My Citizen Diary: Copenhagen: What really happened

Did you ask yourself what really happened outside the table of negotiations in the Bella centre during the UN Climate Change summit in Copenhagen? This is the real story that the mainstream media did not cover, or only very briefly!

Our video about the Reclaim Power protest punctuated by interviews explaining the strategy for Copenhagen, and analysing the outcome

When I came back from Copenhagen I was astonished and chocked that people back home did not know what had been happening in the streets of Copenhagen.

Behind the scenes, in the street of Copenhagen, thousands of protestors rallied in a spirit of brotherhood, demanding that a fair deal free of carbon market mechanism for the people most harshly affected by climate change be discussed at the negotiation table inside the Bella Centre.

All week, Danish authorities tried to silence and erradicate the activists’ movement, raiding both, our accommodations as well as our rallying spaces using indiscriminate violence and weapons against peaceful demonstrants. Thousands of innocent people were arrested, in many cases with methods showing a complete disregard for human rights concerns. By doing so, the Danish authorities clearly unveiled their real face, the face of worldwide criminals.

The peak of action took place on Wednesday 16th December at the Reclaim Power civil disobedience protest. We marched with determination towards the Bella Centre in a solidarity chain protecting the march from police infiltration. Headed by the Global South, the aim was to hold a people’s assembly inside the fence of the Bella Centre in support of 200 delegates representing indigenous organisations and NGOs that call for the ratification of a law as an “essential” accord by international world leaders. The requested legislation should guarantee indigenous people consultation for all project planned and executed on their land, as well as the requirement of their official consent – before any project realisation – should authorities want to reclaim their land.

Nothing was achieved. Although we did not manage break through the heavy police security, we did managed to remain calm, did not reply or escalate violence when the police used pepper spray on us and beat anyone who happened to be in the frontline. Canadian journalist, author and activist Naomi Klein’s message as part of the Climate Justice Network was heard, protesters did not counteract to police violence, but remained entirely peaceful. Immense hope emmerged when we realised what can be achieved if the world citizens decide to rally behind the same causes against the power in place.

As citizen of the West, I acknowledge the damage that our consumerist lifestyle is having on Southern nations. I join my voice with the indigenous movement in a spirit of compassion and solidarity with the vulnerable people of the South that are oppressed, threaten to death and dispossessed of their land with the complicity amd support of the World Bank and our governments which are satisfied with passing legislation in favour of market based solutions solely backed by corporate vested interests.

Conclusion:

Although the Copenhagen climate summit has ended without the fair, ambitious and legally binding agreement that millions of citizens around the world demanded, it opened the way to an internationally diverse peaceful activist movement, unified under the Climate Justice umbrella, to demand a just outcome.

Back home we will continue to pressure our leaders and MPs to pass national regulations in favour of a shift towards a low-carbon economy, and an alternative, less consumerist-driven, lifestyle.

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