Designer and adbuster Noel Douglas is one of the few campaigners from Britain who managed to fly out before the volcano grounded flights from the UK and is filing daily reports from Bolivia at Globalise Resistance.
Evo Morales, the Bolivian president, has addressed the opening rally of the global gathering which has brought together more than 15,000 activists and indigenous people to discuss climate change and global governance.
Noel states in the report from the first full day at the Esteban Ramirez Ecological Stadium: “Morales finished the rally with a 45 min speech…denouncing the capitalism system, and the need for a just, social system that doesn’t destroy the planet.”
The rally was followed my an array of debates, ranging in size from a few hundred to several thousands, discussing issues like the proposal for a global People’s referendum on Climate Change to the structural causes of global warming.
Uniformly proud
There were 16 different working groups debating the dangers of Carbon Markets, food sovereignty, the Kyoto Protocol and one called Strategies for Action these meet throughout the conference.
Noel adds: “I participated in the Strategies for Action group, the main aim of which is to produced a timetable and call for various actions over the coming year leading up the COP16 meeting of the U.N. in December in Cancun, Mexico, and a second Climate Conference next year.”
“One of the most interesting aspects of movement gatherings like this is the vast range of campaign stalls and activist groups that surround them. Being a government led event here this can often mean some strange situations.
“The Bolivian military are on site, and have a stand which today was giving out tree seedlings for an mass planting of 2,000 trees on Wednesday which will be led by Evo and with the help of that self-same military.
“School kids from the local area are also here en mass as volunteers, dressed in their school uniform, and like their fellow countrymen and women are uniformly proud and feel honoured that Bolivia is home, for a few days to, activists from around the world.”
For daily reports with photographs and video from Bolivia, visit the Globalise Resistance site.
