Warwick Cycle 2 Copenhagen

 

This was the radical action that we had heard the most about prior to arriving in Copenhagen. For months various activist groups (and Climate Justice Action in particular) had been planning an invasion of the Bella Centre – the location of the UN talks – on Wednesday December 15. The purpose was to oust the world leaders who they (rightly) predicted would be making little progress, and stage a ‘people’s assembly’; an alternative conference that would focus on the real issues of climate justice and urgent action.

However, the Danish authorities were determined to hinder the action. For example, the night before, they raided the ‘Candy Factory’ – where the supercool ‘bike bloc’ fleet of refurbished and pimped up protest bicycles (http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/actions/copenhagen-2009/bike-bloc) had been developed and stored – confiscating many bikes. We saw footage of the raid on repeat on the Danish news that night.

Earlier that Tuesday evening we had heard rousing speeches from older and seemingly very moderate activists who managed to convert their anger and frustration at the failure of the negotiations into positive energy. I felt moved by the solidarity in the room: yes we would try and break into the centre because we would only be interrupting false solutions, but more important (at least to these people) was that we held the people’s assembly somewhere. If the police were too strong, we would sit down outside. One American gave a speech not dissimilar to Henry V’s St Crispin’s Day rally (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAvmLDkAgAM), and it really did send shivers down my spine to feel so united at a potentially historic event.

On the Wednesday itself, the police presence was heavy from the start. The three of us had decided to lock up our bikes at the rally point and join the march on foot. We were with the mainstream ‘blue bloc’. In addition to the bike bloc there was the more radical ‘green bloc’ – ‘arrestables’ who were determined to get into the conference centre. The march started late and it was very cold. The pace was slow but the samba band and various songs (“Hey, hey, ho, ho, Bella Centre here we go!”) kept us upbeat. A particularly inspiring moment was just as we arrived at the Bella Centre, when under the railway bridge everyone was whooping and shouting and cheering and playing their various instruments. Wicked stuff.

However, confusion ensued. There were too many factions- from those determined to break in to those just wanting to hold the people’s assembly and get warm. Certainly the police were heavy-handed: people were being pepper sprayed all over the place, the remaining bike bloc-ers were forcefully dispersed (their bikes thrown over fences) and the delegates in the conference itself (NGO representatives etc who were not given access to the talks in these late stages, and subsequently attempted to walk out to join the demonstration) were beaten back. Nonetheless we felt disillusioned by the lack of references to climate change. Once again it had become too much a battle between the protestors and the police.

Fortunately, a few heroes rallied people together and a few hundred of us sat down to hold the people’s assembly. It was amazing. We heard speeches from around the world – farmers already affected by climate change, a worker from the recently shut-down Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight… we divided into small groups and discussed issues important to us, and on reporting back it was incredible to see the consistency of the themes. These twenty or so different groups almost unanimously reported on the importance of local solutions and the importance of lifestyle changes in combating climate change. At the end we stood up, elated, and danced and whooped and hugged each other and felt good!

Sadly the impromptu march of triumph back to the city left us cold and tired, and tensions with the police recurred (honestly there were so many), but despite all this, in the magic of the snow later that evening, I think we all felt that we had had a pretty special day.

Owen

* Attended demonstrations (Mass Action on Sat 12; No Borders on Mon 14; Reclaim Power on Wednesday 16) as both representatives of our young generation and independent media observers

* Volunteered - and listened to talks at - the Klima Forum (people’s summit)

* Toured the city on our bikes, visiting the various convergence centres/ people’s kitchens & workshops such as the Candy Factory’s ‘bike bloc’ (pimping old bikes to use as tools of protest), and generally recording the all-encompassing physical/visual presence- and references to- the Copenhagen negotiations

* Taking just under a zillion photos and hours of video footage (looking forward to showing you all in Go Green week in week 1)

* Met some fantastic people (including several familiar faces from Warwick, but also young people from Brighton, Germany, Canada, Romania and our eclectic mix of couch surfers etc!)

* Blogged > whenever we’ve got time and internet access (ie not nearly as often as we’d have liked to: sorry keen beans!)

* Tiny bit of partying and a little sleep  

* Seen more police than you’ve had quaker oats

* Bought presents for those lucky beans who bidded high enough to secure them

* Put up your messages in the city

* Missed the return ferry so got on a freight ship to Humberside and travelled south (bikes and all) in the big van of a very nice man

STILL TO DO: reflect on this amazing, exhausting experience and consider where we go from here to sustain this supremely important movement and change our world for the better, because it looks like the politicians have failed to do so

On Monday evening we attended a really inspiring talk from Bill McKibben, the founder of the 350 Campaign. For those of you have not (yet) been involved, this is a global movement focussing around the figure of 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere – the point at which scientists reckon that dangerous climate change begins to take place. Currently we are at about 385.

The movement uses the number as a universal rallying point which can cross language barriers, and held its most important day of action on the 24^th of October, when people from across the world came together in demonstrations focussing on the 350 number. This was reckoned by many people (CNN for example..) to be the biggest demo in world history – fitting, of course, since this is the biggest global problem in history…

What was most inspiring, however, was not the size of the demonstrations, but their diversity and the amzing extent to which they reached the furthest and most unlikely corners of the globe. Crucially, the actions showed that the idea of environmentalism as a white middle class preoccupation is a lie. It is those people who are facing the effects of climate change who understand most clearly the extent of the problem. To give a few examples, a demo in Addis Ababa had over 15,000 people, and there were actions in places such as Iraq and Honduras, both of which have serious military problems currently.

This show of global unity is inspiring and heartening - people recognise that this is a universal issue and are both willing and able to work across boundaries to help solve it - the only question is why leaders can not reach a deal when people themselves are so clearly ready.

Bill also talked about the differences between the ‘safe’ 350 world, which existed until only around 20 years ago, and the current world of dangerous warming. It would not take all that much to bring us back to safety, but in our current situation, 300,000 people a day die from the effects of climate change. This is the equivalent of 3 jumbo jet crashes each and every day, and this will only get worse if nothing is done.

There was still much cause for concern - apparently there is a team of American scientists inside COP 15 who have  computer programme into which they plug the numbers from the negotiations on each day. At the close of talks on Monday night, the programme predicted that in 2100, there would be 770 parts per million in the atmosphere, and if that’s not hell, its something close.