will eventually become politically dead, both internally and externally, and therefore meaningless.
In an evaluation paper, the Hamburg anti-nuclear office writes about Ende Gelände:
"It is necessary for the survival of a movement to take itself and its own goals seriously. The goal of addressing the operation of coal-fired power plants through direct intervention is not limited to conveying images of this project in the media, but must also include the practical attempt to implement it.
"We are serious about shutting down coal power stations; this became very concrete in the moments when it was not simply "Here and no further" ("Ende Gelände") at a predetermined location, but when people in the action took it into their own hands, broke away from the structures of the campaign, and went 'off the rails' on their own. At this point, the power of the movement becomes directly visible. By taking themselves seriously in their goal to shut down the power plant, people were able to go exactly where it really hurt the operators and for which there could be no plans from the campaign. The howls of rage from police, operators, and politicians triggered by this determination clearly show that after two days of embracing [i.e., of surrounding the plant without actually impacting its functioning], we had finally found the pressure point where it hurt our political counterparts.
"The blessing and curse of movement campaigns is to be able to grow, but also to have to. Each campaign event has to surpass the previous one in order to continue to convey the hope of being the most important intervention point of the movement at the moment. This is very unfortunate, but apparently cannot be changed ad hoc. In the long run, the only thing that helps is to continuously build social sites of resistance, and to deny oneself [sic] campaign hopping. Only in this way can it be possible to reorganize resistance after a movement cycle has been broken off and have a lasting effect, as was achieved in the Wendland."1
"What if a significant portion of the population still finds the storming of a lignite-fired power plant more scandalous than its sheer existence?" Arranca magazine asks in Issue #53. They summarize that the Ende-Gelände actions are "for some, an expression of mass militancy, and for others, a peaceful disobedient mass action. The form of action fits diverse subjective states of consciousness—and expands them without making the question of militancy the central question."
Militant activists often communicate their analysis and techniques through letters claiming responsibility. Since they try to remain anonymous due to the high risk of repression, they seek to express themselves in the media via the actions themselves and the written statements. The numerous very emotional debates that follow militant attacks show that the actions, in addition to the undeniable intervention in the normal operation of opencast coal mines, can do at least one more thing: incite controversy.
On April 13, 2016, the Aachener Zeitung reported on an act of sabotage on a power pole that carries lines that supply power to the Inden open pit mine. An angle grinder had been used to saw into the pole directly above the foundation.
A statement claiming responsibility appeared on linksunten.indymedia, reading, in part:
"Tonight, from 11.04.16 to 12.04.16, I tried to turn off the lights of the Inden open pit mine. To express my anger about the ongoing lignite mining and the repression against the people who oppose it, I started to fell a power pole between Fronhoven and the power plant Weisweiler. This mast carries the lines that supply the open pit mine with electricity and thus render work possible. Even though the mast is still standing at the moment, it is damaged to such an extent that RWE will probably have to relocate it itself. I was aware of the risks for me, but I think it is necessary to take drastic measures in the fight for a better world…
"To achieve this, we should stop thinking in categories of good and bad resistance and be in solidarity with each other. The castor resistance could only be so successful because militant and peaceful actions complemented each other. Change the electricity provider! Occupy houses, offices, and excavators! Block access roads and work processes! Cut down power poles instead of trees! What I dared to try, you've been able to do for a long time!"
Just a few days later, on April 25, 2016, another act of sabotage hit the Hambach open pit mine. The Aachener Zeitung wrote on that day that it was an unprecedented act of sabotage. A fire under a cable bridge led to a short circuit and thus temporarily paralyzed the entire open pit mine, including the main coal excavator. Once again, there was a statement claiming responsibility:
"We are speaking out as those who brought about the failure of the Hambach lignite mine last Sunday morning, April 24, 2016. As the target of our attack, we chose the exposed underground cables between the coal bunker and the conveyor collection point. All excavators, spreaders, and conveyors are connected to these cables. The cables run from the substation at the western edge of the mine near Oberzier, where the transformation from 280kV to 30kV takes place, to the belt collection point via steel scaffolds at a height of about 20 – 200 cm. Including the insulation, they were about 10 cm thick. To be sure of achieving an effect on as many cables as possible, we placed an enormous amount of gasoline under the cables and ignited it. There were no buildings or equipment near the fire site that the fire could have spread to. No people were staying there either. The various blackouts were accompanied by bright flashes that were visible throughout the pit. These were caused by discharges from the power cables as soon as their insulation had melted through. Our action is not only directed against RWE, but also against the prevailing conditions. Radical resistance is necessary in a world in which capital interests are in the foreground and the power apparatus ruthlessly enforces its shortsighted interests against all reason as well as against man and nature. We want to oppose this system with a clear 'NO,' as a first step towards overturning these power relations at some point.(…)
"The attempt to mediate between RWE and the lignite resistance exposes the power relations at play. Mediation means to ask the resistance to be less radical, less 'mean' to RWE, or in other words: 'the resistance must not disrupt which accepts the existence of RWE and its work of destruction as a given. That is, the authoritarian violence legitimized by domination, which lies in the mining and conversion of coal to electricity, is accepted; the rebellious violence that resists it appears illegitimate. The result can only be a guarantee of continued existence for RWE, however it may be, which now also has the blessing of a part of the resistance. The part that allowed itself to be included in the arbitration process. The resistance is split into the eliminated and involved part and the remaining and isolated illegitimate part. When people claim that such an action would harm the resistance, it speaks of consideration for the power of the rulers to divide the resistance into good and evil. Evil is that which hurts, really disrupts, and is effective.
"The Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger writes: 'Arson, violence against people, occupations of excavators and senseless destruction of technical facilities with the aim of paralyzing open-cast mines and power plants—the ferocity of criminal acts is increasing.' At the same time, occupations, arsons and blockades are not senseless, but stop the destructive frenzy of RWE very precisely. What harms the resistance is the obedience to the ruling power and its media, which seek to tell us what is good and evil. We should listen to our consciences and our reason, not to the media. With our action, we have delivered the proof that clever and careful militancy, with moderate and justifiable danger to oneself, can put an end to RWE's normal operations. Our action could have been done by any small group. No special skills, knowledge, or access were needed. All the necessary information is publicly available.
"For a radical, decisive, and direct resistance! For a world that is not destroyed for capital interests!"
The latter act found imitation a year later, according to indymedia reports:
"On 24.12.2017, we set fire to the cables that supply the Hambach open pit mine with electricity. So at least part of the huge machines there were shut down. In this case, the cables were located at the vantage point on the open pit (the one after Terra Nova).
"Stop Coal now! To RWE: Merry Crisis and a happy new fear!"
Debate broke out on the Hambach forestry occupation's homepage:
"Legitimate? I believe that the means should be chosen as appropriately as possible. Why hit someone in a conflict when a conversation would have done? Why kill an aggressor when he/she could be put out of action with one blow? I cannot determine in advance what effect the acts of sabotage will have on the resistance. The saboteurs certainly couldn't either. But they had the courage to try it, and for that I am grateful. Because in order to stop the opencast mines, talks were tried a long time ago. Without success. Legal action was taken. Without success. Education, demonstrations, chains of lights, human chains. Without being able to stop the destruction by themselves. Civil disobedience, occupations, blockades. Maybe a little bit is moving. But climate change and its devastating consequences continue. There is not even a decrease in emissions.
"Moreover, the price for people who engage in civil disobedience is being driven up. Civil suits and damage claims are designed to make activists keep quiet by threatening financial ruin or imprisonment. Those who evade this by remaining anonymous, refusing to give their personal details and fingerprints to the police, are mistreated at the police station, or arbitrarily picked up near the occupations and imprisoned for hours. The logical consequence is actions that disrupt or paralyze operations and where the actors do not fall into the hands of the police and the securities."
Militant actions were also discussed at Climate Camp 2016, with a climate camp newspaper posted in the restrooms stating:
"Actions that dispensed with a militancy aesthetic of fire and destroyed police cars could be 'just as effective in their blocking effect,' according to the Action Consensus. In this formulation, it seems as if 'effectiveness' per se is the most meaningful criterion for judging actions. We do not see it that way, but would argue for weighing (risk, effectiveness, communicability, connectivity, etc.). However, if effectiveness is already used, we consider the above claim to be simply wrong in view of the operational failures and damage caused in recent months, for example, by arson attacks (including an at least partial shutdown of an opencast mine for several days). Of course, it does not follow that open blockades are not highly useful. However, measured by their blocking efficiency alone, they are less effective, but much stronger on other levels such as connectivity, public sympathy, etc."
Resilience and Continuity
The occupiers gained nationwide notoriety in summer and fall 2018, but occupations in this forest have already existed since April 2012. At that time, activists were able to tramp there and away very easily because the occupation was in direct proximity to the highway exit. Today, the highway from Cologne to Aachen runs further south; it was relocated over a distance of several kilometers because of the open pit mining.
In November 2012, police carried out the first major eviction operation in the occupied forest. It took four days to get one of the squatters out of an underground tunnel. With gratifying naturalness, the call for reoccupation followed shortly thereafter, and new huts, barricades, and tree houses began to appear in September 2013. Over the following years, these became several villages in the forest. Signposts stand at some intersections along the trails through the remaining portions of the forest. I am pointed to 'Oaktown' or 'Beechtown,' the direction to 'Lorien' is indicated, or the way back to the meadow. 'Mordor' is written on the arrow pointing into the lunar landscape of the open pit and the mine.
Asking in the Hambach Forest about Ende Gelände, we might get the answer that Ende Gelände only shows up once a year bringing massive media attention to the topic of lignite mining while leaving the activists alone on the trees in winter. We might also hear that people who take part in actions of Ende Gelände do not learn how to do actions in small groups because they just experience following a few leaders to block the infrastructure.
This definitely is one side of the coin. But still, some of the participants in the mass protests do not feel comfortable simply consuming plans a few functionaries made up behind locked doors. Thanks to groups like "Zucker im Tank" ("sugar in the tank") that have offered skillshares at Ende Gelände camps, ties have developed between Ende Gelände and self-organized affinity groups. The "Anti-Kohle-Kids" (anti-coal-kids)—who use the slogan "Let's establish a positive connotation for AKK" (referring to the former head of the German conservative party CDU, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, often just called AKK)—are establishing ties between Fridays for Future and Ende Gelände. And last but not least, the guided tours through the Hambi by forest guide Michael Zobel introduced thousands of visitors to forest occupations, explaining the uniqueness of the forest in one sentence and the function of the tree houses in the next.
But of course, in all these groups, we can find people who believe in state solutions as well. Some of the spokespersons of Fridays for Future Germany are involved in the youth wing of the Green Party; a former spokesperson of Ende Gelände is now running for Bundestag [the lower house of the German parliament]. Some of these people might be seeking to advance their personal careers for egoistic reasons; others are probably naïve.
What It's Really About
But the forest occupation movement is about more than trying to influence the decisions that politicians make in the halls of power. Experiencing the need to optimize every facet of ourselves within capitalist reality increases the attractiveness of spaces where we can try a totally different way of being, places where it does not matter whether we have an academic degree nor where we were born. Places where we can develop new ways of making decisions. Places where we share rather than ceaselessly competing. Where we dare to live as kinky queers, where we try out being straight edge, where we meet beautiful people and participate in challenging debates. Places where we can at least start to dream about a better future. Places where people can stand an inconvenient and honest answer to the question "How are you?"
And even though the experiences of participating in the occupation movement are mostly associated with experiences of intense police brutality, it is impossible to erase the memories of the beautiful moments. These memories are seeds that spread. Some might never germinate, but others will soon bear fruit, and still others will eventually grow as well.
In 1980, when anti-nuclear activists established an occupation called "the free republic of Wendland," they hung up a banner proclaiming "Turm und Dorf könnt ihr zerstören, aber nicht die Kraft, die es schuf"—"You can destroy our tower and our village, but not the strength that created it."
Innovations: Tactics and Strategy
Let's conclude by identifying some of the strategic decisions that have strengthened the movement.
Forcing the police to evict: If there are very few of you in the occupation and you can't keep the occupation going for much longer, you might consider provoking an eviction, because leaving might feel like a bigger defeat than being evicted. In the past, expanding from tree occupations to occupy the construction site itself has served this purpose effectively enough.
Refusing to identify as nonviolent: While concentrating on offering low-threshold blockades of coal infrastructure, Ende Gelände consciously never used the term "nonviolence." Instead, they described their plans as an invitation to those who might feel comfortable with a certain approach. This compromise between the different groups involved in the network enabled very different players to cooperate.
Refusing to be reduced to a few demands: On the webpage of the Hambi occupation, most articles are explicitly marked as the opinion of some participants; sometimes discussions take place between different writers online. Additionally, many of the barrios (the different neighborhoods within the occupation) and sometimes even individual treehouses maintained their own social media accounts. There is no such thing as a headquarters in the movement.
Refusing to give your ID to the cops and the court: First used at the Ende Gelände protests and around Hambi to protect international people joining the struggle, this is a double-edged strategy, as those who refuse to give their IDs risk being held in pretrial detention and face a higher likelihood of having their fingerprints taken. All the same, this strategy has successfully discouraged the state from pressing charges against many activists. As always, it is always possible that the police won't imprison hundreds of activists for longer, but many people wouldn't have joined the mass protests without this option, and were willing to take this risk.
After some years of participants experimenting with refusing to give their IDs, some of the long-term effects have become more obvious. Those people who are recognized by the police are sometimes isolated in court, because the other members of their former affinity groups fear to have their IDs checked and to be persecuted as well. People live in fear of being recognized by chance somewhere else. Communication between activists and groups gets more complicated, as people change their names often, making it more difficult to build long-lasting relationships and cooperation.
From the forests to the factories: In 2018 and 2019, the topic of traffic was discussed within the movement; some people focused on car exhibitions as potential targets for actions, while others described a need to hit where it hurts most: at the production sites. One of the results of these debates was a big blockade of VW in Wolfsburg 2019.
Sometimes leaving an occupation is an important step for thinking strategically about a struggle. If you are involved in the daily life of an occupation—constantly working out where to get food and drinking water and building material and how to handle the authorities—it can be difficult to take a step back and think about the big questions. Sometimes, the best thing you can do for the movement is to take a few days or weeks off, to avoid the tendency to miss the forest for the trees (a saying that is used in German as well). Keep in mind: the number of structures and barricades will not necessarily correlate with the media attention (if that is your goal) or the "quality" of a struggle. The eviction at Hambi in 2018 raised more media attention than the eviction at Danni in 2020. Sometimes building more tree houses is just a form of self-deception: what seems to make the occupation bigger could end up becoming an ineffectual ritual if we don't manage to push things further.
Announcing the reoccupation in advance: Before the occupation at the Hambach Forest was evicted in autumn 2014, activists had already announced that they would reoccupy the forest; one month after the eviction, the forest was squatted again. Even if you personally aren't sure you will be able to engage in a re-squatting on account of being exhausted, announcing a reoccupation as the only possible answer to an eviction makes a very strong statement. It invites people who have not been involved yet to participate, giving the movement an opportunity to renew itself.
Internet access: During the pandemic, when people can't go to school or university or their job is changed to an online "home office," this home could be a tree house. At Dannenröder forest, many students were thankful for reliable high-speed internet connections near the occupation or even in the tree houses.
Skillshare: At Hambi, yearly events for sharing skills take place to circulate knowledge between those who already have experience and the future inhabitants defenders of the forests. Sharing knowledge while the movement is still small makes it possible to handle the challenges that ensue when a movement grows rapidly and everyone is busy dealing with other problems.
Common reference points: Having been to the same squatted forest is a reference that connects people. Even if the first occupation at Hambi in 2012 doesn't have a lot in common with the occupations there in 2014, 2018, or today, we immediately feel connected to people when we share our experiences of being in Hambi. It is similar to people going to the ZAD or to Christiania in Copenhagen; Hambi, too, has become a sort of legend. This was only possible because the forest used to be so big that as soon as the occupied parts were evicted, people could occupy other parts of the same forest.
Infrastructure: Maintaining open (and generally "legal") "project houses" near the occupations offer participants the option of sleeping in a warm, dry room when they need to, along with an address at which to receive letters and a place to fill up drinking water and take a shower. These spaces can serve as an office with an internet connection and perhaps a printer or copier. Self-organized open projects can offer space to paint banners, build lockboxes, or just relax without the fear of being beaten up or evicted—without being dependent on the solidarity of more bourgeois supporters who might not like to support all the different types of actions that might require indoor preparation. Activists bought a house close to Hambi at the same time that the first occupations at Hambi started. They opened up WAA (the Workshop for Actions and Alternatives) explicitly to support the fight against lignite mining.
One simple reason to occupy trees rather than joining political parties or old-fashioned NGOs is the possibility of victory. Success is always relative; we might save one tree while hundreds of trees are cut down. But still—in this day and age, saving a tree is something to be proud of. It is the right thing to do in a society as destructive as ours. It's a small demonstration of respect for nature—and therefore, of respect for ourselves.
A region in Germany famous for decades of resistance against the nuclear industry. One of the best known Hüttendörfer ("hut villages," i.e., protest camps) was constructed—and then evicted—there in 1980, known as the "Free Republic of Wendland." Between 1995 and 2011, high-level nuclear waste transports to Gorleben (Wendland) marked the crest of the anti-nuclear movement in Germany of that time, bringing together everyone from local farmers to militant activists and middle-class people. One of the main objectives (to prevent the salt mine in Gorleben to be used as final storage for the waste) was finally achieved in September 2020. ↩


text:
Alphonse Mucha's Le Pater: Lead Us Not Into Temptation But Deliver Us From Evil (Sepia Plate), 1899
Stone lithograph sepia plate of Lead Us Not Into Temptation But Deliver Us From Evil from Alphonse Mucha's masterpiece of mysticism, Le Pater. Mucha considered Le Pater and the murals for The Slav Epic his masterworks. In The Sun newspaper of January 5, 1900 Mucha called this the work that he "had put (his) soul into."
Printed by F. Champenois, published by Henri Piazza in Paris in an edition of 510, 1899. Paper measures 11 13/16 x 15 7/8 inches. This piece arrives accompanied by a certificate of authenticity and a dossier containing extensive academic information about the artist and this artwork.
"Le Pater is the perfect convergence of three important movements at the close of the 19th century: Art Nouveau, Mysticism, and Religion. Art Nouveau, through its respect and honor of Nature, promotes the idea of a spirit of energy coursing through all things–a tenet of Mysticism–that finds foundation in the traditions of Mucha's personal relationship with the imagery of Religion. Le Pater gave Mucha a venue to communicate his beliefs specifically through his unique approach to Art and the coded language he had been learning through his devotion to Masonic teachings. He combined the aesthetics of Medieval manuscripts with Moorish arabesques, Byzantine mandalas, and Classical Renaissance melodrama to create a body of work that guided viewers across the gap between the ancient and the modern.
The published plates for Le Pater were struck by Champenois on December 20, 1899 in an edition of 510 copies with the express agreement that they never be reprinted. As much of Mucha's work had been commercialized by Champenois due to numerous printings across multiple mediums, by this point he felt he had earned the right to insist on this deeply personal work existing only in the original release he had envisioned.
The title page, prayer plates, and illuminated manuscript pages were printed using stone lithography, a laborious and resource-intensive process. The Studio magazine mentioned seven stones as being excessive for creating a lithographic poster (Toulouse-Lautrec would commonly use as few as four); Mucha used as many as twelve stones to create the variations in shading and gilding in Le Pater. Adding another level of luxury and dimension, the cover and title page incorporate a letterpress technique, and the allegorical scenes were printed using a highly sophisticated and detailed engraving process which appears to have photomechanical origins."
- Quoted from Thomas Negovan's Le Pater: Alphonse Mucha's Symbolist Masterpiece and the Lineage of Mysticism (2019)
Notable museum collections include: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (478)
Notable museum collections featuring works by Alphonse Mucha include: Musée d'Orsay, Paris; Louvre Museum Graphic Art Database, Paris; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; Museum of Modern Art, New York City; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Mucha Museum, Prague, Czech Republic; and more.
To purchase our deluxe expanded hardcover book "Le Pater: Alphonse Mucha's Symbolist Masterpiece", please visit this page (new window): https://centuryguild.net/collections/books/products/alphonse-mucha-le-pater-book


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One Simple Question that Can PULL a TON of People Towards You and Your Home business.
Have you ever wondered why many people are not willing to follow you or even look at your message you have to offer with your home business? There are many reasons why they do not. It can be quite frustrating and head shaking, but this can be addressed using bid writing services to help you better communicate your organisation's message.
One of the biggest reasons I believe is people who are looking to build a team not understanding what I call "The Art of Gentle Recruiting." This is something that I believe can help the average person that is struggling in recruiting and building a team to accelerate their results pretty quick. Most people are way too aggressive in their message and conversation to really get a lot of folks attention. Gentle Recruiting I have taught for years as a tactic and it really has worked for a lot of folks.
It is based on asking a very simple but powerful question to someone that is non-threatening and is a normal part of any conversation, online or offline. We have developed a lot of these "gentle questions" over time, but it only takes one.
And if done right, you can PULL the person towards you like a magnet on steroids. And again, of course it can be done offline as well as online which I do believe you need to be doing business with both strategies.
Ok….what is this simple little question you can ask in social media or face to face?
"Are you in a place in your life right now that you would be open to some additional income? Just curious."
Simple but powerful. And you are not pressuring them or even trying to get them to do anything. You are simply asking a question and it is either YES or no. And most of the time in our private client coaching, they get a positive response.
There is something in recruiting we teach called "Impact Points" and that question has several which seem to work with most people when asked. We have researched it and it truly brings many times a great response from the prospect.
B blessed—d


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Free Tip: How to resize scanned PDFs with ghostscript for Adobe Acrobat OCR
I'm unaware of any free tool to perform OCR on a PDF and embed the resulting data in the PDF itself so it is text-searchable. If anyone knows of one, let me know. In the meantime, I use Acrobat Professional for this essential functionality.
High resolution PDFs produced by my scanner (HP Officejet Pro L7700) usually give the following error when I try to perform Acrobat OCR:
This page is larger than the maximum page size of 45 inches by 45 inches.
Surprisingly, there doesn't seem to be any way to resize the page size of a PDF within Acrobat. It's possible to print to a new PDF of the correct size, but this operation cannot easily be batched. If I apply the "crop" tool to resize the page in Acrobat, I get this error:
Page size may not be reduced.
Many report these issues in Adobe's forums. The most common responses suggest reconfiguring the scanner or buying a new one.
I found nothing quick and easy after some googling for a simple ghostscript recipe to perform the batch pre-processing necessary to allow Acrobat to do the OCR. It's not hard to do, just a bit of a trial-and-error pain to get the right switches.
For posterity, then, here is a simple command-line to make this happen (here under Windows, but could obviously easily be adapted for any other platform). First, download the latest ghostscript for your platform (at this time, 8.64 for Windows). Then:
gswin32c -dQUIET -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sPAPERSIZE=letter -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=OUTPUT.pdf -dPDFFitPage INPUT.pdf
And a simple inelegant script to batch process (again, under Windows/cygwin, but easily adaptable). Feel free to make more elegant:
#!/bin/bash for x in "$@" do echo -n Processing $x ... if [ ! -e "$x" ] then echo File $x missing. Exiting. exit 1 fi if [ -e gs_shrink_to_letter.pdf ] then echo Tempfile gs_shrink_to_letter.pdf exists. Exiting. exit 1 fi if ( gswin32c -dQUIET -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sPAPERSIZE=letter -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=gs_shrink_to_letter.pdf -dPDFFitPage "$x" ) then echo Success. mv gs_shrink_to_letter.pdf "$x" else echo Error occurred, exiting. exit $? fi done
After converting your PDFs as above, you can then apply Acrobat batch OCR without a hitch.


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Union Items
"One of the more significant benefits to using Office Connector is the ability to 'search' for information. If someone is out of balance by a certain dollar amount, it is extremely simple using Office Connector to search for and find the reason why."
K. Saland, Terrus Real Estate Group


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Editor's Note: The following is a post from Scott Woodgate and Karri Alexion-Tiernan, Windows Azure Product Marketing
Over the past few months, you've probably heard of us talking about 'the Power of And', as we've shared a number of ways that Windows Server on-premises and Windows Azure in the cloud can help enterprises take advantage of cloud speed, scale and economics. Today, we're extending that power through a number of new investments for both developers and IT pros alike.
For our developers, we understand that development and test scenarios are often an organization's first step in their journey to the cloud. So today, we are excited to share that your MSDN subscription is going to make it easier and faster for you to develop on Windows Azure. Starting today, the new Windows Azure MSDN benefit offers up to $150 per month in credits to use on any Azure service of your choice for development and testing. You can select from a number of preconfigured virtual machines from Microsoft available in the Windows Azure Virtual Machine Image Gallery, images provided by the open source community, or you can upload your own virtual machines with the software included in your MSDN Subscription, except for Windows Client. Better still, when you run your MSDN software using Windows Azure virtual machines, there is no additional cost. You can find additional details on the MSDN benefit here. Speaking of fast, Visual Studio Professional, Premium and Ultimate with MSDN subscribers who activate and use their Windows Azure MSDN benefit before September 30th, 2013 are also automatically entered into a sweepstakes for a chance to win an Aston Martin V8 Vantage sports car!
While this is great news for developers, we also understand that economics is always top of mind for IT too. Whether you're a large or small business, the bottom line matters. Previously we mentioned a price reduction on Virtual Machines to ensure that enterprise customers do not feel they need to sacrifice price for performance. Today, we have another economic benefit to share with you. We are changing the way that we charge for our Virtual Machine usage.
Starting today, customers will be charged for usage by the minute rather than by the hour, with no minimum use requirement – which means no more rounding up for our customers; you will now pay only for what you use. If you stop your VM, you don't pay for the compute. With other cloud providers, you'll find that you will be charged by the hour, even if you only use five minutes, or you'll be forced to take a minimum number of minutes that still may be more than your actual usage.
Let's put this in context. If I use a two core Linux virtual machine with just over 3GB of memory on Windows Azure for 65 minutes, or one hour and five minutes, it would cost $.13, charged to the minute. If I use a similar configuration on an alternative cloud provider I would pay more as they will bill me for a full two hours even though I am only using five minutes of the second hour. Depending on my location choice at the alternate provider, my cost could be as high as $.32 for the equivalent service, a difference of $.19 for that one instance. While this may feel like a small cost delta on a single virtual machine, multiply that by the thousands of virtual machines that you may ultimately run, the difference adds up quickly. Suddenly you may find your cloud economics are not what you thought they would be. We want to ensure our customers have access to all the benefits of the cloud, without price being a barrier.
Although we are changing our billing approach, we aren't reducing the quality of service we deliver. When using Windows Azure you will continue to receive highly available services with monthly SLAs, along with the scale, support and reliability of our cloud platform that customers such as Jackson Hewitt have come to rely upon. The #2 ranked tax preparer in the United States, Jackson Hewitt is using Windows Azure Infrastructure Services running SQL Server 2012 to meet the computational burst requirements during peak tax season. Their lead application architect recently told us that "it's an absolute requirement to be able to scale to need and remain highly available" for their customers, but that they trusted Windows Azure to get the job done seamlessly, especially during their busiest peak tax season.
We're working hard to provide our customers with an optimal hybrid cloud experience, and a key ingredient is ensuring that on-premise resources can connect seamlessly to Windows Azure. To meet our enterprise customers' diverse hardware configuration needs, we're also pleased to share that VPN devices from F5, Citrix and WatchGuard are now supported for site-to-site networking, in addition to already supported devices from Cisco and Juniper.
Last but not least, we are also announcing a first to market in public cloud services with a preview of BizTalk Services, a cloud-based B2B integration platform service that provides easy connectivity to on-premises LOB apps and is available exclusively on Windows Azure. With BizTalk Services, developers and IT pros will be able to further the 'Power of And' by building, managing and accessing robust hybrid applications that tap into a wide range of enterprise data and systems across a variety of devices. BizTalk Services offers full EDI processing, cloud application integration and hybrid connectivity to on-premises LOB systems. You can find more information here and sign up for the Preview here.
All of our new investments including new global datacenters in China, Australia, and Japan, will help our customers to achieve global scale while continuing to enable both developers and IT Pros to take full advantage of the benefits Windows Azure can provide. We're on the ground in New Orleans kicking off conference season with TechEd 2013. If you're in town swing by the Azure booth and say hello, ask a few questions, try out a Windows Azure challenge to win a prize, or get started with a Windows Azure trial today. We hope to see you there!
Scott & Karri


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Capturing Moments
A Magical Menu of Priceless Photographs.
To meet these needs, I offer a wide variety of different services, either in package form or a la carte, so that clients who prefer to know exactly what they're purchasing have the information available. I also offer an hourly rate for clients who may have difficulty opening up to the inner beauty they want captured on paper. For clients who like my style but need photography services in a remote or distant location, I'm willing to work out travel expenses.
Other services I regularly offer my clients include digital touch-ups of red eyes and basic complexion smoothing, airbrushing extra pounds away, working with professionals to develop brand images that build the impression they're trying to create, teaching student models how to get the most out of their photo sessions.
About Us
Keep All your Memories Alive
Our job is to make sure you have the photographs that will keep all your memories alive. From weddings to 50-year anniversaries, our expertise and understanding of how photographs touch hearts and minds resounds every time we click the shutter
Ariel Johnson
We provide enjoyment and so much more.
It takes special people with a knack for seeing the image before it even occurs. That's what we do. Our team tailor makes your images to fit your personality and needs, each and every time.
What We Can Offer
Don't just tie the knot without a photographer present. Our wedding photos will ensure that the moment lasts forever.
You've been needing gorgeous photos to compliment your portfolio. We're here to capture them for you.
Pick a spot and we'll be there. Our photographers are trained to shoot outdoors; to help capture your love of nature.
Because my clients often request a variety of services, I prefer to meet with clients and customize my packages to their needs.
Additional Services
- Integrated Wedding Photography
- Capturing the Magic of Art Shows
- Going the Extra Mile for Amazing Photos
- Beautiful Babies and Maternity Images
- Catching Special Graduation Moments
- Bringing Professional Out of Their Shell
We Are Experts
We offer a specialized approach to our photography, capturing intimate details that are ordinarily overlooked by the naked eye. We enhance each session and photograph to fully capitalize on mood, dimension and the realistic portrayal of beauty in every scene.
Our years of experience has given us an opportunity to help others rekindle a relationship with the beauty of photography.
No matter what occasion or background, we are the best at bringing stills to life. Whatever the specialty, we've got it covered.


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Bob and the Lord stood by to observe a baseball game. The Lord's team was playing Satan's team. The Lord's team was at bat, the score was tied zero to zero, and it was the bottom of the 9th inning with two outs.
They continued to watch as a batter stepped up to the plate whose name was Love. Love swung at the first pitch and hit a single, because Love never fails. The next batter was named Faith, who also got a single because Faith works with Love.
The next batter up was named Godly wisdom. Satan wound up and threw the first pitch. Godly Wisdom looked it over and let it pass: Ball one. Three more pitches and Godly Wisdom walked, because Godly wisdom never swings at what Satan throws. The bases were loaded.
The Lord then turned to Bob and told him He was now going to bring in His star player. Up to the plate stepped Grace. Bob said, "He sure doesn't look like much!" Satan's whole team relaxed when they saw Grace. Thinking he had won the game, Satan wound up and fired his first pitch. To the shock of everyone, Grace hit the ball harder than anyone had ever seen. But Satan was not worried; his center fielder let very few get by. He went up for the ball, but it went right through his glove, hit him on the head and sent him crashing on the ground; then it continued over the fence for a home run!
The Lord's team won.
The Lord then asked Bob if he knew why Love, Faith, and Godly Wisdom could get on base but could not win the game. Bob answered that he did not know why.
The Lord explained, "If your love, faith and wisdom had won the game you would think you had done it by yourself. Love, faith and wisdom will get you on base, but only My Grace can get you home. My Grace is the one thing Satan cannot steal."
— Author Unknown