Solidarity Statement: Climate Camp London & G20 Meltdown

To the activists of Toronto,

Hundreds of arrests? Police with excessive powers and zero understanding
of their duties, the law, and the results of their actions? Indiscriminate
violence, media obsession with criminal damage?  It all seems eerily
familiar.

Most recently in Copenhagen we were cajoled, beaten and arrested in our
hundreds over a week of protests against an agenda of false solutions that
are hurting the climate rather than helping. And like in Toronto, when the
G20 came to London last year, we experienced kettles and violence at the
hands of the police and witnessed the death of a man. We saw the security
forces of the G20 protecting the climate crimes and austerity measures
being cooked up by an out-dated neoliberal elite desperately trying to
preserve some form of legitimacy.

We see the footage, the photos, the Indymedia reports - and their
watered-down cousins in the liberal press - and we share your anger, the
desperation, and the shock that not enough people seem to be listening,
not enough seem to be taking action. We are inspired by the diverse
movements that you have brought together, by your unity, courage and
imagination.

The legal battles, though necessary, will be bureaucratic and dull. Any
results may be a long way off and you may not even win. In London, it took
a man’s death to get the attention of the corporate media and a
disillusioned public, and to see some recognition of injustice in the law
courts of the state. These political battles have started and will keep
going - and we are winning them, sometimes even putting the police on the
back foot. For every baton the police of London and Toronto have used, we
have become more resilient, educated and organised. Our movement grows in size, strength and legitimacy. They can only continue a charade.

In solidarity
Climate Camp London & G20 Meltdown