privatization

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

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

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, April 4, 2016

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

Lead Stories:

• Fueling Fascism: The Secret History of How Texaco Supplied Oil to Fascists in Spain - Adam Hochschild interviewed by Nermeen Shaikh and Amy Goodman, Democracy Now, March 31, 2016
• Reframing The Economics Debate Could Lead To More Action To Fight Climate Change - By Farron Cousins, DeSmog Blog, March 30, 2016
• Recycling is important: and recycling workers deserve better conditions - By Gail Bateson and Barbara Rahke, ILWU Dispatcher, March 29, 2016
• Death of a Shale Gas Salesman - By Andrew Nikiforuk, The Tyee, March 28, 2016
• Cuba’s sustainable agriculture at risk in U.S. thaw - By Miguel Altieri, The Conversation, March 25, 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:

• Big Oil’s time running out at the Port of Vancouver? We hope so - By Dan Serres, Colombia Riverkeeper, April 2, 2016
• FERC Denies Jordan Cove LNG! Oregon LNG: You’re Next! - By Dan Serres, Colombia Riverkeeper, April 2, 2016
• Your Call: Utah coal stirs up concerns in Oakland - By Laura Flynn, KALW 91.7 FM, March 29, 2016

Just Transition:

• Canada: Leap Manifesto unites broad forces, builds climate justice campaigns - By John Riddell, Climate and Capitalism, April 3, 2016
• Catching The Sun: Documentary Highlights Link Between Solar Energy And American Job Creation - By Alex Kotch, DeSmog Blog, April 3, 2016
• New investments bring ray of hope for Winnipeg Transit - By Lynne Fernandez, Rabble.Ca, March 31, 2016
• Study: ‘Quiet recreation’ brings in $173 million, employs more than 1,700 - By Rebecca Moss, Santa Fe New Mexican, March 31, 2016
• 568,979 Clean Energy Workers In Midwest (2016 Survey) - By Jake Richardson, Clean Technica, March 30, 2016
• 2.5 Million Americans Work In Clean Energy (Report) - By Jake Richardson, Clean Technica, March 30, 2016
• Report: Re-Member-ing the Electric Cooperative - By John Farrell, Matt Grimley & Nick Stumo-Langer, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, March 29, 2016

Bread and Roses:

• First union of agricultural women workers launched in Pakistan - By Staff, International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations, April 2, 2016
• Berry Farmworkers Toil 12 Hours A Day For $6. Now They’re Demanding a Raise - By Esther Yu-Hsi Lee, Think Progress, April 1, 2016
• Honoring Cesar E. Chavez’ Legacy - By Staff, Boycott Sakuma Berries, April 1, 2016
• Hunger pangs of starving farmers met by a barrage of bullets - By Zeph Repollo, 350.Org, April 1, 2016; [related] 3 dead, 87 missing, 116 hurt as police fire on Cotabato human barricade - By Jeff Caparas, InterAksyon.com, April 1, 2016
• Boycott Driscoll’s West Coast Tour at Driscoll’s HQ in Watsonville - By Bradley Allen, Bradley Allen, March 31, 2016
• “Wendy’s has lost my respect as well as my patronage…” - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, March 31, 2016
• 5 Million Nigerians Oppose Monsanto’s Plans to Introduce GMO Cotton and Corn - By Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch, March 29, 2016
• Global Agribusiness, Dependency and the Marginalisation of Self-Sufficiency, Organic Farming and Agroecology - By Colin Todhunter, CounterPunch, March 29, 2016
• HC&S sugar plantation in Hawaii to close - By Staff, ILWU Dispatcher, March 29, 2016

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Biotech Tree Company ArborGen Settles with Defrauded Employees - By Staff, Global Justice Ecology Project, April 1, 2016
• In Coal Blood: Feds Seek Maximum Sentence for Don Blankenship - By Russell Mokhiber, CounterPunch, March 30, 2016
• The Assassinations of Honduran Activists: Where Are the Roots of the Violence? - By Staff, Peaceful Uprising, March 29, 2016
• Averting Thousands of Vehicle Exhaust Deaths - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, March 29, 2016
• Thousands of Peru Mineworkers Struggle for Decent Work - By Oscar Muro, AFL-CIO Solidarity Center, March 29, 2016
• Malibu Toxic Schools Case Clears Hurdle for Trial - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, March 28, 2016

By various - Re:Common, April 2016

By presenting the horrors suffered under the domination of multinational companies, this work by Re:Common will dispel any lingering doubt that the current economic system based on extractivism is a war against the poor (what subcommander Marcos called the “Fourth World War”).

If someone who trusts the mainstream media and academic analyses thinks that at some point colonialism disappeared from the face of the Earth, this work, based on documents and testimonies, demonstrates otherwise.

For those who believe that progress is the most striking characteristic of our times, starting with the post-World War II period, the voices of the missing that populate these pages will convince you that present-day capitalism is a just a revamped version of the Spanish conquest of five centuries ago.

Throughout this work, all the variables of extractivism can be seen: from occupation of the territory and displacement of people to the role of the offshore banking and financial system, as two complementary and inseparable parts of accumulation by theft/dispossession. In the occupied territories, the displacement occurs in the form of war, with the participation of military, paramilitary, guerrilla and the greatest variety of imaginable armed actors.

The victims are always the weak: poor women and their children, elderly men and women, peasants, Indians, blacks, mestizos, the “wretched of the Earth,” as Frantz Fanon calls them. I want to emphasize, though it may seem anachronistic, and without reference to academic sources, how the extractive model coincides with colonialism, despite the different eras. This is not only due to the violent occupation of territories and the displacement of populations, but also to the salient features of the model.

Economically, extractivism has generated enclave economies, as it did in the colonies, where the walled port and plantations with slaves were its masterworks. This colonial/extractive model held populations 6 hostage in both 1500 and 2000.

Extractivism produces powerful political interventions by multinational enterprises, often allied with States, which manage to modify legislation, co-opting municipalities and their governors. It is an asymmetrical relationship between powerful multinationals and weak states, or better, states weakened by their own local elite who benefit from the model.

Like colonialism, the extractive model promotes the militarization of the territories, because it is the only way to eradicate the population, which, recalling Subcommander Marcos, is the real enemy in this fourth world war. Militarization, violence, and systematic rape of women and girls are not excesses or errors; they are part of the model because the population is the military objective.

To understand extractivism, we must consider it not as an economic model, but as a system. Like capitalism. Certainly there is a capitalist economy, but capitalism is not just the economic aspect. Extractivism (as stated by Re:Common) is capitalism in its financial phase and cannot be understood only as an economic variable. It implies a culture that promotes not work but consumption, which has (systemic) corruption as one of its central features. Put in another way, corruption is the extraction mode of governing.

Therefore, extractivism is not an economic actor; it is a political, social, cultural, and of course also economic actor. At this point, it’s crucial that the central part of this work describes human beings and the Earth as the subjects for looting, which is much more than the theft of the commons. Understanding dispossession only as robbery places property ownership at the center of the matter, in the place of people and land; e.g., life.

Read the text (PDF).

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, March 29, 2016

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

Lead Stories:

• Jerry Brown celebrates World Water Day as he promotes salmon-killing tunnels - By Dan Bacher, Red Green & Blue, March 25, 2016
• How Montanans stopped the largest new coal mine in North America - By Nick Engelfried, Waging Nonviolence, March 24, 2016
• Rail Workers: Deadly Tired…but Still Working - By Georgetta Gregory, NTSB Safety Compass, March 21, 2016
• Time to stop new oil leases off coast - By Anne Rolfes and Cherri Foytlin, The Advocate, March 21, 2016
• How Women-Led Movements Are Redefining Power, From California to Nepal - By Rucha Chitnis, Yes! Magazine, March 8, 2016
• Against Activism - By Astra Taylor, The Baffler, Spring 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
• 2016 Labor Notes Conference - April 1-4, 2016

The Thin Green Line:

• Proposed Oakland Shipping Terminal Stirs Health, Environmental Concerns Over Coal - Darwin BondGraham and Jessica Yarnall Loarie interviewed by Mina Kim, KQED 88.1 FM, March 25, 2016
• Updates on the campaign to stop coal exports through Oakland - By Brittany King, Sierra Club Yodeler, March 23, 2016
• Utah Governor Signs Bill to Advance Oakland Coal Plan - By Ted Goldberg, KQED News, March 22, 2016

Just Transition:

• Pilgrim critics offer their take on the pending plant closure - By Frank Mand, Wicked Local Plymouth, March 25, 2016
• Contra Costa votes ‘Yes’ to Community Choice - By Carol Weed, Sierra Club Yodeler, March 23, 2016
• India Solar Power Push May Produce Over 1 Million Jobs - By Smiti Mittal, Clean Technica, March 23, 2016
• The Unsexy Climate Solution That's a Total No-Brainer - By Jimmy Thomson, DeSmog Canada, March 23, 2016
• World Water Day 2016: Louisiana, Water and Coastal Restoration Jobs - By Emily McCalla, Restore The Mississippi River Delta, March 22, 2016
• From Whaling to Whale Watching: SCCF Gets a First-Hand Look at the Green Transition in Action - By Diane Beckett, Sierra Club Canada, March 8, 2016

Bread and Roses:

• April declared “Month of Outrage” in national Wendy’s Boycott! - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, March 28, 2016
• Monsanto vs Indian Farmers - By Dr Vandana Shiva, Dr Vandana Shiva, March 27, 2016
• Final media round-up from Workers’ Voice Tour! News of Wendy’s boycott spreads far and wide… - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, March 26, 2016
• Carbon Farming: Hope for a Hot Planet - By Brian Barth, Modern Farmer, March 25, 2016
• Interview of Ramon Torres regarding PCC - By Staff, Boycott Sakuma Berries, March 24, 2016
• Position of the La Via Campesina in Honduras against the increasing criminalisation of the peasant and indigenous social struggle - By La Via Campesina Honduras, La Via Campesina, March 22, 2016
• Strawberries! Get your Fair Food Program strawberries here!… - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, March 22, 2016
• Selling TPP as the Farm Economy Drops off a Cliff - By Ben Lilliston, CommonDreams, March 21, 2016

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Full #SolidariTea to the #JuniorDoctors - By admin, A Green Trade Unionist in Bristol, March 28, 2016
• ArborGen workers take confidential settlement over $53M verdict in compensation case - By David Wren, Post and Courier, March 24, 2016
• Callaway Residents Still Can't Go Home After Train-Truck Crash - By Jennie Lissarrague, KSTP TV (ABC 5), March 24, 2016
• Forty-two years later, OSHA OKs rule protecting workers from silica - By Jamie Smith Hopkins, Center for Public Integrity, March 24, 2016; [related] OSHA issues final silica rule - By Emily Peiffer, Construction Dive, March 24, 2016
• Largest U.S. Restaurant Company Targeted Over Treatment of Workers, Animals, Environment - By Stephanie Feldstein, et. al., Center for Biological Diversity, et. al., March 24, 2016
• 105 Years Later, Remembering the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire - By Kyle Sturmann, Washington Square News, March 24, 2016
• The verdict is in: Bundy-inspired bill would endanger our park rangers - By Aaron Weiss, Center for Western Priorities, March 24, 2016
• Berta Cáceres: "To Fight Against Repression in Honduras Is to Fight for Our Whole Continent" - By Beverly Bell, Other Worlds, March 23, 2016; [related] Gustavo Castro Soto and the Rigged Investigation into Berta Cáceres’ Assassination - By Beverly Bell, CounterPunch, March 22, 2016
• International Mission ‘Justice for Berta Cáceres’ expresses its concern in relation to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights - By La Esperanza, World Rainforest Movement, March 23, 2016
• Grand Rapids Police Intimidating, Threatening to Arrest Students, Workers - By Staff, United Students Against Sweatshops, March 23, 2016
• OSHA’s New Severe Injury Reporting Requirement: One Year In - By Staff, National Nurses United, March 23, 2016
• Fukushima Radiation: a Killer - By Robert Hunziker, CounterPunch, March 22, 2016
• Supreme Court Hands A Major Victory To Workers Who Were Stiffed On Overtime Pay - By Cristian Farias and Dave Jamieson, Huffington Post, March 22, 2016
• Why Honduran activist Berta Cáceres was assassinated - By Redeye Collective, Rabble.Ca, March 21, 2016
• Compensation program for sick nuclear workers plagued by problems, ombudsman finds - By Jamie Smith Hopkins, Center for Public Integrity, March 21, 2016

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, March 22, 2016

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

Lead Stories:

• Jobless oilsands workers look to alternative energy - By Staff, CBC News, March 21, 2016; [related]: Former oil sands workers eye renewables market - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.com, March 21, 2016
• Slain Activist Berta Cáceres' Daughter: US Military Aid Has Fueled Repression & Violence in Honduras - Bertha Isabel Zúniga Cáceres and Lilian Esperanza López Benítez interviewed by Amy Goodman, Democracy Now, March 18, 2016
• Koide Hiroaki: an insider's exposé of the Fukushima nuclear disaster - By Katsuya Hirano & Hirotaka Kasai, The Ecologist, March 17, 2016
• Unhealthy environments kill 12.6 million a year - World Health Organization News Release, Climate and Capitalism, March 15, 2016
• Bill Gates' Nuclear Pipe Dream: Convert Depleted Uranium to Plutonium to Power Earth for Centuries - By Josh Cunnings and Emerson Urry, Enviro News TV, March 14, 2016
• An Army of Ocean Farmers: On the Frontlines of the Blue-Green Economic Revolution - By Bren Smith, In These Times, February 26, 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
• 2016 Labor Notes Conference - April 1-4, 2016

The Thin Green Line:

• The Senator Versus Coal - By Darwin BondGraham, East Bay Express, March 16, 2016; [related] Coal = Death! No Coal Trains to Oakland! - By Staff, Speak Out Now, March 16, 2016
• 25 Michigan Communities, Four Tribes Pass a Resolution to Stop the Oil Flowing through Enbridge’s Line 5 Pipelines in the Mackinac Straits - By Mariah Urueta, Joanne Cromley, and Kelly Thayer, Indigenous Environmental Network, March 15, 2016
• The West Coast Is the World’s 5th Largest Economy. Can It Unite to Stop Big Oil? - By Arun Gupta, Yes! Magazine, March 3, 2016

Just Transition:

• The executives [and workers] leaving oil and gas behind for jobs in clean energy - By Cassie Werber, Quartz, March 15, 2016
• Renewables can diversify Montana’s energy economy - By Jeff Fox, The Missoulian, March 15, 2016 
• OIL TAX FACTS: Dispelling North Sea Oil Myths - By Greg Muttitt, Oil Change International, March 14, 2016
• Rewiring Energy: The renewable power grid envisioned - By Patrick Mazza, Cascadia Planet, March 12, 2016

Bread and Roses:

• Federal Budget 2016: The NFU’s Recommendations - By Jan Slomp and Hilary Moore, La Via Campesina, March 18, 2016
• Landworkers’ Alliance joins the Farming to London march - By Ed Hamer and Adam Payne, La Via Campesina, March 18, 2016
• San Diego and Imperial Labor Councils Vote to Sanction the Driscoll’s and Sakuma Boycott - By Staff, Boycott Sakuma Berries, March 18, 2016
• “We are under an institutional dictatorship in Honduras” - By Real World Radio, La Via Campesina, March 18, 2016
• Court Ruling a Victory for Mexico Farmers and Anti-GMO Activists - By Mercedes López Martínez and Ercilia, Organic Consumers Association, March 16, 2016
• Farmworkers in Mexico, Facing Human Rights Abuses, Prepare to March in Protest - By Griselda San Martin, Transborder Media, March 16, 2016
• Sakuma Farmworkers Depart on Month Long Tour to Promote Driscoll’s Boycott; Press Conference Outside Sakuma Processing Plant to Begin Tour - By Staff, Boycott Sakuma Berries, March 16, 2016
• Trump’s Tomatoes - By Andrew Cockburn, Harpers, March 16, 2016
• Wendy’s spokesperson Bob Bertini: “We take all human rights and labor practices issues seriously and expect the same from our suppliers…” - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, March 16, 2016
• With its latest measures the EU Council mocks milk producers - By Jose Miguel Pacheco Goncalves, et. al., La Via Campesina, March 16, 2016
• Farm Workers in Two Countries Boycott Driscoll’s Berries - By David Bacon, The Progressive, March 14, 2016
• “If you’re going to make an impression, come to the place where the chairman is on holiday”… - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, March 14, 2016
• Farmworkers protest by home of Wendy's billionaire chairman - By Staff, CBS News, March 13, 2016
• Francisca Ramirez, a Leader in the Struggle to Stop the Nicaragua Canal Project - By Arlen Cerda, Havana Times, March 12, 2016

By Gregg Shotwell - Socialist Worker, March 17, 2016

"The water crisis has also stoked the UAW's social-justice mission, union officials say."
-- Mike Colias, "How GM Saved Itself from Flint Water Crisis," Automotive News, January 31, 2016

"I put The Heretics in the deepest part of hell, though Dante had them spared, on higher ground."
-- Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones), The System of Dante's Hell, 1963

PUNDITS EXPRESS astonishment at the perdition of Flint, Michigan, as if the degeneration of a renowned American city is rare rather than emblematic of municipalities throughout the nation. Where have they been? Do they not recall the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in downtown Minneapolis during rush hour in 2007? Can a head in the sand feel so comfortable that they can't feel the tremors, quakes and reverberations?

New Orleans flooded in 1915, 1940, 1947, 1965, 1969 and 2005. Love Canal, Hinkley, California, and the Louisiana Industrial Corridor aren't anomalous cancer alleys. The United States is riddled with environmental depredation.

The calculated failure of American institutions not only to invest in vital infrastructure but to provide basic care for citizens isn't a shock, it's status quo. Every four years, the American Society of Civil Engineers [ASCE] publishes a report card for the nation's infrastructure. In 2013, the U.S. got Ds in drinking water, wastewater, inland waterways, roads, schools, dams, levees, aviation, transit and energy.

I guess it's uncivil for engineers to flunk an American marvel of mediocrity like Interstate 35W and other bridges, which were ranked at a C+. The overall D+ grade point average indicates that we did get some Cs in a few less precarious spots, like ports, parks and bridges. Take your hat off, hold your breath and pray to the EPA--we are about to cross the river of denial.

Gun ownership makes a home less safe, according to the statistics, but when a person feels surrounded by perilous social institutions and structural instability, it's natural to reach for a security prop, come as it may--blanket, rifle or bottle of gin.

For all the self-proclaimed greatness and chest-thumping bravado, Americans' expectations are low and receding like opinions pursued by dogged facts. Our characteristic emphasis on individuality and private property narrows and subverts the circumspection of our social purview to a belly-button muse.

The American Dream has shriveled into a gated community--the modern version of the besieged frontier stockade, now struggling to survive on minimum wage. What do you want to bet that more Americans invest in the lottery than the stock market?

The year before Delphi, a spinoff of General Motors, filed for bankruptcy in 2005, management garlanded the factories with a new slogan: "The Future Isn't What It Used to Be." And a sign posted on the demolished Buick City plant in Flint, Michigan, proclaimed, "Demolition Means Progress."

The policy of neglect is the counsel of despair. No wonder we have a volunteer army and multiple foreign wars. The homeland is hopeless. The walls of denial are caving in.

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, March 15, 2016

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

Lead Stories:

• Letter to U.S. Sec. of State Kerry Condemning the Honduran Assassination of Berta Caceras - By Various, Family Farm Defenders, March 12, 2016
• A Current Longshore Battle Shows that the NLRB Is Not a Friend of Organized Labor - By Joe Burns, In These Times, March 11, 2016
• Assassination of Berta Cáceres sparks outrage - By Raul Burbano, Rabble.Ca, March 7, 2016
• Poisoned, Marginalised, Bankrupt and Dead - By Colin Todhunter, CounterPunch, March 7, 2016
• Ten-second procedure might have averted Lac-Mégantic disaster - By Grant Robertson, Toronto Globe and Mail, March 7, 2016
• Today's Slaves Often Work For Enterprises That Destroy The Environment - By Kevin Bales, NPR, January 27, 2016

Ongoing Mobilizations:

• Appalachia Resist: Regional Action Camp for Social & Environmental Justice - March 18-21
• 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
• 2016 Labor Notes Conference - April 1-4, 2016

The Thin Green Line:

• The Vermont gas pipeline: where do we go from here? - By Staff, Rising Tide Vermont, February 1, 2016

Just Transition:

• Clocking off: Can Wales’ steel heartland survive in a greener world? - By Alex Pashley, Climate Change News, March 10, 2016
• How many jobs do wind farms create? - By Guest, Clean Energy Footprints, March 9, 2016
• Change is in the air - By David Suzuki, Rabble.Ca, March 8, 2016
• Just How Democratic Are Rural Electric Cooperatives? - By John Farrell, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, March 7, 2016
• A Campaign to Demand Canada Post Deliver A New Green Economy - Katie McKenna and Mike Palecek interviewed by Nadia Kanji, The Real News Network, March 6, 2016

Bread and Roses:

• Support the Berrypickers Union!: March 18th & 19th - By Maralena, Rising Tide Portland, March 13, 2016
• Familias Unidas por la Justicia Newsletter - By Staff, Boycott Sakuma Berries, March 12, 2016
• Wendy’s Boycott wins key court battle for right to protest today in Palm Beach as Workers’ Voice Tour rolls into Florida with triumphant Day 9 action in Gainesville! - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, March 12, 2016
• Day Six: The Mid- South stands up for Fair Food! - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, March 10, 2016
• Review: Farmageddon, The True Cost of Cheap Meat - By Martin Empson, Climate and Capitalism, March 10, 2016
• The farm that grows climate solutions - By Eric Toensmeier, Ensia, March 9, 2016
• Union of Agricultural Work Committees' Statement on the occasion of March 8th; International Women's Day - By Staff, La Via Campesina, March 9, 2016
• Violence on the Factory Farm: How Not to Feed the World - By Colin Todhunter, Counterpunch, March 9, 2016
• “We are not tied down by slavery… we are embraced by freedom.” - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, March 9, 2016
• West African Caravan for Land, Water and peasant seeds - By Staff, La Via Campesina, March 9, 2016
• Internationally Recognized Rights Defender Berta Cáceres Murdered in Honduras - By Shannon Young, Truthout, March 7, 2016
• Wendy’s Boycott takes Columbus by storm! - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, March 7, 2016
• Food, hunger, health, and climate change - By Alistair Woodwardemail and John R Porter, The Lancet, March 2, 2016

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, March 7, 2016

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

Lead Stories:

• Remembering Berta Cáceres, Assassinated Honduras Indigenous & Environmental Leader - Silvio Carrillo and Beverly Bell interviewed by Juan González and Amy Goodman, Democracy Now, March 4, 2016
• Assassination of our sister in struggle: Berta Cáceres - By Staff, La Via Campesina, March 3, 2016
• Poisoned City: Flint and the Specter of Domestic Terrorism - By Henry A. Giroux, Truthout, March 3, 2016
• David Suzuki and labour movement join forces - By Valentina Ruiz Leotaud, National Observer, March 2, 2016
• DuPont Rakes in Federal Dollars Despite History of Hazards - By Mary Bottari, PR Watch, February 29, 2016
• New York State Pension Funds Lost $5.3 Billion From Fossil Fuel Holdings Over 3 Years - By Joshua S Hill, Clean Technica, February 29, 2016

Ongoing Mobilizations:

• Appalachia Resist: Regional Action Camp for Social & Environmental Justice - March 18-21
• Break Free 2016 - May 2016
• Convergence In Support of Eco-Prisoners & Against Toxic Prisons - June 11-13, 2016
• Cove Point Spring Break - March 6-14
• 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
• 2016 Labor Notes Conference - April 1-4, 2016

The Thin Green Line:

• City of Warrenton Denies Key Land Use Permits for Proposed Oregon LNG Terminal - By Brett VandenHeuvel, Columbia Riverkeeper, March 4, 2016
• Inside the Fight to Frack a Pennsylvania Township - By Natasha Khan, Truthout, March 4, 2016
• U.S. Marshals Enforce Eminent Domain for Constitution Pipeline - By John Zangas, DC Media Group, March 4, 2016 
• A Hollow Victory for Williams Partners - By Ted Glick, Ted Glick, March 1, 2016
• Oakland: Sen. Hancock introduces four bills to restrict coal exports - By David DeBolt, Contra Costa Times, February 19, 2016

Just Transition:

• From sit-ins to songs to socials, highlights from Leap Day 2016 - By Bianca Mugyenyi, Rabble.Ca, March 4, 2016
• How do we ditch dirty coal power without sending miners to the unemployment line? - By Times Editorial Board, Los Angeles Times, March 4, 2016
• Big Solar Brightens Up South Carolina Economy - By Staff, Clean Energy Footprints, March 2, 2016
• Canadian Labour Congress proposes plan to create 1 million 'climate jobs' - By Staff, CBC News, March 2, 2016
• HS2 or HSUK - the quicker, cheaper, emissions-cutting, low impact high speed rail network? - By Colin Elliff, Andrew Coulson & Stephen Stretton, The Ecologist, March 1, 2016
• Mass demo says Trident has got to go - By Tomáš Tengely-Evans, Socialist Worker (UK), March 1, 2016
• A closer look at the Repower Our Schools report and transitioning CMS to solar - By Ryan Pitkin, Creative Loafing, February 17, 2016

Bread and Roses:

• The Wendy’s Boycott begins: Video, photo report from Day One of the Workers’ Voice Tour! - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, March 5, 2016
• Incapable of responding to the dairy crisis, the European Commission faces international peasant farmer delegation - By Andoni Garcia, et. al., La Via Campesina, March 4, 2016
• 2016 Jose Gomez Farmworker Justice Day - By Staff, Boycott Sakuma Berries, March 4, 2016
• Farmworkers, Consumers Declare National Boycott of Wendy’s! - By Elena Stein, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, March 3, 2016
• Farmworkers Forced To Go Back To Work After Being Exposed To Pesticide - By Esther Yu-Hsi Lee, Think Progress, March 3, 2016
• Historic West Coast Tour with Familias Unidas por la Justicia - By Staff, Boycott Sakuma Berries, March 3, 2016
• CTA Review reflects previous government’s priorities, says NFU - By Jan Slomp, Ian Robson, and Terry Boehm, La Via Campesina, March 2, 2016
• Workers embark on Workers’ Voice Tour with wind in their sails thanks to National Council of Churches’ open letter to Wendy’s, Brolick, and Peltz! - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, March 2, 2016
• EU: Roadmap to exit the milk crisis - By Marzia Rezzin, et. al., La Via Campesina, March 1, 2016
• Backpackers 'targeted by dodgy labour hire companies' in 'culture of impunity' - By Robert French, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, March 1, 2016

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Explosion rocks refinery in Pasadena, injuring one - By Deborah Wrigley, KTRK TV (ABC 13 Houston), March 5, 2016; [related]: One injured in Texas explosion at Petrobras refinery - By Erwin Seba, Reuters, March 5, 2016
• NJ Transit rail workers holding rally as contract talks continue - By Dan Alexander, New Jersey 101.5 FM, March 5, 2016 
• Scuba diver sucked in to nuclear plant water pipe files suit against Florida Power and Light - By Jared Werksma, WPTV (NBC 5 West Palm Beach), March 4, 2016
• Five reasons Canada must ban asbestos now - By Staff, Canadian Labour Congress, March 3, 2016
• 5 Years Later Fukushima Still Spilling Toxic Nuclear Waste Into Sea, Top Execs Face Criminal Charges - By Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch, March 1, 2016
• Garment factory workers in Bangladesh need support, solidarity, not boycott - By Archana Rampure, Rabble.Ca, March 1, 2016
• Georgian Miners Dig In as Protest Enters Second Week - By Nicholas Waller, Georgia Today, March 1, 2016
• Union to Tesla: Gigafactory Worker Protest Is Just the Beginning - By Kirsten Korosec, Fortune, February 29, 2016; [related]: Hundreds walk off Tesla job in Nevada labor dispute - By Staff, KRNV (Western Nevada NBC 4), February 29, 2016
• Audit faults Federal Railroad Administration for lack of oversight on oil trains - By Susan Phillips, State Impact (NPR Pennsylvania), February 26, 2016
• Crane operator fired for refusing high wind working - By Richard Krabbendam, Heavy Lift News, February 22, 2016