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ACTION REPORT

14/12/09: No Borders protests.

FOR MORE PHOTOS SEE http://www.indymedia.dk/articles/1723

11AM a NO BORDERS demonstration meeting at Israel Plads, Vesterbrogade, has proceed to march to the via Nørre Voldgade and Gothersgade, where around 1,500 protestors formed a solid block enclosed by people with arms linked in front of the Danish Ministry of Defence at Holmenskanal 42, near Holmens Bro. Speeches were given around the fact that “Climate Change is an issue in terms of migration because the Global South is suffering and the borders are trying to repress them“. The protest then crossed Holmens bro bridge and moved on to Slotsplads where it continued as a solid bloc.

In Slotplads the demonstrators succeeded in untethering a large orange balloon advertising the COP15 process. [video] The police struggled to keep it tied down, but it was eventually liberated. The police then moved in and most of the crowd dispersed, although some were trapped there by a police kettle. Eventually the crowd managed to break out of the kettle and crossed Knippel Bro onto Torvsgade. The main body of the demo then moved towards Chrstiania followed by a large number of riot police who eventually left the demo alone. Once the demo arrived at Chrstiania the crowd dispersed in high spirits.

CLIMATE JUSTICE = NO BORDERS NO BORDERS DAY OF ACTION DEC 14 MEET AT 11:00 @ ISRAEL PLADS AND MARCH TO THE MINISTRY OF DEFENCE CLIMATENOBORDERS.WORDRESS.COM

Press Release

Climate No Borders
Friday 11th December, 2009

climatenoborders@gmail.com
Tel: (0045) 52686496
www.climatenoborders.wordpress.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ACTIVISTS TO TARGET DANISH MINISTRY OF DEFENCE TO HIGHLIGHT FATE OF CLIMATE
REFUGEES

As part of the range of actions during the UN COP15 Climate Summit in
Copenhagen, activists have designated Dec 14ththe ‘No Borders! No Climate
Refugees!” Day of Action. As such, the international network, No Borders, is
organizing an action targeting the Danish Ministry of Defence as a symbol of
the military role in creating refugees and enforcing repressive border regimes.

At 11am on the 14th of December activists will gather in Israel Plads,
Vesterbrogade, before marching to the Danish Ministry of Defence at
Holmenskanal 42. There will be speakers from different campaigns, bands from
across the world, two sound systems, and a no borders performance piece.  We
will open their offices to the weather they are changing and to the people they
lock out, so that the voices of all those disempowered by the COP15 process and
border regime can be heard! (1)

This protest comes at a time when global economic policies and war are causing
mass global displacement, while the effects of climate change will be a major
cause of further mass migration from the poorest regions of the earth, on a
scale we have never seen.

At the Klima Forum today at the launch of the ‘International Campaign on Climate
Refugees’ Rights’  indigenous people from across the globe called for an opening
of the borders in the face of increasing climate chaos, a demand for climate
justice, and most importantly, the rights of freedom of movement, and the right
to stay in their homes without the threat of climate change, or the impacts of
globalization and neo-liberal policies. (2)

Lars says “Rather than dealing with the problem, governments around the world
are instead employing increasing levels of division through heightened border
control, whilst failing to confront the root cause – capitalism – and then
further militarizing the globe by selling arms to anyone with the money to buy
them.”

Mette Hagolani says “We will take action in solidarity with those who are
already displaced by the immediate effects of climate change (3), wars for
resources and the false market led ´solutions´ proposed by those with the
loudest voices in the COP15 process.  We demand social change and reject
increased repression and racist border controls (4),”

ENDS

Contact for further comment,

climatenoborders@gmail.com

Tel: (0045) 52686496

www.climatenoborders.wordpress.com

Notes to Editor

(1)     No Borders No Borders supports the call of the CJA to promote and
strengthen the rights and voices of Indigenous and affected peoples (including
workers) in confronting the climate crisis, and to build a global movement for climate justice that encourages urgent action to avoid catastrophic climate change.

(2)    The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and return to his country.”

(3)   In 2007, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that an increase in sea levels of just 18 to 59 centimetres (seven to 24 inches) would make the Maldives virtually uninhabitable by 2100, and other Small Island States face a similar fate.  The finance minister for Bangladesh, Abdul Muhith has called for the UN to give Climate Refugees the same status as migrants fleeing political persecution. “Twenty million people could be displaced [in Bangladesh] by the middle of the century.  We are asking all our development partners to honour the natural right of persons to migrate. We can’t accommodate all these people – this is already the densest [populated] country in the world,” he said.  See
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/30/rich-west-climate-change .

(4)    Increased legislation such as the “The Stockholm Program”, which was recently passed in Brussels, will foster more surveillance of the internet, common access to European police databases and more cross-border police collaboration to fight “illegal migration”.  For photographs of the most recent protest see http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=461 .  It will force countries outside the EU to take back their citizens who enter the EU without a visa and it will push the use of biometrics and radio-frequency identification (RfiD) and enlargement of the police agency Europol and the EU border watchdog Frontex
(which conducts migrant hunting operations, trains border guards and special units to hunt down people crossing borders, and helps to coordinate and standardize EU immigration surveillance and control policies) and its military wing RABIT (Rapid Border Intervention Teams).  The Program also promotes the increasing use of hi-tech military equipment such as airborne early warning
planes,  ‘unmanned autonomous drones’ in the UK, and naval ships off the west Coast of Africa as well as the payment of millions of Euros to African countries to build and house internment camps to help manage migration to the EU. The recent Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen is now the leader of NATO. He has been pushing for ‘security crackdowns’ and reinforcement of fortress Europe to prevent migration from places more immediately effected by elite-caused climate change. On the Franco-English border in Calais repression escalates against migrants everyday with both countries attempting to create a migrant free zone´by the end of 2009. see www.calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com

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The debate over climate change and global warming management at the UN is a struggle among the national ruling establishments for their own interests on the international diplomatic stage. While there is concern that climate change can have unforeseen political and economic consequences, these competing capitalist states have no means of seriously addressing the issue, other than making preparations for cracking down on social unrest. Elites globally have pushed the criminalization of the movement of people for years now. Their latest excuse for this is climate change. They talk about people migrating for survival and better lives as a security threat that justifies border repression and moves towards a more defined global apartheid. Their reckless pursuit of profit has caused the climate crisis, and now they want to criminalize those who are absorbing the effects of their greed. The military industrial complex is the epitome of their hypocrisy. The majority of wars fought in the last decades have been resource wars fought to secure government and corporations access to the planets resources. Their exploitation of resources is the cause of the climate crisis. Now climate change has joined their wars as the two major causes of forced migration. At the same time, the war machine is the instrument of the criminalization of migration. In addition, “The Stockholm Program”, which is set to be passed in december will foster more surveillance of the internet, common access to European police databases and more cross-border police collaboration to fight “illegal migration”. It will force countries outside the EU to take back their citizens who enter the EU without a visa and it will push the use of biometrics and radio-frequency identification (RfiD) and enlargement of the police agency Europol and the EU border watchdog Frontex. In the face of this, refugees act in defiance of the borders when they move for survival and a better life. They migrate and in doing so refuse to comply with laws that put profit and control above life and dignity. To counter this act of defiance and hope, governments, corporations and elites foster and promoted racism globally. The COP 15 is another instrument for this. Their definition of a ‘good target’ already displaces hundreds of thousands of people. Their false solutions condemn millions more to suffering to maintain their profits. It is fitting that Denmark hosts such a conference as COP15. The Danish state actively fostered racism in order to justify the eviction and deportation of the Iraqi’s who occupied a church in Copenhagen for three months earlier this year. But like many of the other governments participating in the COP the Danish elites are not confining their racism to the Danish context. The recent Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen is now the leader of NATO. He has been pushing for ‘security crackdowns’ and reinforcement of fortress Europe to prevent migration from places more immediately effected by elite caused climate change. To the NATO alliance an array of threats exist in today’s uncertain world, from terrorism and transnational crime to unrest following food crises, extensive migration to the countries of the NATO alliance and social conflicts as a result of climate change. On a just planet- his job would not exist. The war machine would fold and so would borders. On December 14th we will take action to create this world. In the context of the COP 15 we will take on the most potent site of their sickness here in Denmark- the Ministry of Defense. We want to breakdown their control, disrupt their surveillance and confront their repression. We will open their offices to the weather they are changing and to the people they lock out. Our action starts at 11am at Rådhuspladsen and will march to the Ministry of Defence!