Emergency Protest in Solidarity w/activists in Copenhagen. 12/18 4:30pm in San Francisco

[annm4peace]

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/12/17/18632933.php

EMERGENCY PROTEST & VIGIL
SOLIDARITY WITH ACTIVISTS IN COPENHAGEN

* CLIMATE TALKS UNDEMOCRATIC & ON VERGE OF FAILURE
* US/RICH COUNTRIES REFUSE SERIOUS REDUCTIONS & CLIMATE DEBT
* MASSIVE POLICE REPRESSION AGAINST NONVIOLENT CIVIL SOCIETY

WHEN: Friday December 18th 4:30-6:00PM
WHERE: Royal Danish Consulate, 1 California St
at Market St. (Embarcadero BART), San Francisco
Bring candles and friends.

"First they shut the public out of the climate negotiations, then they shut out 80% of NGOs who have been accredited to attend, and now they are jailing people who challenge the undemocratic nature of the climate negotiations, while the future of life on earth literally hangs in the balance."
-Dorothy Guerro, Focus on the Global South, Climate Justice Now Network.

WHY?
* UN CLIMATE TALKS ON VERGE OF FAILURE:
Because the US and other wealth climate polluting nations refuse to significantly reduce climate pollution and to pay our ecological debt to climate-impacted developing world and because of the lack of democracy in the UN climate talks. On Tuesday, US climate negotiator Todd Stern said he foresees no change in President Obama's offer to cut emissions by 17 percent of 2005 levels by2020. The proposal has been widely criticized because it amounts to just a four percent cut when adopting the 1990 emission standard used by the rest of the world. Scientists call for a 40% cut by 2020in order to prevent an environmental and humanitarian catastrophe. Meanwhile, developing countries including the US, UK and Denmark drafted and circulated a document to completely circumvent the UN from all further future negotiations.

* CIVIL SOCIETY NGO'S BANNED FROM UN:
Accredited civil society groups including Friends of the Earth, Avaaz, Tck Tck Tck, Via Campesina have been banned from the UN Climate Conference. "The surgical removal of non governmental organizations underscores the lack of democracy inherent in these negotiations. The only way to avoid catastrophic climate change is fully supporting and including peoples movements like the very ones illegitimately removed from this process.," said Professor Micheal Dorsey, a member of the Climate Justice Now! Network.

* DENMARK VIOLATES DEMOCRATIC & HUMAN RIGHTS, ATTACKS NONVIOLENT ACTIVISTS
Danish police have engaged in mass preemptive arrests, detentions, clubbed and pepper spayed nonviolent activists, raided organizing centers and suspended basic civil liberties and democratic rights. Dr. Tadzio Mueller of Berlin, an accredited NGO observer at the COP 15 and the spokesperson for Climate Justice Action, was arrested without provocation by plain clothed police shortly after a press conference announcing nonviolent demonstrations plans. He remains in jail awaiting trial. Several other organizers have also been targetted and are being hel in prison.

SIGN A PETITION TO THE DANISH GOVERNMENT HERE:
http://www.petitiononline.com/Tadzio/petition.html

WHO: Mobilization for Climate Justice West: A coalition of thirty climate justice, environmental justice, community, peace and human rights organizations.


http://west.actforclimatejustice.org/

[Ken Burch]

1. In Copenhagen the political and economic establishment used brute force

to prevent any meaningful change from being discussed. This must NOT be allowed to stand. The police must never be allowed to silence the people!

[EFerrari]

2. The administration sent Hillary in there to wave a wallet

and bribe/threaten other nations to stand with our unsustainable position.

A bad day for America.

[Ken Burch]

3. Btw, could you understand a single word of what she said over there?

It sounded like her entire statement was created using the "Online Bullshit Generator".

What does it even mean to say that you're "mobilizing" money?

(that could simply mean you're shifting it from bank to bank...couldn't it?)

[EFerrari]

4. Imo, it meant you have to play ball before we guarantee anything.

Amy Goodman had Naomi Klein on today talking about it. I swear, this was a three valium day.

"A naked form of blackmail"

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/12/17/a_naked_form_of_blackmail_naomi

[avaistheone1]

5. Good. Please post this in the California forum too here at DU.

Thanks for the heads up.

[apocalypsehow]

6. Ha ha haa ha - poor Denmark! No doubt quaking in their boots over the candles flickering in the wind

on Market Street!

(Best Captain Kirk voice):

Computer, process the contents of this OP and the subsequent replies, then cross-reference with both the progress of the current Copenhagen Summit and the likelihood of the Danish government giving one flying fuck about the lawful detentions of people illegally assembled to deliberately disrupt it.

Working...

(Bunch of 1960s era teletype clatters & beeps here)

Computed. Summit successful on nearly every front. Danish government unlikely to concern itself with protests on Market Street, San Francisco, on the other side of the world. Candles or no. Also highly unlikely to concede that blocking lawful points of conveyance and entry on public streets of their own nation is (a) either desirable or (b) legal under their current law. Nor likely, (c) to agree with those laughable few on scattered internet sites around the globe who claim tearing shit up and being general nuisances is a god-given 'human right' of some ridiculous sort. Conclusion: said government is likely to back up and support their law enforcement efforts in this area.

Beep-beep-Beep!

Thank you, computer.

Beep-beep-Beep!

[EFerrari]

8. There is nothing "lawful" about pre-emptive detentions.

And there's nothing ethical about arbitrarily excluding participants who were given credentials by the UN simply because they disagree with the, ahem, unworkable, unsustainable US position.

[Goldstein1984]

7. Sadly, I agree with that Denmark isn't listening

I'm on the side of the people engaged in civil disobedience, but Denmark doesn't care what I think. They don't care what petitions I sign. They don't care who I call.

We haven't even addressed the use of tear gas, rubber bullets or LRAD weapons against demonstrators during the G20 Summit in Philadelphia. How can we hope to have an international reach.

As people become disaffected with government, the political elite have only two choices: 1) Give in to the working class and risk upsetting their economic elite puppet masters, or 2) use force against the working class to maintain order. They aren't going to betray their masters, so they use Homeland security as an excuse to stock local law enforcement with military style weapons.

Want to make a difference internationally? Donate money to NGOs that monitor human rights. The classic is Amnesty International. Human Rights Watch is another. These groups do make a difference.

And be patient. The events in Copenhagen are being documented. You may not see them in the mainstream media, but journalists like Naomi Klein create documents that shape history. I'd like to see Bush/Cheney on trial for war crimes today, but I'm satisfied to know that history will group them with the likes of Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot and Augusto Pinochet.

I pointed this out in another post: Hugo Chavez spoke in Copenhagen. He made reference to the evils of capitalism and imperialism. The attendees at the conference gave him multiple standing ovations. It isn't only in the U.S. that the people are rising up against the status quo. I mention this not to promote Hugo Chavez, only to point out that his views are becoming somewhat mainstream among undeveloped nations.

I believe that it isn't going to be much longer before this generation understands why my generation used to call the police "pigs." If economic conditions for working Americans don't improve soon, there are going to be masses of people in the streets.

But it's late, and it might only be the warm milk talking.