Against mass tourism, pollution and capitalism, piracy is never over

~ from Contre Attaque ~

On Saturday, September 21, 12 kayaks blocked access to the port of Marseille; three cruise ships and a ferry were blocked for hours by the flotilla, off the southern French coast.

Around 7am, the AIDAstella ship had to turn around, as the kayaks had positioned themselves to prevent it from entering the port. It is a ship with a capacity of two thousand people. Two other cruise ships, the MSC World Europa, the sixth largest cruise ship in the world with more than 2,600 cabins, six thousand passengers, thirteen restaurants and a shopping centre, and the Costa Smeralda, were also due to dock. The ships had to wait offshore, as did a ferry from Corsica.

The 21 environmentalists from Extinction Rebellion and the “Stop Cruises” collective, equipped with life jackets, unfurled banners from their small boats with the slogans “it smells like gas” and “we are very angry with MSC Cruises”. All the pirates were unfortunately arrested by the police at the end of the action.

The engines of such large ships alone can burn up to 250,000 litres of fuel per day. “These ships burn as much fuel as entire cities. They burn much more energy than container ships and, even when they burn low-sulphur fuel, it is 100 times worse than road diesel”, explained one captain in an investigation by the British newspaper The Guardian on cruise ships. Not to mention the road and cargo traffic needed to supply such floating cities.

According to a study by the NGO Transport and Environment, cruise ships sailing in European waters in 2022 will have emitted more than 8 million tonnes of CO2, the equivalent of 50,000 Paris-New York flights.

On July 6, a squad of 18 kayaks organized by the collectives “Stop Croisières BZH” and “Extinction Rebellion” implemented a sea barrier to block a cruise ship Concarneau, in Finistère. The liner, a sea monster measuring 206 meters long and able to accommodate almost 1,200 people – 700 passengers and 447 crew members – answering to the name of Seven Seas Voyager, had to cancel its stopover in Concarneau.

These cruise ships are an integral part of the mass tourism economy, polluting the air of coastal cities, generating real estate speculation, damaging the coasts and destroying local ways of life. In 2021, even the very touristy Venice was forced to ban cruises from its port. The city of Amsterdam followed suit shortly after.

In 2022, the port of Marseille welcomed 1.5 million cruise passengers and 2.5 million in 2023. In France’s second city, anger is growing against these giants of the seas that pollute the air for the sole profit of the tourism industry.

Photos: XR and Stop Croisières