copenhagen 2009

Rationalisation of Repression, in 13 Acts 

13 Acts and how many breaches of civil rights?

A personal account of one of the many arbitrary arrests made in Denmark.

When we arrived at 8 am this morning we heard that the whole of the Friends of the Earth International delegation were forbidden entrance to the conference centre. There's dismay and it's a very bad sign for the rest of the day.

Once the Reclaim Power Action put in place, it starts and the tension rises rapidly.

José Bové, wanting to plead Friends of the Earth's cause beside their President Nimmo Bassey, is taken away by the conference Centre security and stays locked up for a while. Many NGOs observers stay stuck outside, even though they have the “must-have” 1 and 2 level badges.

See below for a selection of videos from the demonstration that took place on Wednesday 16 December in Copenhagen. As the time for the arrival of the heads of states comes closer, things toughen up both inside the Bella Center and outside, where demonstrations are violently suppressed.

Tuesday 15 December, 6 pm

The police had just raided the Norrebro neighbourhood, on the Bike Block's the preparation site of activities, who were planning to take action this Wednesday as part of “Reclaim Power” day.

The new Danish law that permits to make preventive arrests, seems to work perfectly, on the eve of the action...

Maybe they will be released tomorrow at midday once the action completed...

No need to despair so much !

The restriction of the number of accreditations as we get closer to the arrival of the Heads of States and Governments and the finalisation of a possible agreement, or at least for the next following months, can contribute to the success of the “Reclaim Power” action : many people will be gathering in front of the Bella Center this Wednesday to demand to be heard outside the closed setting of the Union Nations conference !

The Assembly of Social Movements was held on 13 December in the Klimaforum (the alternative forum or people’s climate summit). It brought together more than a thousand people, in a joyful, fraternal and combative atmosphere.

PRESS RELEASE OF THE AFRICAN ATTAC NETWORK ON COPENHAGEN COUNCIL

EMERGENCY

LET US SAVE THE PLANET, LET US SAVE AFRICA

No to the commodification of the climate

Another world, social, united and ecological, is possible

Africans still bear in mind the recent floods that have led to the death and displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in several countries of the continent this year. This kind of natural disaster is becoming more and more frequent in Africa which was not the case in the past. Forecasts are not reassuring: climatologists predict virtual climatic catastrophes due to global warming.

Monday 7 December, Copenhagen 2009

The first day of pinpointing locations and most of all the accreditations. There are loads of people, it's the UNO conference that welcomes the most delegates and observers to the extent that there will be daily quotas for the NGOs and associations to enter within the conference walls.

We attended several conference meetings.

The Plenary of the working group on long-term cooperative action under the Rio Convention about climate change (AWG-LCA).

We had to wait for two hours in the morning cold to get our accreditation for COP15, the other name of the Copenhagen Climate Summit, for which Attac France has been preparing for two months.

An impressive number of representatives from an equally impressive number of countries has arrived in the Danish capital over the last few days either to attend COP15, or to take part in the Klima Forum (the alternative forum held by social movements and citizens) or to participate in the many rallies, actions and events that are going to take place over the next ten days.

A small Attac team is already operational: Geneviève (Azam), Fanny (Simon), Nico (Haeringer) and Ronack (Monabay, the Attac/Aitec volunteer who has been in Copenhagen for two months supporting the local preparation teams). Some are here listen and write, others to film, others to speak or organise.

No to market based solutions to climate crisis

No to privatization of natural resources

Yes to public policies and regulations for climate justice

Yes to people sovereignty on natural resources and environmental resources 
 

The climate crisis the world now faces is one aspect of a more encompassing crisis affecting the whole planet. As its other aspects, this ecological crisis is deeply rooted in the neoliberal model of production, exchange and consumption :