TRADE TO CLIMATE CARAVAN***
*Protest and Action around and between the 7th WTO Ministerial
in Geneva and the COP15 in Copenhagen*
*We invite representatives from: indigenous, fisher folk, and
peasants movements, from women and gender organisations, from affected
communities that suffer from climate change or climate programs,
from different southern groups active in the climate justice networking
process, from initiatives which resist displacement and land grab,
monoculture and agro-fuels, free trade regimes and neoliberal policies,
and from all movements which struggle for food sovereignty, dignity for
all peoples, climate justice, reparations for the ecological debt,
a socially acceptable energy transition and alternative energy use and production.
*To join us on: a 12-day caravan with representatives of popular
movements worldwide. The caravan starts with 5 days of action in
Geneva during the WTO Ministerial to decry the WTO’s blocking of
real solutions to climate change: the return of small-scale farming,
food sovereignty as well as decentralised energy sovereignty,
guaranteeing the rights of forest peoples against the forces of
deforestation, and the suspension of the intellectual property rights
for renewable and climate change mitigation technology for developing countries.
*On December 3 the caravans depart Geneva for a 5 day trip across
Europe to speak and protest on the links between trade liberalization
and climate change through cities such as Paris, Brussels, Cologne,
Berlin and Hamburg.
*On December 9 the caravan arrive in Copenhagen in time for
the Conference on Ecological Debt, and caravaners join other
activities during the Copenhagen Climate Talks, including OWINFS
proposed workshops on Trade and Climate Change, the thematic action
days of the CJA-network and the mass-action Reclaim Power – Push for
Climate Justice.
If you want to come: Please contact the Caravan Planning Group
IMMEDIATELY at havaria@gmx.de. We offer Visa-assistance and would like
to remind you that Visa-processes have to start before October 15th.
With the Caravan-budget we are able to finance 15 participants. Apart
from that, we just came to know that we didn’t get any funding
for flight-tickets by the Klimaforum-board (what we clearly expected)
and due to that we encourage all participants to look for
funding through other sources.
In solidarity,
h2. The Caravan Planning Group
More information on the From Trade to Climate Caravan:
1) The Caravan***
The idea of a Trade and Climate Caravan came up at the last
preparation meeting of the network Climate Justice Action (CJA)
in Copenhagen in June this year. Many groups that are active in
the network Climate Justice Now!(CJN), as well as the anti-free trade
campaign “Our World is Not for Sale”(OWINFS), support the Caravan.
A European preparatory group has started to spread invitations and
has invited the international networks to send representatives
of grassroots social movements .
2) Why link Trade and Climate?*
A critical analysis of the official preparation process towards
COP15 shows that the climate talks are all about trade and investment:
trading of emission certificates, offsets causing landgrabs due to
the spread of agrofuel-monoculture, “clean technology” investments
like hydroelectric mega-dams that lead to massive displacement, and so on.
At the same time, the WTO “free” trade agenda not only encourages
these disastrous “solutions”, it also blocks many urgently needed
real solutions: the return of small-scale farming (which produces
massively less greenhouse gases than agrobusiness), food sovereignty
as well as decentralised energy sovereignty, guaranteeing the rights
of forest peoples against the forces of deforestation, and the
suspension of the intellectual property rights of renewable and
climate change mitigation technology for developing countries.
The link between a new round of WTO trade talks and the COP15-climate
negotiations strategically shows two things: a) in the name of climate
protection and emission reduction the global elite is intending to
push the WTO process further towards intensifying trade in environmental
services, emissions and offset-markets and investments in
green technology, huge energy projects, and natural habitats;
b) the ruling elite means to use the environmental cover of the
UN-climate talks to continue business as usual: extending the hold
of the transnational monopolies on the vital resources of agriculture,
forests and energy, guaranteeing their profits through state subsidies,
plundering the resources of the Global South to continue Northern
excess consumption and waste and above all, avoid the inevitable
questioning of the current model of production, overconsumption
and profit.
The From Trade to Climate Caravan invites you to participate in
public events, demonstrations and non-violent direct actions in
Geneva and on the route to Copenhagen to strengthen an alternative
agenda for social change and climate justice. Because a powerful
presence of the world-wide grassroots resistance at both of these
summits is vital for the visibility of resistance against the
green-washing of this catastrophic and oppressive system, to force
real change!
3) Dates and Activities of the Caravan:*
It is important that Southern representatives of the South reach
Geneva by November 24 or 25 to speak in nearby French and Swiss cities,
in order to mobilise for the WTO demonstrations. Before the Ministerial,
a large demonstration on Saturday November 28 will be held in the
streets of Geneva. That event should not happen without a strong voice
from oppositional voices from the Global South. On Sunday November 29
there will be workshops all day to exchange between activists from
around the world. And of course, the presence of representatives
of grassroots-movements from the South in the actions during the
WTO ministerial (Nov 30 – Dec 2) in Geneva will be even more vital.
The WTO summit will end Dec 2, which leaves one week for travel
to Copenhagen. In the cities where the Caravan will stop, you can
expect a variety of public speeches and events, demonstrations and
actions, meetings and exchanges. Until now there was positive response
by six cities which will host the caravan and we will visit them by
two different routes (in probably one bus for each route), starting
from Geneva on Dec. 3:
Geneva – Paris – Northern France – Brussels – Hamburg
Geneva – Freiburg – Frankfurt/Cologne – Berlin – Hamburg
Hamburg is the city where the two routes come together again on
December 8 and proceed by joint travel to Copenhagen on December 9.
We want to invite you to give your opinion about what you prefer to do
in the cities where the caravan will stop. Here are some proposals:
-public speeches to present struggles that relate to free-trade and climate change
-smaller workshops to talk about case studies and local resistance
- symbolic actions in front of economical or political relevant buildings
-direct actions like visits at offices, factories and proclaiming an
alternative agenda
-exchange with local groups and European initiatives for active networking
-talks with parliamentarians (although we organise the caravan without
collaboration with political parties we can arrange meetings with
politicians if you want)
In Copenhagen we will arrive on December 9. The COP15 will already
have started but the period of counter-activities and protest that
is relevant for the international mobilisation starts on the following
day. Jubilee South and other networks call for a Conference
on Ecological Debt which will start Dec 10 and to which participants
of the caravan can join and contribute. With the central demonstration
on December 12 the days of actions against COP15 will start. In the
following days different thematic action days (e.g. on agriculture,
migration, production) will take place and need contribution by strong
movements.
The network for grassroot mobilisation, Climate Justice Action (CJA),
supports the caravan and is the platform on which many different social
movements and activist-groups are coming together for common actions.
The main action that this network is organising and calling for is
a mass march “Reclaim power! Push for Climate Justice” on one of the
most important days of the conference. This action will announce
openly that we propose to take over the UN-conference for one day
in order to present an alternative peoples’ climate agenda in the
halls of the conference venue. We will march to the conference venue
and push non-violently as far as we can go. If we finally cannot enter,
we will call on friendly delegates to declare their sympathy with our
agenda by coming out to join us in a Peoples’ Climate Assembly.
We are committed to this determined action in order to force the
media’s and the world’s attention on this alternative agenda from below.
The days of action will finish December 18th, although the official
COP15-negotiations may possibly continue if no deal is reached by then
or perhaps there will be no deal reached at this meeting.
In any case, in the days before we can have some influence on where
the process will stand after the official end of the COP15.
We realise that it is difficult for many to leave their local
responsibilities for such a long program (up to 3 weeks), but these are
two very important political moments, and the Caravan itself will be
an extraordinary opportunity for representatives of social movements
worldwide to get to know each other. It will also be a high profile
event across Europe, hopefully imposing another, Southern perspective
on the question of climate change.
4) Registration and Cooperation: *
Please register with Juergen of the Caravan Planning Group at
havaria@gmx.de.
Since we have very limited means to finance flights and since we
will spend most of the money to arrange transport and all the other
things here in Europe, we urgently request you to try all you can
and search for funding opportunities on your own. There might be
foundations in your region, or other networks which are mobilizing
for Geneva and/or Copenhagen and might support you.
Please get in contact with us about your options.
In order to avoid problems, please start immediately with
the visa-process! Visa now take SIX weeks, so after 15th October it
will no longer be possible to start the process!!
Please send us your personal data (full name, birth date, passport
number, dates of issue and end of validity, name and place of your
organization) and you will receive an invitation from us that is
valid for the entry to Switzerland and last until the end of the
activities in Copenhagen. With this invitation you can go to the
embassy and start the visa-process.
Practical details and materials: In case you don’t know the European
winter, please keep in mind, that it will be cold and wet. Please bring enough warm clothes and if you have also a sleeping bag with you.
In the cities where the caravan will stop there are possibilities
to show videos and pictures. Please bring materials about your local
and regional struggles which you want to present, and let us know
the formats of the material beforehand. Also beforehand, we ask you
to provide us with a summary of your struggles and concerns with
trade and/or climate and at least one picture. With these we propose
to prepare a poster for each participant which can be hung up at each
stop (a sort of exhibition which will give a rapid presentation of
all participants). This will also allow us to inform in advance both
the local hosts in the different cities and the media which will
report about the caravan.
We are also planning to do a documentary during the travel of the
caravan. This will foster the public attention as well as the
networking among the movements after the caravan.
In solidarity,
the Caravan planing group
Olivier de Marcellus (elviejo@greenmail.ch)
and Jurgen Kraus (havaria@gmx.de)
