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Title: Letter from Climate Prisoners
Author: Various Authors
Date: 2010
Language: en
Topics: ecology, environment, prison
Source: Retrieved on January 20, 2010 from http://anarchyalive.com/2010/01/01/letter-from-climate-prisoners/

Various Authors

Letter from Climate Prisoners

Something is rotten (but not just) in Denmark. As a matter of fact,

thousands of people have been considered, without any evidence, a threat

to the society. Hundreds have been arrested and some are still under

detention, waiting for judgment or under investigation. Among them, us,

the undersigned. We want to tell the story from the peculiar viewpoint

of those that still see the sky from behind the bars.

A UN meeting of crucial importance has failed because of several

contradictions and tensions that have shown up during the COP15. The

primary concern of the powerful was the governance of the energy supply

for never-ending growth. This was the case whether they were from the

overdeveloped world, like the EU countries or the US, or from the

so-called developing countries, like China or Brazil.

At odds, hundreds of delegates and thousands of people in the streets

have raised the issue that the rationale of life must be (and actually

is) opposed to that of profit. we have strongly affirmed our will to

stop anthropic pressure on the biosphere.

A crisis of the energy paradigm is coming soon. The mechanism of the

global governance have proven to be overwhelmingly precarious. The

powerful failed not only in reaching an agreement on their internal

equilibrium but also in keeping the formal control of the discussion.

Climate change is an extreme and ultimate expression of the violence of

the capitalistic growth paradigm. People globally are increasingly

showing the willingness of taking the power to rebel against that

violence. We have seen that in Copenhagen, as well as we have seen that

same violence. Hundreds of people have been arrested without any reason

or clear evidence, or for participating in peaceful and legitimate

demonstrations. Even mild examples of civil disobedience have been

considered as a serious threat to the social order.

In response we ask — What order do we threaten and who ordered it? Is it

that order in which we do not anymore own our bodies? The order well

beyond the terms of any reasonable “social contract” that we would ever

sign, where our bodies can be taken, managed, constrained and imprisoned

without any serious evidence of crime. Is it that order in which the

decision are more and more shielded from any social conflicts? Where the

governance less and less belongs to people, not even through the

parliament? As a matter of fact, non-democratic organisms like the WTO,

the NB, the G-whatever rule beyond any control.

We are forced to notice that the theater of democracy is a broken one as

soon as, one approaches the core of the power. That is why we reclaim

the power to the people. We reclaim the power over our own lives. Above

all, we reclaim the power to counterpose the rationale of life and of

the commons to the rationale of profit. It may have been declared

illegal, but still we consider it fully legitimate.

Since no real space is left in the broken theater, we reclaimed our

collective power — Actually we expected it — to speak about the climate

and energy issues. Issues that, for us, involve critical nodes of global

justice, survival of man and energy independence. We did marching with

our bodies.

We prefer to enter the space where the power is locked dancing and

singing. We would have liked to do this at the Bella center, to disrupt

the session in accord with hundreds of delegates. But we were, as

always, violently hampered by the police. They arrested our bodies in an

attempt to arrest our ideas. we risked our bodies, trying to protect

them just by staying close to each other. We value our bodies: We need

them to make love, to stay together and to enjoy life. They hold our

brains, with beautiful bright ideas and views. They hold our hearts

filled with passion and joy. Nevertheless, we risked them. we risked our

bodies getting locked in prisons. In fact, what would be the worth of

thinking and feeling if the bodies did not move? Doing nothing,

letting-it-happen, would be the worst form of complicity with the

business that wanted to hack the UN meeting. At the COP15 we moved, and

we will keep moving.

Exactly like love, civil disobedience can not just be told. We must make

it, with our bodies. Otherwise, we would not really think about what we

love, and we would not really love what we think about. It’s as simple

as that. It’s a matter of love, justice and dignity.

How the COP15 has ended proves that we were right. Many of us are paying

what is mandatory for an obsessive, pervasive and total repression: To

find a guilty at the cost of inventing it (along with the crime

perhaps).

We are detained with evidently absurd accusations about either violences

that actually did not take place or conspiracies and organizing of

law-breaking actions.

We do not feel guilty for having shown, together with thousands, the

reclamation of the independence of our lives from profit’s rule. If the

laws oppose this, it was legitimate to peacefully — but still

conflictually — break them.

We are just temporarily docked, ready to sail again with a wind stronger

than ever. It’s a matter of love, justice and dignity.

Luca Tornatore — from the Italian social centres network “see you in

Copenhagen”.

Natasha Verco — Climate Justice Action

Stine Gry Jonassen — Climate Justice Action

Tannie Nyboe — Climate Justice Action

Johannes Paul Schul Meyer

Arvip Peschel

Christian Becker

Kharlanchuck Dzmitry

Cristoph Lang

Anthony Arrabalr