Taking Action
The Climate Camp is part of the international grassroots network Climate Justice Action. Climate Campers have been working as part of CJA for the past year to figure out what we want from the fortnight in Copenhagen - how we can build our networks, work towards solutions appropriate to localities, overcome Eurocentric climate-imperialism, and discredit the government and corporate obsession with market ‘solutions’.
The goals of the CJA network are:
- To build a global movement for climate justice that encourages urgent action to avoid catastrophic climate change.
- To promote and strengthen the rights and voices of Indigenous and affected peoples (including workers) in confronting the climate crisis. To support reparations and the repayment of ecological debt to the Global South by industrialized rich countries.
- To highlight the critical role of biodiversity in weathering the climate crisis, and to defend the existence of all species.
- To expose the roles of false and market-based climate “solutions” as well as corporate domination of climate negotiations in worsening the climate crisis.
- To advance alternatives that can provide real and just solutions to the climate crisis.
- To both sharpen our understanding of, and to address, the root social, ecological, political and economic causes of the climate crisis toward a total systemic transformation of our society.
We believe we need a social movement, not a policy recommendation, if we are going to create real change. That’s why we are encouraging people to join us for the whole of the conference to participate in a fortnight of counter-conferences, creativity and action.
Throughout the fortnight there will be the ongoing ‘KlimaForum09’, a conference shaped by and for its participants. If you want to build world-wide networks to resist open-cast mines in your community, want to learn about shared struggles against the fossil fuel industry across the world, or participate in an international meeting of climate camps - this is your chance! As part of the CJA network, we are supporting a mass mobilization on the 16th December, called ‘Reclaim Power: Pushing for Climate Justice’. Tens of thousands of us will march for climate justice - we will move into the conference area and enter the building, disrupt the sessions, take over the podiums, and hold a people's summit for climate justice. We will overcome, move around and flow through any physical barriers that stand in our way. Our actions will be, in the greatest traditions of civil disobedience, open to everyone. We will overcome any physical barriers that stand in our way - but do not intend to harm anyone, and will not respond if the police try to escalate the situation. The goal is not to shut down the entire summit. However: this day will be ours, we will speak for ourselves and decide what is, and what is not, on the agenda.
We are also supporting other actions being organised by CJA and other networks such as 'Never Trust A COP'. Including:
- Actions on 11th December (the official 'business day') to prevent corporate lobbyists from entering the conference
- A mass action aimed at shutting down part of the capitalist system of production in Copenhagen (more info on this action will be available in September)
- A march for from the Danish parliament to the conference centre as part of the 'Global day of Action on Climate Change' on 12th December."
This is only the tip of the iceberg - so try and come for the whole fortnight. If you can only do a week of it, then the 11th-17th is the best time to come, as that is when the majority of the actions are going to happen, and if you can only make one action, be there for the 16th! Undoubtedly, this fortnight in Copenhagen will be a melting pot of ideas, passions and experiences, where strong alliances will be forged and plans will be melded. We need to be the movement, we need to create the world we want to live in.
If you would like someone to come and speak to your group about Copenhagen and the actions we are planning, email international[@]climatecamp.org.uk.