I recently participated in a community report back in Oakland on the recent United Nations COP16. We represented various sectors of the work at the COP including media, youth, international, action and local grassroots. Our collective conclusion? We’ve got to keep going! Focusing on grassroots community visioned solutions while holding governments and corporations accountable for a healthy Mother Earth.

Onward for Climate Justice!

Cancun Climate Justice Report Back in Oakland from Melia's Papa on Vimeo.

COP-16 may have ended in Cancun last week, but our work is far from over.  We will continue to take actions in the U.S. and everywhere to fight for an end to destructive practices, and build up local community solutions.

Plug in now to the Day of Action to End Extraction April 20, 2011, and in the mean time, check out this last set of videos and posts from our action teams in Cancun:

Tom Goldtooth from Indigenous Environmental Network breaks down his analysis of what got accomplished (or NOT) at the COP-16 talks:

Video of Action inside the U.N.:

Links from our friend Stormy from www.mobilebroadcastnews.com:

COP16: The End of Negotiations – Youth Delegations Ejected from COP16

Soham Baba, Lessons in Manipulating the Indigenous – COP16

World Bank President @ COP16

COP16: Perspective from The Streets

Hey y’all!

It’s been a while since I have been able to write and A LOT has happened! It’s been hard to blog while things are moving and changing so quickly around the negotiations. Frankly there have been alot of late nights and early mornings and just not enough coffee to go around! So I’m going to do my best to give a short recap of what has been going on here in Cancun while folks are rocking things back home.

Thursday December 2- SHUT DOWN THE TAR SANDS

An action was staged outside of the main building in the Moon Palace where official UN Negotiations are taking place. A human banner was deployed and Indigenous People from TarSands impacted communities from the United States and Canada highlighted the impacts of TarSands extraction and processing on communities.

Thursday December 2- RESPECT INDIGENOUS PEOPLES RIGHTS

That’s right- we rocked two actions in one day. We must just be cool like that. This was an action from the Indigenous Peoples Caucus (Indigenous Peoples are recognized stakeholders in the UN process) to remind the UN to Respect Indigenous Peoples Rights. Indigenous Peoples from around the world came together under the same message, shared culture, songs, and their perspectives on the solutions that are being brought here to the UN by their peoples.

In general UN Security is paranoid about disruptions or protests in the UN space. It is clear that they are poised and instructed to minimize voices of dissent. This action pushed the paranoia button a bit when we closed the action with a friendship dance! As a result of this action the UN changed the rules around the permitting of actions!! Didn’t know realize that friendship dances were acts of resistance, but in the UN you never know!

Sunday December 5^th: Marching with La Via Campesina. Welcome to Cancun

We marched with our comrades of La Via Campesina and Grassroots Global Justice in a “NO REDD’S” block. One strategy here in Cancun is to combat the pro-REDD agenda that is being pushed here as a solution to climate change by governments like the United States and Mexico, but also by some environmental NGO’s. So at every turn and opportunity we are talking about why REDD’s is a false solution.

Tuesday December 7^th: LA VIA CAMPESINA CREATES THOUSANDS OF CANCUNS

We had the honor of being invited to participate with La Via Campesina in creating thousands of Cancuns right here in Cancun!! Thousands marched together on the streets of Cancun from all over the world. On the inside of UN negotiations a press conference, followed by a walk out was staged. It got a bit hairy! Check out the reports from Democracy Now! But, you can’t stop people power, and ultimately those who were ejected joined their friends in the streets for a peoples assembly, highlighting community solutions to climate change as we see them.

Wednesday December 8^th

Today I feel like I have a bit of a hangover, maybe it is from inhaling paint fumes from the visuals we have been working on! Today, the United States held a side event at the UN on its strategy for the REDD’s program. We saturated the audience with climate justice activists from communities throughout the United States who at every opportunity raised questions about financing for such programs (which gets funneled to organizations and most communities never see a dime), Free Prior and Informed Consent from Indigenous communities, and transparency of US engagement in other countries and at home. This made the US representatives very nervous! As expected, they dodged all of our questions, but we aren’t going anywhere so, see you next time!!

I encourage you, if you haven’t already to visit www.redroadcancun.com. The IEN media team is doing daily live shows, posting videos and photos from actions and workshops happening and sharing the perspectives from our brothers and sisters in the South.

It’s not over yet!!! Talk soon!

This morning my email inbox was full of advocacy groups commemorating the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. As the ecological systems that support life are reaching their brink, there is certainly a good reason to use this opportunity to shine a spotlight on a range of issues and challenges. But activist organizations aren’t alone in commemorating today.

Today I was struck even more by corporations trying to capitalize on Earth Day to green their images. As Becky Tarbotton observed in the Huffington Post, the New York Times summarized the situation well: “So strong was the antibusiness sentiment for the first Earth Day in 1970 that organizers took no money from corporations and held teach-ins ‘to challenge corporate and government leaders’… Forty years later, the day has turned into a premier marketing platform for selling a variety of goods and services, like office products, Greek yogurt and eco-dentistry.”

Against this backdrop, World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba today is a breath of fresh air.

The Indigenous Environmental Network celebrated today by explaining that “this morning Bolivian President Evo Morales was joined by representatives of 90 governments and several Heads of State to receive the findings of the conference on topics such as a Climate Tribunal, Climate Debt, just finance for mitigation and adaptation, agriculture, and forests. The working group on forests held one of the more hotly contested negotiations of the summit, but with the leadership of Indigenous Peoples, a consensus was reached to reject REDD and call for wide-scale grassroots reforestation programs.”

Jason Negrón-Gonzales of Movement Generation elaborated on how they do Earth Day in Cochabamba: “…from now I’ll be talking to my children and 2010 will be remembered as the year that Earth Day took on new meaning. It will be the year that humanity turned a corner in our relationship to Mother Earth and began struggling along a new course…more than politics, the conference in Cochabamba brought to the table humanity’s relationship with Pachamama. This question, raised most pointedly by the Indigenous communities present, was reflected in the project of creating a declaration of Mother Earth Rights, but also went way beyond it. Can we really reach a sustainable relationship with the Earth unless we stop looking at it as something to be conquered or fixed that is outside of us? How would it change our lives and our struggles if we thought, as Leonardo Boff of Brazil said, ‘Todo lo que existe merece existir, y todo lo que vive merece vivir (Everything that exists deserves to exist, and everything that lives deserves to live)’? Or if we understood the Earth as a living thing that we are a part of and that, ‘La vida es un momento de la tierra, y la vida humana un momento de la vida (Life is a moment of the earth, and the human life is a moment of life)’?”

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Hey y’all, Sharon here. This is my attempt at a blog post summarizing what Ruckus was up to in Copenhagen this month. There was A LOT happening in a short time. If you want stories, well you’ll just have to come to a Ruckus camp…

A few months ago, the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) began a conversation with us about providing action support for their delegation to Copenhagen. The delegation included representatives from Indigenous Nations across North America. Myself, and Ruckus board member Heather Milton Lightening staffed the Indigenous support team.

Based on conversations with IEN, we arrived in Copenhagen with a few goals:

* to highlight and escalate negotiations in ways that support Indigenous vision and demands

* ensure Indigenous leadership in actions and mobilizations that could advance a climate and ecological justice agenda

* train IEN staff and allies to form their own action teams and execute their own direct actions in furthering their campaign work

We also came in with the goal of coordinating 4 actions in Copenhagen during the span of COP15 (we actually pulled off 5): a framing action to set the message “Respect Indigenous Rights”; an action calling out the US and its whacked out energy policy; an action around the Canadian Tar Sands; and an action around REDD’s (read IEN’s booklet on REDD if you want to know what it is and its impacts).  In addition we were looking to ensure Indigenous voice and leadership within other civil society actions.

A word about how we work: we took our direction from IEN and by extension, the Indigenous Caucus (recognized as stakeholders by the UN).  While direct action was being used as a tool to escalate IEN’s campaigns, the Indigenous People’s Power Project (IP3) was also brought along as an offering to the caucus to support actions the caucus wanted to engage in as a body. We briefed the caucus on an almost daily basis about IEN-initiated, and civil society actions that were taking place where Indigenous participation was strategic. We took our cues from the decisions made during those briefings. Its important to note that most of the members of the Indigenous Caucus are no strangers to direct action on their home turf, having to regularly intervene on threats to their homelands. That said, embracing direct action as a strategy within the UN was stepping into new territory for the caucus.

Indigenous Initiated Actions:

Framing Action: Respect Indigenous Peoples Rights

This action took place on the second day of COP 15.  A simple action was staged in the main hallway of the UN complex otherwise known as the Bella Center. We were there to elevate the voices of the Indigenous Peoples, who are recognized stakeholders in the UN process, and to make our presence known to the negotiators roaming the hallways, wheeling and dealing. We wanted to frame the action in such a way that was dignified, respectful of where we all come from, but that said we were here and we meant business.

You have to be permitted to do an action inside the UN and we were testing the waters with UN security to see where they were drawing their lines. Here’s how our permit read:

“This is a cleansing ceremony for conference party leaders to cleanse their minds & spirits; for clarity, compassion, strength & perseverance in coming out of the COP negotiations with a binding commitment to Save Mother Earth”

We whipped up 2 banners over night. It would be the first of many late night banner painting sessions:

We assembled with our banners, our prayers, and our message.

Check out this interview with Ben Powless, Mohawk from Six Nations Canada and one time Ruckus trainee: youtube

On December 10th, day 4 of COP 15, International Human Rights Day, and the day Barack Obama received his Nobel Peace Prize, Indigenous Peoples stepped out with something to say. We were calling out the US and its energy policies which escalate ecological devastation and cultural genocide not only for Indigenous People in the United States but also globally.

More late night banner fun with good results:

A scroll with a letter to Obama was prepared and delivered to a representative from the US Embassy. Democracy Now told the story pretty well.

And check out Faith Gemmil and Wahleah Johns on the NBC nightly news:

As usual, our press team kicked out some jammin media of our own: IEN Pitch Engine and a video of our own

And if you’re curious, here’s how the scroll read:

Dear Ambassador:

As the United States President Barack Obama accepts his Nobel peace prize today, Native Americans, Alaskan Natives, and First Nations Peoples come to Copenhagen to speak out against the United States energy policy that is detrimentally affecting our lands, health and livelihoods. We represent the following Nations: Mathais, Colomb Cree Nation, Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Cree, Nakoda, Blackfoot, Ojibwe, Pit River/ Wintu, Neets’aii, Gwich’in Athabascan, Navajo, Mikisew Cree, Dene, Inupiaq, Oneida, Mayan, and Yaqui.

We support a full and effective participation of Indigenous people within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

We support the free, prior and informed consent, including the right to oppose the extraction of fossil fuels by destructive industries.

We call for the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and other international human rights instruments and agreements.

We strongly call for a moratorium on all new exploration for oil, gas, coal and uranium as a first step towards the full phase-out of fossil fuels, without nuclear power, with a just transition to sustainable jobs, energy and environment.

We support vibrant green economies: the U.S. assisting Indigenous communities to help supporting a just transition into a green economy, freeing ourselves from dependence on a carbon-based fossil fuel economy

We support the most stringent and binding emission reduction targets: Carbon emissions for developed countries must be reduced by no less than 40%, preferably 49% below 1990 levels by 2020 and 95% by 2050. We call for national and global actions to stabilize CO2 concentrations below 350 parts per million (ppm) and limiting temperature increases to below 1.5ºc.

We oppose false solutions: These include nuclear energy, large-scale dams, geo-engineering techniques, clean coal technologies, carbon capture and sequestration, bio-fuels, tree plantations, and international market-based mechanisms such as carbon trading and offsets, the Clean Development Mechanisms and Flexible Mechanisms under the Kyoto Protocol and forest offsets.

Signed,

Indigenous Peoples of North America

International Human Rights Day: Implement Indigenous Peoples Rights

After the US Embassy we headed back to the Bella Center for another action.  The co-chairs of the caucus proposed a human chain in commemoration of International Human Rights Day. It just so happened that the youth caucus were doing a “rainstorm” action just before ours and a blending of youth and Indigenous people was quite a treat.

Unfortunately UN security wasn’t as excited by this swarm of people as we were. So off we went, around the bella center!

I got a “yellow card” for this action; meaning UN security flipped out on me because we moved our human chain around the Bella Center. It was quite the joke around the action team for the next few days…

Faith Gemmil vs Ken Salazar

The day wasn’t over yet for Faith Gemmil. She heard Ken Salazar, secretary US Department of the Interior, was giving a press briefing. With the help of her new friends over at NBC (see the nightly news link above) she managed to get in and address Ken Salazar. Check out the video that was captured as Faith asked her question.

Rolling out the welcome mat for Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper

This was our much anticipated action of the COP. We had first nations folks in the house from tar sands affected communities, and allies from the UK and Canada were also rolling deep. Together with our friends at Rainforest Action Network we decided to roll out the welcome mat for Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper and pay the Canadian embassy in Copenhagen a visit, just to let them know we were there. We also thought we’d bring him a welcome basket, with some useful things, like treaties, literature on the tar sands, even one of our “Respect Indigenous Rights” placards (translated into Danish for his convenience):

Oh, did I mention more late night banner painting (Heather is a machine!)

Here’s the press release our action media team pulled together. On the way to this action I got a phone call from Danish police, informing me we were not allowed to assemble at the embassy. Unfortunately for them, there were already about 20 people gathered when we got there, dozens more on their way, and we had no intentions of stopping. After all, we were only there to welcome Harper, drop him a gift basket, and let him know there’s always the opportunity to do the right thing.

Smart Meme helped us pull a video together too (in addition to their incredible support during COP15)

Also, around Canada and the UK folks were marking Canada’s oily footprint in their home cities. Check out the UK solidarity action.

NO RIGHTS NO REDDS

This was the last day we knew most of us would have access to the UN. It was also the morning after President Evo Morales of Bolivia had arrived in Copenhagen. Bolivia came to the COP with the most aggressive targets of any government. They also came with a message: RIGHTS FOR MOTHER EARTH.

Delegates from Bolivia came to the Indigenous Caucus with a request for support for a welcoming ceremony and action they wanted to do. We thought it would be a good time to pull out our NO RIGHTS NO REDDS!!! Shirts.

This was also the day of the Reclaim Power action, so at this point, it was all about keeping the energy up until our friends marching outside reached the bella center.

Indigenous Participation in civil society actions:

Marching through the streets of Copenhagen

Watch Tom Goldtooth’s rap at the rally at the end of the march.

RECLAIM POWER

In solidarity with our brothers and sisters from Bolivia, we joined them in leading the Reclaim Power march out of the Bella Center to join our comrades on the outside. Here are some of the days highlights

And a  few from outside

EJ Groups at the US Embassy

Well, we didn’t think we’d go to the US Embassy twice in one trip, but we thought it’d be worth it to unite with our friends in the Environmental Justice movement in the US. Oh yeah, we had one more delivery for Obama:

And of course, there’s an awesome video

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS…
We’re already in conversations about COP 16. Help us get there! Donate to Ruckus today…

Day 4 at COP 15

Hey y’all, Sharon here. I’m not used to blogging, and we are moving a million miles a minute here, but I’ll do my best to give you all the play by play as things go down there

- Action at US Embassy this morning in Copenhagen: Obama recieved his peace prize today but there is no peace in our land while our people suffer at the hands of US Energy policy. This was a woman’s action- organized by Indigenous women across North America (and as far as Central America if you include me), women from Alaska, the Southwest, the Midwest, East Coast and Canada representing many indigenous nations calling out Obama and US Energy Policy. US Energy policy affects Indigenous Peoples not only in North America but globally. There was a delivery of a scroll on behalf of Indigenous Peoples to the Ambassador.   About 50 ppl attended,  We got great media coverage:

Democracy Now!

NBC Nightly News

We’re also using a pitch engine to blast our events- Feel free to check it out- grab video and repost

-Calling out Ken Salazar (Secretary of Interior)- Faith of Red OIL and Wahleah of Black Mesa Water Coalition snuck into his press briefing (with the help of our new friends at nbc!) and Faith hit Salazar with a hard question about new oil and coal development in Alaska and the Southwest. Apparently he got flustered and avoided the question. Go Faith!!! Check out the post about it: Indigenous people raise a voice against more dirty energy There’s also video of Faith’s question

-Respect Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Action in the Halls of the UN- this was a very spontaneous joint action between youth and indigenous peoples on behalf of International Human Rights day and the lack thereof for indigenous people. The Action followed a youth “rainstorm” action and Indigenous Peoples and youth formed a human chain that spontaneously snaked all the way around the Bella Center (UN security was not happy about this one!) People spontaneously joined the snake and I would dare say at one point we were a giant circle in the Bella Center!

-Indigenous Peoples speak out is happening right now at the Klima Forum (the “peoples” alternative forum to COP).  I spoke on an IP panel yesterday talking about IP3 and action.

Photos to come!

Sharon

Did you catch that moment of unity last week in Singapore at the APEC summit? Leaders from across the Earth boldly stood, in their matching shirts, unified in their resolve to “walk back” expectations about the Copenhagen Climate Conference next month?

Sheesh.

But who needs to go summit-hopping over to Denmark when you can stay home and fight the largest and most destructive project on planet Earth? Right here in our very own back yard. That’s right–we’re taking about the Tar Sands. The dirtiest most carbon intensive oil on this here planet.

Check out our latest music video:  The Tar Sands Blow

If you ain’t ready to open up a big old can of Tar Sands Whuppass by the time it’s over, then we don’t deserve to call ourselves Popular Agitators no more.

Crank your speakers to 11 and click here:  The Tar Sands Blow

Cross posted from Grist

African negotiators at the U.N. climate talks in Barcelona just refused to continue formal discussions about all other issues until wealthy countries live up to their legal and moral responsibility to commit to deep emissions reductions. Rich countries (also called “Annex 1 countries”) have ground negotiations to a halt by failing to agree their new targets under the Kyoto Protocol (KP), driving developing countries to put their feet down. This walkout is significant and opens up political space – it means many of the countries in Africa just stopped one half of the UN climate negotiation process until rich countries say how much they will reduce their carbon.

We’re down to the wire: just four negotiating days left before the big agreement in Copenhagen is supposed to go down. Its day one, and we saw just a taste of the breakdowns to come. While rich countries continue to undermine commitments for the Kyoto Protocol (one of two negotiating tracks for Copenhagen which is supposed to be renewed for a second commitment period of Annex 1 targets), the spin has already taken hold: they’re blaming Africa for their own delay-mongering. Oy vey.

In response, movement and civil society organizations held a demonstration at the U.N. building in support of African delegates’ insistence that developed countries commit to new, strong binding targets. Delegates and observers were invited to join a human shield against the killing of Kyoto targets (complete with an Annex 1 grim reaper) and instead urged to promote at least 40% emission reductions with no offsets by 2020.

Kamese Geoffrey of NAPE/ Friends of the Earth Uganda warned, “Rich countries are attempting to dodge their legal and moral responsibilities to reduce emissions. Developing countries and communities have historically had practically no fault in the creation of climate change, yet they will be the first to face the devastating impacts of climate change.”

Many of us have longstanding criticisms of the Kyoto Protocol, particularly its market mechanisms. But here’s why Kyoto is important:

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cross posted from Grist.

Today marked one of the final days of the Bangkok UN Climate Negotiations. With the end of this intersessional in sight, the International Youth Delegation (IYD) has officially declared “No Confidence” in the road to Copenhagen.

With youth delegates from over 30 countries engaging in the Bangkok process, the IYD cited pathetically weak targets from the North, alarm that a second commitment period in the Kyoto Protocol will not be secured, and a lack of guarantees for protection of Indigenous peoples’ rights and interests, in its Declaration. The current text of the draft climate deal is so weak and so full of “false solutions” (measures like offsetting that actually make the problem worse) it is unacceptable.

Youth delegates representing each continent addressed the U.N. today, detailing the urgency of the crisis as it affects their communities currently, telling stories of their hope and organizing alongside their denunciation of the state of play in the UN Negotiations.

This week the Annex 1 (rich countries), attempted to kill the Kyoto Protocol (KP). We are nearing upon the end of the current KP term, and a lack of renewing it means that the world would lose the few legally binding international climate agreements it has (as insufficient as they are). The excuse is that the United States will not sign, and therefore the whole thing should be scrapped and an entirely new deal can be struck on its own. It is lunacy to think that this will yield a stronger outcome, and the G77 (the rest of the world) countries are furious. We have always known the US wont sign the KP; the world cannot continue to wait for the US to get on board. In Bali, the U.S. already committed to setting comparable targets to other Annex 1 countries, so the world could deal with the U.S. in the LCA (Long Term Cooperative Action).

This all amounts to a shell game: more dirty delaying tactics from self-interested countries who are content to strip away basic attempts at an international agreement (for example “compliance” – meaning that the U.S. would have international oversight of its targets, or “top-down target setting” – meaning the international community sets carbon targets together based on science, rather than each countries independently setting their targets based on what their fossil fuel extraction industries dictate).

Allowing the U.S. to drag the world out of existing legal obligations is disgraceful. These negotiations are going backwards.

Make no mistake: Our future is being held hostage to interests that have consistently thumbed their noses at the international community and their obligations to the rest of the world. This process has been polluted by self-interested corporations and nations looking to profit off of our crisis. They have been pushing false solutions that exacerbate rather than fix the problem. Not only are the targets set by rich countries weak, but they are deceptive. Rather than representing actual emissions reductions, they contain unacceptable proportions of offsets, which do not reduce emissions, and displace the burden back onto the developing countries of the world.

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