FREEDOM TO THE NATURAL CYCLES OF LIFE

I met Polly Higgins at Klima-forum in DGI-byen.

Polly Higgins is a lawyer and she runs the project "Trees Have Rights Too". She is in and out of seminars, meetings and workshops all the time. She emits engagement. This is activism on a realistic level. Negotiations, discussions and networking with people of actual influence. How to get acces to the right people. How to be inside the real negotiations. As Polly says: ”I have a extremely important message to communicate”.

Her project TreesHaveRightsToo is an engaging mix of hard juridical proposals, utopian holism and a sophisticated critique of capitalism. It is permeated by positive energy and it leaves you with a crucial optimism: Changing the system IS possible!

Go directly to her COP15 comments here: http://www.treeshaverightstoo.com/cop-15

Or think about this:

QUESTIONS FOR THE REFERENDUM ON CLIMATE CHANGE

1) Do you agree with reestablishing harmony with nature while recognizing the rights of mother earth? YES or NO

2) Do you agree with changing this model of over-consumption and waste that represents the capitalist system? YES or NO

3) Do you agree that developed countries reduce and reabsorb their domestic greenhouse gas emissions for temperature not to rise more than 1 degree Celsius? YES or NO

4) Do you agree with transferring all that is spent in wars and for allocating a budget bigger than that used for defense to climate change? YES or NO

5) Do you agree with a Climate Justice Tribunal to judge those who destroy Mother Earth? YES or NO

Another version of these questions were launched by the Bolivian delegation as an official proposal to the COP15. Bolivian president Evo Morales also presented these question as his proposal for a global referendum at his speech at the ALBA meeting Thursday in Copenhagen. I am strangely enlightened by the transfer of these ideas from one level of influence to another. From Polly to Evo. If this is possible, even Obama might listen some day. But then again: Question 2 suggest change on such a radical scale that’s its hard to believe that the west/north will go for it by free will.

I will get back to my interview with Polly Higgins, but for now I’ll end by introducing the conceptual map of TreesHaveRightsToo:

Climate Justice Action 4

I am still pondering over the Climate Justice Action last wednesday: The second image that the Climate Justice Action created was The Peoples Assembly. It was realized in two places instead of one; inside the perimeter of Bella Center by the inside supporters of the action (removed by the police after only a short session) and outside on the street in front of Bella Center. In the street-version I took part in, a crowd of activists was sitting on a large blue/red circular carpet. A megaphone was passed around as a row of speakers from all over the world made short speaches adressing the climate justice themes. It was a beautiful moment full of sincerity and joy. Even though this street-summit had only a couple of hundred participants the inherent symbolic meaning was performed in a clear and poetic sense.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0ZzPI3Pc6s&NR=1

This is a non-agressive, positive image and it is very hard to argue for attacking it. Looking at the whole Climate Justice Action in retrospect I think it would have been a much stronger gesture to make this image the central focal point of the demonstration; instead of trying to push thru the police defences – an obviously unrealistic quest – it would have been a stronger move to establish the Peoples Assembly immideatly as the demo arrived at the perimeter of Bella Center. If the police had attacked such an event they would have had a very hard time explaining why; they would have staged themselves as the fight seeking aggressors, I think they actually are.

In my view this what the fight is really about: Who controls the symbolic gestures of the day. Who gets their messages communicated in the proper sense. On december 16th this game ended unresolved. Nether the activists or the police seemed to gain the upper hand. What is unsettling though, is that the police is an active player in this game. In a true democracy police-force should be staying sober, neutral. The escalation of police power with an independant political agenda, we have seen over these last two weeks, raises an unavoidable question: Is Denmark now a police-state?

No future!

So that is it! This is all we got out the whole circus: NoHope’n’hagen or is just Nope!nhagen.

Climate Justice Action 3

http://www.climate-justice-action.org/

Climate Justice Action 2

The two main images that Climate Justice Action tried to establish was the breaking-thru-the-barriers-of-the-COP15 and the Peoples Assembly. Both are to be seen as symbolic gestures in the sense that neither event was plausible and the Peoples Assembly could easily have been held in another place without police restrictions. So the only reasons to create those two situations was symbolic. Then how to descibe the symbolic values of the two images:

The breaking-thru-the-barriers-action presents the desire and the power of the movements not only to confront the police but also to conquer the barrier. The barrier is a strong symbol of the undemocratic eksclusiveness of COP15. Its only a conference for the selected few. If the demonstration had succeded in breaking into Bella Center it would have been a symbolic break through the symbolic barrier, opening up the conference for everybody, for the people, the mulitude.

The Peoples Assembly is the symbolic realization of this new openess. And it symbolizes a democratic proces where everyone has a possibility to join. Even though the actual assembly would only have been shared by a few hundred people it would have worked as a symbolic representation of an open, all inclusive version of democracy.

What really happened was more blurry. The idea of breaking thru the barrier was obviously unrealistic as the police presence was far too overwhelming. The number of demonstrators was also too small to push through the barricades. So the push became a manifestation of confrontation with the police. Two opposing forces meeting in a clash. This is where my doubt comes in; if the purpose of the symbolic gesture was to break open COP15, the result were quite different. The event manifested an image of confrontation. This negative image is of course not only produced by the Climate Justice Action, but also by the police, maybe even mainly by the police. But I think it is a problem that the Climate Justice Action chose a symbolic gesture that had such a strong element of confrontation – mainly because this confrontation was what the danish government and the police had been building up as a negative expection in the media in the month preceding COP15.

At the same time I am really astonished and suspicious about the way the police handled the situation: The sober solution would have been to wait out the activists big push. There wasn’t at any point any threat of anybody breaking through the defence line of the police. If they had just kept this line and waited that extra half an hour, the defining moment of Climate Justice Action would have blown over and the push would have dissolved by itself. Instead the police choose to close down the demo, threat everybody with arrest and clear the street in front of the barried entrance of Bella Center. This – unnecessary - police action created turmoil and violence on both sides, but it seemed like a conciously violent act by the police forces. A show of force. And it could be interpreted as a strategic way of fulfilling the negative expectation of the violent activist. A strategic move that produces the images of the violent activist.

Climate Justice Action 1

From an activist point of view one of the highlights in these past two weeks was the Climate Justice Action on wednesday december 16th. Planned for months and publicized and discussed for almost as long the main purpose of this demonstation was to break through the fence and police barricades surrounding the COP15 area at Bella Center. Once inside the aim was to meet with a group of like-minded delegates from all over the world and establish a Peoples Assembly. This Assembly would the discuss and change the agenda for COP15 – taking decisions in their own hands; the hands of the people.

The action was organised as two separate actions. The first, a legal demonstration called the blue bloc, set of at 8am in the morning from Tårnby Station, a couple of kilometers from Bella Center. The other, the green bloc met an hour later at Ørestad MetroStation close to Bella Center. This second bloc was not leggally annonced as a demonstration and was supposed to split into smaller groups and seek possible ways of entering the Bella Center area. This bloc was immideatly surrounded and fenced in by the police and after some running around the police arrestates around 200 activists. Pacified.

The blue bloc though, gathers more protesters and is estimated to around 2000 people as it moves slowly towards Bella Center. The polices is following the demo very close and has a whole train of cars fencing off one side of the demo. There is constanly protests over police intrusions into the demonstration from the organisers who are speaking from a truck in the mids of the demo. The demostration is large, noisy and completely international. There is a wild anarchistic joy in the air as the parade passes through the rainy gray suburbs.

When demo arrives at Bella Center the futility of the plan to break through the heavy fences surrounding the COP15 is obvious. Its a heavy double fence with huge concrete bases and the presence of the police is massive. After an hour of pushing – the crowd of activists using their sheer number and the collective weight of bodies, trying to push their way through the police barricades - the police decides to cancel the demo and to clear the cross-road where the battle is taking place. They bring in dogs and a whole brigade of armored vehicles. Now a dramatic battle takes place and there is violence from both sides and a lot of arrests. Standing on the fringes of the battle I see a constant flow of hurt demonstrators – hurt by pepper-spray or hit by the police - that are brought out to the small groups of medical-supporters who have been following the demo all day. The polices manages to force the demo a few hundred meters down Vejlands Alle, the road in front of Bella Center, and keep it there, now fenced in on both sides by police barricading the street with their vehicles.

Here on the street the temporary Peoples Assembly is established on a huge carpet in red and blue. It is reported that a similar assembly is established inside the Bella Center Area by the supporters inside. Now a series of short speaches start and there is a lively positive atmosphere. After a while the demonstration starts moving back to Copenhagen City where it dissolves as darkness falls.

FAME

Its Friday morning and the first real demo of the climate week to come. We are in Nytorv on Strøget in the heart of Copenhagen; a not really impressive bunch of activists gather and wait. Almost half the crowd is press-people with cameras. The concept of day is to attack different companies representing global capitalist culture, by walking into their lobbies and confronting them with their direct responsibility for climate change. I immidiatly have the feeling that the location of the start-up is a hoax – that the core of activists are busy elsewhere attacking capitalism while the not-so-big crowd here is only supposed to distract the police and the press.

The square are lined on one side with a photographic exhibition by former supermodel Helena Christensen, now a climate-activist promoting immediate action with exotic photos of so-called climate victims in Peru. On the other side of the square is a golden container, containing a casting-sessions for: http://bradpitt.dk

In this sense surrounded by fame, the noise-section of the demo starts a heavy samba-like groove. And now the demo starts moving. But after only a few hundred meters the police fences the whole demo in, blocking a street off in both ends. Here we stand for half and hour or more – blocked from continuing the demo or from escaping. After a long while the polices bcks off and let the crowd continue, but now the demo stops unexpectedly in the middle of a huge crossroad, blocking a large part of thr trafiic thru Copenhagen central for another half hour.

And in this manner the day continues: Activists and police teasing each other, feeling out each other; a long series of contradicting strategic moves, that only makes sense if we see this as an advanced street theater. Who controls the streets and who controls the images that the media will project out of this game-like attack on public space. For both sides the real audience is not the accidental passer-by in the street, but media in its broadest sense; and in media the production of symbolic gesture is central.

The slogans of the day:

Our Climate! Not Your Business!

Don’t Buy The Lie

I am not sure if these slogans transmits to anyone passing the demo in the streets or working in the companies adressed. In the media coverage afterwards it is the sheer joy of street battling that emits most clearly from the different reports. But then again; this is only the warm-up for far more radical events to come.

My personal moment of fun was checking out the bradpitt.dk website afterwards. It is actually an humorous attempt at mainstream political theater.

ARE YOU IN ACTION NOW?

I am one of 7 participants in the artist parade ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE WALK. We are in the middle of Amager Commons, a huge natural park in between Bella Center and Copenhagen. Walking steady forward on path with absolutely no-one there to see us. All of a sudden we see two horsemen waiting further down the path - it’s the police who are waiting for us out here in nature. Its an absurd but somehow poetic moment: A tiny assembly of artist with small poetic sign-boards (in black and white of course), parading for no-one, but nature itself. But still - out there in nowhere - surveyed by the ever present police-forces.

Already when we were gathering on a corner by the Bella-Center, they were present with 3 vehicles full of armored police-force. Apparently it is so that if you get permission for a demonstration, they will show up in full combat-gear, no matter how small and peaceful the purpose of the demo is.

The highlight of the day came later, when we reached the city; on a street-corner near Christianshavn Square, we were approached by two real activists on their way to Christiania. Enthusiastic, but also bewildered by the somewhat different look of our little demo, they asked us up front: Are you in action now?

If the ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE WALK did contribute with anything at all, it must have been just that: A tiny itch of uncertainty. What IS going on here?

http://www.field-work.dk/environmentaljustice.html

CLIMATE HERO

Just another short note on Roz Savage: What Roz performs is a persona, with which we can identify; an adventurous super-hero for the climate - or as UN has appointed her a ’United Nations Climate Hero’ – encouraging us to take brave adventurous steps ourselves. Follow her: http://rozsavage.com/blog/

10.000 OAR-STROKES

Roz Savage passing Diamond Head just before arriving in Honolulu Hawaii after rowing across the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco

Yesterday I met with Roz Savage, a british climate activist, using her activities as an ocean rower as a platform to agitate for sustainability. She started out rowing alone across the Atlantic back in 2005-06 and are now crossing the Pacific Ocean in three steps. In connection with COP15 she has conducted a walk from London to Brussels where from where she travelled by train to Copenhagen. She walked with a group of 4 collaborators for 12 days. Her activities is presented on her fabulous web-page: http://rozsavage.com/

We meet in the cafe of SAS Radisson, drinking coffee and looking out on the heavy traffic in the centre of Copenhagen. I was curious to discuss with her how her rowing and walking could be seen as performance art. If she in her work thinks about what kind of symbolic picture her actions create and how she deals with these symbolic gestures. Even though Roz dont see herself as an artist in any aspects, she is very concious about the metaphorical aspects of her activities.

Central to her projects is an idea about the number 10.000: 10.000 footsteps or 10.000 oarstrokes or 10.000 other small steps towards a larger goal. This can been seen as an example on how each of in our everyday life can contribute with seemingly small inferior act, that adds up and becomes part of a bigger movement or wave. A mighty force made up of millions and trillions of tiny small steps, that can move us all in the right direction. What it takes though is the awareness of common goals – that we all row in the same direction. This line of thinking also includes the idea of a breaking point. In the breaking moment all the tiny seemingly contradictionary movements add up to a certain level and all of a sudden everything moves in the same direction. What small act that is affecting the break point is not so important. Every little move in the mass of moves is just as important as the last move breaking the barriers for good.

The whole attitude of Roz is simple and positive. Her projects acts as metaphorical examples for others to follow – or maybe the word follow is wrong – its more like she is an example of the possibility of making a difference on a personal level. That each of us can redirect our lifes and take the necessary steps in the right direction , whatever that direction is. The strenght of the metaphor is also that it is positive. Its actually possible to step out of the normal way to do things, the stress, the economy, the ambitions, the careers of contemporary urban life and decide for something different – something that contributes in a positive way to the sustainability of the earth-system as a whole.

In our talk she was very precise about focussing on sustainability instead of climate crisis; keeping focus on a positive possibility instead of a critical negativity. As an activist tool this positivity has its advantages; it opens up doors for others to follow. The metaphor of the small step is accesable to everyone, and by using sports as her medium it really opens up to large crowds of people who wouldn’t otherwise engage in the climate debate. It also opens up the doors for politicians and decision-makers who might feel secure and open-minded since they are not confronted by radical anti-capitalists, but can stay within their mainstream references and still opt for change. Roz’ background as a management consultant and project manager at an investment bank makes her big change of life-direction a kind of accesible example – open for everyone to follow. Also for the average business men / women seemingly caught up in career logistics and lifestyle habits.

In these questions lies a whole debate around activism and critical positions.

THEY CAME ON A FLOOD OF LIGHT

Yesterday on the news I saw a story about the swedish corporation Vatenfall and their involvement in the german coal-industry. How they where demolishing whole villages and huge areas of land to install large scale coal-mining facilities; facilities that keeps the global warming going on a gigantic scale. In the same sequence of news there was a presentation of a huge air-ballon installed on the City Square in Copenhagen as a symbol for the new global spirit of changing our attitude. On the balloon will be projected pictures of activists from all over the world, agitating for change. This balloon is the main symbol for ’Hopenhagen’ as they call this campaign that is really dominating the streets Copenhagen these days.

As I passed The City Square today and saw the balloon-globe, I also saw the signs of the two main sponsors: Siemens and Vatenfall. The idea that this whole climate-conference is only a cover-up from the global corporations to continue their devastating activities imidiately came to mind. To have Vatenfall as a main sponsor certainly puts the agenda of Hopenhagen into doubt.

A quick glance at the website of Hopenhagen - www.hopenhagen.org - reveals that ”Hopenhagen is a movement generated by the International Advertising Association representing the global advertising industry in support of the United Nations.” Its is sponsored by Coca-Cola, Siemens and a whole range of other multinational companies. Its main goal is “to connect every person, every city, and every nation to Copenhagen. To give everyone hope, and a platform from which to act. To create a grassroots movement that’s powerful enough to influence change.”

How bizarre is that? A fake grassroots movement created by the global advertising industry to engage consumers worldwide? This is appropriation-art taken to the streets.

It also shows how complex the range of activism surrounding COP15 is; from the violent radicalism of NeverTrustACop thru the creative civil disobedience of i.e. OperationBikeBloc to the coca-cola drugged, fake optimism of Hopenhagen.

Who is acting on the behalf of whom? Who is representing who?

FIRST STOP

In his text Michael Hardt mentions a link: www.climateaction09.org

My idea was to use this as the first stop on my walk, but the link is dead. Anyway, it’s a good title so this blog is immediately named after it. Googling climateaction09 quickly leads me to:

www.climate-justice-action.org

Climate Justice Action is an umbrella platform for a range of initiatives. From there I surf around web-pages connecting to the actions against COP15:

http://www.klimakollektivet.dk/en/start/

http://nevertrustacop.org/

http://www.blackcross.dk/

http://klimax2009.org/

http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/actions/copenhagen-2009

As I wander around these pages I am getting indecisive – its hard to find an entrance that fits my purpose, and I have the feeling that I am only scratching a small part of enormous surface.

After some days of surfing activist web-pages I decide for another strategy: The Chain Story. The plan is to do a series of talks with different people in in the field of activism surrounding the COP15 and then use these talks as departure points for this blog. Each person I speak with is then supposed to send me on to another person and this 'chain' will be the initiary for my trip. I start out by emailing 3 different persons I already know asking them to be my first links in the chain.

So lets see what happens!