Climate Action Factory Europe

September 21st 2009, Global Climate Wake Up Call, Berlin

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:51:10 +0200

September 21st 2009, Global Climate Wake Up Call, Berlin

The Action Factory and the Avaaz Global Wake Up Call

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:44:00 +0200

[Deutsche Version unten]

Spectacular images of all our Global Climate Wake-Up Call events around the world are flooding in.

Everyone here at the Avaaz Action Factory feels very moved by the countless videos, reports and links received! This was the first time Avaaz members have gathered shoulder to shoulder in our communities across the world. Everyone who participated in 2,000 events on five continents made it an overwhelming success.

Here in Germany alone we organised an incredible number of 80 events! The national press is still buzzing about our events. Today we sounded a global alarm that cannot be overheard by decision-makers in the run-up to the German general election and Copenhagen climate conference, thanks to you!

link to photos of the action in Berlin:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/europeactionfactory/sets/72157622299621649/

Deutsche Version:

Heute erreichen uns tausende Bilder, Berichte und Videos von weltweiten Aktionen zu unserem „Globalen Klimaweckruf“, unser ersten auch nichtvirtuellen Aktion. Alle hier in der Avaaz Action Factory sind sehr bewegt von den überwältigenden Aktionen und wollen uns bei allen Organisatoren und Beteiligten für Ihren enthusiastischen Einsatz bedanken! 2,000 Events wurden für diese bisher einzigartige, fünf Kontinente umspannende Aktion registriert, davon wurden alleine 80 in Deutschland organisiert. Am Brandenburger Tor hat zum Beispiel Avaaz eine schlafende Merkel und einen schlafenden Steinmeier aufgeweckt http://www.flickr.com/photos/europeactionfactory/sets/72157622299621649/! Ihre heutigen Klimaweckrufe werden vor der Bundestagswahl und der Weltklimakonferenz in Kopenhagen nicht zu überhören sein! Danke!

An avaaz member meets Merkel and hands over a ‘Kampagne...

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:10:52 +0200

An avaaz member meets Merkel and hands over a ‘Kampagne KlimakanzlerIn gesucht’ sticker

Merkel's Train Tour!

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:07:00 +0200

(Deutsch weiter unten)

On Tuesday, September 19th, current chancellor Merkel was on the (rail)road: her election campaign trip took her from Bonn to Berlin via Koblenz, Frankfurt, Erfurt and Leipzig. And at every stop, Avaaz members were awaiting her and reminded her with banners (“Climate chancellor wanted”), windmills, white suits and green hard hats of the fact that German voters demand climate leadership. And the actions were a complete success: she could not ignore us because we were visible and loud, we managed to hand out our campaign stickers to her, and in Leipzip she even spoke to Leon from the Action Factory in person and accepted the Avaaz/tcktcktck-Petition for a fair, ambitious and binding treaty in Copenhagen! Finally, upon arriving in Berlin, she spoke to Sandra from the Action Factory (who was earlier in Frankfurt too), saying: ‘It’s you again, from Frankfurt!’. Chancellor Merkel took us seriously for sure, and members of the Action Factory gave a lot of interviews to the press, sending our message everywhere.

Am Dienstag, 15.9.2009, war Kanzlerin Merkel unterwegs auf Wahlkampftour. Mit dem Zug reiste sie von Bonn nach Berlin über Koblenz, Frankfurt, Erfurt und Leipzig. Und überall waren Avaaz-Unterstützer vor Ort: mit Bannern mit der Aufschrift “KlimakanzlerIn gesucht”, Windmühlen, weißen Anzügen und grünen Bauhelmen erinnerten sie Angela Merkel daran, dass sich Deutschlands Wähler eine ehrgeizige Klimapolitik wünschen. Und die Aktionen waren ein voller Erfolg! Wir waren nicht zu übersehen und zu überhören, wir konnten ihr unsere Kampagnen-Sticker überreichen, und in Leipzig sprach sie sogar mit Leon von der Action Factory und nahm (bzw. ihr Stabschef) sogar die Petition von Avaaz und der tcktcktck-Kampagne für ein gerechtes, ehrgeiziges und verbindliches Klimaschutzabkommen in Kopenhagen entgegen. Und am Ende, in Berlin, sprach sie Sandra von der Action Factory (die vorher bereits in Frankfurt dabei war) an: ‘Das bist Du wieder, aus Frankfurt!’. Frau Merkel hat uns also definitiv wahrgenommen, und Mitglieder der Avaaz Action Factory konnten zahlreiche Interviews geben, so dass wir unsere Botschaft auch der Presse mitgeben konnten.

Monday’s Action outside the Altes Stadthaus in Berlin,...

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:29:00 +0200

Monday’s Action outside the Altes Stadthaus in Berlin, where Frank-Walter Steinmeier gave a press conference

Monday the 3rd and Wednesday the 5th of August, Berlin

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:18:20 +0200

Green Jobs now!

We completed two actions this week:
1. An action around Angela Merkel’s opponent for the chanclery of Germany.
2. A meeting with the German Environment minister and a dance act.

More details on the actions:
1.On Monday, we launched our German elections climate campaign performing a stunt outside the place where the main opponent of Angela Merkel for the Chanclery of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinemeir, held a speech. We asked for a Climate-Chancelor. The action was covered by media and appeard in Reuters Pictures: (1 and 2) and the Tagesschau (biggest online news network of Germany). It was a lot of fun.
Photos of the action are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/europeactionfactory/sets/72157621934690104/

2. On Wednesady, together with Avaaz members of Berlin we performed a dance act and met with the German Environment Minister, Sigmund Gabriel himself. We hat the chance to chat with him for a view minutes and a petition signed by global citizens was handed over to him. Sending such a strong signal of the public demand for climate action and green jobs — to coordinate with the German elections concept — is very timely as they are fast approaching. And everyone danced so well, particularly with such a short rehearsal time!
Photos of the action are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/europeactionfactory/sets/72157621829270991/

To all the local Avaaz members and the friends of the Action Factory who came out to meet us - thanks for getting involved. Its so great to see what we can achieve when we take our activism ‘offline’. In the next six weeks until the German elections, Avaaz campaigners will be doing lots more climate campaigning, both online and offline

There’s more to come, see you soon!

Support Us!

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 17:27:26 +0200

Support Us!

G8 Strip-mob Action summary, Piazza di Spagna, Rome, Italy

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 03:07:53 +0200

G8 Strip-mob Action summary, Piazza di Spagna, Rome, Italy

G8 Strip-tease: It's getting hot in here...

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0200

Wednesday 8th July, Rome:

The Avaaz Action Factory in Europe today carried out it’s 6th and most adrenalin-filled action so far: a spectacular ‘Strip Mob’! I challenge you to think of anything quite like it : 15 people danced and chanted while taking their clothes off at the Spanish Steps in Rome, during a maximum security time – the G8 summit.

Why on earth…? To save the earth! We want to let Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister and current G8 President, know that we need climate action now, not the kind of “action” he’s been getting in the news about recently, such as the naked-photos scandle. We believe that taking off your clothes is not an adequate response to climate change! As we all know, we need strong emissions reductions! Each G8 country has the finance and the responsibility to act now on climate change, if we are to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees celsius.

Our unsuspecting audience of tourists

At exactly 11.02am (with synchronised watches, guerilla style!), most people standing around the middle of the Spanish Steps (Piazza di Spagno) turned out to be part of the amazing vocal strip-tease. Not only did 15 chanting strippers suddenly start dancing, but double that amount of media also manifested in front of the stunt, all within 10 seconds. The few people who weren’t antcipating the action – several sincere tourists – quickly scattered out of the way as whistles and the refrain of Nelly’s ‘It’s Getting Hot in Here’ began - our clothes came off, to reveal our matching green underwear!

None of us had ever done a strip-mob before!

Our message (chanted in Italian) followed: ‘Berlusconi! due gradi di meno, meno vestiti sul terreno!’ meaning ‘Berlusconi! less than two degrees, less clothes on the ground!’

Police, journalists and tourists alike were all amused: we yelled first in English, then Italian, and we were dresssed to impress!! With the extensive media attendance, the police didn’t seem to want to cause a scene for such a peaceful action, which was a relief, because as the first day of the G8 meeting in Italy, and the riot police were everywhere.

The carabinieri did deal with those actvists who, instead of stripping off in the very public area, unfurled a banner behind the strip mob:

KEEP THE CLIMATE COOL

then Berlusconi can keep his clothes on

The entire stunt lasted less than a minute, and at the end of the very short strip-mob (just as the police were escorting away our banner-holders), all the dancers threw their clothes at our Berlusconi actor, then re-dressed and dispersed quickly, to meet up elsewhere for a debrief……………… except for those 3 who were taken away in a wailing police van to be held for an hour at the police station, and given an official warning. It turns out, having Berlusconi’s name on the banner was the biggest official problem of an action which we did not get police permission for.

As we expected, the Italian and international media’s general interest in showing skin in photos paid off, just search for ‘G8 striptease’ on the net! Everyone was really pleased with the strip-mob turned out! See photos here and a video of this action will be posted soon at https://sites.google.com/a/actionfactories.org/eu-actionfactory/Home/videos

Sweden Takes the EU Presidency Seat - 1 July, 2009 We take to...

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:06:35 +0200

Sweden Takes the EU Presidency Seat - 1 July, 2009

We take to the streets with clean graffiti encouraging bold Swedish leadership on climate policy within the EU, and meet with the Swedish Ambassador to Berlin Ruth Jacoby to present a petition with over 500 signatures from around the world.