Despite the unexpected level of police repression at the Climate Summit demonstrations in Copenhagen, Denmark, thousands of protesters kept up the fight for ten days of action against the bankrupt United Nations climate conference, COP15, at the end of 2009. With this newsletter we take a look back at what happened.
With the COP15 being a conference on climate change, and a United Nations one at that, there was some concern that mobilisation would be difficult. The UN is the most democratic forum we have for global decision making... right? How else will we deal with the problem of climate change... right? Actually, the UN is half of the problem. By legitimising and justifying massive corporate influence on government decisions and the continued and increasing exploitation of common natural and human resources, the UN climate summits are doing exactly the opposite of solving climate change. They are legitimising ways of making it worse, and earning lots of money in the process.
Many groups began planning and mobilising more than a year in advance - since September 2008 - and a new international network was created exactly for this purpose - Climate Justice Action (CJA).
Climate Justice Action (CJA) was a very broad network made up of groups ranging from the explicitly anti-capitalist and direct action based Rising Tide through to policy-heads such as Carbon Trade Watch, southern NGOs like Jubilee South who facilitated the participation of indigenous groups such as Filipino fisherfolks, and well-established global networks like Via Campesina. Making any kind of decision with all these groups in one room was always going to be a challenge (though most of those who could attend the meetings were based in Europe), but over the course of 16 months the network reached consensus on a call-out, set of goals, principles of unity and agreed to support a whole series of actions.
The Klima Kollectiv was the local on-the-ground group, formed in response to the need for logistical preparations (such as sleeping spaces, convergence centres, food, info points etc). But it grew into a climate action group that also organised its own actions and is continuing to be active on climate issues post-COP15.
Street-medics, legal support teams, action kitchens, alternative media and tech collectives, people with practical skills and others with corporate media skills came from across Europe to contribute to the practical and logistical organisation of the protests. Several local groups were reinvigorated and stepped-up for the mobilisation, including Copenhagen Activist Trauma Support (CATS), the local prisoner support group, and the legal team Rusk who provided legal advice in the run-up to the summit and support for the thousands of people who were arrested throughout the fortnight.
Police repression in Copenhagen began months before the summit began. A new law package, called 'Lømmelpakken.' was pushed through the Danish parliament in the lead-up to the summit. The law turned acts that previously resulted in a fine into crimes causing unconditional prison terms, and criminalised people for being simply in the area of 'disturbances' for 'contributing to the atmosphere'. The new law also permitted the police to pre-emptively arrest people...a power which they used and abused massively throughout the climate conference.
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Border Controls
In advance of the summit, Danish police had already issued warnings about border controls that would restrict people from entering the country. They publicly announced a 'black book' of activists who would be stopped and turned away at the border, angering many people at the repression of freedom of speech (http://indymedia.dk/articles/1422). True to their word, Danish Police stopped and searched many of the coaches bringing people from across Europe to demonstrate their dissent, forcing people to empty their bags and searching their belongings before any crime (whatever that means these days) might even have been considered - (http://indymedia.dk/articles/1457)
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Raids
Many people began arriving from the first days of December to help prepare the convergence spaces and sleeping halls. There was much practical building and maintenance work to be done to make the giant halls warm and liveable for the thousands of people who would be coming. Despite the majority of people not arriving before 10th December, and despite the spaces being legally rented from the local municipality, Danish police raided both big convergence spaces – 'Teglehomlen' on 4th and 'Ragnhilsgade' on 9th December – even without a warrant. At the second raid police took everything from work tools to banners and placards and even stole all the public meeting notes, practical information and task rotas from the notice boards in the No Borders Cafe.
Police raids activist housing - http://indymedia.dk/articles/1398
Police Search Ragnhildsgade Sleeping Space - http://indymedia.dk/articles/1432
Another Police Raid on Climate Campaigners - http://indymedia.dk/articles/1450
Report from the raid at Ragnhildgade - http://indymedia.dk/articles/1448
Activists: Police out of proportion - http://indymedia.dk/articles/1443
Picture before and under the accomodation raid - http://indymedia.dk/articles/1446
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Arrests
During the ten days of protest there were over 1800 arrests in a shocking demonstration of the UN's war on dissent. Seven people continue to face serious charges of conspiracy, despite the entire summit mobilisation having been organised on an entirely non-hierarchical and open basis. Solidarity demonstrations took place and continue to happen at Danish embassies across Europe, and there is a further callout for solidarity demonstrations at Danish embassies on 16th March to coincide with the court dates of two defendants.
The fortnight of the summit was an action-packed time, with even some tension in the lead-up between activists who demanded 'action action action!' and others who wanted to create space for political discussions and network-building on the streets. The actions began with Don't Buy the Lie on Friday 11th December, a hit-and-run game of target-tag with activists receiving info via telephone and text message on an action-map of corporate offices to strike with invasions, occupations and noise disruptions. The arrests began immediately.
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This was followed on Saturday 12th with a march of over 100,000 people through the streets of Copenhagen in the annual Global Day of Action, mirrored by marching in cities across the world. In a dramatic demonstration of escalating police repression of dissent, over 900 demonstrators were arrested in a pre-emptive mass-kettle halfway through the march, with police randomly cutting off a section of the 'System Change Not Climate Change' block and re-routing the rest of the march around it. Those arrested were made to sit on the ground in lines for over 5 hours, without access to food, water or toilets, and then held in cages overnight, causing outrage from protesters and media-outlets over the inhuman treatment of those who show dissent (even by just marching!). Despite over 900 arrests on this day, no one was charged.
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Not deterred by the repressive policing, Sunday 13th was the day to Hit The Production - a mass action to shut down the harbour of Copenhagen as a symbol of global capitalism and key hub for the transportation of goods from production in the south to consumption in the north. Over 200 people gathered to march to the harbour with the intention of blockading the entrances. Immediately surrounded by police, demonstrators were eventually outnumbered by police. Police stormed the sound van and arrested everyone in sight, again in a pre-emptive strike. Despite this fiasco, word got around that the 24/7 harbour had actually stopped work for the day....meaning that even without reaching their target, the protest had succeeded in achieving it's stated aim.
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Monday 14th was No Borders day. Again in a show of pre-emptive aggression, police raiding Ragnhildgade a few days before had stolen many of the banners and placards painted for the demonstration. Undeterred, over 1,500 protesters met at Israel Plads in the morning for a march to the Danish Ministry of Defence.
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Also on Monday 14th Tar Sands activists targeted the Canadian Embassy. The protest was called by the Indigenous Environmental Network, the Rainforest Action Network, the Council of Canadians, the Indigenous Peoples Power Project, and UK Tar Sands Group to protest about the planet's most destructive industrial project, which is destroying the habitat and culture of Canadian First Nations peoples whilst tipping Canada's carbon footprint completely over the edge.
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Whilst this was all happening, news emerged from the climate summit that the talks had broken down. Unsurprisingly, the BBC reported that the "negotiations at the UN Climate Summit have been suspended after developing countries withdrew their co-operation," ignoring the G77 chief negotiator Lumumba Di-Aping who explained the latest development with the following statement: "The president of the COP (Danish climate minister Connie Hedegaard) is absolutely committed to violate any democratic processes".
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On the evening of Monday 14th the Reclaim Power Party turned into a stand-off between protesters and police, resulting finally in a dramatic police invasion and occupation and mass-tear-gassing of Free-town Christiania and the arrest of 196 people. Seemingly the police were trying to wear down street-level opposition through constant offensive action against activists.
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Tuesday 15th December was agriculture action day with Via Campesina, ASEED and others organising a Resistance is Ripe! demo and info-evening to highlight the energy and emissions intensive farming practices and in support of peasant access to land, the abolishment of the agro-export model of food production and the scaling down of industrial agriculture (http://indymedia.dk/articles/1393).
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Reclaim Power, the mass direct action organised by Climate Justice Action began early in the morning of December 16th, with affinity groups joining different blocs based on their choice of tactics. The blocs were decided in big preparations assemblies that took place in Ragnhildgade every evening running up to the action. The blue bloc met at a metro station nearby the Bella Centre to carry the People's Assembly on a pre-arranged route up to and over the fences which surrounded and excluded people from the United Nations Summit. The green bloc was made up of autonomous affinity groups who would try to get into the summit grounds from all different directions across the fields that surrounded it. Unfortunately this group made the minor error of also choosing to announce a starting point for the morning of the action. The bike bloc, working out of the Candy Factory all week, repaired all kinds of shapes and sizes of bikes, to be used in any way possible to evade or distract police, pass messages between groups and blocs, or defend moving targets from attack. The inside bloc organised to disrupt the proceedings from the inside, gathering people together for a mass-exodus from the Bella Centre to join the People's Assembly outside.
In the end the action felt disappointing for most people involved. The police had all blocs surrounded from the start, and they made plenty of use of their pepper spray and batons to keep people away from the summit. Communications and decision-making structures hadn't been thought through very well, so when things didn't go according to plan, there wasn't an agreed way to make changes and communicate them. One heroic affinity group on the blue bloc had prepared a floating bridge to get across the small river between the roadside and the Bella Centre! The inside-bloc were threatened with arrest repeatedly on their way out of the Bella Centre and towards the People's Assembly, and then beaten with batons and charged from both sides by police who trapped them on a bridge near to the blue bloc. The two blocs were close enough to shout at each other across the river surrounding the conference centre, but police heavy lines would not let them meet. Eventually with many arrests made, the blue bloc improvised a People's Assembly where they were surrounded by police just outside the fence surrounding the Bella Centre.
http://indymedia.dk/articles/1894
http://indymedia.dk/articles/1893
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Exhausted and repressed, but not deterred, activists organised one final demonstration on Friday 18th December. The 'Free Political Prisoners' solidarity march began with sound trucks blaring tracks of resistance and the now familiar array of Dutch, German, Swedish and Danish police vehicles in tow. Many more people than anyone expected came out to demonstrate against the escalated police repression of dissent around a supposedly democratic United Nations meeting.
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As well as all the street-level actions outside and against the summit, a number of groups who had gained accreditation participated in actions inside, creating something of a circus atmosphere in the public areas with colourful and noisy demonstrations several times a day. Actions inside the Bella Centre were done by Avaaz, Via Campesina, the Yes Men, and FOE international (who were eventually banned for unauthorised clapping in a noisy demonstration which involved lots of people dressed in blue rain-macs clapping in chorus to symbolise the ticking of the climate clock).
KlimaForum09 was an alternative civil-society summit to create space for NGO and grassroots politics outside of the Bella Centre. Supported by a range of small and medium NGOs, it put on a programme of 202 debates, 70 exhibitions, 43 films, 16 concerts and 11 plays from all over the world. Throughout the fortnight of the official summit, the KlimaForum process created an alternative Declaration to counter the corporate-biased one that would inevitably be produced by the UN proceedings. See the Declaration here: http://www.klimaforum09.org/Declaration.
On Friday, December 18, the final day of the conference (the conference finished late, on Saturday, December 19), the Copenhagen Accord emerged. The two-and-a-half-page text does not provide for any emission reduction targets for developed countries after 2012 (when the current Kyoto Protocol expires). Individual countries may volunteer reduction targets, but there is nothing to bind them.
The Accord sets a goal for developed countries to contribute U.S.$100 billion annually by 2020 towards developing country climate funds. This non-binding goal gives no guarantees... and everyone knows that developed countries rarely, if ever, deliver promised funds. A proportion of the money is already planned to come from carbon markets - see http://eyfa.org/carbontrading on why this is very bad. Developing countries themselves will also be expected to contribute to the pot. On top of this, the money comes based on the condition that developing countries also start to reduce their emissions (erm..what emissions?!)
The Accord stabs in the back more than 100 countries which have demanded a maximum temperature rise of 1.5°C by including only a reference, in the very last sentence, to the possibility of discussing this sometime in the future. The process through which the Copenhagen Accord emerged has been compared to a WTO-style “super green room” process, in contrast to the supposedly open, inclusive proceedings at the UN.
During the final session of the COP, at about 3 in the morning on Saturday 19th, the Danish prime minister introduced the Accord as a done deal. Four hours earlier Obama had announced to the world that a deal had been made and that “most of the text has been completely worked out.” He then left to go back to Washington to avoid a snow storm. The Bolivian ambassador, noting that the Bolivian delegation had learned about the Accord through the media, asked, “Why have we not discussed this document before and why are we given 60 minutes to look at this document now, which will decide the lives of our people... This document does not respect two years of work and our people’s rights are not respected, so we cannot endorse this document which is by a small group that think they can take the opportunity to impose on us.”
The U.S. and the U.K. tried to hold back climate funding from developing countries who do not accept the Accord, but in the end parties to the UNFCCC agreed to merely “take note” of the text rather than to adopt it...the conference neither accepted nor approved the Accord. Because a small number of developing countries were able to stop the Accord from being adopted by the COP, the U.S. and other big players complained about the difficulties of staying within a consensus process, despite the fact that they have been happy to use the same consensus process in the past to block advancement of anything not in their own best (profitable) interests.
From December 3-9 more than 60 activists from the Global South travelled across Europe from the WTO Trade Summit in Geneva to the COP15 Climate Summit in Copenhagen. Their intention was to highlight the close relation between trade politics and the climate crisis. The purpose of the caravan was it to enable voices from the South to have their say in the current debates about trade and climate. With public events, workshops and actions the representatives of movements from the South showed how climate change and trade liberalisation affect their lives and how they struggle against it. The caravan travelled on two routes, one through France and Belgium, a second through Germany – crossing the border into Denmark together on the 9th December to a warm welcome party in Christiania.
Social and Justice Climate Caravan Begins - http://indymedia.dk/articles/1394
Caravan from WTO to COP15 - https://publish.indymedia.dk/articles/1316
First Stop of the "Climate-Justice Caravan” (east) - http://indymedia.dk/articles/1399
Fourth stop of the Climate Caravan (west) Brussels - https://publish.indymedia.dk/articles/1455
At the end of the 10-day long protest in Copenhagen, exhausted activists got together to evaluate the actions and the process, and discuss 'where next from here?'. The next meetings of the Europe-based Climate Justice movement will take place in Amsterdam from 27-28 February, and then during the Bonn Climate Summit (COP15.5) from May 29-30, with Monday May 31st dedicated to discussing what 'climate justice' means in a European context.
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