Barack Obama

By Nicole Colson - Socialist Worker, August 16, 2015

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.

THE "most important action any president has taken to address the climate crisis." America's "strongest-ever climate action." An example of "visionary leadership necessary to reduce emissions and to tackle climate change."

It would be an understatement to say that the mainstream press was effusive in praising Barack Obama's plan to stem climate change--dubbed the "Clean Power Plan"--unveiled earlier this month.

According to the narrative, Obama, with nothing left to lose at the close of his presidency, is finally focusing on creating a legacy of real change, rather than playing politics with the Republicans. Thus, he's doing now what he should have long ago and directing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to tighten existing regulations on U.S. power plants in order to drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the main driver of climate change.

But when some of the loudest applause for Obama's "visionary" plan comes from corporate polluters themselves, we should be more than skeptical that what Obama is proposing is in any way a game-changer for the environment.

By Erik D. Kojola - Sage Publications, August 20, 2015

Environmental protection is presumed to damper economic growth and media accounts of resource extraction often portray trade-offs between jobs and the environment. However, there is limited evidence that environmental protection universally costs jobs and heavily polluting industries provide few jobs in comparison to environmental impacts.

Therefore, how has media discourse contributed to the taken-for-granted division between the economy and the environment? This paper uses the Keystone XL pipeline controversy as a case of the symbolical conflict between supporters of growth and conservation to explore the role of ideology and power in media discourse.

I use frame analysis of newspaper articles to explore the representations of labor and the environment and how hegemonic ideology legitimizes resource extraction. My analysis reveals binary framing that constructed the pipeline as a political controversy over the trade-off between the environment and the economy, which made conflict between workers and environmentalists sensible, and silenced alternatives.

Read the text (link).

By Richard Mellor - We Know What's Up, August 1, 2015

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.

Back in December 2011, Hilary Clinton visited Myanmar in the wake of the military dictatorship’s introduction of reforms.  Ms. Clinton was accompanied on that visit by corporate leaders looking for lucrative investment opportunities and cheap labor. Military dictatorship’s can be a bit too unstable for investors looking for profits sometimes, but with a firm grip on dissent and unions they can be good business partners.

US president Barack Obama has just finished a 5-day visit to East Africa with the same goal in mind.  “Africa is the final frontier in the global rag trade—the last untapped continent with cheap and plentiful labor,”  the Wall Street Journal wrote prior to Obama’s exploratory mission.  What with Chinese workers waging successful struggles for higher wages and the Cambodians following suite, Africans are in the sights of the garment industry investors.

Even the poverty stricken garment workers in Bangladesh who earn at least $67 a month are too expensive for the likes of WalMart and other Western retailers. PVH, the parent company of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger and VF, parent company of brands that include Wrangler, Lee and Timberland, are looking to descend on Africa like vultures on a dying animal.  JC Penney and Levi Strauss have been moving production to Africa as well. Ethiopia is a particularly attractive location as economic growth has been pleasing Wall Street and the country has no minimum wage.  Ethiopian garment workers were earning $21 a month as of last year according to the Ethiopian government. Despite lacking in infrastructure and a relatively untrained (for sewing garments) labor force, the apparel companies are “still drawn to the cheap labor and inexpensive power…” the WSJ writes.

By Kirsten Stade - Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, July 8, 2015

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.

Washington, DC — The new leader of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) is busy spending money on things other than chemical safety, according to records released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). In the past weeks, CSB has let nearly $100,000 in sole-source contracts for outside lawyers and consultants without public notice or discussion and kept them below a dollar threshold that would trigger an array of federal procurement requirements.

Last month, Richard Engler declared himself the “Interim Executive and Administrative Authority” for the CSB, a status disputed by the only other remaining Board member, Manuel (Manny) Ehrlich. He then proceeded to put the general counsel and managing director on paid administrative leave and began reassigning staff. Without informing Ehrlich, he also began unilaterally executing no-bid contracts for –

• An organizational consultant called RGS of Arlington, VA for $49,998 ; and
• “Legal Services” from the Washington, DC firm of Shaw, Bransford, Veilleux and Roth. Records indicate two payments totaling $45,000 have been authorized thus far at a billing rate between $175 and $300 per hour.

Federal contracts under $50,000 avoid a variety of procurement rules, including stronger competitive bidding and affirmative action requirements. They also fall just shy of the $50,000 threshold requiring a full Board vote under an order passed this May (with Engler among the “aye” votes) in the name of improving governance and “transparency.” Yet, these contracts were approved with the other Board member and most of the agency staff left in the dark.

“This guy is spending taxpayer money like a drunken sailor,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting Engler craves loyalty from a divided and intimidated staff so much that he even tried to elevate a lawyer with a big lawsuit against CSB. “He is assembling a mercenary force paid to do his only bidding.”

By Kirsten Stade - Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, June 18, 2015

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.

Washington, DC — Strife within the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) has burst into the open again with one board member seizing control and ordering immediate suspension of the agency’s entire executive staff, according to documents posted today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). In less than a week, the CSB will be left with only two board members who cannot agree on governance of the small agency.

The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) is an independent federal agency charged with investigating industrial chemical accidents in refineries, factories, and other fixed facilities. It is supposed to have five members but is currently operating with only three, after the White House pressured its own appointed CSB chair, Rafael Moure-Eraso, to resign in March before his nominated successor was confirmed. That left the CSB leaderless, since the White House is declining to designate an interim chair among the remaining three members.

On Friday June 12th, one of the board members Rick Engler circulated an email in which he claimed “the Board voted to designate me the Board Member Delegated Interim Executive and Administrative Authority.” However, there had been no CSB vote. Instead, acting without a quorum, Engler and outgoing Board member Mark Griffon, whose term ends on June 24th, made the designation by email. Their action came over the vehement objection of the third Board member, Manuel "Manny" Ehrlich. But Engler rebuffed Ehrlich’s overture that they act cooperatively to run the CSB until a chair could be confirmed.

This Tuesday June 16th, Engler summarily placed the CSB’s executive staff, Managing Director
Daniel Horowitz and General Counsel Richard Loeb, on administrative leave, forbade them from re-entering the building or talking to any CSB staff. Armed Federal Protective Service agents placed the two in custody and escorted them off the premises.

The stated basis for Engler’s action was that he had ordered an internal investigation into “possible misconduct” identified months earlier by a House Committee and the EPA Inspector General in reports that targeted the former board chair. The reports covered topics ranging from Moure-Eraso’s supposedly “autocratic” approach, use of private email, and staff complaints of a “toxic work environment.”

“In charge for less than a week, Engler has presided over the escalation from a toxic work environment to thermonuclear war,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. “These stale and frankly trivial matters do not merit Egyptian-style martial-law retribution meted out here.”

Ironically, it was Engler who was an outspoken critic of the “lack of transparency” and collegiality under Moure-Eraso. Yet, his actions make those of the prior chair pale in comparison.

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, June 9, 2015

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.

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

Lead Story:

• Global warming: the ‘slowdown’ that never happened; New scientific analysis shows that the rate of global warming has continued without pause. The ‘hiatus’ simply didn’t happen - Press Release, NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, June 4, 2015

Fracking the EPA:

• Don’t Be Fooled by Yesterday’s Headlines, EPA Finds Fracking Contaminates Drinking Water - By Wenonah Hauter, EcoWatch, June 5, 2015
• Fracking Does Cause ‘Widespread, Systemic’ Contamination of American’s Drinking Water - By Josh Fox and Lee Ziesche, EcoWatch, June 5, 2015
• EPA Study: Fracking Puts Drinking Water Supplies at Risk of Contamination - By Sharon Kelly, DeSmog Blog, June 4, 2015
• Long-Awaited EPA Study Says Fracking Pollutes Drinking Water - By Anastasia Pantsios, EcoWatch, June 4, 2015

Bread and Roses:

• Food sovereignty and agroecology-People’s Expo recipe to mend broken food systems - La Via Campesina, June 6, 2015
• Hands on the Land for Food Sovereignty - By Frederica Toscano and Elisa Caricato, La Via Campesina, June 6, 2015
• Peasants are under the thumb of free market - La Via Campesina, June 6, 2015
• Peasants from around the world: views on Expo 2015 - By Frederica Toscano and Elisa Caricato, La Via Campesina, June 5, 2015
• Africa's farmers fight the corporate takeover of seeds, land and food - By Chris Walker, The Ecologist, June 4, 2015
• Big Ag Claims Cancer-Causing Glyphosate No More Dangerous Than ‘Coffee or Working the Night Shift’ - By Mary Ellen Kustin, Environmental Working Group, EcoWatch, June 4, 2015
• G7, be warned: your 'New Alliance' threatens to destroy small-scale farmers; the Global Convergence of Land and Water Struggles - By The Global Convergence of Land and Water Struggles, The Ecologist, June 4, 2015
• People Should Control the Food System, Not Corporations; Why you should ditch the official EXPO and go to the People's EXPO instead - By Kirtana Chandrasekaran and Stanka Becheva, Common Dreams, June 1, 2015
• Marching on Monsanto and its Government Protectors - By Pete Dolack, CounterPunch, May 29, 2015

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Fire at Kentex footware factory kills more than 70 workers - By Jiselle Hanna Sam, rabble.ca, June 8, 2015
• Coal ash spill workers given second chance in court - By Staff, WBIR.COM, June 5, 2015
• Watch: Nancy Hutchison speaks at Justice for Injured Workers rally - By Rebel Sage, rabble.ca, June 4, 2015
• Communities Deserve A Say in Chemical Security - By Taylor Smith-Hams, GreenPeace Blog, June 3, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• Norway confirms $900bn sovereign wealth fund's major coal divestment - By Damian Carrington, The Guardian, June 5, 2015
• Oil field services hit hard in jobs report - By Jennifer A. Dlouhy, FuelFix, June 5, 2015

Just Transition:

• Jobs, justice, climate: A new climate movement is rising from below - By Naomi Klein, rabble.ca, June 8, 2015
• 1.2 Million US Green Jobs Reported In Q1. Here’s Why That’s A Problem - By Silvio Marcacci, Clean Technica, June 5, 2015
• Systemic Problems Require Systemic Solutions: Time to Talk About the Next System - By Gus Speth, The Leap, June 5, 2015
• If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It!Potential Impacts of Privatizing the Tennessee Valley Authority - By Joel Yudken, Economic Policy Institute, June 4, 2015

Other News:

• RMT responds to collapse in East Coast performance - By RMT Press Office, rmt.org, June 4, 2015
• Vast Federal Biological Collections at Risk; U.S. Geological Survey Shirks Responsibility for Managing Troves of Specimens - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, June 4, 2015
• Striking workers occupy Telefónica HQ in Barcelona - By Timothy Ginty, RoarMag, June 2, 2015
• Take over of the National Gallery: privatisation, oil sponsorship and Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ - Press Release, Reclaim the Power, June 1, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC

By Robert Kuttner - Common Dreams, April 18, 2015

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.

On Thursday, legislation moved forward that would give President Obama authority to negotiate two contentious trade deals: the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). But for the most part, these aren’t trade agreements at all. They’re a gift to corporations, here and in partner countries, that claim to be restrained by domestic regulations.

If these deals pass, the pharmaceutical industry could get new leverage to undermine regulations requiring the use of generic drugs. The tobacco industry has used similar “trade” provisions to attack cigarette package warnings.

A provision in both deals, known as Investor State Dispute Settlement, would allow corporations to do end runs around national governments by taking their claims to special tribunals, with none of the due process of normal law. This provision has attracted the most opposition. It’s such a stinker that one of the proposed member nations, Australia, got an exemption for its health and environmental policies.

To get so-called fast-track treatment for these deals, the administration needs special trade promotion authority from Congress. But Obama faces serious opposition in his own party, and he will need lots of Republican votes. He has to hope that Republicans are more eager to help their corporate allies than to embarrass this president by voting down one of his top priorities.

But the real intriguing question is why Obama invests so much political capital in promoting agreements like these. They do little for the American economy, and even less for its workers.

The trade authority vote had been bottled up while the Senate Finance Committee Chair, Orrin Hatch of Utah, and his Democratic counterpart, Ron Wyden of Oregon, worked out compromise language in the hope of winning over skeptical Democrats. The measure announced Thursday includes vague language on protections for labor and environmental standards, human rights, and Internet freedoms. Congress would get slightly longer to review the text, but it would still have to be voted on as a package that could not be amended.

Wyden trumpeted these provisions as breakthroughs, but they were scorned by leading labor and environmental critics as window dressing. Lori Wallach, of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, points out that the language is almost identical to that of a 2014 bill that had to be withdrawn for lack of support. Only about a dozen House Democrats are said to support the measure — and many Republicans won’t back it unless more Democrats do.

But why would they, at a time when Hillary Clinton sounds more populist and momentum is increasing for campaigns to raise the minimum wage? Speaking last week at the Brookings Institution, Jason Furman, chair of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors, proclaimed that, according to an elaborate economic model, by 2025 the Pacific deal would increase US incomes by 0.4 percent, or about $77 billion.

That’s pretty small beer. And as Furman admitted, the projection is only as good as its economic assumptions. One such heroic assumption is full employment, but this deal might well reduce US employment by increasing our trade deficit.

The TPP was rolled out with great fanfare in 2012 as part of Obama’s “pivot to Asia.” The subtext was that a Pacific trade deal would help contain China’s influence in its own backyard.

Since then, Beijing has unveiled a development bank that rivals the US-dominated World Bank, and our closest allies — Britain, France, Germany, Italy — are lined up to join. It’s not at all clear how the TPP, whose only large Asian member would be Japan, helps contain China, whose economic influence continues to grow.

Basically, ever since the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1993 (NAFTA), trade policy has been on autopilot. Tariffs are now quite low, and these deals are mainly about dismantling health, safety, consumer, labor, environment, and corporate regulations.

These agreements are conceived and drafted by corporations, and sponsored by both political parties. For the Obama administration, the key official negotiating these deals is US Trade Ambassador Michael Froman, a protégé of former Citigroup and Goldman Sachs executive Robert Rubin, who was a big promoter of NAFTA while serving as Bill Clinton’s top economic official.

Mainly, these deals help cement a corporate alliance with the presidential wing of the Democratic Party and divert attention from the much tougher challenge of enacting policies that would actually raise living standards. In the closing days of the Obama era, this is what passes for bipartisanship.

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers - Global Research, April 08, 2015

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. 

The White House has published a handful of comments from “environmental groups” implying widespread support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other corporate trade agreements. Yet these cherry-picked comments from some of the most conservative, corporate-funded environmental groups actually reveal the administration’s desperation to find any support for such deals.

Indeed, the reality is that scores of major environmental organizations including Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, League of Conservation Voters, Defenders of Wildlife, Union of Concerned Scientists, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, 350.org, and many others oppose fast-track for the TPP. Many recognize the TPP is a backward step for environmental protection that will help push the world over the tipping point for climate change.

The White House’s false image of environmental support for the TPP

The White House is having a hard time generating any momentum for fast-track trade authority for the TPP and other agreements. The Obama administration pushed to stop the Seattle City Council from opposing fast-track legislation and the TPP, but instead got a unanimous vote against them from a major port city that trades with Asia.

One of the key issues that has fostered opposition to the TPP is the impact of the agreement on the environment. In order to counter the reality of broad environmental opposition, the White House published an article seeking to spin reality. The White House carefully selected environmental groups that are heavily corporate-funded and then cherry-picked quotes inaccurately portraying their position. In fact, all the groups quoted by the White House have said they have not endorsed the TPP and are waiting to see what the agreement says.

In response to the White House effort Karthik Ganapathy, a spokesman for 350.org said:  “So many groups and organizations who care about climate change have repeatedly bashed this corporate giveaway — and suggesting otherwise is nothing short of misleading cynicism.” And, Jake Schmidt, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s international program said: “The White House took some of their statements and spun them out. There are a large number of environmental groups that came out pretty clearly and said … ‘What we’ve seen on TPP doesn’t look good.’”

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, January 12, 2015

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.

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

Lead Story:

• Is Obama Really Going to Stop the Keystone XL? - Earth First! Newswire, January 6, 2015

IWW Campaigns:

• The world's first union for harm reduction workers [audio file] - By Scott Neigh, Rabble.Ca, January 7, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• BP details job cuts, capital spending declines in latest economic impact report - By Joshua Cain, Fuel Fix, January 6, 2015
• CAT cutting 120 jobs in Peoria - By Frik Els, Mining.Com, January 7, 2015
• Fracking’s future is in doubt as oil price plummets - By Kieran Cooke, Climate News Network, January 6, 2015
• Layoff notices coming to 175 workers at Grande Cache Coal - CBC News, January 7, 2015
• Shell Canada cutting back oilsands workforce - The Canadian Press, January 9, 2015
• Shell to cut 5 to 10 percent of 3,000 oil sands jobs - By Ryan Holeywell, FuelFix, January 9, 2015
• Small Texas oil company files for bankruptcy protection - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, January 7, 2015
• U.S. Steel 'Idles' Lorain Plant, Announces More Than 600 Local Layoffs - By Eric Sandy, Cleveland Scene, January 7, 2015
• U.S. Steel to lay off 142 in Houston - Associated Press, January 6, 2015
• Fact Sheet: Renewable Energy Job Numbers - By Laura Small and Yi Xu, Renewable Energy World, January 7, 2015
• Russia Blamed, US Taxpayers on the Hook, as Fracking Boom Collapses - By  Ben Ptashnik, Truthout, January 8, 2015

Other News of Interest:

• Coal India unions call off strike in relief for govt - By Krishna N. Das and Jatindra Dash, Reuters, January 7, 2015 [related]: India coal miners end nationwide strike - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, January 8, 2015
• "The Day When Change Will Come": It's Time To Break the Vicious Circle of Capitalism - By Steve Rushton, Occupy.Com, December 23, 2014
• Deep Questions Arise Over Portland's Corporate Water Takeover - By Victoria Collier, Truthout, January 7, 2015
• IOC playing hardball over small mistakes, union leader says - CBC News, January 7, 2015
• Mine accidents in Turkey claimed 361 lives in 2014 - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com January 7, 2015
• Occupational health services in need of emergency care - European Trade Union Institute, January 7, 2015
• Rio Tinto far from ethical, says global union - Bougainville Freedom Movement, Papua New Guinea Mine Watch, January 7, 2015; [related]: Rio Tinto has violated our rights for nearly 60 years and we are seeking $900 million in compensation - By Derrick, West Coast Native News, January 8, 2015
• U.S. Forest Service Cancels $10 Million Plan for National Public Relations Campaign - By Jeff Barnard, Associated Press (reposted on the Earth First! Newswire), January 8, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC