There were four mass activities organized during COP15 in Copenhagen, all of
distinct different character. Besides these main four activities there were
many more. I hope to be able to report on them more in detail later.

Numbers

Counter Summit: Klimaforum09 December 7 to 18

Up to 50 000 participants, predicted 15 000.

Mass demonstration: December 12 initiative

100 000 participants, predicted 60 000. Globally 3 224 vigils across the
globe.

Mass action: Reclaim power December 16

4 000, predicted 3 000 to 15 000.

Mass meeting: December 17 with Chavez and Morales

Almost 4 000, predicted 5 000.

The above figures are those given by the organisers or sympathetic media. At
first the police and many papers stated 50 000 in the demonstration, later
the police also stated 100 000. Indymedia reported less people in the
Reclaim power action than the Guardian. Under all circumstances it was a
sufficient mass participation were thousands put their bodies at risk to
establish the People’s Assembly. Personal reports from the mass meeting
December 17 talks about half full huge hall rather than almost full, under
all circumstance it was a good result as so many turned up at the biggest
indoor mass meeting during COP15. How the Klimaforum got to their high
figure I have not been able yet to find out but on all accounts it was a
success in numbers with many overfilled activities.

Political outcome

The message System change not Climate Change was the common demand from all mass activities. The Klimaforum System change not Climate Change declaration
was adopted on 10^th of December getting signitures from 400 organisations
within a week. A broad System change not Climate Change mass bloc in the
demonstration consisted of some 5 000 from the Friends of the Earth and Via
Campesina flood action, tens of thousands more from Climate Justice Action
and a wide range of other social movements from all over the world forming a
large climate justice mass participation. It was parts of the Attac and
socialist bloc in this mass bloc that was trapped by the police and mass
arrested without getting any substantial support from the Danish organisers.

System change not Climate Change was the message of the Reclaim power action
on the 16^th of December which brought the messages from the Klimaforum and
the mass arrested as well as the rest of the climate justice bloc on the
12^th of December demonstration to the gates of the Bella Center and a
inside-outside People’s Assembly to tear down the walls between people and
power. Pushing from both the outside and the inside getting some 20 meters
from each others ended with establishing a People’s Assembly right outside
the Bella Center area with a second renewed support from the inside by Evo
Morales and Hugo Chavez from the main speakers tribune at the UN conference
addressing that they supported the protesters on the streets and had the
same demand - System change not Climate Change. A message the two presidents
repeated at the mass meeting the following day. Thus a movement of movements
for climate justice emerged being able to build bridges across any walls.

This paves the way for a new alliance between mass movements from all over
the world in different forms from horizontally organised mass action
movements to locally oriented practical groups or organisations organized
according to principles of representations as well as some progressive NGOs
and governments on one side defending a stronger and more democratic UN but
mainly focusing on building power from below and a new alliance of rich
countries including some emerging powerful countries in the South as well as
quite a few NGOs and the corporate media on the other side in practice on
the way to dismantle the UN and replacing it with a new elitist global
governance world order heavily influenced by corporations. The trade unions
are standing aside not knowing what to do.

Repression

Ca. 2 000 at between 50 and 100 occasions according to the police which is
by far a record compared to any previous summit protest. A new element was
to target almost all spokes persons for the mass action. Another new element
was extensive mass arrests inside a mass demonstration of almost 1000 people
far from earlier minor incidents caused by the police when they forced the
Never trust a COP bloc into the demonstration. A third element was that
organisations that had supported the demonstration supported the police
action against the demonstrators (Social democrats who had a key note
speaker at the demonstration according to the organisers official web site),
and in general the organisers did very little or nothing to support
anti-repression work after they had made their general statements to the
press about disproportionate behaviour of the police. Injuries: A lot of
arrested have made claims. At the Reclaim power action Indymedia reported 10
injured activists. Police injured: no serious incidents reported. One
policeman was hit by a stone when the police had forced the Never trust a
COP bloc to join the back of the demonstration. At the same occasion 9
windows at the stock exchange (my own study at the spot), one at the Foreign
ministry and one bank window was broken. Still in jail December 23: 7.

Tord Björk
E-mail: tord.bjork mjv.se

Some more on:

Klimaforum09

Numbers:

Up to 50 000 participants, predicted 15 000. Ca 150 political programme
activities. Many times more than full halls and rooms up to three times more
wanting to enter. Mainly optional participation in most seminars I assess as
a guess. Some few mistakes with rooms and the like but no bigger criticism.
The cultural programme received much less attention. Bigger event like
dancing parties with music great successes with the hall for 1 200 almost
full, often mixed with some political content. At two occasions I found the
huge main hall almost completely empty with some artist entertaining the few
present. Hard to guess but many stated that the proportion of Danes was very
small, a reason why the ambitious cultural programme sometimes did not
receive the same strong participation as the political part. Number of
volunteers: 400, predicted need: 700. Economic outcome: small surplus in
spite of extra costs due to raising demands in the end. Loved by most as an
open meeting place for everybody.

Politics:

A “System change not climate change” declaration was adopted at the
Klimaforum on the 10^th of December allowing for a sign on process before it
was handed over to the COP15 and distributed more widely. The declaration on
six pages addressed both the climate negotiations denouncing false solutions
based on offsetting or technological fixes as nuclear power. A main focus
was on sustainable transition with elements for a constructive rebuilding of
society by another urban and rural planning and a more democratic economic
system built from below.

The small Danish organisation that initiated the Klimaforum and the
declaration process managed against the interest of Danish NGOs, the left
wing open space social forum formula to not make common political statements
on behalf of the participants and against the advice of some larger
international organisations to organize an ambitious participatory and
democratic declaration process. It started in June, brought key
international climate justice organisation that hitherto had doubts into the
process in October, established an editing committee with gender balance and
equal representation from the South and the North at the same time and were
able to change the first two drafts substantially during the first day of
the Klimaforum by a process open to all. To please FOEI the declaration was
water down on carbon trading and targets but still FOEI have not signed.
Neither have Via Campesina that had problems following the process due to
lack of resources for translating documents into Spanish continously and
some remarks that the declaration was to soft. But 400 organizations signed
on in a few days. The kind of organizations that sign are from very
different strands of the climate justice movements and sometimes at the very
core of larger movements as World March of Women, Women’s League for Peace
and Freedom (WILPF), International Students Movement for the UN (ISMUN),
People’s Movement on Climate Change (PMCC), Jubilee South, Hemispheric
Social Alliance Americas, and many more. Attac and Friends of the Earth
groups were competing with each other to get as many countries to sign as
possible, both had 11 signed when there were 295 signitures. There were also
some Via Campesina groups, Forest workers, Permaculture organizations,
Austrian Social Forum, Network for common welfare, anti racists, migrant
organisations, solidarity groups with the third world, NGOs like Focus on
the Global South, Centre for Civil Society Environmental Justice project,
Durban, South Africa, Transnational Institute (TNI) and Corporate Europe
Observatory (CEO), local actions groups of mass resistance against infra
structure projects, Agenda 21 groups and similar locally oriented practcial
initiatives or any kind of climate movement organisation as Global Climate
Campaign or Climate Movement in Denmark.

Concerning the programme as a whole it was meant to be diverse and so it
was. Here Walden Bello could speak as the party leader he is at a meeting
with left wing party speakers from all over the world while Vandana Shiva or
Bill Mac Gibben could make their show while others restlessly filled up the
other spaces. Of special importance were the inauguration and the closing
session. Henry Saragi from Indonesia, general secretary of Via Campesina was
the first international key note speaker at Klimaforum followed by Naomi
Klein representing herself and Nnimmo Bassey chair of Friends of the Earth
International from Nigeria. First key note speaker at the closing ceremony
introduced by Niccola Bullard from Focus on the Global South was Wahu Kaara
from People’s Movement on Climate Change who had been a great supporter for
the Danish organisers in the Klimaofrum international advisory board. Nnimmo
Bassey was supposed to comment on the result of COP15 but never turned up.
The closing session ended by the Klimaforum board and all volunteeers
enterred the posium and the [missing sentence in the original received...]