Festive Left Friday Blogging: Heating up Copenhagen

Denmark has come down in the world a bit since it stood up to protect the Jews during Nazi times. Now it’s become more than a little Nazified itself, thanks to its happy joining in the War on Terra (and the eager crapagandistic participation of the Jyllands–Posten, that bastion of hateful, unmitigated bullshit.)

But it’s not totally hopeless. There was a summit on climate change there recently, well attended by activists (including the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, no less). There was also a cool prank by the Yes Men. Those were the good bits.

And the bad? Well, the peaceful protests turned into riots at the predictable moment the stormtroopers showed up to bust heads. The violence was on the part of the cops, not the activists, and CBC had the decency to report it as such. (Anarkismo also has some good analysis.) Still, that part sucked. Most of the world leaders who showed up (late!) and then did nothing also sucked.

The only ones I can think of who didn’t are these two, because they stood with the protesters rather than toadying to the usual suspects:

Look at the faces of the journos. They know they caught the good guys. Evo and Chavecito are the ones that matter; they’re the ones determined to set an example. Anyone lucky enough to be in the same airspace as these two, caught the hot ones and heard words worth publishing.

The rest, poor sods, just heard a lot of hot air.

UPDATE, 3:20 pm: Chavecito got doubleplusbadass with the organizers, telling them to throw tear gas if they wanted, he and Evo are giving their press conference–unplugged, if necessary. That’s right–pay ’em back for that cheap 45-minute stunt they pulled at the airport the other day, guys!

Doubleplusgood: Evo got applause from Danish social movements. That’s one thing NOT rotten in Denmark right now…

UPDATE #2: 4:48 pm: Chavecito’s blockbuster speech translated, here.