Which is why the climate camp in the City of London, with its slogan “Because nature doesn’t do bailouts,” is one of the most interesting of all the movements coalescing in the British capital next week. It’s a potent mix of seasoned anti-globalization activists who are skilled in creative direct action and a new generation that is energized and refreshingly undogmatic. The camp has taken a key component of the globalization movement — the temporary autonomous zones of street parties and convergence centers liberated in cities during summit protests — to a new level, creating a transformational space which prefigures the world they want, featuring everything from wind turbines and composted waste to decentralized decision-making and creative play.
At the end of this year, almost exactly 10 years to the day since Seattle, this new incarnation of the movement will be on the streets during the Copenhagen climate summit demanding real climate justice that does not rely on the current “business as usual” proposals. Perhaps anticapitalism had the right idea at the wrong moment in history. Perhaps its moment has come.
RSS