Reclaim Power!'s long way to the Bella Centre
Udgivet / published: Wednesday 16 December 2009 20:27 af / by Manos From Imc Features
Tagget som / tagged as:
blue-block
cop15
green-block
inside-block
Område / neighbourhood:
Early in the morning, multiple marches tried to make their way to the Bella Centre where the COP15 is held. The group meeting at Orestad station (Green) was surrounded by police and some were arrested [pic], but others managed to move towards COP15. A second bloc (Blue), of more than 1000 people, made their way to the Bella Centre whilst resisting attempts from the police to break it. The bike bloc was blocked by police and redirected away.
Police have been repeatedly attacking the crowds with baton charges and pepper spray, as well as arresting protesters throughout the morning, and arresting medics [pics]. Corporate media report 200 to 250 arrests. At the same time a group of protestors managed to get into the area of the COP15-Summit with a raft [pics | video]
[Pics 1 | 2 | 3 | Video 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7]
The Reclaim Power! day started early both for activists and the police. By 6:50am six police vans were already searching people leaving the Voldeparken school accommodation. Police were also searching people at the Tarnby station, arresting three others at Norreport station, stopping and searching vehicles and public transport on the bridges of Copenhagen, near the meeting points for the start of the action.
The meeting point for the blue bloc of the action was Tarnby station, and by about 9am about 500 activists had gathered there, accompanied by a Samba band. Plain clothes police arrested a spokesperson from CJA. The meeting point of the ill-fated Green bloc was Orestad Station, where the 50-100 people gathered there were surrounded by police and some were arrested, using baton charges and pepper spray. Some stayed free and made their way to join other blocs, but the police also forced people into public transport towards the centre of town, and away from the Bella centre.
By about 10am the Blue bloc started marching towards the Bella Centre where the COP15 was held, with the intention to get inside and hold a people's assembly for a day. The march of 1000 to 3000 proceeded under heavy police presence, though initially without trouble. Half an hour later they formed chains around the bloc and successfully resisted a police attempt to split the bloc, though the police did manage to arrest some people outside the main group. At the same time, groups of 50-100 from the Green bloc were on their way to Bella Centre, and strangely took refuge within the Fields shopping centre where they were arrested en masse. A further 30 - 60 arrests took place outside. About 5 medics were also arrested while helping Green bloc people at the Orestad station.
Meanwhile the bike bloc, which had been the subject of a raid the day before, witnessed 17 arrests. From then on it was surrounded by police vans and ferried around town, and towards the city centre away from the action. 8 cyclists blocked the highway later in the day, and some more were arrested. At around 11am the Blue bloc was within sight of the Bella Centre, and members of excluded NGOs (Friends of the Earth, and Via Campesina amongst others) that were staging a sit-in there, could see it in the distance. A group of 200 accredited COP15 attendees from the greater south attempted to join them, only to be beaten back to the Bella Centre by police. The Blue bloc crossed onto the Bella Centre lawn, and when it went past the police line, officers put on their helmets and used batons and pepper spray to keep it out. At about 11:45am, the police charged towards the blue bloc truck, and eventually took it away, while arresting a further 2 activists from CJA. The blue bloc was thus prevented from joining people from inside COP15.
At about noon, a few cunning activists managed to build an inflatable bridge and got into the Bella Centre, only to be arrested shortly after. After noon, given their inability to get inside COP15 or even meet delegates from inside trying to get outside, the Blue bloc set up a people's climate assembly outside [audio]. By that time mainstream media reported more than 200 arrests, but this did not prevent more than 2000 people taking part in the assembly.
Kommentarer
further links, vids, features about the day
Udgivet af / published by: Thursday 17 December 2009 17:31
af / by
linke
democracy now RECLAIM POWER feature:
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/12/16/police_tear_gas_beat_back_protesters
Reclaim Power climate protest march in Copenhagen (Guardian UK In pictures)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2009/dec/16/reclaim-power-march-copenhagen
Copenhagen police tackle 4,000-strong climate protest (Guardian UK VIDEO)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2009/dec/17/copenhagen-climate-change
More Pictures
Udgivet af / published by: Thursday 17 December 2009 23:47
af / by
calypso
some more pictures can be found here:
http://1000.blogsport.de/2009/12/17/images-from-copenhagen-4/
The RECLAIM POWER Peoples Assembly (audio)
Udgivet af / published by: Friday 18 December 2009 15:38
af / by
Climate Caravan Radio
3 audio files from a truly momentous day. The Peoples Assembly was streamed live thanks to the IMC-Radio crew, which was a great thing. Due to cop violence we missed the initial opening of the assembly (there was much chaos and running about)
1 - THE PEOPLES ASSEMBLY (35 mins 32.2 MB)
2 - POST HORIZONTAL PROCESS FEEDBACK SESSION (20 mins) + Joyfull insights (12 mins)(total 32 mins 29.74 MB)
3 - RECLAIM POWER SOUNDSCAPE, many of the chants, an interview with a member of Via Campesina after the assembly and the closing talk in Copenhagen city centre after 8 long, cold hours. (17.5 mins 16.02 MB)
1 - http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/PEOPLES_ASSEMBLY.mp3
2 - http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/POST_HORIZONTAL_PROCESS_FEEDBACK.mp3
3 - http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/other_bits.mp3
Source of audios - http://radio.indymedia.org/en/node/18024
imc-dk report - https://publish.indymedia.dk/articles/1956
Blue Bloc Video
Udgivet af / published by: Friday 18 December 2009 17:24
af / by
…
another video of Reclaim Power (blue bloc) here
http://indymedia.dk/videos/1924
The People's Assembly video
Udgivet af / published by: Monday 21 December 2009 17:30
af / by
linker
The People's Assembly - CJA demo at COP15
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGY9ruYpx3o
Pictures and Ana Greenhearts Final Report
Udgivet af / published by: Tuesday 22 December 2009 21:03
af / by
Kristian Bro
se billeder fra dagen her: http://picasaweb.google.com/kristian.bro3/16Dec2009DenDedikeredeDemonstration?feat=directlink
Ana Greenheart's Rinal Report
Ana Greenheart <ana>
til
dato22. dec. 2009 14.06
emnefinal report from Copenhagen (in English)
sendt afgmail.com
signeret afgmail.com
skjul detaljer 14.06 (7 timer siden)
Dear all,
Many thanks for all your messages of support and for all the actions that you have carried out to actively help and encourage the work being done in Copenhagen. This email is a final report put together for you all with much love, to comment on the results of the UNFCCC conference, which ended with a text called the Copenhagen Accord, that you will find attached.
This text is not legally binding, and came out of a truly outrageous process (see The Guardian's report on it here) which has seen:
· small and empoverished countries being bullied or bribed (making the UN look more and more like the WTO)
· corporate lobbyists waltzing around wheelin' and dealin', carving up the planet's surface and the atmosphere into convenient tradeable commodities, and sharing out the huge future benefits involved
· access to civil society official representatives seriously restricted (from 7,000 down to 90 people allowed in to the Bella Center on the last day)
· serious harassment and violent repression by the police towards peaceful protesters and even towards accredited UN delegates (something unheard of!). Around 1500 people have been preventively arrested (some people being picked off buses or detained as they cycled around town), with the main activist spokespeople imprisoned and some people even deported. At present there are still a number of spokespeople in preventive prison and they could stay there up to 4 weeks under Danish law.
· intransparency and authoritarianism all the way, getting worse and worse towards the end
Obama swept in on the last day and made a very disappointing, disrespectful speech. The US claims to be "acting" by pledging 100 billion dollars a year for helping developing countries adapt to climate change. This may sound generous... but when you think that they have just approved over 600 billion for next year's military budget, that the "carbon trade market" itself is worth about 4 TRILLION dollars a year (at the moment!), and that a great deal of American prosperity rides on the backs of poor countries and the historic exploitation of their resources... the "generous" offer suddenly seems like loose change. As the representative of Sudan pointed out, it will not even pay for the coffins to bury African victims of climate chaos. These are some of the reasons why the concept of "climate justice" has been clearly demanded all the way through this whole conference by those expressing dissent inside and outside of the Bella Center.
Obama then met privately with China, India, Brazil, and South Africa and, after a night of frantic negotiations, the leading countries bashed out the Copenhagen Agreement. In the text, there is no clear mechanism on how the Annex 1 countries (main polluting countries) will reduce their emissions, and there are no commitments as to how much they will reduce them and when. The only things that are clearly promoted are the "transfer of technology" (transgenics or geoingeneering to manipulate the world's climate would fit in that description) and mechanisms like REDD-plus, which is clearly bad path to go for communities and small farmers since it will result in further land-grabbing by large corporations, hunger, exodus and deforestation. As land is allocated to grow monoculture trees and GM crops for biofuels, biomass and biochar, instead of native forest or food, more and more farmers and communities will be kicked off their land.
Under these conditions, no deal was definitely better than a bad deal!
Democracy Now has very good reports on its website and so has The Guardian, with articles like this, if you are interested in more details. Also, the following website is where activists have been putting their videos, photos and reports: http://indymedia.dk/. At the end of this email you will find a list of links to inform you more in-depth about issues like geoengineering, REDD, etc... if you are interested.
The good news of the whole Copenhagen experience is that Klimaforum, with infinitely less resources than COP15 but infinitely more commitment and passion, has successfully hosted over 50,000 activists from around the world who have been able to set their differences aside to jointly write a detailed Declaration ... In order to have the voices of people heard in the UN, thousands of people marched onto COP15 and were violently met by the police forces... so a large group of people sat down on the road in front of the Bella Centre and held a People's Assembly to talk about true solutions to climate change. Here is a beautiful image of that moment... Civil society was then given TWO MINUTES (!!) on the last day to address the world leaders, during which a man and a woman presented the above Declaration and the demand that the voice of the people be heard - obviously, it was not...
After all the work, long marches in the bitter cold, shocking repression by police forces and the strong understanding that corporations are definitely and shamelessly running the show, all these activists and groups have become more united than ever in their resolve to continue a struggle towards the changes we need to see in the world:
SYSTEM CHANGE, NOT CLIMATE CHANGE
Under this clear message, hundreds or organisations have come together and worked intensely, creating new links that will result in a number of global campaigns as well as regional, national and local ones too. Please join in when they come your way!
As Copenhagen recovers its calm, our thoughts go out to the people beaten and imprisoned for expressing the views of the majority of civil society, to the millions of victims of climate chaos that are and that will be... and to the rest of our human brothers and sisters, for it is in all of our daily actions that we will be creating a future for all of us. 50,000 people have acted in your name these two weeks... now we need the rest of the population to actively be the change we need to see.
With warmest regards and best wishes to all for these festive days spent with family and friends,
Ana :D
P.S. Interesting links:
http://www.klimaforum09.org - official page of the alternative people's summit
http://www.etcgroup.org - see their latest document "Who will feed us?" and their critiques on geoengineering solutions
http://www.grain.org - great resources and articles re. agriculture and seeds
http://www.carbontradewatch.org/ - the place to go for all infos about carbon trading
http://www.econexus.info/ - scientific research and analysis of all things related to biotechnology and geoengineering
http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/ - one of the best at studying the UNFCCC mechanisms in depth, especially those related to monocultures and "bio"fuels
http://www.wrm.org.uy/ - World Rainforest Movement, about forests and technology, eg. REDD
http://www.ourworldisnotforsale.org/ - fab infos, check out their seminal downloadable book "Change Trade, Not Our Climate"
http://viacampesina.org/main_en/ - global movement of small-scale farmers, fisherfolk, pastoralists, forest managers...
copenhagen accord.pdf
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KPnetTV vids of peoples assembly
Udgivet af / published by: Monday 28 December 2009 22:32
af / by
linker
lots of great vids of the assembly from KPnetTV:
http://www.youtube.com/user/KPnetTV
web - http://apk2000.dk/netavisen/
assembly vids, starting from oaxaca betina:
COP15 Peoples Assembly - Bettina Cruz [ES/EN]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByMcxi0LXXw
Police presence
Udgivet af / published by: Saturday 09 January 2010 11:39
af / by
Bob
Does it mean the policemen are already in place when the activist arrives?
http://www.essaywriter.co.uk/services/academic-essay-writing.aspx
Chaos
Udgivet af / published by: Saturday 09 January 2010 12:04
af / by
Business Essays
Public demonstrations of these kind of mob is present everywhere. And the governments are having a hard time to deal with it. The officials should start educating everyone the negative effects of these demonstrations.
<a href="http://www.business-essays.net">Business Essays</a>
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RECLAIM POWER - 6pm press conference (audio file)
Audio file - reclaim power press conference
http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/reclaim_power_press_conference.mp3
found at:
http://indymedia.dk/articles/1906