EcoUnionist News #105

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, May 25, 2016

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

Lead Stories:

• Breaking Free: A Rising Tide of Climate Resistance - By Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan, Common Dreams, May 19, 2016
• Explaining the Anthropocene: An interview with Ian Angus - By Socialist Review, Climate and Capitalism, May 18, 2016
• NUMSA statement on silicosis and Aurora judgements - By Irvin Jim, NUMSA, May 17, 2016
• The Hidden Workforce Expanding Tesla’s Factory - By Louis Hansen, San Jose Mercury News, May 15, 2016; [related]: The Slovenian Who Fell 3 Stories Illegally Working On Tesla Paint Shop, and Tesla’s Response - By James Ayre, Clean Technica, May 17, 2016; [and]: Tesla’s labor controversy shows that a green job isn’t always a good job - By Heather Smith, Grist, May 17, 2016
• Iron and Earth: oilsands workers call for training in renewable energy - By David Dodge and Dylan Thompson, Green Energy Futures, May 15, 2016

Ongoing Mobilizations:

• Convergence In Support of Eco-Prisoners & Against Toxic Prisons - June 11-13, 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:

• Concerned Health Professionals Ireland call for frac ban - By Concerned Health Professionals of Ireland, Fracking Free Ireland, May 19, 2016 
  

Just Transition:

• #klimajobber: update on climate jobs in Norway - By Jonathan Neale, Global Climate Jobs, May 20, 2016
• Lançamento da campanha: Empregos para o Clima (Launch of climate jobs at 1 May in Portugal) - By Jonathan Neale, Global Climate Jobs, May 19, 2016
• Bay Area cities can lead the way to 100% clean energy - By Nathan Duran, Sierra Club Yodeler, May 18, 2016
• Film review: 'This Changes Everything' - By Rob Hopkins, Transition Network, May 18, 2016
• Some Say Alameda County's New Green Energy Plan Isn't Green Enough - By Jean Tepperman, East Bay Express, May 18, 2016
• Cracks in Capitalism, Part II: Publicly Owned Energy Comes to London - By Steve Rushton, Occupy.Com, May 16, 2016
• Americans Don’t Miss Manufacturing: They Miss Unions - By Ben Casselman, Five Thirty Eight, May 13, 2016
• From Coal To Code: A New Path For Laid-Off Miners In Kentucky - By Erica Peterson, NPR, May 6, 2016
• The energy fix - By Ruth Nyambura, New Internationalist, May 2016
• 100% Clean Energy Economy Is Much Closer Than You Think - By Marc Gunther, Sierra, May 2016

Bread and Roses:

• Activists, Farmers, Indigenous People Rise Up to March Against Monsanto - By Nika Knight, Common Dreams, May 21, 2016
• How Carbon Farming Can Reverse Climate Change - By Andrea Basche, EcoWatch, May 21, 2016
• Article 19-Right to Land and Other Natural Resources- absolutely unnegotiable - By David Jelinek, La Via Campesina, May 19, 2016
• Mobilisation Call: 2nd NYÉLÉNI Europe Forum For Food Sovereignty - By staff, La Via Campesina, May 19, 2016
• 1.4 million reasons why Publix should join the Fair Food Program… - By staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, May 19, 2016
• Chile’s ‘Worst Ever’ Red Tide Kills 20 Million Fish, Prompts Investigation of Salmon Farms - By Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch, May 18, 2016
• What is at stake in the negotiations for a peasant rights' declaration - By Vincent Delobel, La Via Campesina, May 18, 2016
• Blueberry farm workers are striking this morning in protest of wages - By Jeanne Pastore, Kern Golden Empire, May 17, 2016
• How corporate rights protections are threatening farmers' right to seed - By Lois Ross, Rabble.Ca, May 17, 2016
• Signed, sealed, delivered! 300+ Jewish leaders endorse Wendy’s boycott in stinging letter to Nelson Peltz… - By staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, May 17, 2016
• ECVC pushes for a united front in defense of Seeds - By staff, La Via Campesina, May 16, 2016
• MST Statement on the suspension of President Dilma Rousseff - By MST National Coordination, La Via Campesina, May 16, 2016
• Nebraska Farmers Sue Monsanto Alleging Roundup Gave Them Cancer - By Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch, May 16, 2016
• Via Campesina and allies in Geneva for next round negotiations on Peasant Rights - By Mohammed Ikhwan and Sandra Moreno Cadena, La Via Campesina, May 16, 2016
• Farmers sue Monsanto over alleged Roundup cancer link - By Nicholas Bergin, Lincoln Journal-Star, May 15, 2016
• Cuomo Decides To Support State Farmworkers After They Sue Him - By Scott Heins, Gothamist, May 11, 2016

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• The Crude Oil "Bomb Train" Story: Profits Over Safety - By Justin Mikulka, DeSmog Blog, May 20, 2016
• French resistance sees blockades, strikes and protests - By Dave Sewell, Socialist Worker (UK), May 20, 2016; [related] France erupts in defiance of employer-friendly labour reforms - By Duncan Cameron, Rabble.Ca, May 17, 2016
• PTC, two-person crews will help make rail industry safer - By Dennis R. Pierce, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, May 19, 2016
• World must end slavery: for the environment as well as human rights - By Kevin Bales, The Ecologist, May 18, 2016
• Workers take on electronics company in the Philippines - By Piergiorgio Moro Jiselle Hanna, Rabble.Ca, May 17, 2016
• No relief: Denial of bathroom breaks in the poultry industry - By staff, Oxfam America, May 9, 2016

Whistleblowers:

• Highlands Septic Study Faces Retraction Demand - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, May 18, 2016

Wobbles:

• End Coal Now: from my eyes - By Danni, Reclaim the Power, May 20, 2016; [related]: Merthyr Tydfil: a rave against the machines - By Ruby Lee, People and Planet, May 20, 2016; [and]: Drifting through the coal mine - By Aaron Vansintjan, Uneven Earth, May 20, 2016
• Activists in Pacific Northwest Vow to Keep Fossil Fuel Industry on Notice - By Martha Baskin, Truthout, May 18, 2016; [related]: Dozens of climate activists arrested in Wash - By Greg Toppo, USA Today, May 15, 2016; [and] Breakfree Oil Refinery Blockade in Anacortes, WA, May 13 -15: We’ll Be Back! - By Mike M, Rising Tide Portland, May 16, 2016
• Can Labor Learn from Silicon Valley? - By Michelle Chen, In These Times, May 18, 2016
• The People Against TPP - By Eleanor, Art Killing Apathy, May 18, 2016
• 10 Reasons You Should Have Hope for the Future - By 350.org, EcoWatch, May 18, 2016; [related] At Break Free Protests Around the World, Climate Activists Put Bodies on the Line - By Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams, May 14, 2016; [and]: Reflections from Break Free 2016 - By the 350NH Team, 350 New Hampshire, May 16, 2016; [also] Halted Oil Trains, Arrests, And Crowds Of Thousands Spread Across 6 Continents In ‘Break Free’ Protest - By Samantha Page, Think Progress, May 16, 2016
• "End the Circus": Big Oil Group Plots to Exclude Public from Public Lands Bidding at IOGCC Meeting - By Steve Horn, DeSmog Blog, May 17, 2016; [related] More Disruptions at BLM Oil & Gas Lease Sale - By Sage Grouse Rebel, Canyon Country Rising Tide, May 17, 2016
• "Whatever God May Bring": Albany 'Break Free' Protest Against Fracking, Bomb Trains - By Zach Roberts, DeSmog Blog, May 17, 2016; [related]: Thousands protest ‘bomb trains’ and environmental racism in Albany - By William Fowler, Waging Nonviolence, May 16, 2016; [and]: WATCH: #BreakFree Protests Block Bomb Trains in Albany, GJEP’s Ruddy Turnstone Arrested - By staff, Global Justice Ecology Project, May 17, 2016; [also]: Climate Activists Block Port of Albany ‘Bomb Trains’ in New York - By John Zangas, DC Media Group, May 15, 2016
• White House Responds to Keep It In the Ground Petition - By David Turnbull, Oil Change International, May 17, 2016
• BreakFree2016: Moving Towards “Zero Coal” - By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International, May 16, 2016
• Climate activists surround Kinder Morgan facility by land and sea - By Alyse Kotyk, Rabble.Ca, May 16, 2016
• Protesters stage sit-in at Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility - By Kim Christensen, Los Angeles Times, May 15, 2016; [related] Protesters call for closure of SoCalGas facility at Porter Ranch gas leak site - By Dakota Smith, Los Angeles Daily News, May 15, 2016
• Eco Campaigners Blockade German Coal Mine - By staff, Times of India, May 13, 2016
• A million workers form new federation in South Africa - By South African Workers, Pambazuka News, May 12, 2016

Other News:

• Should We Respond to Climate Change Like We Did to WWII? - By James West, Climate Desk, May 19, 2016
• Ohio’s proposed regulations seek to reduce methane leaks - By Tom Henry, Toledo Blade, May 13, 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.

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.