Climate Camp take Trafalgar Square in Cop15 Action

Tagged as: climatecamp climatechange climatejustice cop15 cop15imc copout environmentalism social_struggles
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Published by group: GroupImc London Features

Camp for Climate Action have done it again! Climate campers took over Trafalgar Square in central London on Sat 5th December in yet another demonstration of bold and creative direct action [see press release]. The Cop Out Camp Out action took place after the Wave demonstration which attracted around 50,000 people. The action comes ahead of the Copenhagen COP15 climate talks taking place next week.

See photo reports 1 | 2 | 3 [more][climatecamp flickr] | Video

See full Indymedia timeline | Tumblewire | VisionOnTv for live blog archive. See also 50,000 climate protestors in London Wave feature. For ongoing updates see climatecampldn twitter.

For coverage of the COP15 mobilisation check out Indymedia Denmark | Climate IMC | iCop15  | Climate Justice Action

Tripod-medium

Tree-medium

The camp site is purposefully in plain view of Parliament in order to criticise the "elitist and undemocratic talks in Copenhagen" which they say are "part of a political and economic system that put corporate profits before the needs of people." Instead they urge "system change, not climate change" as opposed to the false solutions of carbon trading.

The camp location was kept secret until the last minute, when it was communicated to the public via text and twitter. Initially campers were told to gather in Jubilee Gardens. An hour later, the 200 climate campers that had gathered there were told to move to Trafalgar Square. The camp infrastructure was quickly established within the first hours, with marquees, toilets, a kitchen and other amenities necessary for a successful occupation. Two tripods, with the iconic camp banner 'Capitalism is Crisis' strung between them, were up by 5pm.

Camp for Climate Action plan to occupy Trafalgar Square for 48 hours. Talks and work shops will be held during the day looking to educate and inspire attendees to take action during the COP15 talks and beyond.

Additions

direct action?

> Climate campers have taken over Trafalgar Square in
> central London in yet another demonstration of bold
> and creative direct action

It's *not* direct action. It may be a beautiful and effective self-organised space, but it's not direct action.

Direct action is something intended to *directly* address a problem. This was intended to bring people into the movement, convey various messages, inspire the participants, facilitate networking between activists, etc, but it doesn't *directly* address climate change.

On the issue of climate change direct action would be something like disrupting a power station, or persuading your local community to grow their own veg.

If we get sloppy about the way we use the term it becomes meaningless!

Nice one for doing the camp though.

Video from Trafalgar Square

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSE7AhrZ92M
climate camper explains the reason for occupying trafalgar square in london - we don't want cop15 to be a cop out.

48 Hours?

Only 48 Hours? The Camp for Climate Action web page says they will be there till the end of Cop15 ...

My mistake

Whoops, that's the Parliament Square camp.