EcoUnionist News #99

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, April 12, 2016

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

Lead Stories:

• Bernie Sanders is Right: Regulation Isn’t Enough, We Need to Ban Fracking - By Deborah Burger, Common Dreams, April 7, 2016
• Changing Everything - By Steven Gorelick, Counterpunch, April 7, 2016
• Martin Luther King Was Assassinated On (April 4) in 1968—While Fighting For Unions - By Peter Cole, In These Times, April 4, 2016
• The Panama Papers Could Lead to Capitalism’s Great Crisis - By Rana Foroohar, Time, April 4, 2016
• The Dammed of the Earth: The Deadly Impact of Mega Hydroelectric Projects in Latin America - By Sian Cowman and Philippa de Boissière, Dorset Chiapas Solidarity, April 3, 2016
• Gas Pipeline Resisters [including IWW members] Arrested, Held for Outrageous Bail - By Anne Meador, DC Media Group, March 31, 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
• TWAC Cascadia 2016 - August 8th-15th 2016

The Thin Green Line:

• The Thin Green Line: Victories and Challenges (audio) - By Keiko Budech, Sightline Institute, April 7, 2016

Just Transition:

• Organizers 'heartened' by NDP's adopted Leap Manifesto resolution - By Various, Rabble.Ca, April 11, 2016
• Imagining a new post office for the post-carbon economy (audio) - By Redeye Collective, Rabble.Ca, April 9, 2016  
• THANK YOU!!! - By Iron and Earth, Iron and Earth, April 7, 2016
• Oakland Police and Fire Pension Considers Fossil Fuel Divestment - By Darwin BondGraham, East Bay Express, April 6, 2016
• COAL: the Vagina Monologues of climate change - By Veena Vasista, Transformation, April 4, 2016
• I have seen the techno-future, and I’m not so sure it works - By Gabriel Levy, People and Nature, April 4, 2016
• Oilsands workers for renewable energy - By Sheelagh Matthews, Western Wheel, March 30, 2016
• Considering Just Transition in an Australian Context - By Elizabeth Perry, Work and Climate Change Report, March 28, 2016
• Solar Skills Press Conference Audio (audio) - By Devin Tepleski, Iron and Earth, March 21, 2016
• Doubling Today’s Share of Renewables will Create 24 Million Jobs, Boost GDP by $1.3 Trillion and Save 4 Million Lives a Year - By Ilario D'Amato, The Climate Group, March 17, 2016

Bread and Roses:

• Capitalism And Global Agribusiness: From Ford To Monsanto, It’s For Your Own Good - By Colin Todhunter, Counterpunch, April 11, 2016
• Familias Unidas at Labor Notes Conference in Chicago, IL - By Staff, Boycott Sakuma Berries, April 11, 2016
• MST: Call for International Mobilizations on April 15 - By MST, La Via Campesina, April 11, 2016
• Oakland and Watsonville Supporters Take Action to Support Farm Workers - By Staff, Boycott Sakuma Berries, April 10, 2016
• Military police and gunmen attack Landless families, murder two workers - By MST, La Via Campesina, April 8, 2016
• Freedom Network, national leader in fight against modern-day slavery, makes its voice heard in Wendy’s Month of Outrage! - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, April 7, 2016
• Patrick Holden: 'cheap' food is costing the Earth, and our health - By Emily Lewis-Brown, The Ecologist, April 7, 2016
• La Via Campesina organizes the International Conference of Agrarian Reform in Brazil - By Viviana Rojas Flores, La Via Campesina, April 6, 2016
• Monsanto's Evil Twin: Disturbing Facts About the Fertilizer Industry - By Martha Rosenberg and Ronnie Cummins, Organic Consumers Association, April 6, 2016
• Urgent: Campaign for remission of Andrés Bódalo's sentence - By Union of Agricultural Workers-Union of Andalusian Workers, La Via Campesina, April 5, 2016
• Agriculture on the Brink - By Dahr Jamail, Truthout, April 4, 2016
• CIW, Florida allies kick off “Month of Outrage” in Naples! - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, April 4, 2016
• Criminalizing farmers' activism in Colombia - By Fernanda Sánchez Jaramillo, Rabble.Ca, April 4, 2016
• Two books that swim against the tide - By Sarah Ensor, International Socialism, April 4, 2016
• When there is an advance in food sovereignty in one part of the world, our entire movement advances - By Staff, La Via Campesina, April 4, 2016
• EPA Set to Approve Use of Toxic Pesticide Dicamba for Newest GE Crops - By Nathan Donley, Center for Biological Diversity, April 1, 2016
• Whole Foods Gets Educated on Driscoll's Berry Boycott - By R. Robertson, Indybay, March 31, 2016

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Farm workers and women's hairdressers among professions linked to non-Hodgkin lymphoma - By Staff, European Trade Union Institute, April 11, 2016
• Tech Boom Fueled By 40,000 Congolese Child Miners - By Mint News Press, Popular Resistance, April 9, 2016
• South Africa: More Violence at the Funeral of Environmental Defender Bazooka Rhadebe - By Staff, Global Justice Ecology Project, April 5, 2016
• Pebble Mine Pseudo-Conspiracy Entraps EPA Retiree - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, April 4, 2016
• Striking coal workers arrested after violent raid at Glencore's South African mine - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, April 4, 2016
• The War On Grand Rapids ATU 836 Pensions & Union Rights With Local 836 Pres Richard Jackson - By Steve Zeltser, Transport Workers Solidarity Committee, April 4, 2016
• Amtrak Crash Heightens Safety Concerns - By Amdrew Tangel and Scott Calvert, Wall Street Journal, April 3, 2016
• Fatigue on the rails: a trainman’s nightmare - By Claude Adams, Global News, April 1, 2016
• Now More Than Ever, We Must Stand Together - By Staff, United Steelworkers, April 1, 2016
• Rail Safety & One Man Crews With IBT BLET Div 292 Local Chairman Lonnie Swigert (video) - By Seve Zeltser, Labor Video Project, March 31, 2016

Greenwashers:

• Carbon pricing: a bridge to nowhere? - By Philip Pearson, Hackney Energy, April 11, 2016
• Radiation harm deniers? Pro-nuclear environmentalists and the Chernobyl death toll - By Dr Jim Green, The Ecologist, April 7, 2016
• Beyond 450: Why the IEA’s “Climate Scenario” Falls Short - By Greg Muttitt, Oil Change International, April 6, 2016
• Is California steamrolling REDD offsets into its cap and trade scheme? - By Chris Lang, REDD Monitor, April 6, 2016
• Obama's Interior Department Pushes Oil Shale Plan Threatening Massive Climate Pollution, Water Use - By Taylor McKinnon, et. al., Center for Biological Diversity, et. al., April 6, 2016; [related] Obama’s Interior Department Pushes Oil Shale Plan Threatening Massive Climate Pollution, Water Use - By Steve Bloch, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, April 6, 2016
• A recipe for burning the planet. Cooked up by Kevin Conrad and the aviation industry, with a little help from the UN - By Chris Lang, REDD Monitor, April 5, 2016
• Aviation industry’s offset plans distracts from urgent need to reduce emissions, say environmental NGOs - By various, World Rainforest Movement, April 4, 2016
• How the Paris talks failed the planet - By Ian Angus, Green Left Weekly, April 2, 2016
• Where do unions stand on Carbon Markets? - By Elizabeth Perry, Work and Climate Change Report, March 28, 2016

Whistleblowers:

• Feds to Probe Delta Tunnel Misuse of Grant Funds - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, April 11, 2016 
• Panama Papers links Metso to alleged sales fraud - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, April 11, 2016
• Shaving Livestock Grazings Carbon Hoofprint - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, April 11, 2016

Capital Blight:

• 70 People Rally for Environmental Justice in Bridgeport - By Staff, Capitalism vs. the Climate, April 4, 2016
• Blue collar voters: Trade is killing us - By David Goldstein, Miami Herald, April 2, 2016
• Louisiana Is Starting to Rise Up Against Big Oil - By David Helvarg, The Nation, April 1, 2016
• Why is the U.S. unwilling to pay for good public transportation? - By John Rennie Short, The Converstaion, April 1, 2016
• Thousands Gather to Protest Foreign Mining in Mongolia - By Staff, TRT World, March 30, 2016

Disaster Capitalism:

• The Scariest Part Of California’s Gas Leak Wasn’t Rashes And Bloody Noses. It’s What Happens Next - By Samantha Page, Think Progress, April 8, 2016
• Don't drink the Teflon - By Michael Ware, Socialist Worker, April 7, 2016
• Corporate And Political Corruption: The Lessons Not Learned From The Deepwater Horizon Disaster - By Farron Cousins, DeSmog Blog, April 6, 2016
• Keystone Pipeline Mishap Has TransCanada Scrambling Again - By Julie Dermansky, DeSmog Blog, April 6, 2016

The Man Behind the Curtain:

• Oil Giants Spend $114m to Obstruct Climate Policy, But That’s Just the ‘Tip of the Iceberg’ - By Kyla Mandel, DeSmog UK, April 11, 2016
• Bjorn Lomborg's Deception About 'Climate and Health Assessment' in Wall Street Journal - By Daily Kos, DeSmog Blog, April 8, 2016
• The Panama Papers: Oozing Slime - By Robert Hunziker, CounterPunch, April 8, 2016
• Climate Science Denier Patrick Moore Under Attack From Fellow Nuclear Energy Advocates - By Graham Readfearn, DeSmog Blog, April 7, 2016
• New Report Details Big Oil's $500 Million Annual Climate Obstructionism - By Nika Knight, Common Dreams, April 7, 2016
• New briefing: Government assuming climate failure in draft 5 year offshore drilling plan - By David Turnbull, Oil Change International, April 6, 2016
• Oops they did it again - By Hannah McKinnon, Oil Change International, April 6, 2016
• Analysis: Who killed the electric car (again) - By Christine Ottery, Greenpeace Energy Desk, April 4, 2016
• Panama papers reveal how oil wealth goes offshore - By Megan Darby, Climate Change News, April 4, 2016
• Shell investigated over $1 billion corrupt oil deal - By Vanessa Amaral-Rogers, The Ecologist, April 4, 2016
• TPP Would Fuel Climate Chaos and Empower Corporate Polluters - By Mark Ruffalo, EcoWatch, April 4, 2016

Wobbles:

• Tunnel Trio in court on Tuesday 19th April - By anonymous, Plane Stupid, April 10, 2016
• Alabama community fights environmental racism - By Minnie Bruce Pratt, Workers World, April 6, 2016
• Successful Labor Struggles Celebrated at Labor Notes - By Judy Atkins and Dan La Botz, Portside, April 6, 2016
• Claiming our victories - By Mark Engler, New Internationalist, April 2016

Other News:

• Charting SunEdison Employee Morale Against Its Collapsing Stock Price - By Stephen Lacey, Green Tech Media, April 11, 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.