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pics from start of climate swoop in trafalgar square

rikki | 05.12.2009 18:45 | COP15 Climate Summit 2009 | Climate Chaos | Globalisation

the climate camp swoop successfully took over trafalgar square from around 5 this evening. here are a few pics from the early stages of the camp. the campers initially intend to remain there fro 48 hours. at present, police have no immediate plans to remove them.

tripod by nelson's column
tripod by nelson's column

crisis banner
crisis banner

first of many tents
first of many tents

a yurt
a yurt

supt julia pendry
supt julia pendry

first wood stove alight
first wood stove alight

kitchen area getting ready
kitchen area getting ready


within the first hour of occupation, around 250 supporters arrived in the square and 20 tents established. many more are on their way. there are 2 giant manned tripods with the 'capitalism is crisis' banner flying between them. a yurt has been erected as well as various other shelters, a kitchen, and storage area. the first wood fires are alight, and the mood is excited and optimistic despite the damp conditions. there's a sound system for announcements and music, and the 'rinky dinky' system is making it's way up from parliament square too.

superintendent julia pendry is in charge of the police operation, and she has been portrayed by the met pr engine as the kind face of policing protest, but her past record in these matters is certainly not unblemished. for the moment, she was negotiating with protestors and there were no plans to clear the area. it could of course be a massive pr disaster if the police were to attempt to close down the camp.

there is a full two days of workshops and other activities planned, and visitors are welcome to the square to find out what the issues and possible solutions are.

rikki
- e-mail: rikkiindymedia[@t]gmail(d0t)com
- Homepage: http://www.socpa-movie.blogspot.com

Additions

images

05.12.2009 19:31










here are some more

ur32daurt


Comments

Hide the following 7 comments

Wrong place

05.12.2009 22:40

Whilst you lot were pissing around playing middle class picnic campers the fash were massing in Nottingham.

Why didn't you hold your camp in Nottingham? Fight the fash and climate change all in one day.

Notts


Looks good but how the hell do they get away with it?

05.12.2009 23:21

Good luck to the climate people but I don't understand how they get away with it. If it were animal rights or some other group they would have been apprehended, arrested or blocked in before they got within half a mile of the place. Yet the climate campers can ferry in massive tents, cooking stuff, wood burners etc?

Is it all agreed beforehand by liaising with the cops or something?

vegan


Re: Looks good but...

06.12.2009 11:36

We didn't tell the police where the camp was going to be (they've sent out a grumpy press release about it). I really wish we'd stop camping as an automatic response to everything tho. Trafalgar Sq is a great place to hold a camp but it's time for something new and spikier.

Kia


@ Looks good..

06.12.2009 14:16

They get away with it because the State knows it is a pretty but totally ineffective gesture and you 'have to let people express themselves' so they still think they have any fuckin say in their lives whatsoever. Meanwhile, the State can continue to shaft people, stealing their money to pay bankers, polluting their air, land and water, boosting corporations that keep them in power.. Animal rights groups however, cost companies, endanger profits, actually free tortured animals, attack the properties of abusers. The moment climate camp actually threatens real change, you'll see tanks on the streets.

AR


Is that Julia Pendry I see......

06.12.2009 17:31

Chatting to activists in 2 SEPERATE PICTURES! I think we can answer the question of why they're allowed to get away with it (other than the fact that climate camp are the guardians new favourite campaign group, Anyone remember 15 years ago when it was animal rights?), its because they are willing to liase with scum like her.

For those unfamiliar with this particularly insidious example of a copper you may remember getting your head caved in in a subway whilst demonstrating against the genocide in Gaza last January, the operation for which she was silver and gave the direct order for the officers to start swinging.

Non - activism related we may be tempted to look back at the farce on the wembley estate a few years ago, a whole estate had to be evacuated because a fire had caused damage to some rather large pressurized containers. Mrs Julia Pendry was once again in charge and her job was to organize food, shelter, water and toilet facilities to its displaced residents until such time that they could return to their homes (No mean feat but as climate camp have proved, definitely possible - especially with her budget and infrastructure.) However one monumental fuck up after another lead to the residents being left completely uninformed and basically hauled from their homes before being cordoned out of the whole area with no information about what was going to happen to their homes, their possessions or where they were supposed to go until they were allowed back (baring in mind that during the rush most had not even had the chance to grab wallets) and so were left cold, hungry and dying for the loo for hours before even being given basic assistance.

The sad thing about climate camp is that it started as an extraordinarily popular grass roots movement applying direct action ideology to the what was fast becoming a stagnant campaign. When the Drax 29 stopped that coal train we were shown for the first time that economic sabotage WAS a viable mass action option in the fight for earth liberation, that the feeling that something needed to be done was popular enough that we could critical mass stylie direct action as apposed to running around in balaclava's at night burning JCB's (not putting this type of action down in any way i just feel this was a massive step forward) but fast forward to 2009 and the climate camp hierarchy (and wether they like it or not a hierarchy has developed, blaming it on apathy is unfortunately not an excuse that flies with me, other campaigns face far greater levels of apathy and they've avoided it) has left the arena of direct action and developed a more militant lobbying approach to their campaigning.

Unfortunately as hippies/liberals have been showing us for over 80 years now simply camping out and asking nicely doesn't get the results we need and this year climate camp has fallen into that ineffective category, I hope that in 2010 they prove me wrong and I will keep going to these events to show solidarity but the days of liaising with police, short term squat actions and hoping that keeping the guardian happy will yield positive results have to end before climate campers risk falling into the CND/SWP/PETA/Stop the war coaltion models of resistance.

Anti-fash


give it a rest and stop bloody complaining all the time

07.12.2009 14:25

I'm sorry but all you posters who keep posting about animal rights activists under lots of other actions are getting a bit much really.

And FYI 'back in the day' when you say climate camp was cool there was still police liaison.

Who gives a toss if a senior copper was there or not? It's not the story, jog on.

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