Leaders of 150 governments are meeting this week for the UN climate change conference. A huge protest was planned for Sunday, but was banned. Soccer games, shopping and festivals continue; it's only protests against polluting governments -- and presumably, war -- which are banned.

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Leaders of 150 governments are meeting this week for the UN climate change conference. A huge protest was planned for Sunday, but was banned.

Twenty-four environmental activists were put under house arrest in France, as the government used new, sweeping powers of detention which were enacted after 130 people were killed weeks ago.

The New York Times said, "Juliette Rousseau, the head of Coalition Climat 21, an umbrella group for environmental activists, said the authorities had searched homes and seized computers and other equipment belonging to activists who have no connection to terrorism. 'There's clearly an environment to keep activists out,' she said. 'The state of emergency is clearly targeting activist movements. This is not justified. These people under house arrest, they don't have any kind of criminal record...The impression we have is that there is this conference taking place in a sealed-up space, and meanwhile people in civil society are being asphyxiated.'"

Soccer games, shopping and festivals continue; it's only protests against polluting governments -- and presumably, war -- which are banned.

Doesn't that mean that we -- living in the country most responsible for the chaos in the Middle East -- should be more visible against the destruction of the climate and other key issues?

Authors Website: http://www.worldcantwait.net

Authors Bio:
Debra Sweet is the Director of World Can't Wait, initiated in 2005 to "drive out the Bush regime" by repudiating its program, forcing it from office through a mass, independent movement and reversing the direction it had launched. Based in New York City, she leads World Can't Wait in its continuing efforts to stop the crimes of our government, including the unjust occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan and the torture and detention codes, as well as reversing the fascist direction of U.S. society, from the surveillance state to the criminalization of abortion and immigrants. She has worked with abortion providers for twenty-five years, organizing community support and helping them withstand anti-abortion violence. Since the age of 19, when she confronted Richard Nixon during a face-to-face meeting and told him to stop the war in Vietnam, she has been a leader in the opposition to U.S. wars and invasions. Debra says, "Stop thinking like an American, and start thinking about humanity!"



You can read Debra's writings at debra.worldcantwait.net.

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