Dear (Radical) Friends!
KNOCK KNOCK. Who’s there? It’s history knocking on your door asking you if you will make it… Make what? Make History. With global rulers uniting in the city of Paris during COP21 Climate Summit to negotiate on what life can be sacrificed and what capital can be saved and how to externalize and postpone the cost and community-damage to the ‘Other’ nations… it is time to make one more stand for our humanity.
Whether it is too late to save humankind or not – the fact remains that at any given moment in the present we can still ‘save our humanity‘ by actively engaging to contribute to the collective defence of our common nature: our lives, our sacred relatedness, our passion to put public wellbeing above the power-consolidation of a small industry elite addicted to the harmful ways of squeezing capital out of nature by destroying the landbase, the waterbase, pushing species to extinction (150 to 200 species a day go extinct because of crimes of aggression against the ecological wellbeing)… an industrial civilization that sacrifices life for their religion of capital-production. With Climate Change being our final wake up call to change politics around the world… this is our moment to rise and shine as a global movement for climate justice. This is our moment to show up in Paris and not take corruption, lies and 21st century holocaust as an acceptable answer from COP21 negotiators.
So what to do in Paris as a civilian? Let’s get practical and answer some questions
1) How can you contribute to this historical moment of defending all of life that is under attack by corrupt politics which is reinforcing structural crimes against the sanctity of the health of our collective nature that ensures a livable climate and a home for us all?
– GO TO PARIS: From the Netherlands you can take the bus.
Get your seat on the ASEED/GROENFRONT BUS 7 dec – 14 dec (50 eu) check their website for more info
Get your seat on the Fossil Free Bus 9 dec – 14 dec check out more info on event page
Get your seat on Milieu defensie Weekend-Buses going from Groningen, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Den Bosch to join the action on D-12 day – clear info on their website
2) What if work, personal circumstances or other factors prevent me from busing or biking or hitchhiking to Paris? Can I still enable this movement of defending humanity from political corruption in regard to necessary policies to adapt and mitigate the effect of Climate Change?
– Yes, help empower the visibility and the collective voice for climate justice in the Netherlands in the run up or the international day of Climate Action 29th of nov – see KLIMAAT PARADE WEBSITE
– Yes, if big groups, lots of walking and political discussions and articulation are not your forte, but you still want to show your solidarity with the ones on the frontlines defending the aliveness of the land we live on, the water that quenches our thirst every day and defending the right to exist of the other earthlings that we are intimately connected with… if you get that Climate Change is not the core problem but the life-threatening symptom of capitalist politics of sacrificing and destabilizing life at large… think about making a donation to a friend who wants to go to Paris but doesn’t have the wallet to take time of work and go. Or if you don’t have such noble and beautiful friends, think about familiarizing yourself with noble defenders of our nature in Hambach forest (situated in Germany where lignite coal mines are causing horrific ecocide, close by the border of Netherlands): the Hambach forest action group has a track record of defending the forest and hindering industry’s entitlement to destroy the villages and the land and polluting the atmosphere. They deserve our solidarity in words (talking about their action) and in resources (supporting their work).
or support your local Dutch action group Groenfront – people that have shown a long-term devotion to showing up to defend earth and earthlings they love from getting sacrificed to corrupt politics.
Donate to Groenfront action group
You can rest assured with these two action groups money is not spent on bureaucracy but really on concrete direct action for enforcing just climate adaptation/mitigation policies.
Donation is a vital bloodline for the force and integrity of our movements: Sustainable Activism needs two core elements: loyalty and resources.
3) What IS actually happening in Paris? In the news you read (mis)information about what the UN Climate Summit is supposed to do. But what does civil society, the activist, the civilian, the artist, the human being that cares ACTUALLY DO OUT THERE?
The truth is the city will be buzzing with a multitude of things/actions/meetings to attend. Anything from information driven events on energy transition and technology to meet ups from countries from Latin America or coalition of farmers from Global South countries where they articulate what it means to fight-back, to resist, the destruction of their livelihoods: the disruption of their land/water/air and their sovereignty.
Above all else your presence in Paris will allow you to take a moment to learn (educate yourself), a moment to relate (make new international friends with people who share your passion for changing climate politics) a moment to heal (by connecting to a greater good, a collective push for global healing through implementing policies that protect life instead of disturb it).
THIS IS A MOMENT TO BRING BACK ALIVENESS IN YOU AND THE ONES YOU RELATE TO BY TAKING CREATIVE DIRECT ACTION!
Calendar of main activities during the Climate Summit
29 November: Global Climate March
The day before the climate summit begins; thousands of people in different countries will take the streets, march together, and call for effective measures to face global warming. It takes all of us to change up everything.
Article about the 29th march in Paris (by AVAAZ)
30 November: Climate Games Round I – Paris, global, and online
Theme: green-washing and lobbying in the Climate Negotiations.
More info
3 December: Pinnochio Climate Awards – Paris
Which corporations are lobbying the hardest to undermine climate policies?
Which corporations are doing their best to greenwash their image?
Which corporations have the least regard for local communities?
Find out at this year’s special climate edition of the Pinocchio Awards – a glittering awards ceremony full of fun, music, special guests and truly nasty corporations.
More info
4-10 December: Solutions COP 21 – Grand Palais Paris
‘Solutions COP21′ is a big corporate greenwash event organised by Club France Développement Durable and Comité 21. Both are so-called “sustainable development” networks – but their members include companies with bad records of human rights and environmental abuse. This events is a good location for some actions against greenwashing.
More info in a brochure from Corporate Europe Observatory
5-6 December: Global Village of Alternatives: “Change the system, not the climate!” – Paris
The Global Village of alternatives will contribute to the creation of a large citizen movement for climate justice. Alternatiba invites anybody who is interested, on “the real alternatives”, the true solutions to fighting climate change, (small scale farming, ethical finance, waste reduction, sustainable mobility…) as opposed to the dangerous and inefficient “solutions” that the industrial, financial and techno-scientific lobbyists propose.
Stay tunned
7-11 December: Zone for Climate Action (ZAC) – Paris
The Zone for Climate Action (ZAC) will be hold in a cultural centre open to the city. It is going to be a meeting space overflowing with life, creative ideas and joyful resistance . The program in the ZAC includes daily action trainings, to build confidence and skills in civil disobedience techniques, to inform of the legal implications and form affinity groups (with longer term potential).
More info
9 December: “Peasant Agriculture and Food Sovereignty Day” – Paris
The international peasant movement La Via Campesina calls social movements, people’s organizations, civil society and activists from all over the world to protest in Paris in a decentralized way in order to advance our proposals and show our opposition to the false solutions TNCs have inserted into the UNFCCC.
More info
11-12 December: Climate Games Round II – Paris, global, and on-line
Theme: fossil fuels, energy. As the COP21 finalizes its death-dealing agreements, teams will join the day in the form of mass disobedience.
More info
13 December: Climate Games Awards Ceremony – Paris
It will be the opportunity to come together, share stories of adventure, give out beautiful prizes and dance to the thumping tunes of FILASTINE & NOVA and other international artists.
More info
4) One last thing: Where do we sleep?
If you go with the Groenfront bus or with milieu defensie bus the accomodation for sleeping is also taken care of. If you travel to Paris by yourself/with friends and you still don’t know where to crash, know that we are engaged in a little project of liberating a privatized-public space for collective wellbeing and decolonized learning experiences (traditionally this is described as an occupy-action but in fact we are liberating a space for public wellbeing). Liberation of public spaces from privatization are traditionally a task of activist movements to complete. With all of our futures livelihoods at stake and our presentday integrity to gain or to lose… I am excited to work together to recreate a university for the movement. More info coming up soon.
Big group spaces not your speed? Consider Couchsurfing…
Understand that with hundreds of thousands of civil society activists in town and god knows how much industry and campaigning parties and political folks, hotels are fully (overbooked) and if you havent booked yet it, hotels are not really an obvious way to go.
With that said all that remains to be shared is my utter excitement to be a spec of sand in this great sandstorm for climate justice; an epic struggle for our humanity that is up for grabs at these UN climate politics summits!
Its an honor to bring back aliveness to this numbed out society of mass destruction. Hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder. Armed with smiles and tears and a fierce love of what is still left… Happy to make friendships that are based on the courage to care, the compassion to act at this crucial moment in history!
Let’s make the (politically) impossible possible: keeping 80% of fossil fuel resources in the ground to possibly avert runaway climate change.
Let’s realize political policies of ecotopia: 100% energy transition, climate debt payed by polluters, ecocide laws that holds industry accountable in court to clean up and restore (not just pay a fine after years of procrastination) and realize societies of free public transport, education for public welfare not private profiteering of misery of others.
Lets engage in our generations task of cleaning up the world and reconnecting to our roots where we are all connected and equal!
With a love that transcends borders and time,
Your radical friend Chihiro Geuzebroek