EcoUnionist News #100

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, April 19, 2016

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

Lead Stories:

• Is the Seafood You Eat Caught by Slaves? Meet the Pulitzer Winners Who Broke Open a Global Scandal - Robin McDowell and Martha Mendoza by Amy Goodman, Democracy Now, April 18, 2016
• Justice for Berta: Join us to stand in solidarity with COPINH - By Friends of the Earth Europe and Protection International Invitation, La Via Campesina, April 16, 2016
• Noam Chomsky: There's a Huge Desire to Revamp Our Exploitive Economy, Bubbling in the Collective Unconscious - By Noam Chomsky, Alternet, April 15, 2016
• Can We Reduce CO2 Emissions And Grow the Global Economy? - By Fred Pearce, Yale Environment 360, April 14, 2016
• Clinton misleads public; fracking cannot be regulated - By Deborah Burger and Sean Sweeney, Trade Unions for Energy Democracy, April 14, 2016
• Peabody’s Declaration of Bankruptcy is “No Surprise” - By Jihan Gearon and Wahleah Johns, Indigenous Environmental Network, April 14, 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 - Ongoing through 2016 | #FlushtheTPP
• March for a Clean Energy Revolution - July 24, 2016, Philadelphia | #CleanEnergyMarch
• TWAC Cascadia 2016 - August 8th-15th 2016

The Thin Green Line:

• Oregon LNG withdraws Warrenton project - By Derrick DePledge, Daily Astorian, April 15, 2016; [related] The Ten-Year-Long Fight against Oregon LNG Is Over - By Roy L Hales, The EcoReport, April 15, 2016
• Pipeline Rights vs Private Property Rights - By Mark Hand, CounterPunch, April 12, 2016

Just Transition:

• Oil and Gas Workers Respond to Alberta Budget: Positive Steps on Training and Renewable Energy - By Robbie Jarvis, Iron and Earth, April 18, 2016
• Vattenfall takes US$3bn hit to exit German coal operations - By Megan Darby, Climate Change News, April 18, 2016
• Australia’s biggest super fund makes start on fossil fuel divestment - By Dan Gocher, REnew Economy, April 15, 2016
• The Leap: Time for a reality check - By Naomi Klein, Rabble.Ca, April 14, 2016
• To 'Leap' or to sleep? That is the question - By Ole Hendrickson, Rabble.Ca, April 14, 2016
• Taking a Leap - By Staff, Northern Rockies Rising Tide, April 14, 2016
• Tata Steel & new energy infrastructure: is it really that hard to put 2 & 2 together? - By Adam Corner, Climate Outreach, April 14, 2016
• CCA Transforming Electricity in California - By Paul Fenn, Local Power, April 13, 2016
• More Californians work in “Advanced Energy” jobs than in farming or Hollywood - By Heather Smith, Grist, April 13, 2016
• Ontario needs a bold new steel strategy - By Carter Vance, Rabble.Ca, April 12, 2016
• Wind energy construction rebounds across U.S., Texas - By James Osborne, FuelFix, April 12, 2016
• Climate justice movement shakes Canada’s New Democratic Party - By Richard Fidler, Life on the Left, April 11, 2016
• Energy Democracy Perspectives: David Boys (PSI) [video] - By Transnational Institute, YouTube, April 8, 2016

Bread and Roses:

• PFF opposes capitalism model of agriculture to save land and livelihoods - By Staff, La Via Campesina, April 18, 2016
• Public land for public good - By Staff, La Via Campesina, April 18, 2016
• Sarasota Herald Tribune: “Farmworkers’ coalition has transformed Florida fields…” - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, April 18, 2016
• Solidarity Action by BAFLF & NWFA - By Bangladesh Agricultural Farm Labour Federation and National Women Farmers & Workers Association, La Via Campesina, April 18, 2016
• UAWC's statement on the occasion of international Peasant Day - By Union of Agricultural Work Committees, La Via Campesina, April 18, 2016
• Brazil at Brasilia: Camp for Democracy already counts with more than 3.5 thousand people - By Adi Spezia and Flávia Quirino, La Via Campesina, April 17, 2016
• International Day of Peasant Struggles 2016: Celebration, resistance and mourning - By European Coordination Via Campesina, La Via Campesina, April 17, 2016
• Farmworker Rights Advocates from Watsonville CA Commit to Pressure Driscoll’s at their Corporate Headquarters - By Staff, Boycott Sakuma Berries, April 16, 2016
• La Vía Campesina: In defense of democracy and the social civil rights in Brazil - By La Via Campesina International, La Via Campesina, April 16, 2016
• USFSA Statement on International Day of Peasants and Farmers Struggles - By US Food Sovereignty Alliance, La Via Campesina, April 16, 2016
• Fighting for Food - By Ben O’Hanlon, New Internationalist, April 15, 2016
• Millions Face Starvation As Haiti’s Drought Stretches Into Its Third Year - By Beenish Ahmed, Think Progress, April 15, 2016
• Mundemba Declaration: Women and the expansion of oil palm plantations and industrial palm oil - By various, World Rainforest Movement, April 15, 2016
• The Right to Food Sovereignty: public peasant consultation - By Staff, La Via Campesina, April 15, 2016
• Tea strike! Women workers unite and win in Kerala, India - By Smita Ramanathan, Rabble.Ca, April 14, 2016
• Mexico: Military Sent to Intimidate Land Defenders Fighting Airport Construction | 12 abr: Incursiona el Ejército en tierras ejidales de Atenco - By Staff, Centros de Medios Libres | (translated by Earth First! Journal), April 13, 2016
• Global Fisheries Are Collapsing: What Happens When There Are No Fish Left? - By Dahr Jamail, Truthout, April 12, 2016
• Rice not bullets: Social and climate justice for Filipino farmers - By Chaya Ocampo Go, Rabble.Ca, April 12, 2016; [related] Food, not bullets! (A Statement on the Kidapawan Massacre) - By Philippine Task Force on Indigenous Peoples' Rights, X Rappler, April 12, 2016
• Worker Wisdom in a Changing Climate | Tina Sandoval | Fight for $15 - By Brooke Anderson, Climate Worker, April 12, 2016
• Mexico: Indigenous Land Defenders Attacked by State Police in San Francisco Xochicuautla - By Erin Gallagher, Revolution News, April 11, 2016

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Fatal accident stops all Ramu mine operations - By The National, aka The Logger Times, Papua New Guinea Mine Watch, April 18, 2016; [related] PNG Mine inspectors to investigate fatal Ramu incident - By Staff, Papua New Guinea Mine Watch, April 18, 2016 
• Unacceptable Risk: Firefighters on the Front Lines of Climate Change - By The Story Group, Resilience, April 18, 2016
• World Day for Safety and Health at Work: ETUC calls for new laws - By Staff, European Trade Union Institute, April 18, 2016
• "I'm Mad as Hell": Air Force Members Blame Health Horrors on Toxic Exposure - By Daniel Ross, Truthout, April 17, 2016
• Kuwait oil workers begin open-ended strike - By AFP, Yahoo Finance, April 17, 2016
• Medical examiner: Worker died from drowning, burns at plant - By Associated Press, Washington Post, April 15, 2016
• Another tragic death, another embarrassing shutdown for MCC - By Staff, Papua New Guinea Mine Watch, April 14, 2016
• Obamas Timid Chemical Safety Legacy - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, April 14, 2016
• Electric line workers listed among top 10 most dangerous jobs - By Krysti Shallenberger, Utility Dive, April 12, 2016
• ‘One of the good coal operators’ - By Ken Ward Jr, Charleston Gazette-Mail, April 12, 2016
• Amtrak deaths preventable if safety rules followed - By Brittany Horn, The News Journal, April 10, 2016
• Federal agency: Anaconda plant workers exposed to arsenic - By Matt Volz, Associated Press, April 6, 2016
• 2 workers killed in deadly Amtrak crash in Pa. identified - By Erin O'Neill, NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, April 4, 2016
• Canadian Pacific workers say colleague's death was preventable - By Iris Perez, Fox 9, April 3, 2016

Greenwashers:

• Chevron’s New Willits Investments - By Will Parrish, Anderson Valley Advertiser, April 14, 2016
• New report: Rio Tinto’s biodiversity offset in Madagascar - By Staff, World Rainforest Movement, April 14, 2016
• The South Has a New Commodity Export (And Not Everyone Is Happy About It) - By Scot Quaranda, Dogwood Alliance, April 12, 2016

Whistleblowers:

• BLM Agrees to Beef Up Livestock Range Condition Reports - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, April 18, 2016
• California Water Board’s Closed Meetings On Delta Tunnels - By  Dan Bacher, Fish Sniffer, April 13, 2016; [related] Feds to probe misuse of funds in California’s water-stealing Delta Tunnels - By Dan Bacher, Red Green & Blue, April 11, 2016
• Why Is the USDA Silencing Its Own Scientists' Warnings About the Dangerous Effects of Pesticides? - By Evaggelos Vallianatos, Alternet, April 12, 2016  

Capital Blight:

• Baltimore Incinerator Proposal Permit Yanked - By Josh, Energy Justice Network, April 17, 2016
• George Monbiot: Never-Ending Growth Cannot Be Sustained on a Finite Planet - By Mark Karlin, Truthout, April 17, 2016 
• World Bank still funding the search for new fossil fuels, despite climate commitments - By Alex Doukas and Elizabeth Bast, Oil Change International, April 14, 2016
• Western Power to cut 215 jobs, blames uptake of rooftop solar - By Sophie Vorrath, REnew Economy, April 12, 2016
• A burning problem - By Nithin Coca, New Internationalist, April 2016

Disaster Capitalism:

• Porter Ranch Residents Decry Rush to Reopen Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage - By Larry Buhl, DeSmog Blog, April 17, 2016
• Our Tax Money Underwrites BP’s Gulf Negligence - By Staff, Clean Energy Footprints, April 15, 2016
• What We Know About Lead Poisoning Is Scary. What We Don’t Know Might Be Worse - By Erica Hellerstein, Think Progress, April 14, 2016
• Fukushima Five Years After: Health Researchers Turn Blind Eye to Casualties - By Joseph Mangano and Janette Sherman, Counterpunch, April 12, 2016

The Man Behind the Curtain:

• Documents: How IOGCC Created Loophole Ushering in Frackquakes and Allowing Methane Leakage - By Steve Horn, DeSmog Blog, April 15, 2016
• Danger, Will Robinson: Oil Industry Knew CO2-Climate Link in ‘68 - By Climate Denier Roundup, EcoWatch, April 14, 2016; [related] The oil industry knew about climate change before we landed on the moon - By Melissa Cronin, Grist, April 13, 2016
• Think Tank With Fossil-Fuel Ties Subpoenaed in AG's Climate Inquiry - By John H. Cushman Jr, Inside Climate News, April 8, 2016

Wobbles:

• #NuitDebout calls for global action on May 15 - By ROAR Collective, ROARmag, April 17, 2016
• One million strike in France - By Jeff Mackler, Socialist Alternatve, April 17, 2016
• Take Action to Stop the TPP this Year  - By Staff, Flush the TPP, April 16, 2016
• Activists Push For Climate Justice, Fair Elections This Week In Washington - By Alex Kotch, DeSmog Blog, April 15, 2016
• The Spirit of Occupy Lives on in France's Emerging Direct Democracy Movement - By Marisa Holmes, Truthout, April 15, 2016
• WATCH: ‘Polluters Summit’ of Oil and Gas Companies Blocked in France - By Staff, Global Justice Ecology Project, April 15, 2016
• Two Weeks Into a Major Uprising, French Activists Still Staying ‘Up All Night’ - By Sonali Kolhatkar, Truthdig, April 14, 2016
• Pau: Dawn to a Renewed French Climate Justice Movement - By Nicolas Haeringer, 350.org, April 12, 2016
• 'Up All Night' Protests Sweep France as 100,000 Join Pro-Democracy Movement - By Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams, April 11, 2016

Other News:

• Climate Change? No! We Need a System Change! - By Staff, Speak Out Now, April 18, 2016
• Building power on the left: we need new priorities - By Michael Albert, ROARmag, April 17, 2016
• US Wind Power Jobs Hit Record High, Up 20% In 2016 - By Joshua S Hill, Clean Technica, April 14, 2016
• Can Neighborhoods Be Revitalized Without Gentrifying Them? - By Michelle Chen, The Nation, April 11, 2016
• Labor Notes conference big & diverse - By Bill Onasch, Socialst Action, 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.