Global day of climate action in Gothenburg, Sweden

The first action was a classic A to B demonstration, all the local environmental groups joined forces and together hit the streets. All in all we were about 500. This is quite a good figure for Sweden in the winter. Admittedly the cold didn't seem to put off the thousands of Christmas shoppers but what is saving the world compared to a bit of real retail therapy.

The march had two themes, one was to send a clear message to the leaders meeting in Poznan. Stop global warming! The other theme was opposition to plans for a new motorway under the river here in Gothenburg. (The same motorway that the recent Suffragette action highlighted,)  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/11/413027.html

Immediately after the demonstration the action group Klimax took over and the second action started. About a hundrad activists marched off to stage what we locals call a “Klimatkrock”. This protest form involves music, dance and vegan hot chocolate drinking. Unfortunately three people were arrested towards the end of the action. All were released in time to get home to bed and so far no charges have been made. You're probably wondering if it's a criminal offence to dance and drink hot chocolate I Sweden. It all depends on where you do it. Since we chose possibly the most chaotic traffic junction in the city to hold our “Klimatkrock” the arrests were unfortunate but possibly a bit inevitable. But we had no choice but to stop the noisy polluting cars, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to hear the carbon free acoustic dance music.