fighting!"
Nikki Leen, Indigenous Person, USA
During the CJA press conference yesterday evening (16/12/09)
The day before the Reclaim Power action took place -which main goal was to
transform the UN climate summit into a People's Assembly- representatives
of the networks Climate Justice Now! (CJN) and Climate Justice Action
(CJA), declared that given the urgency of the climate crisis it is time
for dramatic action to expose the COP process as undemocratic, unjust and
inadequate to deal with the scale of the problem. The action yesterday
could not make this point more clear.
Despite severe police repression against activists during the last week
(more than a thousand preemptive arrests, including spokespeople from the
organizing network, confiscation of action materials and bikes,
indiscriminately use of teargas, pepper spray, batons, extreme force and
violence) thousands of activists –from the inside and outside of the Bella
Center, took action to reclaim power over their future. Confronted with
police forces ordered to prevent any type of dissent to the current state
of affairs, activists from all over the world –inside and outside- were
faced to all types of unbelievable repression.
"What is being negotiated inside the UN is a failure and that is why they
used force and violence, because they no longer have arguments, because
what they have proposed during this 150 years of capitalism, during this
150 years of oil extraction, has been a failure", said Alexandra Almeida,
who came with the Climate Caravan from Ecuador, at the networks' press
conference that took place after the action yesterday.
Shouting 'Climate Justice!', 'Our climate is not your business!' and 'We
are peaceful, what are you!', hundreds of activists gathered to carry out
the People's Assembly. Real solutions such as food and energy sovereignty,
and leaving the fossil fuels in the ground were discussed. As a speaker
from Mexico said, "energy should not be in the hands of businesses and we
demand that the atmosphere should not be privatized". Ivonne Yañez from
the organization Acción Ecológica stated that "over the last 15 years, the
COP process has been corrupted by corporate money and the refusal of the
rich countries of the world to take responsibility for the problems they
have created."
However, the real potential behind this political intervention is an
emerging global climate justice movement acting for systemic
transformations as the only adequate response to the current crises. "In
my view, this was a great success from the side of the peoples from all
around the globe that came together to hold this action (…) Also, it is
very important the great deal of cooperation between people from the North
and people from the South, between people from all countries of the world
that hopefully will continue to solve the problem of climate change after
this" said Baramee Chaiyarat, a Thailand farmer member of La Via Campesina
network, yesterday at the press conference after the action.
This is a crucial moment for a global climate justice movement that
responds to the strong local struggles that are happening for centuries,
mostly in the global south, for self-determination and power over their
own future. This is just the beginning… and we are not going to stop here!
Nikki Leen, Indigenous Person, USA
During the CJA press conference yesterday evening (16/12/09)
The day before the Reclaim Power action took place -which main goal was to
transform the UN climate summit into a People's Assembly- representatives
of the networks Climate Justice Now! (CJN) and Climate Justice Action
(CJA), declared that given the urgency of the climate crisis it is time
for dramatic action to expose the COP process as undemocratic, unjust and
inadequate to deal with the scale of the problem. The action yesterday
could not make this point more clear.
Despite severe police repression against activists during the last week
(more than a thousand preemptive arrests, including spokespeople from the
organizing network, confiscation of action materials and bikes,
indiscriminately use of teargas, pepper spray, batons, extreme force and
violence) thousands of activists –from the inside and outside of the Bella
Center, took action to reclaim power over their future. Confronted with
police forces ordered to prevent any type of dissent to the current state
of affairs, activists from all over the world –inside and outside- were
faced to all types of unbelievable repression.
"What is being negotiated inside the UN is a failure and that is why they
used force and violence, because they no longer have arguments, because
what they have proposed during this 150 years of capitalism, during this
150 years of oil extraction, has been a failure", said Alexandra Almeida,
who came with the Climate Caravan from Ecuador, at the networks' press
conference that took place after the action yesterday.
Shouting 'Climate Justice!', 'Our climate is not your business!' and 'We
are peaceful, what are you!', hundreds of activists gathered to carry out
the People's Assembly. Real solutions such as food and energy sovereignty,
and leaving the fossil fuels in the ground were discussed. As a speaker
from Mexico said, "energy should not be in the hands of businesses and we
demand that the atmosphere should not be privatized". Ivonne Yañez from
the organization Acción Ecológica stated that "over the last 15 years, the
COP process has been corrupted by corporate money and the refusal of the
rich countries of the world to take responsibility for the problems they
have created."
However, the real potential behind this political intervention is an
emerging global climate justice movement acting for systemic
transformations as the only adequate response to the current crises. "In
my view, this was a great success from the side of the peoples from all
around the globe that came together to hold this action (…) Also, it is
very important the great deal of cooperation between people from the North
and people from the South, between people from all countries of the world
that hopefully will continue to solve the problem of climate change after
this" said Baramee Chaiyarat, a Thailand farmer member of La Via Campesina
network, yesterday at the press conference after the action.
This is a crucial moment for a global climate justice movement that
responds to the strong local struggles that are happening for centuries,
mostly in the global south, for self-determination and power over their
own future. This is just the beginning… and we are not going to stop here!
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