CJA corporate media round-up: 17th-18th December

Activists reveal tactics used by police to 'decapitate' Copenhagen climate protests, The Guardian, Thursday 17th December
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/17/copenhagen-police-tactics-revealed
During preliminary court hearings against Jonassen and Nyboe, it was revealed that Danish police had been tapping the phones of activists. Separately, campaigners said undercover police have also been widely used, mixing with the crowds, and probably infiltrating meetings. "You can often spot them because they always seem to wear those Palestinian scarves," said one activist.
Erik Storrud, a Danish reporter for Indymedia, reported being grabbed by plainclothes officers while in the Christiania district on Monday night: "One of them asked to search my bag and then pushed me to the ground and told me 'I'm going to waste you'."

Chris Green: I stood with the protesters as the police batons rained down on them, The Independent, Thursday 17th December
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/chris-green-i-stood-with-the-protesters-as-the-police-batons-rained-down-on-them-1843071.html
Good account of the police attack on the delegates walking out: There was no time to grab one's coat before joining them. A group of about 100 people, including Bolivian delegates, strode out of the centre chanting "Reclaim power!" Their aim was to reach the "people's assembly" outside, a larger demonstration intended to give a voice to those who feel let down by the negotiations.

Gloom and Fury grip Copenhagen, the Toronto Star, Thursday 17th December
http://www.thestar.com/news/sciencetech/environment/copenhagensummit/article/739998--gloom-and-fury-grip-copenhagen
"The message from this march ... is that legitimate, democratic dissent is not welcome here," Barlow said. "Everybody was sprayed."

Copenhagen climate conference: 260 arrested in protests, The Telegraph, Thursday 17th December
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/copenhagen-climate-change-confe/6828035/Copenhagen-climate-conference-260-arrested-at-protests.html
Kevin Smith, a Climate Camp activist from England, compared the actions of the police to G20 protests in London. “There was pushing and the police started hitting people indiscriminately with batons. I got hit a couple of times,” he said. “I also saw people with streaming eyes and noses from pepper spray which can be excruciatingly painful.”

Climate protests defy the police in Copenhagen, Socialist worker online,Thursday 17th December
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=19877
Despite the police heavy-handedness the People's Assembly drew together oppressed peoples from the Global South and workers from the North.The last few days have seen the birth of new international environmental movement in the streets of Copenhagen. Protesters will now be travelling back to their respective countries to advance the struggle for climate justice.

Copehagen day 10: Naomi Klein talks protests and progress as a deal is neared on deforestation, Heatingoil [blog], Wednesday 16th December
http://www.heatingoil.com/blog/copenhagen-day-10-naomi-klein-talks-protests-and-progress-as-a-deal-is-neared-on-deforestation1216/
Activists inside the conference center staged a noisy walkout to protest both the lack of progress being made at the summit, and the feeling that negotiators at the conference were making deals for profit rather than human interest.

Chavez: If Climate was bank, US would have saved it, CBS News [blog], Wednesday 16th December
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/12/16/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5986657.shtml
Chavez had a comment on the protests, too. "I think we need to say hello to all the people out there," he said. "Most of them young."

Australia brokers forest deal as summit protests explode, Sydney Morning Hearald, Thursday 17th December
http://www.smh.com.au/world/australia-brokers-forest-deal-as-summit-protests-explode-20091217-kyi0.html
Article also contains a large photo gallery: The deal came as police used tear gas and truncheons to stop a march on the summit, arresting about 260 activists as anger boiled over at the slow progress of the high-stakes talks.
Demonstrators were taken to a former beer warehouse turned into a makeshift jail where some opened their iron cages and tried to escape before being reapprehended."There were violent incidents in the detention centre but calm has returned and the situation is now under control," said police spokesman Flemming Steen Munch.An activist named Christophe said he reached a fellow demonstrator inside the lock-up and heard that police used pepper-spray after a violent commotion among the inmates.

Hundreds arrested in Copenhagen protests as climate deal close, news.com.au, Thursday 17th December
http://www.news.com.au/world/hundreds-arrested-in-copenhagen-protests-as-climate-deal/story-e6frfkyi-1225811206658
"The message we want to get across is that we need a radical new climate agenda," said Kevin Smith, a participant from Climate Justice Action, a coalition of hardline environmentalists.

Rich, poor nations may be near climate deal, The Washington Post/ The Denver Post, Thursday 17th December,
http://www.denverpost.com/politics/ci_14014309
But tear gas hung in the air outside the conference center as demonstrators demanding faster and more stringent cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions clashed with police.Outside the conference center, perhaps the strangest sight at protests that turned violent Wednesday was a group of young men and women in fur coats and white bow ties who came bearing champagne, fistfuls of dollar bills and grapes on a silver platter.The group, which called itself Lobbyists for Profitable Climate Solutions, called on other protesters to stop their "global whining." Corporations are already working hard enough to save the planet, they argued.