EcoUnionist News #96

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, March 22, 2016

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists*:

Lead Stories:

• Jobless oilsands workers look to alternative energy - By Staff, CBC News, March 21, 2016; [related]: Former oil sands workers eye renewables market - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.com, March 21, 2016
• Slain Activist Berta Cáceres' Daughter: US Military Aid Has Fueled Repression & Violence in Honduras - Bertha Isabel Zúniga Cáceres and Lilian Esperanza López Benítez interviewed by Amy Goodman, Democracy Now, March 18, 2016
• Koide Hiroaki: an insider's exposé of the Fukushima nuclear disaster - By Katsuya Hirano & Hirotaka Kasai, The Ecologist, March 17, 2016
• Unhealthy environments kill 12.6 million a year - World Health Organization News Release, Climate and Capitalism, March 15, 2016
• Bill Gates' Nuclear Pipe Dream: Convert Depleted Uranium to Plutonium to Power Earth for Centuries - By Josh Cunnings and Emerson Urry, Enviro News TV, March 14, 2016
• An Army of Ocean Farmers: On the Frontlines of the Blue-Green Economic Revolution - By Bren Smith, In These Times, February 26, 2016

Ongoing Mobilizations:

• Break Free 2016 - May 2016
• Convergence In Support of Eco-Prisoners & Against Toxic Prisons - June 11-13, 2016
• Earth Day to May Day! - April 22-May 1, 2016
• Flush the TPP - Spring 2016 | #FlushtheTPP
• March for a Clean Energy Revolution - July 24, 2016, Philadelphia | #CleanEnergyMarch
• 2016 Labor Notes Conference - April 1-4, 2016

The Thin Green Line:

• The Senator Versus Coal - By Darwin BondGraham, East Bay Express, March 16, 2016; [related] Coal = Death! No Coal Trains to Oakland! - By Staff, Speak Out Now, March 16, 2016
• 25 Michigan Communities, Four Tribes Pass a Resolution to Stop the Oil Flowing through Enbridge’s Line 5 Pipelines in the Mackinac Straits - By Mariah Urueta, Joanne Cromley, and Kelly Thayer, Indigenous Environmental Network, March 15, 2016
• The West Coast Is the World’s 5th Largest Economy. Can It Unite to Stop Big Oil? - By Arun Gupta, Yes! Magazine, March 3, 2016

Just Transition:

• The executives [and workers] leaving oil and gas behind for jobs in clean energy - By Cassie Werber, Quartz, March 15, 2016
• Renewables can diversify Montana’s energy economy - By Jeff Fox, The Missoulian, March 15, 2016 
• OIL TAX FACTS: Dispelling North Sea Oil Myths - By Greg Muttitt, Oil Change International, March 14, 2016
• Rewiring Energy: The renewable power grid envisioned - By Patrick Mazza, Cascadia Planet, March 12, 2016

Bread and Roses:

• Federal Budget 2016: The NFU’s Recommendations - By Jan Slomp and Hilary Moore, La Via Campesina, March 18, 2016
• Landworkers’ Alliance joins the Farming to London march - By Ed Hamer and Adam Payne, La Via Campesina, March 18, 2016
• San Diego and Imperial Labor Councils Vote to Sanction the Driscoll’s and Sakuma Boycott - By Staff, Boycott Sakuma Berries, March 18, 2016
• “We are under an institutional dictatorship in Honduras” - By Real World Radio, La Via Campesina, March 18, 2016
• Court Ruling a Victory for Mexico Farmers and Anti-GMO Activists - By Mercedes López Martínez and Ercilia, Organic Consumers Association, March 16, 2016
• Farmworkers in Mexico, Facing Human Rights Abuses, Prepare to March in Protest - By Griselda San Martin, Transborder Media, March 16, 2016
• Sakuma Farmworkers Depart on Month Long Tour to Promote Driscoll’s Boycott; Press Conference Outside Sakuma Processing Plant to Begin Tour - By Staff, Boycott Sakuma Berries, March 16, 2016
• Trump’s Tomatoes - By Andrew Cockburn, Harpers, March 16, 2016
• Wendy’s spokesperson Bob Bertini: “We take all human rights and labor practices issues seriously and expect the same from our suppliers…” - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, March 16, 2016
• With its latest measures the EU Council mocks milk producers - By Jose Miguel Pacheco Goncalves, et. al., La Via Campesina, March 16, 2016
• Farm Workers in Two Countries Boycott Driscoll’s Berries - By David Bacon, The Progressive, March 14, 2016
• “If you’re going to make an impression, come to the place where the chairman is on holiday”… - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, March 14, 2016
• Farmworkers protest by home of Wendy's billionaire chairman - By Staff, CBS News, March 13, 2016
• Francisca Ramirez, a Leader in the Struggle to Stop the Nicaragua Canal Project - By Arlen Cerda, Havana Times, March 12, 2016

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• In southern Utah, a ranger is jailed under questionable pretenses - By Tay Wiles, High Country News, March 20, 2016
• Statement on the assassination of Berta Cáceres in Honduras - By Staff, Institute for Social Ecology, March 20, 2016
• Guatemalan Conservation Group Denounces Activist’s Death - By Agence France-Presse, Global Post, March 18, 2016
• Honduras: interview with Rafael Alegría, MP and leader of Via Campesina - By Real World Radio, La Via Campesina, March 18, 2016
• Glencore says all seven workers dead after Katanga mine accident in Congo - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, March 17, 2016
• International Condemnation: Honduras - End the violence and death against the peasant-indigenous movement - By Jeffrey Elapa, La Via Campesina, March 17, 2016
• MRA upset with OTML’s fatal mine incident - By Post Courier, Papua New Guinea Mine Watch, March 17, 2016
• The Torrance refinery spewed fireballs, and that isn’t even close to the most dangerous thing it’s done - By Stop Fooling CA, Medium, March 17, 2016
• The Unfinished Work of Berta Cáceres - By Dan Beeton, CounterPunch, March 17, 2016
• Another Member of Berta Caceres’ Group Assassinated in Honduras - By Staff, Telesur, March 16, 2016
• Feds Propose Two Crew Member Minimum On Trains, Irking Rail Industry And Drawing Praise From Safety Advocates - By Cole Stangler, International Business Times, March 16, 2016
• Ok Tedi retrieves employee’s body from mine pit - By Post Courier, Papua New Guinea Mine Watch, March 16, 2016
• Support the #JuniorDoctors #UNISON motion - By admin, A Green Trade Unionist In Bristol, March 16, 2016
• Blankenship seeks sentencing delay | Prosecutors: Blankenship won’t reveal assets - By Ken Ward Jr, Charleston Gazette, March 15, 2016
• Energy workers to get $1.9 million in back wages - By L.M. Sixel, Houston Chronicle, March 15, 2016
• Ok Tedi continues search for employee - By Post Courier, Papua New Guinea Mine Watch, March 15, 2016
• The Chicago Transit Authority Is Unfair To ATU Transit Workers And Riders - By Steve Zeltser, Transport Workers Solidarity Committee, March 14, 2016
• Justice for Berta Cáceres rally condemns Canada's lethal influence in Honduras - By A. Splawinski, Rabble.Ca, March 14, 2016
• Mine suspends ops after fatal accident - By Jeffrey Elapa, Papua New Guinea Mine Watch, March 14, 2016
• Orakzai mine blast claims eight lives - By Syed Hassan Mehmood, Dawn, March 14, 2016
• Shutdown of Madison mill is state’s fifth in two years - By Rachel Ohm, Portland Press Herald, March 14, 2016
• Chinese coal workers protest unpaid wages - By Andrew Topf, Mining.Com, March 13, 2016
• China’s miners and steel workers ready to resist inequitable layoffs - By Staff, China Labor Bulletin, March 3, 2016

Greenwashers:

• Corruption Probe Extends To Governor Brown’s Chief of Staff - By Charles Langley, The ECOreport, March 17, 2016
• How free trade agreements threaten to undermine conservation in Colombia - By Chris Lang, REDD Monitor, March 17, 2016
• Dear Governor Brown: Time to admit your Delta Tunnels WaterFix plan is falling apart - By Dan Bacher, Red, Green, and Blue, March 16, 2016
• “Keep REDD out of California!” says the California Environmental Justice Alliance - By Chris Lang, REDD Monitor, March 15, 2016
• Lies in conservation: the truth about big-game hunting and African nature reserves - By Navaya ole Ndaskoi, The Ecologist, March 14, 2016

Whistleblowers:

• Read A Whistleblower’s Warnings About The Flint Water Crisis - By Arthur Delaney, Huffington Post, March 17, 2016

Capital Blight:

• Australia renewables jobs still in decline, as policy uncertainty lingers - By Sophie Vorrath, ReNew Economy, March 15, 2016

Disaster Capitalism:

• A Great National Sick-Out: It’s Past Time - By Laura Flanders, Popular Resistance, March 20, 2016
• Flint Residents: "We Need a Public Health Disaster Declaration from President Obama" - Nayyirah Shariff and Melissa Mays interviewed by Amy Goodman, Democracy Now, March 18, 2016
• Auto union slams Flint aid bill - By Devin Henry, The Hill, March 14, 2016
• No matter what BBC says: Fukushima disaster is killing people - By Chris Busby, The Ecologist, March 14, 2016
• Lead in Flint Water, Mold in Detroit Schools - By David Bacon, The Reality Check, March 3, 2016

The Man Behind the Curtain:

• The Oilman Who Loved Dictators: How Texaco Supported Fascism - By Adam Hochschild, Tom Dispatch, March 20, 2016
• Lawyer Tormenting Scientists Revealed Working For Coal Company - By Nick Surgey, PR Watch, March 18, 2016
• Beware the march of the authoritarians! - By Jonathon Porritt, The Ecologist, March 16, 2016
• This Scare Tactic Used to Block Environmental Rules Is Getting Old - By Keith Gaby, EcoWatch, March 16, 2016
• Climate Science Denier Patrick Moore Paid by Coal Lobbyists EURACOAL To Speak To EU Officials and Members of Parliament - By Kyla Mandel, DeSmog UK, March 14, 2016
• LA water district buying up NorCal islands in water-rights grab - By Dan Bacher, Red, Green, and Blue, March 14, 2016
• Jerry Brown’s water-stealing Delta Tunnels are a shockingly bad investment for California - By Dan Bacher, Red, Green, and Blue, March 13, 2016
• Utah Lawmakers Voting to Spend Public Funds on Oakland Coal Terminal Took $29,000 from Company that Stands to Profit - By Darwin BondGraham, East Bay Express, March 10, 2016

Wobbles:

• “Just Don’t Do It”: An Interview with Eric Dirnbach on Campus Anti-Sweatshop Organizing - By Eric Dirnbach, Classroom, March 20, 2016
• Activists Win The Day: Huge Grassroots Victory Over Curtis Bay Incinerator - By Neil Seldman, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, March 18, 2016; [related] Victory for Baltimore! - By Traci, Energy Justice Network, March 18, 2016
• Great victory for Los Mineros at ArcelorMittal - By Staff, IndustriALL, March 15, 2016

Other News:

• John Bellamy Foster answers three questions on Marxism and ecology - By La Revue du Projet, Climate and Capitalism, March 21, 2016
• Hottest Jobs in South Louisiana? Saving the Coast - By Emily McCalla, Restore the Mississipi River Delta, March 16, 2016
• A sinking jail: The environmental disaster that is Rikers Island - By Raven Rakia, Grist, March 15, 2016
• Gov't Proposes Requiring at Least 2-Member Train Crews - By Associated Press, New York Times, March 14, 2016
• Women On Front Lines Fighting Fracking In Bakken Oil Shale Formations - By Emily Arasim and Osprey Orielle Lake, EcoWatch, March 12, 2016

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC; Hashtags: #greenunionism #greensyndicalism #IWW. Please send suggested news items to include in this series to euc [at] iww.org.

* Due to the sheer volume of news items, we have given "Carbon Bubble" it's own, separate node this week, and will continue to do so for the forseeable future.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.