Green is the New Red

By Staff - Freedom, January 30, 2018

It has taken nearly a year-and-a-half of fighting the authorities, and a second autopsy, to confirm what the family of Macarena Valdés Muñoz already knew – she was hanged after her death. There was no suicide. 

On the afternoon of Monday August 22nd, 2016 Macarena, a Mapuche environmental activist fighting against the construction of a mini-hydroelectric dam near and over her property in Newen-Tranguil, near Liquine, Los Rios, was found hanged in her home aged 32. A noose was round her neck and for the coroner the situation was obvious: “Death by suffocation and hanging” – a suicide with a technical explanation that baffled her family.

What had actually happened however was murder. A doctor was first to explain to loved ones that key factors for a suicide had not happened. Her cervical vertebra hadn’t been broken, and it was clear, explained her father-in-law, Mapuche political leader Marcelino Collío, she had been killed. Most likely, it had happened in front of her one-year-old child who was with her at the time.

But it wouldn’t be until January 19th 2018, with the trail long cold, that they would have their suspicions confirmed by a government department in a statement that acknowledged Macarena could not have killed herself. She had instead been killed and then hanged to simulate suicide,

Last week, following the second report, the family and supporters from the Health For All Movement made a number of demands of the authorities, who they suspect of effective collusion in what amounts to a racist strong-arming of the Mapuche community in Tranguil to force them to accept damaging mini-hydroelectric dams across the regional river network. They called for:

• A new statement of intent on the part of authorities and agencies involved in the investigation of Macarena’s death
• The the results of both autopsies be clarified to show why the first was inaccurate
• That resources be provided to investigate the murder fully and bring the killers to justice

They added:

We denounce the violence and permanent intimidation suffered by the community of Tranguil, exercised by the State and the hydroelectric companies interested in extracting the riches of the territory, at the expense of the destruction of the natural and cultural heritage of the town.

Through our history in Latin America we know that this crime corresponds to the way in which, both state policies and business groups, repress through terror and silencing the dissidence and diversity of peoples.

There were strong reasons for the suspicions of Macarena’s family and community, which have repeatedly clashed with both the government and hydroelectric companies over the future of development in and around Tranguil, in the mountains of Los Rios.

By William C. Anderson - ROARMag, December 2017

We are indebted to the Earth. Our gracious host has provided us with more than enough resources to live, grow and prosper over time. But throughout history, and especially in the modern capitalist era, some have let their desire for more become a perilous dedication to conquest. The urge to make other humans, wildlife and all parts of nature submit to the will of markets, nations and empires is the rule of the day. Today, anything associated with nature or a true respect for it is regarded as soft. That which is not vulturous like the destructive economics of the reigning system is steamrolled to pave the road to unhinged expansion.

This logic of expansion and conquest undoubtedly changes the relationship between humans and their environment. In this context, the “debate” over climate change actually becomes a matter of human survival. Those who entertain climate change as a question at all have already, maybe unknowingly, chosen a side. The fact is that climate change will create more refugees and forced human migrations; it will lead to the murder of environmental activists around the world and start new resource wars; it will spread disease and destabilize everything in its path — and more. Unless capitalism’s unquenchable thirst for natural resources and the fossil fuel combustion that powers it is abandoned, the Earth will be forced to do away with humans cancerously plundering the carbon energy it has stored over millions of years of natural history.

What is most unfortunate is that capitalism, which has multi-layered discriminations encoded within it — racism, sexism, classism, and so on — affects how thoroughly people are capable of bracing for the damages wrought by climate change. Though nature is indiscriminate in its wrath, the sustained ability to protect oneself from rising temperatures and natural disasters is a privilege not all can afford. Those who are already harmed under the pitiless whims of capital are doubly hurt by the lack of protection afforded to them for life in an increasingly turbulent environment. The Global South is much more likely to feel the brunt of climate change, despite contributing much less to causing it. But even in the world’s wealthiest nations, the poor and working classes are much more vulnerable to ecological devastation.

If the people who understand the gravity of the situation want this state of affairs to cease, then the system of capitalism and the egregious consumption of the so-called First World itself must cease. That which puts all of us at risk cannot be tolerated. The vast satisfactions in wealth hoarded by a few does not outweigh the needs of the many suffering the consequences every day, as the Earth deals with malignant human behavior. The systemic drive towards excess that is pushing the planet’s carrying capacity to the brink must be brought to a halt throughout the world, but especially in the empire that exemplifies excess best: the United States of America.

By the collective - It's Going Down, December 18, 2017

According to the End of the Line podcast, which chronicles anti-pipeline fights across the US, there is growing opposition to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and Mountain Valley Pipelines (MVP) among rural residents in Virginia, where both watersheds and over 300 homes are threatened with pollution and the threat of eviction in the face of proposed construction of the two pipelines.

Last Tuesday, this anger boiled over at a Virginia State Water Control Board meeting, where hundreds of rowdy residents, landholders, and anti-pipeline opponents spoke into the night about the threats to water and land and why the pipelines should be rejected, demanding that the water board cancel potential permits for pipeline construction.

According to RVA MAG:

After a contentious Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) hearing, the Virginia State Water Control Board voted Tuesday afternoon for a conditional approval of the 401 Certification for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) permit, tentatively stalling the ACP from moving forward with their pipeline construction planning process.

The vote was considered a positive decision for many landowners and environmental groups who oppose the pipeline, as the vote means ACP does not have an effective certification today.

This approval is contingent on many conditions which must be met within an undetermined 12-month period, set by Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The vote is considered a more positive outcome for opposition compared to that of the DEQ hearing last week, which resulted in a full permit approval for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). A lawsuit has already been filed against the MVP decision in federal court by groups like Wild Virginia, Sierra Club, and Southern Environmental Law Center.

“We have never seen this kind of uprising on an environmental issue in this state,” Sligh said. “I’ve been working on these issues for over 35 years and I have never seen this kind of effort. I’ve never seen this kind of unity.”

Local organizers that talked to RVA MAG, stated that local leaders have met repeatedly with representatives from Dominion Energy who is pushing the pipelines, but have ducked local landholders whose homes and water is threatened:

“Ultimately, DEQ works for Terry McAuliffe,” said Mike Tidwell, Chesapeake Climate Action Network founder and director. “Terry McAuliffe has never to this day sat down and met with landowners opposed to this pipeline. He’s met for hours and hours and hours with Dominion. […] It would be great if the governor himself would say, ‘I hear you, Virginians. I hear you, landowners. I hear you, farmers. I hear you, students.’”

“Everyone in rural Virginia wants to protect Virginia and wants to protect their water,” said Cathy Chandler, Roanoke County landowner. “I felt the Board tried to ask good questions, and they got a very circuitous, jumbled response [from DEQ] without time and attention to giving an answer with clarity.”

By the collective - It's Going Down, December 13, 2017

Almost 200 people face upwards of 60 years in prison for taking part in a demonstration against Trump’s inauguration and collectively are all being charged with breaking the same 5 windows of banks and corporate stores. The mass of people arrested on January 20th were swept up in a police kettle which lasted for hours, and ended in the police sexually assaulting and raping arrestees as a sadistic form of group punishment.

Central to the State’s narrative, is that everyone that took part in the anti-capitalist and anti-fascist march that led to the breaking of only a handful of windows was in fact part of a criminal conspiracy. In lieu of evidence, the State argues that the wearing of masks, black clothing, and even chanting similar chants or smiling while witnessing property destruction all constitute evidence in this regard. If the State succeeds, most of the defendants face literally a life sentence, and the State will be given a dangerous new precedent for future repression.

By Beverly Bell - Global Justice Ecology Project, April 5, 2017

The Convergence of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) has defied all efforts over the past year, by the Honduran government and the DESA dam company, to destroy it. This past Monday, March 27, 24 years after Berta Cáceres cofounded the Lenca indigenous organization, COPINH hosted an anniversary celebration of rebellion and recommitment.

About 150 people from throughout Honduras and at least five other countries joined for a Lenca ceremony; a forum on challenges and advances; a concert; a film festival; and a humble feast of roasted pig, rice, tortillas, and birthday cake. The event closed late at night with an open-air performance of “Ancestras”, a new play by the Teatro Taller Tegucigalpa (Tegucigalpa Theater Workshop) about COPINH’s fight to defend the Gualcarque River, and structural injustice by the government and oligarchy.

COPNH has not only survived, it continues to serve as a source of inspiration for indigenous and other movements throughout Honduras and the world. As with Berta Cáceres’ life work, COPINH’s goes far beyond environmental defense. Its aim is to transform the political, economic, and environmental landscape of Honduras, and – in conjunction with movements elsewhere – of the world.

Gustavo Castro Soto, the director of Friends of the Earth-Mexico and Otros Mundos who was shot and almost killed in Cáceres’ home the night she was assassinated, said, “The death of Berta has not been the death of the struggle. On the contrary, it’s been a wake-up call.”

By Arnold Schroder - Rising Tide Portland, December 1, 2016

The day before police evicted the Frontline Encampment directly in the path of the Dakota Access Pipeline, Jesse Jackson appeared at the blockade on horseback. Celebrity appearances at the DAPL resistance always gave the sleepless days and nights of Native American ceremony, construction equipment lockdowns, and riot police deployments a surreal tinge. But as police violence escalated and the conflict land defenders had anticipated for months loomed, the appearance of the civil rights icon and 1980s presidential candidate riding toward the burning barricades on North Dakota State Highway 1806 pushed the confrontation into the territory of a dream.

Now Governor Jack Dalrymple has ordered the eviction of the main encampment where thousands are resisting the pipeline—which is being constructed behind a fortress of razor wire fencing, floodlights, and armored vehicles—and is refusing to plow roads into the camp, refusing emergency services, and preventing delivery of supplies to water protectors. Police violence has already cost one woman her arm and potentially another vision in an eye and sent an elder into cardiac arrest, but now the state is simply trying to kill people.

This waking nightmare trajectory—events which simultaneously suspend one’s sense of reality and fill one with overwhelming dread—is of course paralleled in the ascendancy of a delusional fascist reality television star to the office of President and his subsequent appointment of a cadre of comic book villains to cabinet positions. In these moments of almost unbelievable human crisis and global change, in addition to political theory and movement history, one might look for guidance on how to respond in fictional narratives. As a friend recently said, “We are living in dystopian science fiction, and we better start acting like it.”

The following are a few thoughts on how to live up to that mandate. They begin with those narrowest in scope, pertaining directly to addressing the climate crisis and systemic ecological collapse, then move to inherent connections between movements attempting to do this and others addressing incarceration and repression, and finally into thoughts on general strategies against Trump’s assault on human dignity. What they have in common—the motivation for citing science fiction as a useful road map forward—is that they assume a situation that is so terrible it does not seem real engenders possibilities for liberatory action which otherwise would not be possible.

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, September 20, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

• Chevron PR Firm's Local "News" Site Draws Attention from Koch Industries, Alarm from Media Watchdogs – By Sharon Kelly, DeSmog Blog, September 18, 2016
• Challenging Rising Inequality – By Mark Goldring, The Ecologist, September 17, 2016
• Corporations rule the world? Not quite. But we must stop them while we still can! – By Aisha Dodwell, The Ecologist, September 13, 2016
• Chevron’s "Hell Freezes Over" Tour – By Paul Paz y Miño and Kevin Koenig, Amazon Watch, September 12, 2016
• Just 90 companies are to blame for most climate change, this 'carbon accountant' says – By Douglas Starr, Science, August 25, 2016

The Man Behind the Curtain:

• Australia's Climate Denialist Senator Malcolm Roberts Fails High School Science in Maiden Speech – By Graham Readfearn, DeSmog Blog, September 15, 2016
• ARENA is down – but not out – By Tristan Edis, REnew Economy, September 14, 2016; [related]: Myth of gas; has South Australia capitulated to fossil fuels? – By Dr David Shearman and Dr Graeme Mcleay, REnew Economy, September 14, 2016 | Turnbull marks 1st anniversary with act of clean energy vandalism – By Giles Parkinson, REnew Economy, September 14, 2016 | Australia Reaches Cross-Bench Agreement To Cut Renewable Energy Funding By $500 Million – By Joshua S Hill, Clean Technica, September 13, 2016
• Leaked documents reveal secretive influence of corporate cash on politics – By Ed Pilkington, The Guardian, September 14, 2016
• Sugar Industry Paid Harvard Scientists to Shift Blame to Fat – By Genna Reed, Union of Concerned Scientists, September 14, 2016
• Trump and the Republican Party are doing Big Oil's bidding – By Dana Nuccitelli, The Guardian, September 14, 2016
• Garbage in, garbage out: Why the CCA got it so wrong – By Giles Parkinson, REnew Economy, September 12, 2016
• Here Are All the Ways That Politicians Lie About Science – By Erica Langston, Climate Desk, September 12, 2016

Green is the New Red:

• Oil-Backed Lawmakers Accused of Orchestrating 'Charade' on Behalf of ExxonMobil – By Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams, September 14, 2016; [related]: N.Y. investigation looking at Exxon’s valuation of reserves – By Bloomberg, FuelFix, September 16, 2016 | Does Congress have authority to subpoena AGs over climate change? – By James Osborne, FuelFix, September 14, 2016 | The #ExxonKnew hearing was perfectly on brand for Congress right now – By Samantha Page, Think Progress, September 14, 2016 | Lamar Smith Hearing Attempts to Bolster Legal Argument for Subpoenas – By David Hasemyer, InsideClimate News, September 14, 2016 | Lawyers told House Science Chair Lamar Smith his subpoenas are trash – By Emma Foehringer Merchant, Grist, September 14, 2016 | Is There a Legal Precedent for Fighting Lamar Smith Subpoenas? Try 1960 – By David Hasemyer, InsideClimate News, September 13, 2016 | Constitutional Scholars Object to Lamar Smith's Exxon Subpoenas – By David Hasemyer, InsideClimate News, September 12, 2016
• Six Months Without Berta, Six Months Without Justice – By Laura Carlsen, CounterPunch, September 14, 2016

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, September 13, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

• Neither the TPP Nor National Sovereignty – By Elliot Sperber, CounterPunch, September 9, 2016; [related]: Leading Economists Oppose TPP Provision Giving Corporations Upper Hand in Investor-State Disputes – Lori Wallach interviewed by Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh, Democracy Now!, September 8, 2016 | As White House Spotlights Conflict With Democratic Presidential and Congressional Candidates by Escalating Toward TPP Lame-Duck Vote, Sen. Warren and Hundreds of Academics Urge Rejection – By Jeffrey Sachs, et. al., Public Citizen, September 7, 2016 | Good News for the People of Europe: The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) Is Dead. Negotiations have Failed – By Peter Koenig, Global Research, September 7, 2016 | Obama’s TPP Would Widen the Divide –  By Manuel Pérez-Rocha, Institute for Policy Studies, September 1, 2016
• Humans have destroyed a tenth of Earth's wilderness in 25 years – By Adam Vaughan, The Guardian, September 8, 2016; [related]: The Sick Ocean – By Robert Hunziker, CounterPunch, September 8, 2016
• Our energy system has changed since 1913; why hasn’t this subsidy? – By Julia Raven, Oil Change International, September 7, 2016
• Frack, Rattle and Roll: Drilling into Oklahoma’s Earthquake Epidemic – By Joshua Frank, CounterPunch, September 6, 2016; [related]: ‘Preemption’ Is Major Obstacle Across the Country as Progressive Laws Like Fracking Bans Passed in Liberal Cities Are Immediately Crushed by Right-Wing State Legislatures –  By Abby Rapoport, The American Prospect, September 2, 2016

The Man Behind the Curtain:

• The Clean Power Plan: Justice Delayed — For Whom the Rule Tolls – Joel B. Stronberg, Renewable Energy World, September 9, 2016
• Fox News acknowledged climate change, then promptly took it back – By Katie Herzog, Grist, September 8, 2016
• 13 Academics Who Have Become Shills for Corporate Giants in the Food, Agrochemical and Fossil Fuel Industries – By Lorraine Chow, AlterNet, September 8, 2016
• The Truth Behind The Kochs’ New Fossil Fuel PR Campaign – By Jeremy Deaton, Think Progress, September 8, 2016
• To Fight Clean Power Plan, Fossil Fuel Companies Paid for Private Meetings with Republican State Prosecutors – By Ashley Braun, DeSmog Blog, September 7, 2016; [related]: Confidential Documents Show Fossil Fuel Industry Plotted With GOP AGs to Attack Clean Power Plan – By Climate Denier Roundup, EcoWatch, September 8, 2016 | Fossil Fuel Industry Paid for Meetings With GOP Attorneys General to Plan Attack on Clean Power Plan – By Nick Surgey, PR Watch, September 7, 2016 | Republican State AGs Met With Coal, Electricity Companies Before Filing Against The EPA’s Carbon Rule – By Samantha Page, Think Progress, September 7, 2016
• Hillary Clinton Is Raking In Fossil Fuel Money At An Alarming Rate – By Farron Cousins, DeSmog Blog, September 7, 2016; [related]: Big Oil is backing Hillary Clinton – By Emma Foehringer Merchant, Grist, September 7, 2016
• U.S. companies tout climate policies, fund climate skeptics – By Richard Valdmanis and Grant Smith, Reuters, September 6, 2016; [related]: New Reuters Exposé On Climate Change Denial Aims At Small Fry, Misses The Big One – By Tina Casey, Clean Technica, September 8, 2016 | Major corporations that claim to support climate action are funding politicians who oppose it – By Ben Adler, Grist, September 7, 2016 | U.S. Companies Publicly Support Climate Action, Privately Fund Deniers – By Natasha Geiling, Think Progress, September 6, 2016
• Conservative media bias is inflating American climate denial and polarization – By Dana Nuccitelli, The Guardian, September 6, 2016; [related]: Who's Driving Climate Denial? Big Companies and Conservative Media – By Jax Jacobsen, EcoWatch, September 6, 2016

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

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

• For-Profit Pipeline Company Claims "Public Benefit" in Seizing Private Lands in Pennsylvania - By Larry Buhl, DeSmog Blog, August 31, 2016
• If the U.S. is talking about abandoning NAFTA, then maybe we should too - By Gordon Laxer, Rabble.Ca, August 31, 2016
• Study assesses climate change vulnerability in urban America - By Milken Institute School of Public Health, Eureka Alert!, August 31, 2016
• The Billion Dollar Ultimatum - By Chris Hamby, BuzzFeed, August 30, 2016
• Major Insurers to G20 Nations: Stop Wasting Time, Phase-Out Fossil Fuel Subsidies by 2020 - By Kyla Mandel, DeSmog UK, August 30, 2016; [related]: Major Insurers With $1.2 Trillion In Assets Urge G20 Leaders To Phase Out Fossil Fuel Subsidies - By Joshua S Hill, Clean Technica, August 30, 2016 | Insurance funds worth $1.2tn tell G20 to stop funding fossil fuels by 2020 - By Karl Mathiesen, Climate Change News, August 28, 2016
• Here’s Why Americans Are Mad as Hell at Wall Street and Washington - By Pam Martens and Russ Martens, Wall Street on Parade, August 12, 2016

The Man Behind the Curtain:

• Fossil fuel subsidies are “the world’s dumbest policy” – so why won’t G20 leaders end them? - By Alex Doukas, Oil Change International, September 5, 2016
• The Dense web of financial interests - By Mike Spille, The Cost of the Pipeline, September 3, 2016
• Public Relations Firm Claims to Have Ghost Written Thousands of Op-Eds in Major U.S. Newspapers - By David Swanson, CounterPunch, September 2, 2016
• Climate Change Authority cops out – just when we need it most - By Christine Milne, REnew Economy, September 1, 2016
• Network Map of the Koch-Funded Fueling U.S. Forward Campaign - By Brendan DeMelle, Koch vs Clean, September 1, 2016
• Railroad Commission needs transformation, not reform - By Priscilla Villa, Houston Chronicle, September 1, 2016
• When Australian Senator Malcolm Roberts Thanked 9/11 Truthers and New World Order Conspiracists For Their Science Guidance - By Graham Readfearn, DeSmog Blog, September 1, 2016
• Americans Now More Politically Polarized On Climate Change Than Ever Before, Analysis Finds - By Graham Readfearn, DeSmog Blog, August 31, 2016
• Canadian Taxpayers Fork Out $3.3 Billion Every Year to Super Profitable Oil Companies - By Kevin Grandia, DeSmog Blog, August 31, 2016
• Dutch Wind Power Proponents Face Opposition -  By John J. Berger, Renewable Energy World, August 31, 2016
• Lamar Smith to hold hearing over Exxon climate fight - By James Osborne, FuelFix, August 31, 2016
• Using Trump Playbook, Chamber Of Commerce Invents Absurd Fossil Fuel Claims - By Mary Ellen Kustin, Think Progress, August 31, 2016
• Colorado Senator Says Candidates Who Oppose Fossil Fuels ‘Unfit’ For Office - By Natasha Geiling, Think Progress, August 29, 2016

Green is the New Red:

• "We shall not rest until we’ve freed all our political prisoners", affirms Via Campesina - By Iris Pacheco, La Via Campesina, August 30, 2016
• Texas Ranch Owner Battles TransCanada to Restore Her Pipeline-Scarred Land - By Julie Dermansky, DeSmog Blog, August 28, 2016

Greenwashers:

• Landscapes of Dispossession: the National Park Service at 100 Years - By Nick Alexandrov, CounterPunch, September 3, 2016
• National Energy Board hearings into Energy East pipeline suspended - By Brent Patterson, Rabble.Ca, August 31, 2016
• [Video]: Trailer for COP21 Documentary ‘Not Without Us’ - By staff, Global Justice Ecology Project, August 31, 2016
• Conservation Efforts Are Still Violating Indigenous Rights - By Andrew E. Miller, Amazon Watch, August 30, 2016
• Governor Ayade’s contradictions on REDD in Cross River State, Nigeria - By Chris Lang, REDD Monitor, August 30, 2016
• India: The Parliament violates forest people’s rights and promotes further plantations - By staff, World Rainforest Movement, August 30, 2016
• Wildlife conservationists need to break out of their Stockholm syndrome - By Margi Prideaux, Open Democracy, August 29, 2016
• Delta tunnels fail financially - By Alex Breitler, Stockton Record, August 24, 2016

Disaster Capitalism:

• Gulf Oil Leases Spark Outcry But Little Revenue - Anne Rolfes interviewed by Helen Palmer, Living on Earth, September 2, 2016
• Hurricane Katrina, Brought to You by Big Oil - By Anne Rolfes, Bridge the Gulf, September 2, 2016
• Public Cost of Fukushima Cleanup Tops $40 Billion and Is Expected to Climb - By Nadia Prupis, Common Dreams, August 29, 2016