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?