From Ben in Bolivia (Part5)

Firstly, the Official program of the WPCCC is now available on the official website. You can download it at http://cmpcc.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/programa-cmpcc3.pdf

Secondly, Agnes did make it despite the volcano. We bumped into each other in the main plaza.  I was filming a protest that happened to take place while I was checking out the free university stuff that takes place every day in the plaza. A large noisy march of school children entered the square and a short while later a bunch of tooled up cops arrived. I videoed quite a bit - you can see the live uploads on

We asked around to clarify what the protest was about and then interviewed somebody with the intention of sending it to dissident island radio for their show tonight. Sadly I've been incorrectly thinking the time difference is just three hours but it's actually five so it didn't make the show. Anyway, the interview will be uploaded soon and in the meantime I'll just summarise that the students were fighting to keep their office (social centre) which the local authority want to turn into a police station.

After this random distraction, Agnes and I went to find some food and catch up. Luckily she had been on one of the last flights before everything was grounded. Obviously she was very tired but we decided to set off to attend the climate change workshop at the water forum. Before we left, the TV in the cafe had an item on the news about the conference. It showed cops doing 'inspections' of hostels - allegedly checking they were up to scratch for conference delegates. One cop was shown picking up a sheet from a bed and commenting about it's condition and stains. Needless to say but the media representation seemed very different from the dawn raids at the hostels we are staying in.

We arrived at the water forum in time for the session on climate change. The discussion centred mostly on putting together some kind of declaration to take to the climate talks which would put water rights at the heart of any discourse on climate justice. 

Anyhow, I'm going to end now as I've had feedback that my blogs are too long (and too personal) and I'm currently typing from a stairwell waiting for a meeting.

Posted via email from World People's Conference