Anarchoblogs

Breaking news links from Toronto

Daily Spoke nr 11

Call for international suport

Police attacks jail solidarity

cops shooting rubber bullets at peaceful protesters

A strong statement from journalists about police harassment (of journalists and demonstrators)

Free Market at G20

phony script

Tace to the bottom

May This G20 be the last

Follow news at http://2010.mediacoop.ca/
and http://www.g20breakdown.com/

http://twitter.com/mediacoop

from http://movementdefence.org/G20appeal

The MDC’s Summit Legal Support Project is appealing to the movements it
supports to mobilize a show of political strength and solidarity for the
nearly 500 people arrested in the last four days. The Toronto Police and
the ISU appear to have lost control of their ‘prisoner processing center’,
denying arrestees meaningful and timely access to counsel while beating
and arresting those peacefully protesting their detention outside.

Despite assurances to the contrary, only a handful of people have been
released, including those held for many hours without charge. Arrestees
are given incorrect information about the bail process they will be
subjected to, and friends and family members gather hours early at the
courthouse, located far from the city center and inaccessible via transit.
Our lawyers call in and are told that there is no one available to make
decisions or wait for hours at the detention centre, only to be denied
access to their clients. Almost 500 people are in custody and we know from
experience that the vast majority of those charges will disappear and yet
the cell doors remain shut.

We need to step it up and build a political response. We need many more
voices – especially prominent ones – to say that the abuse and
incompetence at 629 Eastern Avenue must stop. We must demand that all
levels of government take control of the police forces under their
command. We need to ensure that courts and crown attorneys act to enforce
constitutional rights rather than collude in their violation.

Free the Toronto 500!

The Movement Defence Committee

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There’s a New Left in Town / Sarah Beninga
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Slovakia’s separation barrier to keep out Roma
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Ontario: Common Cause with who?

Members of the “black bloc” defended their actions and explained their motives in a press release aimed at denouncing the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

On February 12th and 13th, 2010, thousands of courageous individuals came together to resist the 2010 Olympic police state and to attack the corporations plundering the land and deepening poverty. We write this communique as participants in and organizers of the black bloc presence at these demonstrations, known as “Take Back Our City” and “2010 Heart Attack.” On February 12th, the Vancouver Police Department pacified us with a force of mounted police. The next day during 2010 Heart Attack, they deployed riot police armed with M4 carbine assault rifles. They claim this was necessary in order to stop the march from “jeopardizing public safety” – yet the only threats to public safety were in their own hands. Participants in the demonstration only undertook strategic attacks against corporations sponsoring the Olympics and did not harm or attack bystanders.

The media are now busy denouncing the political violence of property destruction, such as the smashing of a Hudson’s Bay Company window, as though it were the only act of violence happening in this city. They forget that economic violence goes on daily in Vancouver. People are suffering and dying from preventable causes because welfare doesn’t give enough to afford rent, food or medicine, and because authorities routinely ignore the medical emergencies of poor or homeless individuals. This economic violence has gotten worse as we lose housing and social services because of the Olympic Games.

In response to this assault, thousands took to the streets, hundreds joining what is known as a black bloc.

The black bloc is not a formal organization; it has no leadership, membership, or headquarters. Instead, the black bloc is a tactic: it is something people do in order to accomplish a specific purpose. By wearing black clothing and masking our faces, the black bloc allows for greater protection to those who choose active self-defense. The majority of people involved in the black bloc do not participate in property destruction. However, in masking up they express their solidarity with those who choose to take autonomous direct action against the corporations, authorities and politicians who wage war on our communities.

Participation in the black bloc is an act of courage. With only the shirts on our backs and the masks on our faces, we took to the streets against Canada’s largest ever “peacetime” police force. Protected only by black fabric and the support of our comrades, we stood in front of anti-riot cops armed with assault rifles, pistols and batons. We proved that $1 billion of “security” couldn’t prevent us from clogging the heart of downtown Vancouver and crashing a party of 100 000 people — and getting away with it.

You won’t ever know who was in the black bloc this weekend, but you do know us. We are the people who organize community potlucks, who dance during street festivals, who make art, defend the land, build co-ops, bicycles and community gardens. When we put on our black clothing, we are not a threat to you, but to the elites.

Whoever you are, one day you will join us. As long as government and corporations attack our communities, we’re going defend – and that means attack.

Signed,

Two organizers and participants in the anarchist presence of the “Take back our city” demonstration and “2010 Heart Attack” street march, February 2010, Coast Salish Territory

This is a letter written by friends who are still imprisoned in Denmark. Also check out the prisoner support website – Cop-enhagen.net

Something is rotten (but not just) in Denmark. As a matter of fact, thousands of people have been considered, without any evidence, a threath to the society. Hundreds have been arrested and some are still under detention, waiting for judgement or under investigation. Among them, us, the undersigned. We want to tell the story from the peculiar viewpoint of those that still see the sky from behind the bars.

A UN meeting of crucial importance has failed because of several contradictions and tensions that have shown up during the COP15. The primary concern of the powerfuls was the governance of the energy supply for neverending growth. This was the case whether they were from the overdeveloped world, like the EU countries or the US, or from the so-called developing countries, like China or Brazil.

At odds, hundreds of delegates and thousands of people in the streets have raised the issue that the rationale of life must be (and actually is) opposed to that of profit. we have strongly affirmed our will to stop anthropic pressure on the biosphere.

A crisis of the energy paradigm is coming soon. The mechanism of the global governance have proven to be overwhelmingly precarious. The powerfuls failed not only in reaching an agreement on their internal equilibrruim but also in keeping the formal control of the discussion.

Climate change is an extreme and ultimate expression of the violence of the capitalistic growth paradigm. People globally are increasingly showing the willingness of taking the power to rebel against that violence. we have seen that in Copenhagen, as well as we have seen that same violence. Hundreds of people have been arrested without any reason or clear evidence, or for participating in peaceful and legitimate demonstrations. Even mild examples of civil disobedience have been considered as a serious threath to the social order.

In response we ask – What order do we threaten and who ordered it? Is it that order in which we do not anymore own our bodies? The order well beyond the terms of any reasonable “social contract” that we would ever sign, where our bodies can be taken, managed, constrained and imprisoned without any serious evidence of crime. Is it that order in which the decision are more and more shielded from any social conflicts? Where the governance less and less belongs to people, not even through the parliament? As a matter of fact, non-democratic organisms like the WTO, the NB, the G-whatever rule beyond any control.

We are forced to notice that the theater of democracy is a broken one as soon as, one approaches the core of the power. That is why we reclaim the power to the people. We reclaim the power over our own lives. Above all, we reclaim the power to counterpose the rationale of life and of the commons to the rationale of profit. It may have been declared illegal, but still we consider it fully legitimate.

Since no real space is left in the broken theater, we reclaimed our collective power – Actually we expected it – to speak about the climate and energy issues. Issues that, for us, involve critical nodes of global justice, survival of man and energy independence. We did marching with our bodies.

We prefer to enter the space where the power is locked dancing and singing. We would have liked to do this at the Bella center, to disrupt the session in accord with hundreds of delegates. But we were, as always, violently hampered by the police. They arrested our bodies in an attempt to arrest our ideas. we risked our bodies, trying to protect them just by staying close to each other. We value our bodies: We need them to make love, to stay together and to enjoy life. They hold our brains, with beautiful bright ideas and views. They hold our hearts filled with passion and joy. Nevertheless, we risked them. we risked our bodies getting locked in prisons. In fact, what would be the worth of thinking and feeling if the bodies did not move? Doing nothing, letting-it-happen, would be the worst form of complicity with the business that wanted to hack the UN meeting. At the COP15 we moved, and we will keep moving.

Exactly like love, civil disobedience can not just be told. We must make it, with our bodies. Otherwise, we would not really think about what we love, and we would not really love what we think about. It’s as simple as that. It’s a matter of love, justice and dignity.

How the COP15 has ended proves that we were right. Many of us are paying what is mandatory for an obsessive, pervasive and total repression: To find a guilty at the cost of inventing it (along with the crime perhaps).

We are detained with evidently absurd accusations about either violences that actually did not take place or conspiracies and organizing of law-breaking actions.

We do not feel guilty for having shown, together with thousands, the reclamation of the independence of our lives from profit’s rule. If the laws oppose this, it was legitimate to peacefully – but still conflictually – break them.

We are just temporarily docked, ready to sail again with a wind stronger than ever. It’s a matter of love, justice and dignity.

Luca Tornatore – from the Italian social centres network “see you in Copenhagen”.
Natasha Verco – Climate Justice Action
Stine Gry Jonassen – Climate Justice Action
Tannie Nyboe – Climate Justice Action
Johannes Paul Schul Meyer
Arvip Peschel
Christian Becker
Kharlanchuck Dzmitry
Cristoph Lang
Anthony Arrabal

We had very low expectations going in, and they were all fulfilled…Pay attention that the following non-binding declaration was not even actually adopted by the parties but only “noted” by the secretariat. For more materials summing up COP15 see the UNFCCC website.

Copenhagen Accord

The Heads of State, Heads of Government, Ministers, and other heads of the following delegations present at the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 in Copenhagen: [List of Parties]
In pursuit of the ultimate objective of the Convention as stated in its Article 2,

Being guided by the principles and provisions of the Convention,

Noting the results of work done by the two Ad hoc Working Groups,

Endorsing decision x/CP.15 on the Ad hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action and decision x/CMP.5 that requests the Ad hoc Working Group on Further Commitments of Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol to continue its work,

Have agreed on this Copenhagen Accord which is operational immediately.

1. We underline that climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. We emphasise our strong political will to urgently combat climate change in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities. To achieve the ultimate objective of the Convention to stabilize greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system, we shall, recognizing the scientific view that the increase in global temperature should be below 2 degrees Celsius, on the basis ofequity and in the context of sustainable development, enhance our long-term cooperative action to combat climate change. We recognize the critical impacts of climate change and the potential impacts of response measures on countries particularly vulnerable to its adverse effects and stress the need to establish a comprehensive adaptation programme including international support.

2. We agree that deep cuts in global emissions are required according to science, and as documented by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report with a view to reduce global emissions so as to hold the increase in global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius, and take action to meet this objective consistent with science and on the basis of equity. We should cooperate in achieving the peaking of global and national emissions as soon as possible, recognizing that the time frame for peaking will be longer in developing countries and bearing in mind that social and economic development and poverty eradication are the first and overriding priorities of developing countries and that a low-emission development strategy is indispensable to sustainable development.

3. Adaptation to the adverse effects of climate change and the potential impacts of response measures is a challenge faced by all countries. Enhanced action and international cooperation on adaptation is urgently required to ensure the implementation of the Convention by enabling and supporting the implementation of adaptation actions aimed at reducing vulnerability and building resilience in developing countries, especially in those that are particularly vulnerable, especially least developed countries, small island developing States and Africa. We agree that developed countries shall provide adequate, predictable and sustainable financial resources, technology and capacity-building to support the implementation of adaptation action in developing countries.

4. Annex I Parties commit to implement individually or jointly the quantified economy-wide emissions targets for 2020, to be submitted in the format given in Appendix I by Annex I Parties to the secretariat by 31 January 2010 for compilation in an INF document. Annex I Parties that are Party to the Kyoto Protocol will thereby further strengthen the emissions reductions initiated by the Kyoto Protocol. Delivery of reductions and financing by developed countries will be measured, reported and verified in accordance with existing and any further guidelines adopted by the Conference of the Parties, and will ensure that accounting of such targets and finance is rigorous, robust and transparent.

5. Non-Annex I Parties to the Convention will implement mitigation actions, including those to be submitted to the secretariat by non-Annex I Parties in the format given in Appendix II by 31 January 2010, for compilation in an INF document, consistent with Article 4.1 and Article 4.7 and in the context of sustainable development. Least developed countries and small island developing States may undertake actions voluntarily and on the basis of support. Mitigation actions subsequently taken and envisaged by Non-Annex I Parties, including national inventory reports, shall be communicated through national communications consistent with Article 12.1(b) every two years on the basis of guidelines to be adopted by the Conference of the Parties. Those mitigation actions in national communications or otherwise communicated to the Secretariat will be added to the list in appendix II. Mitigation actions taken by Non-Annex I Parties will be subject to their domestic measurement, reporting and verification the result of which will be reported through their national communications every two years. Non-Annex I Parties will communicate information on the implementation of their actions through National Communications, with provisions for international consultations and analysis under clearly defined guidelines that will ensure that national sovereignty is respected. Nationally appropriate mitigation actions seeking international support will be recorded in a registry along with relevant technology, finance and capacity building support. Those actions supported will be added to the list in appendix II. These supported nationally appropriate mitigation actions will be subject to international measurement, reporting and verification in accordance with guidelines adopted by the Conference of the Parties.

6. We recognize the crucial role of reducing emission from deforestation and forest degradation and the need to enhance removals of greenhouse gas emission by forests and agree on the need to provide positive incentives to such actions through the immediate establishment of a mechanism including REDD-plus, to enable the mobilization of financial resources from developed countries.

7. We decide to pursue various approaches, including opportunities to use markets, to enhance the cost-effectiveness of, and to promote mitigation actions. Developing countries, especially those with low emitting economies should be provided incentives to continue to develop on a low emission pathway.

8. Scaled up, new and additional, predictable and adequate funding as well as improved access shall be provided to developing countries, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Convention, to enable and support enhanced action on mitigation, including substantial finance to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD-plus), adaptation, technology development and transfer and capacity-building, for enhanced implementation of the Convention. The collective commitment by developed countries is to provide new and additional resources, including forestry and investments through international institutions, approaching USD 30 billion for the period 2010 – 2012 with balanced allocation between adaptation and mitigation. Funding for adaptation will be prioritized for the most vulnerable developing countries, such as the least developed countries, small island developing States and Africa. In the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation, developed countries commit to a goal of mobilizing jointly USD 100 billion dollars a year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries. This funding will come from a wide variety of sources, public and private, bilateral and multilateral, including alternative sources of finance. New multilateral funding for adaptation will be delivered through effective and efficient fund arrangements, with a governance structure providing for equal representation of developed and developing countries. A significant portion of such funding should flow through the Copenhagen Green Climate Fund.

9. To this end, a High Level Panel will be established under the guidance of and accountable to the Conference of the Parties to study the contribution of the potential sources of revenue, including alternative sources of finance, towards meeting this goal.

10. We decide that the Copenhagen Green Climate Fund shall be established as an operating entity of the financial mechanism of the Convention to support projects, programme, policies and other activities in developing countries related to mitigation including REDD-plus, adaptation, capacity-building, technology development and transfer.

11. In order to enhance action on development and transfer of technology we decide to establish a Technology Mechanism to accelerate technology development and transfer in support of action on adaptation and mitigation that will be guided by a country-driven approach and be based on national circumstances and priorities.

12. We call for an assessment of the implementation of this Accord to be completed by 2015, including in light of the Convention’s ultimate objective. This would include consideration of strengthening the long-term goal referencing various matters presented by the science, including in relation to temperature rises of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

from Denmark Indymedia

Indymedia action timeline | live radio stream | icop15 agreggator.

At 18:00 there will be a press conference by CJA in the grey room of klimaforum. One of the topics to be adressed is the arrests of 4 media spokespersons before and during the Reclaim power actions. The police is targeting spokespersons and thereby frustrating the freedom of speech.

Today’s Reclaim Power action held a people assembly outside the Cop15 Bella centre calling for Climate Justice after protestors marched to the conference and tried to breach police lines (call for action, press release, video). 

Multiple marches tried to make their way to the Bella Centre where the COP15 is held. The group meeting at Orestad station (Green) was surrounded by police and some arrested [pic], but other managed to move towards COP15. A second block (Blue), of more than 1000 people, made their way to the Bella Center whilst resisiting attempts from the police to break it [Video 1 | 2 | 3]. The bike block has been blocked by police and redirected away. Police have been repeatedly attacking the crowds with batton charges and pepper spray, as well as arresting protesters throughout the morning, and arresting medics [police line]. Corporate media report 200 to 250 arrests.

Meanwhile at the COP15 Friends of the Earth, Avaaz and Via Campesina were refused entry despite aquiring a second accreditaton. Delegates staged a sit-in protest [pic, video], whilst 200 others from NGOs, indigenous people and the Global South marched out [Pics 1 | 2 | 3 | video] but police with battons and pepperspray prevented them from reaching the People’s Assembly. An hour later a protest breaks inside the COP15 plenary with the slogan “Climate Justice Now!” .

The People’s Assembly took place at midday outside the Bella Centre, without those inside the Bella Center that were prevented from getting out. After speeches the assembly decided to move towards the centre of town, while the police snaches people, and blocks it intermittently.

Timelines Indymedia DK (castellano) | Modkraft.dk (dk | en) | Motkraft.net (se, en) | Global Project (it) | Politiken.dk (dk | en) | Lahaine (castellano)
Previous days’ COP15 reporting: 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th December 2009

A collection of links to photos and videos of the street actions until now… 1. Photos of friday actions

2.BBC photo series global solidarity actions

1. Reel News footage of Saturday demonstration
2. Photos from demo on Saturday
3. Police breaking the demo of Saturday

6.…and another one

7.The Guardian on Saturday actions and police mass arrests

1. Photos of mass arrests on [...]

Continue reading at Anarchy Alive! …

Something I had published today – a little less explicitly radical than what I’m used to writing, but sometimes camouflage is inescapable…

System change, not climate change

As the first week of the world climate summit in Copenhagen draws to a close, all hope seems lost for immediate steps to prevent a global warming catastrophe. Already in the run-up to the summit, officials were doing their best to lower expectations, with both the Danish prime minister and the UN secretary-general saying that the best that could be expected from Copenhagen was a “politically binding” agreement – a very diplomatic term, but empty of real content.

Negotiations so far have revealed an unbridgeable chasm between rich and poor nations. Caribbean countries and small island states are using terms like “ecological debt” in their calls for more severe emissions cuts by the rich countries, and demanding that any agreement be geared toward global equity. On the other hand, a proposal drafted in secret by Denmark, Britain and the United States (and leaked to The Guardian newspaper) would allocate to rich countries almost double the emissions quotas of poor ones, and hand over effective control of climate change finance to the World Bank, which would condition adaptation funds for poor countries on their acceptance of further privatization of their economies and cuts in social spending.

Given these gaps, it appears that no binding legal agreement will replace the Kyoto Protocol, which will expire in 2012 amid a general failure to meet its targets. Instead, what is likely to emerge is a patchwork of country-specific policies with fundamentally inadequate goals. Thus China has declared it will reduce its economy’s “carbon intensity” – the amount of carbon dioxide emitted per unit of GDP – by 40 percent by 2020. Yet this figure represents only a continuation of China’s current rate of improvement in carbon efficiency. With its GDP projected to grow by around 400 percent in the same period, its emissions will more than double.

President Barack Obama, for his part, has declared that the United States will reduce emissions by approximately 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, in line with the bill passed by the House of Representatives in June. Yet this is only equivalent to a 4-5 percent reduction from 1990 levels, the baseline established in Kyoto, and far less than what the United States would have had to reduce had it signed the protocol.

As for Israel, without a new agreement, it will retain its abnormal status as a developed country with no binding reduction targets. Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan will arrive next week in Copenhagen with a promise that Israel’s emissions, instead of doubling by 2030, would grow by “only” 37 percent. And even this goal has not been approved by the government, which in the meantime presses on with plans to construct a new coal-fired power station in Ashkelon.

Such measures are hardly in step with present public concern about climate change. A recent survey of 4,400 citizens from 38 countries found overwhelming majorities supporting an urgent deal in Copenhagen, one that would include substantive reductions by developing countries.

Locally, a poll by Ben-Gurion University last month found that no less than three-quarters of the Israeli public demand “significant and urgent” steps to confront climate change, and want to see the country commit to a 90 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050.

To be sure, such expectations are often not backed up by a willingness to make the required lifestyle changes. But the rich countries’ reluctance to re-divide the pie is sending precisely the wrong message, with their insistence on maintaining current patterns of inequality and over-consumption.

Ultimately it is the capitalist system’s need for constant economic growth that continues to trump the long-term concern for future generations. Political and business elites may privately agree to the inconvenient truth – that there can be no infinite growth on a finite planet. But they also understand that turning away from the precipice would mean abandoning much of their own power. This is the facile but honest explanation for the continuing failure to address global warming.

Scientists generally agree that we are rapidly approaching the tipping point in terms of irreversible destabilization of the world’s climate. The current rate of growth in carbon emissions already exceeds the worst-case “business-as-usual” scenarios of the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. At this rate, this century will see a permanent loss of Arctic ice, unprecedented flooding and droughts, massive species extinction and a threat to half of the earth’s fresh water supplies.

To preserve a stable climate, the global concentration of carbon dioxide must be reduced from its current 385 parts per million (ppm) to 350 ppm at most, and probably lower. This means a reduction of at least 80 percent in global emissions by 2050. Such a reduction is entirely achievable – but only if rich countries let go of some of their power. A just transition to a sustainable world will indeed require us to slow down and consume less – but it would also guarantee us a healthier and more democratic future.

This coming week, as the summit enters its ministerial stage, the streets of Copenhagen will be taken over by mass demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience reminiscent of the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle 10 years ago. On Monday, thousands of people will attempt to enter the summit premises and turn the proceedings into a public forum, where delegates will finally have to listen to their demands for climate justice.

Copenhagen may yet turn out to be a defining historical moment – the moment when citizens took change into their own hands.

Uri Gordon is a lecturer at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies.