Scouting the Bella Centre with my Bike Bloc affinity group

Most of my week in Copenhagen is a bit of a blur – there were actions nearly every day, some of which I made it to and some of which I managed to completely miss; easily done in a new city we were learning our way around by bike. Voldparken was quite far out in the suburbs and on the second day I made it a priority to get hold of a bike, this done by scouting around for clearly abandoned ones in the many many bike stands next to housing estates and shopping precincts. We were assured that it is perfectly acceptable behaviour to liberate bikes which have obviously not been used recently (flat tires a dead giveaway) and are not locked up, but just to be sure I made sure to return mine to the place where I found it at the end of the week, in a significantly better condition than when I found it. (Boy did those flat as pancakes tires take awhile to sort out! Apparently the tires had telltale snakebite punctures, which are caused when a bike’s wheels go flat whilst it is standing in the same place for awhile, so called because there is one either side where it has rested against the metal wheel rim.)

Snowy bikes outside the Klimaforum.

Cycling home in the snow.

But back up a step. The day we arrived in Copenhagen saw a huge march, drawing upwards of 100,000 protestors (if the figures are to be believed), a massive amount in a place like Denmark. Unfortunately we were just a bit too late to join in, but we soon heard about the arrest of 900 odd “black block” protestors, who were forced to sit in rows on the ground for many hours in hideously cold conditions, treated not better than animals, a sign of the human rights abuse that was to be used over and over by the merciless Danish constabulary. One friend of mine regaled me with the tale of how he and a few others I know had managed to break through a hedge into a square, where they knocked on the door of a Danish house and their “saviour” allowed them indoors to hide whilst the police literally arrested anyone moving in the vicinity, FOR PRECISELY NOTHING. This was a bit of a theme throughout the week. In fact the general policy seemed to be to detain as many people as possible as often as possible. On my first day in Copenhagen I very narrowly avoided this very fate when I attended the Hit the Production demonstration, organised by the explicitly anti-capitalist group Never Trust A Cop, or NTAC.

Hit the Production arrives at the first crossroads at the Triangle.

Spunk Bar, Copenhagen. Sorry, nothing to do with anything. Just thought I’d lighten the mood a bit.

Hit the Production demo organised by NTAC

Together with my ex Dave – who rocked up in Copenhagen and decided to spend the week hanging out with me – and a few of my roomies, we pootled down to an area known as the Triangle, arriving just as critical mass was reached in the middle of a crossroads. Led by masked up activists bearing a huge yellow banner, a large amount of people had gathered to march down to the harbour, seen as a central beacon of the current capitalist system. The police were immediately there, huge steel boots stomping over anything in their way (including my wee tootsies). They all spoke in English, and in one amusing incident a huge riot cop togged up in full riot regalia took a wee megaphone to his mouth and told the activists that “you must take your masks off or you will be arrested. In this country it is illegal to wear masks.” Needless to say he was ignored. The march progressed down the street to the chant of “anti, anti, anti-capitalista” – a theme of the many protests we attended was that people seemed much less afraid (than they are here) of explicitly drawing attention to the system that is causing climate change – until we reached another crossroads. Whereupon the atmosphere started to get a little more tense, and with my well-honed kettling radar twitching I started to take a little more care with where I stood, out front, juggling my iphone for twitter and my big camera for pics.

A vicious Alsation that seemed to like the look of my bum.

Riot Police clamber onto the sound system and beat everyone in the vicinity.

But not enough. As the activists on the sound system worriedly told the increasingly aggravated police to take a chill pill I realised that I was being barked at by a particularly nasty looking, slavering Alsation. Suddenly the police started dragging people from the float and battoning anyone in their way – in front of me someone was practically thrashed to pieces. I was probably standing a bit too close as this video shows.

When I turned to leave I realised that the police were closing in behind me and that Dave was frantically beckoning to me from just over a low wall. Quickly, before there was a chance to stop me, I vaulted (yeah, get me, olympic athlete NOT) over a low hedge and hopped down to join him, from where we raced across a moat into the Kastellet park, which is formed in a pentagram shape around a central fortification. On a raised hillock we peered through the trees and fretted about our roomies who had disappeared from sight. Video here.

Our view from a hillock in the Kastellet.

Over the incessant barking of dogs, sirens and the pssssst of tear gas it seemed apparent that the police had arrested everyone in the kettle. So a close call. Fortunately I thought to check my twitter feed and was able to ascertain that the others had also managed to escape and were okay. But it wasn’t over yet, just as I decided to log an ipadio audio blog a coterie of huge Danish coppers (I have to mention how huge they were every time I talk about them because it made such an impression on me) HUGE they were, suddenly came lumbering in our direction. You’ve never seen me (try) to run so fast. Hear it here, cos I pegged it whilst logging an audio blog and didn’t have time to turn it off.

Bike Bloc workshop at the Candy Factory in Copenhagen.

That was all a bit exhausting… so… back to the bikes. Once we’d located our targets we wheeled them down the hill to the Candy Factory, where the Bike Bloc (otherwise known as Put the Fun Between Your Legs) had set up a huge workshop for mending and adapting bikes. There are two mini vids here and here. After a bitterly cold afternoon spent trying to sort out my numerous punctures with the help of Dave (I have no clue how to do these things – I’m wubbish) we finally got the bikes roadworthy. The Candy Factory was a hive of activity, with many of the people who had been up in Bristol for the week long workshop as part of C: Words at the Arnolfini organising the building of some fabulous specimens, including Double Trouble, pictured below, which was most unfortunately removed in a police raid just before our main action. Dangerous weapon, this ridiculous looking beast. Luckily most people opted to stay closer to the ground on a more traditional style of bike. It was a good place to eat, staffed as it was by a brilliant vegan cook who has fed us many times before, and as darkness set upon us early in the evening supper was served by candlelight – they have a much more relaxed attitude to open flames in Scandinavia.

Double Trouble outside the Candy Factory, Copenhagen.

Checking a wheel.

Sorting out a bike at the Candy Factory.

Dinner is served at the Candy Factory.

Dinner at the Candy Factory.

The next few days were a blur and there were various actions that we didn’t make, including the No Borders (No Climate Refugees) demo – where one of the ridiculous giant greenwash balloons they seem so keen on in Copenhagen was released and rolled down the streets and the Via Campesina farmers’ action. I didn’t attend as many planning meetings as I would have liked, simply because the activist locations were so spread out it was quite hard to get between places. Often we were just too cold and tired. We visited Rag only twice for meetings with the Bike Bloc (actually called Ragnhildgade, but we Brits just couldn’t seem to get our heads around the longer Danish names). This old industrial complex was the main hub of activity for the Climate Justice Action group, an umbrella organisation for international mobilisations which Climate Camp was officially part of (with many Climate Campers being heavily involved themselves). Lots of people worked incredibly hard for over a year to ensure the best possible demonstrations at the Cop15.

Hanging out at Ragnhildgade during the Cop15.

Vegan dinner is served at Ragnhildgade.

Instead we found ourselves spending a lot of time at the centrally located Klimaforum, (which was surreally located in a sports hall, so we passed over the indoor swimming pool between lectures) mainly because it was so bitterly cold and there at least we could warm up and get a cup of tea and a sandwich that didn’t cost a small fortune. I had initially been quite scathing about this ‘alternative summit’ but there were many interesting talks to attend by luminaries such as Monbiot, who vociferously called for Direct Action before listing a host of targets.

The main hall at Klimaforum.

I was quite surprised though, by the strength of certain lobbies, including those in favour of Geo-Engineering as a solution – many of whom had gone to great pains to produce glossy literature and even hang huge banners from centrally located buildings. And in one talk I was somewhat flummoxed by the ignorance of so many people who seemed convinced by the promise of CCS (carbon capture and storage).

Bike Bloc training at Ragnhildgade.

Oh my gawd it’s so cold how long do we have to stand out here for?

Bike Bloc meeting at Rag.

Looking back, I was very glad to have an impromptu buddy to hang out with, as Climate Camp itself did not have much of a formalised presence in the city and despite the solidarity I felt at the Voldparken school and when around my fellow activists we all individually had to fend very much for ourselves – getting involved in whatever way suited us. Dave and I fell into a routine of attending morning meetings at the school, filching a bit of skipped breakfast and then heading into town on our bikes, which periodically fell apart and needed fixing, most notably late at night on the day before the main mass action after a long scouting mission out to the Bella Centre in the snow (video here). I half wheeled, half rode my bike as far as the Candy Factory, where we luckily found some people doing some last minute fiddling around with the ’sound swarm’ and managed to fix it with some judicious use of a spanner. I suspect something became misaligned whilst we were doing affinity action training (video here and here) with the Bike Bloc at Rag, this done in hideously cold, wet and unpleasant conditions.

A little something for the sound swarm.

Read about my experiences on the main Reclaim the Power Climate Justice Action day on the 16th December in my next blog.

The first instalment can be read here, featuring the coach trip to Copenhagen and more about the Voldparken School where we stayed.

You can read another good blog by a British activist here.

Written by Amelia Gregory on Friday January 15th, 2010 4:18 pm

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• Climate Camp goes to COP15 in Copenhagen December 2009, Part 1