This free event will provide alternative perspectives on the Copenhagen summit, reinforce the critical need for a UN climate process, and point to possible ways forward for the December 2010 meeting in Cancun.

DC Report Back – Featured Speakers:
• Martin Khor, Director of the South Centre
• Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Director of the Tebtebba Foundation and Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
• Maude Barlow, Chair of the Council of Canadians and Senior Advisor on Water to the President of the UN’s General Assembly
• Gopal Dayaneni, Movement Generation, head of delegation to Copenhagen for US grassroots leaders from urban, racial, economic and environmental justice groups
• Victor Menotti, Executive Director, International Forum on Globalization

Sponsored by the International Forum on Globalization, Institute for Policy Studies, Oil Change International, Friends of the Earth, Movement Generation, and ActionAid.

December 16, 2009 (10:30AM PST)

Talks collapsed today. NGOs (mainstream NGO’s we don’t trust) did a sit-in in the lobby of the Bella Center because they were excluded from the inside; the delegates from G77+China did a “formal walk-out”, I understand, and that halted the formal negotiations. 200 people marched out of the Bella Center, including IEN and the bolivian delegation to meet the Reclaim Power March, which we were a part of, for a Peoples’ Assembly.  Basically, the thing is falling apart. They are trying hard to package REDDs as a success story, but it is evil and we will kill it in Mexico City if they craft language on it here.

They may try also to package a “political agreement” which is basically nothing legal or binding and nothing with any operational commitments. Basically, the whole thing is a flop. Flopenhagen.

and that’s good. We’ve shown that we can stop the talk, stop false solutions and now we have more time to build our power, from the base and advance our roadmap of real solutions forward going. Always uphill, but this is definitely a victory.

Here’s a fun picture of me. I’m the Indian on the ground under the riot cop. No worries, I’m fine, just lost my phone, with a lot of minutes on it.

Here are some highlights on the work of the delegation & my work here so far:

1) “No Decisions About Us Without Us!”

They are severely restricting access to the Bella Center for Civil Society as of today, and the restrictions on badges (and the requirement for secondary badges) means that many accredited delegations from impacted communities, north and south, are excluded from the process. There will be an action today and a press conference about the restricted access, and we are organizing folks under the message, “No Decisions About Us Without Us.”

2) RECLAIM POWER ACTION– Wednesday

Tomorrow (Wednesday) is the MAJOR action, called RECLAIM POWER. Folks from outside will march to the Bella center (COP) and come up to, and possibly through, the gate to meet a civil society and country delegate walk-out of the talks to make a “Peoples’ Assembly”. At the front of the march to the Bella center will be southern peoples and other impacted peoples who are accredited and not allowed access. This is the Seattle-ing of Copenhagen.

Remember, if Parties of Conference walk out (that means country delegates) the whole thing comes to a halt, because it is a consensus process. We think we have several southern countries.

If we frame the collapse, we build our power moving forward. If we frame the collapse, we have a year to build up our base, and support the work of our allies who are engaged in all the processes. What we can move, or stop, in the COP is one way to measure our power. Here, you can’t talk about climate without talking about Climate Justice. For most, that means try to take away it’s meaning. But it has also shifted the debate significantly. Equity is central. Even mainstream NGOs are talking about debt. Stern was forced to say “climate debt” which is incredible, even if to deny it (you can not deny a frame without evoking it first).

Nothing good will come from this COP, so the question is who gets to frame the collapse. Do we get to frame it as Civil Society and Southern Countries say, “We won’t settle for Death.”  or will Northern countries blame the collapse on “China and the G77.” Or will the rich countries cobble together a bad deal that is a Political Agreement and not a legally binding treaty, and then say, “we did it,” when in fact they have done nothing but waste more time.

3) Danish Cops are Keeping the People’s Voices Out!

The Danish cops are coming down very hard on demonstrations. Last night it is reported that Naomi Klein was tear gassed.

4) Towards Strategic Alignment of Movements

We helped pull together a meeting of POC/EJ/RJ forces form the US yesterday that was one of the first to get unity. We are sending a letter to Obama (as a vehicle) to talk about both that we stand with the south, and that “what is bad for the south is bad for us too.”  (see media advisory)

I gave a talk with Naomi Klein the other day and the whole delegation will be getting together with her later this week.
Oh- and we have been quite successful in moving this idea that there is a “south of the north” and some of the new messaging for Reclaim Power and other things have included the idea of “the global south and climate impacted communities in the north.”

We also pulled together a meeting last night of Global South folks and grassroots groups from the North (all people of color) to a meeting that included some amazing folks. That was very well attended, and I think good. We’ve been finding ways of engaging, for sure.

5)  WEDNESDAY MORNING (6:30am COP time)

We have the big RECLAIM POWER action this morning, in which we will march with La Via Campesina, Jubilee South and Focus on the Global South onto the Bella Center, and then, possible, through the gate and meet up with folks walking out from the inside.

Access to the COP has been severely restricted by the UN, resulting in the vast majority of people, even accredited people like us, being locked out of the process.

Okay, we have to move, we are anchoring one section of the mobilization.

Featuring MG’s very own Gopal Dayaneni (formerly known as “Dr. Doom and Gloom)!

[interview with Gopal Dayaneni begins at minute 24:13]

Making Contact – December 2, 2009
Trade Shifts: Reflections on the Seattle WTO Protests

Ten years ago this week, thousands of people shook the streets of Seattle in protest of the World Trade Organization. We revisit the voices from that week and find out how global economic forces have shifted since.

Gopal Dayaneni, MG Volunteer Program Committee Member, speaks on climate justice and the Copenhagen Conference on KPFA’s weekly environmental show, Terra Verde, on November 27, 2009.

View an excerpt of his speech as seen on from Democracy Now, 10/26/09.
(Climate Justice coverage begins at minute 1:18 of video above)

Democracy Now Transcript:
International Day of Climate Action Marked in 181 Nations
Activists across the globe rallied on Saturday to call on world leaders to take strong measures at the upcoming climate talks in Copenhagen. In an international day of action, people in 181 nations organized more than 5,200 events. The main organizing group 350.org called Saturday the most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history. The events centered on the number 350. Scientists say 350 parts per million is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. We are currently at 387 parts per million. Around the shore of the Dead Sea, Israeli activists made a giant 3, Palestinians a huge 5, and Jordanians a 0. In the Maldives, protesters took part in an underwater protest to raise awareness of how rising sea levels might affect the island nation. In Ethiopia, some 15,000 people gathered in a massive rally on Friday calling for a strong international climate change treaty. Gopal Dayaneni of the Movement Generation spoke on Saturday at a rally in San Francisco

Gopal Dayaneni: “The story of the solution to our problems begins with the communities on the ground, on the front lines of the root causes of this problem: the communities in Richmond who are fighting Chevron, the communities in Appalachia who are fighting coal, the communities in Alberta who are fighting tar sands, indigenous peoples all over this planet fighting to protect their forests and their livelihoods, fisherfolk all over this planet fighting industrial trolling. Those communities on the front lines of this struggle are the source of our solutions.”