So I'm now back in the office, sitting in front of a computer feeling kind of weird to be constrained by different boundaries than the steel walls of the Rainbow Warrior. For the sake of completeness here's a few impressions of the last days of Copenhagen, the consequences of which I'm sure have yet to be unravelled.
We'd arrived in Copenhagen with a hopeful expectation that we'd add something to the Greenpeace presence, without necessarily being part of specific campaign activities. We wanted to be there because at this time it felt right to do so, to bear witness to one of the most important meetings in human history.
Equally we had a hidden agenda, to provide a calm space in the storm, and to try and lure stressed Greenpeace campaigners away from the talks, to relax on the Warrior and to remember a little of our history, our heritage and that there is more to the world then the greyness of the Bella conference centre.
Copenhagen as a city seemed to have been overrun by NGO's, campaigners, activists and more so the oppressive presence of the Danish police. I felt a little uninformed about the political situation in Denmark, and it seems hard to imagine that a country can swing so far to the right without anyone noticing.
Life on board the ship continued, and for a while I escaped the galley to help paint the deck, and to clean various nooks and crannies in preparation for visitors. I even had a day off to explore the city, to check out the alternative climate forums, the exhibitions of 100 places we will lose to climate change and more.
Then as various Greenpeace actions started kicking in, the crew was invited to join the big one, part of the ‘end game' about how we would react if world leaders left Copenhagen without a deal. However as the end approached the stakes started to rise radically.
Early in the week, the Danish secret service, according to accounts, kidnapping the Greenpeace project manager. We're talking plain clothed thugs, unmarked cars, no mention of an arrest procedure, and no record of where he was taken. In essence what sounded like a ‘disappearance' reminiscent of a South American military dictatorship.
Then what was a simple action, unravelling a small banner at a posh dinner, resulted in the arrest and solitary confinement of all concerned, with an associated witch hunt for anyone else potentially associated with the event. As I write the activists involved and still in custody, but at least now have access to a lawyer. They are enduring 3 weeks detention over Christmas, followed by a trial which may very well lead to significant jail time. This is completely disproportionate to the ‘crime', and in my opinion simply a reflection of how embarrassed the Danish police are with the failure of their security.
Finally to the final action, and I'm hesitant to go into details, but it would have involved 150+ volunteers in something truly audacious. We'd snuck away from the ship in small groups and avoided various police check points, managing to get through to the ‘black warehouse' before the arrest of the mini bus driver. The police knew something was up but not quite what.
30+ hours of waiting in a dirty, cold warehouse later, a late night briefing to 2am, and a certain amount of preparation, the action was cancelled when we were minutes away from the target.
Greenpeace actions are complicated affairs and often they go wrong. In this case the nature of the target had changed, the legal consequences looked high for the impact, we'd already achieved a great deal of the objective and so the decision was taken that now wasn't the time to deliver another 150+ people into the custody of the Danish authorities.
I'm not sure I agree with the decision, but there again I'm an irresponsible activist, who believes at any key junction or decision you should do the active thing. Equally I respect that decisions at the top are difficult, and it must have been a ball breaking call to make.
So to the final weekend, and an impromptu vigil outside the prison where our friends were being incarcerated, the candles left over from Oslo looked great. Tomorrow the ship was to sail to Amsterdam and so fate led me to get ridiculously drunk, leading to an unfortunately awkward experience returning to the ship early (ish) in the morning to watch her sail away from the quay, with my passport and possessions on board.
A heart stopping moment later it turned out she was just moving 100m, and the Warrior was destined to stay in Copenhagen to bear witness to the ridiculous continuing incarceration of 4 Greenpeace activists for the smallest of crimes.
So united with my possessions I started the trip back to the UK. A fortunate lift across Europe to Amsterdam (thanks Chris), somewhere to stay (thanks Sharon) and the train throw the snow to the Hook of Holland for the overnight ferry to Harwich.
And so it ends. I'm not sure how much I contributed to the outcome of the Copenhagen summit, and it was a pretty crap outcome, but I was there and I was willing to put my liberty on the line to shame our world leaders into action. So if you are reading this, please do everything you can to:
1) Demand the Danes release the Greenpeace activists
2) Force your elected leaders to act, to take climate change seriously and to put the policies in place to make change happe.
Deeds not words
Richard
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