[News] An Insider's Report from the ALBA Delegation

[Anti-Imperialist News]

An Insider's Report from the ALBA Delegation

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/5042

December 29th 2009, by Ron Ridenour - Tlaxcala

December 23, 2009 -- “Nobel War Prize winner 
walked in and out of a secret door, and that is 
the way capitalism and the United States Empire 
will end up leaving the planet, through a secret 
back door.” So spoke Venezuela President Hugo 
Chavez from the plenary podium on the last 
afternoon, December 18, of the 12-day long 
Copenhagen climate conference (COP15).

“While the conference was a failure, it, at 
least, led to more consciousness of what the 
problem is for all of us. Now starts a new stage 
of the struggle for the salvation of humanity, 
and this is through socialism. Our problem is not 
just about climate, but about poverty, misery, 
unnecessary child deaths, discrimination and 
racism­all related to capitalism”, Chavez said at 
the Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of Latin 
America (ALBA) press conference held at the Bella 
Centre immediately following Chavez’ last remarks at the plenary.

Bolivia's President Evo Morales followed Chavez’ remarks by saying:

Barack Obama said a while ago -- the only 
delegate to walk in and out of the stage from a 
concealed door -- that he came here not for more 
words but for action. Well, then you should act 
by using the money you are spending for wars 
against the peoples of Afghanistan and Iraq, for 
militarising Colombia with seven military bases 
to save lives, to save the planet our Mother Earth.

Both presidents, the only heads of state 
representing eight of the nine ALBA countries 
present at COP15,[1] denounced the failure of the 
Copenhagen conference in both form and content.

Chavez: “There are no documents presented for 
consultation by all. The responsibility is a lack 
of political will by a few rich countries, 
including the host Denmark, headed by the US Empire.”

Morales: “There is profound difference between 
their document [26 rich countries drew up a 
so-called `Copenhagen Accord'][2] and the peoples 
fighting for humanity and the planet. This group 
of friends led by Obama accept that temperatures 
can increase by 2 degrees Celsius by 2020. This 
will end the existence of many island states; it 
will end our snow-capped mountains. And Obama 
only seeks to reduce gas emissions by 50% in 
2050. But we want and need 90 to 100% reduction, 
in order to save the planet. Then they speak of 
spending crumbs for mitigation and adaptation. 
The third theme, which they are only just now 
debating, is how to set up a system of controls 
for monitoring agreements and what sanctions 
there will be if this is not done. That is why we 
want an International Climate Justice Tribunal 
that can sanction failure to comply with 
agreements, so that we can govern based on balance and achieve real solutions.”

President Morales was referring to one of the 
five questions -- to be answered yes or no-- that 
he proposes for a global referendum on climate change. The other four are:

1. Do you agree with re-establishing harmony with 
nature, recognising the rights of Mother Earth?

2. Do you agree with changing this model of 
over-consumption and waste that the capitalist system represents?

3. Do you agree that developed countries reduce 
and re-absorb their domestic greenhouse gas 
emissions so that the temperature does not rise more than 1 degree Celsius?

4.Do you agree with transferring all that is 
spent on wars to protecting the planet and 
allocate a budget for climate change that is 
bigger than what is used for defence?

At the press conference, and on various other 
occasions during the three days of his 
attendance, Morales posed the problem and the 
solution to it thus: "The rich countries seek to 
divide the rest of us ... by offering crumbs of 
money. Mother Earth can’t be preserved with money 
alone. Europe’s food almost entirely depends upon 
petrol. What happens when there is no petrol? 
This dependency on fossil fuel is a threat to 
humanity, so we have to change the structures of 
food. It is a structural problem of two forms of 
life: one way of living is the way of 
over-consumption and waste, the way of luxury, of 
egoism and individualism-capitalism. The other 
way is vivir bien ­ living well ­ food enough for 
all and living in harmony with others and our 
Mother Earth, in solidarity and complementarily."

At the final press conference -- for which I was 
one of two media consultants during this two 
weeks, along with Nick Buxton -- for the ALBA 
countries, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua and 
Venezuela attended. Cuba's vice-president Esteben 
Lazo said that socialism offers greater 
protection for the Earth than does capitalism:

Before our revolution, capitalism had nearly 
depleted all our forests. We have focused on 
replanting and now 20% of the land is covered by 
forests. We also educate our school children 
about ecology, and about the ALBA network. We are 
founded on principles of solidarity, of human rights and nature’s rights.

Democracy anecdotes

Nick and I had rushed to put out a media advisory 
announcing the above press conference, about 
which we were informed only 90 minutes before 
that Morales would be attending rather than 
leaving Copenhagen earlier that day as he had 
planned. We wrote it in a blink and passed out 
200 fliers. At the appointed time, the press room 
began to fill with media and delegates from 
several countries. Bolivia was the only state, of 
which I know, that insisted on allowing anyone to 
attend our press conferences, in accordance with 
Morales' practice of inclusiveness and 
transparency. The time allotted was 30 minutes. 
Morales did not arrive on time, which he usually 
does. We heard from a top Bolivian delegate 
inside the plenary that Evo had just gotten an 
opportunity to respond from the floor to the rich 
countries' secret document, now leaked. Fifteen 
minutes ticked by and he did not arrive. Another 
phone call informed us that Chavez would be 
following Evo and then they were both coming to 
the media hall. Oh, no! Chavez never talks 
briefly. We would lose the conference time and 
100 people present would be disappointed.

Use the “dead” time, my experience told me. I 
asked two Indigenous social movement delegates if 
they would take the podium and speak, perhaps 
about their movements and the five-point 
referendum. They agreed. I translated for them. 
They spoke of how this very act of taking the 
podium before their president’s arrival 
illustrated how democratic the new Plurinational 
State of Bolivia actually is. Social movements 
work hand in glove with the government and their 
president -- reelected less than two weeks before with a 64% majority.

As the activists were speaking, about their 
movement and the referendum, in walked presidents 
Morales and Chavez followed by the Cuban, 
Ecuadorian and Nicaraguan leaders. The activists 
and I calmly walked off the stage and the leaders 
took our seats as we nodded to one another.

Morales’ entourage of ministers and ambassadors 
took their seats. They are known to us as 
Eugenio, Pablo, Roberto, Ivan, Angélica, David, 
Rene and not Your Honorable, Excellency, 
Minister, Ambassador. When speaking with or about 
their presidents, most common people call them Evo and Chavez.

On other occasions -- such as before 3000 persons 
at the ALBA People's Meeting held in a sports 
stadium on December 17, where Morales and Chavez 
spoke alongside top leaders from Cuba, Ecuador 
and Nicaragua -- the leaders of the Bolivian and 
Venezuelan governments thoughtfully thanked their 
teams of paid workers and volunteers, and the 
organisers of political events. They also praised 
the activists inside and outside the Bella Centre conference.

They applauded the 100,000 plus demonstrators who 
mobilised on December 12 -- twice the size of the 
hitherto largest demonstration ever held in the 
Banana Republic of Denmark -- and the 1500 
activists arrested preventatively, nearly none of 
whom had performed an illegal act. Only two 
handfuls were eventually charged with any 
violation. Several hundreds had their hands 
handcuffed behind their backs and were forced to 
sit on the cold ground and asphalt for up to five 
hours before being bussed to makeshift cage 
cells. No water, no toilet. This is the treatment 
a “democratic” police state can render potential 
“terrorists” under their new terror laws, which 
they deem to be necessary to accompany their imperialist wars.

In addition to these demonstrations, there were 
smaller ones attended by hundreds or thousand in 
several parts of the city everyday. Some were 
decidedly opposed to capitalism and its wars. I 
participated in one in front of the Yankee 
Embassy of Murder the day before its president 
was to receive the so-called Nobel Peace Prize.

Evo Morales

Evo Morales, 50, comes from the people’s 
struggles. He was an amateur soccer player, a 
musician, a coco farmer and a union organiser and 
leader before entering politics. He is a man of 
dialogue with his people. I note one 
illustration. When he came out of a news 
conference, the Indian Youth Climate Network, a 
group of youth from India, wanted him to hear a 
song one of them had written about Bolivia. He 
stopped to listen to “I wish I was Bolivian”, 
sung to the tune of “Homeward Bound” by Simon and Garfunkel.

“Every day they are stalling and they are saying the same old things again,

But one bright country stands apart,

They’re saying things close to my heart,

They’ve got a plan with hope in hand,

They’re saying c’mon, let’s just start...

Bolivia, I wish I was Bolivian...

Just one degree temperature rise,

300 ppm in the skies,

100 per cent emissions down by two thousand forty,

Does anyone know the price of waiting?

Fighting, hating, procrastinating,

My future stands in front of me,

While people here make history,

I hope and pray that it will be,

What the world’s children wish to see,

Bolivia,

We’ve got to take the boldest steps,

There’s work to do; clean up the mess,

Bolivia”

The evening before, Morales attended one of the 
hundreds of side events organised by people’s 
movements and NGOs. This one was about the 
Indigenous peoples of the Americas. He spoke 
briefly giving plenty of time for questions and 
comments from the floor. Anyone could speak and 
there was no formality or nervousness before the president.

At one point, Evo Morales said that he couldn't 
always set in motion all that we wanted but it 
would be easier now, given that the Movement 
Towards Socialism, the president’s party, had won 
so overwhelming in the presidential electoral 
campaign and also now controls both parliament houses.

“Politics is a science of serving the people. I 
live to serve the people. Participating in 
politics is part of assuring our dignity, our 
traditional way of life. It is my duty to take 
your message to the heads of state here. If I 
make a mistake, let me know so that I can rectify it.

“I don't think we'll make progress here. We must 
organise and mobilise all the more. Not just 
climate justice activists, but all of us: 
workers, farmers, media people, academics, everybody. That is the answer.”

Following this meeting, several Indigenous people 
told me that those are not empty words. “We 
always speak out in meetings with the president 
and we offer criticisms and make demands. He listens.”

Niels Boel, a writer for the daily Danish 
newspaper Information had one of two dozen 
bilateral interviews with Evo Morales. He wrote:

As the police fought against demonstrators ... 
the world’s greatest activist, Bolivia’s 
President Evo Morales, got off with being chased by the press.

While he did not go to jail this time, the 
world's first Indigenous president knows what 
prison and torture are all about. He was so 
treated under previous Bolivian presidents doing 
capitalism’s bidding. As Boel wrote:

Solutions for Morales come only from people's 
organizations, which can overcome capitalism.

And that is why I say this conference was a 
smashing success. Especially because of Morales 
and Chavez’ anti-capitalist dialogue in those few 
days, and the many thousands carrying picket 
signs displayed during the massive march that 
damned the greedy economic system ("Change the 
system, not the climate"), capitalism is now on 
the agenda of many more people than in a long 
time. Even some of the mass media could not avoid 
headlining this message from the two “bad boys”.

“I have heard many debates in the UN where 
presidents condemn climate change but they never 
say --cowardly enough -- what causes it. We say 
clearly that it is caused by capitalism”, Morales said in closing.

[Ron Ridenour worked with the ALBA countries' 
delegation at the Copenhagen climate talks. He 
has written widely on Latin America and other 
political developments. His website is at 
<http://www.ronridenour.com/>http://www.ronridenour.com [1].]

Notes

1. ALBA is comprised of: Antigua and Barbuda, 
Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Honduras (which 
was not present given the illegal coup d´état 
against the legitimate President Manuel Zelaya), 
Nicaragua, St. Vincent and Grenadines, and Venezuela.

2. This exclusive accord, rejected by the other 
nations, is a non-binding political agreement 
setting an objective for them to keep a maximum 
rise in temperature by 2 degrees Celsius; a 
voluntary commitment to publicise the amount of 
each developed country's greenhouse gas emissions 
and mitigation action for developing states; 
short-term funding for development countries up 
to 2012 of $30 billion annually, to increase to 
$100 billion annually between 2013 and 2020. (The 
US alone is spending $1.5 trillion dollars to 
rescue the banks responsible for the financial 
and economic global crisis.) These 26 countries 
suggest that there be another climate conference in Mexico in a year's time.

Post-note: Some institute calculated that the 
amount of carbon emissions from this two-week 
ordeal was greater than some of the island 
nations exude in a year. One of the wastes during 
this failed non-summit, non-climate conference 
was the amount of paper used by 30,000 delegates 
and 3000 journalists and technicians. The 
official figures published by the UN even on the 
first day stated that 8 million sheets of paper 
were provided. I guess that Nick and I used 2000 
sheets of paper, which we distributed to let 
media people know of our news conferences.

Links:
[1] http://www.ronridenour.com/

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