IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus

By staff - IWW Ireland, May 11. 2019

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) have issued a call for support and solidarity with communities in the heart of the Sperrin Mountains who continue object to the poisoning of our environment by Canadian based multinationals, Dalradian Gold Ltd.

A spokesperson for the IWW General Members Branch in Ireland said in a statement: “At a time when communities in lockdown are dealing with the Covid 19 crisis, some will intend to use such a period of uncertainty to deflect attention away from events happening elsewhere to shamelessly promote themselves and their own agenda.

"To date we have witnessed the behaviour of multinationals such as Dalradian Gold Limited attempting to use such a climate to befriend local community organisations with financial incentives and windfalls as advertised in the press. This is yet another under hand attempt by a tarnished company to embellish themselves as a type of 'saviours of the community' at a time of increasing hardship.

"Again for anyone approached by or offered to be garnished by financial rewards from multinational companies with an atrocious environmental legacy, we would urge them to firstly question their own conscious and of course their own ethical policies of the organisations to which they belong. Recent moves should be viewed as nothing shy of a community grooming exercise.

"Let's be clear, this is an attempt to sow seeds of division within and around the north west which will ultimately fail, like their ongoing plans to mine and destroy our environment in the pursuit of profit will fail.

"As an international union we would urge community and environmental groups both locally and internationally, as well as the wider trade union movement to acknowledge the many groups challenging the destructive consequences of gold mining within a location such as the Sperrins. An area of outstanding natural beauty.

"Any attempt to view Dalradian Gold Limited as a some type of 'financial saviour' much be challenged. A multinational gold company who plan to create a toxic gold mining plant, an act that will impact upon all our lives throughout the entire North West for future generations to come.

“It is vital at this time we remain vigilant and vocal about what is actually happening. We believe that it is up to all of us to protect and defend our environment and our rights as workers. The right to live in an environment free from toxic pollution and environmental destruction. Free from the greed of scrupulous multinational corporations who try to divide communities.

"Our message today as all ways remains, an injury to one is an injury to all!"

By Ryan Smith - Broke Ass Stuart, February 27, 2019

Editor's Note: the IWW has not taken a position on the Green New Deal; the author is a cofounder of the IWW EUC; the image is from the Intercept.

The Green New Deal resolution Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) have proposed has captured the attention of the American public like nothing else. The deal presents a sweeping vision for meeting the challenge of climate change by creating a more just, equitable and equal society — in the weeks since its introduction, the Green New Deal has stirred up enormous controversy. It’s been co-sponsored by five Democratic presidential candidates and panned by others like Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and former Rep. John Delaney (D-MD) as unrealistic with Delaney going so far as to say:

“The Green New Deal as it has been proposed is about as realistic as Trump saying that Mexico is going to pay for the wall. Let’s focus on what’s possible, not what’s impossible.”

Donald Trump easily takes the cake when he said, “I really don’t like their policy of taking away your car, of taking away your airplane rights, of ‘let’s hop a train to California,’ of you’re not allowed to own cows anymore!”  In fairness, you have to be impressed by Trump topping former President George HW Bush’s ranting that environmental regulations would leave everyone jobless, “and up to our necks in owls!”

Regardless of the criticism, some of which is couched in more reasonable language than others, there’s strong evidence that the Green New Deal is not only desirable but actually very feasible.

By Ryan Smith - Broke Ass Stuart, January 16, 2019

The toll of this year’s wildfires is the second in as many years to break entirely too many state records, increasing the call to hold private utility companies like Pacific Gas & Electric to the flames of their own making. When the last embers cooled there was no question that the Camp Fire that ravaged Butte County, along with the devastating fires that tore through Malibu and Ventura, were among the most destructive in California history inflicting an estimated $10 billion in property damage. This was only topped, in dollar value, by last year’s devastation where the state suffered an unprecedented $12 billion in direct property damage. From a purely economic standpoint these figures don’t consider the secondary impacts such as loss of tourism, rebuilding and the opportunity cost of once thriving communities no longer capable of any sort of economic activity.

These numbers, already adding up to a truly staggering cost, don’t even touch on the immeasurable human cost. 2017 set a grim toll of 43 confirmed dead, a total that was already greater than all loss of life from the previous decade of California wildfires combined. This past season is on track to double that with a confirmed 89 dead so far. One can only imagine how many more will join them in the coming months and years thanks to the long-term damage from noxious fumes released by this year’s fires. The sheer quantity of toxic particulates in the air during the height of the blaze made Butte County’s air the most hazardous on the planet.

There is little doubt who is responsible for this blaze. The most recent investigations have all but concluded the cause of the fires was due to improperly maintained wiring, property of PG&E, setting a deadly inferno ablaze. In the face of an estimated $30 billion in liability for the Camp Fire, PG&E, earlier this week, filed bankruptcy. They are not alone in such negligence, with SoCal Edison suspected of similarly irresponsible practices in Southern California. Such a failure to perform such basic, fundamental tasks – maintenance of consistent power flow and safety of California’s communities – is astonishing all by itself. Unfortunately this is far from the first time PG&E has screwed up this badly.

In the wake of the 2017 wildfires investigators concluded the most likely cause of an already horrific disaster was PG&E’s inability to do their jobs. Gerald Singleton, an attorney specializing in wildfire cases, argued PG&E’s history shows this was no surprise as the privately-owned utility company has a history of disregarding basic maintenance necessary both for community safety and delivering power. In 2010 PG&E’s lax management piled up until one of their natural gas pipelines exploded, snuffing out the lives of eight San Bruno residents. Their cost-cutting is so extreme that, only two years after the San Bruno disaster, PG&E found they didn’t have enough staff to properly mark all of their gas lines so the company hid the mistake by filing false claims stating they had. This reckless culture even extends to data management as shown by reports from earlier this year where PG&E managed to lose 30,000 people’s personal information in a single data breach.

By staff - Bristol IWW, November 15, 2018

Bristol IWW has voted to give it’s full support to Rising Up! and it’s Extinction Rebellion campaign and establish an Environmental Unionism Caucus. Please join us in London this Saturday to demand action on the impending climate catastrophe.