Helen Baxendale, Anne Feeney and me

by Jill Perry

My daughter and I joined a group of people from Friends of the Earth and Stop Climate Chaos travelling from London to Copenhagen by Eurostar and coach.

An amazing mix of people from all ages and walks of life, from Ullapool to Sevenoaks, including actress Helen Baxendale who travelled with us and slept on the floor in the school with us, and wrote a diary for the press while she was there. Everyone, including Helen, was most interested in the fact that I had come from Cockermouth given the recent floods. In fact I recorded a piece for the Friends of the Earth blog and for Helen's husband's new film "Beyond the Pole" when it comes out on DVD

On the Saturday we took part in the Flood March (a bigger version of the Wave we went to in Glasgow the previous weekend) in blue ponchos followed by speeches from the platform by famous activists including Kumi Naidoo, the director of Greenpeace International, and supermodel Helena Christensen.

It was Kumi Naidoo who announced from the platform that official police figures for the afternoon march were 100,000 participants. Certainly there were groups from all over the world. From the Via Campanista farmers of South America, to Oxfam, to the young socialists of Eastern Europe, everyone was represented and everyone had creative and hard-hitting visual imagery and effigies.

The march then continued the 6km to the Bella Centre where the negotiations are actually taking place but only the front of the march got that far. The police soon cordoned off the route and the rest of us were diverted into a nearby park for a torchlight finale and rousing speech by a 21 year old activist, Deepa Gupta from the Indian Youth Climate Network, who is very impassioned and angry about the dangers her subcontinent faces and the survival of her people.

In the evening I attended a report back from inside the Bella Centre from Green Party elected representatives from Australia, Canada, and Brazil, including Jose Bove the famous representative of French small farmers in their fight against (amongst others) MacDonalds who is now a Green Party MEP in France. All of them were extremely angry about the actions of their Governments in hindering real action on climate change - Australia to protect its coal mining industry, Canada to protect its Tar sands industry and none of them really representing the wishes of the people or the needs of the planet.

On the Sunday Sooz and I visited the Little Mermaid where we clashed with the two climate deniers who were campaigning there and trying to rubbish our grip on science, came across a massive police presence (minibuses, busses, helicopters, riot gear and dogs) for the Harbour Blockade which was taking place. Later we visited Christiania which is an alternative, self sufficient society in the middle of Copenhagen, and went to a music and poetry event, which was amazing and culminated with Anne Feeney and Dave Rovics' powerful protest songs.

What I am left with is the feeling of being part of something strong and powerful. There is a real thirst for change from all over the world, not just a token agreement but a binding agreement to reduce climate change emissions radically and quickly without damaging the planet in other ways. No offsetting, no nuclear power, no agrifuels!

a full report from the conference by New Internationalist can be found at

http://blog.newint.org/editors/2009/12/22/blood-on-the-summit-fl/