Making a statement

Posted on 17. Dec, 2009 by annac in United Kingdom | View Comments

Yesterday was our last chance to make our voices heard inside the negotiations.

Yesterday was the last day we were allowed into the negotiations in Copenhagen. The world leaders have turned up and access for civil society to these negotiations is now severely restricted.

So yesterday we had to make a statement.

In fact yesterday lots of people made statements.

The negotiations here are in crisis. What we have on the table now, is actually worse than anything we have had over these last 6 months. It’s a jumbled mess that just isn’t anywhere near what we need.

Very late last night (more on that later) we bumped into Ed, he made his feelings about how all this is going quite clear…he thinks it is going terribly! I like a politician with a bit of honesty.

But even though this is the case, even though they are delaying and suspending negotiating sessions for hours, even though we are getting nowhere, yesterday they started the high level summit. For the first few hours this basically meant lots of leaders got up and made a statement.

It’s ridiculous.

It doesn’t get us anywhere. It’s frustrating and mind numbing to see. The feelings of despair this whole process brings up in me are like someone reaching inside me and grabbing my insides tight. If I dwell on where we are actually at in the negotiations for too long, I return to the state of immobility that has been haunting me for much of this week.

But yesterday the leaders weren’t the only ones making statements.

Yesterday a lot of people both inside and outside the conference centre made statements.

Yesterday people from around the world including many friends of mine joined together to try and reclaim power. Thousands tried to get into the conference centre area from the outside and hundreds left the conference centre to join them half way. Here they held a people’s forum. They took politics and money off the table and instead brought rights and respect. They made a statement about who and what these negotiations should really be about.

Yesterday the youth in the conference centre also made a statement. Yesterday at 5pm we sat down in the main hall of the conference centre and we started reading names.

The names we read were just some of the 11 million people who have raised their voice for a fair, ambitious and binding deal here in Copenhagen. We intended to sit for as long as possible, to read as many of the names as we could.

At one point some of the group were forcibly moved by security, but we continued to sit peacefully and read the names.

We said we would not leave until our calls, and the calls of the 11 million people, were heard.

We sat for 9 hours in total, it was inspiring to be a part of. The feeling of solidarity amongst both us, and others who came over was so powerful to feel. In the end we negotiated to leave peacefully at 2 30 in the morning. We agreed to leave because we did not want to risk the limited civil society participation we have left in these negotiations for the next couple of days.

We left slowly and quietly in a single file line.

We left because we had made our statement.

We left our future in their hands.

Decisions are now being made about us, without us.

But just as we were in the last few minutes of the sit in, the final few people in the building were leaving. As we watched them pass I recognised one.

It was Jan!

She smiled at me as she walked past, then, as she got to the end of the corridor, she turned round, caught my eye and smiled again. I like to think she was proud.

As we walked out I passed her and stopped for a chat. We discussed how hard the negotiations are in the state they are in, and I said goodbye.

Then without me even asking she said

“I promise we’re still really trying.”

And you know,

I believed her.

I’m going to miss Jan!

We are on the penultimate day of Copenhagen and today I can only wish her well.

Rising Panic

Posted on 15. Dec, 2009 by annac in United Kingdom | View Comments

Today I needed some time to reflect

Today I was immobilised, I’m not sure why.

I know part of it is fear.

Fear of the next few days. Fear of the outcomes of these negotiations. Fear of what’s going to happen around Copenhagen, of what part I will play.

Fear of the future these negotiations are creating.

Part of it is also complete disempowerment. Today I was stuck on the outside, no second pass for me. So as all my tracker buddies updated you from inside I was out in the snow.

But much more than that, the disempowerment comes from what I saw yesterday going on inside the negotiations, and the reports I heard coming back today. As we race towards the end of Copenhagen the process is becoming less and less transparent. Civil society is being blocked out. Thousands of people, stakeholders in these negotiations, are literally waiting outside in the cold.

Even though these decisions are about our future.

No decisions about us, without us!

Along with the disempowerment that comes from not even being allowed in the conference, the UN process is still, just not seeming to get anywhere. Sessions are being suspended and delayed all over the place. Groups are refusing to take part in different sessions for different reasons and the very reason we are all here seems to have been forgotten.

What happened to building this beautiful, amazing world TOGETHER?

I just don’t know what I can do, how I can change this.

So many of us have been working so hard for so long. We have literally put our whole lives into this and we are being blocked out at the final hour, blocked out when this process needs pushing forward most of all.

This morning all this combined caused the panic to rise inside me, mentally and physically. It literally immobilised me so I couldn’t do anything. I was useless.

In the afternoon I managed to calm it a little. I tried to step away from this situation, this process a little and evaluate where I am.

I went outside in the snow. I saw our beautiful world.

And this evening I am calmer. The rising panic subsided a little. Time spent really talking with the young people here who have through this all, become some of my closest friends, has helped me to accept what I can do and what I cannot. Helped me to see that whatever happens over the next few days, as long as I have done everything I physically and emotionally can then I can be calm in myself. Helped me to see that this is about so much more than this conference. It is about building a movement to change the world.

Yesterday I finally spoke to Jan. My cunning and yet non tactical plan worked (well that and a handy phone call from Josh which sent me literally sprinting across the conference centre). She seemed a little on edge too. She told me how hard Ed was working, getting very little sleep. Maybe she almost also seemed a little disempowered. I wonder what effect the fact that Ed and now Gordon Brown have arrived has had on her. After all it is her who has been working on this process for so long.

But I hope she too can feel calm and empowered over the next few days. Because she still has a hugely important role to play in all of this.

As for me, tomorrow I have a pass, tomorrow I am back inside. Tomorrow is the last day we can have a significant civil society presence in the conference centre. Tomorrow is also the day action on the outside is set to build.

Tomorrow we have another chance to change the world.

Tomorrow I hope I can remain calm.

Tactics…

Posted on 14. Dec, 2009 by annac in United Kingdom | View Comments

Tactics in the negotiations, tactics out on the streets, everyone is playing a tactical game.

Tactics

-the means used to gain an objective.

Tactics

I hate them.

If we were all more open, more honest. If we had some cards laid on the table we might just get somewhere.

But no, we’re all using tactics.

The countries, the protestors, the NGOs, the police. Everyone is planning their tactics for every move they make here in Copenhagen.

From the EU holding back their numbers on finance, to NGOs deciding when and where to call countries out, to the police detaining hundreds of protestors at a peaceful protest. Even the way the media portray everything that’s going on here, from the negotiations to the protests…

It’s all about tactics.

And when it’s all about the tactics, it’s not about the best deal for our world.

Does it have to be this way?

As week two of these negotiations start, imagine if everyone put down their tactics and brought this honesty to the table.

Tactics are what we use when we want to manipulate a situation to our advantage.

But the UN works on a consensus system. For consensus to truly work everyone must leave behind their personal gains and work for the gains of the greater group.

That’s why the system isn’t working. Not because the system is screwed but because the players aren’t playing it properly.

We have 5 days of negotiations left here. 5 days of action in Copenhagen.

If we were all honest with each other we could avoid a lot of the situations that could cause conflict this week, both inside and outside the conference centre.

It’s time to put less effort into discussions on tactics and more effort into discussions on the fate of our world.

And I will begin this charge by officially giving up tactically planning where to bump into Jan. It hasn’t worked so far, I’ve just spent a lot of time running around and not seeing her.

So now’s the time to try another way.

Today I shall go about my business and hope I just bump in to her around the conference centre.

Let the tactics end and the progress begin.