Climate Camp hits the City of London on April Fools Day, the eve of the G20 leaders' London Summit. Join us!
Climate camp 2009 /// Stopping carbon markets /// Because nature doesn't do bailouts.
First the city traders speculated with our homes, jobs and money – with
disastrous results. Now they are speculating with our climate and the very
future of life on earth – and once again our governments are cheering them on.
By creating a brain-bending system of carbon pollution licenses, fossil fuel companies and trading firms have found a way to keep on churning out global warming gases and to reap huge windfall profits at the same time.
Meanwhile, the UK government is justifying a third runway at Heathrow and a coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth by saying that these new “carbon trading” schemes will magically make all their emissions vanish.
They are handing control of our climate over to the same people and systems that caused the financial collapse. All the workable and fair alternatives aren't getting a look-in
We need to stop this foolishness.
We've camped against the Heathrow runway, we've camped against the Kingsnorth coal power station. Now its time to camp against the over-arching problem: absolute faith in unfettered markets and endless economic growth. On April 1st the G20 leaders arrive in London. At a time of climate crisis their response to the market meltdown is emergency loans to car manufacturers, increased spending to encourage consumption, and bailouts for the very people who got us into this mess - just the thing that will make the climate crisis worse.
Don’t let them get away with it: join our camp in the Square Mile! Gather at noon, April 1st, at the European Climate Exchange, Hasilwood House, 62 Bishopsgate, EC2N 4AW. Bring a pop-up tent, sleeping bag, wind turbine, mobile cinema, action plans and ideas...let’s imagine another world.
Don't let the financial and fossil fools make the rules!
for updates, details on back-up plans, and moreinformation, visit us again at http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/g20
To get involved, come to our planning meeting on Saturday February 14th in London (arrive at the library houuse, 52 Knatchbull, at 1 pm for a 1:30 start) or come to the gathering on March the 6th/7th in Nottingham.
Email g20 [@] climatecamp.org.uk for more information.
Join the announcements list, the facebook page and event.
Please post this link, paste this text, and otherwise spread the word!
Help celebrate Fossil Fools Day and Financial Fools Day
The Paris Declaration
We won't pay for your crises - it is time for change!
More than 150 representatives of trade unions, farmers' movements, global justice groups, environmental groups, development groups, migrants' groups, faith-based groups, women's groups, the have-not movements, student and youth groups, and anti-poverty groups from all over Europe gathered on the 10th and 11th of January 2009 in Paris to analyse collectively the current crises, to develop joint strategies and to discuss joint demands and alternatives in response to these crises.
As the financial and the economic crises intensify, millions of women and men are losing their jobs, houses and livelihoods. Tens of millions more are forecast to join the 1.4 billion people already living in extreme poverty. The crises worsen the social, ecological, cultural and political situation of the majority of people on our planet.
Despite the evident and foreseeable failure of the current economic model, world leaders are responding by trying to preserve the system that is responsible for the crises. Governments have been quick to bail out bankers, corporate share holders and their financial backers with hundreds of billions in public money. To solve the problem, they put into place bankers and heads of corporations: the same actors that created the crises. The workers, the jobless, the poor - all those affected have received no help in their daily struggle to make ends meet, and to cap it all, they are now supposed to pay the bill.
Governments' proposals to deal with the unfolding economic crisis do not address the other dimensions of the crisis we face today – global justice, food, climate and energy – and with it the need to transform the economic system towards one that allows us to satisfy the basic needs of all people, to implement all human rights and to restore and preserve the ecological basis of life on our planet. It is time for change!
We can build a system that works for people and the environment, a system to serve the needs of the many, a system based on the principles of public benefit, global equity, justice, environmental sustainability and democratic control.
As a first step, immediate measures must be implemented to address the social impacts on people, whilst supporting the ecological conversion of the economy.
We call upon all social movements in Europe to engage in a process of change. To start with, we call upon movements
- to engage in the mass mobilisation for the central demonstration in London on the 28th of March 2009 ahead of the G20 meeting, or to take to the streets in their own countries that same day to make their voices heard. 20 governments cannot decide on the future of the global financial system and economy.
- to undertake a day of action in the week of the G20 meeting, preferably on the 1st of April (Financial Fools' Day) all across the world, exposing unaccountable financial power and promoting democratic control of finance.
This meeting is a further step in a long-term process of building spaces for European networks to meet. Recognising and drawing on previous and future mobilisations of social movements and civil society organizations in Europe and all over the world, it builds on ongoing efforts developed at the European Social Forum and elsewhere, aimed at realizing a democratic and socially and environmentally sustainable Europe. We commit to intensify cooperation and communication among our networks and organisations with the aim of building capacity for sustained mobilisation and the development of joint alternatives. We are committed to supporting and encouraging all people to have their voices heard in reshaping their societies.
We will meet again on the 18th and 19th of April 2009 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, in order to develop the next steps of mobilisation and strategies towards change. We call upon all social movements and social organisations to join this process.
